Re: Brithini Caste Restrictions/Duties

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_ivydnMYeZAn60M9njSfc89QK4KUpAI_d-abmX3WWTjNiA5ZAdbS8WuexxKkIwx7Rlsr>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:38:16 +1200


> Any information on Brithini Caste Restrictions/Duties?

The only people who can fight are the Warriors.

The only people who can provide for others are the Commoners.

The only people who can throw spells at other people are the Sorcerers.

The only people who can give orders are the Rulers.

Trying to do the duties of another caste is damaging to one's eternal life and should be avoided at all costs.

Obviously there is some overlap - the hunters are commoners - and tensions exist within the Brithini society. The Talar keep order by telling everybody they know best and encouraging the troublemakers to leave so that they'll die of old age.

Personally I think that the Zzaburi society is a lot more dynamic than painted in the writeup for Arolanit in the Genertela Book. IMO there's several different types of Zzaburi and rather than having rigid boundaries, such as Zzaburi in Arolanit and Malkioni out of Arolanit, the social geography is a lot more confused.

  1. the Brithini Exiles. Although kicked out of Brithos for being liberals, they are still rather conservative and set in their ways. The Exiles would normally be warriors and commoners as the rulers are the people doing the kicking out and the Zzaburi of Brithos are generally too powerful to be kicked out. There are exceptions - the ruler of Arolanit was kicked out of Brithos for political reasons. Any exiles found today would be truly orthodox - they'd have to be to survive for seven centuries - and intent on being paragons.
  2. the Arolanit Zzaburi. IMO Arolanit did not exist before the Great Darkness but was created by the Zzaburi from nothing in order to provide a testing ground for Zzabur's Great Spell that regenerated the Cosmos. Their land is imperfect and incomplete but they are sticking around trying to improve it until it becomes indistinguishable from the real world. Twenty centuries later and they still have a long way to go. These people are intensely powerful but too focused on developing Arolanit to be movers and players in Glorantha.
  3. the created Arolaniti - when most people visit Arolanit, they see these people and assume them to be ordinary Brithini. They are not. They were made by the Arolanit Zzaburi and are close to being magical stereotypes and caricatures because they are not quite right. They are extremely easy to replace and if killed, the Zzaburi can always snap their fingers and make some more.
  4. the other Zzaburi - these are your typical sorcerors found in and around thw est from Loskalm through to Tanisor, Nolos, Safelster and Umathela. They are the magical providers for their kin and also the link between the local Church and Zzabur's great spell. Each and every one of them can probably cite a chain of teachers that culminates in Zzabur himself.
  5. the little Brithini. These are the kin of the other Zzaburi. They are most often found in other Malkioni lands as nobody real likes living in Arolanit. They are chiefly grouped in families around a Zzaburi with a Talar acting as a steward/major domo for the Zzaburi. They are a Malkioni minority but a recognized one and rarely persecuted.

--Peter Metcalfe            

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