Rokari Nobility from Peter Metcalfe on 2005-05-14 (Glorantha Digest Vol 11)

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_quicksilver.net.nz>
Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 20:39:16 +1200

Joerg:

>Perhaps the Rokari with their men-at-arms ("sergeants") and knights
>have a fighter case closer to mediaeval yeomanry, with only the nobility
>including "landed knights".

No. The Rokari place great weight on being true to the ancient traditions. This entails that they only have four castes. Since Rokar also tried to prove that Knights are a redefinition of the Soldier caste and not a separate caste, the duties of men-at-arms and so forth have been shifted downwards from warrior caste into the farmer caste.

I understand the Sergeants not to be men-at-arms but mounted troops that weren't qualified to be knights. That was the medieval practice and receives some support from Heroquest voices: Seshnela where knighthood is not automatic for members of the knightly caste.

> > Plus bigger and better armies and more territory to rule over.

>Not to mention the downward mobility that is prevalent in Rokari caste
>system, too - moving upcaste is hard, revoking a higher caste is fairly
>easy.

I don't think so. The concept that People live and die within their caste precludes both upward and downward mobility. An excess in the nobility caste is avoided through two methods

surplus daughters are married to members of the lower castes (since women have their own caste) and any sons that result will be the members of lower castes, not nobles. Usually the marriage partner are rich merchants with bucket loads of money to lend.
surplus sons are not permitted to marry (a similar device is found in Heroquest Voices: Seshnela). They can still father kids but any male bastards that result will have their maternal grandfather's caste (normally a knight or a merchant). Begetting a bastard on a noble's daughter, I suspect, is causing one's life-espectancy to shortern dramatically.

In both these cases, strong kinship ties will be created across classes such that influential commoners and knights will congregate around a lordly house on the bases of kinship ties. Because the Malkioni are not Orlanthi, they don't really care for distant kinships.

--Peter Metcalfe