How to become a noble of Magnimar?


Rise of the Runelords


One of my players is interested in become a noble of Magnimar. In the Magnimar, City of Monuments is stated that "Some nobles may hail from families with a long lineage in the city, while others might trace their power to one of Magnimar’s numerous merchant houses, and still others might have used inherited or hard-earned wealth to buy their way into the Council of Ushers".

So I ask: how can you buy a noble title or a seat in the Council of the Ushers? Is the membership granted by vote or by indication?


Magnimar is a city that is approximately what, 300 years old? It is not well established. I'd say you should be able to buy your way in if you wanted.

Its a relatively lawless city so buying into a specific business and gaining a seat as the controlling member of that resource would make sense.

Docks, lumber, City Guard, each major guild, treasury, spymaster, and nobles of extreme wealth/power should all have a seat in my opinion.

All that said, I have not read the magnimar splat book so this is just off the cuff and not per Paizo.


Probably quite a bit. The Lord-Mayor already accepts a great many "donations" for his "personal projects". Buying into a position of influence in a city with much gold passing through would probably require a price near one year's annual gold flow.

A more practical approach would likely be two stages: first, buy into a noble title (or marry into an existing family), then, second, work on becoming an active title-holder of a position.


I just gave it to one of my players PC, as gratitude for preventing the war with Jorgenfist Giant Army (he and others were working as a sort of "Special Operation Force" for Magnimar Goverment). Before it, they were granted free Magnimar citizenship for slaying Xanesha.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I agree with HellFire. Magnimar is a city of contradictory laws, inefficient bureaucracy, and political corruption that leads all the way to the top. I would say the prospective PC would need to get on the Lord-Mayor's good side, as a new noble family in the town would mean a disruption to the status quo, and that's bad for business (i.e., his pocketbook). I suspect he'd weigh the addition of an unknown player in town as a probable negative, and work against it, especially if the events of Skinsaw Man have happened. At that point, the PCs will have killed a sitting Justice and murdered everyone inside a functioning lumbermill. (PCs are bad for business.) The only reason I suspect he doesn't bring them up on charges is that his name was on the list of murders.

I'd make this a goal that comes to fruition over the course of play, and couch the Fort Rannick expedition as the first of many actions they'll need to perform in order to gain that noble title. Hooray for conversation of plot! :)

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