Manda

From Elan Vital Wiki

A rank of nobility in either House Petakova or House Stocklin; however, it means very different things to the two houses.

House Petakova has only 7 Mandas, who together run the Celestian Academy; House Stocklin gives the title to any researcher of sufficient merit to run one of their central fully-government-funded laboratories (there are currently nine), and appoints 12 to run the University of Stocklin, making a total of 21 Mandas currently. One-half of the grant money is divided up among the non-University-affiliated Mandas to fund various projects; the rest goes to the 12 University Mandas to subsidize student/professor research. Some of the University's money goes toward maintaining Stocklin's various public laboratories, which are often rented by independent researchers.