would noble or royal bastards in nohr get retainers?
It really depends on who’s deciding and how nice they are about bastard children in the family. For the most part as you can tell from this AU, no, most nobility wouldn’t grant their bastard children the same privileges as their legitimate ones. There are unusual cases, but those are very far and in between.
Anri, who’s usually been considered a bastard child because of his weird origins, was allowed retainers because Garon is actually a kind father for once. Azura was supposed to get them earlier as a kid, but Theresa was mean and pretty much shut down all attempts to get that done.
Jakob had his right to being a son of Gehring taken away before he got dumped onto the Lovells, so he doesn’t actually get to have retainers in his name. Because his sister Miriam is taking over command of House Gehring, she’d grant him that privilege if he asked for it. However, Jakob is happily living with the Lovells and is very content to be Claudia’s butler/retainer/husband(?) rather than to move back with the Gehrings.
Or... if Jakob and Miriam get along properly, he probably takes time off to go back and help Miriam get Gehring’s shit together. She probably force retainers on him even if he said no, then be persuaded to take some to legitimize his position as a proper nobleman if he does plan on marrying Claudia. Although Jakob is rude as hell of a person, he woudl easily win his retainers’ loyalty and they would probably end up following him back to Esterlyn when he returns to serve or marry Claudia, depending on player choice.
