| Title | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emperor, Empress | Ruler of two or more kingdoms |
| 2 | King, Queen | Ruler of a kingdom. Often monarchs also have titles in other kingdoms. |
| 3 | Duke, Duchess | Ruler of a large region of any empire or kingdom. |
| 4 | Prince, Princess | Heirs of the first two categories and sometimes a third, depending on treaties. No actual power, just potential, unless the country in question is a princedom, in which case it’s en par with a king or a duke. |
| 5 | Marquess, Marquise, Margrave, Margravine | Owner and governor of border regions. Have roughly equal power to a count, but more autonomy due to the distance from the capital and having a larger army in order to defend the country. |
| 6 | Earl, Count, Countess | Owner and governor of a piece of land. |
| 7 | Viscount, Viscountess | Mostly an honorary title, sometimes owning land, but wielding less actual power. |
| 8 | Baron, Baroness | Owner or governor of a small region. Not terribly different from a count, but with a smaller estate or limitations on hereditary transfer of land ownership. Sometimes it doesn’t come with land at all, just with the ability to govern. |
| 9 | Baronet | An honorary, non-land governing title often given to knights with hereditary title rights, an heir to a baron or baroness, or people of distinction. |
| 10 | Knight | A non-hereditary title for a person recognised as nobility by a king or a duke. Titles are bestowed by recognised knightly orders. |
Unusual Titles
Suzerain
A suzerain is a territory, usually a small kingdom, who owes fealty to another territory, either a powerful kingdom or empire, but is otherwise autonomous. Fintra is a suzerain of the Daerlan empire. The person they owe fealty to is the head of state, but they can defer the relations to another. That person also carries the title of suzerain or suzeraine. In the case of Fintra, they owe fealty to the emperor, who has deferred the title to Duke Eggbert von Rosenberg, making him the Suzerain of Fintra.
