Hierarchy 1

"With that finished, I believe it is time for lunch." The Scholar moved to offer Diana help out of her chair, which she accepted.

This wasn't flirtatious, nor was it necessary, but it definitely wasn't theater as much as Diana wanted to call it that. This was how a distinguished lady was expected to act, part of her training.

So long as she was the highest ranking female guest present, she could expect to be help out of her seat by the host or otherwise highest ranking gentleman in the absence of her partner.

She didn't like it, she didn't want to do it, and it took effort to get used to, but it was a diplomatic necessity. It would not do to hurt someone's honor and reputation because it would be more efficient to get up herself.

"Do you have any questions Lady Diana?" Despite the differences in their facial structure, the expressions of all humanoids seemed to be roughly the same. slightly raised eyebrows and eye contact indicated attention and sincere intent.

"I was wondering if you had found a rough equivalency to the names of the ranks of the social ranking system your society uses. I believe we touched on the subject two days ago?" This was a pressing subject for her, the sooner she learned etiquette regarding this, the earlier she could stat hammering it into Don's brain.

"I do believe I have. If you don't mind, could we talk about it along the way? I am feeling quite peckish." He gestured toward the open doorway, not that there were any doors on this ship.

"I have no qualms." She exited first, proper procedure.

"Excellent. Now if you have no objections, I would like to start from the most prominent positions. Is that alright with you?"

"It is indeed." Diana let him pass ahead of her. In a situation like this the host or host's servant should lead, even if a guest know the way.

"Very well. The top rank I believe we have an equivalent to is Emperor, though what differentiates between them and Kings is hard for me to tell. I suppose High Kings are also a good name for them, but for the sake of simplicity you should consider them to be the same rank. Once you get a taste of the outside world you will be able to tell the pecking order between them.

Princes, princesses, dowagers, and crown positions fall roughly into the same position, but obviously lower in status than those before.

After that is the ducal tier I believe, what with Archdukes and such. Until you attain a level of status socially, I would recommend a degree of deference towards them, and even the Marquis' to a degree. Once again the comparison's aren't exact, so you may find that one of these tiers simply doesn't exist in some empires. The tier of Marquis is below that of Duke.

Earls are below them, best thought of as the administrators of individual planets though that is not always the case.

Below them are... Counts? Viscounts? One of those two, and the other is below that. The higher one is in control of larger land-masses like continents while the lower take on smaller areas like islands.

Then barons are in charge of areas of land about the size of one of those smaller countries you showed me, lords in charge of their provinces, and knights in charge of individual cities.

I think that works as a general guide."

As much as Diana wanted to record an audio log of that, she knew it wouldn't help. She tried it before, but all that played back was gibberish. She had to commit it to memory or write it all down.

Fortunately, tablets could be used while walking, and she could type fast.

"Do the Marquis equivalents ever serve under Duke's or do they tend to be independent." He was a little vague on the subject.

"It is hard to say. That area of status seems to be a little murky, so it might be better if you just thought of all of them as a single rank and just observed their status in relation to each other." The Scholar could only shrug at this fact. There were going to be societal differences, all they could do was cope with them. "As for the sanctum, I think the closest equivalent would be a Papal State."

"A religious entity?" If the Great Csillacra were as big a spiritual symbol as people claimed that would make sense.

"Something approaching that. None ever had the chance to manifest themselves in your world, but gods are among our number. I think our definitions of divinity might differ, and they don't have religions attached to them, but that title fits them perfectly. They really aren't so much paragons of certain categories as they are long lived individuals of supreme talent."

Then how were they the same as gods? The gods Diana knew of (with the exception of the capital g God of the Adamic faiths) were pretty much universally defined as almost immortal with complete control of their 'element'. They tended to be worshipped as well.

"What is the difference?"

"I was planning to explain it over lunch to both you and Donovan. I would like to avoid any misunderstandings in your understanding of them, so I will explain them then." The Scholar let her pass in front of him into the cafeteria. "The Captain thinks it is about time for him to be included in our afternoon lectures. Apparently he is getting to the point where we can afford to relax a bit on the technique in order to teach him what he needs to know."

"Is that so? Can I expect to be reviewing some of the material we covered earlier?"

"Some of it, yes. I take it you have been relaying the most important information to him?"

"I have, though I don't know if he remembers all of it. He was always exhausted when I went over it with him."

"No matter, there is still plenty of time. here they are now."