From: Raymond E. Feist
Date: 15 January 1997
Well, that's open to some interpretation. I've agreed with Steve that a large part of what shaped the current game is stuff I've been detailing in my books, which is to say Magician started back in the days when the Kingdom didn't have a very large standing army, while by the end of the Serpentwar, we're seeing the start of the current tradition, of there being a very large standing army, especially in the west.
So, while making it up as I go, I've made the following decisions:
If the word "Knight" is used in a rank, it indicates the King's army, not the local Duke's, Barons, etc.
Now, Borric was Duke of Crydee, and also Kinght-Marshal of the West. Two ranks.
In a Duchy, you have Earls (and Countesses) reporting to their Dukes, and Barons reporting to their Earls and Dukes. Then you've got landed Squires.
In court you've got the King, Princes, Dukes, Counts/Earls (I may be misremembering the Counts), Barons, Baronnets, and Siegures (proncounced "senior" and literally meaning "Sir,") the lowest noble court rank.
In the military you have soldiers, corporals, sergeants, sergeant-majors, lieutenants, captains, generals, and marshals.
In a garrison, you probably don't have sergeant-majors, and no officer above Captain. You'll have HorseMaster (who runs the noble's cavalry), and Swordmaster (who is basically the nobel's military executive officer, and is in charge of training). A Huntmaster may work with archers, but he's not part of the military command).
Also, titles can be mixed, so you can have a Knight-lieutenant who's also a Barron. He runs his own garrison, but in the King's army he's just in the 1st rank of officers. (If that's not too confusing).
Then there are offices, like Warden of the West, Knight-Marshal of the Armies of the East, Warden of the Southern Marches, etc.
Outside of this are the Border Barons who report directly to the King. They're neither regular army or landed nobles, but rather they are garrisons on permanent assignment.
That's pretty much as much as I can recall off the top of my head.
Best, R.E.F.
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