Here is a small reflection that I have written for players in my campaign. It has not been revised, so flame at will.
The Myth of Caste Immobility
Copyright Jose Ramos 1997
Although much of this is true for most Malkioni, it has been written with the rokari in mind.
The rokari claim that everybody is born to a caste, where his duty to the Invisible God is to be a shining example of that caste duties, and he will be granted a longer life in this world and Solace after death. Now, this seems very well in theory, but how does that really work in practise?
Outsiders
When an outsider converts (or is converted) to rokarism, his caste will be determined by his new lord. As only a king has no lord (but the Creator) above himself, there is usually one lord or another to dictamine his position. But, as humans are fallible beings, any other lord can change the first one dictamen. So a resourceful barbarian who converted would begin as a Farmer, but if his service to the lord was good enough, a higher lord could dictamine he was really a knight, and rise (or descend, this works both ways) in caste.
In this way an outsider position is always at risk, depending on the goodwill of the rulers, but on the other hand that gives a flexible social situation.
Many mercenaries have been in this situation, slowly assimilated into rokari society. I suspect Richard the Tigerhearted used this a lot, both with friends and enemies.
Going Up
This is a bit trickier, as a rokari position is clearly fixed by its environment. There are three choices.
Many mercenary bands in Ralios and as far as Kethaela are of this kind. If you have a horse, armour and you say you are a knight, you will be a knight unless someone knows the truth. And mercenaries can be crass and uncultured without standing out. The mercenary lords will use the same line: "I command knights, I am a Lord. If you disagree, come and meet my crossbowmen..."
For obvious reasons, not many people impersonate wizards.
If you are far from home, were abandoned as a child or have very strong support this will pass with an acceptance by the church and your lord (both old and new if they are different) of your supposed parentage. If everybody knows your parents and specially when going up to Lord, things are trickier. In that case you have to humiliate your parents by claiming being a bastard (truely) and showing some proof (getting the supposed father to acknowledge you), or just an old priest testimony if all concerned are dead.
First sons have an advantage here. As the "Droit de Seigneur" is still practised, this gives an excuse (sometimes with a long delay) to claiming the lord as sire without shaming your family. Truely, in certain areas Farmers force the lord to fulfill his duties, as anything else would be unlucky, and that gives some hope in the future for the kids.
The Church also uses this technique. Some priests roam the countryside buying prospective kids from their families. There is even an established little ritual, where if the parents are interested in giving the kid a chance of a better life in a monastery, they decry the child as not their son, a foundling, or how it does not resemble his father at all. The kids are taken to a monastery to be trained in the wizard caste. Those that do not make it return to being a farmer, this time in church lands. The bright ones join the church.
Going Down
The procedures are similar to going up. You can declare somebody a bastard, and lower their caste, or a wizard can hide from pursuit hiding as a Farmer in the country. Marriage is a way of eliminating the heirs of your rivals (and Guimarn of Seshnela uses to marry his relatives daughters with his knights, leaving them without eligible heirs (but him).
There is another way of descending in caste. If you cannot sustain your caste duties, you descend (Lord to knight or farmer, the rest to farmer). For instance:
Of course many of this descended farmers are the ones to travel far away and simulate their old caste.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #185
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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