david.wendelken
SOC-12
There is some fine print on the map next to Corona and Princeps that I can't make out. Anyone else have better eyes?
So is the viscount who resides on Regina Norris in his position as Regina's high noble (retconned from his old title of Marquis of Regina) or is Norris still Marquis of Regina with someone else being Viscount of <What?>?
Hans
There's no reason Norris couldn't hold all the titles. It would depend on how much he and/or his family before him had centralised power. He may hold a Barony on the planet as his personal territory, but that wouldn't make him the Baron of Corona or whatever.
But does he?There's no reason Norris couldn't hold all the titles.
According to the canonical (pre-T5) description of the government of Regina, Norris has no say in it -- not even as Marquis of Regina.It would depend on how much he and/or his family before him had centralised power.
As I understand it, Duke Norris is the Duke of the Regina Subsector as opposed to the Duke of Regina planet. But he has his ducal estate on the planet.
Planets *host* Dukes. Not every planet that warrants a Duke is a subsector capital, but most are.
Regina's noble string is BcCeF.
The nobles who represent the world are a Knight, A Baronnet, a Baron, a Viscount, and a Duke.
Since the world is also tagged as a subsector capital, the Duke listed is the subsector Duke. If the world still had Importance 4 but was not the subsector capital, the Duke's spot would be specific to the world.
The Viscount is probably the result of the codes bumping the world up from a Marquis, but we'll need to hear the word on that.
The Baron is present because the world qualifies as "Rich".
The Baronnet is an anachronism in the case of Regina, as it retains the "Pre-Agricultural" tag. That said, the agricultural capacity of Regina remains the Baronnet's concern.
Norris is (by previous material) Baron of Yori (another world), Marquis of Regina (the world), Count Aledon, Duke of Regina Subsector, and later Archduke Deneb. Only one of those titles (Marquis) applies to the world of Regina. Norris' family has risen with Regina, but since he is the only one left in the main family line, the rest of the Titles "of" Regina are probably held by cousins, uncles, or aunts. The one exception is probably the Knight.
Norris also holds the family's Honor rank as Count Aledon, and if he had not been confirmed to his father's position as Marquis (or Viscount) and Duke, Count Aledon is how he would be known unless he was visiting the Moot, in which case he would sit as Baron Yori. As Count Aledon, he is probably the highest ranking Honor noble on the planet, but the UWP's noble string just applies to the nobles of the Moot, so we have no way of telling. Nor should we.
I wouldn't get all weirded out by Norris having a Marquisate instead of a Barony on Regina. There is always room for an exception to "the rules" in the big, wide universe.![]()
This also makes for an interesting study of how Noble Titles work and how exceptions and oddities might occur.
I posited that the other titles are held by more distant family members because the Aledons nee Carandas appear to have been part of Regina for most of its Imperial history, and there is the note about a niece in GT Nobles.
Are you suggesting that T5's nobles rules reflect an actual setting feature? That there is an Imperial institution headed by a Lord High Whatever-his-title-would-be that keeps track of the trade status of member worlds and appoint or promote nobles when a world gains a trade classification (and perhaps removes nobles if trade classifications disappear without another being gained)?This also makes for an interesting study of how Noble Titles work and how exceptions and oddities might occur. Let's say that (hypothetically) in the future Regina is eventually raised to "Agricultural" from Pre-Ag status. And let us also presume that all of the current Noble families are still in possession of their hereditary titles and lands. You will either end up with Regina still having a Baronet associated with it despite the fact that it is no longer a Pre-Ag world, or (if the "Ag" rating was due to the diligent efforts of the Baronet), the Baronet being raised to the appropriate (and deserved) title of Baron, giving Regina two barons instead of one.
Are you suggesting that T5's nobles rules reflect an actual setting feature? That there is an Imperial institution headed by a Lord High Whatever-hs-title-would-be that keeps track of the trade status of member worlds and appoint or promote nobles when a world gains a trade classification (and perhaps removes nobles in trade classifications disappear without another being gained)?
IMO, I don't think the Noble Rules as presented represent any state other than the T5 incarnation of the Third Imperium. The Zhodani Consulate or the Solomani Confederation would have to have something structured differently than what T5 presents.You know, I've been unhappy with the prospect of the nobles of the Third Imperium setting being changed into something different from what it used to be, but it hadn't occurred to me that the new rules are another example of those damn setting-rules-masquerading-as-generic-rules that so bedevil Traveller. These aren't rules for nobles; they're rules for nobles in one very specific kind of interstellar state. What good are they for detailing the Zhodani Consulate or the Solomani Confederation or the Terran Empire or the Argle-bargle Cooperative?
I am waiting to see (once it is more fully detailed) whether or not a fusion of the old and new is workable (i.e. whether or not they can be made compatible and/or complementary). That is why I am hoping a future issue of ImperialLines will have a detailed article on the subject of the entire Noble Structure and Land Grant system of the Imperium (and/or other polities), much like what was detailed in CT/MT/T4/GT.(Or the Old OTU? :devil![]()
There is some fine print on the map next to Corona and Princeps that I can't make out. Anyone else have better eyes?