The world I am building is an egalitarian society, meaning that men and women are seen as completely equal. There is no discrimination based off of sex. Gender as a concept is irrelevant. Pronouns are based off of one's sex, not whether they present as masculine or feminine. This world is also in a medieval setting.
That said, should both men and women of noble birth be called "lord," or should they still be addressed as "lord" or "lady" based on their sex?
The same applies to a king or queen. Only the hereditary monarch gains power, leaving their spouse with essentially no influence. For example, once a Crown Princess inherits the throne, her husband or wife receives no title other than the generic "lord." So should the hereditary monarch go by the titles "King" or "Queen" based off of their sex, or should I invent a gender-neutral title?
@"Meandering Mutt" I would say invent gender neutral title unless you want to make it clear to the reader that just because some one is "lord, lady, king, queen, ect." doesn't mean that their spouse or anyone else that was born noble has any less power than them.
'Sir' or 'Ser' both work as gender-neutral titles, depending on the culture.
'Ruler', 'Supreme Leader', 'General', 'Chief', and 'Minister' all work neutrally.
Or, since it is the families themselves which are royal, you could have royal titles just be the character's name followed by 'of House ____', and other aliases.
I would still use gender-specific titles because if it is in a world that gender does not matter, then it will not have an effect on the status of the names such as the difference between a lord and a lady. It would have no other effect than to distinguish.
You could try other titles too such as "Regent" or the "Crown", or other sorts of things.
