Swynfaredian Ceremonial Titles
Besides titles that come with land, the royal family loves to bestow their allies with flashy titles and the lesser nobles follow suit bestowing colorful titles on their trusted retainers.
Swynfaredian sorcerers collect titles like jewelry and display them proudly. They love to be announced with their full titles and they often wear iconography to display their various title which means a savvy person can guess a Swynfaredian noble’s magical aptitude by studying his/her clothes.
Execution
Most of these title involve dragons. If a sorceress’ official job is to magically blast enemies of the royal family with Invocation spells, her title might hypothetically be “Gwendoline of Numaness, the Dragon’s Breath.” A sorcerer who provides magical Scrying on behalf of the king might have the title “The Dragon’s Eye.” A sorcerer who focuses on mobility spells could have the title “The Dragon’s Wing.” You get the idea. A powerful sorcerer or sorceress that can cast lots of varied and powerful spells could conceivably have six or seven such lofty titles.
This provides an avenue for social advancement for sorcerers of lowly birth. Even if a sorcerer of lowly birth will never have a title that comes with land, he can wield a lot of influence by gaining these titles. Officially these servants to the king (or duke or count) are called thurekal, after the ancient title from the The First Age though many view “sorcerous retainer” as a more polite term than thurekal since some scholars believe "thurekal" is loaded with implications of social class and caste.
Participants
Mostly sorcerers, both high born and low born are the ones who qualify for dragon based title names. It is not forbidden for nobles to give their non-sorcerous retainers such titles and some lower ranking nobles do give out such titles but the upper echelons of society rarely take these people seriously.
Most sorcerers seeking holding colorful titles are either second or third nobles who are not eligible to own land or sorcerers who are not legally recognized as being "true dragon bloods."
However, there is no rule or custom prohibiting a landed noble from also being a sorcerous retainer. In fact many lords and ladies seek out these titles in addition to their hereditary titles as they are great status symbols. It is easily possible for a duke or count to have lofty dragon based titles in the king's court while independently managing their own fiefdom. The few sorcerers who have both hereditary land titles and prestigious royal appointments are among the most influential men and women in Swynfaredia.
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