> Why couldn't there be empty titles? > When Paul McCartney was knighted he didn't receive a bunch of > farmers too, > did he? ;) There probably are some titles that are purley honorific. Vlad's is not. He's the Count of (what I assume to be) a moderately sized county. One small enough that the local town government is able to run things and the post of Count is more of a royal sinecure than an actual managerial job. Interestingly, you'd think that if there were "empty" titles that the Jhereg would be selling them left, right, and center. If Vlad's case is typical, the Jhereg titles are bona-fide, lending some weight to the idea that there really aren't any "empty" titles.