Themiclesian nobility
The Themiclesian nobility (姓族) consists of multiple categories of individuals that enjoy varying degrees of social, political, and economic privilege.
Royalty
Palatine princes and princesses
The palatine princes are the most senior titles in the Themiclesian system of nobility. On a symbolic level, the relationship between the sovereign and the palatine princes is one created by a treaty between equals, unlike that with his barons, which is created by vassalage, and with his children, created by descent. This symbolic equality is punctuated with political inequality, whereby the princes have surrendered part of their jurisdiction under the terms of the Treaty of Five Kings in the 3rd century.
Royal princes and princesses
Empress Dowager
There are several titles used for the legal and biological mothers and grandmothers of the emperor, depending on the circumstances of the succession and relationship of the incumbent with the predecessor. Themiclesian law regards each succeeding emperor as an offspring of the precedessor's consort—the empress, and an empress who survives into the following reign is given the title Empress Dowager (帝太后, tis t'ais-goh), regardless of her relationship with the incumbent. This title is synonymous to Queen Dowager (帝后, tis-goh) before the pretention of imperial title by the Meng Dynasty. If the incoming emperor's biological mother is not the late emperor's consort, then there is a secondary title to honour the former, which is also written as Empress Dowager (皇太后, gwang-t'ais-goh) in Tyrannian. Where there is only a single Empress Dowager, the distinction is usually not made.