House Evernight got their leyline from the
Evernight Goddess through the
Darkness Pathway. The Evernight Goddess also holds the
Death Pathway and
Twilight Giant Pathway, so occasionally a descendant gets something from those instead.
The rarest anomalies completely bypass the Goddess and the pathways under Her domain, and occasionally end up inheriting from other pathways like
Error, or
Visionary. To House Evernight, even these โrogueโ inheritances away from the Darkness Pathway are superior to being a Null. That being said, such anomalies have not been relevant in the past few generations.
An early indicator of a daughter's inheritance state would be their hair colour. If they were inheriting from the Darkness Pathway (like Artemis, and her Aunt Nyx), their hair would be a blend of indigo, midnight blue, and faint traces of silver, which really shines under moonlight and chandelier lighting.
For Death Pathway, the colour would be more leaning towards black, with a subtle tint of midnight blue. Twilight Giant Pathway heiresses would have twilight colours - deep blues, soft purples, and some orange. Because these two pathways are still under Her domain, there are still some celestial, otherworldly aspects to it.
However, for inheritors of Rogue leylines from pathways which strayed from the Goddess, their hair had no celestial aspects, and could just be a very common colour, which might lead them to be mistaken as a Null until they manifest something.
For leyline wielders of any of the three pathways under the Goddess's domain, their celestial hair is the source of their power, so routine trims to remove split ends as maintenance would keep their powers in peak condition, but a drastic chop would be detrimental, and be effectively nerfing their powers, and this explains why Artemis only ever thinks about taking a sword to her hair, but never acts on it.
But naturally something as divine as a blessing to their family came with a cost. For every generation, House Evernight only produced two daughters per branch, and they could never produce a male heir.
As the Fates liked to amuse themselves, every generation was a game of roulette. There was the probability that
both daughters would have inherited the leyline from the Goddess, in which the Main Branch Head would be determined by birth order. Then there were the alternatives - a mix (one leyline inheritor, and one Null), or
both as Null.
If it was one of each, the Main Branch Head position would go to the one who inherited the leyline - it didn't matter if they were the younger one or not. However, in the case of both of them failing to inherit, being Null, it was a race on who got married and produced a leyline wielding heir first, to claim the position of Head of Family.
Over the generations, House Evernight fractured into different ideologies. Traditionalists believed that only those who inherited the Goddess's powers were worthy of the Evernight name, and stripped their Null descendants of the right to it, using the adjacent Nox as a surname. Artemis and her older sister Celeste's mother, Lady Stella are from one of those branches.
Moderates came to the compromise that they would hyphenate their surname with their partner's, and allow their descendants to carry a hyphenated surname. Progressives on the other hand, decided that family was family, it didn't matter if someone had the leyline or not, they would all get the Evernight name.
Because of the fact House Evernight only ever produces two daughters each generation, despite the respect for their leylineโs divine origins, those heirs from Houses who pass their wealth and titles down through male heirs tend to stay away from them.