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

[Phantasm]

IIRC, the feudal system in medieval France and the Holy Roman Empire were hardly what we'd consider "stratified" when it came to noble titles, so it makes sense that Yrth would have a screwball system, if system it actually has.

A count in the HRE could be a vassal of a baron, who in turn could be the vassal of two or more different barons, viscounts ("vice-counts"), counts, or marquis/margraves ("border counts"). I once read one instance of a count who was a vassal of another count, and had a baron as a vassal, provided aid to his baron vassal in a border conflict, only to get called into service by his own oath against himself because the noble his vassal the baron was in conflict with was the count he was the vassal of! And that instances like that were considered "common" if not "routine" during the High Medieval period in Northern and Western Europe, because fealty was given not based on title but on actual influence or land controlled. Some folks had sworn oaths of fealty to several nobles of various titles, and had to choose which oaths to fill when called to service.

So in practice, a viscount is not necessarily always answering to a count; he could answer to a baron. A duke with little actual power could owe fealty to a much more powerful baron. And the king may have little to no power over the nobles who put him on the throne.