I wouldn't object to ruler-appointed mentors. But I would say that you also have to remove the Mentor as a sub-class. And if you're going to do ruler-appointed, I wonder if it might be prudent to also get rid of mentor goodies as well.
If you just remove it as a sub-class you can't keep the goodies. To many people would be mentors just for the goodies. So if you were to remove the goodies and allow it to be something you can choose to do that would work. I think a lot of players would do this for the good of the game. I would.
But I still don't see the harm in allowing for the goodies to remain and changing it to a ruler appointed position(s). This would make it a kind of honor to be a mentor and if the goodies still existed then there would be a strong motivation to get that honor.
the difference is that with ruler appointed mentors, you get a certain level of competition for the position, a political aspect to it, and you can keep the goodies. If you just let anyone opt into the position you can't have the goodies and you don't get the political aspect to the position. It becomes something almost outside the RP of the realm.
