The following three years after "The Delegations Act" of 1165 saw an explosion of underground Houses establishing themselves, a large portion of which had been delegated to men. Even after the establishment fees were raised back to standard, Houses continued to be established at an unprecedented rate, only tapering back to a 'sane' level near the mid 1170's.

The economy, which had been stuttering the past few prior years, came roaring back with a vengeance. Fueled by optimism and a rising economy, more and more men sought to play a more active role in business, even as many women found new meaning in playing a more active role in childrearing and family.

Yet not all was perfect. This New Economy was almost as over-heated as the underground house system. While many thought (hoped) establishing the underground Houses would curb the boom and busts of the Merchant Revolts, the next twenty years would see far more wealth created and lost than the prior hundred years combined.

In addition, not all underground Houses sought to legitimize themselves into established Houses. Some of the largest, in fact, preferred to remain underground rather than pay what many were derisively calling little more than a "prestige tax". Why pay taxes when you didn't have to, especially since their existence was no longer strictly illegal?

However, with the majority of the economy back in the hands of the established Houses, the underground Houses found it much more difficult to engage in reputable trade. The already established Houses shied away from dealing with underground Houses, whom they'd already cut ties with over the past couple years and held lingering resentment toward for the damage done during the revolts. Underground alliances once strong in the revolts era started to fray as even the former underground Houses slowly abandoned their darker counterparts. Moreover, foreign provinces had become leery of dealing with the underground Houses as what had once been bargain pricing slowly transformed into broken deals and lost wealth, especially toward the end of the revolts.

Being slowly pushed out of both domestic and foreign markets, underground Houses turned to less reputable means of gaining wealth. About the same time as the House establishment boom leveled off in 1175, a new wave of crime had begun to embed itself within the now overcrowded cities as many who'd fled the countryside famine stayed for new urban economic opportunities. Not that there were homes to come back to. Fallow fields and abandoned farms turned out to be attractive opportunities for Greater Houses looking to consolidate their holdings at bargain prices. By 1180, over half the countryside farmland was estimated to be owned by only three Great Houses.

Most didn't notice the uptick of crime beneath the loud racket of the New Economy, not at least until the early 1180's as the detritus of so much economic expansion began to build up. Overnight wealth had invited many to try their hand in hopes of becoming the next Greater House, but for every family that managed a minor success were a dozen that failed, cast off to find their ways in the darker alleys of society.

There were now dark alleys of society. Sutan and her sister Rhian had always prided themselves on a virtually complete absence of poverty or slums, something they'd contributed to the matriarchy with their emphasis on the family unit. Of course, they had their rich and poor like anyone else, but on the whole the idea of slums, beggars, gangs, and the like were largely absent of their reflective view of themselves, even if the reality might have been a bit more nuanced. This changed as the 1180's marched on and the darker parts of society increasingly pressed in on the collective consciousness of society. Even as the wealth continued to pour into the province, a general fear that perhaps this New Economy might not be as sustainable as everyone hoped had begun to grow in strength.

By the end of 1180's, Sutan was richer and more prosperous than it had ever been. But beneath that prosperity darker sentiments had taken root as stories of broken families, torn apart by false promises of prosperity, were making their way through society. It seemed everyone knew of one of these families forced to live in the new slums. Even worse were the whispers of atrocities and heresy, of women forced to endure indignities at the hands of bands of men broken away from societal constraints to give way to their baser appetites. A culture that had once prided itself on their safe cities now had to map their routes around the "bad parts". Fear had embedded itself while more and more people were looking for someone to blame.

Graescence