Ranks and Titles

Creating a hierarchy in a high fantasy.

I’ve been working on my serial fiction story The Queen’s Peculiars (which I hope to start sharing no later than the end of March) and one of the most time-consuming things for me was trying to create the hierarchies.

In a high fantasy, a big part of the worldbuilding is establishing these hierarchial relationships. In some stories, they are intense and rigid, while others aren’t so much. I think it’s one area where George R.R. Martin excels in A Song of Ice and Fire is with creating a simple and yet effective system.

So I strove for some of that simplicity, while also trying to create something unique.

Unsurprisingly, I also stole quite a bit from J.R.R. Tolkien (who, in turn, mostly used old English, pre-Norman terms.) In TQP, you’ll see references to Farthings, for example. For now, for my royalty, I tended to use more Anglo-Saxon-esque terms. And I had to decide how to break them down and how to arrange them.

One thing I wanted to make very different about this story is that I didn’t want to go with male-preference primogeniture for determining titles and lordships. I wanted men and women to be on an equal footing (as you’ll see below, this kingdom worships a variation of the trifold goddess)—and therefore, I went with absolute primogeniture, where birth order determines the inheritance, regardless of sex or gender.

This is what I came up with:

• King / Queen / Royal Family (Majesty)

• High-Reeves — each farthing has 1 High Reeve, who oversees the land. (Grace). They are based out of the cities of:

  • Ostport

  • Wyrd

  • Westguard

  • Speare

• Reeve — each major city has a reeve who oversees the city and surrounding townships. (Excellency)

• Aldor - Members of minor nobility who represent their farthing on the Queen’s/King’s Council (Honor)

• Thane — Leaders of small outposts, villages, communities. (Lordship / Ladyship)

• Lord / Lady Justice — judges who maintain laws and pass judgment in the Monarch’s name. (Honor)

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Also playing a big part in the story is the church, which worships The Three: Maiden Sun, Mother Moon, and the Crone of the Deep Dark. And they have their own hierarchy:

• Exalted Priest / Priestess — 1, usually based out of the chapel in Queenston. (Holiness)

• High Priest / Priestess - 1 for each farthing. (Eminence)

• Priest / Priestess — (Reverence)

One of the main characters is a Priestess of the Three, and I’m having a lot of fun with playing around with their powers and abilities. One thing I’m looking forward to showing in particular is a magical autopsy—part of the church’s domain.

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Another intersection with the royal ranks listed above, is also that there’s a military command. There are these two major power structures in the kingdom: one that’s based on birth (or ascension), and the other that’s entirely merit-based.

Coming up with the ranks for the military wasn’t quite as hard as developing the royalty schema, but I had good help. I took an inspiration from one of my favorite games and its Player versus Player rankings, though I cut out quite a few ranks so it wasn’t drawn out. The result is a fairly fantastical army (parentheticals are naval ranks):

• Captain-General (High Admiral)

• First Marshal (Admiral)

• Second Marshal (Rear Admiral)

• Third Marshal (Admiral of the Deck)

• Commander (Captain)

• Lieutenant

• Sergeant

• Man at Arms

• Guardsman

• Footman

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This all might change as I write the story, but I wanted to let you all into my head a little bit, as I try to create this world.

It’s going to be a grand adventure. Thank you for being here to see it!