As befits a book with very little explicit setting, the T5 book doesn't go into Noble structures very much. The bit on Moot proxies is about it. As such there are unanswered questions.
A book with very little explicit setting should have more than one version of interstellar organization, a palette for the referee to choose from. And a book
with explicit setting should have at least a paragraph about how the setting is just one specific example and that there are lots of other possibilities.
Canon gives us a clear picture of the chain of command from Subsector Duke up, but other than the relative Soc values there is no indication that the chain continues downward. Duchies (subsectors) obviously contain Counties, Marquisates, and Baronies, but are these side by side or do they stack as well?
Ignoring any information from GT sources, the essay in
Library Data (N-Z), implies that they stack. Counts are associated with 2-3 worlds, marquisates with single worlds, and baronies with (very small) parts of worlds. However, I've been told by someone in authority (Jon or Loren, I think, but my memory is, alas, fuzzy) that later Marc Miller had decided that all systems had at least a baron, no matter how low the population. That would make marquesses and barons side by side with counts above them. Or, I suppose, counts side by side too, with marquesses and barons "filling in the cracks" between counties. The last part is, obviously, hearsay rather than canon.
However, there is another statement (on p. 7 of LDAM) to the effect that interstellar government begins at the subsector level with a duke in charge. This means that 'associated with' does not mean 'ruled by', since the counts would be a lower level of interstellar government than the subsectors if they ruled their counties. And since individual worlds "are free to govern themselves as they desire, provided that ultimate power is always accorded to the Imperium", they are obviously not ruled by the marquesses that are associated with them either.
Exactly what counts and marquesses and barons do do wasn't answered until
GT: Nobles, so since we're ignoring GT sources, there's no answer to that question. But it ain't ruling.
Hans
