Rawr

Minor quarter-life crisis...what on earth am I going to do with myself over the next year (and beyond)???

Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way. Instead of focusing on doing, I ought to be more concerned with simply being.

New goal: I am going to be rich and famous.

And to that end...hm enough living vicariously, how about I just find a wealthy whatsit to hitch my wagon to (only, of course, I won't be using that sort of phrase).

Here's a quick guide to the peerage of the various realms. It would figure that the Brits are the best at this, so we will start with them.

Right. In the UK, the hierarchy is as follows: Prince > Duke > Marquess > Earl > Viscount > Baron...and then, hilariously, Wikipedia demarcates the gentry: Baronet >Knight > Scottish Baron > Laird > Untitled Classes.

Poor Scottish Barons. And Lairds.

And then I tried looking into some more interesting, foreign-sounding titles...but it seems that most other nations have discarded their nobility, usually after the World Wars. How depressing. And even worse, the names of the titles are just the same as those damned imperial ones listed above. Croatia bought into the anglicised versions it seems, as did China and Japan, not to mention Brazil, Norway, Russia, and the Dutch.

The Mongols used to have a titled class way back when, which is mildly exciting. It went thusly: Khagan > Guo Wang > Jinong > Taiji.

Prussia used to have a Junker. I can't tell you much more.

And I suppose I ought to make mention of France's historical nobility, as all the English words for the ranks stem from this: Duc > Marquis > Comte > Vicomte > Baron > Prince > Seigneur. Of course, all that got chopped up into tiny bits circa 1790.

Oh hey! Ok Finland has nobility. Score. It appears to be: Ruhtinas > Kreivi > Vapaaherra > Ritari > Herra/Asemiesluokka.

And there you go.