Hail to Nobles and Gentles All!
I have read several times discussions of bad nobles, and while this question was posted at home over the winter, I would like to open it to a wider audience. In this, I would ask that all nobles and gentles keep their commentaries positive or to themselves, as ideals to which people may be held are best expressed in positive terms.
I recently have gathered together several treatises on various aspects of courtesy, social structure and chivalry. Having in that manner gained something of a background on overarching social customs of interaction, I would like to put the question of nobility to those who live as nobles and commoners, for their varying and valued perspectives.
More succintly, nobles and gentles all: What does nobility mean to you?
Is it title? Action? Intent? Philosophy? What makes a person of title truly "noble"?

Safe travels to you all throughout the summer.

~Dame Serranna~
Order of the Silver Quill (Izendorn)

Noble is a quality not an individual. Since the Gaje have decided to make it a title as well, that title should only be bestowed upon those that exhibit Nobility not when people are watching, but when no one is watching.
I have met few that met the measure.

Without the quality of Nobility a Noble gets only my disdain and occasionally my blade, never my respect or fealty.

Michael Drago

They may be in charge of a particular area, but they are not always the strongest. I have met many a weak one. Many times it is a matter of favoritism that they are put in their positions. Sometimes it is political to satisfy a neighboring ally or even enemy.

May your way be unhindered,

Castel Ba'nat

Nobles are just as tasty with ketchup as anyone else.

Some nobles are very helpful, overall. Others are not. I have been a noble -- it just kind of happened -- I kept getting asked, and, sure, being at the top of the heap seemed much nicer than being at the bottom.

In an case, all nobles, from Emperors on down, rule at the point of a sword. They're the nobles because they have the power to claim the title. That's it. Nobles watch out for each other because the strength of their position comes in numbers. If nobles let the authority of one noble be undermined, that weakens them all.

Is this a bad thing? Not at all. All rule comes ultimately at swordpoint. All you ever get a choice of is who holds the sword. I have never heard of a ruler who had the unanimous consent or support of his people -- sooner or later the ruler must make unpopular decisions, and force is required to enforce them. In land where Necromancy is illegal, certainly the rulers do not have the support of the Necromancers, but what gave the rulers the right to persecute Necromancers? In Stonegate, creating golems is illegal. What gave the late King Balladan the right to impose this odd phobia of his on perfectly well-meaning wizards across his kingdom? Power, might, that is what gave him the right. To enforce order requires power and the will to use it.

Certaintly many nobles have good intentions and try to make life better for the people they rule, but in the end, they are using their power to enforce their intentions and their ideas of what is "good for the people" and people and things that the nobles decide are not "good for the people" will not fare well if they oppose them.

When a noble so angers the people that he causes the people to rise up, or causes fellow nobles to take him down (because allowing him to continue to outrage the people weakens their own positions), then we get to change who holds the sword. If we are very lucky, the new noble will hold us more lightly to the sword than the old noble. But we are still under his sword.

That is the way of life. Nobles don't have a responsibility to be kind, compassionate or selfless to any more extent than it is required for them to maintain power. Fear and love work equally well for holding power. And subjects' love is arguably a more fickle, less reliable thing than their fear. You don't deserve any more in life than you are willing to fight for.

I know some people I'd like to sugar over and puff full of tasty cream filling.

... wait, there were entirely too many entendres there. Think dessert food, not ... anything else.

Thing

Look, I haven't been adventuring very long, but so far I've observed this.

I've gotten way more accomplished with a warm smile, a hug, sharing what I have with those who need it, and a hand reached out in friendship than I ever have swinging KB around.

Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, but that's how my mum and the Great Old Guy taught me to do it, so that's good enough for me.

Perego "Mordan" Kibosh

PS. Also, note. If anyone, noble or otherwise, has a problem with me, see me in the streets next Market day and we'll face each other like men. You can prove how powerful you are, which I'm sure will make you feel much better about your life, and I can get back to having fun.

Till then, may your roads be sunny and straight.

Perego, can I face you in the street like a man? Will there be full frontal hugging? I'm excited. Afterward, we'll have food. You can have pie and I'll have live chickens and it will be a party! I should be at the next Vargus gathering. See you there, maybe!

Thing

Who grants titles of nobility? Other nobles. Ideals are nice, but I have to live in the real world, where expecting nobility of spirit in anyone in particular, titled or not, is a well-worn path to disillusionment.

Thing

Nobility:
I was born to a land where the concept of nobility was a childs tale from dark days best left forgotten. Of course such were the tales of war, undeath, and most all the horrors all here know all to well. This is a different world than that of my birth. Still, it gives me a different point of view.

Nobility...it is title. Title is position, position has benefits and reponsibilities. benefits can be misused. Responsibilities can be neglected. What amount of either of these actions takes place is governed in each individual by their character and the effects of shortcommings can only be mitigated by peers, superiors, and in the extreme by rebellion...though this is always tricky and not always so righteous as the rebellious would have you beleive.

Nobility...it is an ideal. Ideals are hard to pin down with words. It is a selfless service, it is a sense of duty, driven by honor, nurtured by love, tempered by compassion and guided by Wisdom. When it is present in full it needs no title, its is what it is, and in the best case the person who bears the title lives the ideal well enough to justify the trust inherent in the position before and without the position at all. The ideal of nobility is a fragile thing, and it is akin to a perfection of moral and physcial strength and insight that is so impossible to grasp ahold of many are cut quick by the razors edge upon which it lies.

It is true that all Nobles will make mistakes. Does this affect their ability to exude the ideal? Hardly. It matters not that they are perfect in the fact of descision, but that they are able to accept their shortcommings and attempt to better themselves. Yet there are hard decisions to be made at times, these are hardly ever popular. So yes, people will become mad at any noble who holds title long enough. That does not invalidate a persons nobility.

As much as a noble, as a protector and a soldier must weild a "sword" it does not mean they need hold its point to their peoples throat. I have seen better than that. If any here have not then I am saddened for you, but it changes not the truth of things.

Wildcard

A title of nobility should be granted by the people to one they believe can help improve their life and wellbeing by establishing order and protection. The one who is granted the privilege to be a noble should act on a standard to protect the people. They should do their best to make peace and end fighting that could endanger someone under their protection. They are to hold themselves to the laws of the land just as anyone else. If you rule out of fear, than you rule a hollow land. If you rule out of respect than you have done your job. The point is to protect the people, not control them. That is the duty of a noble in my eyes.

---

Tapen Mallen, Follower of Life
"Mercy is a value too commonly forgotten."