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I am running a game of En Garde over on the RPG Stack Exchange. For purposes of verisimilitude, we're wondering about station-specific greetings in Paris in the 1630's. What would be an appropriate greeting between two low-class males with aspirations of climbing the social ladder? What would be a greeting from a low-class to a high-class (but non-titled) male? And what would be a greeting between two high-class gentlemen?

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You'll need to be more specific about class, and how in the hell they think they're capable of changing their class position (1nd estate priests from bourgeois with a unique administrative capacity, noblesse de graduelle? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… ). The wikipage seems to help. Also, Dangerous Liasons. Or do you mean gutter snipes attempting to get an apprenticeship and thus possibly become Masters by marriage? – Samuel Russell Feb 13 at 5:07
Well, in this fictive setting, mainly by attaining glory in the army. The fact of absurd social mobility is the essence of the game, and the intent of the question is to add appropriate set dressing to it. But this ranges from the bastard son of a labourer to the first son of one of the titled nobility. – Brian Ballsun-Stanton Feb 13 at 5:09
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There's a listing at the encyclopaedia, above. This encyclopaedia page probably fills the needs for RPG fidelity to actual history. Louis XIII didn't have as much power as Louis XIV, but military success, combined with "discovered" genealogy records could advance people as fast as required—if causing grief amongst the old nobility. The systems and hierarchies of nobility developed in opposition to the centralising power of Louis XIV and in part in relation to the attempt of Louis XIV to control the nobility. So atypical and absurd advancement is fine—if it generates suitable conflicts. – Samuel Russell Feb 13 at 9:50

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