Orders, decorations, and medals of Karnia-Ruthenia

The Orders, decorations, and medals of Karnia-Ruthenia covers those decorations awarded by the states which came together under Ruthenian leadership to form the Karno-Ruthenian Empire in 2016. The Karno-Ruthenian honors system goes back to 2014 and the establishment of the Order of St. Stephen and was modeled on European honours system. Most of the actual system were inherited from the Kingdom of Ruthenia, the predecessor state of Karnia-Ruthenia.

The Karno-Ruthenian honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement or service to the Empire and consists of three types of award: honours - used to recognise merit in terms of achievement and service, decorations - to recognise specific deeds and medals, to recognise bravery, long and/or valuable service and/or good conduct.

As the head of state, the Emperor-King remains the fons honorum, but the system for identifying and recognising candidates to honour change considerably over time and most of the orders are not graded.

Other honours and appointments
As the 'fountain of honour' in Karnia-Ruthenia, the Emperor-King has the sole right of conferring all titles of honour, including titles of nobility, knighthoods and gallantry awards. Some offices have permission from the monarch to award medals, like the Order of Legislative Merit, which can be awarded by the Minister-President of Ruthenia and by the Prime Minister of Karnia.

There are five ranks of hereditary nobility in Karnia-Ruthenia, and they are Duke, Prince, Margrave, Count and Baron. Most of these titles are normally given only to members of the Imperial and Royal Family, but already was given to foreigners.

Refusal or forfeiture
A small number of people refuse the offer of an award, usually for personal reasons. Conversely, honours are sometimes removed (forfeited), for example if a recipient is subsequently convicted of a serious criminal offence. Sometimes the original decision to grant an honour was made on the basis of inaccurate information, but normally cases relate to actions that took place after the award was made. Recommendations are made to the Sovereign, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour.