Editing Noble (section)

== Nobles in Fantasy ==

When the word "nobles" comes to mind in fantasy settings; the stereotype for them is the rich folk who lives it up like a pre-revolution French king while his peasants and guards do everything for him. This is only a half-truth, as while nobles can be as decadent as they wish since they can afford to do so, even noble classes partook in combat. A simple example are the [[Knights]], who are nobles but are popular in many settings for their elite combat prowess.

Nobles throughout world history were notorious for exploiting their power to oppress the common populace, so they are usually good as enemy leader fodder in fantasy settings where the nobles continued to live a life of unparalleled luxury while the people lived in constant hardship due to him either short-changing the people on resources or taxing them to unfair levels to maintain his growing treasury. Perhaps this type of noble is no more evident in [[Dwarf Fortress|Dorf Fortress]], where every living soul despises them for requesting the most luxurious and expensive goods and accommodations and will jail a worker if they fail to appease his literally impossible demands (regardless if he's one of your most valuable, skilled workers) like making him glass in the middle of a tundra. This type of attitude however, happens to have a particularly hilarious side-effect of them meeting "unfortunate accidents" at an unprecedented rate.

That said, the "common touch" [[Lawful Good]] noble who stands aloof from his kinsmen because of his just policies and good management is an equally-popular subject in fiction. Sadly, settings that involve strife means that a goody-two-shoes noble is highly susceptible to assassinations and chronic backstabbing attempts by rival nobles who're after his fortunes (a lot like real world history, really).