Hi, I'm new here, so I'm hoping I'm not making a bad impression by disagreeing with some of the above posters.
Ul'dah doesn't have "nobles" or a "nobility." Nobles are never mentioned in Ul'dah's lore. This site's wiki and the official lore information make it clear that Ul'dah has a royal family, and below that, it is those who obtain the most money and prestige that make up the upper class.
Like in American and other real-life Western nations, you can rise to the upper class in Ul'dah by acquiring opulence, and you stay there by maintaining wealth and status. It isn't hereditary--you "make it" in Ul'dah by being lucky or by being industrious. The city is dominated by entrepreneurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobility
The word "nobility" has very specific connotations related to an established upper class in a tiered social society that is impenetrable, because it is either hereditary or, like a traditional Aristocracy, determined by the ruling class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family
It's better to compare an "upper class" family in Ul'dah to the famous Rockefeller family. Not a "noble house," but a rich and successful family with vast connections. Many Syndicate members demonstrate the true nature of the upper class, with Chief Foreman Fyrgeiss of Amajina & Sons Mineral Concern and Chairman Lord Lolorito of the East Aldenard Trading Company. Their names are only important because their businesses are important. Amajina's name will only live on as the company's name, because money and business change hands.
Nobility means something different in the lore from simply being upper class. It is characterized by heritage, eminence and distinct privilege over lesser peoples. In Hydaelyn there are lands where there is a strict divide between commoners and the aristocracy, rather than a loose class system determined by success and affluence. The three primary city-states don't have anything like that.
If you wanted to play a true-blue noble in the lore, you'd likely have to be from Ishgard. And if you left Ishgard to come to the other city-states, your nobility isn't important to anyone but you. Your money might be worth something though!
All the people I see in the wiki playing "noble" characters seem to just be playing wealthy characters with businesses and big homes out in the country and stuff, and that's fine. Certainly you can be an "heir" to such fortune and responsibility, and that is sorta like being a nobleman. That's not nobility though--that's upper class.
You can be a member of an "upper class" in every city-state though! All you need is money, power, rich friends, all that stuff. Owning a successful business or being a prosperous merchant couldn't hurt, either.
Ul'dah doesn't have "nobles" or a "nobility." Nobles are never mentioned in Ul'dah's lore. This site's wiki and the official lore information make it clear that Ul'dah has a royal family, and below that, it is those who obtain the most money and prestige that make up the upper class.
Like in American and other real-life Western nations, you can rise to the upper class in Ul'dah by acquiring opulence, and you stay there by maintaining wealth and status. It isn't hereditary--you "make it" in Ul'dah by being lucky or by being industrious. The city is dominated by entrepreneurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobility
The word "nobility" has very specific connotations related to an established upper class in a tiered social society that is impenetrable, because it is either hereditary or, like a traditional Aristocracy, determined by the ruling class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family
It's better to compare an "upper class" family in Ul'dah to the famous Rockefeller family. Not a "noble house," but a rich and successful family with vast connections. Many Syndicate members demonstrate the true nature of the upper class, with Chief Foreman Fyrgeiss of Amajina & Sons Mineral Concern and Chairman Lord Lolorito of the East Aldenard Trading Company. Their names are only important because their businesses are important. Amajina's name will only live on as the company's name, because money and business change hands.
Nobility means something different in the lore from simply being upper class. It is characterized by heritage, eminence and distinct privilege over lesser peoples. In Hydaelyn there are lands where there is a strict divide between commoners and the aristocracy, rather than a loose class system determined by success and affluence. The three primary city-states don't have anything like that.
If you wanted to play a true-blue noble in the lore, you'd likely have to be from Ishgard. And if you left Ishgard to come to the other city-states, your nobility isn't important to anyone but you. Your money might be worth something though!
All the people I see in the wiki playing "noble" characters seem to just be playing wealthy characters with businesses and big homes out in the country and stuff, and that's fine. Certainly you can be an "heir" to such fortune and responsibility, and that is sorta like being a nobleman. That's not nobility though--that's upper class.
You can be a member of an "upper class" in every city-state though! All you need is money, power, rich friends, all that stuff. Owning a successful business or being a prosperous merchant couldn't hurt, either.
