There are only two feudal titles currently in use in Chybisa: King and Baron.* In Chybisa, the title of baron is granted in the writ that alienates a fief from the royal domain and conveys it to a tenant-in-chief. Although the monarch may revoke them for reasons of treason or rebellion, such grants by writ are heritable and the title, the fief, and nobility are passed on, generation after generation, to the heirs of the original grantee. While kings and barons are almost always also knights, inheritors of the title are not required to be knights. There is a preference for male heirs over female heirs in Chybisan patterns of inheritance, but women are also eligible to inherit the writ and the title, nobility, and fief it conveys.
Barons, earls, and dukes have heritable titles. ...Anyone who holds such a title, or is married or offspring to such a person, is considered gentle.
Encyclopedia Harnica #7
Unlike the case with knighthood, where dubbing grants nobility only to the knight and his immediate offspring, a writ grants nobility to the spouse of the title-holder and to two generations of the title-holder's offspring (i.e. the title-holder's grandchildren).** This basic pattern of inherited nobility can be illustrated with a simple diagram.
Because nobility within the "great houses" is carried down to the second generation, nobility spreads to about twice as many families than is the case in the clans of "simple knights" as the title is carried down through successive generations. The diagram below illustrates the inheritance of nobility through three generations based solely on the nobility associated with the inherited writ.
But the above diagram ignores the advantages the baron's great wealth and position offer eligible members of his clan in obtaining knighthood. At the very least, the baron will make every effort to get his own children the opportunity for knighthood and, depending on the family situation, may also extend that opportunity to the children of his brothers and sisters. While the great clans remain a mixture of noble and common-born families, the combination of nobility associated with the writ and that obtained through knighthood result in a greater proportion of noble families in the great clans than is the case with simple knights. This more typical pattern of inherited nobility can be illustrated with this diagram.
*The feminine forms of these titles are Queen and Baroness.
**The extension of nobility to the titleholder's grandchildren is not explicitly stated in any of the CGI-published H�rrnic material. I have inferred it from the published material and used it here to create a system similar to that used in England. This helps avoid instances where an individual with a strong claim to the title would be a "commoner" as might be the case if the inherited nobility extended only to the first generation of offspring.