Nobility

The nobility - an upper class with specific rights and privileges - exists in a well-established form in the Duchy of Gore and the Shuttered City. These regions have hereditary titles and formal rules for acquiring and passing on titles. Duchy nobles are still likely to be identified only as lords and ladies, not barons, counts and so on.

There is also a court in the Kingswood, headed by a monarch - the Bloodied King. It is not clear how many, if any, Kingswood elves exist outside of the nobility. However, the king can grant titles to his preferred followers, so a hierarchy of some sort exists.

The Hills of Gore are ruled by the Lords Sanguine, who ousted the High King of Gore and took the place of his council of lords. With a few exceptions, the lords have no title other than lord or lady, and they are either the original Lords Sanguine or it is unclear how they came into their positions.

Lord and lady are also used loosely in other parts of the Shrouded Lands. Outside of the regions described above, the ruler of a castle or keep; the patriarch or matriarch of a clan; or the founder of a town is a lord or lady, as is their spouse. These positions are inherited, but do not exist in a feudal hierarchy. At most, there is a noble family around the lord or lady, who are described as lords and ladies or as courtiers.

A leader, regardless of whether they are armigerous, titled or recognised by others, may be described as a lord, lady or even as a king. Sometimes, whole clans are described as lords or kings - as in the case of the Pirate King cloud and storm giant clans and and Clan Prenderghast, the Lords Under the Mountain.

Disambiguation

The Lords Under the Mountain are Clan Prenderghast. The Mountain King is a former stone giant monarch. The King of the Mountains was a leader of dwarves, presumably a dwarf lord. The dwarf lords are also known as the Lords of the Mountains. The lords of the underworld are orc objects of veneration.

The dwarf lords are a separate race, not simply the lords of the dwarves.

Orc

Grumluda is ruled by the Eternal-King-of-All-Orcs.

The Hoth Achaar orcs have nobles who undergo ritual torture (26.01).

Former

• The Prince of Men was heir to the Sun Throne of the Imperium Undying and claimed imperium over all men.
• The Maddlow King was the last king of the Barrier Range. Simon Maddlow is a descendent of the Prince of the Maddlows, presumably the dead king’s son.
• Sladder, now the Isle of Crows, was once Othonoi. It was ruled by wise priest-kings before an apocalypse fell on the island. The crowfolk consider themselves the heirs to the civilisation.
• The Hurad are descendants of the lords that the Sanguine Lords replaced, as well as those lords’ vassals and retainers.
• The Mountain King is the name of a stone giant king whose people attacked Hoth Akhbir as a result of goblin trickery. He ruled in a hall, also described as a castle.
• Andara once had kings.
• Bergolast was ruled by “cruel lords”.

Religion

• The King in Splendour is a god, also described as the Lion in Splendour. His kingly ability to resist temptation is identified in one of his myths.
• Alberon has been described as the god-king of Shuttered and the Lord of Pain.
• The Mother of the Undying Cycles of Creation takes particular interest in children of noble blood. The King appears in the Undying Cycles of Creation, though it is actually the Father who is depicted on the playing card the King of Winter. The Queen, his wife, also appears in the cycle.
• The orcs pay their respects to wooden statues marked as lords of the sky and lords of the underworld.
• Baron Autumn is a sinister god of Thring.
• Hypno, the shepherd of all mortal’s dreams, is called the Lord of Sleep.

Dwarves

A King of the Mountains, presumably dwarven, is mentioned in the story of the Nameless. The dwarf lords at the time, the Lords of the Mountains, were tall and fine limbed despite being dwarves. They were “not of the common folk”. They could take the form of ravens, commanded the creation of the five fortresses, and gathered in Hoth Achaar before it was overrun by orcs. The orcs showed the lords mercy, and the commonfolk and burgher dwarves rejected them. The lords are apparently all dead, but are still feared.

Daram Os, the dwarven king, was killed in the Chimerical Siege of Shuttered. He appears to be of a different royal family to the King of the Mountains.

Clan Battle Beard had a lord. He-she divided a clan artifact in two and said until it was united neither of his-her two children could rule.

Loose use

• The Pirate Kings are the five cloud and storm giant pirate clans, so named by humans. The King of Salt and Brine, a solitary wereshark, appears to get his title from this tradition. However, King Udenyr of Skullreach is the head of his floating castle - and presumably thus a king even among the Pirate Kings.
• There are two Witch-Queens, one in Cragsend (04.06) and one in Thring (23.16).
• A convict with particular influence on Jahur’s Lonely Crags, Iram, is known as the King of the Rocks.
• The Holt of the Bloodied Lords in the Cornfields was founded by a petty king.
• The archmage Imorcar is nominally the Eternal King of Sosaria. The city has two warring factions of cattle barons, but it’s not clear that this represents a nobility rather than the term “baron” being used metaphorically.
• The tiger is known as the King of Cats.
• The founders of Blind Midshotgatepool’s five towns are described as lords. Blind Midshotgatepool may still be ruled by five lords, one for each town.
• In Blind Midshotgatepool, Henry Yaboon is referred to as a king without a throne because he controls the lands of the Pacharia’s clergy.
• In the Bitter Coast, archmage Vilenius Arkhaus is described as the Lord-Elect of Everdark.
• Cyclops lords rule Monatheron.
• Clan Prenderghast are called the Lords Under the Mountain.
• Three trolls that harassed Jar Town described the leader among them as their lord.

Westmarches

• The King of Hound’s Heath (a town) is determined by an annual dog fight.
• Lord Jehan Deismark rules Cragsend.
• Lord and Lady Delasar lived in their ancestral abode, a sprawling mansion, but have since moved to a castle.

The Kingswood

Tuma Yedaard is the Bloodied King, ruler of the elves of the Kingswood. There’s a reference to the Count of Kingswood (18.07). It is unclear if this refers to the Bloodied King. The Queen Sinister once ruled the elven court alongside the Bloodied King. The queen of fairy struck a deal with the King of Salt and Brine. It is unclear if this refers to the Queen Sinister. The Bloodied King gives titles to the Loyal.

• An elf lord is instrumental in Lisbet’s Lament.
• There is a sorcerer who calls herself the Lady, but whether this represents a noble rank is unclear.
• The elves keep human nobles in the Sleeping Vale (24.07). It is unclear how the elves define nobility, except that the woman who would become lady of Blackhorn Keep (a lady of Adherion) was kept here for many years. Would they recognise the bought aristocracy of the Furhoofs or the self-declared nobility of the Wards?
• The elves want to recover the Seal of the One King.

Shuttered City

The High Tongue is the language of the City’s nobility and of sorcery. There are a number of Great Houses of nobles. They live in high towers and balloons.

The Doge, the ruler of the City, is an elected position.

• A pompous beggar has called himself the Squatter King and holds court in the Undercity.
• Uriza the Solemn is the third daughter of a petty noble of Shuttered.
• Baron Harenghast, Master Mason of the Honorable Society of Engineers, is described as being part of the “high nobility”.
• Lord Goss, former King of Hound’s Heath, rules at the very border of Shuttered’s power.
• Count Seutorian is patriarch of one of the richest of the Great Families of Shuttered. His manse lies outside of the city walls.
• The Ettiennes, Casteneus and Vantisses are presumably noble families, as their members are mentioned as Electors.
• Giles Chosard’s father was a disgraced Elector
• Two nobles are trapped in the Colossal Wreck (14.23)
• Ilace is a minor Elector and Jerrod is her brother (03.08). Ilace has a maid; Jerrod had a valet.
• The Traxas were nobles of the City before the Doge exiled them for fear they were all werewolves.
• Lord and Lady Alevari live in a manse
• The Tenzerlins are a noble merchant house. Their rivals, the Ghostas, are merchants but do not appear to be nobles.

Gore

All of the Sanguine Lords appear to be identified purely as “lord” or “lady”, which might reflect that they replaced a council of lords - they took the generic title, but the specific titles of each original member of the council were lost.

The Lords replaced a royal family, including a High King. The heir in exile is the Jester Prince. It may be that Ardumar, the High King of Gore, took that title after wearing the High King’s Crown. At the time of the last High King, there were vassal kings in Thring.

The Collector holds the Tender Hunt for the nobility. Only the Lords Sanguine and their husbands and wives are mentioned as attending.

Duchy of Thring

There were vassal kings in Thring during the fall of the High King of Gore. During the fighting, Duke Ulthar the Loved defeated the vassal kings and declared the Duchy. The daughter of the incumbent Duke of Thring is Princess Elandra, which may suggest that the Duke is planning to assert that Thring is a principality or kingdom.

Noble titles pass, due to the Law of Love, from father to son-in-law. Sons are knighted as they are sent off to make a name for themselves. The Furhoofs bought titles from the Duchy.

The nobles of Thring have certain rights, including the right to nominate a champion to fight on their behalf in the Swamp of Champions. They also do not think much of commoners.

• Lord Kadash exploited a local custom to become a lord upon marrying the Lady of the Fourth Castle.
• The former Lord Steadfast is known as the Cuckolded Count. The current lord, Charles Steadfast, may or may not be a count.
• Only the lords and ladies of the Castle of Dances can pick dancer’s blooms. Baron Hawace is the current ruler of the castle.
• Lady Anghart, the older daughter, lost her claim to Castle Dreanach when she refused to marry her father’s choice. She has since locked up her sister and reasserted her claim.
• The Lords of Thring include Count Tyhon, presumed dead (survived by his wife Lady Tyhon), and the Lord of Dinivar. The Lord of Dinivar’s daughter is Lady Naideen.

Freeholds

A variety of claims to nobility exist here - from those houses that simply declare themselves ennobled to those who purchase titles from the Duke of Thring. The Blackwort brothers purchased citizens’ charters from Shuttered, but it is unclear if that also makes them nobles of the City (or makes them able to become nobles of the City).

• The head of Ettin Castle is a lord and former noble of Shuttered. He plans to declare himself King of the Giants.
• Lord Ward is self-styled, but he is descended from one of the lords of the night men who was driven away in disgrace. His putting on airs offends the freeholders.
• Cliffar Seutorian, self-proclaimed Baron Farnsfall, is a nephew of Count Seutorian and is establishing his own holding in the Freeholds.
• The House of Verlime was a noble house when it held Verlime Citadel, but may not be any more. At the time, Count Ota Verlime was known as the Iron Count.
• The Furhoofs bought titles from the Duchy of Thring. They follow patrilineal descent (in apparent contradiction of the Law of Love) - which is of concern because the heir apparent is deranged.
• Until the orcs burned him out, there was a lord in Puce Keep.

Lands of the Night Cattle

Lord Olmsted rules Olmsted keep. He is said to be distantly related to the Bloodied King

Lord Ward of the Freeholds is descended from a lord of the night men.

Lord Tristifer Bartley’s wife was (or still is) a lady of far Adherion. Tristifer is one of the greatest lords of the night men. Tristifer killed his first wife, who was also a lady. Tristifer and the lady of Adherion’s daughters are the wives of the Doge of Shuttered.