Nobility



Nobles (貴族, kizoku) are the aristocratic class of Yurgenschmidt. Despite making up a minority of the population, nobles rule over commoners and clergy with absolute authority. However, the main defining quality of nobles is not wealth or power, but rather that they possess mana.

See also Character List: Nobles.

In Yurgenschmidt, classes are separated by mana first and foremost. While all living things possess mana, commoners generally have so little that it is imperceptible. However, nobles have enough mana to use at will, allowing them to make the land fertile, battle dangerous feybeasts, and otherwise support the territory. As a result, even the lowest-ranking noble holds absolute power over any commoner.

A person is not considered a noble unless they:


 * Have sufficient mana to be baptized into a noble family.
 * Attend and graduate the Royal Academy after obtaining a schtappe.

Noble children who are born with very little mana can either be married off to lower-ranking families, sent to the temple as priests or shrine maidens, or turned into servants for the family. The latter two choices lose them their noble privileges, making them legally equivalent to commoners. All these options are well-established and accepted practices throughout noble society. Finally, a noble can renounce their status by voluntarily choosing to enter the temple, as Ferdinand did.

Once a noble enters the temple, they cannot regain their status unless they are given permission by the Aub or someone of equivalent authority. That is usually only done under extenuating circumstances. For example, after the Sovereignty civil war, an unusual number of priests were allowed to leave the temple to address the critical mana shortage.

Families so poor they can neither afford the life-saving magic tool nor the cost of sending the child to the temple have no choice but to allow to them to die of mana exposure. Since children are not considered human until their baptism, this does not have any legal consequences. This issue is usually limited to laynobles, since they do not have the option to "marry down" a child like mednobles or archnobles, and they also tend to be the poorest of nobles.

Although baptized children of nobles are treated socially as nobles, this only extends for as long as they are expected to attend or are currently attending the Royal Academy; those who ultimately do not attend the Royal Academy (or who fail to pass their classes) will simply not be accepted as nobles upon reaching adulthood.

See Hierarchy Tab.

Noble meals are generally served in multiple courses. First, drinks are poured, then appetizers, then soup, then the main dishes, then fruits and a dessert. After the meal, tea is usually served. Tea parties typically offer lighter refreshments, including tea prepared for each guest and a variety of sweets and confectioneries.

In accordance with noble etiquette, the host is expected to taste each individual dish to demonstrate that it is not poisoned before their guests begin eating. When nobles are being served meals by commoners or unknown chefs, their attendants or servants will generally do the tasting for poison instead.



As children, all nobles are taught to read, write, do basic mathematics, and play the harspiel. However, the quality of their education depends largely on their parents' wealth and status. Laynoble children, who come from poorer families, begin their schooling at a serious disadvantage to their archnoble classmates. Some supplementary education is available to noble children in the winter playroom during the social season, but it is not usually enough to bridge the divide.

At age 10, noble children attend the Royal Academy, where they learn a variety of subjects including math, history, music, whirling, and magic. In their third year (at age 12), students choose to specialize in a course that will determine their future careers. (They may also choose to take more than one course voluntarily, although this is considered uncommon.) The choices are:


 * Attendant
 * Knight
 * Scholar
 * Archduke Candidate*

* Heirs to an Aub (such as Wilfried or Rozemyne) and heirs to the throne (such as Prince Anastasius are required to take the archduke candidate course, which is not available to the general student population.

While they are still apprentices, noble children may also serve as retainers to a noble of higher status or (more commonly) a member of their family. This allows them to gain experience and build valuable social connections. However, the failure of even an apprentice to uphold their duties as a retainer is considered a stain on the reputation of the entire family, as was the case for Traugott and (nearly) Angelica.

From a young age, nobles are expected to be attentive to formal etiquette. In all social settings outside the home, they represent their family name and their position, meaning that small slips can have serious consequences.


 * Composure: Displays of strong emotion are considered unseemly. Nobles are expected to stay polished and polite in public. If necessary, they can use a hidden room to process emotions in private.
 * Introductions: When two nobles meet for the first time on that day, the lower-ranking noble usually asks for permission to give a blessing. Once permission is granted, the supplicant uses a small amount of mana to give a blessing from the current season's primary deity. If both nobles are of equal rank, the guest speaks first and offers the prayer.
 * Precedence: When nobles of different ranks eat together, those of lower rank wait until higher-ranking nobles have either taken their food or given permission to eat before they can partake.
 * Tasting Food: When a noble has guests for a meal, the host drinks and eats at least one sip or bite of every item before the meal begins. This demonstrates that the offered refreshments are not poisoned.

 See "Noble Euphemisms" 

Nobles share the same basic expections for dress and fashion as commoners. Women are expected to wear knee-length skirts until age ten, and then shin-length skirts until age 15. Girls wear their hair down, while adult women wear their hair tied up. Male commoners and nobles wear shorts until age ten, and then switch to the same style as adults

However, they also have a range of fashion practices unique to the nobility:


 * Socks and shoes. Showing one's bare legs is considered shameful in the upper classes, such that it is considered embarassing to be seen without socks. Instead of the wool leg warmers used by commoners, nobles wear either full stockings or fur-lined boots that reach to their knees . (Baring one's upper arms is not considered problematic .)



Male Nobles: All male nobles can have up to three wives at the same time. (Especially for higher-ranking nobles, having multiple wives is considered an indispensible means of securing political alliances.)


 * The first wife participates in socializing, fashion and politics and other business as a representative of the family.
 * The second and third wives rarely appear in public, and their children do not interact with the children of the other wives.

The order of wives is usually decided by status: If a nobleman marries a woman from a more prestigious family than that of his current first wife, his current wife will be "demoted" to second wife and the new one will take the position of first wife. Wives must always be nobles themselves; nobles do not marry commoners. However, male nobles may also keep commoner concubines or mistresses without causing any societal stigma.

Female Nobles: Noblewomen generally cannot have multiple husbands. In the rare cases when a woman becomes a reigning Aub or Zent, however, she too can have three husbands. By marrying an archduchess, male nobles lose the right to take any other wives.

For details on the marriage ceremony, see Starbind Ceremony.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 5

When a couple of two different duchies marries, it requires the permission of both duchies' Aubs. Usually the families of the bride and groom meet at the duchy-gate at an agreed upon date and the person who marries into the other duchy is taken to their new home, with the actual wedding taking place the next Starbind Ceremony.

In only the rarest of exceptions is the ceremony held directly at the border gate, on a day other than that of the regular Starbind Ceremony, as was the case in the marrage between Lamprecht with Aurelia and Freuden with Bettina, due to the volatile political situation between the involved duchies and Aurelia being Aub Ahrensbach's niece.

With archduke candidates and members of the royalty marriages require the permission of the King and as well as the local Aub or both Aubs in case of an interduchy marriage. Any such marriage happens during the archduke's conference. The ceremonies themselves are performed by the Sovereign High Bishop in the chapel of the Royal Academy.

Noble names are generally longer than commoner names. Some people take inspiration from their ancestors' names or great people from history, but the inspiration is usually informal in nature. Names used for women are expected to sound feminine and beautiful.

Unlike commoners, nobles have full family names. However, they are rarely used outside of ceremonial contexts. The full name denotes elements of social status and family relations, including adoptive relationships. As such, a noble's full name is not fixed, and changes readily with changing family circumstances.


 * Aub, Giebe, and Zent are included in the full names of nobles with those titles, along with the territory they control, such as "Sylvester Aub Ehrenfest" and "Helfried Armbos Giebe Illgner".
 * The children, including adoptive, of an Aub or Giebe, as well as the spouse, will take the duchy (for Aubs) or province (for giebes) as part of their formal name, linked through the appropriate modifier as seen above. This is because the duchy or province name is itself a family name.
 * Anastasius's full name is the only known example of a title appearing in the full name of a spouse or heir to a formally-titled individual, instead of a territory name as a family name. Had his name followed the example seen for other nobles, a modifier of "Sohn Yurgenschmidt" would have been expected instead.
 * Frau means "wife of." It is found in Elvira's full name (Frau Linkberg) . It is not known whether "Frau" is used for all wives, or only first wives.
 * Adotie means "adopted child of". It is found in the names of adopted daughters such as Rozemyne (Adotie Ehrenfest) and Eglantine (Adotie Klassenberg).
 * Tochter means "daughter of." It found in the names of noblewomen such as Rozemyne (Tochter Linkberg) and Elvira (Tochter Gutheil).
 * Sohn means "son of." It is found in Damuel's full name (Sohn Bernett) and Anastasius's full name (Sohn Zent)

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 5

Name-swearing is sealing one's name into a feystone and offering it to another, giving your very life to them and swearing undying loyalty. This process can be used to show the ultimate loyalty to your master, or for pairs to show their undying love for each other. Due to the extreme consequences is is exceptionally rare for any noble to take such a drastic measure.

Currently the only two people in Ehrenfest known to be name-sworn are Eckhart and Justus, though would she be willing to accept it, Hartmut would professed that he would have sword in himself to Rozemyne.

While nobles have a much more in-depth knowledge of the gods and scripture than the average commoner, they are not generally devout worshippers in their daily lives. They invoke the names of gods in formal greetings and as required by spells; however, they don't pray often outside of ceremonial contexts. Rozemyne is considered strange for her tendency to praise the gods at unusual times; this is usually attributed to her upbringing in the temple.

Nobles view the temple with contempt and even abhorrence. The noble children who become blue priests are seen to have entered the temple as a last resort to save face for their families. The common perception of it is as a place to buy servants, and as a brothel for idle nobles, a view that has historically not been far from the truth.

Most of the socializing among the nobility is done during winter, when all the land-owning giebes return to the capital to their respective mansions in the noble's quarter and frequently visit the archduke's castle. There the giebes share news and rumours about their territories and neighboring duchies, while the Archduke and his retainers do the same with what they picked up from the Sovereignty at the Archduke Conference.

Generally when nobles meet in smaller groups those meeting are called tea party regardless of their actual purpose.

During the winter the children also meet daily in the so called winter playroom. Despite what the name suggests there is very little actual playing done there. The true purpose of this room is for the children to learn to socialize with other nobles and to form bonds with their future class-mates. These bondings also play a large role in how the high-ranking noble children will choose their retainers in the future.

At the beginning of winter, the room is quite crowded with all nobles who haven't come of age yet being there, though a few days later the students start to leave for the Royal Academy with the oldest students going first. In the short window befor their departure, the students answer the questions of the younger children, so they can start to plan ahead and decide which course they wish to take at the academy.

Following Lady Rozemyne's entry into the playroom saw significant changes come to it. She introduced learning materials and brought her own tutors along, which significanty raised the average skill-levels of all the children yet too young to attend the royal academy. Under her and her brother's guidance, the playroom was also much more peaceful and fun for all the children, since the presence of the two children of the archduke made the archnoble and mednoble children more reluctant to pick on the laynobles.