Castes are a good thing now?

Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by thread ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
Other mail archives: !!!!!!> Visit the Search Engine of Lhankor Mhy <!!!!!!

From: Michael Cule <mikec_at_room3b.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 19:40:27 +0000

Paulo he say:
>I do not know whether the key to Malkioni success is magic, though.
>Their strength is in their caste system, which enforces social
>organization and craft specialization, allowing important technological
>achievements usually not available to "Jack-of-all-trades" barbarians
>and primitives.

I have never felt this to be entirely the case. The two largest sects, the Rokari and the Hrestoli both fail to provide a workable caste sytem, the first by failing to allow caste mobility ("You may be a spineless, intellectual bookworm but your father was a soldier so you're going to be a soldier!") the second by requiring it ("You've just managed to master the arts of the soldier, now for a total change of emphasis as you start to learn how to be a wizard.").

My own feeling is that feudalism with castes only works by allowing the system to break down. Of course my own personally crafted heresy the Julianists have none of these problems....

-- Michael Cule