Ennoblement Backlash
Posted by Apostate on 01/06/18
The Peerage of Arvum is generally progressive since Alarice's day, but one place where they decidedly are not is in admitting new members to the peerage. There is a degree of classism that will never go away, and one just doesn't ennoble individuals without exceedingly good reasons. Anyone of commoner blood marrying into the nobility is seen by the vast majority of the peerage as an attack upon the class system that has defined Arvum for the past thousand years, and reactions vary from mild disdain, to concern of cheapening noble title, to sputtering outrage and talk about how things were done differently in Their Day or how they just can't understand what those Darkwaters are thinking, tut tut. It doesn't help that Lady Carita herself was commoner born, she married into the Darkwaters in a scandal, was allowed to keep her title after divorce (tut tut), and is now herself ennobling another commoner through adoption which is immeasurably worse (so many tuts). Countess Venta is assumed to have approved of this completely, as one does with Voices, so the most gracious imagine that Lord Inquisitor Halsim Darkwater performed some secret acts in the shadow of night for the Inquisition that certainly saved Darkwater, nay, the entire Compact, but most are nowhere near as gracious. They see this as a worrying trend, and their opinion is clear- ennoble any more commoners at your own peril, and there's a backlash against everyone that's been ennobled since the time of the King's Rest. It's been festering for some time. Joslyn for the Stonewoods, Talen into Velenosa, Audric and Silas winning their baronies, Rook being granted a title, Alistair on his engagement to Velenosa, Edward for denoblement and reennoblement, Mikani into the Redreefs, and all their sponsors.