>The Elamle Arroin use an odd caste system (which derives from the myth
>of the first people).
I'm not so sure.
By 955 Teleos was isolated. A fleet of refugees had to
choose between pushing further eastward, past the known
lands of the Sofali, or settling in Maslo's coasts. Most
chose the later.
Glorantha Book p26.
If the refugees are Malkioni (who have four castes), then the weird caste system of the Elamle Aroin could easily be an adaption of the refugee's culture.
>All the fourth caste aren't rulers, the society wouldn't be
>balanced.
Well they could still all be rulers (i.e. having the ability to command lower ranks), but it will make the Elamle Aroin a more decentralized or democratized society (in that the lower caste follows what most of the local rulers want).
Secondly there is the scope for caste warfare. As well as the idealized version that the rulers look after the farmers because they are their children, while the soldiers are respectful of their parents, the society could also be torn by generational strife. The rulers despise their drunken good-for-nothing farmer-sons and their harsh puritanical priest-fathers while being friends to the soldiers because they have a common enemy. The farmers likewise have friends in the priests against the decadent rulers and brutish soldiers. If the caste system is Malkioni in origin, then women will be outside it and spared most of the caste warfare.
>Instead each caste beyond the first
>is incremented with a set of idols that are necessary for some
>occupations: ruler idols only come from the fourth caste, war
>idols only from the second, so rulers and warriors are picked
>in those castes.
I don't see the need for caste-idol specificity. The idolmakers will belong to the priest caste and so they will know how to make idols for everyone. Also the Elamli that are not Aroin (and thus no caste) know how to make the same types of idols.
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