The concept of rank exists in all but a very few of the socio-economic systems known to mankind. A lot of newly-colonized planets start out with a ready-made hierarchy brought along from the mother planet. When, for example, a feudalistic society colonizes another planet, that society is usually transplanted lock, stock, and barrel, a duke or prince on top and all the rest of a feudalistic system under him. Private colonization efforts often start with built-in differences based on how much each participant has contributed to the project, and even when a colony starts out as some kind of democracy, many of them sooner or later turn into oligarchies, tyrannies, or dictatorships. Furthermore, only the most fanatically egalistic society does not have SOME kind of hierarchy of their own. Most democracies make as much fuss of their elected leaders as other systems make of their hereditary leaders.
In the vast conglomeration of worlds that makes up the Imperium, all sorts of social systems abound. The Imperium does not usually interfere with the shape and form of any planetary government as long as it pays its taxes and obeys a few basic rules.
Problems arise, however, when dignitaries of different worlds come into contact with the interstellar society of the Imperium and, through it, with each other. How does one decide the precedence of the Grand Director of Vilis, the Speaker for All the Tribes of the Grundish Steppe on Sorel, a Commander of a Thousand Sails of the Southern Archipelagic Confederation on Overnale, and the Lord High Syndic of Thorshavn on Marastan? And of course things get even more complicated when the same titles are used for positions of vastly different importance. The Duke of Troura, however sovereign a ruler of his few thousand sparsely populated square miles of Tirem, is with his 80,000 subjects certainly not the social equal of Duke Lionel du Nord, Regent of the Rheltan Highlands, even though Duke Lionel is not a sovereign but a vassal of the King of Caledonia; and neither of them are the equal of Duchess Avaraja of Glisten*. Worse, in some cases a title that sounds utterly common to one person will denote high rank to another. To most people, for example, Captain, Astrogator, Purser, Master-at-Arms, and Chief Pilot are just the titles of simple working spacemen. But on several planets colonized by misjumped ships they are the titles of high-ranking officials like the hereditary ruler, his heir apparent, the Minister of Agriculture, and the commanders of respectively the army and the air force. Related to this phenomenon is the confusion caused when some societies reverse the order of importance of some titles, like on Caledonia where a marquis is superior to a count (or earl as they call it) instead of the way things are in the Imperium.
The Imperium has solved this problem by creating the Imperial Division of Heraldry* (IDH). This is ostensibly an Imperial department for the registration of heraldic coats of arms and equivalent devices, but in reality their most important function is to evaluate local titles, offices, and positions and translate them into equivalent Imperial social positions. On the recommendation of the IDH the holder of a given title, office, or position automatically receives a knighthood in an appropriate Imperial order. This just as automatically gives him or her a fitting position in Imperial society.
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There is a large number of Imperial orders of knighthood. Some of these, like the Most Valorous Order** of the Emperor's Guard (E.G.), the Most Courtly Order** of the Starship and Crown (S.C.), the Most Illustrious Order** of the Arrow (O.A.), and the various orders of the domains are used to reward individuals for service to the Imperium; they are not normally used just to grade local planetary dignitaries. For this purpose the most commonly used are the Most Excellent Order of the Third Imperium (T.I.), the Most Distinguished Order of the Golden Sun (G.S.), and the Most Exalted Order of the Star of Sylea (S.S.) (The last should not to be confused with the Most Noble Order** of the Domain of Sylea (D.S.)).
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