Alderhouse

An Alderhouse refers to a family in Mineral Town with special voting rights. The heads of the Alderhouse is referred to as the Aldermen who exercise the family's voting power. They are typically families with a long standing relation to the governance of the Town. It is unclear how the first Alderhouses were chosen, but when an Alderhouse goes extinct, the other Aldermen will vote to select a new Alderhouse. There have always been five Alderhouses. The current families are:


 * Starling
 * Haverford
 * Bellamy
 * Marlborough
 * Randolph

With the extinction of the Starling family and the friction between the Standish and Randolph branches in the Game of Towns, it was unclear who had the voting right. In order to ameliorate the problem, the Dempsey family, previously an Alderhouse before the accession of the Randolph family was invited to vote in place of the Starlings. The Aldermen in the beginning of a Game of Towns consisted of Basil Randolph, Barley Marlborough, Saibara Bellamy, Doug Haverford with Ellen Dempsey invited to cast a vote. By the end of the story, the Alderhouses are all but abolished, though the Aldermen would consist of Ellen Dempsey, Ann Haverford, Gray Bellamy, May Marlborough, and Mary Randolph.