References

This is a list of relevant references to explain and summarise various terminology, concepts and tags used throughout this blog.

For a general reference on the nature of the romance novels, visit the general about page!

If something is Capitalised Like This, chances are, you will find it here, or in the Glossary!

Titles, as a rough guide in descending order of power/rank:

Table 1: Feudal Titles

Title	Explanation
Emperor Empress	Self explanatory. Ruler of a nation that has declared itself an empire.
King Queen	Ruler of a kingdom, which is a nation that has not declared itself an empire.
Grand Duke	Ruler of a “Grand Duchy” which is not quite as big as a kingdom? General gist of it is that a Grand Duke is not beholden to a kingdom or an empire, and is functionally equal to a King/Queen. Specifically within the fantasy setting, sometimes a Grand Duchy is given to a sibling or spouse of the monarch (who is usually of the emperor/empress rank rather than a king/queen) and swears allegiance to an empire-rank nation. It is therefore a reasonable assumption that a Grand Duke or Duchess is a member of the royal family, and also has a potential claim to the throne. In this specific scenario, the Grand Duchy is passed on to the next applicable sibling/spouse when a new monarch ascends to the throne, and its former holders receive a new title and territory at the discretion of the new monarch.
Petty King	This entry is as petty as it could be, but would you believe, there is a Petty King who is the ruler of a Petty Kingdom, which is functionally a Grand Duchy, and is thus independent from a kingdom or empire.
Principality	A variation of the Grand Duchy, in which the reigning monarch styles themselves as a Prince or Princess and swears allegiance to a King or Queen, though they are not blood related to the King or Queen.
Duke Duchess	Has a Duchy within the kingdom or empire. A Duchy is functionally the largest land division without declaring a separate kingdom, something similar to today’s state borders.
Marquis Marchioness	Has a March. A March is a County that borders another nation, but it is not necessarily part of a Duchy, even though a Marquis is below a Duke in hierarchy and therefore implies it would be part of one.
Count Countess Earl (British)	Has a County, which by default is part of a Duchy. Count is generally the absolute lower bottom limit of “landed gentry” in that the title is tied to the land. Present-day land divisions called “counties” are actually considerably smaller than a County, which is closer to the size of a federal electoral district.
Viscount	Pronounced vai-count (used to be spelled Vice-count). Is not necessarily landed, kind of comes attached to a County as a +1 special offer. If a Viscount is landed, the land they have is a Barony.
Baron Baroness	The absolute bottom line of titled nobility. Sometimes there is a Barony! It is about the size of a local municipality in today’s terms. Which is usually part of a larger County which is part of a Duchy.
Baronet	You wouldn’t believe this, but Barons apparently need Baronets to rule over their Barony.
Knight	A certified soldier who may or may not rule over other soldiers and/or serfs. Serves under nobility, but more commonly under the monarch’s knight corps.  There is a funniness where in some settings, if you become a Knight that serves the royal family, you technically forfeit your right to succeed your household and receive an independent title (and sometimes a new surname).  In others, “Knight” just seems to be a skillset some people randomly acquire, and has no effect on their succession rights.
Knight-errant	A free Knight who roams around the nation looking for employment. The Knights of the Round Table are Knight-errants.
Hedge Knight	Derro Knight-errant, often used as an insult. “Hedge” as a prefix generally means self-taught.
Squire	L-plater who serves under a Knight and racks up hours on his logbook until the Knight certifies them.
Indentured Servant	Indentured Servants are those who have a lifetime contract to serve the nobility.  Functionally, since they have pledged their life (and the associated rights and freedoms) by always standing by their employer, their rank is always below the noble they are serving and somewhat above a commoner, although they do not get to enjoy the rights commoners have.  Anyone can be an indentured servant, and the exact position and rank of the person is different per novel for convenience/ taking some liberties.
Commoner	Exactly what it says on the tin. Commoners have access to “the commons” or “freeholds”, a portion of land only theoretically and nominally owned by the monarch and the nobility. They are free to farm, forage, hunt and otherwise generate income. They have freedom of travel and (relative) freedom to obtain an education and take up whatever profession they desire. In addition to the access to commons, commoners are able to claim and erect their dwellings in uncultivated land and effectively own that plot of land they have claimed.
Serf	Serfs are below commoners. They are farmers who are tied to the land held by gentry, and exist to generate income. As they are tied to the land, they do not have freedom of travel, they do not own the land or the dwelling they live on, and are basically considered chattel. They are also generally illiterate.
Slave	Most romance novel settings find it extremely discomforting to include slaves or make no distinction between serfs and slaves. In these cases, if you work in the fields, you’re a serf, if you work in the castle/manor/house, you’re a slave. Some novels play really fast and loose and place no distinction between indentured servitude and slavery either.

Table 2: Ecclesiastes 

Title	Explanation
The Pope	He wears a funny hat and has balls. Got to the place by rising up within the ranks in the Church and has the ability to declare or excommunicate parts of a “Holy Empire.” The pope functionally stands parallel, or somewhat above to an Emperor, but does not get a direct say in the day to day management of any nation within the “Holy Empire”. The immediate (usually city-state) national borders of the Pope’s residence and sphere of influence is called The Holy See, and sometimes the term The Holy See and The Pope are used interchangeably to mean the same thing. The Pope is implicitly expected to be celibate, though in both real life and novels, illegitimate children of the Pope are a recurring trope.
The Living Saint	This does not actually exist in real life (or to be specific, has not existed in real life for centuries at least) and exists purely in the romance novel genre.  The Living Saint is almost always a woman of uncommon holiness (that may or may not physically manifest as power that can be wielded) and may act as a prophet/conduit to a deity.  The Living Saint’s rank is considered parallel to the Pope, but outside the hierarchy – i.e. you are as a Living Saint and cannot study/scheme/be promoted to the position. Effectively, they seem to exist purely to balance out the fact that The Pope Must Be Always A Man. Sometimes, there is no religious structure or the presence of a Pope, and The Living Saint may functionally be the equivalent of the Pope and demand the same level of respect and deference. It is extremely uncommon in real life for someone to be beatified or canonized during their lifetime, and with the march of modern technology and scientific methods, the criteria for “miracles” became an impossibly high bar such that Sainthood is declared either a very long time after death when peoples’ recollections are fuzzy, or in coded political language (e.g. Mother Theresa).
Cardinal	The highest rank you can get in the Ecclesiastes. Potential Pope-candidates.  Usually is not assigned a defined region to rule over, or if they were promoted from a position where they managed a certain region, by default gives up rule of said region. Cardinals form an advisory council who may or may not be at odds with what the Pope desires, and functionally serve as departmental ministers governing the Holy See, effectively the “upper house”.
Knight of the Holy Order(“Holy Knight”)	These are Knights who serve the Pope as opposed to the King. Their primary function is providing military might to the Pope, being the bodyguards of the Pope (or any member of the Ecclesiastes whom the Pope sees fit to have protection) and providing general security to the Holy See. A Holy Knight may or may not go on to fight a Holy War or a Crusade, but in most settings, sort of go around the land looming above the power of the local feudal lord and generally being a plague upon the land. In settings where supernatural forces exist, Holy Knights may be able to wield a holy power, and are often specially trained in exorcism and extermination of demonic entities. In these settings their primary mission is to go around the world, purging it of demonic entities. Holy Knights also have a weirdness where as they are directly under the Pope’s power and are only answerable to the Pope, even though they are more often than not sourced from outside the Ecclesiastical Orders and are functionally laypeople, equivalent to Ministers.  Short of a military coup, there is no way a Holy Knight becomes a Cardinal or a Pope.
Primate/Exarch/Metropolitan	A Bishop who has a metropolitan city earmarked as a special Archdiocese.
Archbishop	A Bishop who has an Archdiocese. Combined with the Primates, these collectively form “the lower house” in the running of the Holy See, even though the Archdiocese in question is usually not within the boundaries of the Holy See.
Abbot/Abbess	An Abbott/Abbess is the head of an Abbey or a Monastery. An Abbey is a specific type of Monastery, like a square is a type of rectangle, and thus not all Monasteries are Abbeys while every Abbey is a Monastery by default.  Monasteries are where Acolytes are trained to become Monks, and if they so choose, continue to live out their lives there. Monasteries for women are more often called Convents, where novice initiates become Nuns (takes the full vow) or Sisters (takes a simple vow). Occasionally, some monasteries are purpose-built for the raising of Holy Knights, and a Holy Knight raised in such a Monastery is at the very least a Monk or a Sister. In present day real world, monasteries are largely replaced by theology/seminary schools which directly train men and women to become clergy.
Prior/Prioress	Leader of a Priory, which is not-quite-a-monastery. To continue the shape analogy, I suppose you could consider this a parallelogram.
Bishop	Has a Diocese.
Vicar	Has a “Vicariate Forane” and acts as a go-between/middle manager between Priest/Pastors and Bishops.
Priest/Pastor	Has a Parish – i.e. the congregation/following of a single church’s worth.
ClergyMonk/Sister	Is the Knight-errant equivalent of the Ecclesiastes, essentially a Monk, Sister or Holy Knight who has decided to leave their Monastery but has yet to join a particular Order or settle in a particular Parish.
Minister(“Hedge-Priest”)	This is more often than not a layperson who is not appointed by the Church, but due to size/isolation issues of a particular region, performs the role of the Priest/Pastor, much like how in the modern day really rural towns don’t have a clinic, but have a sick bay staffed by some rando with a first aid kit and a CPR certificate. This region, as can be easily surmised, is called a ministry, in the same way the sick bay is not called the clinic.
Acolyte	Usually is an L-plater Monk-in-training. Acolytes are usually chosen for their piety, and in fantasy settings that have the concepts of supernatural forces in general, a capacity for holy powers and/or the ability to use them.

Table 3. The Royal Family

Title	Explanation
Royal Consort	Due to the lack of a proper term for a male who is a consort to a female monarch in English while one exists in Korean, this specifically refers to the male spouse of the female monarch.  The Royal Consort’s actual functional rank is always one step down from a female monarch. If the monarch is an Empress, the consort is a King. If the monarch is a Queen, the consort may be a King, a Prince or Grand Duke.  In settings that allow for polygamy/polyandry, this is used to refer to the official Head Spouse. Rarely, there are multiple official spouses with no hierarchy where everyone is a Royal Consort.
Dowager Empress -or- Royal Dowager	The term “Dowager” refers to the fact that the person’s title is inherited from a (dead) spouse. Functionally, this is the mother, or sometimes the paternal grandmother (!) of the current monarch, who is titled by virtue of their (usually dead) husband. They are officially considered to be “retired” and have little political power within the Royal Court. There is no such thing as a male Dowager because enatic succession has never existed in the Anglosphere, and women tend to outlive men.
Royal Concubine	Refers to any legally married spouse that is not the consort. Is answerable to the Royal Consort. Concubines can sire/bear a legitimate heir who can be in the line of succession and has a claim to the throne. This is not really a correct use of the word “concubine” in normal parlance, but is used here because European feudal succession systems do not allow for polygamy/polyandry and have no titles for lesser spouses of a monarch.
Lover Mistress	These are not officially married to the monarch, and their children cannot be heirs to the throne. Sometimes the monarch marries them off to some Titled Cuck to give them a Title since the position does not come with an official Title.  If any offspring results in this relationship, the children either inherit the Cuck’s title in true epic peak cucking, or the monarch may issue them an independent title as a consolation prize for “sorry I ruined your mother’s life”. In cases of enatic succession from a female monarch, obviously the children are de facto legitimate by virtue of being born from their mother, and there is no galaxy brain levels of cucking involved in giving these offspring legitimate status.
Crown Prince Crown Princess	#1 in the line of succession and pronounced as heir to the throne.  Usually is the oldest child, but some royal households maintain a high-tension state where no Crown Prince or Princess has been announced and every Prince or Princess has to compete for the title. Even in the case of sole royal children, it is very rare that a royal offspring is declared the Crown Prince or Crown Princess from birth, and the moment is saved for either the child’s coming of age or marked by some exceptional feat the child has performed.
Prince Princess	Legitimate child/children of the monarch and potential heirs to the throne. Sometimes illegitimate child/ren are legitimized (usually through the monarch officially acknowledging or declaring their parentage) and get to use this title.

Table 4. Working Structure

The Head The Lord of the Household	In the case of the royal family, this is obviously the ruling Monarch.  In nobility, this is the current holder of the Title. They make the decisions regarding the running of the territory and holdings, announcing events, and generally have the final say or veto power in various matters.
The “Inner” Head  The Lady of the Household	This normally refers to the (head) spouse.  If the Head of the Household is female, there is no “inner head” as either the Head of the Household assumes both roles, or chooses to neglect lesser aspects of the role.  Occasionally, the husband or a male sibling steps up as an Aide or Acting Lord to a limited capacity to allow the female head to attend to their normal duties. In certain extenuating circumstances where the (male) head of the household is unmarried, the Dowager steps in temporarily for this role, and there is a power conflict/struggle when the male marries and a wife enters the picture. The Inner Head’s job is to manage human resources, finances, event planning and catering for the immediate household and any other occasional residences. They also are required to attend High Society, and manage or host any salons, tea parties or other social functions.
Aide Steward	The higher ranked the Head of the Household is, the more Aides they have. Depending the exact role of the Inner Head, the Inner Head may also have one or more Aides.  Aides may or may not have personal offices in addition to a desk in the Head’s office, and are often selected from lesser nobility who do have land of their own to rule, or an exceptionally erudite commoner. In exceptional circumstances or under direct instruction of the Head, an Aide has the power to make certain decisions and act in stead.  Occasionally, Aides are referred in as a sort of apprenticeship/work experience program where the eligible potential heirs of a noble family serve under the head of another noble household. In these situations, Aides have a set contract period.
Secretary	Secretaries support Aides or perform clerical and administrative work, such as transcription, bookkeeping or management of the library. Sometimes Secretary is used interchangeably with Aide or omitted altogether in cases where Aides are expected to work alone.
Lady-in-waiting Maid	A Lady-in-waiting or Maid in service to nobility is from a lesser noble household, and attends to personal duties of the Inner Head including aspects of daily life such as dressing, makeup, arranging for sending of messages or payment of goods and services. If the Inner Head does not have an Aide, the Lady-in-waiting takes the role of the Aide.
Valet	The male equivalent to a Lady-in-waiting, attending to personal duties of the Head. Depending on the novel’s setting, or when the household is simply too small, the Butler pulls double duty as Valet.
Nurse	Nurses by default are a Lady-in-waiting who has been given additional childcare duties. What rank a Nurse holds is normally entirely dependent on the Nurse’s own background. Occasionally commoner or lower nobility Nurses are issued a title in recognition of their services by their employers, or given an effective promotion through wielding influence over the noble/royal child or children they raised.
Captain of Order of Knights Captain of the Guard	This position is usually held by a Knight by default, and in most cases at the very least the personal guards of the Lord and Lady are also Knights.  Due to the limited scope of most romance novels, these positions are interchangeable, or one and the same.
Butler	Head of all male servants. If there is no Housekeeper, the Butler is also simultaneously the Housekeeper.  Due to the head servant of various household departments being male by default, the Butler also incidentally is in direct charge of the kitchen, garden and the stables.
Housekeeper	Head of all female servants.In most cases, the Housekeeper is also in direct charge of the scullery and laundry, and accordingly all the cleaning duties.
Servants	Footmen, [xxx]maid, grooms and stablehands all go here.