Talk:Noble Ranks/@comment-130.105.235.247-20200604194843

1.) The closest real-world equivalent to untitled nobles (i.e. non-heir offspring of noble families) in this universe could be the Austrian/Prussian "Junker" and the German "Edler", both of which also use the nobiliary particle "von". Erwin and Wendelin (prior to being awarded with his titles) were both in this category.

A knight/baronet would likely be "Ritter". This way, it would've been relatively easy for nobles to differentiate branch families from each other, based on their titles alone.

Ex.: Hermann ritter von Benno Baumeister (knight/baronet branch), Wendelin graf von Benno Baumeister (count or earl branch)

2.) Also, it appears that branch/cadet families in-universe sometimes append the branch founder's name to their family name to further emphasize their branch family status as separate from the main house. From this, we can deduce that the ancestor of the southern Baumeister knights (von Benno Baumeister) was likely named Benno.

Another way of branch/cadet family differentiation could be hyphenation, such as "von Benno Baumeister-Mainbach" (Oskar and Karl's future branch) and "von Benno Baumeister-Weigel" (Kaien's future branch).

3.) Wendelin's count/earl ("graf") title is rather intriguing. He possesses territorial size and political clout equivalent to a landgrave ("landgraf") despite being a vassal of House Breithilde, said land being situated at the southernmost border of the kingdom similar to a margrave's ("markgraf") and has terrain features which would be appropriate for a wildgrave ("wildgraf"; untamed forested areas) or a raugrave ("raugraf"; unexplored mountainous areas), owns a formerly haunted prince's palace in the capital worthy of a palsgrave/count palatine ("pfalzgraf"), and holds a count/earl title of imperial immediacy ("reichsgraf") in the Holy Urqhart Empire.

Exactly which kind of count he is would be anyone's guess.

4.) The Holy Urqhart Empire appears to be loosely based on the Holy Roman Empire. Hence, the high earls of Mizuho - prior to their elevation to dukes ("herzogen") and prince-electors "kurfürsten") - would've been roughly equivalent to princely counts ("gefürsteter grafen").