History Main / FantasticRankSystem

*** Horned devils, or Cornugons/Malebranche, and Orthons are both rank 8. Horned devils are Hell's elite flying infantry, while Orthons are a dead-end carrier path that serve Hell as trackers and hunters.

*** Abishai are an alternate carrier path for devils who are more loyal to [[DragonsAreDemonic Tiamat]], the dragon goddess. They serve Tiamat rather than [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]], and as such stand outside the hierarchy, but still have corresponding ranks. White Abishai are rank 5, Black Abishai are rank 6, Green and Blue Abishai are both rank 10, and Red Abishai are rank 11.

* In ''LightNovel/DanMachi'' adventurers are assigned a level based on their abilities. They can level up by defeating powerful monsters and upgrading their stats with their respective Gods. There is no confirmed level cap, but most of the adventurers seen in the series fall into the level 1-4 range. Level 5 adventurers are considered exceptionally strong and serve as commanders within their familia, and Level 6 adventurers are the strongest individuals around and normally serve as executive officers/captains within a familia. There are only 2 confirmed Level 7 adventurers, and only one of them is named.
* In ''WebComic/OnePunchMan'', the Hero Association divides its registered Heroes into classes. The classes are further divided into numerical ranks. A hero must reach the #1 rank of their current class in order to be considered for a promotion to the next class, with the only exception being S-Class. They are the following:

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In "MÄR" the villainous army known as Chess naturally had theme ranking.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'': "My name is Geheneris HalaSon Mahr Vehl, rank of Pluskommander, officer of the Kree Void Navy. Pluskommander is a rank roughly analogous to Captain"

[[folder: Fan Works]]

*** Cardassian ranks, from highest to lowest, are Legate (canonically established), Jagul, Gul (canonically established), Dal, Dalin, Glinn (canonically established), Gil, Garresh, Gorr. This is AscendedFanon of a sort: the non-canon ranks originated in an unpublished RPG sourcebook that was released onto the Internet after Creator/LastUnicornGames lost the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' license, and were used in ''Literature/StarTrekMillennium'', ''Literature/TerokNor'', the Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch, and elsewhere.

** ArchImperator: The highest ranking officer in the entire military.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Creator/{{FASA}}'s ''TabletopGame/RenegadeLegion'' claims to use a ranking system inspired by ancient Greece, but a casual examination of its rank tables reveals that the TOG uses ranks that are taken from the ''modern'' Hellenic Navy (which from the time that Renegade Legion is set in could well be considered 'ancient Greece,' as modern times are closer to antiquity than they are to the Renegade Legion future).

[[folder: Video Games ]]

*** ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine article "Eight Devilish Questions". In the Nine Hells, a company of devils has 333 members. Each ten devils report to a sergeant called a "kohora". Each ten kohora report to a devil called an "akkrabar". Each company therefore consists of 300 regular troops, 30 kohora and three akkrabar.

** It's not clear in the Earthforce ranking system whether Major ranks higher or lower than Captain (there is evidence for both), and the same service appears to have Colonels, Captains, Generals, and Admirals. Some but not all of this is explained by the difference between Marines/Infantry and Fleet officers. It's also not clear what Mr. Garibaldi's rank is except in supplemental source material.

* Manga/FairyTail uses a lettered grading system to denote the difficulty of the various jobs that guild members can take on. They also have the desgination of S-Class Mage, reserved for the strongest Mages in a guild.

* In LightNovel/DanMachi adventurers are assigned a level based on their abilities. They can level up by defeating powerful monsters and upgrading their stats with their respective Gods. There is no confirmed level cap, but most of the adventurers seen in the series fall into the level 1-4 range. Level 5 adventurers are considered exceptionally strong and serve as commanders within their familia, and Level 6 adventurers are the strongest individuals around and normally serve as executive officers/captains within a familia. There are only 2 confirmed Level 7 adventurers, and only one of them is named.

** The highest-ranking official, second only to the king himself (and ''the'' highest governmental office that can be held by a commoner), is the Hand of the King. Ostensibly the Hand merely carries out the King's instructions, but in practice he often rules the realm in all but name.

** The prime minister of the Seven Kingdoms is called the Hand of the King. This actually started off as a joke in-universe (the first king referred to his chief supporter as his "strong right hand" and the latter took the symbol as a refference), but by the "modern" setting it's treated very seriously. He is supported by a "small council" (privy council) of officials such as the "Master of Coin" (treasurer), "Master of Whisperers" (spymaster), and "Master of Laws" (attorney general).

** The prime minister of the Seven Kingdoms is called the Hand of the King. He is supported by a "small council" (privy council) of officials such as the "Master of Coin" (treasurer), "Master of Whisperers" (spymaster), and "Master of Laws" (attorney general).

** Jounin -- Requirement: badassery. They serve as military commanders, and have mastery of at least two elemental chakra natures. No exam is known, as chuunin are simply promoted to the rank when the higher-ups deem them fit.
*** Special Jounin -- Individuals who are jounin-level in one specialized area, such as interrogation[[note]]Ibiki[[/note]] or teaching[[note]]Ebisu[[/note]])
** Jounin Commander -- In Konohagakure, the Jounin Commander is the highest-ranking normal shinobi, only surpassed by the Kage. They command all the village's shinobi forces, including other regular Jounin. They partake in important decisions, such as the selection of a new Kage.

** In the ''Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse'':

** Genin - Most peacetime children seem to pass this at age 10-12, when they have a basic grasp of taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu.
** Chuunin - Requires passing a grueling exam and impressing your superiors with your maturity.
** Jounin - Requirement: badassery. They serve as military commanders, and have mastery of at least two elemental chakra natures. No exam is known, as chuunin are simply promoted to the rank when the higher-ups deem them fit.
*** Special Jounin - Individuals who are jounin-level in one specialized area, such as
** Jounin Commander: In Konohagakure, the Jounin Commander is the highest-ranking normal shinobi, only surpassed by the Kage. They command all the village's shinobi forces, including other regular Jounin. They partake in important decisions, such as the selection of a new Kage.
** Kage: The highest attainable shinobi rank in a village, acting as the leader of the village. The Kage is usually the strongest shinobi in the village, and is beloved by the village population.
interrogation[[note]]Ibiki[[/note]] or teaching[[note]]Ebisu[[/note]])

** King - The Supreme Commander, Founder, and creator of the Anti-Human philosophy of the army.
** Queen - Second in Command
** The 12 Zodiac Knights - Commanders, Specialists, Champions, and Monsters make up their ranks, usually acquired via "Klingon Promotions"
** Bishops - Lieutenants, they are still frighteningly powerful, capable of destroying an enemy garrison single handedly.
** Rooks - The lowest officer rank, they weren't too powerful, more on the level of an expert bounty hunter or veteran soldier, but still deadly by normal standards.
** Pawn - Foot soldiers given basic weapons and matching uniforms. The equivilants to well trained soldiers, not conscripts. Not a threat to the heroes, but to the average citizen quite deadly.

** ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' suggests that the Knights Radiant of old - or, at least, the Skybreakers order - used to have their own ranking system, based on the number of Oaths sworn. Going from one to five, it was initiate, novice, Shardbearer, an unknown one and Radiant. Nale still uses the system for his acolytes.

** Medicine cat - The other of the three major ranks in the Clan: TheMedic and spiritual leader; in ordinary circumstances there is only one at a time and they train just one apprentice to take their place.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story ''Inferno'', the [[PuttingOnTheReich Republican Security Force]] of the MirrorUniverse had ranks that were basically SS ranks translated into English - the Brigadier became the Brigade Leader, Sergeant Benton's counterpart was Platoon Under Leader Benton, and Liz Shaw (a civilian scientist in the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}) had the Captain-equivalent rank of Section Leader.

*** Akan - Leads an argam of 10 men
*** Dakan - Leads a dagam of 100 men
*** Orkhan - Leads a mingam of 1,000 men
*** Orkhan of the Golden Hordes - Commands the tribal hordes as a whole in the Golden Khan's absence

* Realm Legions in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', when divided into smaller groups, name those groups after parts of a dragon - fangs for 5-man squads, scales for groups of 5 fangs etc. - and title the officer in charge of each group, for the most part, [group]lord - e.g. the leader of a scale is a scalelord.

* In ''VideoGame/PlanetSide 2'', the [[TheEmpire Terran Republic]] uses relatively normal ranks (plus the [[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]]). The [[MegaCorp New Conglomerate]] use no standard ranks - Guerilla, [[MilitaryMaverick Maverick]], Executors, et cetera. The [[MachineCult Vanu Sovereignty]] primarily uses AncientRome ranks such as "Legate", peppered with a few made-up ranks like "Paragon".

* In ''WebComic/OnePunchMan'', the Hero Associate divides its registered Heroes into classes. The classes are further divided into numerical ranks. They are the following:

* In ''WebComic/One-PunchMan'', the Hero Associate divides its registered Heroes into classes. The classes are further divided into numerical ranks. They are the following:

Works of fiction with a military setting often use real ranks. However, sometimes, these just don't fit right. Maybe the aliens have to seem more alien, or maybe the setting is so completely different that real ranks just wouldn't fit, maybe it's a result of [[BlindIdiotTranslation bad translation]], regardless, the ranks are not the same as they are in RealLife.

** Silver
** Gold (for heroes who solve national level problems)

*** Special Jounin - Individuals who are jounin-level in one specialized area, such as interrogation[[note]]Ibiki[[/note]] or teaching[[note]]Ebisu[[/note]])

** Genin - Most peacetime children seem to pass this at age 10-12, when they have a basic grasp of taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu.
** Chuunin - Requires pass a grueling exam and impressing your superiors with your maturity.
** Jounin - Requirement: badassery. They serve as military commanders, and have mastery of at least two elemental chakra natures. No exam is known, as chuunin are simply prmoted to the rank when the higher-ups deem them fit.

** Caid: Officer rank given to a military official whose duties call mostly for dealings with civilians; a military governorship over a full planetary district; above the rank of Bashar but not equal to a Burseg.
** Burseg: Commanding general. This is also Arabic, from ''qā'id'', meaning "leader".

** Bashar (often Colonel Bashar): An officer a fractional point above Colonel in the standardized military classification. Rank created for military ruler of a planetary subdistrict. (Bashar of the Corps is a title reserved strictly for military use.)

** Burseg: Commanding general.

* ''DarthsAndDroids'': Among other changes made to the plot of''StarWars'', "Darth" has become the title of address for a retired Jedi, regardless of moral standing. Yoda takes the name Darth Sain while in hiding.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** In contrast, the neighboring [[TheKingdom Commonwealth of Esotre]] uses mostly standard US Army ranks, except their generals are called Iron Dukes/Duchesses.