The Kingdom of Faltur has a rich history of noble rule, with a group of noble houses who ultimately hold most of the land and power. Sitting above all of these is the ruling family Falss, with the current monarch Queen Alyssa IV at its head. Faltur is the oldest of the three nations that form Falgarias, but it is currently only about as large as Gari. Whilst many of the nobility like to think they are still in the days of its former glory, the nation shrunk significantly as a result of the Falss family being deposed and subsequently reinstated in a series of political manoeuvres.
Virtually everybody in Faltur ultimately owes their allegiance to one of the main noble houses: Falss, Elendia, Targana and Asha. They may not directly serve a family, but each person will typically work for somebody who works for somebody else, and so on, with the noble houses at the top of the hierarchy. Those close to the families in the hierarchy may well know the complete chain between themselves and their noble patrons, but further down the chain it is common not to. It is a mark of pride to know one's own full chain, because it means both sufficient knowledge of the political situation and generally being high enough in the hierarchy for it to be feasible to know.
In public they wear a crest with the emblem of the house they ultimately serve, with a level of detail roughly in keeping with how close to their family they are in the hierarchy. Members of the families tend to be emblazoned with detailed illustrations of the animals that represent their birthright, whilst minor servants will wear a form so simplified as to be a simple shape.
The emblems of the houses are:
There are also those who wear a blank crest - to those loyal to the houses this is weird and subversive, as it is a definitive statement of having no master and being proud to display this. They will generally be wary of such people.
Perhaps it turns out that this is for good reason, as behind closed doors there are those who murmur of revolution and the common folk rising up against the nobility, many of them originally servants of noble bloodlines that have died out, such as the Lune family that briefly managed to depose Falss from rule in the past.
Those within Faltur who do not display crests are presumed criminals and reprobates, unless they are obviously diplomats of another nation by virtue of their dress and company.
For those not fortunate enough to have been born into or married into one of of the noble families life is not completely terrible, as with allies so close by it is not difficult for those who wish it to find a new home where they have better prospects, which has prevented the upper classes from becoming too despotic, though there are rumours that there are those in the families who take a more fear-based approach towards keeping their servants from defecting to one of the other parts of Falgarias.
Outsider Description: Horrible inbred social pyramid
The people of Faltur are almost exclusively Human, save a few of the other Genera who may be seen around, usually among the lower classes. Non-Human nobles from other nations do have a place there in diplomatic roles, however.
People of Faltur have a first name, after which they are identified with the first names of the people they work for, and the people they work for, and so on, forming a chain of names with the head of the noble house at the top, concluding with “of House Elendia” or such to identify the house.
As an exception the heads of the families which are not Falss have Alyssa, the name of the current Queen, after their first name, followed by their own house identifier.
In practice, most people never use more than about three of their names, even if they can remember beyond that.
Examples:
Faltur is a monarchy, with everybody ultimately falling under the rule of the current Queen, Alyssa Falss IV.
There are only two crimes in Faltur:
Punishment tends not to be particularly harsh within a given family’s estate since at every step of the chain people would rather things not get escalated to their seniors/superiors, which causing significant damage to any part of the noble’s estate, including its workers, would tend to do.
Actions of any of a Noble’s household are the responsibility of the head of household. Thus actions between households are the responsibility of the head of household to make amends between households and ensure that the household does not repeat the mistake.
Those who do not belong to a household have a generally very tenuous position with essentially no legal protection as acting against them does not wrong anyone.
Those who call for revolution enforce their own code of virtue ethics and trial by ordeal. Action or inaction is irrelevant, guilt or innocence is irrelevant, what matters is whether you have a true spirit burning within should anyone call your qualities to question.
Religion in Faltur is generally part of the order of state as opposed to being its own thing. People usually attend sermons merely as part of their typical set of duties. The Queen is nominally the head of the church, which is about following the Way of Principles, a set of relatively abstract things which are worshipped as gods. If there were once more personified divine entities that were the basis of such worship they have been forgotten, and yet the blessings of gods can still fall on the devoted as with any other god.
Church buildings typically have separate wings for the three Principles, with that dedicated to the Principle of Lineage often being larger and more prominent. The Way of Principles as a whole is often represented with a trefoil knot.