The throne room of the Sand Kingdom, conceived as a background for a visual novel, though I’m not yet sure it will ever see the light of day. Working alone is still quite difficult, and time is catastrophically scarce.


The Throne Hall of the Sandy Kingdom — only females are allowed to enter its walls.

The Hierarchy of the Sand Palace

As mentioned earlier, the dragons inside the palace follow a strict hierarchy, and in this post we’ll take a closer look at it.
The inhabitants of the palace are arranged in the following order:

- The Royal Family
- The Aristocracy
- The Royal Guard
- Soldiers
- Wardens, Servants, Cooks — all on the same level
Today we will learn about the first two groups.

Before we begin, I’d like to note that while I tried to follow real noble terminology, some titles were intentionally altered to better suit the setting.

At the top of the hierarchy, of course, is the royal family — the queen and her closest relatives:

Queen — the head of the kingdom
Crown Princess — the queen’s daughter and one of the heirs to the throne
Princess — the daughter of the Crown Princess
Prince — the son of the queen
Royal Consort — the husband of the queen/princesses
Lord — the son of princes/princesses
Lady — the daughter of princes/princesses
The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of princesses are also considered Lords and Ladies, although the more distantly they are related to the queen, the less significant they are to her and the aristocracy. Such children typically play no major role, except through marriages with the aristocracy, which help strengthen trust between noble houses and the royal family. And this works both ways — the royal family also takes husbands and wives from among aristocratic children.

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Now let’s move on to the aristocracy:

Duchess — the highest nobility, closest vassals of the royal family; often responsible for educating royal offspring and acting as advisors to the queen
Marchioness — often serves as the head of the royal guard
Countess — middle high nobility; they govern regions, collect taxes, build houses and roads
Viscountess — maintain order, conduct legal affairs, and act as intermediaries between the queen and the people
Baroness — lower landed nobility; owners of small lands and fortresses, oversee trade
Lady of the Land — hereditary owners of small land parcels; they govern villages and small craft towns and serve as a bridge between common folk and the higher nobility
The aristocracy is a small exception to the rule of the palace’s closed life, as they are often scattered across the kingdom and manage its lands. Still, there is a separate floor for them in the palace where they can stay overnight if a major gathering or celebration is planned.

The exception to this exception is the Duchess, who lives at the palace and often oversees many routine yet important processes that keep it functioning.

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