Nobility

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Anime

This Article is based on the Official Translations of the Light Novel series! The Light Novel series is the source material for the adaptation of the Anime and Manga series. The information and terminology on the article will be based on the source material rather than the adaptions.

Info Hierarchy

Nobles stand at the top of Ehrenfest's class-based society.

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.

Qualifying Factors

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 nobles hold 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. Those turned into servants, lose all their noble privileges and do not get any baptism and thus never have a citizenship medal. While some might consider them commoners, as far as the law goes, they technically don't exist, since only people who were baptized are counted as Humans. Whether noble children sent to the temple to become Blue Robes receive a noble baptism, depends on their family. If the family gives them one and a noble ring, they are technically nobles, but with greatly diminished privileges and could theoretically rejoin noble society, provided this happens before their tenth' year of life. Those who do not get a noble baptism from their parenty, are baptized as commoners and while they retain some very few of their noble privileges, they are counted as commoners before the law. 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. Like noble children made into Blue Priest, but given a noble baptism, such people are technically nobles.

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 them to die of mana exposure or turn them into servants of their estate. 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 the nobility.

Some nobles send a child to the temple not for a lack of mana, but for their own protection, with the intention of bringing them back into the family either at their baptism, or shortly before they go to the Royal Academy at the age of 10. Such children are given a noble baptism, and like the nobles that voluntarily entered the temple, they as nobles before the law.

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) simply not be accepted as nobles upon reaching adulthood, effectively making them commoners. If they already obtained their schtappe, it will be permanently sealed.

Noble Hierarchy

See Hierarchy Tab.

Noble Culture

Dining

Noble meals are generally served in multiple courses. First, drinks are poured, then appetizers, then soup, then the main dishes, and 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.

Education

A first-year magic lesson at the Royal Academy.

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 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. On the other hand, they are not allowed to take the Attendant course.

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) for Angelica.

Engagements

Among the Yurgenschmidt nobility, it is common for the parents to decide their children's engagements, for political or economic reasons. However unlike commoners, nobles need to pay attention to the mana capacity of their offspring being within a certain range of their prospective future partner, for them to be able to conceive children together. See Pregnancy

Generally two people with prospects for marriage have to be able to sense each other's mana to even think about marriage. If they are, and the parents of both parties wish to make this engagement happen, they will arrange for the Mixing of Colours.

Spoiler from Fanbook 5

Mixing of Colours This is a process part test, part ceremony, part public announcement that is intended to assure the mana compatibility of two nobles, who wish to get engaged, or are made to engage by their parents. First Mixing of Colours The first Mixing of Colours actually doesn't involve the two potential spouses at all, but is done by only the parents and this is the most informal of the three mixings. With children generally having similar mana to their parents, this gives a pretty good idea of whether the respective children's mana will combine. For this they use a specialized magic tool, rather than the people forcing their mana into their counterparts. The device has three parts, one each for the pure mana of each side, plus the middle part of the actual mixing. To begin the process, both parties touch either their schtappe or magic ring to a feystone on the sides of the tool and begin pouring their mana. The device will give a short counter-push, when sufficient mana has been put into it, to signal the users that they can stop channeling. The respective sides for each party will then light up in the mana colours of the users, from where the mana will flow into the middle parts, where it will either mix, or remain seperate, with the former showing compatibility and the rather a lack thereof. Generally this will decide whether the engagement process will continue or break down, unless there are reasons to believe that one or both of the potential future fiancés have an unusually big difference in mana qualities to their parents. Second Mixing of Colours In the second Mixing of Colours, it is the spouses themselves who pour their mana into the magic tool and thus there will be certainly conclusive results. This event is as much social event and ceremony, as it is a compatibility test and as such, usually it is attended by not only the potential future husband and wife and their parents, but also by close family members, like siblings. If any close family member is absent, this can easily be interpreted as that person refusing to endorse the engagement, unless there's a good reason for their absence. It isn't uncommon for people to meet their future spouse for the first time as this occasion. If the mana of the two hopefuls is mixing, they will discuss, whether there are any other factors that might stand in the way of their marriage, often under the privacy of sound-blocking magic tools. If there are no further issues, they will decide when to exchange Engagement Feystones and the engagement will be made official. The second Mixing is initiated with the words of “Dregarnuhr the Goddess of Time has woven the threads of our fates together on this day. May we be blessed by Liebeskhilfe the Goddess of Binding.” and if the mixing and discussions are fruitful, the pair declares this by saying "May the Goddess of Binding tie our threads to the God of Stars.” Third Mixing of Colours The third Mixing of Colours is a formal occasion that serves to announce the engagement to the public and thus is attended by many members of the pair's extended family. Due to the extravangance of the second and third mixing, poorer families with multiple children try to group the events into one, to save money, rather than holding seperate events for each child. Should the pair of future spouses be from different duchies, the second and third mixing will be held at the Royal Academy, during the Interduchy Tournament, which naturally limits the number of attending guests compared to events held in duchy territories.

Etiquette

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.

Euphemisms

See "Noble Euphemisms"

Fashion

Nobles share the same basic expectations for dress and fashion as commoners. Women are expected to wear knee-length skirts until age ten, then shin-length skirts until age 15, and floor-length clothing from then on. 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

Furthermore, just like with commoners, the length of the sleeves, as well as the amount of extra cloth and ornamentation, have to be in accordance to the noble's status.

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 embarrassing 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.)

There are only a few exceptions to this strict social dress code for certain specific activities, for which nobles have specialized outfits.

For riding on highbeasts (excluding the drivable variant), women have a separate set of riding clothes, since the excessive extra cloth usually used for skirts makes it nearly impossible to straddle a mount.

Gathering clothes, as the name implies, are used by nobles going out to gather feyplants and to hunt feybeasts to gain ingredients for magic tools and potions. Since this requires going out into nature, these outfits are devoid of the majority of unnecessary cloth, frills, lace, and loose parts in general and come with extra bags and pouches to store the materials, most of which are created in a way to prevent contamination of the ingredients to preserve their mana purity.

Scholar uniforms are still elegant and embroidered, but forgo loose sleeves and lace, so that the clothes do not end up accidentally touching freshly written boards and parchment, which would result in smeared writing and ink splotches on the clothes.

Very similar in nature to scholar uniforms, nobles also have separate outfits for brewing potions and crafting magic tools, where any loose material would end up in the way, making the work unnecessarily difficult.

At the Royal Academy, students replace their regular duchy-coloured cape with a scarf when donning their brewing outfits.

Even when not in armour, knight uniforms also tend to be tight-fitting, so that they can fight on a moment's notice, even when caught off guard in situations where no hostilities were expected to happen. For this reason, most knights wear feystone bodysuits at all times beneath their regular clothing, even when off duty.

Funeral

Since the bodies of mana-wielding beings of any kind above a certain mana capacity - including Humans - disappear after some time and leave behind only a feystone, only the belongings and the feystone get buried. Although on very rare occasions, the feystone of a deceased noble can also end up being used, rather than buried.

Rather than wait for the body to naturally turn into a feystone, the local blue priests use Ewigeliebe's Sword to remove the feystone from a noble's corpse as part of the funeral rites, unless of course the noble in question died in a way that immediately turned them into a feystone, like most forms of death in combat, or Lanzenave's Instant Death Poison.

Archduke Funeral

When an acting archduke or duchess dies, the formal proceedings are only held after the rest of the country has been informed and after the successor has been elevated to be the next Aub at the next yearly Archduke Conference. In the time between the actual death and the funeral, the body is kept in pristine condition by the use of time-stopping magic.

Marriage

An unexpected proposal from a laynoble to a mednoble.

The vast majority of marriages among the Yurgenschmidt nobility is decided for political reasons, with marriages of love being exceptionally rare, unless the two motive happen to overlap by chance, like was the case for Sylvester and Florencia.

Apart from the political side, marriages also almost always require that the two spouses are mana compatible, i.e. they need to be able to sense each other's mana. If they were unable to do so, their chances of ever conceiving a child together are very low. Only in very exceptional cases is the political gain prioritized over mana compatibility. In such cases, the husband will have to rely on their other two wives or adoptions to gain a heir.

While the author never put the difference at which two mana wielders could still sense each other's mana in strict numbers, she stated in a fanbook, that it's "maybe" +/- 30 percent.

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 indispensable 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.

For archdukes and giebes, the politics are split between the first and second wives, with the former dealing primarily with interduchy or interprovince relationships respectively, while the second wives are responsible for managing the local nobility. Though third wives of Aubs and Giebes also tend to stay out of the politics of their husbands' realm.

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.

Interduchy Marriage

When a couple of two different duchies marry, 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 marriages between Lamprecht with Aurelia and Freuden with Bettina, due to the volatile political situation between the involved duchies and to Aurelia being Aub Ahrensbach's niece.

Royal and Archduke Candidate Marriages

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 Conference. The ceremonies themselves are performed by the Sovereign High Bishop in the chapel of the Royal Academy.

Names

Noble names are generally longer than commoner names. Some people take inspiration from their ancestors' names or from 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.

Spoiler from Fanbook 5
Zent's don't have a house as the position is one gained through power instead of inheritance, so their full name is simply Zent plus their first name (Zent Trauerqual)

• Frau means "wife of." It is found in Elvira's full name (Frau Linkberg).

Spoiler from Fanbook 5
Assis means "second wife of". Aehrtin means "third wife of"

• 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' full name (Sohn Zent).

Name-Swearing

Roderick giving his oath to Rozemyne

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, it is exceptionally rare for any noble to take such a drastic measure.

One of the reasons why this practice is considered so extreme is that someone name-sworn outside of their own marriage can not inherit leadership of their house and is precluded from certain positions like that of the Knight Commander.

Once the new master finishes the dyeing of the stone, the name-sworn can feel a veil of their master's mana surrounding them at all times. Over time, one can get used to this to not even be consciously aware of it anymore. However, when the master is about to give an order, the feeling intensifies. Should the master give an absolute order without room for interpretation and the name-sworn does not follow it, they will die on the spot.

Worst of all, should the master die, anyone name-sworn to them will die with them, unless the master manages to return the name in time before their demise.

The stone with the name itself is translucent and coloured in a gradient consisting of the supplicant's elemental affinities, with their name appearing in golden, flaming letters inside it. Additionally, a box with a clear, white feystone is required.

There is no formal wording that needs to be followed. The supplicant can word their oath however they wish and can use this opportunity to lay bare their feelings. Once the supplicant has sworn his or her oath to their new master, the master checks the feystone to make sure a stone with the correct name has been given. Then they put it back in the box, close the lid and pour their mana into the container. This will cause white lines to extend from the white feystone and gradually transform the box into something that looks like a cocoon. The process is very painful to the supplicant, but the pain fades almost immediately after the transformation is finished.

The name-swearing is a very private affair and thus is usually conducted with just the master, the supplicant, and one or two observers present. Not even guard knights are present, instead being ordered to guard the door from the outside. The observers are present to reduce the chances of an assassin using the excuse of swearing their name to be alone in a room with only their target. Because of this and the intimacy of the ceremony, only a master's most trusted people are considered when choosing the observers.

Nobles who are name sworn to a master, who has elements they lack, will find casting spells of those elements easier, though the difference is so small some people don't even seem to notice or put it down to their own experience or having a good day.

However, if that noble is still a student who has yet to enact their ritual for divine protection, the student stands a good chance to gain the protection of their master's elements, in addition to their own.

Originally name-swearing was - and in most places in Yurgenschmidt still is - only done voluntarily, to show devotion and loyalty. However in Ehrenfest, Lady Gabriele and her offspring Veronica and Georgine perverted the practice by twisting it into a tool to force obedience, greatly souring the way name-swearing is viewed among the local nobility, many of whom only see it as a proof of tyranny, even when the supplicant is acting out of their free will.

Once a name-swearing stone is made, further consent from the person who made it is not required. Should it fall into the wrong hands, anyone with sufficient mana to do so, can dye the stone and take control over the person at will. The same goes for stealing the name-swearing stones from an already established master. If someone can take the stone, they are able to extract the current master's mana and then dye it themselves. As such name-swearing feystones are generally guarded exceptionally well.

Spoiler from Fanbook 5
Being name-sworn and being a Guardians of Knowledge are mutually exclusive. While they are not the exact same, the limitations of each prevents a single person to ever be both at the same time.

Known Name-Sworn

See List of Namesworn

Religion

While nobles have a much more in-depth knowledge of the gods and scripture than the average commoner, they are not generally devout worshipers 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, as a place to buy servants and as a brothel for idle nobles, is a view that has historically not been far from the truth.

Pregnancy

Between two mana-wielders, the mana capacity of the child depends primarily on the capacity of the mother.

This is not a purely passive issue though. During pregnancy, the mother has to actively control how much mana is channeled into her womb. Exposing the unborn child to only small amounts of mana will likely result in the child being born with a small mana capacity and in all the problems that this will cause for someone born into noble society. But the more mana the child is exposed to, the higher the chance for miscarriage and other health issues for not only the child, but also the mother. This makes pregnancy among nobles a difficult balancing act.
It also explains why duchies are so reluctant to appoint any women as the Aub - during pregnancy, it would be far too risky for both mother and child to supply mana and to be exposed to the stress of government.

It is possible for other people to transfer mana to a pregnant woman to help with the birth, but only close, biological relatives and the husband, with whom the woman has mixed her mana, are able to do so. If someone else tries to also donate mana, it will be aggressively rejected by the woman's body.

Apart from helping the woman to cope with the strains of pregnancy, this also increases the chances of the child inheriting the father's elemental affinities, should they differ from the mother's own.

Socializing

Most of the socializing among the nobility is done during winter, when all the land-owning giebes come from their provinces to their respective mansions in the noble's quarter and frequently visit the Archduke's castle. There, the giebes share news and rumors 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 meetings are called Tea Parties, regardless of their actual purpose.

Hunting Tournament

In autumn, while the temple is performing the Harvest Festival, many nobles gather in the capital's noble forest for a hunting tournament. Any noble - be they knight, scholar, or attendant - may participate, while their family cheers them on from the sidelines in a large-scale tea party.

Most nobles view this event only as a chance to show off their ability and win prestige, though it also has the practical advantage of increasing the Noble's Quarter's food reserves for the upcoming winter.

Winter Playroom

During the winter, the children 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 classmates. These bonds 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 winter playroom is quite crowded, with all the nobles who haven't come of age yet being there, but a few days later the students start to leave for the Royal Academy with the oldest students going first. In the short window before 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 Royal Academy.

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

Trivia

• Miya Kazuki mentioned, that on average nobles tend to be seven or eight centimeters taller than commoners.