Well theres the Senex and the Chief of the Centuria with a manipel of guards standing around...so theres that.
Anyway, i have a question for Iituem. Is there a way for a house to completely be destroyed? What is the handling if/when somebody gets declared guilty of treason/murder and then executed? I mean that guy will have quite the grudge and be a bit poorer but what prevents himf rom just carrying on with murdering his way through the towers?
What is to be done with Traitors? Will they be banned from the city? The Tower Council?
If you are killed, and your House itself has not been disenfranchised, you (the player) take up the mantle of your heir, losing some possessions to 'inheritance'. Suspicion of other parties remaining between Houses is actually legit - proof was never really needed for centuries of bloody feuds - only suspicion. Throughout this game, Towers have successfully masked their actions under the auspices of other Towers.
Towers in gaol cannot vote, but can send representatives to observe the Tower Council and speak on their behalf (to a limited extent).
The worst punishment you can receive, however, is banishment. This is indeed typically for treason, rather than mere murder. Your Tower may or may not be killed, but your status as a noble house is over. You are banished from the city and from owning property in Ragona. If that happens you are technically 'in' the game, but you cannot act in the main thread - you are banished from the Council and city itself. You can only act in the Night phase and through PMs to remaining Towers, a foreigner and exile until you can redeem your House in some way and be reinstated into the Tower Council. You lose any and all property (except ships), although your steward will usually embezzle as much as they can out of your holdings (rarely more than half their purchasing price) and you will flee with any units, agents or ships you have in your possession. If you have friends in another nation, you might get asylum there and be able to re-establish yourself, otherwise you will effectively become a bandit.
Re: Crown death/disenfranchisement, Sheb has it right. The Senex may hold the post of a Crown in absentia, although not on a permanent basis. The implication of the emergency powers issue he raised is that he would surrender the post to a newly voted Crown at the end of the 8 weeks of the act.