#like nobility noble

[mahvaladara]

Local Goddess Throws Sissy fit over desirable local bachelor's rejection. Local Bachelor said he didn't understand her behaviour, while baring his chest like an inflated prize winning peacock at an exotic bird's local fair.

[caponhans]

replaying kcd2 now and at first i didn’t really understand why hans just left henry and fended for himself but after thinking it through… hans really wants to prove himself to his uncle, wants other people to see he matured and is ready for his responsibilities. and delivering a message isn’t per se that tough of a task. since he had the responsibility for his crew, he actually blames himself a lot — that’s why you get approval points if you reassure him when he feels guilty about things that happened in the game. anyway, he trusts henry even though they bicker and fight like an old couple, so hearing from someone so close to him that he’s actually at fault hurts like crazy — that genuinely offended him. he needs someone to back him up and believe in him. so when you meet him again at the wedding, he basically says “shoo. i wasn’t good enough for you, now leave me alone.” which again proves that he is in fact hurt by henry’s critique but also lowkey blames himself because let’s be real… it was lowkey his fault that they ended up the way they did.

[youngyoo-apologist]

Why is Basen’s life low key like Sofia the first

[pettyprocrastination]

as much as I love 141 medieval au's here the reader is a noble lady saved from her marriage or some lone townswomans rescued by the group of knights (looking @ my own nun!reader in this) I do love the notion of a lady knight.

A badass woman with no name or backstory that's taken up the life of a sellsword- who scoffs at the notion of "honor" when spilling blood on your blade- death is death. Honor means nothing for God or king.

Her hair is cut close to her scalp, because it's all too easy for somebody to grab a handful of those soft locks and be at the perfect position to slit her throat in a fight. Covered in scars and carried by aching bones that broke years ago but never quite healed properly.

Maybe Price is a king who sees this helmeted figure fighting at a tourney for his name day and asks for their name- their noble house only to learn you have none. Simply a desire for the money awarded to the winner.

Maybe Gaz is beloved prince who often sneaks out from his guards nose to mingle with the common folk- who enjoys sitting in a tavern with others and singing songs while drinking ale with a pretty little thing on his lap until he's walking back to the palace and finds a blade at his neck in a dark alley as you warn him that noblebloods should never walk unaccompanied- it makes the job far too easy.

Maybe a beautiful noble lady is sent to stay under the eye of a royal family in discussion for marriage- when the house offers to gift her one for their personal guards of the 141, she insists she more than happy with her own- you. The silent armor-clad figure standing close to her side. (yes I miss domentzia. she's my wife and always will be).

[lfornow]

If I had a nickel for every time that Merlin helped and housed a beautiful man who flirted with Gwen and then got banished from Camelot for breaking the knights code, only to eventually become a knight of the round table, I would have TWO NICKELS.

It might not be a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, etc.

[endiness]

people bitching about the show giving jaskier a more concrete backstory as if it completely goes against his virtually nonexistent backstory in the books is rly giving "didn't read the books and/or their knowledge of dandelion/jaskier is actually based off of fanon and headcanon that's been repeated ad nauseam by the fandom as if it's canon" vibes tbh

[the-owl-tree]

while tooth and claw hasn't fallen into this trapping entirely, it does remind me of how some authors are aware that owning servants or giving credence to the divine right of kings is ""problematic"" but instead of giving the unspoken message to the audience of "believe in this fantasy for the sake of this narrative", there has to be an internal justification that these are good servant owners who don't dare mistreat their servants like others do. which in turn makes the fact the servants can't meaningfully leave their positions even more of an elephant in the room than had they just not tried to justify our protagonists, you know, having servants.

[lactodebillus-bulgaricus]

bulgaria in 865 be like

-it's for your own good! - boris the 1st

[scribeofmorpheus]

"Those stone walls, Celene thought, likely dated back to when the elves first built Halamshiral. She wondered if they ever imagined that one day, those walls would protect human nobility from the elves who burned on the other side."

Masked Empire, Trick Weekes, p.132

[rainbowsandwhumperflies]

The Winged Servant - drabble

Notes: okay you might've noticed there was no poll last week to vote for this week's chapter. That's because I love Dakota too much and didn't want to keep them to myself for any longer and no one was voting on the option for Ryan to meet his only ever friend. Ryan is 18 here, about two years before he ever heard Onyx's name. Speaking of which, Onyx is not here, and neither is any other whump content. This is whatever the opposite of fanservice is, where the author is clearly the only one who cares

content warnings: super corrupt Rao monarchy, that's pretty much it, this is not even whump

masterlist

“I have dinner for you, Your Highness,” someone said from the doorway, and Ryan glanced up to see a person who, sure enough, was holding a tray of food. But it wasn’t Jayden, and Ryan had told Jayden to bring him his food.

“Where’s Jayden?”

“He’s busy.”

HIs eyes narrowed. “He’s never too busy for a direct order from the royal family. What the fuck did you do?”

The servant cocked their head to the side. “Apologies, Your Highness. I asked if I could do it instead. I didn’t realize this meal delivery was so important to you.”

“... Why?”

“Because you don’t tell people things like that.”

“Why did you ask to do it, dipshit.”

They grinned. “Maybe I like seeing you, Your Highness.”

“Is that right? You like seeing me, and you like being a smartass, and you like pissing me off?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Ryan repeated sarcastically. “Fine. Bring me my food, and take a few bites so I know you’re not poisoning me, and you can get out of my hair.” That wasn’t as safe as he was supposed to be. But there were still four more complaint forms to go through before he’d have time to care.

“I sure hope you weren’t poisoned,” the servant said, setting the tray down and picking up a cracker. “This would be a really stupid way for me to die.”

This would also be a really stupid way for them to spend their time living—it’d be faster to just let Jayden, a close, trusted servant do his job—but Ryan didn’t point that out.

Ryan also didn’t point out the way that the crumbs clung to their sparkling lip gloss. That was the reason he was staring at their lips, because it was distracting, but it’d be rude to point it out. So he kept staring at their lips.

~

They were at the next dinner party. Not serving food at the party, either, getting served food, which meant that they were not a servant. “Dakota Lake,” they were introduced as, though their younger sisters kept calling them Kota. And while Ryan hadn’t noticed them posing as a servant, he would have recognized their sisters. Only eight years old and already, the two had a reputation for being the castle menaces at every single event. And… he supposed that if he thought about it, their mom had been working there for a few months now, an important enough job that her family was considered nobility.

Dakota didn’t seem entirely focused on the dinner party, which was disrespectful enough in and of itself that Ryan started to get pissy. But clearly they weren’t the only distracted one, or Ryan would have been able to recognize them before they’d delivered his dinner four days earlier.

They ran right into the prince later, balancing three plates of what had been turkey before it became a mess on his suit. “I’m- shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“You’re not a servant,” Ryan blurted, making Dakota pause in their reach for paper towels.

“... No, Your Highness. What?”

“You’re not a servant, and you brought me food last week. I want to know why.”

They laughed breathlessly, brushing Ryan’s shoulder off with a napkin. “Christ. I told you, didn’t I? I wanted to see you.”

“No one wants to see me.” That wasn’t exactly how those words were supposed to come out, but they were true regardless. Prince Ryan wasn’t known for social visits.

“Really, Your Highness? No one?” They handed their dirty plates off to a servant passing by, apparently deciding that they’d done enough cleaning and the servants could do the rest. “Do you get out much? Lots of people think you’re nice to look at. How did you recognize me, anyway? You were so focused on that paperwork—barely looked at me.”

Ryan blinked slowly.

Lots of people think you’re nice to look at.

He wondered if lots of people included Dakota. He wondered why that mattered. He wondered if it was relevant at all that he’d recognized Dakota based on the sparkling lip gloss that they were wearing, the lip gloss that the bread crumbs had stuck to when they’d delivered the food.

“I remembered you because it’s weird fucking behavior to intercept a direct command from a prince just because you wanted to see him.”

“Do you want me to piss off? I will if you want.”

Not particularly, Ryan realized, which came as a surprise to himself. He had always hated the dinner parties. Cardan hated them, too. Really, the only people who liked them were noble families who needed to feel important and appreciated, and Ryan wasn’t in the mood for appreciating people.

But Dakota had made the poor decisions that they’d made, and they’d done it without apparent motive. That made them an unsolved mystery. And a mystery was much more appealing than the dinner party.

“I forgive you,” Ryan decided, and Dakota snorted as if he’d made a joke.

“Okay, Your Highness. Thank you.”

“Unfortunately, we’re both still covered in your fucking turkey. Come on, I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes if you need some.” They had other options, actually. Like asking literally any of the people employed here for clothes. But they hadn’t said “lots of people think you’re nice to look at” to the people employed here.

“Okay,” Dakota agreed with a soft smile. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

~

taglist: @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @fuckcapitalismasshole @rainydaywhump @jay--o

@risk606 @cepheusgalaxy @fourwingedwriter

ps: I'm tagging you all because this is very much the universe that The Winged Servant takes place in. However, all this stuff that happens to Ryan before he meets Onyx is pretty much irrelevant to the actual plot. And not whumpy. And there will almost definitely be more of this because Dakota is my favorite ever character. So if you don't want to be tagged for this stuff lmk ^^

[vultures-and-scavengers]

i think josie's personal quest missed a trick given that we're playing as the herald of andraste, orlesians believe in a divinely mandated right to rule and are the only country to do so, and we're trying to bring back a lost noble house. (source for below)

like minister bellise is just. generically haughty.

but given that we're told orlais believes in this divine right to rule, she COULD have been written as like genuinely believing keeping others from joining the nobility is a way to honor the maker-- after all, surely if they were meant to be noble, they would have been born so? or if she makes it more and more difficult, then only the ones the maker smiles upon get past her?

and i guess the game then 'tests' the nobility? if you fail, then you didnt have the maker's favor, and if you succeed, then he smiles on you? is playing the game and playing it well a form of worship to some orlesians?

and how does our position as the supposed 'herald of andraste' play into this? if we're chosen by andraste, allegedly, and then choosing to uplift a noble house, how does that intersect with divine right to rule? surely someone has some feelings on that! and if we can uplift one house, what about others?

its just. we have a very clear intersection between religion and nobility and we should have been able to interact with that! so was this codex entry nothing more than the overblown complaint of a ferelden bann or was it an actual commentary on how the empire views its nobility?

[mamawasatesttube]

just thinking out loud here but i feel like a lot of popular perception of kon esp in online fandom spaces is colored by his joie de vivre and all the times he's silly and goofy. which i do of course adore!! i love when he's silly and goofy. but comparing that perception to, that of like, clark or kara, i feel like kon gets shunted into the box of "dumb comic relief character" a lot more easily. lots of factors probably contribute to that (sb94 having a bad rep, while no other kon comic really goes into a lot of his tragedy; conflation with the side of the fandom that doesn't read comics; the fact that comparatively postcrisis kara doesn't have a team the way kon has yj and clark is seen as a more capable adult, so other characters in the jl get the "dumb comic relief" short end of the stick more often; etc) ...

... but what really gets me about him is that he does embody a lot of the same traits as the rest of the kryptonian superfam. he's so extremely kind. he's got that same noble heart as the rest of them; he cares about everyone and he wants to protect everyone. and he's so, so lonely. he struggles between cultures and worlds where he feels like he doesn't belong to either. he is so strong and capable and holds so much power that it scares him.

cradles him gently in my hands. he contains multitudes... come closer don't you want to love him 🥺

[renjirukia]

i've brought this up before i'm sure, but byakuya being sooo self-involved during the ss arc and so myopically obsessed with rukia's execution and how it relates to him and makes him feel etc... that he just doesn't clock the massive government conspiracy going down opens such a juicy can of worms for characterization.

[sandpaperoctopi]

Leo 🦋

[doubleedgemode]

*thinks abt the classic gg quotes where a.b.a calls herself an innocent little girl and has a weird little nobility complex* what does that mean

(Expanded on in this post's tags)

[archduchessofnowhere]

How many ladies-in-waiting did Empress Elisabeth have during her tenure as empress/queen?

Hi! I’m really glad I got this ask because lately I’ve been really interested in the people “behind the scenes” of Elisabeth’s life. But before answering this, we need to add some context and terminology, because “lady-in-waiting” is actually a very vague term.

First of all, who could access court?

The Habsburg court was extremely conservative on who could access it. While the courts of France or Prussia allowed the access of the rich bourgeoisie, to enter the Viennese court you needed to have an impecable noble background:

This small group of old nobility made up “court society”. They were the elite who passed all the tests of “ancestral lineage examination” with flying colours, who were permitted unlimited entry to court based on the pristine purity of their ancestral background. This exclusive group did not need to shine through achievement, it already possessed the requisite glamour from their heritage as princes, counts or barons. Whoever could prove eight maternal and paternal ancestors stemming from a noble line of flawless credentials and whose own ancestors had not broken this longstanding chain through marriages with partners beneath their standing could legitimately lay claim to the seal of approval generally dubbed ‘admissable at court’ (hoffähig). (Winkelhofer, 2012)

The women that were allowed to “wait” on the empress belonged to this exclusive group of nobles made up of about 400 families in the empire. “Rebel/low class woman infiltrates in court and becomes Elisabeth’s lady-in-waiting” is a trope that appeared in both RTL Sisi and Netflix Die Kaiserin, but that would’ve been simply impossible. There was a department in charge of checking everyone’s backgrounds, investigating every paper register and historical family tree. You either had the proper ancestry, or you weren’t allowed entrance.

So what was exactly the role of a “lady-in-waiting” at the Habsburg court?

There were two types of what we usually call “lady-in-waiting”: hofdamen (court ladies) and palastdamen (palaces ladies). Palastdamen were the aforementioned women who had access to court due to their noble status. Having access to court didn’t meant, however, that you just popped up at balls whenever you wanted. Even if you had an illustrious family tree you still needed to obtain official court recognition in order to be able to obtain a place at official occasions (for women, according to Winkelhofer, this was receiving the Order of the Starry Cross). Also Franz Josef was very strict on the nobility, and he demanded that nobles attended regularly at court to fulfill their duties; if someone didn’t appear in a long time they had to answer an inquiry as to why they had been absent, and the emperor could go as far as revoking their right to appear.

The compulsory duties of the nobility were, first, to pay their respects to the Emperor on 1st January at the New Year’s Day Reception, and later to attend to the two official balls that took place weeks later: the “Court Ball” and the “ball at court”. The next mandatory appearances were the holy day festivities; the most important event at court was the Corpus Christi procession:

The traditional procession the court at Corpus Christi - fondly dubbed “God’s Court Ball” by the Viennese - was the most significant festive day on the calendar to the imperial family, since this holiday celebrated and demonstrated the longstanding close ties of the dynasty to the Catholic Church. Everyone had to appear at the procession, including those who were not assigned to march in the parade itself, since the emperor viewed this as his foremost representational duty. (Winkelhofer, 2012)

Meanwhile, being a hofdame was a paid job. Unlike palastdamen, who entered court by their status alone, hofdamen had to be personally appointed to the position. Their main job was to keep company of their mistress all the time, which Elisabeth found annoying (“She says herself that it is not unpleasant to her to see us occasionally, but it is odious to her to have us in waiting” [Corti, 1936]). Being a hofdame, however, wasn’t cheap, since they always had to have new gowns for every official occasion, which their salaries usually couldn’t cover, and needed the support of their families (x). Also, a hofdame always had to be single, so when she married she lost the job.

As Empress, Elisabeth had her own household. The Oberhofmeisterin (a title that is usually translated as “Mistress of the Robes”) was in charge of controlling the household, hiring and firing staff, enforced discipline and etiquette, and replaced the empress at official events in case she couldn’t attend. She was the highest-ranking noble women at court, and unlike the aforementioned hofdamen, she could be married. During her 44 years tenure as empress Elisabeth had four Oberhofmeisterin:

Countess Sophie Esterházy (née Princess of Liechtenstein)

Countess Paula Königsegg (née Countess Bellegarde)

Countess Marie Goëss (née Countess Welsersheimb)

Countess Maria Theresia Harrach (née Princess of Thurn und Taxis)

In Elisabeth’s household there was also an special position, created exclusively for one woman: Ida Ferenczy. She is often called a “lady-in-waiting” (even myself on this blog called her that), but this isn’t correct. When Elisabeth was learning Hungarian in 1864, she asked for a lady who could help her practice the language. A list of ladies was created, which included Ida, and she was chosen. However, there was a problem: Ida wasn’t from nobility, but from the gentry, and therefore she couldn’t be made a hofdame. How did she even got on that list without having the right ancestry is a mystery to this day. But Elisabeth liked her and wanted to keep her in her household, so a position for her was created: “vorleserin”, the reader. She became one the empress’ closest confidents and remained in her service until her death.

Now, to finally answer the question: how many ladies-in-waiting Elisabeth had during her 44 years of tenure as empress?

Sadly I can’t give you an exact number. However, we can have an idea of how many and who they were. The Hof- und Staatshandbuch des österreichischen Kaiserthumes (renamed Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie after 1873) was the official guide of the Austrian empire, published from 1806 until the fall of the monarchy in 1918. These guides contained, among other things, lists of the complete staff of the imperial family’s households, as well as list of who had access to court. The Austrian National Library has available for free most, although sadly not all, of these guides. And yes, who were Elisabeth’s hofdamen each year is mentioned.

The years missing sadly correspond to Elisabeth’s first years as empress, as well as almost all of 1860s. Since I’m mainly following the official guide, there may be some mistakes; some ladies weren’t in the guide but I found the info about them in biographies (this was the case of Mathilde Windisch-Graetz). Anyway, these were some of Elisabeth’s hofdamen!

Countess Pauline “Paula” Bellegarde (served from 1854 until her marriage in 1857, Oberhofmeisterin from 1862 until 1868)

Countess Caroline Lamberg (served from 1854 until her marriage in 1860)

Countess Josepha Wallis (served since at least 1856 until 1858)

Countess Sophie Coudenhove (served since at least 1856 until ?)

Baroness Ludovica Sturmfeder (served since at least 1856 until 1866/7)

Princess Helene of Thurn und Taxis (served from 1858 until her marriage in 1871)

Countess Louise Bombelles (served from 1860 until ?)

Countess Caroline “Lily” Hunyady (served from 1861 until her marriage in 1871)

Princess Mathilde Windisch-Graetz (served from 1861 until ?)

Countess Mária “Marie” Festetics (served from 1872 until Elisabeth’s death)

Countess Ludovica Hedwig Schaaffgotsche (served since at least 1872 until 1877)

Miss Mary Throckmorton (Valerie’s governess, served from early 1870s until 1874)

Landgravine Therese of Fürstenberg (served from 1877 until 1889)

Countess Sarolta Máilath (served from 1883 until her marriage in 1890)

Countess Janka Mikes (served from 1892 until her marriage in 1896)

Countess Irma Sztáray (served from 1894 until Elisabeth’s death)

Some things about these ladies:

Lily was the niece of Countess Esterházy, the empress’ first Oberhofmeisterin.

Mathilde was a widow; as far as I could find, she was the only widow to ever serve Elisabeth as a hofdame.

Helene was the daughter of Elisabeth’s Oberhofmeister from 1854 until 1857, Prince Friedrich Hannibal of Thurn und Taxis.

Paula and her husband Count Alfred Königsegg were appointed at the same time as Elisabeth’s Oberhofmeisterin and Oberhofmeister respectively. Paula resented the growing Hungarian faction around the empress and openly complained about them, which made her fell from favor. She and her husband were finally dismissed in 1868.

Marie Festetics was first a hofdame of Archduchess Clotilde.

I had literally never heard of Ludovica Hedwig until I went through the guide, and I could find nothing about her outside of it.

Mary Throckmorton was recommended to Elisabeth by her sister Queen Marie of the Two Sicilies; I’m not really sure if she was actually a hofdame since her job was being Valerie’s governess, but she appears as a hofdame in the guide. Go figure.

Therese was first a hofdame of Archduchess Sophie. After she left service (seemly for health issues), all of Elisabeth’s hofdamen were Hungarian.

Sarolta was chosen as a hofdame because she was in a good physical shape that allowed her keep up with Elisabeth’s walking speed.

Irma entered service in 1894 but only appears as a hofdame since 1896. Go figure again.

Sources:

Corti, Egon Conte (1936). Elizabeth, empress of Austria

Das spanische Hofzeremoniell - Hofetikete, on Mythos Kaiserin Elisabeth

Hof- und Staatshandbuch des österreichischen Kaiserthumes (1856-1860, 1866, 1868)

Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1874, 1876-1898)

Winkelhofer, Martina (2012). The Everyday Life of the Emperor: Francis Joseph and His Imperial Court