Social Classes

Social Classes

Society in Reichtengen is divided between Those Who Own and Those Who Work. There is little fairness to this division, and while Those Who Own insist the stratification is natural and necessary, the evidence they point to is flimsy at best.

Those Who Own

Rather than producing something of value, Those Who Own extract wealth from property by charging others for its use. This property might be land, infrastructure, buildings, machinery, magic, or anything else that's difficult to obtain.

The Aristocracy

Descendants from warlords, tribal leaders, and other persons who were in power at the time of the Iron Empire's collapse form the Aristocracy. They're the ones who filled the vacuum and have been occupying positions of power ever since. They claim the right to rule by their connection to Reichtengen's founders, organized into hereditary titles that determine their station and power within their internal hierarchy. By law, only nobles may own land, and they generate wealth by renting their land to the populace and imposing taxes on activities that occur within their borders.

The Plutocracy

A rising faction of merchants spawned by the accumulation of wealth. Some of them are nobles who lost their titles while the rest rose up from simple traders that passed their wealth and knowledge down through generations, growing it each step of the way. Their claim to power is simple and pragmatic, they can pay laborers and artisans to work for them and soldiers to fight for them. They own buildings, factories, houses, ships, and all manner of other expensive pieces of property, and can afford to pay the rent demanded by the Aristocracy for the land on which they sit. In some cases they take a cut of the profits from the laborers or artisans that work in or use their facilities, but trade is the lifeblood of the Plutocracy.

Those Who Work

For those without property, the only recourse is to create value with their work, creating products or providing services to others.

The Military

Armed forces are divided along lines of loyalty to any number of aristocrats or plutocrats, giving their blood and lives in the name of a title or coin as the case may be. Most employers of armed forces treat them well and offer them privileges the working class doesn't receive in order to foster division and engender loyalty from their soldiers.

The Ecclesiastics

Going by many different titles, these are people whose lives are dedicated to the operation of churches and religious organizations, and are supported by the same. The ecclesiastics are the keepers of faith and morality in Reichtengen, and are both the servants and guides of the rest of society. The most prominent religion in Reichtengen belongs to the Clan of Martyrs and is practiced to some degree in every corner of the nation. The peculiar rites and rituals of the Hidden Mysteries are commonly performed in the south and west of Reichtengen, while faith in the Star Shepherds above can be found in the less mountainous central regions.

The Artisans

Skilled laborers able to leverage their skill and rarity form guilds and unions to protect their interests and pool their bargaining capabilities. These organizations are generally small and isolated. Those Who Own are careful to keep these groups from growing more powerful by harassing or bribing leaders, limiting travel and communication, and breaking strikes with military force.

The Laborers

Farmers, factory labor, and every other worker who didn't go through an apprenticeship or extensive training form the labor class. These people have few rights and fewer alternatives. Their only real asset to protect themselves against oppression and exploitation is anonymity. They're individually very replaceable, and that allows or causes them to slip through the cracks. There are more laborers than all of the other walks of life combined, but without any means by which to leverage that, their plight is hopeless.

Grievances

The chasm between Those Who Own (aristocrats and plutocrats) and Those Who Work (ecclesiastics, military, laborers, and artisans) fuels the revolutionary fires. This conflict is rooted in systemic exploitation, catalyzed by desperation, and fractured by shifting loyalties.their "pious airs."

Economic Exploitation

The upper classes wield legal and financial systems to extract wealth from the laboring masses.

• Excessive Taxation: Aristocrats levy heavy taxes on plutocrats’ factories and trade ventures. Plutocrats offset these costs by slashing wages, while aristocrats impose additional taxes on workers’ diminished incomes. A single loaf of bread might be taxed three times: at the mill, the bakery, and the market.
• Land Monopoly: By law, only aristocrats may own land. Farmers, shopkeepers, and artisans pay exorbitant rents for the right to work soil or operate workshops. Even plutocrats must lease factory grounds from nobles, creating a web of dependency.
• Wage Slavery: Laborers own nothing but their labor—and even that is commodified. Artisans toil in workshops owned by plutocrats, who claim the majority of profits. Tenant farmers surrender most of their harvest to landlords, leaving them one bad season from starvation.

Rights Determined By The Top

The lower one is on the class ladder, the fewer rights one has.

• Unjust Justice: A clear distinction exists between the High Law that governs the aristocracy and the Low Law that governs everyone else, with High Law being far more lenient. Plutocrats rely on their wealth and influence among aristocrats to avoid persecution under Low Law.
• Criminalized Poverty: Vagrancy laws punish the unemployed with forced labor. Desertion from work responsibilities is met with severe punishment, including lashings, beatings, being locked in a stockade, and worse.
• Brutal Strike-Breaking: Unions are all but outlawed and must operate very carefully or in secret. Protests are crushed by mercenaries hired by plutocrats, while aristocrats turn a blind eye—so long as their rents are paid.

Factional Divides

The class blocks are complex and must deal with their own internal conflicts.

Those Who Own

• Aristocrats vs. Plutocrats: Nobles cling to feudal traditions, deriding plutocrats as “vulgar merchants.” Plutocrats mock nobles as “backwards landlords” and lobby to dismantle hereditary privilege. Both sabotage each other while scrambling to control the crown.
• In-Fighting: Aristocrats and plutocrats both are constantly vying for power with members of their own classes, scheming new ways to undermine their rivals and take advantage of their allies.
• The Idealist Defectors: A handful of upper-class dissidents aid the lower classes. Most are disinherited youths or guilt-ridden elders, viewed as traitors by their peers.

Those Who Work

• Collaborators: Laborers who betray rebellions for upper-class patronage—e.g., a factory foreman who informs on unionizers in exchange for his daughter’s education.
• Reformists vs. Radicals: Reformists seek better wages and legal recognition of unions; radicals demand the abolition of private property and the hanging of aristocrats.their "pious airs."

Codependency

Whether the needs are real or manufactured, in the feudal society of the kingdom every class depends on the others for something.

Aristocrats

Needs:

• Plutocrats: To manage trade, industry, and taxation—necessary evils in a modernizing world.
• Military: To enforce their rule, crush dissent, and defend ancestral lands.
• Ecclesiastics: To legitimize their divine right to rule and pacify the masses with promises of heavenly reward.
• Artisans/Laborers: To produce goods, tend fields, and sustain the economy that funds their luxury.

Plutocrats

Needs:

• Aristocrats: To lease land for factories and provide legal legitimacy to their wealth.
• Military: To protect factories, intimidate strikers, and secure trade routes.
• Ecclesiastics: To sanctify their greed as "divine providence" and preach contentment to the restless poor.
• Artisans/Laborers: To operate machinery, mine resources, and generate profit through endless toil.

Military

Needs:

• Aristocrats/Plutocrats: To fund their wages, armories, and supply lines.
• Ecclesiastics: To bless their campaigns, absolve their sins, and promise glory in death.
• Artisans/Laborers: To forge weapons, sew uniforms, and grow food for armies.

Ecclesiastics

Needs:

• Aristocrats/Plutocrats: To fund temples, sponsor holy wars, and tithe from their vast wealth.
• Military: To defend pilgrimage routes, crush heretics, and enforce doctrinal purity.
• Artisans/Laborers: To build cathedrals, craft sacred relics, and fill pews with devout (or fearful) souls.

Artisans

Needs:

• Aristocrats/Military: To enforce order, protect workshops, and commission art for their palaces.
• Plutocrats: To transport goods to markets and connect them to wealthy buyers.
• Ecclesiastics: To provide spiritual guidance and bless their craft as "holy work."
• Laborers: To mine ore, chop lumber, and perform unskilled tasks that fuel their artistry.

Laborers

Needs:

• Aristocrats: To lease land for farming and avoid eviction from ancestral plots.
• Plutocrats: To sell their crops/goods in distant markets—though middlemen steal most profits.
• Military: To protect villages from bandits—though soldiers often are the bandits.
• Artisans: To forge tools, organize collective action, and share meager resources.

Class Views

Each class has a different view of themselves and the other classes and very few of those views coincide.

Aristocrats

Self-View: “We are the stewards of tradition, land, and divine order. Our bloodline is the bedrock of civilization.”
Views of Others:

• Plutocrats: “Vulgar climbers who confuse gold for honor. Their factories blight our lands.”
• Ecclesiastics: “Useful for blessing our rule, but overstep when they preach ‘equity.’”
• Military: “Our sword-arm. Loyalty is their duty—questioning it is treason.”
• Artisans: “Skilled serfs. Their creations adorn our halls, but they forget their place without discipline.”
• Laborers: “Beasts of burden. They eat because we allow it.”

Plutocrats

Self-View: “We are the engines of progress. Our ambition built this age—gold is the only crown that matters.”
Views of Others:

• Aristocrats: “Relics clinging to dusty titles. They tax us but sneer at the hands that feed them.”
• Ecclesiastics: “Useful idiots. Fund their temples, and they’ll call greed a virtue.”
• Military: “Hired knives. Pay well, and they’ll gut their own mothers.”
• Artisans: “Profit centers. Innovate, and we’ll reward you—if you meet quotas.”
• Laborers: “Replaceable cogs. Feed them just enough to keep the machines running.”

Military

Self-View: “We are the shield and sword. Order dies without our strength.”
Views of Others:

• Aristocrats: “Proud fools. They command us to die for their vanity, not honor.”
• Plutocrats: “Pragmatic paymasters. They understand power, not pedigrees.”
• Ecclesiastics: “Chaplain’s pretty words won’t stop a bullet. Useful for morale, though.”
• Artisans: “Keep our guns loaded and armor mended. Respect their craft, not their complaints.”
• Laborers: “Cannon fodder in wartime, invisible in peace. Better them than us.”

Ecclesiastics

Self-View: “We are the shepherds of souls, bridging mortal strife and divine will. Our faith alone offers salvation.”
Views of Others:

• Aristocrats: “Flawed custodians. They exploit the poor but fund our cathedrals—a necessary evil.”
• Plutocrats: “Sinners drowning in greed. Their donations buy penance, not absolution.”
• Military: “Necessary brutality. We bless their swords but mourn their sins.”
• Artisans: “Devout craftsmen. Their work glorifies the gods… if properly guided.”
• Laborers: “Flocks in need of solace. Suffering purifies them for the afterlife.”

Artisans

Self-View: “We are the makers. Our hands turn sweat and steel into legacy.”
Views of Others:

• Aristocrats: “Thieves in fine clothes. They claim our art as their birthright.”
• Plutocrats: “Taskmasters with no respect for craft. They sell our work but call it theirs.”
• Ecclesiastics: “Pious parasites. They demand altars for free, then preach humility.”
• Military: “Brutes who break what we build. They guard the wealthy, not the worthy.”
• Laborers: “Brothers in chains. They lift the stone; we carve it—both are exploited.”

Laborers

Self-View: “We are the foundation. They build nothing without our sweat.”
Views of Others:

• Aristocrats: “Leeches. They tax the soil we till and the air we breathe.”
• Plutocrats: “Slave drivers. Their machines grind our bones to dust.”
• Ecclesiastics: “Liars in robes. They promise heaven but sell our suffering as virtue.”
• Military: “Jailers with badges. They kill us for demanding bread.”
• Artisans: “Lucky ones. They’re exploited too, but at least their work is seen.”