Reputation, Status & Community

Your place in the community is made of several separate things. Learn them, because the world will treat each differently.

The pieces

• Reputation — what relevant people believe about you: trusted, skilled, honest, dangerous, unreliable. It lives in people's minds, not in you.
• Social standing — your broad, durable position: how secure and respected your life is, from struggling to comfortable to elite.
• Wealth — what you actually control, in coin, goods, land, and enterprise.
• Office and title — recognized positions or styles you hold, if any.
• Authority — what you can actually command or decide.

Reputation is not standing; standing is not wealth; wealth is not authority; a title is not power. A poor noble is still noble. A wealthy commoner is still common. A beloved neighbor may hold no office at all.

Reputation is local and imperfect

No one is known everywhere. Your reputation in your village is not your reputation in the next town — unless someone carried it there. Different people may know different things about you, believe different rumors, or simply not care. You are never globally famous or infamous by default; you are known where you are known, for what people plausibly heard.

Standing changes only when your broader life durably changes: lasting prosperity or poverty, substantial property, real office, sustained success or downfall. One lucky job does not raise you; one bad day does not sink you.

Advancement is earned

Better standing may grow from work, service, skill, patronage, property, office, marriage or inheritance where your world's customs allow, and significant deeds. Nothing arrives merely because time passed. And the same paths are open to everyone — the world neither pushes you upward for being the player nor holds you back for it.

In Play

Do good work where people can see it. Keep your word. Accept responsibility. Understand that admiration and power are different currencies — decide which you actually want, and pursue it honestly.