Guild Wars 2

I have been wondering for sometime now what the ruling system is in Kryta.
They have an Queen, nobles, knights( I think) and Peasants.
So I was wondering if they used the Feudel System or an adpted version of it?
Could somebody tell me about this what kind of system they use?

Fundamentally, its a slightly adapted version of the Feudal System. Its quite similar to a lot of European ruling systems in the sense that they have a parliament. and like any European-style government, it is a total mess.

There is a body called the Krytan Ministry (basically, a parliament) which designs laws, and those get put forward to the Queen, then she approves or rejects them. From what I understand of it, only people who own land are permitted to become Ministers. Like any parliament, a lot of shady activities go on. Attempts to discredit each other, “conspiracies”, etc.

There aren’t as such “knights” in Krytan society, but they do have various armies which protect certain parts of society.
Seraph – Akin to a police force or standard army. Lead by Captains, which each captain overseeing operations in a particular part of Kryta.
Ministry Guard – Basically Ministry member’s personal bodyguards. They hold more power than Seraph, but only when Ministry members are involved.
Shining Blade – The Queen’s personal elite guard.

Then theres just general citizens and peasants, etc. Merchants, traders, craftsmen, etc.

In-between the Queen and the Ministry it could be seen that theres an extra “rank” occupied by Lord Beetlestone, the current head of the Krytan Ministry, who liaises with the Queen regarding Ministry matters.

If there had to be a specific hierarchy, it would probably be
Queen → Legate Minister → Ministry → Nobles → Ministry Guard → Seraph → Peasants.

I might be missing a few bits and pieces. Theres a lot of “one-off” roles in Kryta, like the Commander of Divinity’s Reach, who is the head of the Ministry Guard, and the Master Exemplar, who is the head of the Shining Blade.

It’s a postfeudal parliament-limited monarchy.

Feudalism is fundamentally based on each noble having their own soldiers, which they contribute to the armed forces of the nation when required by the monarch. This was phased out around the time of the transition from medieval to early modern times in favour of nobles paying taxes to pay for the raising of a central military force in lieu of showing up to war themselves (although nobles could usually secure high-ranking positions in the military for themselves if they did choose to join the army). This is what we see in Kryta: we don’t see a bunch of individual forces each loyal to a single noble, but three national military orders – the Seraph and Shining Blade answering to the queen, and the Ministry Guard answering to the Legate Minister. Strictly speaking, too, only one of these is actually supposed to be the military (the Seraph), while the other two are intended for more specialised duties – however, the Ministry Guard has been pushing its mandate for political reasons.

The knight class seems to have basically disappeared – it’s recognised as something that existed and possibly as an ideal to look up to, but I don’t recall off the top of my head any modern Krytan being referred to as a knight (that seems to be something the sylvari go for now). Nobles have transitioned into aristocrats – their power is centered on having ownership of the land and having control over the nations politics (or, at least, substantially more influence than the lower classes) – while I don’t think it’s explicitly stated anywhere, for instance, I don’t recall off the top of my head any examples of ministers who aren’t also nobles. (The Ministry Guard could be said to be knights, since they appear not to allow commoners into their ranks, but I don’t think the term is ever actually used.) It’s also possible that while the military is formally all included in one of the three orders, individual units may be loyal to a particular noble over their theoretical chain of command (I’ve seen indications of this being the case with the Ministry Guard, for instance.)

Which moves us into politics. Strictly speaking, the monarch is sovereign, but their power is limited by the Ministry. The interrelationship between the Crown and the Ministry is probably similar to that between the President and Congress (the Founding Fathers of the US basically gave the President the powers that were typical of kings at the time: an elected, limited-term monarch was pretty much exactly what they were going for) – the monarch can set foreign policy, act as commander in chief of the military, propose legislation, and so on, but any new legislation (including taxes) needs to go through the Ministry. Likewise, Ministers can propose legislation, but legislation that gets passed by the Ministry can still be vetoed by the crown.

In some ways, in fact, some of Kryta’s problems can be seen as a fantasy analogue of when a president is facing a hostile Congress looking for an excuse to block supply bills: the most powerful faction in the Ministry appears to be Caudecus’, who is trying to remove the queen from power.

This might give you some more information, although it’s an out-of-game prerelease source and thus some of it might have been retconned.

Argon.1563:

Fundamentally, its a slightly adapted version of the Feudal System.

Feudalism, like draxynnic said, is based on nobles ruling their own land and having their own soldiers. There was even an interview on Wartower where Angel McCoy confirmed this has been abolished in Kryta, eventhough she said it in very simplistic way – “the land-owning part has gone away” or something like that.

Some people call Kryta a constitutional monarchy, but I think that doesn’t truly apply, since the Crown can still overrule everything the Ministry does. So the term used by draxynnic is propably the best.

Argon.1563:

If there had to be a specific hierarchy, it would probably be
Queen -> Legate Minister -> Ministry -> Nobles -> Ministry Guard -> Seraph -> Peasants.

A linear hierarchy cannot apply to the Krytan ruling system. For example, the Ministry Guard is not in a higher position than the Seraph (eventhough they themselves would say so). They are simply responsible for a more exclusive job. In fact, most of the time in the Personal Story, they are clearly overruled by the Seraph.

draxynnic.3719:

(The Ministry Guard could be said to be knights, since they appear not to allow commoners into their ranks, but I don’t think the term is ever actually used.)

That was stated early on, but since Marjory served in the Ministry Guard and is a commoner, that’s not entirely true anymore. Perhaps it is realistic to say that they rarely allow commoners into their ranks, that there are some exceptions from time to time.

draxynnic.3719:

The interrelationship between the Crown and the Ministry is probably similar to that between the President and Congress (the Founding Fathers of the US basically gave the President the powers that were typical of kings at the time: an elected, limited-term monarch was pretty much exactly what they were going for)

Aside from the actual point you make, I think this is a bad comparison, since the Krytan monarchy is based on being inhabited by a descendant of King Doric – which means, being from a bloodline that was chosen by the gods themselves.

Argon.1563:

From what I understand of it, only people who own land are permitted to become Ministers.

Nope.

Argon.1563:

If there had to be a specific hierarchy, it would probably be
Queen -> Legate Minister -> Ministry -> Nobles -> Ministry Guard -> Seraph -> Peasants.

Ministry Guard are just bodyguards hired by the Ministers. They aren’t a rank and, like the Seraph, can be filled with nobles or commoners.

Ministers aren’t really determined by any ranking either, as shown by Minister Rachel who states that yes, even poor people can become ministers. The main thing to become a minister is to be elected by the locals – which typically means the more charismatic or the more bribery/blackmailing-throwing ones get elected.

So really all it is would be: Queen -> Nobles (of various rankings including baron, count, and simply lord) -> Commoners