Peerage: A legal system composed of hereditary titles.
Feudalism: A social system where nobles held and received land from the crown in exchange for military service. Peasants worked the land and lived on it as tenants; they gave the holder labor, homage, or a portion of their crop in exchange for protection.
Aristocracy: A government where power is held by the nobility.
Aristocrats: A member of an aristocracy.
Petty Nobility: The lower noble classes.
Monarch: A sovereign head of state.
Emperor/Empress: A sovereign rule of multiple countries.
King- Emperor/Queen Empress: A sovereign ruler who is both at once the ruler of an independent country and an empire.
Tsar/Csar: A title which designates Slavic monarchs.
High-King/Queen: A king who holds power over another group of kings
King/Queen: A sovereign leader who, by inheriting the title, rules over one country.
Crown Prince/Princess: The direct heir who will inherit the throne.
Scion: A descendant of a royal family; an heir.
Childe: Derived from Old English, this term was sometimes appended on the name of a nobleman's son who had not yet attained knighthood as he was still in the process of transitioning from a squire. The term is functionally obsolete in modern English, but occasionally makes an appearance in older poems, I.e. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Bryan.
Arch-duke/Duchess: A hereditary title of the Holy Roman Empire below the rank of Emperor and King.
Duke/Duchess: A monarch ranked below Kings and Princes, who rules over a Duchy, and is the highest rank below the aforementioned Kings and Princes.
Marquis: A title denoting a nobleman of high hereditary rank, mostly used in Italian, Spanish, and French Crowns.
Count/Countess: A title of nobility situated somewhere in the middle of the Feudal hierarchy; how much power they hold varies depending on time and region. A "county" refers to the land a Count rules over.
Hakushaku: A hereditary Japanese title generally seen as equivalent to a Count.
Earl/Countess: A rank that is functionality interchangeable to a count, and in some countries, a duke. A female derivative never developed, instead the word "Countess" is used.
Baron/Baroness: A lower rank of nobility.
Lord/Lady: A member of peerage denoting someone who holds power, control, and authority over others. Sometimes a knight, especially in England.
Fugal lords: A man of rank in an ancient regime. Functionally obsolete.
Chiefs: The head of a clan or tribe.
*Chiefs of the Name/Captain of his nation: The head of a Celtic clan, especially the Irish
*Datu: Denotes the rule of a number of Filipino natives.
Royal Court: A court of nobility
Divine right: The God given right of a monarch to preside over a country, usually used to justify a monarch's rule.
Blue-Blood: Used mostly by the English to refer to someone of royal descent, as it was thought that the nobility had blue blood. The belief behind this theory was the blue veins, which were more predominate in the noble class, as their skin was paler than the peasantry, who often worked outdoors.
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The Book of Fictional Writing 101
Non-FictionA handy lexicon of terms used in and applied to literary fiction and what they actually mean, as well as some ideas on how to improve your writing.
