This small group of aristocratics comprise 0.5% to 2.5%
of the population. The smaller the percentage of upper class persons, the more likely that their relative wealth is dis-proportionate to that of the middle and lower strata. How-ever, in a society with an active mercantile and manufac-turing middle class, this is not the case, as that group will have amassed riches, and even the lower class benefits thereby. This class is typified by the following: palaces, carriages, guards, servants, furs, velvet and silk, gold and gems, the finest of everything, prestige and immense power.
Upper Upper: About 0.002% of the total population, or 1 in 50,000 persons. Sovereign royalty, grand priests and priestesses of pantheons, elected heads of great states, great palatine nobles, non-sovereign royalty, elected heads of lesser states, great noble royal major officers, great nobles, chief priests/priestesses of a state-honored pantheon, pa-latine religious warrior orders’ masters, great diviners, knights of the governing retinue.
Social Mobility: From this, the uppermost strata of the highest tier, there is no place to go but laterally (in prestige and rank) or downwards. To attain greater status, the mem-bers of the upper upper class seek renown. Whether by conquest, wealth, or some other means the sovereign heads of state driven by a desire for uttermost status vie with one or another so as to be given precedence. Royalty is always royal, but the ranking of kings and queens is also judged as to greater and lesser, so that theoretical peers actually stand in a pecking order too. Elected heads of state can attain status by making their overlordship hereditary, or by increasing the status of their state. Generally, ecclesiasti-cal office is not hereditary, and so too with the grand mas-ters of religious warrior orders. Striving done within such is similar to that of the sovereign rulers of states. Great diviners, those most able to supply accurate counsel to those whom they serve, have their own pecking order, and are the most subject to loss of status.
What happens when a person of royal heritage in this class loses status? They become dependent upon another sover-eign, dropping in rank, while the patron who supports them moves higher. The same is true for princes and nobles who lose lands or for some other reason become dependent.
Thus a palatine noble might become an exile in another monarch’s court, or become a non-palatine noble because of conquest, thus no longer independent, a subject of an overlord. Ecclesiastics slip lower in rank when another pantheon attains greater status and their own pantheon loses status. Palatine religious warrior orders’ heads are much the same as nobles, these masters being at the very least nobles of non-hereditary status, more likely of hereditary
“noble blood.”
For those not sure of royal and noble rankings, here are guidelines:
Emperor or empress: hereditary, a monarch that has as subjects royal sovereigns and/or (otherwise) independent nobles; the larger, wealthier, and more powerful, the more the rank of the suzerain. Children of an imperial monarch are generally styled as “Imperial.”
Prince/Princess: the one designated to inherit the throne with “Crown” before the title. Such individuals have rank about two steps below that of their progenitor.
King or queen: the sovereign head of a state; the larger, wealthier, and more powerful, the more the rank of the suzerain. Children of such a monarch are generally styled as “Royal Prince/Princess,” the one designated to inherit the throne as “Crown Prince.” Such individuals have rank about two steps below that of their progenitor. In great states, the crown prince (or princess) has a special title, something similar to “Prince of Wales” or “The Dauphine.”
Emperor or empress: elected, a monarch that has as sub-jects royal sovereigns and/or (otherwise) independent nobles who have chosen him or her to rule them; the larger, wealthier, and more powerful, the more the rank of the suzerain. Children of such an individual have such titles as conferred upon them by their progenitor, and rank accord-ingly.
King or queen: the non-sovereign head of a state that is part of an empire; the larger, wealthier, and more power-ful, both the state ruled and the empire, the more the rank of the ruler. Children of such a monarch are generally styled as “Royal Prince/Princess,” the one designated to inherit the throne with “Crown Prince.” Such individuals have rank about two steps below that of their progenitor, thus con-siderably lower than sovereign royalty of the same name.
Palatine noble: the monarch of an independent state that has all the powers of a king, an hereditary position, but the territory so ruled is not of a size, power, wealth, etc. to warrant the status of kingdom, nor would it be recognized as such by other kings should this be claimed without jus-tification (increase in one or more meaningful measures of status). Children of such an individual have such titles as conferred upon them by their progenitor, and rank accord-ingly. A palatine noble is served by lesser nobles, these in turn being considered as a step or two below nobles di-rectly subject to an imperial or royal sovereign.
Nobles: Using the European model as a basis, the high ranks of nobility in the fantasy world are: archduke/arch-duchess, grand duke/grand archduke/arch-duchess, duke/archduke/arch-duchess, prince/
princess (non royal). Nobles of median rank are: marquis/
marquise, count or earl/countess, viscount/viscountess, (great) baron/baroness. Petty nobles are: minor baron/bar-oness, lord/lady, baronet/madam (incidentally a non-me-dieval title, but one logical in a fantasy world). To add a bit of exotic flavor one might include seizen (the possessor of a freehold estate) and/or vavasor (actually the chief of-ficial of a noble, but logically a possible noble title of the least sort of land ownership) in the petty nobility title list, falling after all the others and given the honorific sir/dame as if a knight. The precedence in regards to titular rank is guarded jealously, although a lesser rank noble with a royal office moves upwards to a rank of at least two steps higher while holding such office.
Knights/Dames: Although knighthood is generally not he-reditary, the family of the knighted individual typically is considered as being of gentle birth, the honor conferred might well make the knighted individual a peer of the realm (and of its nobles). In such case, the ranking of the order conferred to the knight is of great importance. This rank-ing might be along the followrank-ing lines: knight commander of major religious order of warriors, knight of the govern-ing retinue (companion and guard of the monarch) in sev-eral ranks, knight commander of a lesser order, knight of a royal order, knight of an order of a sovereign state, knight of a non-palatine noble order.
Note that gentle-born people are considered as of the no-bility. Lacking title, however, such persons are well below those possessed of such status.
Hereditary royalty and palatine nobility commands all lands in the state but also holds title to lands and estates that are their own. Nobles and all the others in this group likewise own considerable lands and estates, those of ecclesiastics and masters of knightly orders own theirs at least during their lifetime, possibly hereditarily. Assume these lands are in excess of 750 square miles in extent for all save the least ranking members of this tier, might be far larger, and are generally productive agriculturally. On them will be castles and moat houses as well as communities, the latter
ranging from towns through villages to mere hamlets. It is likely that the lands and estates owned will not be contigu-ous, but spotted here and there, especially if the extent of such ownership is more than 600 square miles of territory.
Also owned are hunting lands of some size, forests and meadows and the like, of at least 50 square miles in extent, possibly as great as the arable land owned. At the very end of the tier, assume more modest land holdings, perhaps as little as 100 square miles for a “mere” great diviner.
In this apex of social and economic rank many and varied structures will be owned or possessed, these ranging from palaces and grand manor houses to castles and hunting lodges. The higher the rank of the individual the grander and greater the number of dwellings owned. At the bottom end, only a handful of such places might be owned. Any one of these residences will have no fewer than 30 main rooms (not counting servants’ quarters), and all are fur-nished 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 others at varying dis-tances throughout the land. A monarch of a large kingdom might, for example, have two to four palaces, two hunting lodges, and a score of castles and moat houses.
The retinue of any individual in this tier of the class is likely to contain a number of royal and/or noble depen-dents, dispossessed, relatives, or simply hangers-on who receive the person’s largesse. Having such dependents in train as it were, and supplying them lavishly, increases the status of the one so doing. Also dependent upon the indi-vidual there might be any one or more of the following:
alchemist, architect, artist, author, composer, engineer, explorer, jester, mechanic, musician, poet, scholar, singer.
In the group of servants fall the armed guards of the indi-vidual. A royal or palatine noble 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 ex-ample, a powerful king might have 30 houses and fortresses in which there are permanently stationed 900 guards - 600 infantrymen and 300 cavalry. The remainder of the monarch’s horsed guards, say 300, then travel with the liege lord. A squadron of scouting horsemen may lead by a day the train in which their sovereign travels, another squad-ron acts as an advanced guard an hour ahead of the rest, and the remainder escort the royal entourage. Additionally to the officers that accompany their master or mistress, and his or her guards, the upper upper class individual will have a traveling retinue of servants—valets, ladies in wait-ing, pages, coachmen, footmen, maids, etc. A royal train might well consist of a main body numbering 400 persons—
200 guards, 150 servants, and 50 upper class persons in-cluding the monarch and his or her family and dependents (10), royal officers (20), and various knights and esquires (20). The train consists of horsed persons, coaches, and wagons plus possibly some foot archers as guards.
The whole array of luxury conveyances, and the finest draft animals and mounts, are at the beck and call of the upper upper tier of this class. They have coaches and carriages to ride in, ships, barges, and boats for water travel. When on a journey through the realm, 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 car-riages might serve.
As to be expected, the uppermost tier of the upper class has as its disposal the finest arms and armor available.
However, not a few members of this tier might forego ser-viceability and usefulness of such things for show. That is, their arms and armor might look grand and be much deco-rated by jewels and gilt, but not be as effective as plain armor and undecorated weapons. This will be highly un-likely to apply to their fighting knights, esquires, and guards, however. Such men are typically superbly armored and armed. Also, depending on the campaign, magical weapons would likely apply here, especially ones that com-bine potent ability with elaborate decoration.
Whatever is desired is likely to be available to this cat-egory, within limits, of course. The richer the state, the greater the amount of personal property that can be pos-sessed by an upper upper-tier class individual. How much, and of what, is pretty much a function of the individual’s materialistic nature. An ascetic monarch might have very little in the way of personal possessions, while a material-istic great diviner might have a vast number of such things—jewelry, bejeweled items, rarities, curiosities, col-lections, a menagerie, and so forth. Save in the case of a warrior monarch, official, or noble, conspicuous display of personal property is generally a necessity for retaining status in the ranks of this tier.
Personal clothing is dictated by status. 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.
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 function, the mem-bers of the upper upper class likewise tend to be tradition-alists in selecting their costume. This continuity reinforces their position, establishing their permanency in their lofty station. Change comes but slowly in regards to costume for this tier, as change might also threaten their status.
However, grand display in the accepted tradition tends to reinforce status. An exception is a member of royalty, any figure of the ruling house. Such a person can innovate, show different style, set fashion, if so inclined. This risks some status, although it might well add to it if it is carried out with success.
Table: 2:2