BTS 4 - Names and Ranks

Well, I have a bit of writer’s block so I decided to finally explain something I promised to several months ago. It’s time to have a quick chat about names, or more specifically, the rough guideline that I use when naming my characters. Hopefully this comes out coherent and understandable. As a side note that I’m writing after finishing this, I also for the fun of it threw in an explanation of the noble ranks in the Bull Kingdom. Because I could.

And, before we start, EXPECT SOME MINOR SPOILERS.

There won’t be any specific story spoilers, but there are some aspects of the world that will be revealed here that won’t be relevant for a while. As such, I consider these to be fairly minor spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk ;)

So, first off, I think I will start by saying that I don’t hold to these rules completely. Names in our world can drift between cultures, so it isn’t that surprising to see a Frenchman with a Roman name, or a Greek person with a Persian name (or at least, a Greek version of a Persian name). I have several examples of this kind of cultural overlap that I’ll point out as we go. Most of these should be fairly straightforward, but they’ll get a little more complicated as we go.

Now, actually getting into things, I think I’ll start with the nobles of the Bull Kingdom as they’re probably the most obvious. These guys I generally give Roman names, or Roman versions of other cultures’ names. Tiberias, Gaius, Octavius, etc… They’re higher in rank and social station, so they get more ‘prestigious’ names.

Commoners I’ll give French or Frankish names, or their English counterparts if I’m feeling lazy. This encompasses people like Henry (English/French), Alain (French), and Theoderic (Frankish.)

And then there are people like Kevin (one of the squires who accompanied Roland into the Northern Vales) and Serana. Some people I just named on a whim without much consideration for my usual naming scheme. This is mostly out of laziness or just trying not to get caught up on tiny details like names for bit characters, but also justified because cultures borrow names all the time. I don’t have to stick to the naming scheme as an iron-clad rule, just use it as a general guideline.

This is where the minor spoilers begin, by the way.

Moving outside of the Bull Kingdom, we have the Northern Vales in the north (duh), the Samar Kingdom to the south, the Talfar Kingdom to the east, and the Serpentine Isles to the west. Should be pretty obvious, then, that this story will be involving all of these places in some capacity in the future.

In the Northern Vales, I decided on an Old Norse naming scheme to go with the image of a more primitive, tribal, and pagan civilization. So, think Vikings without the ships.

For Vikings with ships, we go to the Serpentine Isles. Although, when the time comes, I’ll probably have them be more Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish than just Old Norse. Slight differences, but enough in my opinion to make the distinction. And since the Isles have been under the suzerainty of the Bull Kingdom for decades now, there’ll be quite a few Roman and French names thrown in as well.

As for the Samar Kingdom, I envisioned this place as essentially being like Egypt or Arabia. The people there thus have Arabic names. For the moment, the only person of Samar descent that we’ve seen is Asiya.

We haven’t seen anyone from the Talfar Kingdom, though… yet… I’ll be pulling names from the British Celts for these people, Welsh and Irish in particular but don’t be surprised if there are some Bretons in there as well.

Now we get into the far more important stuff, that being the people from the Nexus. If you don’t remember from Xaphan’s info dump, the Nexus is the center of the universe, and all planes are angled so that it is always the star in the exact center of the night sky. People from here (or descended from people from there) are given either Greek or Persian names. Examples being Leon, Kyros, Justin, Kamran, and Khosrow. I gave both Artorias and Valeria Roman names despite their families being from the Nexus. Again, cultural borrowing; I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch that House Raime would give some of their members Roman names, and Valeria is also a Greek name.

So, while there are always exceptions, you can generally get a good idea of where a person or their family comes from just from their name. I hope this rather rambly post has been coherent—and more importantly, interesting—and I’ll end this by saying thank you for reading, and by giving a quick breakdown of the noble ranks in the Bull Kingdom, because why not?

Note that these ranks assume the person holding the title rules in their own right.

King/Queen – The reigning monarch. Wields absolute power, but relies heavily on the Assembly, which is a large council of advisors made up of Arbiters (judges), former Exarchs (governors), former Legates and Consuls, representatives from the high nobles, and a few blood priests from Lineage Hall.

Crown Prince/Princess – the formal heir to the throne, appointed by the reigning monarch. Currently, the Bull Kingdom has no formal heir.

Prince/Princess/Archduke/Archduchess – The children of the reigning monarch for the former two. Both Octavius and August are only Princes, which is one reason they’re preparing for a potential civil war if the King doesn’t wake from his coma. The title of Archduke/duchess is also equivalent to this, but only the head of House Raime was given this title. With the fall of House Raime, there are no more Archdukes/duchesses.

Duke/Duchess – the highest rank in the noble hierarchy beneath the royal family. Rulers of Duchies often have so much land that they could be considered minor kings if they were independent. However, they are sworn directly to the Bull King, and owe no one else their allegiance. There are more Duchies in the Southern and Western Territories of the Kingdom than in the other three territories. In fact, there are none in the Central Territories.

- As a side note, as the Tower Lord in charge of all Heaven’s Eye activity in the Kingdom, Emilie is considered to be equivalent to a Duchess, but she holds no formal title in the Kingdom as Heaven’s Eye is adamant in their desire to stay out of the internal politics of the states they operate in.

Marquis/Marchioness – The same deal as a Duke, with vast lands and numerous vassals of their own, but they rule a March, which is specifically territory on the edge of the Kingdom, the frontier. Consequently, they are slightly lower than rulers of Duchies, which are in more populous and important locations.

Count/Countess – Just barely enough to be seen as a high noble. They have access to several castles and a decent amount of land, but very few are particularly powerful in their own right.

Baron/Baroness – Ruler of a single castle and the surrounding land. The lowest landed noble in the Bull Kingdom, and thus the most numerous. There are thousands of Baronies in the Kingdom, and so they aren’t particularly important on their own. During Hakon’s assault on Fort 127, the Legion soldiers received some reinforcements from the six nearest Barons to the wall, totaling a mere two hundred fighting men. Only perhaps thirty of them were knights. Most Barons are at about this level of strength.

Hereditary Knight – Just a knight with the singular privilege of passing on their title to their children. Mostly seen serving Barons, as Barons are usually too poor to properly equip and reward a significant force of knights enough to ensure loyalty, and so hand out hereditary knighthoods to make up for that.

Knight – Lowest noble rank. Knights that serve nobles are their professional soldiers. Usually second-tier and higher, though Barons will often knight first-tier mages. Knights in the Royal Legions are all officers, and as such are held to a higher standard, that being third-tier and above. Their actual ranks in the Legion are:

- Centurion: commander of a company of 100 or filling the role of a middle manager in a non-combat unit.

- Tribune: commander of a single battalion of ten companies, serving as a staff officer to a Legate or Consul, or otherwise filling most higher-management positions in the Royal Legions.

- Legate: commander of a single Legion of twenty battalions, commander of a fortress, or filling the highest management positions in the Legions that aren’t filled by Tribunes.

- Consul: the highest rank in the Legions, answerable only to the King or a Paladin acting on the King’s behalf. Only seven of these guys, one each in charge of the Legions in the Southern, Western, Central, Eastern, and Northern Territories, and the fleets in the Endless Ocean and Gulf of Discord.

- Paladin – Not really a rank in the Royal Legions, but these people are the strongest mages in the Kingdom. All seventh-tier mages in the Kingdom are required to become Paladins, assuming they are citizens and aren’t landed nobility. Traditionally appointed and confirmed by the Bull King, but Princes have the power to appoint Paladins as well, though the right is rarely if ever exercised. Technically, there are six Paladins in the Bull Kingdom, but Roland isn’t really seen as a legitimate Paladin by anyone as he was appointed by a Prince and is only of the sixth-tier.

All right, I think that covers it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer =)

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Thank you to my Sixth-tier patrons:

Efflorescence - Chris Rose - Sir_readsalot - Michael Garfein - Zachary Spencer - I Dewa Bagus - Eric Parker - Kyle J Smith - Story Seeker - Bruce Fritz - B liz - Carl Wallentin - Jacob Hill - Scott Paris - James Nagy

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