Can you tell us a little more about the nobility in Kryta? How important it is? For example, does something like Knighthood exist in Kryta?
Angel McCoy: I think the nobility is extremely important for Kryta. They’re basically the rulers; the king or queen, depending on who happens to be in charge at the moment, is the decision-making head of the entire nation.
Scott McGough: And then there’s the larger, deliberative body – at least in modern times – the Ministry, and that’s comprised almost entirely of nobles; lords and ladies, people who have rank and station within the Krytan society. They are also the decision makers. They’re not as powerful individually as the king or queen is, but they have a huge hand in shaping how Kryta operates, how Kryta goes forward and how Kryta interacts with other nations and its own people. So yes, the nobility has always been very important to Kryta. In past times the king or queen was the governmental, military and almost spiritual leader of the nation. Now that burden is shared more between Queen Jennah and the Ministry, but they are nobles and the nobles are still the first line of defense I should say when something arises, when a decision needs to be made.
So you need to be of nobility if you want to enter into the Ministry? Do you have to be born noble or is it possible to get ennobled in modern Kryta? Does Queen Jennah rise someone to Knighthood?
Scott McGough: Yes. And people can be ennobled, that’s a thing. Certainly the Queen can raise a common citizen up to the rank of nobility, give that citizen a title as a reward for their good service to the country or for something else. You can be made a noble, you can be ennobled but for the most part the older and richer families are the ones that are most established and the ones that are most plugged in to the channels of power.
There are different ranks of nobility, is it of any importance whether you are of high nobility or low nobility with which ranks you have in the Ministry? Does that play any role or is it dependent on your own abilities?
Angel McCoy: There’s undoubtedly some ranking in the Ministry, as well as in the nobility. The whole structure is set up as a kind of power hierarchy, however we haven’t delineated exactly what those ranks are. For the nobility we tend to follow a typical feudal model and knights, for the record, are pretty much our Seraph. The Seraph are the knights of Kryta. You don’t have to be noble to be a Seraph. You can be a commoner you can even be someone from the streets.
Scott McGough: The Seraph is much more of a police force/military organisation, where you advance based on your merit and how you perform. Logan attained his rank of Captain through his performance as a soldier. Logan is Captain of the Seraph, and if he became a lord he would be eligible for the Ministry. Speaking of ranks and titles, we saw in the personal story step the trial of Minister Julius Zamon we saw there are barons, there are lords and ladies. I think that the different titles in modern Tyria are kind of a carry-over from the old days, when there was more of a feudal system and a Baron was more in control of a larger share of land and then reported up to the King who was above him, or the Queen. Where as a Lord is simply someone who has the property their family owns, and the assets their family owns. Back in older times, perhaps King Thorn’s day, a baron would actually collect taxes on a larger plot of land in an entire region as opposed to a single acreage. So the different ranks these days aren’t as important, practically speaking, but then again that’s more of a carry-over from the previous eras when if you were a baron you were more important than a simple lord because you did more for the kingdom and for the monarch.
Angel McCoy: It’s kind of hard to be a land owner these days in Kryta, because of centaurs and everybody is so collected in Divinity’s Reach now where it’s safe. So the land owning element of that has sort of gone away but the ranking is still there.
What we’ve seen from the Ministry, looking at Minister Caudecus, is that there is corruption within the Ministry as well. Does this corruption spread very high within the ranks of the Ministers?
Angel McCoy: At this point, we’re not sure – or, well, we’re sure but you’re not sure – how high that corruption actually spreads and it’s something we’re going to explore later. Chances are that corruption spreads quite high because the Ministry is a fairly tight organisation, although it is political so there’s a lot of backstabbing and backroom deals. A lot of just one hand not talking to the other hand.
Scott McGough: There’s also a lot of ambition. A man like Caudecus thinks he should be making the decisions for Kryta. He doesn’t like the decisions Queen Jennah is making, in and of themselves and because he Caudecus is not the one making them. There’s a lot of noble ambition within the Ministry as these are the people who think they should be running the country so that often leads to them taking shortcuts, making side deals and backroom discussions like Angel said. They will do what is best for Kryta, but they will also do what is necessary to put them in that position to make the decision for Kryta as they genuinely believe they are the only ones capable of doing it.
So it’s very important for the king or queen to have people they can trust in order to defend their own power?
Scott McGough: Absolutely. That’s why you see the Queen so taken with Logan, as he is one hundred percent loyal, and that’s why you see the Queen relying so heavily on Countess Anise and the Shining Blade whom she knows she can trust without reservation. The Seraph under Logan and the Shining Blade under Anise are two of Queen Jennah’s most powerful allies and she knows to cultivate them and make sure that those relationships remain strong.
Kryta is a country with a lot of immigrants who came to Kryta from Ascalon or Cantha, from almost everywhere. How respected are nobles who migrated from these cultures? Do they have the same status as Krytan nobility?
Angel McCoy: Those people would be treated with respect but they wouldn’t really be part of the Krytan nobility. They would be there as diplomats, as emissaries or some sort of noble visitor. Even as they become residents, they may still be considered very respected and treated with a certain noble element of welcome-..
Scott McGough: Yeah, it’s kind of a parallel structure. If a baron came over from Elona – and i’m not sure Elona has barons – that person would be afforded every courtesy that a noble of Kryta would be afforded. They wouldn’t necessarily be allowed to make any decisions. As we saw in the personal story we have Minister Wi, who is of Canthan descent. He holds the position of Minister which I would say is analogous to ancient Rome, after it conquered a country and after that country had paid its taxes and behaved for a certain amount of time, the rulers of that country would be admitted into the Roman Senate so we had Roman senators who were German, who were British, who were African. Once you’ve proved you’re part of a functioning Krytan government these nobles would be allowed to participate in that government. It’s a case by case basis and it’s not an automatic thing. There’s the noblesse oblige where the nobles of one country extend that courtesy to nobles of another country. We’re all in the same brotherhood/sisterhood of nobles so we have to look after each other. We protect our power by protecting each other. So a noble from another country would be welcome in Kryta and would be treated with great respect as a dignitary in Kryta, but they would have to be a functioning part of Kryta before they were actually made a noble of Kryta or a Minister.
