The blood get their social rankings in two ways by the power of the jewels they wear, the darker the better, and by social station, such as Queen, Black widow, warlord, warlord prince etc. The series is delightful and fresh for the fantasy genre. It is not that common for a whole world to be run by women much less where men actually appreciate serving a woman who is a good ruler. The society becomes overrun with tainted or evil members of the blood who are out to exploit the realms for their own desires. As the blood in these stories are the caretakers of the land this is quite an evil thing to do.
Witch is the hope of the few noble intended members of the blood.
Witch is the living myth, dreams made flesh as the story goes. The characters are well developed, the relationships are excellently portrait, emotions are described well, even the details of describing surroundings of the characters is done well. I highly recommend this series for those who have read it all. Look out for her book called The Invisible Ring, set in the same world as the Black Jewels Trilogy. It is also an excellent read.