| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I am interested in seeing what positions people see a fantasy royal court could have, from the mundane to the unusual. I am not looking for individuals to fill these positions, just what positions there could be.
I will start of with a few.
1. The royal champion: every king needs a strong swordarm from time to time.
2. The court wizard: most rulers are rather uneducated when it comes to the arcane, having an expert who can explain such matters is important as is the magic such advisors usually bring.
The foreign merchant prince: recently come from lands far or near attempting to negotiate exclusive rights of trade.
4. The Groom of the Stool: A real historical position. This is a powerful nobleman who's job is to... *drumroll* wipe the kings ass for him. It was a highly desirable job because it gave you such close access to the king.
5. The Crown: The Crown is a legal entity that the monarchs control and speak on behalf of. Most kingdoms have some equivalent, like the Vatican's Holy See. It would make a lot of sense for the Crown to be an intelligent magic item rather than a mundane crown or a corporation.
6. Principality: The angel or other outsider responsible for protecting the kingdom and/or advising the ruler. An arbiter inevitable would make sure the monarch ruled rightfully and properly, give advice on keeping order and make the regime appear legitimate just be being there. A minor celestial would act as the royal conscience and a symbol of the ruler's fairness.
7. Royal Assassin. Maybe with the class, maybe not. Even good guys need people dead sometimes.
8. Royal Druid: Effectively the minister for agriculture and the environment, officially recognised leader of the nations druids and another powerful spellcaster to have around.
9. High Priest or Arch-Bishop: Feudal governments typically rule by divine right. The leader of the religion from which the king claims to derive his right will be a powerful member of the court and a reasonably powerful cleric too.
10. Honoured Heroes of the Realm: Various adventurers, retired or otherwise. After all, the PCs are unlikely to be the first or last heroes to be officially recognised and rewarded for their deeds, even if they are probably the greatest.
11. Princes and Princesses: Depending on the gender politics of the kingdom, these could be politically powerful future leaders, powerless commodities or anything between. Either way, everybody probably wants to marry one.
12. The Fool: An entertainer with the right to say practically anything and mock anybody he likes, so long as it's funny. The trade-off for that freedom is he's also about the lowest ranking person in the kingdom, let alone the court, and must humiliate himself along with his superiors on a regular basis. Likely a freak or a member of an exotic race.
13. Handmaiden to the Queen: Friend and confidante of the royal presence, also serves the role of body guard for a modern celebrity. She gets to be the mean person to tell you "no" while her grace gets to be the beloved friend to all.
14. King's Diviner: Minister of Scrying magics and defense against magical intrusion. May also server a 'spymaster' style role.
15. Herald: not only the royal 'hype man' making sure everyone makes an entrance, but also a person entrusted with making sure important royal missives and letters are delivered quickly and unmolested (either through magical or mundane means)
19. Harem Matron: Every king worth his weight in salt has an extensive harem, and who better to keep them in line than one of their own? The Harem Matron may have once been a great beauty and the apple of the previous king's eye, but now her calling in life is to keep her girls safe from harm.
20. The Cook: The cook knows that the fickle palate of a king can cause a nation to stand or fall, so he is up at all hours trying to keep his lord's stomach sated. He is hardly able to venture out, but he constantly seeks for the exotic ingredients necessary to create his next masterpiece.
21. The Rightful Heir: Secretly locked deep in a dungeon, hidden high in a tower, or forgotten in a distant hamlet, the rightful heir has been disposed of handily so as to not complicate... political matters. Killing him is out of the question, for you never know when he could be useful. He most likely does not know of his own heritage.
Man, somebody already took groom of the stool...
22. Bananaguard: who better to protect the princess?
23. The candleman: Responsible for keeping lit the many many candles all over the castle.
24: The castle archivist: responsible for the castle's books & archives.
25. ( dont have a cool name) the guy responsible for collecting every thing that fall from the Kings body. So no one can get parts for scrying, Named bullet and the like. I imagine they keep it in jars in a vault.
Constable. Exchequer. Seneschal. Marshal. Reeve. Chatelaine. Primate.
34. Royal Dire Rat Catcher- gotta keep those pesky buggers out of the dungeons
35. Royal Simulacrum- For dangerous appearances and visits from the-
36. Royal Mother-In-Law- or Queen Mum, whose job it is to criticize everything the king does and constantly tell the Queen she'd be better off with that nice prince from the next kingdom over.
39. Royal Librarian: Often combined with the Court Wizard, Archivist or Archmage, this official keeps the kings books, including valuable illustrated books of heraldry, spell books, scrolls, rare tomes of knowledge and any book deemed too dangerous to be kept elsewhere. Unlike the usual records and legal documents, such books are treasures and threats and are locked away accordingly.
40. The Dungeon Master: The man in charge of the dungeons and torture rooms of the king's castle.
41. Tutors: The children of the court need teaching, as do some of the adults. Many a king has risen to the throne without the ability to write more than his name and any sensible monarch wants to see for himself what he's signing.
42. Privateer Captains: These are noblemen with naval connections who have the licence to attack and loot the ships and settlements of enemy kingdoms. They are mostly rich and accomplished, so they spend their time on dry land hobnobbing with royalty and telling tales of derring do.
43. Sage: Often as much a captive as a courtier, the sage is a prophet, wise man or genius kept by the ruler. This arrangement serves two purposes: It gives the monarchy the benefit of his genius and it keeps him safely under control.
44. Bizarre Ambassadors: A fantastic kingdom might be recognised by countries on multiple planets and planes, not to mention civilisations of strange beings closer to home. Representatives of every sort from formians to fae to flumphs might be an every day sight at a well connected court.
57. Heir Apparent / Crown Prince / Crown Princess.
58. The Forgemaster - Creates all the custom magical gizmos that the court wants. Double bladed flaming sword for the Principality? Easy. Half a dozen magical crossbows that float in the air and fire where the controller says? Difficult, but he could do it. A clockwork mage, who wanders around, giving everyone food, cleans up a bit, and kicks out anyone who makes a fool of themseves, except for the designated Fool? Sure, why not?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Missionaries would generally not be in the court. Missionaries are strictly for peasants of foreign nations. Although you might have a royal doggy depending on the monarch's preferences.Inconceivable that no one has yet to offer the 'position at court' of Missionary.
59. Royal whisperer, person whose job it is to inform guests when they've missed the point of a joke, or the king's royal attempt at double entendre.
|
for what its worth and not to derail the thread, missionaries have had quite a history of being in court. This applies beyond the normally thought of christian/catholic but also islam, hindu, and others.
Unless you are of course basing your kingdom off of a vanilla european kingdom. Then it is a Bishop. And no one else dares to differ with him.
60. Mistresses: Nobility commonly marries for power and in many nations it is widely understood that the leaders marry for convenience and seek pleasure and companionship elsewhere. A mistress might be an open secret never to be discussed, but might even be officially recognised. Powerful women might openly conduct affairs in the same way.
61. Royal Bastards: Like their mothers these children could be openly recognised or treated as dirty secrets. In the latter case things get very interesting should they somehow end up with the best claim to the throne.
62. Composer: Typically the most popular and successful musician or conductor in the kingdom, the composer creates music for special causes or occasions and to keep the court and the populace entertained.
63. Missionary :p
|
65. Treasurer
66. Pages: often sons of the nobility sent to court to learn proper behavior and make valuable acquaintances for later in life. Duties include running errands and waiting on nobles' needs. Also, it's a polite way of keeping the children of your vassals hostage at court.
67. Squires: like pages, it's about training, old boys network and being hostage. Duties include keeping track of your master's weaponry and horses..
68. Wardkeeper: in charge of the magical wards that stop enemies from coming into the royal castle to Scry-'n-Fry.
69. Court Doctor: with all the duels and "accidents", someone needs to be on immediate standby to deal with poisons, damage and temporary negative levels.
70. Zookeeper: someone has to take care of all the exotic animals that the king gets as gifts from ambassadors. Many of those animals are extremely dangerous.
71. The Royal Steed: there's a significant chance that whatever mount the king rides is intelligent (paladin mount, dragon cohort, synthesist...)
72. The Royal Champions: someone needs to defend the king's honor in duels, but if he was constantly fighting himself that would be undignified, and he might get in trouble when the enemy has many more levels or someone uses the duel as the cover for an assassination attempt. In addition, some challengers will have entirely different abilities (priests, wizards, barbarians), so the king needs a variety of different champions.
73. Food poison tester. The king hasn't gotten a full meal in months.
ALready position'd UPTHREAD
73. Courtesanes. These ladies (or gentlemen) are courtiers in name, assigned to tend to the well-being of visiting dignitaries. They'll not only see to the guests' every wish and desire, they'll also report back to the king's spymaster.
74. The Protocol Master.
75. The Royal Tailor. The one that can destroy reputations with a new fashion trend. Also the royal family's official dressmaker.
76. The Realm Prosecutor. The greatest lawyer at the king's service and his main counsellor concerning edict adoption and amendments. He also
defend the Realm or the King in lawsuit.
77. The noble hostages: Young heirs of various important noble family in the realm, they are kept hostage to calm down their house rebellious ambition. These «guests» are always well treated and educated in a way that enforce the king family legitimacy in their eyes.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
78. Royal Gamemaster: In charge of obtaining carvers, painters, and tinsmiths to make figurines of all troops, so in time of war all the allied lords can test strategies on the tabletop. He is also a bit of a nerd, creating vast books on surrealistic behavior of summoned and trained fantastic creatures. Gnomes, dragons, and Criospinx are some races that have produced famous gamemasters.
79. The Deniable Messenger. He has no official position but when he stops by to tell you to quit mentioning that embarrassing incident with the King/heir/queen you know thT you better or the next visit might be the Royal Assassin or Headsman.
80. The Favorite. The Monarch's current best friend among the nobility.
|
|
81. The Party Planner: he knows who's planning a ball, who's being invited, who's being snubbed. He makes sure the king doesn't look bad by planning a party during a funeral, or by missing the birthday of an important vassal.
82. The Masseuse: after a stressful day in court, good for relaxing. Optional happy ending.
83. The Lawyers: they either prevent or abuse contradictions in old and new laws.
84. The Entertainers: acrobats, fools, gladiators, storytellers, musicians. During state banquets and feasts, there needs to be entertainment.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Since the types of positions were not specified and my mind is rolling around in the gutter, I believe these must be sexual positions!
85: Jester's Chair: When someone disguises themselves as the throne and tickles the fancy of the next person to sit upon them.
86: Perky Plinth: When one of the royal family disguises themselves as a piece of statuary in the park and rogers an unsuspecting passerby.
87: Queen's Chase: When the queen chases around courtiers whilst carrying an adult toy with Yakety Sax being played by the royal troubadour.
88. The royal wetnurse. Recognizable by her huge tracts of land, hers is the hand that rocked the king's cradle.
89. The Keeper of Tapestries: Someone has to repair all the inevitable damage and dust, and make sure the many tapestries are catalogued and taken care of; just imagine all the secret messages that might be sewn into the tapestries by all those otherwise unassuming seamstresses...
90. The Keeper of Antiquities: Same story, for all those captured artworks or royal gifts that come in.
91. Minister of Protocol: Who sits next to whom at the state dinners, who decides what ritual greetings are used and how the foreign heads of state are addressed.
92. Master of Heraldry: (sorry if I missed it up above, didn't see it) Who decides the artwork on new heraldric devices, who knows all the secret lore of what those symbols mean...
52. Royal Saucier - With no refrigeration or way to keep things fresh, no way to cook things evenly and so forth, you are going to want some heavy sauces made of fruits and spices liberally applied to everything you are eating.
Sorry to interject, but I feel the need to be a bit pedantic about this one as I've been reading up on medieval cooking (as well as cooking in other eras)... forgive me.
First, prior to refrigeration, there were ways to keep things fresh -- specially dug cellars and ice houses helped keep things cool if not cold. Anything terribly perishable you just did not use unless you acquired it quite fresh and used it quickly. Of course many things were preserved via salt-curing or smoking, etc.
Secondly, the idea that medieval cooks masked the taste of "off" food with spices was a myth. The likelihood they used rotten materials and tried to mask the scent or flavor was as likely as someone doing that now--possible, but not common. Medieval cuisine in particular DID very much prize using a variety of rich colors on the plate. They did use sauces and such when they could afford them but were seldom necessarily "strong tasting" -- more they were used to add color to a dish.
Thirdly, you probably wouldn't have someone just specializing in sauces. The castle cook and his/her minions would do the work.
Finally, you're talking about a fantasy world, not a pre-industrial magicless world. With relatively low level spells that can create ice and frost (ray of frost, chill metal) and preserve things (gentle repose), the concern of refrigeration and preservation is pointless. Purify food and drink is a 0-level spell, and affects at a miniumum 1 cubic foot of food. Even someone who just had that as a once per day spell-like ability, let alone a low-level spellcaster who can throw off cantrips at will, could probably help keep food good. Which means food in a even pre-tech, pre-industrial fantasy world is going to be pretty high quality.
Which leads me to my suggestion for a replacement:
Royal Preserver: A low level spellcaster who works with the quartermaster. His job is to create enchanted items and cast spells to not only keep food stores in tip top shape, but also keep tools, equipment, and even the grounds in peak efficiency, using spells like purify food and drink and mending (as well as their more advanced variants) to do so.