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Hi all,
I'm creating a setting of which large parts will take part amongst the Nobility of the world. My world is fairly undefined, but in my experience few settings focus on what I'm looking for and therefore i found it appropriate to gather ideas here, much in the manner of threads such as "150 campsite events" etc.
What I specifically am looking for is what makes nobles appear noble in a fantasy setting and this comes in two parts.
Customs and Tradition and Character-bound expressions of nobility
The following may serve as examples.
1. Amongst the nobility it is common practice that young gentlemen who wishes to court a young lady must steal the first kiss while the lady is asleep. This leads to several window climbing accidents, but also to the practice of fathers leaving ladders outside windows of especially homebound ladies.
2. Lord Penendra comes from a colder climate and has had hard a time with the many layered noble outfits and hot ballrooms. He is quick to change into his birthday suit as soon as he is without other nobles, not finding any embarrassment in letting the commoners see him - as he says, they bathe him every week anyways.
If you have any ideas like these please share them for all to use. If you used any published material please add the source
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I'm a little disappointed this didn't go anywhere, so let's have another try. Courtship is pretty important, so let's start there.
3. Men are not allowed to grow a beard until after they marry.
4. Men are not allowed to marry until they can grow a beard.
5. Though noble parents arrange betrothals on behalf of their children, each betrothed party is allowed to set a task for the other as a condition of the marriage. These tasks are typically quite easy of the youths are in favour of the betrothal, but maddeningly difficult if not. (Thus in practice most marriages are arranged with at least the grudging consent of the betrothed.)
6. Children are not properly named until their thirteenth birthday. Before that they are referred to as "son of (father)," "daughter of (mother)," by number, or with a descriptive nickname like "freckles."
7. The third child is dedicated to the church (either a local faith or a deity of the parent's or child's church.
7a. Evil variant: the third child is sacrificed to the deity.
8. For their coming of age, youths are required to go into the wilderness and tame their own mount.
9. For their coming of age, youths are required to go into the wilderness and hide from their friends and family. The longer the youth remains hidden, the better.
10. In order to inherit lands and titles, noble heirs must be capable of casting arcane spells. Disputes of succession are usually settled by arcane duels. (Using this for an elven city-state in my current campaign)
(I will note that #1, in addition to being a burgalry invitation, qualifies as sexual assault. Leaving a flower or note on her pillow would be a little less creepy.)
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If you really want odd rituals, look into what various cultures do in the real world.
11. For coming of age, male children are expected to slay a creature consummate with their rank. So a commoner can slay a sheep, a warrior a lion, a noble a mythical beast, and the King's son had better sharpen up his dragon-slaying skills...
(Variation on a theme found in various cultures)
11a: If you successfully kill a creature above your station you advance in social rank. Hence becoming a dragon-slayer can make you heir to the kingdom!
12. Up until the age of twelve all children are "girls" and treated as such; only at this stage are boys named and treated differently.
(Used to be practised on a Dutch island until the second half of the 20th century)
13. In courtship mastery of certain skills is a requirement in a suitor: usually this is dancing (remember all those balls in Pride & Prejudice?), but in other cultures may involve cooking, hunting, singing, horsemanship etc.
Hi all,
Customs and Tradition and Character-bound expressions of nobility
The following may serve as examples.
1. Amongst the nobility it is common practice that young gentlemen who wishes to court a young lady must steal the first kiss while the lady is asleep. This leads to several window climbing accidents, but also to the practice of fathers leaving ladders outside windows of especially homebound ladies.
I would expect such a custom to quickly disappear after the fathers come to the belated realization that leaving such ladders and open windows makes a burglar's job rather too easy.
While customs may sometimes be quaint and quirky, they should still make sense in context.
Or that their daughters had to 'go to a nunnery' during the next 9 months because a dashing young rogue didn't realize what the ladder was for, and decided 'hey, might as well make the best of the situation'.
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14. On the first day of every month, each noble household invites one commoner to eat at their table. Most households prefer to host individuals with some power - merchants, guildmasters, local spellcasters, or adventurers - some see it as a way to become familiar with the lowest of their subjects.
15. A birthday is celebrated by giving presents to one's parents.
16. In order to marry, each member of the prospective couple must be able to fill their intended's shoes with coins - copper coins among labourers, silver among artisans and merchants, and gold among the nobility. Local ballads have been written lamenting the size of a lover's feet. (By my estimates this is 450-900 coins per pair of shoes - a pair of farmers will between them raise enough for a goat, donkey, or pig and maybe a few chickens, while artisans will need about the value of a light horse and masterwork tools, and nobility are looking at the value of a warhorse and heavy armour, or 18-36 head of cattle.)
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17. On the birth of a child, friends and relatives present bouquets whose plants symbolize their wishes for the new baby - which may be anything from luck to foresight to the favour of a particular deity.
18. On assuming leadership, the nobility cut themselves with a ceremonial blade, promising to shed their blood for their land and people if necessary. The texture and colour of the resulting scar is said to foretell what to expect from the bearer's leadership.
19. The noble household commemerates its history with a long epic poem. The head of the household is expected to recite this poem by heart once a year and to compose a new verse eulogizing their predecessor.
20. The noble household is advised by an outsider or long-lived magical creature that once served as the familiar to the head of the household - and occasionally still serves particularly talented heirs in this way. Depending on the nature of the household, this may be an imp, cassisian angel, arbiter inevitable, raktavarna, or pseudosphynx.
21. The lord has a taste for wolpertinger and raises the creatures for their meat.
22. The lady has married a druid. It is said that they met when she hunted and shot a glorious stag, only to see him transform into a man in front of her eyes.
22a. The lady never hunted again out of respect for her husband.
22b. The lady's husband now hunts with her in the form of a great wolf.
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23. Nobility in a particular region(s) have a very defined tradition of appropriate procedure in handling silverware; i.e., a soup spoon may not be handled until the knife has been used, when setting down a knife it is rude to point the blade away from your dish, etc.
23a. Nobles use these systems to covertly convey expressions of intent or allegiance when at table, possibly even challenges (real or imagined) to duels.
24. When children are born to nobles, a fortune-teller reads meaning into birthmarks, freckles, and amount of hair on the infant; this fortune (or a trumped-up fortune) is proclaimed to the noble's vassals and may be one of weal or woe. These children often live in the shadow of these fortunes, eager to cause or prevent what they have been raised to believe is their destiny.
25. A lord is judged be his society in how long is his longest winning streak in single combat, a lady by the most rabbits she has taken through falconry in a single month.
26. Calligraphy, penmanship, and the ability to mimic others' handwriting is a particularly esteemed skill in one culture and nobles vie to patronize the most renowned scribes and penmasters as much as they develop their own writing skills. Books are not judged only by their content, but by how pleasing it is to look at and the difficulty of the font it is written in. Learning disorders in offspring can spell doom for a noble house's reputation, and lords go to extreme and extravagant measures to address these disorders.
27. Wielding a weapon outside of training is considered shameful if it does not result in bloodletting. Duels are only to the death, and bows are only used to hunt if the noble feels assured that game will be taken.
27a. Cleaning blood from a weapon or arrow's effective section (sword/axe blade, mace head, arrowtip, etc.) is seen as remorse for the kill; many weapons are hung as trophies because they have become too dull or otherwise unusable, but to discard them is to nullify proof of one's skill in battle. Enchanted weapons that do not lose sharpness are prized as functional heirlooms, and often have an associated song or text that details how it has been used to win honor for a family.
27b. Weapons and instruments used to exact capital punishment are sanctified and always cleaned to signify that justice exists apart from personal glory.
27c. Weapons and instruments used to exact capital punishment are sanctified and never cleaned to signify that justice is the glory of everyone it defends.
28. (From Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series) Nobles develop and accumulate riddles and logic puzzles to entertain guests and challenge rivals.
29. Nobles win acclaim and rank by producing or performing works of art, literature, and theatre. Botching a performance is especially deadly to one's reputation, but innovating, especially in familiar works, is highly admired.
30. The estate of the highest-ranking noble in the area becomes both the figurative and literal center of culture, administration, and common life for their vassals. Their home is expected to have physical accommodations for various sectors of infrastructure, such as post office, courtroom, records, armory for the militia, and the like. Nobles who cannot or will not provide such are considered to be of lower status or are viewed as selfish and narcissistic. Living nearer to the family's estate is considered to mean more affiliation with them (for good or ill). Living adjacent to the estate is second only to living in the building(s) in terms of local influence and social standing.
30a. The reigning noble family is dishonored, slain, or supplanted, and another noble family acquires their vassals. The new family must occupy the previous family's holdings, whether or not it is an upgrade.
30b. The reigning noble family is dishonored, slain, or supplanted, and another noble family acquires their vassals. The entire population packs up their possessions and uses their buildings for resources as they prepare to transplant themselves nearer their new lord or lady's physical dwelling.
31: Nobles are particularly taken with exotic fancies, the reasoning for which are known only to themselves. On a weekly basis roll Percentile Dice on a Table such as:
1-5%- Peacock feathers are all the rage, the more ostentatious, the better!
6-10%- Obesity is a sign of wealth and affluence, the nobility gorge themselves on fattening foods during a brief stint in isolation, so they may reveal their fuller form to an audience.
11-14%- Red has become associated with bloody conflict and the nobility wish to rise above such savagery, anyone wearing red is assumed a pleb or a barbarian, and immediately set upon by a violent mob of sophisticated, enlightened peacemongers.
etc...
32: Inspired by the noble Manticores that roam the land, the nobility eschew common eating utensils to master the use of a Scorpion's tail to skewer and serrate their food. Rumours persist that the elite nobility find the scorpion's poison a potent aphrodisiac, however, soup still poses a challenge no matter how aroused they may be.
33: An ancient tome had reportedly been found from a bygone age outlining the diet of the first men to discover culture. Such a diet calls for ancient grains, extinct fish, and dirt. Various nobles have proposed their own substitutes for the unobtainable grains and fish, though all nobles agree on the importance of authentic soil, ideally taken from a wild field untouched by toiling hands. As civilization spread, such soils have become hotly contested and many a Great House as been toppled for their empire of dirt.
34: Taking the saying "You reap what you sow" to heart, the nobility have been known to seed fallow fields with coin, hoping to grow a fortune. Rumous persist of Currency Cows that will then flock to the fields and provide an influx of wealth. One would think such deposits of coin would be heavily guarded, but the shamans and psychics warn this will disturb the bovines, and so such fields are largely left unguarded and given a wide berth by the sowing House. Some struggling houses have been known to avoid their fields for years, desperate for the intervention of cash cows. Time will tell whether or not such superstitions will work, though early indicators show a rise in the commoner's economies relatively quickly after a House has sown their cash crop.