Land Vast, although on average about half that of the upper tier.
Dwelling Many palatial and fortress-like ones scattered about.
Illumination Magical (glowing areas or else “everburning” sources of light) and standard means -lamps (oil and paraffin), tapers and candles in sticks, candelabras, sconces and
chande-liers; torches and cressets.
Heat Magical, hot water, coal stoves, coal fireplaces, wood fireplaces, braziers—limited in fortresses.
Plumbing Indoor, warm water, pools and/or tubs for bathing, sinks, and toilet facilities also, those separate and in “water closets” in palaces, less elaborate in fortresses.
Officers A large number of important appointees.
Dependents Numbers of nobles and others as direct dependents.
Servants Many guards and menials in attendance.
Transportation The best available and in numbers.
Arms & Armor The best, but often for display over functionality. The finest of swords are worn on most occasions.
Personal Property Great, generally what is desired by the individual.
Dress Rich finery of traditional and conventional sort.
Diet Complete range, varied, and possibly excessive.
Wealth Great, often lacking in meaningful ready money however.
Capsule Worth $50 billions to $100 millions.
Power Very great, direct, indirect, or in combination.
Influence Very great, dozens of important upper class connections.
order, having such dependents in train as it were, and sup-plying them lavishly, increases the status of the one so do-ing. Also dependent upon the individual there might be any one or more of the following: alchemist, architect, art-ist, author, composer, engineer, explorer, jester, mechanic, musician, poet, scholar, singer.
In the group of servants fall the armed guards of the indi-vidual. A palatine monarch will have small bodies of guards at each of his or her residences, the remainder of such a force traveling with the monarch or noble. For example, one might have 10 houses and fortresses in each of which there are permanently stationed some 20 guards—120 in-fantrymen and 80 cavalry in total. The remainder of the monarch’s horsed guards, say 60, then travel with their liege lord. A squad of scouting horsemen (12) may lead by a day the train in which their sovereign travels, another like squad act as an advanced guard an hour ahead of the rest, and the remainder escort the royal entourage.
In addition to some officers that accompany their master or mistress, and his or her guards, the middle upper class individual will have a traveling retinue of servants—va-lets, ladies in waiting, pages, coachmen, footmen, maids, etc. A grand train might well consist of a main body num-bering 180 persons: 60 guards, 90 servants, and 30 upper class persons including the nobleman and his or her family and dependents (10), noble officers (10), and various knights and esquires (10). The train will consist of horsed persons, about a half-dozen coaches, and several wagons.
Again, as with the uppermost tier of this class, the whole array of luxury conveyances, and the finest draft animals and mounts, are at the beck and call of the middle upper class. They have coaches and carriages to ride in, barges, and boats for water travel—perhaps even a ship or ships.
When on a journey through the realm or noble lands in most cases, the able ruler and his officers and knights will be mounted, while the others of the retinue will be in coaches.
Transport will be mainly by wagon, possibly cart and pack horse in remote areas where no good road exists. In this case, light carriages might have to serve those members of the retinue not able to ride. In the city members of this class sometimes hire sedan chairs to carry them, but never less opulent conveyances.
As to be expected, the second tier of the upper class has as its disposal the finest arms and armor available. Again, not a few members of this tier might forego serviceability and usefulness of such things so as to ape the uppermost per-sons, if those worthies are wearing such armor. Thus their arms and armor might look grand, much decorated by jew-els and gilt, but not be as effective as plain armor and un-decorated weapons. This will be unlikely to apply to their fighting knights, esquires, and guards, however. Such men are typically superbly armored and armed.
Whatever is desired is likely to be available to those in this category, within limits, of course. The richer the state, fief
or office, the greater the amount of personal property that can be possessed by an individual in the middle upper class.
Thus, how much and of what is pretty much a function of the individual’s wealth and materialistic nature. An ascetic palatine noble might have very little in the way of personal possessions, while a materialistic noble official might have a vast number of such things—jewelry, bejeweled items, rarities, curiosities, collections, a menagerie, and so forth.
Save in the case of a warrior of this class, conspicuous display of personal property is absolutely a necessity for retaining status in the ranks of this tier. Personal clothing is pretty well dictated by status, and is next discussed.
The costume for affairs of state is prescribed by each state, of course, and can be varied only in minor ways, even by a sovereign noble. One might have a different shade of the required base color on his or her fur-trimmed robe, design a new and grander gown, but that’s about the limit of the range possible for variance. The same is true for most other members of this tier. When not garbed for an official func-tion, the members of the middle upper class likewise tend to be traditionalists in selecting their costume, copying as closely as possible the costume of those in the tier above them. The continuity of dress reinforces their position, es-tablishing their permanency in their lofty station, while having garb like that of those above at least keeps them in their rank in their own tier. Change comes but slowly in regard to costume for this tier, as change might also threaten their status. However, grand display in the accepted tradi-tion or royal vogue tends to reinforce status here.
As with possessions, the food and drink available to the middle upper stratum of the socio-economic order is virtu-ally unlimited. Whatever is genervirtu-ally available in the state is theirs to have, unless the monarch of the realm they serve has set aside certain things as “royal fare”, a not uncom-mon thing so as to reinforce the privileges of the crown.
Again, unlike dress, the grand individuals might well be innovative in their cuisine, for the new and marvelous at banquets and feasts might well establish even greater rank, or at least maintain it.
Vast quantities of the finest still and sparkling wines, bran-dies, whiskies, and liqueurs are the everyday potables for this group. Of the non-alcoholic beverages tea, coffee, hot chocolate and cocoa along with fruit juices lead the popu-lar selections.
The ostentation generally required to remain in rank in the uppermost tier requires the same sort of display here. Again, in the second tier of the upper class most wealth is in land, dwellings, and personal property, and wealth liquidity is not usually a feature of this class. They will typically be short of money, many times because of the expense of maintaining their lifestyle, otherwise because of coin gifted or loaned to the higher tier so as to curry favor and move to that uppermost position, at worst progress in rank in
their own tier. Supporting dependents and retaining offic-ers, maintaining multiple residences, giving fetes and ban-quets, and employing many guards and servants costs very great sums! Despite such taxes, tariffs, duties, or fees that might come to them, along with rents and royalties or other income-producing enterprises, there is likely always a short-age of coin to meet their wants. Sale of offices, granting of rights and privileges for money, acceptance of “gratuities for favors” (bribes) and loans from bankers are not un-usual. As one moves downwards in rank in the tier, in-come will bein-come lesser and various sources of inin-come will be found, but in all it is much the same in effect: short-ages of cash are pervasive. Of course, there will be a few individuals whose income stream is large, and who sel-dom if ever lack funds. Such ones are likely to become the most powerful…or dead.
The middle tier of the upper class has power second to that of those above, of course. Nevertheless it is great and much feared. The sovereigns here too command all subjects of the state, while the nobles to a lesser extent can tax, decree law, and hold the power of life and death over those bound to them. Those lacking control of a state or great fief still wield much power, grant favors, and more and can influ-ence those above,. Here, amongst nobles in particular, and the ecclesiastics to some extent likely also, is where the main efforts are exercised so as to check the absolute au-thority and power of the uppermost tier, thus gathering more power unto themselves. While persons beneath the apex would likely prefer themselves to be there, until that time comes, they jealously protect what they have in their own station and try to gain more for it so as to benefit thus rather than through elevation of rank.
The sway of a member of the middle upper class is not like that of those above, but is great nonetheless, even at its lowest ranks. The members only command those of lesser station in other tiers, and have ready access to communi-cate with those of higher rank and the uppermost tier. Those in the stratum below, as well as most members of the middle and lower class, will hasten to follow a mere suggestion so as to gain favor, and status thus. Favor or disfavor, riches or poverty, renown or infamy are powerful motivators to virtually all persons; and this group can exercise its influ-ence so as to bring those things, good or ill, even death or reprieve from it. As with their greater-status fellows, even the most influential individual of the middle upper class is hardly able to direct all things all the time. Each person here also has enemies, and those opposed for other rea-sons, who offer alternatives to suggestions or desires from the one exercising such influence. There are parties, fac-tions, and cabals that make influence something less that 100% effective in its wielding here and below, certainly something more akin to the 70% probability range when dealing with those above.
Lower Upper: About 0.985% of the total population, or a bit less than 1 in 100 persons. Petty nobles (minor barons, lords), admirals (knighted or petty nobles), generals (knighted or petty), lords mayor, chief priests and priest-esses, state judges, knights, gentlemen (of considerable land holdings), great scholars, royal officials of second rank, great nobles’ (major) officials, famous explorers, renowned poets, renowned artists, authors, and sculptors, potent di-viners, banker-financiers, great merchants, great alchemists, and renowned composers.
Social Mobility: Mobility in this class is a prime consid-eration. It is the end of the road for some, a jumping-off place for others, and for many it is a precarious position held at the whim of one above, or the vicissitudes of for-tune, such as the marketplace. Petty nobles and ecclesias-tical members of the lowest tier of the upper class are the most secure in their tenure here, yet have the greatest hope of advancing higher. Not far behind are the military gen-eral officers, royal officials, and even the banker-finan-ciers and wealthiest of merchants. All have some prospects for climbing higher. War and/or conquest are typically keys for opportunity. Need for money by those greater in status is another paramount chance for those with much in the way of funds and little in the way of “noble blood” or op-portunity for direct service in arms or other office. Knights, through service, and landed gentlemen, through service and use of their wealth, might hope to move higher. Those gen-erally unlikely to progress above the bottom rung of this class are: lords mayor, state judges, great scholars, great nobles’ (major) officials, famous explorers, renowned po-ets, renowned artists, renowned authors, renowned sculp-tors, esquires, potent diviners, great alchemists, and re-nowned composers. As a matter of fact, such individuals likely understand just how fortunate they are to have at-tained the upper class and are content thus for themselves, but must exercise great care for their families and heirs.
Slipping from here to the upper middle class, or below that, is easy to do for such persons.
Unlike their greater fellows, the petty nobles and all the others in this group hold lands and estates of relatively modest sort, those of ecclesiastics held for their lifetime tenure or possibly hereditarily. Assume these lands are in the range of from 250 square miles (at the very upper end) to a few square miles in extent. Most such land will be agriculturally or otherwise productive, with smaller hold-ings having minerals or rental value as principal worth. On them will be situated one or two castles and/or moat houses as well as small communities, the latter ranging from a minor town through villages to mere hamlets. It is likely that the lands and estates owned will be contiguous. Also owned by the person will be hunting lands of some size, forests and meadows and the like, of at least 10 square miles in extent if a noble. At the very end of the tier,
as-sume more modest land holdings, perhaps as little as a single square mile or even less for those elevated to their rank through performance.
Several residences of varied structure, from a palace and grand manor house to one or more castles and a hunting lodge are typical here. The higher the rank of the indi-vidual, the grander and greater the number of dwellings owned. As the bottom end, only one or two such places might be owned. Any one of these residences will be like those of the uppermost tier of the class, with no fewer than 20 main rooms (not counting servants’ quarters), and all will be furnished in such opulence as the owner desires and can afford. As a rule of thumb, assume one major and palatial residence in or very near the capital city of the state, then another on the land owned by the individual, possibly others elsewhere on estates owned. A noble, for example, might have two palaces, a hunting lodge, and a large castle and two moat houses in addition to several manor houses. Some members of this class might have only one grand (city or country) palace and a smaller residence elsewhere, those who attained their status through their talent, for example, and were gifted position and such.
Noble members of the lower upper class will have small official staffs, while some considerable number of this tier will have only a handful of real officers, or none at all.
Here are the breakdowns:
Small but considerable staff of feudal sort: petty nobles and possibly knights.
Small semi-feudal officer staff: admirals, generals, lords mayor, chief priests and priestesses, state judges, banker-financiers, great merchants.
Mainly serving staff only: great scholars, royal officials of second rank, great nobles’ (major) officials, famous ex-plorers, renowned poets, renowned artists, renowned au-thors, renowned sculptors, esquires, potent diviners, great alchemists, and renowned composers.
The retinue of any individual in this tier of the class is not likely to contain any noble dependents. In all, dependents will be few if any; mainly these will be upper middle class persons, whether dispossessed or impecunious relatives or clever hangers-on who receive the person’s largesse. Be-cause such dependents are a feature of the higher tiers of the class, having such dependents in train and caring for them enhances the status of the one so doing. Also depen-dent upon the individual, there might be any one or more of the following: alchemist, architect, artist, author, com-poser, engineer, explorer, jester, mechanic, musician, poet, scholar, singer.
In the group of servants fall the armed guards of the per-son, although these will mainly be for the petty nobles, admirals, generals, lords mayor, state judges, great nobles’
Table 2:5