Status and Rank

Introduction

This is one of the main Laws of the Camarilla. It is not based on a tradition, this is something that the feudal Camarilla has invented to solve arguments, debates and establish order. Status should be looked at as a rating. The higher the status, the higher the rating.

Getting Status

Status can be obtained in two ways:
1) Getting a position that confers status - i.e., be a Prince, or an Officer, A Primogen or a Clan Head.
2) Have it granted to you by someone that already has some (A Harpy, A Prince, Your Primogen or Clan Head.

All Presented Camarilla kindred start with Status • Acknowledged.

Clan Primogen: • Revered
Court Harpy • Influential
Keeper of Elysium • Honourable
Sheriff • Feared
Scourge • Feared
Seneschal •• Esteemed, Cherished
Royal Harpy: •• Influential, Famous
Prince ••• Well-Known, Famous, Exalted
Clan Head: ••• Famous, Influential, Esteemed

Archon: •••• Feared, Respected, Empowered, Valiant
Lord Protector •••• Illustrious, Strong, Eminent, Transcendent
Justicar: ••••• Feared, Respected, Empowered, Noble, Majestic

Status is cumulative. So for the example of a Prince that also speaks as a clan Primogen (very common - if not entirely wise), he would have the following status score: ••••• Acknowledged, Revered, Well-Known, Famous, Exalted In those cases where the words are the same, Such as a clan head that held the post of royal harpy, then the duplicated words are lost!

Negative status also exists. It can be granted by Princes and Harpies. Negative status effectively removes a point of status. Thus a character that carries the stigma of a negative status trait will find their position diminished in Kindred Society. Consider the example of a sheriff with the negative status of -Cowardly: • Acknowledged, Feared, Cowardly

Granting and Removing Status

Effectively status is 'loaned' by Princes and Harpies. Thus a Prince wishing to reward one of his followers can temporarily expend a point of his own status to grant for the period of 1 game year, a status word to one his people. In terms of game mechanics, the Prince can do this to the limit of his status score in a particular game session. (at the next game, the Prince will have all of his status back). It is only possible to raise the status of an individual if you posses more status than they do, and you cannot raise them to your own level in status.

Harpies have a little more leeway, in that they have a pool of status to use as they see fit. (each clan Primogen represents the donation of one point of status for the harpy to use. This pool does not replenish; although when a harpy loses the post, so do all of her assignments. This pool may not be assigned to another Harpy. These assignments last for one Game Year, or until the Harpy decides to take the status back.
Harpies also have the ability to grant status to anyone Resident in their court, regardless of that Individual's own status.
Granting negative status traits uses the same procedure.

As an example, consider the following case of a Harpy from a city with a Primogen of 5 members. The harpy has the following status traits:
•• Acknowledged, Influential
She also has a pool of 5 status points to spend over the course of her career. If she decides to declare someone Cowardly (negative) or Noble (positive), it will cost her one point from the pool. And that point is gone for one Game Year, or until she decides to call it back.

Clan Primogen grant status in the same way as Princes, to members of their own clans in their own domains. Clan Heads operate as Primogen, except that they can grant to members of their clan in the same Realm. The royal harpy receives one status trait for every harpy, and can grant this to anyone in her Realm.

Status can be removed. Only Princes may remove • Acknowledged, at no personal cost. Status granted by holding office cannot be removed whilst the office is held. Being Unacknowledged means that an Individual cannot hold office, and any held status is considered void (Even negative ones).

What status is used for, and why having none is bad

Power. If you have more status than the next man, then your word is law. He cannot challenge what you say unless he has hard evidence. For example: a Prince says, "You are a diablerist", to one of his subjects. Unless that subject has as much or more status than the Prince, then that person is considered by everyone in that domain to be a diablerist.

Further to this, having more status demands more respect from your peers. Thus, a character with a status score of ••••• can happily insult a character with a status score of •. The reverse is not true. Insulting someone with more status than you counts as Ignoring Status. That is very dangerous! And who decides what an insult is? Why the Kindred with the most status of course! The offended party can then see the Prince and ask for Justice - usually done by pointing out that their status has been ignored.

Princes still hold the right of domain - they can only be overruled by someone that 'outranks' them. If a Prince does accuse someone of the same or equal status, then that person typically will need to leave the domain and quickly - resorting to contacting their Clan Head or taking the affair higher still.

Rank

Rank is determined by taking the office that grants the most status. Thus a Prince is rank 3. A Justicar is rank 5. A Prince that is also a Clan Head is rank 3.
Ties on rank are broken in favour of status - first the greatest number of positive status, and then the least number of negative status. It is to the reader's discretion whether or not a Protector overruling a Prince based on Rank is considered "Interfering in Domain Matters".

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