The term Paramount Ruler, or sometimes Paramount King, is a generic description, though occasionally also used as an actual title, for a number of rulers' position in relative terms, as the summit of a feudal-type pyramid of rulers of lesser polities (such as vassal princes) in a given historical and geographical context, often of different ranks, which all recognize the single Paramount Ruler as their senior, though not necessarily with effectively commanding authority (as in a true empire), but often rather a notion like the Western suzerainty.