On Thu, 2 Sep 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: > >And I think that when Paresh mentions the real aristocracy, he >means the people who act like the traditional image of >aristocrats--they live off rents because they're above work >or trade. I don't think there's any connection between this >and "lord" or one's title. Except the Lyorn, since somewhere >somebody says that most Lyorn are "Sir Soandso" because they >don't have fiefs, but they're the only house pedantic enough to >bother with this distinction. > That's Paresh as well. Booksearch says /Teckla/, chapter 2: Most of those in the House of the Lyorn are Knights, because only the Lyorns continue to treat titles as they were when first created, and Knight is a title that has no land associated with it. This, of course, suggests that many, if not most, of the titles we see are in fact mere fabrications. I am pretty sure that that is mentioned in /Orca/, about Orca titles, as well. Amazon.com booksearch - Book of Athyra, page 281: (Vlad is speaking) [...] it took me about half an hour to determine that neither a barony of Reega nor a county of Endra could be found in the area. So I puttered around some more and found out that neither one actually existed-they were titles without places to go with them, which I suppose I should have expected of Orca. While Arylle is a real Duchy, and Daavya is a real Barony, I think Galstan may also be just such a fabrication. Although I can't get the booksearch to cooperate in disclosing this. Or was it maybe something Sethra Lavode said in /Paths of the Dead/, which is not indexed in booksearch yet? For some reason, I thought that Pel gave his title at some point in /The Phoenix Guards/, but booksearch returned no hits in that book. Although he is introduced as the Duke of G_______ at some point, when he is sparking Jenicor e'Terics, and possibly elsewhere. Khaavren appears to be noble despite his father having sold the family lands.