Nobility, and Power Systems

(This chapter is optional)

The nobility ranks in this world is stolen from the European nobility system.

The ranks of the nobility system of this world are as followed: King (not actually included), Duke/Prince, Marquise, Count, Viscount, and Baron. The responcibilities and duties of each nobility rank will be shown from highest to lowest. Starting with the king who manages the entire kingdom, wages wars, signs treaties, and directs the entire kingdoms direction of development.

Below him are the Dukes and Princes, the kingdom is divided between them, and they manage their part of the kingdom under the kings authority, and enforce his will.

Under these Dukes and Princes is the Marquise. The status of Marquise is not directly involved with land it's management of people, instead their power lies in politics, legistration, and influence within the royal courts. They are mostly held up in the capitol city.

Then there is the count. They are usually appointed over a section of land covering a city and a few towns to manage. In a few lcases they are appointed as aids directly under a marquise in the royal court.

Viscounts on the other hand are restricted to the towns within a counts authority, their sway is usually decided upon the town they are placed over. If their town is positioned in a strategic location with resources it reflects the favor they have in their local count's eyes. While if the town they preside over is a barren land with little resources to profit off of, it indicates the tension between them and the count.

Placed below the Viscount are barons, the starting place of many noble families. A place of status, with little to no responsibilities. Baron's position within the nobility system is at the bottom besides the non-nobles. There is little difference between a Baron and a very wealthy family in terms of responsibility, but the benefits provided to nobles were enough to make the non-nobles covet nobility even more.

Nobility was not the only way to power, prestige, and glory. Infact, it wasn't even considered a viable path without superhuman personal power, influence, wealth, and wits.

War is a very dangerous event, and a well trained warrior was nothing in the face of it. In this world though, there are existences that don't fear war. That is because of the power system this world follows.

Every child that teaches the age of 7 awakens a trait that impacts their future. There are four types of traits, universal, combative, supportive, and survival traits. There are also four grades assigned to these traits, they are: common, rare, unique, and legendary grade. The grading system did not completely hint at the power of said trait. Instead they estimated the possible usefulness of a trait. There were useless rare traits, while some common traits can even compete with unique traits. But never was there ever a legendary trait at the same level or worse than a common trait. All in all, the grading system for traits only roughly estimates the potential power or effect your trait may, or, sadly, may not have.

Traits only provided extra incentive to a particular craft, art, or profession it effects. Training in what ever path the individual chooses in the future, (partially influenced by their trait), was still needed. But no matter which path they choose, learning to harness, manipulate, and utilize the power of aura was an absolute must. Whether it was for being a lumberjack, a combatant, a ranger, or even just thinking, aura for those lucky enough to gain access to it, was a must. Just having aura gave a minor boost to all the bodily functions. It naturally increased ones strength, flexibility, speed, reaction speed, thinking speed, brain processing power, healing, stamina recovery and much, MUCH more.

Mysteriously aura only appears in a person after their awakening. Before that, the presence of aura is null. The amount of aura a person starts off with after awakening is a good indicator of their potential. So, what even is aura? Aura is a mysterious fabric like energy, like paper strips in shape, but incorporeal, aka untouchable at low levels atleast. Considering a high amount of aura can be felt, and an inhuman amount can be solid, it's better classified as semi-incorporeal. This energy covers your body and seeps into it, and slowly strengthens it. Any part of the body it is applied to is enhanced. Whether that be the brain, heart, your muscles, bones, skin, and more, their functions are enhanced. But that is not all it is useful for, like any other energy it can harnessed, manipulated, and utilized.

Those who can utilize aura actively for combat are called aura users, if it is unknown what they specialize in. Combat ranks are divided into 5 ranks: Warrior, Knight, Royal/magic Knight, Warlord, and War-King. They are separated by their effective threat level they present. The deciding factor that indicates someone is at a certain level, is usually their ability to control aura.

At the warrior level, they only hold a somewhat decent amount of aura. Their ability to use it is very crude and inefficient augmentation of their bodies to boost power, and speed. The augmentations they use come at the drawback of straining the limb it is applied to.

A knight is someone who attains a decent level of mastery in aura manipulation. Their augmentations are still basic, only enhancing their bodies functions, like strength, speed, senses, defence, and other aspects. At this level they have a decent control of their aura augments and can perform a certain level of augmentation without straining their bodies. On the flip side, they can put far more aura into their augmentations to perform extreme moves The cost? Their ability to use the part of their body they augmented.

Royal/Magic Knights can do what Knights can do, but passively, and at a much higher level. Their bodies are being augmented even while delivering a big one while sitting on the toilet!! At this level the combatant starts to gain access to a superior way of utilizing aura. They learn about aura charateristic change. Aura is infact malleable, and can be shaped into different things. The problem is first the quantity available then the ability to manipulate it successfully. Charateristics aura can have changed is whether it is solid or not. You can also give it cutting power. You can turn it into fire, or electricity with special techniques. This is where the separation of titles to Royal and Magic Knights comes from. A royal knight changes an aspect of aura, creating sharpness, heaviness, or toughness, things like that. While a magic Knight would take things even further, creating the elements with aura, or other special effects.

Warlords are a different breed of existence all together. A Warlord is a royal/magic Knight that has mastered aura charateristic change. They can even develop it to a different level entirely. This level of aura manipulation is called aura domain. It is where the chosen aura charateristic of the warlord is applied in a big sphere to their surroundings. If anything is caught in the area influenced by a domain, not only will the warlord be instantly alerted but the intruder will be greatly suppressed by the domain.

Lastly, is the War-King rank. Not much is known about this rank, it is only speculated that certain legends found in this world's history have reached this rank before. This level of power though, is historically only found in times when humanity is at risk of being exterminated. The significance of someone with the potential of becoming a warking is not small. Instead they are a sign of destruction, a beacon of hope for survival, and the last line of defence for humanity.