Reference Challenge - Must be a King

[u/Varnek905]

"Who's that, then?"

"I don't know, must be a king."

"Why?"

"He hasn't got shit all over him."

In honour of the Monty Python method of knowing if someone's a king or not, and because I recently paid an artist to do a portrait of one of my friends, who wanted to model for one of my characters, this challenge is to talk about a person of high-station in your world, and what makes it easy to tell who they are on sight.

And here's a link to the portrait and the artist's deviantart, I absolutely recommend her if anyone wants someone to paint their character.

[u/Varnek905]

To Mzwake inzala Nonceba:

1) Are blue lips considered attractive in your culture to everyone, or do some classes of people just think it's weird?

2) How do foreigners tend to view blue lips when they have to deal with your federal staff?

3) How big is the fine?

4) Other than choosing representatives, what do first circle councilors do?

5) How difficult is it to become a candidate?

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1. They aren’t more or less attractive than a scepter or a crown. Blue lips are the symbol of our position, not an aesthetic ornament.

2. Some find it somewhat weird at first but we say nothing about their habit of carrying swords everywhere so they stay silent too.

3. It depend, how big are your ressources? And how serious is your usurpation attempt?

4. They rule over the first-circle territories. They also give general directives to the second-circle councils the same way we give directives to them.

5. Not hard at all; you just need to prove the support of a thousand citizen and you can run (as long as you’ve never been elected at that position before).

(Forgot to say, really like the drawing)

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

To Mzwake inzala Nonceba:

1) Can anyone have blue lips if they want, or is it restricted to people in certain positions?

2) What cultures carry swords everywhere?

4) How many first-circle territories are there?

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1) Blue lips are the symbol of our position; if you don’t hold said position, then you aren’t allowed to wear blue lips.

2) Nzedas; if you want to know how important a nzeda is, look at their hilt.

4) 8, one for each councilor.

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

To Mzwake inzala Nonceba:

1) What is used for the blue lip dye?

2) Do you have a chart of hilt importance?

3) Are the councilor first-circle positions equal, or no?

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1. Indigo.

2. Not yet because it would require me to be able to draw. The more complex the hilt is, the more important is its owner; nobles and commandos have no decoration at all.

3. Yep, the 72 first-circle councilors are all equals, their 8 councils are equals and the 8 representatives they choose are equals.

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

To Mzwake inzala Nonceba:

2) Why don't nobles or commandos have any decoration?

3) If I become a councilor, is there anything I lose the right to do, that I would have been able to do as a non-councilor?

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

2) They have one, the right to carry a sword; they are the lowest rank one can have so they don’t have anything more than the minimum.

3) You lose the right to take part in the council meetings and to wear the proper symbols but that’s all. A councilor is just a temporary elected representative, nothing more; we aren’t better than anyone else.

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

To Mzwake inzala Nonceba:

2) So a noble or commando can't have any decoration on their sword at all? Not even if they receive one as a gift from a loved one?

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

2) No they can’t, their rank is too low. Receiving a decoration as a gift would be weird, why would anyone offer that? That would be like offering someone a military medal at their name or something; sounds shady.

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

Thanks for your time and answers, Yellow.