The Cargan nobility (patricians and equites) differ in many ways from their Frankish counterparts. What is written also holds true to some extent for the Confederacy's aristocrats.
The Cargan nobility have not half the martial skill of the counterparts to the west (and north, and east). Their foreign peers consider this a further proof that Cargans are effeminate sodomites. The Cargans consider it proof that their foreign peers are brainless wonders.
The Cargan upper class have but one use for martial prowess: Staying alive. They do not soil their hands on the battlefield, and generally prefer to let professionals terminate their enemies. But for precisely the latter reason, Cargan nobles maintain a healthy interest in combat skills.Sword, knife and pancratium are the emphasized skills.
Unlike their feudal brethern, the Cargan nobles are almost universally and fully literate and numerate. They are also expected to know logic and rhetoric, the law and and to be capable administrators and leaders of men.
Though the Cargan code of honour is still the arbiter of social grace, the majority of noblemen feel less bound to the code than to keeping up an appearance of obeying it.
Skill at arms is lowly value among the Cargan nobility, and similarily, the hunt is not considered a particularily noble pursuit.