To go beyond 9th level, a person must take significant personal risks.
This
is a platau point for humans. (Note: this is also the very highest level
that
anybody, human or otherwise, can be trained to without personal experiences.)
Anyone with a title of "Duke" or "King" will likely have gotten enough
training
and experience to be at this level.
A person may advance to 11th level by taking regular, beyond the edge personal
risks. Few, if any, rulers will make it to this point. Most who make it
to this
point will be known by members of their own class, if not beyond.
There are perhaps two dozen 15th+ level humans in a nation the size of
Seria.
They
are people who continued to push the edge and came out alive. Normally,
they
never
stop pushing.
Numbers beyond 9th level are much rarer than for humans.
This means that the average orc will defeat the average human, but against
anyone with military training will have a 50/50 shot of coming out alive.
The "9th level" plateau still holds, however, and where a 15th level human
is impressive, a 15th level dwarf is legendary.
Beyond that, the normal level comparissons apply, as does the "9th level
plateau."
However, it is worth mentioning that very few elves ever push past the
plateau.
Those that do, tend to be the ones who push WAY past it--the 24th level
elf lord
revealed in wrath is a good image.