Back when Leika and Gareth were inducting, and there were very, very few maran, you had to really shine to get inducted, and as shokai put it "at some point, killing trollocs just doesn't cut it". It wasn't quite as exclusive as Scarab or Ehren Guard, but it was close.

Then, to make it a bit more far, the maran/squire system went in, and the only people made maran were the exceptional ones that would have eventually gotten in under the prior system.

So, that concept of having to shine somewhat, to get maraned still exists. Is it past it's heyday, and time to be a bit more far on making folks maran, maybe? Numbers are pretty low.

Maybe a 4 tier system instead of the current three tier, more like empire? Give the base powers at maran pretty freeely, come up with a minor perk to give out at Knight (or whatever you want to name the rank)
- Squire
- Maran
- Knight
- Leadership position (Marshall/Captain)