[Banestorm] Why is the Cardien Council of Lords full of barons and vicounts?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Sam Baughn

In a kingdom of several million people, I'd expect there to be something like (order of magnitude):

• Ten thousand barons
• One thousand viscounts
• One hundred counts or earls
• Ten dukes

That's too many. By a factor of 10 or more. More than 1% of the population being titled or members of their immediate family? No way.
Admittedly the most familiar aristocracy to most of us, England, is unusually small and restricts it's titles a lot, but even a broad caste is not likely to exceed 5% of the population, and only a few percent of those will have an actual title. With a few million people, you might have a few thousand titles, assuming the system is fairly generous about diffusing them among multiple kinsmen, but you are going to need more than a hundred subordinates to rate the title "baron".