Commonly in these postings and elsewhere, I've seen the Rokari portrayed as something of a Lawful Evil kingdom, where caste makes might makes right. Yet I think such a model would be generally unpalatable to the peasant majority, and would inspire a great deal of internal strife. And certainly more elaborate and palatable justifications of the social strata would arise.
My thought is that there is a prevalent theory in the Rokari Church that society ture model of society is not on the "Top-Down" scheme of the Law Rune (where the few at the top rule the many at the base) but on the "Bottom-Up" model of the Inverted Law Rune.
In an inverted model, the logic dictates that the "Highest" caste is in fact the peasant majority. The rest of the castes exist to "serve" and "protect" the peasants. Thus, the Ruling Caste serves the peasants by freeing them of such irksome responsibilities as making decisions, collecting and spending taxes, making long term societal plans. The Priest Caste serves the peasants by intervening for them full time to the Invisible God and His Saints, freeing them from the responsibility of learning obscure and difficult skills, maintaining difficult magics and abiding by stiff behavioral restrictions. And finally, the Knight Caste serves the peasants by protecting them from harm, by relieving them from the onerous task of owning and maintaining horrible unclean items like weapons and armor, and by keeping them from having to defile themselves by shedding blood. Pity the poor Hrestoli farmers, who are forced and expected to take on the burdens of fighting, praying, and ruling. Surely are not the Rokari better off, with their lives freed to concentrate of the simple daily tasks of existance, without having to engage in any of the activities that might slow their progress to Solace.
And what of the elaborate castles, enormous wealth, and unstoppable power of the "servant" classes? Pity those surrounded by such things, for these trappings are horrible weights that impede their progress to Solace, and they only tolerate them to help you, their masters, and free you from burdens that would trouble your day.
Personally, I think the Inverted and Uprights (or Bottoms and Tops as they are colloquially know) would both have large followings among the people, and even the most convicted Upright would probably pay lip service to Bottom philosophy when speaking in public.
Just some food for thought.
Robert
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #435
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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