GURPS: Church and State Society and Status

Status in Church and State

To be entrusted with missions, responsibility, or just to be allowed to keep the loot you get, you need status, as well as the right to bear arms outside of warfare. Status is limited to 2 max as there are only a small handful of Status 3 people in the Barony, like maybe 12, but maybe a thousand status 2. Of those with the same status, the higher listed position outranks the lower. To get status, one must have a social obligation to a person or institution.

• 8 Emperor Imperial Majesty
• 7 Imperial Consort or Heir, or King
• 6 Prince/Princess
• 6 Duke/Duchess
• 5 Marquess/Marchioness
• 5 Earl or Count/Countess
• 4 Viscount/Viscountess
• 4 Senior Baron/Baroness
• 3 Lesser Baron/Baroness
• 3 Landed Knight/Dame
• 3 Governor/Mayor (varies between 2-4 depending on the town, Rotbrueck's burgermeister is 3, while Chalouth's is a 4)
• 3 Guildmaster/Guildmistress Master/Mistress
• 2 Unlanded Knight/ Dame
• 2 Captain
• 2 Men at Arms
• 2 Craftsman (master)
• 1 Squire
• 1 sergeant at arms, and lower men-at-arms
• 1 Craftsman (journeyman), Merchant –
• 0 Villein, Townsman, common soldier
• -1 Serf, Urban Rogue (by reputation only), mustered peasant militia
• -2 Beggar, Slave, known criminal

Persons of Status

• (4)The Baron, His Lordship, Paul "The Hammer" Raudidge, the Baron of Rotbrueck, and the Baron of Whiterock.
• (3)The Baroness Iris (deceased)
• (3)Bishop of Rotbrueck and Lord Chaplain to Rotbrueck, The Right Reverend Bishop, His Excellency, Garth Raudidge, younger brother of Rotbrueck
• The Abbess of St Livian's, The Right Mother Superior, Reverend Mother Charlotte Raudidge, an aunt of Rotbrueck
• Bishop of Whiterock, The Right Reverend Bishop, His Excellency Francis of Gwyndal, a non-Maguirian
• The Abbot of St Adolphus, The Right Reverend Father, Reverend Father Marcus Taulburg, a non-Maguirian
• Sir Lazcus Weisfeld (of House Raudidge), lord of Stone Dale and a great uncle to Rotbrueck.

Money

Money is rated throughout the Central Kingdoms as: Copper Farthing (1) Silver Penny (4) Gold Crown (200) Silver Pound (1000)

Imperial Lands use similar denominations, but different: Copper Penny (1) Silver Denari (4) Gold Mark (150) Talent (1000)

Coins of the Canton of the Grey Watch are very pure, reliable, and often physically large. They include the small copper khenn ($1), the copper dann ($12), the silver ffo ($144), and the gold tohn ($5,184). However, Grey Watch coins are extremely rare outside of the Canton; a Cantonite who pays a non-Cantonite in danns, let alone ffo, is showing great respect.

Technology

Before Burn's Crossing, many parts of the Central Kingdoms and Imperial areas was TL4 almost 5. The devastation and social upheaval made many areas retard to lower TL. Techs that were in wide use and understood by many (smithy techniques, farming techniques and windmills/watermills) generally survived better. Those that were rarefied and known to only a few, suffered worse. I'm also considering how magic might affect the need to develop tech. 10-15 pts in spells with minimal magery can make a decent ship's weather mage, dramatically decreasing the need to build better ships with stuff like seek coastline, wave, current, storm, wind. On the other hand, magery can also advance the understanding of other things as hawkvision, microvision, measurement, test load, and just generally fucking around with the forces of nature (lightening, fire spells, earthquake). My view is that these things work better when a mage understands the underlying principals of physics that he's manipulating, so some of the sciences tend to be a little more advanced. The application of the knowledge gained from raw sciences went into better magery, not into better engineering applications.

Building technology is a great example of this. Measurement, test load, move earth (and stone), shape earth (and stone), essential wood, essential stone, and others allow buildings beyond what a TL3 society could normally perform. Master builders often have these spells in lieu of understanding how to use a plumb line or other surveying techniques. However, the basic underlying understanding of architecture, and structural physics is advanced enough to allow TL4 construction, using a mix of mundane TL 3 techniques and magic.

As a general guideline:

• TL3- Metallurgy, shipbuilding, medicine (no demand with healing magic), armor and weapons, water wheels, most engineering not specifically mentioned below, mining and prospecting, brewing,
• TL4- Biology, physics, astronomy, optics, chemistry (due to alchemy mostly) farming, buildings, windmills, stagecoach (leaf spring), navigation, clockwork, movable type

GURPS: Church and State