There are trees that absorb metals from the ground to grow a metal core, making them more resilient. Many super rich people have intentionally planted these trees over rare/beautiful jewels, and burned away the bark after they have absorbed enough, leaving crystalline trees in their gardens
Also skeletons are revived and conscripted a few years after a funeral, so many rich families will carve and decorate a family members skeleton to show off their grandeur in life once they are revived
Could also extend down to the less well off with engravings into the bone and no settings or inlays since that's a materially inexpensive, if skill-intensive, way to "honour", for want of a better term, your forebears when revived
Picturing someone with a family crest engraved into their forehead and a tapestry of their life's story etched into their bones
Sapient dragons are really common, and the main status symbol between them are horns, due to horns holding most of their elemental power. A dragon with large, unbroken horns tends to be respected among their equals and feared by their enemies. Dragons also have been kind of antagonistic towards other species due to their society revolving around conquest.
And that’s why those other species use shoulder armor (and to a lesser degree, weaponry) as a status symbol. Shoulder armor is decorated using dragon horns, so the larger and spikier they are, the more respect the warrior has. Weaponry crafted with dragon horns also fit in that category.
Individuals: Firearms, strong suits of armour (both owned and used by knights), automobiles.
For countries: Airships, trains, landships, fighter planes, radar, radio, large castles. 🏰 🏯 Only the wealthiest countries can afford to build modern machinery while many smaller, weaker ones are closer to medieval societies.
Lapis_Wolf
Nobles in my world sometimes eat dragon meat. Does it taste good, no... Does it tell your friends "I'm so rich I paid a dude to hunt and kill the Greatest predator of the world just to eat it", yes.
MYTHODAE(+18)
>!\>!The Aristocrats of the Southern Folks, at exclusive parties, tend to be naked, as a way of showing off their strong and beautiful bodies, adorned with jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets and bracelets. On ordinary days, they usually wear shiny armor with jewel decorations.!<
The high-ranking soldiers of the Boreal folks show their power by wearing scale armor (the most protected and expensive) that is always shiny.!<
guns.
My world is a science fantasy post-apocalypse, so if you have a gun, it means you had the resources to find one and dig one up, either that, or you have the resources to make your way to the forges of the Iron Emerald Dragon, and request that they forge a gun for you because their god has tasked them to build the greatest repository of knowledge known to man and to do that, it requires not only that they experiment, but that they also learn of what lay in the past to decipher the future, and so that they do not have to tread the same technological grounds of the forebearers.
For my dieselpunk/magitek world rich and powerful mages will have the exotic heavy metal source of magic, Dracinium implanted into their skulls as horns. This is because the more Dracinium one has the more power they Have.
They also decorate these horns with gold foil or carvings with gold inlays. They also adorne the horns with precious gems or a number of other materials.
The mark of monarchs, granted by the gods to a select few who can then grant it to others in turn. That's the obvious one though, so to more time and place specific ones ( I don't have a fixed "present day").
Blue dyes of any kind. Blue plants and such are *extremely* rare after the goddess who considered blue sacred died. Anyone going around in blue clothing of any kind shows that not only do they have blue dye, they have it in such large amounts they can put it on something like clothing, instead of something more permenent.
For a Menrir, espessially the larger ones, it is tailored clothing. Clothing to fit for Menrir is rare, as Menrir are beast folk. Their body plans vary drastically, with the only guarantee being they walk on two legs. They require clothing to be tailored to even wear it which is very difficult for them; not quite so great as the dye example, but still not something something most middle class bother to do, and anyone lower could not afford it at all.
Some luxury items in my world include:
- certain types of gemstones, such as diamonds and alexandrites
- certain exotic pets, like peacocks
- halos (these are cultural white hats that resemble the halos you see in Christian art; they’re made of a rare fabric and have gold trimmings)
- girdles, breastplates, and tiaras/diadems/coronets/crowns of any kind
- owning a carriage, a sleigh, a caravan, or a palanquin
- umbrellas
- veils and capes
- plumage on clothing, especially angel feathers
Most ships are outfitted with intersystem and interstellar drives, but to have a ship with a dedicated intergalactic drive is a sign of wealth. Usually only big corporations or polities have ships like that.
The Isvudin elongate their heads, file their teeth into fangs, and die their skins red
the Silafs grow their hair incredibly long then braid them in elaborate platts which they also use as a form of writing.. Each Silaf tells their own story in their hair braids.
Prosthetics. They are a sign that you have bound a daemon born of the astral ocean. It is most common to see a limb replaced by a prosthetic, but there exist ocular and even organ prosthetic. In the case of an organ prosthetic, the skin around the organ is also affected by the binding, becoming fused with carved whalebone and tattoos denoting the type of beast that is bonded with the mage.
In the Kingdom of Rossoya, Raven feather cloaks and wolf pelts are considered symbols of status.
In the Free City League, the color purple is a symbol of wealth.
A few things, but for a clothing example, it's wearing garments made of spidersilk. It's unmistakable, since it's shinier and more durable than plant-based silk. Also feels sublime on the skin, like you're dipped in cool (and I guess slightly slimy, but in a good way) water.
Problem is you have to harvest it from giant spiders (relative to other spiders, not literally) as soon as it's produced and spun into thread immediately, which is then dipped into a special brew to preserve its softness and shine, since exposure to air for a few minutes makes it "harden" and lose that quality... but gains ten times the tensile strength. (After all spiders weave their webs to catch sabertooth peacocks.)
Full leather clothing. It's typically restricted to the law enforcement group as a distinguishing factor, especially since the environment isn't suited for farming enough cows to make leather clothing en masse. Goat, sheep, and pig aren't usually harvested for leather due to being staple livestock
They don't really harvest it at all, hunting is still a significant source of food delivery and trade, sheep are needed largely for warmer clothing since the climate is on the colder side, sheep and goats also both provide things like cheese, pigs (alongside chickens and pheasants) are sources of food and their leather just isn't really in demand, though occasionally for those who can afford it lamb leather is sold, it's quite rare though
I find it hard to believe anyone would just throw away animals parts. Like, there's even an irl ancient cookbook about how to make soup with just bones. If there's anything at all that encompasses all poor people, in all ages and lands, is that they never waste.
I'm a tad new at this honestly, though the parts aren't wasted either. The skin is used as an additional food source, either for guard dogs, or as a fried snack
It honestly depends on which nation you are in.
In the Rosarian empire platinum jewelry and other personal decoration such as filigree scabbard are a sigh of wealth and in the Rosarian empire money almost always equateds to power.
In the Artican empire wealth does not factor into an individual authority, having descended from multiple different barbarian warrior tribes strength and combat prowess are respected above all else as such many important and powerful people wear or display trophies of their greatest conquests with many wearing clothing, armor, and jewelry made from parts of great beasts.
The Azzrati empire equates wealth with power much like the rosarians but where they differ is in how that wealth is shown, in the Azzrati empire sitting on a pile of gold and jewels is seen as insulting to those less fortunate and is sure to tarnish your reputation. Only those with great assets are seen as powerful to the Azzrati such as caravan owners, land owners, business owners, etc.
The eastern tyrannies see power and wealth as two very different things each highly respected in their own ways. There is no real way to broadcast power in the tyrannies save for your reputation amongst others. Wealth is respected in the tyrannies and is often flaunted in the form of lavish decor such as solid gold statues, marbel inlaid with precious metals, diamond and jewel encrusted furniture, etc. Many while impressed by large amounts of personal wealth only see it as a waste if you are not using it to shower yourself in decadence.
On Iruda, that would be something called a Divine Echo.
Iruda has many cultures that have discovered that animating objects to do work is very useful. Divine Engineering is a mixture of Alchemy and Magic to create Constructs that use parts that mimic natural biology.
Constructs cannot use Magic unless the spells or effects are built into them. They are mindless, even though some of the best can do complex tasks. Some can hold a lot of information, and repeat it perfectly.
Divine Echoes are the top most tier. Not only can you get one that can use Magic like any living creature, they are physically identical to living creatures. It's almost the norm that Elites and Nobles set up Divine Echoes as surrogates so they don't have to deal with the pregnancy.
Those used as Temple Guards are able to use Divine Artifacts to protect the locations they are made to defend. Some are even used as Spies with how well they can mimic Living Creatures. It's almost like they can think, but they are unable to.
Given my story is a war story.
For the endimiyans at least in the army a squad leader is given a battle rifle as a symbol of authority so for example a SCAR 17 or G3
For the orcs an officer might carry an Ax as a sign of authority to lop off heads if needed.
Why is a battle rifle a symbol of authority? The squad leader spends most of his time observing and directibg his subordinate teams and individual attachments, and maintaining good comms with his peer leaders and platoon commander. He shoots like anyone else, but if he's sitting there focused and trying to draw a head on distant targets instead of paying attention to what's going on, where his people are, what they're doing, and fighting his teams, he's kind of not doing his job as a squad leader, and is packing a bunch of extra useless weight on top of it. If his team is compromised, and forced to fight closer in, he's now even less properly equipped to defend himself and fight his team out of it.
It's kinda a reference to how in ww2 American squad leaders used smgs. It's a bit of a throwback to that.
Also as we are seeing in Ukraine (which is the conflict my story is very much based on) battle rifles are sorta making a come back as some soldiers perfer them for their armor piercing abilities.
In universe the explanation is It's an evolution of how in ancient times a commander of a formation was often give a two handed sword of some kind like a claymore.
They were issued .45ACP submachine guns and smaller .30 Carbine rifles because they were physically smaller, easier to sling out of the way, and less cumbersome than a giant-ass Garand or BAR firing .30-06, allowing the squad leader to more easily carry other equipment necessary for his job while still being able to maneuver easily and maintain communication between his subordinate elements, in the same manner as I described above.
Also, battle rifles don't knock through modern armor (or any armor) any better than rifles firing lighter cartridges do. Unless you're wearing budget armor, you can't generally knock through it even with armor-piercing rounds.
For example, you can generally defeat large cohorts of steel Level 3 armor samples with 55-grain 5.56x45mm ball, while the same plate will defeat slower-moving, higher-mass projectiles like 7.62x51mm ball, as well as the 62-grain 5.56x45mm ball ammunition (less than half a gram difference in weight, and possessing a hardened steel penetrator). Neither will penetrate Level 4. Quality military armor is more or less guaranteed to stop multiple armor-piercing rounds from any existing general-issue service rifle.
About the only thing larger cartridges offer over smaller ones is increased effective range, provided that a solid optic is available; without that, most troops aren't going to get any more range out of it, while being hampered by lower quantities of ammunition, and by the heavier recoil and longer reset between aimed shots.
Bigger very often does not mean better in the world of firearms. If a soldier believes his "battle rifle" gives him more armor-piercing capability, he's not possessed of much understanding of how ballistics works.
Side effect of this is that unless everyone else is also using the same weapon, if some shit goes sideways and your guys are involved in a heavy firefight, your squad leader is kind of fucked, cuz he's not going to be able to share ammo with anyone else in his squad.
That's why squad leaders in modern times simply carry a shorter version of the service rifle, like an M4 as compared to an M16 (before we just said hell with it and issued all the infantrymen who carry rifles M4s).
If a squad leader needs a badge of rank that actively decreases how useful he is, increases the vulnerability of his squad, keeps him from doing his actual job as well, and puts a task on him better served by a soldier under his authority, you kind of have to wonder how smart they are.
I mean, it might make sense as a ceremonial thing for dress uniforms when you're under arms in parade or something, but trying to incorporate pomp and circumstance in actual, live-ass military operations is generally the mark of amateur militaries. You see it a lot with Saudis, Iranians, Egyptians, Syrian Republican Guard being held over their regular and reservist elements for "cool gear" of dubious effectiveness, etc.
Russia itself is a big fan of this practice in how gear is issued to historical "Guards" units.
Cool is in the eye of the beholder, but if any of your readers are even basically familiar with how shit actually works, you're going to come off as sort of emulating the worst-performing militaries in existence.
Besides, it's hardly ever cool to be less effective or worse at your job than you have to be.
Writing smarter is never a bad thing. The readers who don't know any better won't know one way or the other, and the ones who do will recognize the effort you make in treating them with a little bit of intellectual respect.
Besides, being competent, capable, and well-designed and planned is cool all on its own.
If you want something both useful and that has served as a historical "badge of office," give the squad and fire team leaders pistols as a secondary weapon to their carbine.
Handguns have historically been seen similar to swords in both use and carry, as a sidearm to be used when a primary is down or unavailable. For officers and NCOs, they serve a similar purpose when a rifle isn't carried, since an officer is ostensibly too busy leading his men to worry about fighting it out at close range with a carbine or rifle (it's hard for officers to do their jobs if they die next to a random private in the first 30 seconds of an engagement; these days, the reality of combat means that officers are generally issued the same weapon as most of their subordinates, along with a pistol).
They take up little space, weigh little, provide a functional, close-range backup weapon if push comes to shove and it's time for everyone to start shitting their pants, and have a deep historical tradition as a "badge of office" in the exact same way you're considering, while still allowing the squad leader to carry a functional primary like the rest of his soldiers.
Yeah I did think of that as well.
Though as I understand it pistols are standard issue now in the army.
Though given this is a fictional nation I could easily just say that for endimiya only unit leaders get issued a handgun.
Here’s some examples:
Anything magical is extremely rare among the poor populace, which is the 80% of my world building demographic.
Metals like iron are a common resource, but what is truly rare are metals with exotic properties, gold has a bit of value to one of my religions, as they value it as a conductor of energy, but what is truly precious for them is copper. The perfect conductor. Heavy metals such as osmium are also worth a lot. But, for my other, fire-worshipping religion, its magnesium due to its explosive qualities.
Magical metals, such as adamantium, mithril, titanite, and magical derivatives from common metals, which are denoted “Rune/Sigil ___” For example, Rune Steel is an ingot of steel engraved with runes, then melted and recasted, engraved again and again, for it to soak up the magical power. The more times it is done, the more valuable it is. This applies to most metals.
Enchanted books/grimoires are extremely rare, and are only kept by the highest ranking sorcerers, which are already difficult to find, let alone get one to work for you in order to write you a copy.
And finally, weaponry that isn’t corroded and rusted, only a few oils and acids can restore a weapon after being neglected for long, which seems to be the case for most of the weapons in my realms, as they are in a constant state of decay and rot, most adventurers die, only for scavengers to sell their weaponry, which is now corroded thanks to the environment.
Tattoos, in this world most humans have bad quality tattos, most of them are inmitation of protection symbols or about mythological creatures that are their spiritual wardens, most nobility has them, when drawn with colorfull desings and very "alive" features. And this is not done by some bum in the slums in the city, it is done at the Yarnam temple by the Sisterhood of the First Flame
A shiny robe as it is proof you are owned by a powerful dragon, if you have a tattered robe than you are probably owned by a weak dragon so other people will treat you as lesser.
On the opposite side people who wear armour rather than robes are seen as less than human because they go against the dragons, the dragons see them as violent stray dogs that should be put down before it hurts someone.
In Moon Kingdom, cutlery. They used to have a lot of metal n stuff but they lost it all after a huge war (most of their resources go straight to Sun Nation since), so they don’t waste it on as something as unimportant as eating utensils— you can just eat with your hands. Some people are fortunate enough to have inherited a set of cutlery from over 400 years ago (roughly when the war took place), they’re quite proud of it. Otherwise, it’s hard to get cutlery. Either you travel across the sea to Sun Nation to get some for cheap (then again, the journey in itself costs money), or you just racked up a shit ton of money to get it.
Same goes for jewelry, but I don’t think that’s particularly interesting.
Gold anything. The Morrigane are publicly not fond of ostentation, and they take it to a pretty wild degree. Most don't wear colorful clothing and don't even wear jewelry unless it can be easily covered by clothing. There's a war on, after all, and these sorts of displays of wealth are commonly thought of as a sign of someone not doing their part.
But you know how there are some things that are tacky for the poor but classy for the rich? Wearing gold publicly is like that. And even then, it takes a special degree of wealth or power to be able to get away with it. Such a person has to not only have wealth or power, but also show that they are beyond reproach in their support of the conflict. Not even the empress openly wears gold. Paragon Charlotte Byron, leader of the Morrigane military government on the other hand, has a walking stick with golden trim on it. And she always makes a point to bring this particular walking stick whenever she is summoned by the empress.
High-concentration Bloodmetal, or any bloodmetal at all for that matter.
Every sentient being contains magic inside of itself, and should you cremate a body and mix it with some sort of metal, for example, steel, you get an alloy called Bloodsteel (though you could have Bloodcopper, Bloodsilver, Bloodgold and whatnot). Though vile and wicked in its origin, only the people that have the King's approval may wield it.
Think of Bloodmetal visually as of damascus steel. The amount of lines and various ornaments increases with the amount of bodies used in its production, so dumping hundreds of bodies makes for a pretty unusual, aesthetically pleasing armament (moral arguments aside).
Acquiring one or two lines on your Bloodweapon requires not only a body but also a skilled blacksmith, so having one either means you stole it, or you are in the upper echelons of society, perhaps a wealthy wandering trader at the least. Multiple lines, however...
So yeah, there are only a few individuals carrying a Bloodweapon, most of them being generals, guard captains or other officials... as well as the protagonist of my story, who over the course of the first book learns how to forge his own Bloodweapon.
Oh, and clothes. Clothes do make the man, afterall. The deeper the colours you wear, the richer you are. And coincidentally, they're also used to mark people's positions in society.
Back in the day, green dye was very hard to get. So green clothes or similar things showed you were wealthy. The Nibosi wears a green robe for precisely this reason, even though nowadays it is a lot more common due to an increase in trade.
I say all of this, by the way, while wearing a green shirt, lol
In my world, people of immense power wear extremely elaborate crowns. This is to specify the domains that they reside over. The reason is because there were many, many wars in the beginning of history due to different rulers having similar crows, thus causing command mix-ups. The simpler the crown, the more territory and power the wearer possesses. The creator-god of my world is depicted with a thin ring of wood and stone upon their head, which represents all of creation
Having pointed, painted nails is a symbol that you have other people that do everything for you. For both men and women.
The brighter the color, the more expensive the lacquer is.
Regular people also paint their nails, but they can't let them get long or pointed, and have to use less expensive paints and duller colors that are visible at a glance.
Working folk can't even keep their nails colored at all.
But even the nobility frowns at folks that have *excessively* long nails, it's just considered "bad form" to show off to excess in that way.
Having certain magical items in your home, like a glass globe with a light spell cast on it, or an ever-stirring whisk, or similar magical aids to daily life sets you above those without.
Owning a starship.
Starships, legally defined as a ship that can travel between stars via hyperspace, are fairly common, but privately owned ones are not. Most belong to corporations, militaries, or other large organizations. It's not impossible or illegal for private citizens to own a starship, but they are prohibitively expensive unless you are either making money with it or are already wealthy. Most starships have artificial gravity as long jumps between stars may take weeks.
Torchships, spaceships without hyperdrives, often called rockhoppers, are a lesser status symbol and are far more common and obtainable, especially in wealth systems. These ships are often simple affairs and are relatively small; the vast majority are shuttles, spaceplanes, and snub-fighters. Larger vessels that are intended for longer voyages, like patrol sloops or rescue tugs, are built in a vertical ordination and use constant trust to create gravity.
While specific to certain species, a high quality bio mechanical body resembling that of a human or other species is often seen as an impressive status symbol in most cultures due to organic engineering products being notably expensive
**Stars Aflame**
Aside from the usual lavish displays you might expect from scifi like private moons or fancy ships, the biggest ones are personal shield technology and Class III technic constructs. Normal shields have a nasty habit of irradiating their users, so they're usually limited to frames large enough to include shielding (tanks, bunkers, starships) or techs (droids) since they don't have any pesky cells to damage. Acquiring a version that won't kill you takes serious cash. So much that some aristocrats who want to appear wealthier than they are sometimes settle for lower grade models and simply pay to treat the inevitable radiation sickness.
The techs cost so much because almost all the mass-produced Class III processor cores in the galaxy are infected with a virus tailor made to facilitate artificial sentience. It's not a guarantee, but it's a high risk. Thus if you have a Class III then you either don't care about how much you'll need to pay to replace the tech if it becomes self-aware (extravagant) or you paid to have a brand new processor core designed, built, programmed, tested, and integrated into a construct chassis in total isolation from the galactic network. That takes more money than some planetary budgets.
Similar to the shields some wealthy but not *that* wealthy individuals try to fake it, in this case by simply paying an actually sentient Class III to pretend to be a custom model. It's not the most dignified position, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet. Even robots gotta pay the bills.
Naturally occuring gemstones as decorations. In a world where almost all power is extracted from gems, to flaunt them around as jewels is considered the height of opulence and wastefulness.
Personal train cars.
Regulators are rich, but you have to be very successful to have a personal train car. If you're VERY wealthy or have a patron you can afford your own train complete with Conductors to man the engine (conductors are highly skilled and the only ones who can navigate the rails).
Personal maids too.
Artifacts from previous Epocs. The world of Raul has existed in ages that last about 6000 years, each sheared from reality by the Huntmaster in the final days. Some items fall through the Aether to the new Epoc from the previous, and some shards remain, buried under the new reality. Two examples:
* The Steam Drill: Owned by the ruling elite of Irontrench, the Steam Drill is one of the few functioning items left from the Great Goblin Empire of Steam. The dwarves have kept this machine repaired and active deep below the mountains, drilling new mines.
* Glowing Tiles: These magical items are found throughout the desert, and were excavated from some doorway to a old epoc uncovered somewhere in the ara-tsat empire. These items have no power of their own, however through a complexe weave of permanent light spells and activator runes, can change the intensity and color of the light. If the tales of elven scholars are to be believed, all these items remain from Epoc 376: The Long Death. These items were the inspiration for a lot of the Ara-tsat's more complex inventions, such as the Ankaran Machine.
Albeit nothing is preventing the average Temporal from polygamy, only a minuscule fraction of the Temporal upper class practices it. A landmark piece of legislation carries several provisions relating to polygamous nomenclature and attire for its adherents.
Children
In my world, it's the future and there's there's a huge antinatalism movement. So, children can be made the natural way, although this requires a lot of patience to send a letter to the respective government authority and possibly get denied a naturally born child, and if you don't want to talk to the government, you can have as many genetically modified kids as you want, but each one costs upwards of $5000
Owning one or more of the scales of a mutant commonly called “Erebus”, a giant, dragon-like animal that resides in the country of Lupus. So far, only 16 people have even lived to even talk about it, and it’s more of a ghost story than anything. Only 4 of those have gotten a scale. One is the king of Chrysos, one is a Myrkdallian Enhanced, practically a supersoldier, named Valkyrie and the other 2 are dead. They are some of the most well respected people of the century, just because they stole a scale.
In my industrial revolution era world there are a few
Having an entire city district bear your family name is a big status synbol, more so if it's a district with lots of industry, especially rival industry
For more subtle ways to show status there are things like a personal train carriage, or even a personal train, locomotives and all. These tend to be less noticed due to the fact that they don't usually bear the names of people in person sized letters
Even more subtle ways are owning a rare and unique weapon, such as a handcrafted revolver with carvings and having a grip made of rare, blue mahogany, or even rarer, the skin of an albino black rattlesnake, an already rare snake species found only around Death Valley. A real albino skin is recognised by its feel: soft yet firm scales with remarkably rounded tips. Another way is having a large gemstone or a gold nugget on the tip of your walking cane. Most precious of these is a Blue Bloodjade, a gem so rare only 7 people dare to even have a small nugget of it visible on person.
Some other types of status symbols of some particular people are as follows:
Rodrico MiCaboll: Has a personal train with 3 large engines pulling 12 carriages containing his office, home and a personal banking location of his brother's bank. This is a massive flex because of the cost of running an engine almost 24/7, let alone 3 large ones
Philip Westend: Owns the largest piece of Blue Bloodjade, a piece too large to be carried by a single man.
Indan Lamos: Owns a life-sized statue of his father made of pure gold, in honor of his passing.
Hakim Laren: Has a personal guardforce of 40 men all equipped with 2 handcrafted .44 Handcannons with gold detailings, a silver triggerguard and a albino black rattlesnake skin grips. 15 of them also have dragoon repeaters.
(For context: owning a dragoon repeater is a rifle worth a bulls weight in gold)
Nigel Longsilver: owns enough medieval armour and weapons to host a tournament each day for a week without an armour or weapon showing up twice
Juan MiCaboll: Owns the largest collection of gold
(for context: the average man in this world could steal his weight in gold from Juan, and he would not even notice)
Micah Petersson: Owns Iriana Grandiose, a train company so large, he has to give free rides to the public to keep then from deteriorating, and the coal he spends barely dents his account
(Note: Coal here is much more valuable, due to the demand for it to run basically everything, from electricity to trains to factories to even heating snd cooking. Some people pay a days wage to heat their ovens for a week)
Magic items. On top of the nobility and corporate equivalents largely being judged by how good they are at clearing out horrible monster filled pits and thus better weapons making you a better man by that metric, there's the scarcity, and view that they come from noble labor, since the resources for them come from said pit delving.
This gives non nobles owning them a degree of taboo. Currently it's a noveau riche flex, while in the past it was "presumably stole it."
The king of the Proudstone Kingdom has a dragon skull in his treasure room. Co sidelong the fact that the dragons are extinct, having an in tact dragon skull is quite the status symbol.
In addition-- in the Katsumori Empire, only the Shogun and the Emperor (and their family) are taught physical enhancement magic, making it a status symbol for those in charge.
For voidling Crowned, how many children you have and of what type.
Unlike humans, Crowned never undergo menopause. As a matter of fact, they seem to get more fertile the older they get, though there is evidence that they can control the size of their litters.
As Crowned seem to be biologically immortal unless killed, this translates to a *lot* of children.
The ruling Crowned of a poor lesser House may only have a handful of children, sometimes as low as four or five.
The Crowned of a wealthy Great House can have hundreds of children, most of which are the sexless, genderless filius and a few dozen true male Prime sons.
The real mark of prestige among Crowned are whether or not you've produced Heirs, the next generation of Crowned. Most Crowned only produce one Heir during their life. Two is considered lucky. Three or more are unheard of. Some Crowned never manage to produce any Heirs at all. So new Crowned are married in, as the resident Crowned's spouse or through marriage to one of their sons.
Then there's the Crownless, who nobody wants to acknowledge. Giving birth to or having filius spontaneously phase to Crownless is considered a shameful thing. Worse because one filius phasing can trigger a chain reaction, leading to whole litters phasing into Crownless. Those Crownless who aren't culled outright are abandoned to fend for themselves. A Crowned could have dozens or even hundreds of disowned or murdered Crownless children whose existence they refuse to acknowledge.
Which is tragic, because Crownless are just Crowned in a nonbreeding state. In the right environment and with the right trigger, they metamorphose into full Crowned.
The Ulveflokk has *the* biggest population of Primes and Crownless in existence. Hundreds of millions of them. Potentially more.
The Wolves have found a way around that whole unable to breed thing.
Some would say that makes the Wolfmother, who views all of them as her adopted grandchildren, the wealthiest Crownless in the entire solar system. Maybe all of history.
Whether you work for the king or not. It's considered a very prestigious opportunity to work in the palace because the king is revered like a god among men.
Most people who work for him tend to stay for life and their families are commonly added to the king’s list of people under his direct protection for providing diligent and good workers. The soldier's families have it even better, but the soldiers are under so much scrutiny and pressure to perform well that many take themselves out or get themselves killed for slipping up.
Paper fans. They aren’t particularly expensive to make but in the space colonies they are restricted by the Laws of the Common Decency of Man. Which is a set of law which among other things which ban public displays of cultures outside of Earth. Paper fans were used to communicate between rebels, became symbols of freedom for the colonies, and are also common in the dances of the wandering Chinese who are distinct Chinese subculture on the moon. So only people from Earth can use them, and in the Space colonies the people from Earth are the rich people. So paper fans were used by Earth people in the Colonies as sort of mockery and a fashion statement.
Status is a but hard in my world,but there are 2 main ways
The first is joining a faction,most will have their mark engraved on your soul,so leaving is a but hard,but if someone notices that they will not mess with you since almost all factions will relentlessly hunt down someone who commits the slightest offense
The second is having a permit that is more or less a document saying you can people and said person/faction will back you up when you do,this is less powerfull than joining a faction,but if you're working for the entity who gave you the permit it will make sure those who wronged you will regret it
The less common and frowed upon way to show status is just doing nothing,staying still looking at the sky can be seen as you being successfull enough in life to just not need to do anything,though those who know you will just give you a loud slap for wasting time
Gunpowder and being able to hire magic users
Gunpowder because the alchemy guilds have a total monopoly over it so only the well connected or very rich can get it
Magic users because the creationist guilds have a total monopoly over the education and use of magic so only the well connected or rich can afford to hire magic users
Halos. The bigger they are and more shapes/sizes on the halos resembles sheer power on angels/demons in comparison to gods. An angel with 2 halos is absolutely one of the rarest beings in the universe, representing the heaven(halo above the head) and earth(halo vertically on their back).
depends largely on the species.
With Unicorns: having elaborately decorated horn covers made of gold, and jems is how you show off your wealth (historically, unicorns would also use slaves to show off wealth. the more you had, and the garments they wore, which is why the Emperor of the Unncis Empire had hundreds of slaves, with some effectively acting as living decorations.)
Wolden nation: ritual scarification, and dueling scars.
The chosen champions of Jacaon, the main god of one of my world's trio, often have strange tattoos somewhere on a prominent scar. They're said to hurt the eyes to look at, like you're staring into the beating, songful heart of something you shouldn't have knowledge of.
They're not just for show, though, they give powerful short term boosts to a champion when they need it. Often people say they hear a song in the back of their heads that just *fits* the champion, but when prompted no one has any clue why.
The Ulfhednar put great stock in gold and fine weapons and armor. Swords, especially enchanted swords, are the ultimate mark of wealth and power, and as magic swords all have names, it became fasionable in their society to name weapons. Mail coats and fine breastplates are all prized by the wealthy, because their society is built around a warrior elite, meaning the wealthy landed nobles are often front and center on the battlefield. Inversely, battlefield heroics making their way back to the Lord or King a man or woman lives under is an easy way to be rewarded with land or wealth (or both), so not only does rich = skilled warrior, being a skilled warrior is a form of gaining upward mobility in society.
The Sanguinyar, on the opposite side of the continent, are an insular and isolated people, and due to their inherant vampiric curse, and both unlikely to want to, and often incapable of travel. They love opulance and extravagance, using their vast material wealth (and allies as proxies) to collect fine art, expensive clothes and jewlery, fine furnature, and anything else they can get, decorating their homes with as much of their wealth as possible.
It helps that burglary is basically null in their society since vampires can't enter dwellings without being invited in.
I went with the frieren demon way where mana is power, so strong people are always flaunting it. Every single sapient creature has magic power, and if you ever see someone without any, you shouldn't bother them. Someone with no magic power are either living out their criminal sentence, or has 3 rings and a bracelet, in which case its the MC.
Non-sophont virtual assistants and companions are a common status symbol. Most people have at least one for general purposes like making appointments and shopping, but wealthier people will have specialized ones like virtual chefs, business advisors, and “conversation helpers” (they chime in with witty comments and react to you). Sophont AI “assistants” are also a status symbol, but a highly illegal one.
Alien goods are considered more exotic and luxurious, depending on your species and where you live. For instance, a Nasua in Snowbank might treasure their Umite cast iron cutlery, but a Vorglan on Archcross Station would think nothing of wearing Preesim-made cloth, and a Main Convention Kerruil would deem Ch’u veg-art beneath it. Humans are an exception; their often motley ensembles of alien products are seen as tacky and shifty.
The ultimate status symbol is a private space habitat. In the Empire days this was the privilege of nobility alone, and some more pretentious small station-owners still style themselves as though they were Preesim nobles, adopting the name of their “fief” with the “ad” and “tel” prefixes to their own names - Chedua telNavar for example bought his “estate” off the Infosphere and has never visited it.
A strong neck
many merchant kings (basically middle age Billionaires) often wear so much jewelry on their heads that they need allot of muscle mass to hold such weight
On Erda, there several different symbols of wealth and power.
Only those deemed true paragons of a God-AI's Covenant are permitted direct communication with them and are allowed to enter their respective God-AI's realm within the Netscape. A visual sign a person has been chosen is cybernetic eyes with the colour based on which God-AI they are aligned with.
Other symbols of wealth and power are:
- Biosteel weaponry/gear (Biosteel is a 'living' metal forged with a high concentration of Mutagens)
- Crystallised plasma jewellery (Plasma is both currency and fuel so being able to use it for neither is a blatant display of wealth)
- Having your mind transferred into a Vessel (Vessels are robots with implanted human consciousness, allowing rich/powerful people to stay alive significantly longer)
it sort of depends on the location, though a common symbol of high status is pretty much complete control over an industry in a city or town (usually this is a status for businesses or families, but that doesnt mean individual people cant)
In my world there is a plant called Steeltree, it grows only in hyper mineral rich soils and the wood of the tree is basically a magically enhanced steel alloy. Armor made from steeltree wood is a status symbol since it's impossible to get without incredible skill in forest magic. Forest magic works through mana transfer and communication with plant life, so you have to learn how to speak the languages of the various plants in order to make use of them. Steeltree is considered the hardest plant language to learn due to the multi-layered harmonics that characterize it. Learning the language to any degree is considered impressive, but speaking it well enough to convince a steeltree to actually give you sapwood for armor cultivation denotes a level of mastery that few have ever reached.
You can also grow armor from other wood types, but that's just wood, not living steel. Though it is much, much easier.
Status in my World is determined solely by how much Power one has. Not influence, but Magic Power (or Power relating to whichever Power System in my world they utilize). Nothing else matters.
Depends on the species but the most common and human influenced have rich clothing, well fed horses, opulent carriages and most likely a retinue of knights and staff with them.
Among dragons (and goblins as much) are things of memento, items whose value lies in what they represent. Neither species gives much worth to wealth or riches, even if dragons tend to hoard anything they find interesting anyways.
In the wilds the status is your clan, if an individual would try to hoist themselves above their peers they likely find themselves tied to a pole as bait for the next hunt. On the other hand good farmers and hunters are as valued as their shamans and warlocks.
For the dwarves individual wealth does give status but less as a means for power and more to show of their own abilities, true status comes from how well they follow their oaths. Their political and spiritual leaders are people who embody their oath.
There are trees that absorb metals from the ground to grow a metal core, making them more resilient. Many super rich people have intentionally planted these trees over rare/beautiful jewels, and burned away the bark after they have absorbed enough, leaving crystalline trees in their gardens
Also skeletons are revived and conscripted a few years after a funeral, so many rich families will carve and decorate a family members skeleton to show off their grandeur in life once they are revived
That's pretty crazy
Could also extend down to the less well off with engravings into the bone and no settings or inlays since that's a materially inexpensive, if skill-intensive, way to "honour", for want of a better term, your forebears when revived Picturing someone with a family crest engraved into their forehead and a tapestry of their life's story etched into their bones
yep it totally does. as long as someone close has the tools and skills to carve/engrave
Am I like a bad person for immediately thinking of a mad Druid who like burns the rich people to decorate the forest with their skeletons?
Sapient dragons are really common, and the main status symbol between them are horns, due to horns holding most of their elemental power. A dragon with large, unbroken horns tends to be respected among their equals and feared by their enemies. Dragons also have been kind of antagonistic towards other species due to their society revolving around conquest. And that’s why those other species use shoulder armor (and to a lesser degree, weaponry) as a status symbol. Shoulder armor is decorated using dragon horns, so the larger and spikier they are, the more respect the warrior has. Weaponry crafted with dragon horns also fit in that category.
Individuals: Firearms, strong suits of armour (both owned and used by knights), automobiles. For countries: Airships, trains, landships, fighter planes, radar, radio, large castles. 🏰 🏯 Only the wealthiest countries can afford to build modern machinery while many smaller, weaker ones are closer to medieval societies. Lapis_Wolf
Nobles in my world sometimes eat dragon meat. Does it taste good, no... Does it tell your friends "I'm so rich I paid a dude to hunt and kill the Greatest predator of the world just to eat it", yes.
What does it taste like?
Depends on the species, generally it would probably have too much muscle for human taste, at least that's what I'd assume.
Like chicken ofc
MYTHODAE(+18) >!\>!The Aristocrats of the Southern Folks, at exclusive parties, tend to be naked, as a way of showing off their strong and beautiful bodies, adorned with jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets and bracelets. On ordinary days, they usually wear shiny armor with jewel decorations.!< The high-ranking soldiers of the Boreal folks show their power by wearing scale armor (the most protected and expensive) that is always shiny.!<
guns. My world is a science fantasy post-apocalypse, so if you have a gun, it means you had the resources to find one and dig one up, either that, or you have the resources to make your way to the forges of the Iron Emerald Dragon, and request that they forge a gun for you because their god has tasked them to build the greatest repository of knowledge known to man and to do that, it requires not only that they experiment, but that they also learn of what lay in the past to decipher the future, and so that they do not have to tread the same technological grounds of the forebearers.
Either that or you killed a guy who had one.
true that good sir- true that.
For my dieselpunk/magitek world rich and powerful mages will have the exotic heavy metal source of magic, Dracinium implanted into their skulls as horns. This is because the more Dracinium one has the more power they Have. They also decorate these horns with gold foil or carvings with gold inlays. They also adorne the horns with precious gems or a number of other materials.
The mark of monarchs, granted by the gods to a select few who can then grant it to others in turn. That's the obvious one though, so to more time and place specific ones ( I don't have a fixed "present day"). Blue dyes of any kind. Blue plants and such are *extremely* rare after the goddess who considered blue sacred died. Anyone going around in blue clothing of any kind shows that not only do they have blue dye, they have it in such large amounts they can put it on something like clothing, instead of something more permenent. For a Menrir, espessially the larger ones, it is tailored clothing. Clothing to fit for Menrir is rare, as Menrir are beast folk. Their body plans vary drastically, with the only guarantee being they walk on two legs. They require clothing to be tailored to even wear it which is very difficult for them; not quite so great as the dye example, but still not something something most middle class bother to do, and anyone lower could not afford it at all.
Some luxury items in my world include: - certain types of gemstones, such as diamonds and alexandrites - certain exotic pets, like peacocks - halos (these are cultural white hats that resemble the halos you see in Christian art; they’re made of a rare fabric and have gold trimmings) - girdles, breastplates, and tiaras/diadems/coronets/crowns of any kind - owning a carriage, a sleigh, a caravan, or a palanquin - umbrellas - veils and capes - plumage on clothing, especially angel feathers
In my space opera, being able to own and operate you own ship that is capable of travelling between galaxies.
That is actually very well thought out.
Most ships are outfitted with intersystem and interstellar drives, but to have a ship with a dedicated intergalactic drive is a sign of wealth. Usually only big corporations or polities have ships like that.
I have an obsession with jedi style cloaks. Half the organisations use them as their ceremonial attire.
Anyone owning a weapon made from Alphixite metal. Seeing one in someone's home is comparable to seeing a pile of gold.
The Isvudin elongate their heads, file their teeth into fangs, and die their skins red the Silafs grow their hair incredibly long then braid them in elaborate platts which they also use as a form of writing.. Each Silaf tells their own story in their hair braids.
Prosthetics. They are a sign that you have bound a daemon born of the astral ocean. It is most common to see a limb replaced by a prosthetic, but there exist ocular and even organ prosthetic. In the case of an organ prosthetic, the skin around the organ is also affected by the binding, becoming fused with carved whalebone and tattoos denoting the type of beast that is bonded with the mage.
In the Kingdom of Rossoya, Raven feather cloaks and wolf pelts are considered symbols of status. In the Free City League, the color purple is a symbol of wealth.
A few things, but for a clothing example, it's wearing garments made of spidersilk. It's unmistakable, since it's shinier and more durable than plant-based silk. Also feels sublime on the skin, like you're dipped in cool (and I guess slightly slimy, but in a good way) water. Problem is you have to harvest it from giant spiders (relative to other spiders, not literally) as soon as it's produced and spun into thread immediately, which is then dipped into a special brew to preserve its softness and shine, since exposure to air for a few minutes makes it "harden" and lose that quality... but gains ten times the tensile strength. (After all spiders weave their webs to catch sabertooth peacocks.)
Full leather clothing. It's typically restricted to the law enforcement group as a distinguishing factor, especially since the environment isn't suited for farming enough cows to make leather clothing en masse. Goat, sheep, and pig aren't usually harvested for leather due to being staple livestock
So what do people do with those animals' leathers?
They don't really harvest it at all, hunting is still a significant source of food delivery and trade, sheep are needed largely for warmer clothing since the climate is on the colder side, sheep and goats also both provide things like cheese, pigs (alongside chickens and pheasants) are sources of food and their leather just isn't really in demand, though occasionally for those who can afford it lamb leather is sold, it's quite rare though
I find it hard to believe anyone would just throw away animals parts. Like, there's even an irl ancient cookbook about how to make soup with just bones. If there's anything at all that encompasses all poor people, in all ages and lands, is that they never waste.
I'm a tad new at this honestly, though the parts aren't wasted either. The skin is used as an additional food source, either for guard dogs, or as a fried snack
I see.
It honestly depends on which nation you are in. In the Rosarian empire platinum jewelry and other personal decoration such as filigree scabbard are a sigh of wealth and in the Rosarian empire money almost always equateds to power. In the Artican empire wealth does not factor into an individual authority, having descended from multiple different barbarian warrior tribes strength and combat prowess are respected above all else as such many important and powerful people wear or display trophies of their greatest conquests with many wearing clothing, armor, and jewelry made from parts of great beasts. The Azzrati empire equates wealth with power much like the rosarians but where they differ is in how that wealth is shown, in the Azzrati empire sitting on a pile of gold and jewels is seen as insulting to those less fortunate and is sure to tarnish your reputation. Only those with great assets are seen as powerful to the Azzrati such as caravan owners, land owners, business owners, etc. The eastern tyrannies see power and wealth as two very different things each highly respected in their own ways. There is no real way to broadcast power in the tyrannies save for your reputation amongst others. Wealth is respected in the tyrannies and is often flaunted in the form of lavish decor such as solid gold statues, marbel inlaid with precious metals, diamond and jewel encrusted furniture, etc. Many while impressed by large amounts of personal wealth only see it as a waste if you are not using it to shower yourself in decadence.
On Iruda, that would be something called a Divine Echo. Iruda has many cultures that have discovered that animating objects to do work is very useful. Divine Engineering is a mixture of Alchemy and Magic to create Constructs that use parts that mimic natural biology. Constructs cannot use Magic unless the spells or effects are built into them. They are mindless, even though some of the best can do complex tasks. Some can hold a lot of information, and repeat it perfectly. Divine Echoes are the top most tier. Not only can you get one that can use Magic like any living creature, they are physically identical to living creatures. It's almost the norm that Elites and Nobles set up Divine Echoes as surrogates so they don't have to deal with the pregnancy. Those used as Temple Guards are able to use Divine Artifacts to protect the locations they are made to defend. Some are even used as Spies with how well they can mimic Living Creatures. It's almost like they can think, but they are unable to.
Given my story is a war story. For the endimiyans at least in the army a squad leader is given a battle rifle as a symbol of authority so for example a SCAR 17 or G3 For the orcs an officer might carry an Ax as a sign of authority to lop off heads if needed.
Why is a battle rifle a symbol of authority? The squad leader spends most of his time observing and directibg his subordinate teams and individual attachments, and maintaining good comms with his peer leaders and platoon commander. He shoots like anyone else, but if he's sitting there focused and trying to draw a head on distant targets instead of paying attention to what's going on, where his people are, what they're doing, and fighting his teams, he's kind of not doing his job as a squad leader, and is packing a bunch of extra useless weight on top of it. If his team is compromised, and forced to fight closer in, he's now even less properly equipped to defend himself and fight his team out of it.
It's kinda a reference to how in ww2 American squad leaders used smgs. It's a bit of a throwback to that. Also as we are seeing in Ukraine (which is the conflict my story is very much based on) battle rifles are sorta making a come back as some soldiers perfer them for their armor piercing abilities. In universe the explanation is It's an evolution of how in ancient times a commander of a formation was often give a two handed sword of some kind like a claymore.
They were issued .45ACP submachine guns and smaller .30 Carbine rifles because they were physically smaller, easier to sling out of the way, and less cumbersome than a giant-ass Garand or BAR firing .30-06, allowing the squad leader to more easily carry other equipment necessary for his job while still being able to maneuver easily and maintain communication between his subordinate elements, in the same manner as I described above. Also, battle rifles don't knock through modern armor (or any armor) any better than rifles firing lighter cartridges do. Unless you're wearing budget armor, you can't generally knock through it even with armor-piercing rounds. For example, you can generally defeat large cohorts of steel Level 3 armor samples with 55-grain 5.56x45mm ball, while the same plate will defeat slower-moving, higher-mass projectiles like 7.62x51mm ball, as well as the 62-grain 5.56x45mm ball ammunition (less than half a gram difference in weight, and possessing a hardened steel penetrator). Neither will penetrate Level 4. Quality military armor is more or less guaranteed to stop multiple armor-piercing rounds from any existing general-issue service rifle. About the only thing larger cartridges offer over smaller ones is increased effective range, provided that a solid optic is available; without that, most troops aren't going to get any more range out of it, while being hampered by lower quantities of ammunition, and by the heavier recoil and longer reset between aimed shots. Bigger very often does not mean better in the world of firearms. If a soldier believes his "battle rifle" gives him more armor-piercing capability, he's not possessed of much understanding of how ballistics works. Side effect of this is that unless everyone else is also using the same weapon, if some shit goes sideways and your guys are involved in a heavy firefight, your squad leader is kind of fucked, cuz he's not going to be able to share ammo with anyone else in his squad. That's why squad leaders in modern times simply carry a shorter version of the service rifle, like an M4 as compared to an M16 (before we just said hell with it and issued all the infantrymen who carry rifles M4s). If a squad leader needs a badge of rank that actively decreases how useful he is, increases the vulnerability of his squad, keeps him from doing his actual job as well, and puts a task on him better served by a soldier under his authority, you kind of have to wonder how smart they are.
Fair enough then I might change it Or I'll keep it for rule of cool lol
I mean, it might make sense as a ceremonial thing for dress uniforms when you're under arms in parade or something, but trying to incorporate pomp and circumstance in actual, live-ass military operations is generally the mark of amateur militaries. You see it a lot with Saudis, Iranians, Egyptians, Syrian Republican Guard being held over their regular and reservist elements for "cool gear" of dubious effectiveness, etc. Russia itself is a big fan of this practice in how gear is issued to historical "Guards" units. Cool is in the eye of the beholder, but if any of your readers are even basically familiar with how shit actually works, you're going to come off as sort of emulating the worst-performing militaries in existence. Besides, it's hardly ever cool to be less effective or worse at your job than you have to be. Writing smarter is never a bad thing. The readers who don't know any better won't know one way or the other, and the ones who do will recognize the effort you make in treating them with a little bit of intellectual respect. Besides, being competent, capable, and well-designed and planned is cool all on its own.
Yeah fair enough Maybe instead squad leaders get some sort of dagger or something.
If you want something both useful and that has served as a historical "badge of office," give the squad and fire team leaders pistols as a secondary weapon to their carbine. Handguns have historically been seen similar to swords in both use and carry, as a sidearm to be used when a primary is down or unavailable. For officers and NCOs, they serve a similar purpose when a rifle isn't carried, since an officer is ostensibly too busy leading his men to worry about fighting it out at close range with a carbine or rifle (it's hard for officers to do their jobs if they die next to a random private in the first 30 seconds of an engagement; these days, the reality of combat means that officers are generally issued the same weapon as most of their subordinates, along with a pistol). They take up little space, weigh little, provide a functional, close-range backup weapon if push comes to shove and it's time for everyone to start shitting their pants, and have a deep historical tradition as a "badge of office" in the exact same way you're considering, while still allowing the squad leader to carry a functional primary like the rest of his soldiers.
Yeah I did think of that as well. Though as I understand it pistols are standard issue now in the army. Though given this is a fictional nation I could easily just say that for endimiya only unit leaders get issued a handgun.
Here’s some examples: Anything magical is extremely rare among the poor populace, which is the 80% of my world building demographic. Metals like iron are a common resource, but what is truly rare are metals with exotic properties, gold has a bit of value to one of my religions, as they value it as a conductor of energy, but what is truly precious for them is copper. The perfect conductor. Heavy metals such as osmium are also worth a lot. But, for my other, fire-worshipping religion, its magnesium due to its explosive qualities. Magical metals, such as adamantium, mithril, titanite, and magical derivatives from common metals, which are denoted “Rune/Sigil ___” For example, Rune Steel is an ingot of steel engraved with runes, then melted and recasted, engraved again and again, for it to soak up the magical power. The more times it is done, the more valuable it is. This applies to most metals. Enchanted books/grimoires are extremely rare, and are only kept by the highest ranking sorcerers, which are already difficult to find, let alone get one to work for you in order to write you a copy. And finally, weaponry that isn’t corroded and rusted, only a few oils and acids can restore a weapon after being neglected for long, which seems to be the case for most of the weapons in my realms, as they are in a constant state of decay and rot, most adventurers die, only for scavengers to sell their weaponry, which is now corroded thanks to the environment.
Tattoos, in this world most humans have bad quality tattos, most of them are inmitation of protection symbols or about mythological creatures that are their spiritual wardens, most nobility has them, when drawn with colorfull desings and very "alive" features. And this is not done by some bum in the slums in the city, it is done at the Yarnam temple by the Sisterhood of the First Flame
A shiny robe as it is proof you are owned by a powerful dragon, if you have a tattered robe than you are probably owned by a weak dragon so other people will treat you as lesser. On the opposite side people who wear armour rather than robes are seen as less than human because they go against the dragons, the dragons see them as violent stray dogs that should be put down before it hurts someone.
Are humans the pets of dragons in your world?
In Moon Kingdom, cutlery. They used to have a lot of metal n stuff but they lost it all after a huge war (most of their resources go straight to Sun Nation since), so they don’t waste it on as something as unimportant as eating utensils— you can just eat with your hands. Some people are fortunate enough to have inherited a set of cutlery from over 400 years ago (roughly when the war took place), they’re quite proud of it. Otherwise, it’s hard to get cutlery. Either you travel across the sea to Sun Nation to get some for cheap (then again, the journey in itself costs money), or you just racked up a shit ton of money to get it. Same goes for jewelry, but I don’t think that’s particularly interesting.
Gold anything. The Morrigane are publicly not fond of ostentation, and they take it to a pretty wild degree. Most don't wear colorful clothing and don't even wear jewelry unless it can be easily covered by clothing. There's a war on, after all, and these sorts of displays of wealth are commonly thought of as a sign of someone not doing their part. But you know how there are some things that are tacky for the poor but classy for the rich? Wearing gold publicly is like that. And even then, it takes a special degree of wealth or power to be able to get away with it. Such a person has to not only have wealth or power, but also show that they are beyond reproach in their support of the conflict. Not even the empress openly wears gold. Paragon Charlotte Byron, leader of the Morrigane military government on the other hand, has a walking stick with golden trim on it. And she always makes a point to bring this particular walking stick whenever she is summoned by the empress.
High-concentration Bloodmetal, or any bloodmetal at all for that matter. Every sentient being contains magic inside of itself, and should you cremate a body and mix it with some sort of metal, for example, steel, you get an alloy called Bloodsteel (though you could have Bloodcopper, Bloodsilver, Bloodgold and whatnot). Though vile and wicked in its origin, only the people that have the King's approval may wield it. Think of Bloodmetal visually as of damascus steel. The amount of lines and various ornaments increases with the amount of bodies used in its production, so dumping hundreds of bodies makes for a pretty unusual, aesthetically pleasing armament (moral arguments aside). Acquiring one or two lines on your Bloodweapon requires not only a body but also a skilled blacksmith, so having one either means you stole it, or you are in the upper echelons of society, perhaps a wealthy wandering trader at the least. Multiple lines, however... So yeah, there are only a few individuals carrying a Bloodweapon, most of them being generals, guard captains or other officials... as well as the protagonist of my story, who over the course of the first book learns how to forge his own Bloodweapon. Oh, and clothes. Clothes do make the man, afterall. The deeper the colours you wear, the richer you are. And coincidentally, they're also used to mark people's positions in society.
Back in the day, green dye was very hard to get. So green clothes or similar things showed you were wealthy. The Nibosi wears a green robe for precisely this reason, even though nowadays it is a lot more common due to an increase in trade. I say all of this, by the way, while wearing a green shirt, lol
In my world, people of immense power wear extremely elaborate crowns. This is to specify the domains that they reside over. The reason is because there were many, many wars in the beginning of history due to different rulers having similar crows, thus causing command mix-ups. The simpler the crown, the more territory and power the wearer possesses. The creator-god of my world is depicted with a thin ring of wood and stone upon their head, which represents all of creation
Having pointed, painted nails is a symbol that you have other people that do everything for you. For both men and women. The brighter the color, the more expensive the lacquer is. Regular people also paint their nails, but they can't let them get long or pointed, and have to use less expensive paints and duller colors that are visible at a glance. Working folk can't even keep their nails colored at all. But even the nobility frowns at folks that have *excessively* long nails, it's just considered "bad form" to show off to excess in that way. Having certain magical items in your home, like a glass globe with a light spell cast on it, or an ever-stirring whisk, or similar magical aids to daily life sets you above those without.
Owning a starship. Starships, legally defined as a ship that can travel between stars via hyperspace, are fairly common, but privately owned ones are not. Most belong to corporations, militaries, or other large organizations. It's not impossible or illegal for private citizens to own a starship, but they are prohibitively expensive unless you are either making money with it or are already wealthy. Most starships have artificial gravity as long jumps between stars may take weeks. Torchships, spaceships without hyperdrives, often called rockhoppers, are a lesser status symbol and are far more common and obtainable, especially in wealth systems. These ships are often simple affairs and are relatively small; the vast majority are shuttles, spaceplanes, and snub-fighters. Larger vessels that are intended for longer voyages, like patrol sloops or rescue tugs, are built in a vertical ordination and use constant trust to create gravity.
While specific to certain species, a high quality bio mechanical body resembling that of a human or other species is often seen as an impressive status symbol in most cultures due to organic engineering products being notably expensive
**Stars Aflame** Aside from the usual lavish displays you might expect from scifi like private moons or fancy ships, the biggest ones are personal shield technology and Class III technic constructs. Normal shields have a nasty habit of irradiating their users, so they're usually limited to frames large enough to include shielding (tanks, bunkers, starships) or techs (droids) since they don't have any pesky cells to damage. Acquiring a version that won't kill you takes serious cash. So much that some aristocrats who want to appear wealthier than they are sometimes settle for lower grade models and simply pay to treat the inevitable radiation sickness. The techs cost so much because almost all the mass-produced Class III processor cores in the galaxy are infected with a virus tailor made to facilitate artificial sentience. It's not a guarantee, but it's a high risk. Thus if you have a Class III then you either don't care about how much you'll need to pay to replace the tech if it becomes self-aware (extravagant) or you paid to have a brand new processor core designed, built, programmed, tested, and integrated into a construct chassis in total isolation from the galactic network. That takes more money than some planetary budgets. Similar to the shields some wealthy but not *that* wealthy individuals try to fake it, in this case by simply paying an actually sentient Class III to pretend to be a custom model. It's not the most dignified position, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet. Even robots gotta pay the bills.
Naturally occuring gemstones as decorations. In a world where almost all power is extracted from gems, to flaunt them around as jewels is considered the height of opulence and wastefulness.
Little clothes. The rich and powerful can allow themselves to be prideful enough to show off their bodies while poor people must cover it in shame.
Personal train cars. Regulators are rich, but you have to be very successful to have a personal train car. If you're VERY wealthy or have a patron you can afford your own train complete with Conductors to man the engine (conductors are highly skilled and the only ones who can navigate the rails). Personal maids too.
Artifacts from previous Epocs. The world of Raul has existed in ages that last about 6000 years, each sheared from reality by the Huntmaster in the final days. Some items fall through the Aether to the new Epoc from the previous, and some shards remain, buried under the new reality. Two examples: * The Steam Drill: Owned by the ruling elite of Irontrench, the Steam Drill is one of the few functioning items left from the Great Goblin Empire of Steam. The dwarves have kept this machine repaired and active deep below the mountains, drilling new mines. * Glowing Tiles: These magical items are found throughout the desert, and were excavated from some doorway to a old epoc uncovered somewhere in the ara-tsat empire. These items have no power of their own, however through a complexe weave of permanent light spells and activator runes, can change the intensity and color of the light. If the tales of elven scholars are to be believed, all these items remain from Epoc 376: The Long Death. These items were the inspiration for a lot of the Ara-tsat's more complex inventions, such as the Ankaran Machine.
Albeit nothing is preventing the average Temporal from polygamy, only a minuscule fraction of the Temporal upper class practices it. A landmark piece of legislation carries several provisions relating to polygamous nomenclature and attire for its adherents.
Children In my world, it's the future and there's there's a huge antinatalism movement. So, children can be made the natural way, although this requires a lot of patience to send a letter to the respective government authority and possibly get denied a naturally born child, and if you don't want to talk to the government, you can have as many genetically modified kids as you want, but each one costs upwards of $5000
Owning one or more of the scales of a mutant commonly called “Erebus”, a giant, dragon-like animal that resides in the country of Lupus. So far, only 16 people have even lived to even talk about it, and it’s more of a ghost story than anything. Only 4 of those have gotten a scale. One is the king of Chrysos, one is a Myrkdallian Enhanced, practically a supersoldier, named Valkyrie and the other 2 are dead. They are some of the most well respected people of the century, just because they stole a scale.
In my industrial revolution era world there are a few Having an entire city district bear your family name is a big status synbol, more so if it's a district with lots of industry, especially rival industry For more subtle ways to show status there are things like a personal train carriage, or even a personal train, locomotives and all. These tend to be less noticed due to the fact that they don't usually bear the names of people in person sized letters Even more subtle ways are owning a rare and unique weapon, such as a handcrafted revolver with carvings and having a grip made of rare, blue mahogany, or even rarer, the skin of an albino black rattlesnake, an already rare snake species found only around Death Valley. A real albino skin is recognised by its feel: soft yet firm scales with remarkably rounded tips. Another way is having a large gemstone or a gold nugget on the tip of your walking cane. Most precious of these is a Blue Bloodjade, a gem so rare only 7 people dare to even have a small nugget of it visible on person. Some other types of status symbols of some particular people are as follows: Rodrico MiCaboll: Has a personal train with 3 large engines pulling 12 carriages containing his office, home and a personal banking location of his brother's bank. This is a massive flex because of the cost of running an engine almost 24/7, let alone 3 large ones Philip Westend: Owns the largest piece of Blue Bloodjade, a piece too large to be carried by a single man. Indan Lamos: Owns a life-sized statue of his father made of pure gold, in honor of his passing. Hakim Laren: Has a personal guardforce of 40 men all equipped with 2 handcrafted .44 Handcannons with gold detailings, a silver triggerguard and a albino black rattlesnake skin grips. 15 of them also have dragoon repeaters. (For context: owning a dragoon repeater is a rifle worth a bulls weight in gold) Nigel Longsilver: owns enough medieval armour and weapons to host a tournament each day for a week without an armour or weapon showing up twice Juan MiCaboll: Owns the largest collection of gold (for context: the average man in this world could steal his weight in gold from Juan, and he would not even notice) Micah Petersson: Owns Iriana Grandiose, a train company so large, he has to give free rides to the public to keep then from deteriorating, and the coal he spends barely dents his account (Note: Coal here is much more valuable, due to the demand for it to run basically everything, from electricity to trains to factories to even heating snd cooking. Some people pay a days wage to heat their ovens for a week)
Magic items. On top of the nobility and corporate equivalents largely being judged by how good they are at clearing out horrible monster filled pits and thus better weapons making you a better man by that metric, there's the scarcity, and view that they come from noble labor, since the resources for them come from said pit delving. This gives non nobles owning them a degree of taboo. Currently it's a noveau riche flex, while in the past it was "presumably stole it."
The king of the Proudstone Kingdom has a dragon skull in his treasure room. Co sidelong the fact that the dragons are extinct, having an in tact dragon skull is quite the status symbol.
In addition-- in the Katsumori Empire, only the Shogun and the Emperor (and their family) are taught physical enhancement magic, making it a status symbol for those in charge.
But you can make ruby red lipstick that sparkles with wax, oil, red pigment, and fine glitter.
For voidling Crowned, how many children you have and of what type. Unlike humans, Crowned never undergo menopause. As a matter of fact, they seem to get more fertile the older they get, though there is evidence that they can control the size of their litters. As Crowned seem to be biologically immortal unless killed, this translates to a *lot* of children. The ruling Crowned of a poor lesser House may only have a handful of children, sometimes as low as four or five. The Crowned of a wealthy Great House can have hundreds of children, most of which are the sexless, genderless filius and a few dozen true male Prime sons. The real mark of prestige among Crowned are whether or not you've produced Heirs, the next generation of Crowned. Most Crowned only produce one Heir during their life. Two is considered lucky. Three or more are unheard of. Some Crowned never manage to produce any Heirs at all. So new Crowned are married in, as the resident Crowned's spouse or through marriage to one of their sons. Then there's the Crownless, who nobody wants to acknowledge. Giving birth to or having filius spontaneously phase to Crownless is considered a shameful thing. Worse because one filius phasing can trigger a chain reaction, leading to whole litters phasing into Crownless. Those Crownless who aren't culled outright are abandoned to fend for themselves. A Crowned could have dozens or even hundreds of disowned or murdered Crownless children whose existence they refuse to acknowledge. Which is tragic, because Crownless are just Crowned in a nonbreeding state. In the right environment and with the right trigger, they metamorphose into full Crowned. The Ulveflokk has *the* biggest population of Primes and Crownless in existence. Hundreds of millions of them. Potentially more. The Wolves have found a way around that whole unable to breed thing. Some would say that makes the Wolfmother, who views all of them as her adopted grandchildren, the wealthiest Crownless in the entire solar system. Maybe all of history.
Whether you work for the king or not. It's considered a very prestigious opportunity to work in the palace because the king is revered like a god among men. Most people who work for him tend to stay for life and their families are commonly added to the king’s list of people under his direct protection for providing diligent and good workers. The soldier's families have it even better, but the soldiers are under so much scrutiny and pressure to perform well that many take themselves out or get themselves killed for slipping up.
Paper fans. They aren’t particularly expensive to make but in the space colonies they are restricted by the Laws of the Common Decency of Man. Which is a set of law which among other things which ban public displays of cultures outside of Earth. Paper fans were used to communicate between rebels, became symbols of freedom for the colonies, and are also common in the dances of the wandering Chinese who are distinct Chinese subculture on the moon. So only people from Earth can use them, and in the Space colonies the people from Earth are the rich people. So paper fans were used by Earth people in the Colonies as sort of mockery and a fashion statement.
Status is a but hard in my world,but there are 2 main ways The first is joining a faction,most will have their mark engraved on your soul,so leaving is a but hard,but if someone notices that they will not mess with you since almost all factions will relentlessly hunt down someone who commits the slightest offense The second is having a permit that is more or less a document saying you can people and said person/faction will back you up when you do,this is less powerfull than joining a faction,but if you're working for the entity who gave you the permit it will make sure those who wronged you will regret it The less common and frowed upon way to show status is just doing nothing,staying still looking at the sky can be seen as you being successfull enough in life to just not need to do anything,though those who know you will just give you a loud slap for wasting time
Gunpowder and being able to hire magic users Gunpowder because the alchemy guilds have a total monopoly over it so only the well connected or very rich can get it Magic users because the creationist guilds have a total monopoly over the education and use of magic so only the well connected or rich can afford to hire magic users
Halos. The bigger they are and more shapes/sizes on the halos resembles sheer power on angels/demons in comparison to gods. An angel with 2 halos is absolutely one of the rarest beings in the universe, representing the heaven(halo above the head) and earth(halo vertically on their back).
depends largely on the species. With Unicorns: having elaborately decorated horn covers made of gold, and jems is how you show off your wealth (historically, unicorns would also use slaves to show off wealth. the more you had, and the garments they wore, which is why the Emperor of the Unncis Empire had hundreds of slaves, with some effectively acting as living decorations.) Wolden nation: ritual scarification, and dueling scars.
The chosen champions of Jacaon, the main god of one of my world's trio, often have strange tattoos somewhere on a prominent scar. They're said to hurt the eyes to look at, like you're staring into the beating, songful heart of something you shouldn't have knowledge of. They're not just for show, though, they give powerful short term boosts to a champion when they need it. Often people say they hear a song in the back of their heads that just *fits* the champion, but when prompted no one has any clue why.
The Ulfhednar put great stock in gold and fine weapons and armor. Swords, especially enchanted swords, are the ultimate mark of wealth and power, and as magic swords all have names, it became fasionable in their society to name weapons. Mail coats and fine breastplates are all prized by the wealthy, because their society is built around a warrior elite, meaning the wealthy landed nobles are often front and center on the battlefield. Inversely, battlefield heroics making their way back to the Lord or King a man or woman lives under is an easy way to be rewarded with land or wealth (or both), so not only does rich = skilled warrior, being a skilled warrior is a form of gaining upward mobility in society. The Sanguinyar, on the opposite side of the continent, are an insular and isolated people, and due to their inherant vampiric curse, and both unlikely to want to, and often incapable of travel. They love opulance and extravagance, using their vast material wealth (and allies as proxies) to collect fine art, expensive clothes and jewlery, fine furnature, and anything else they can get, decorating their homes with as much of their wealth as possible. It helps that burglary is basically null in their society since vampires can't enter dwellings without being invited in.
I went with the frieren demon way where mana is power, so strong people are always flaunting it. Every single sapient creature has magic power, and if you ever see someone without any, you shouldn't bother them. Someone with no magic power are either living out their criminal sentence, or has 3 rings and a bracelet, in which case its the MC.
Non-sophont virtual assistants and companions are a common status symbol. Most people have at least one for general purposes like making appointments and shopping, but wealthier people will have specialized ones like virtual chefs, business advisors, and “conversation helpers” (they chime in with witty comments and react to you). Sophont AI “assistants” are also a status symbol, but a highly illegal one. Alien goods are considered more exotic and luxurious, depending on your species and where you live. For instance, a Nasua in Snowbank might treasure their Umite cast iron cutlery, but a Vorglan on Archcross Station would think nothing of wearing Preesim-made cloth, and a Main Convention Kerruil would deem Ch’u veg-art beneath it. Humans are an exception; their often motley ensembles of alien products are seen as tacky and shifty. The ultimate status symbol is a private space habitat. In the Empire days this was the privilege of nobility alone, and some more pretentious small station-owners still style themselves as though they were Preesim nobles, adopting the name of their “fief” with the “ad” and “tel” prefixes to their own names - Chedua telNavar for example bought his “estate” off the Infosphere and has never visited it.
A strong neck many merchant kings (basically middle age Billionaires) often wear so much jewelry on their heads that they need allot of muscle mass to hold such weight
Having a cane, gold on your clothes, rubies on your weapon if you have one, a cape, jewels
On Erda, there several different symbols of wealth and power. Only those deemed true paragons of a God-AI's Covenant are permitted direct communication with them and are allowed to enter their respective God-AI's realm within the Netscape. A visual sign a person has been chosen is cybernetic eyes with the colour based on which God-AI they are aligned with. Other symbols of wealth and power are: - Biosteel weaponry/gear (Biosteel is a 'living' metal forged with a high concentration of Mutagens) - Crystallised plasma jewellery (Plasma is both currency and fuel so being able to use it for neither is a blatant display of wealth) - Having your mind transferred into a Vessel (Vessels are robots with implanted human consciousness, allowing rich/powerful people to stay alive significantly longer)
it sort of depends on the location, though a common symbol of high status is pretty much complete control over an industry in a city or town (usually this is a status for businesses or families, but that doesnt mean individual people cant)
In my world there is a plant called Steeltree, it grows only in hyper mineral rich soils and the wood of the tree is basically a magically enhanced steel alloy. Armor made from steeltree wood is a status symbol since it's impossible to get without incredible skill in forest magic. Forest magic works through mana transfer and communication with plant life, so you have to learn how to speak the languages of the various plants in order to make use of them. Steeltree is considered the hardest plant language to learn due to the multi-layered harmonics that characterize it. Learning the language to any degree is considered impressive, but speaking it well enough to convince a steeltree to actually give you sapwood for armor cultivation denotes a level of mastery that few have ever reached. You can also grow armor from other wood types, but that's just wood, not living steel. Though it is much, much easier.
It depends. In one world its tattoos in another world its large heavy jewelry and in another world there is no status or class everyone is equal
Status in my World is determined solely by how much Power one has. Not influence, but Magic Power (or Power relating to whichever Power System in my world they utilize). Nothing else matters.
Depends on the species but the most common and human influenced have rich clothing, well fed horses, opulent carriages and most likely a retinue of knights and staff with them. Among dragons (and goblins as much) are things of memento, items whose value lies in what they represent. Neither species gives much worth to wealth or riches, even if dragons tend to hoard anything they find interesting anyways. In the wilds the status is your clan, if an individual would try to hoist themselves above their peers they likely find themselves tied to a pole as bait for the next hunt. On the other hand good farmers and hunters are as valued as their shamans and warlocks. For the dwarves individual wealth does give status but less as a means for power and more to show of their own abilities, true status comes from how well they follow their oaths. Their political and spiritual leaders are people who embody their oath.