Thanks again for your response, Fusangite your insights are a tremendous help. Your questions are causing me to reevaluate some of the choices I have made. I suppose this is the logical result of throwing a bunch of different ideas into one pot, stirring it up, then working backward in time to explain why things are the way they are.
Hopefully this post won’t be too long, and I will be able to give you clarifications, as well as expand on what I have already told you.
As you, of course, know, there are many models of slavery, legally, socially and economically. At one extreme you have modern chattel slavery like that of the French, British and US in the 18th and 19th centuries where procreation, socialization, movement, etc. of slaves was very specifically and directly regulated. At the other end, you have Russia's Imperial (as opposed to Aristocratic) Serfs in the same period -- people tied to the land and forced to pay tribute but operating in essentially self-governing communities or villages.
If you want a good idea of how the Empire is working on the governmental side of things, without me going into a ton of details, you can just review the history of the Roman Republic. I am drawing much of my ideas directly from how the Roman Empire operated at various points in its history.
The Nobility can easily be considered Patricians while everyone else can easily be considered Plebeians. The Empire is divided into three major castes: The Nobility, the Citizens and the Slaves. Slavery is common and accepted throughout the Empire, and is often handed out as punishment for various crimes. Although slavery is treated similarly as to modern prison, where there is a set time in which you are once again free. However, the truth of the matter is that you most likely won’t survive long enough to see your freedom. The system is setup in such a way as to prolong your captivity for as long as possible.
One thing I should clearly point out about slaves is that they belong to the Empire not individual people. However, someone of the Nobility may direct and control slaves. Slaves are also considered property, but there are laws governing their treatment. The only person who could do what they wanted with a slave when they felt like it would be the Emperor himself.
You could easily view slaves as modern day governmental workers. They are the ones who do a vast majority of the labor work, building walls and roads for trade.
Citizens who own land have the ability to vote in elections for various local positions. In all cases but one, any possible candidate must have noble blood. The exception are the local mayors and town councils that are made up of ordinary citizens.
However, you should not think of this as a happy little Republic. The Emperor has absolute power, and may do anything he wishes, although there are checks in place to keep him from going too crazy. These balances are called the Three Pillars of the Empire. Each Pillar is represented as a faction: The Imperial Shadows, The Imperial Church and the Nobility.
Allow me too further explain while answering your other questions:
Could you please link the paragraphs that precede this statement a little more closely with what you are saying? You describe this neat phenomenon where magi are attracted to join a particular kingdom -- then you state that this resulted in society having three elite estates but I'm not really sure how these things connect. Which group are the magi? Are they the aristocrats?
Let me answer your questions here in reverse. The aristocrats make up the three Pillars of the Empire: The Imperial Shadows, the Imperial Church and the Nobility. To fully understand things you have to understand each of these three pillars role in society and in government.
First, you have the Nobility. Local nobility is elected by the citizens who own land. They make up the local lords, which are in charge of levying taxes on the towns and villages under their control, providing a respectable militia, etc. They can be seen as the executive branch of government with some legislative power.
Typically speaking it works something like this, when it comes time to elect a new local lord the local citizen landowners come together and place votes based on which noble house they wish to elect. Only those of the low nobility may enter these elections – these are those with the least amount of noble blood. They also come together to elect local mayors and councilmen which preside directly in their town or village, who do not have to have noble blood.
The combined local lords then have the ability to come together and elect a local governor for their province, based on the Noble Houses among the High Blood living within the province. These local lords function as the Governors Council and can serve as a legislative branch of government.
You then have the Imperial Church, which is best thought of less as a religion and more as a branch of government. Typically speaking when a religion merges with the government the government becomes ruled by the religion. The opposite has happened here, with the government gaining considerable power over the religion. (Although not without relinquishing a considerable amount of its own.)
The Imperial Church has many duties within the Empire; their primary duty to the Nobility is choosing who is of Noble Blood and who is not. Noble blood, as I explained earlier, is based off of an ancient hero of the long forgotten past. Now, I should point out right now (and answer one of your other questions) that the church hardly resembles the cult it used to be. The name of their revered hero has changed several times over the course of their existence, and they did not become officially organized until the formation of the Empire.
Religiously speaking, this Imperial Church is loosely based on the Hindu Trinity, where an all-powerful god has three different personas: covering a Creator, Preserver and Destroyer motif. From these aspects arise lesser and greater angels, demons and the like. Just imagine Hinduism, combined with a bit of Christianity and Judaism with just a smidgen of Islam and you will get a general picture. There are, of course, lesser pagan religions existing within the Empire, and they are ignored or stamped out depending on their level of threat to the Imperial Church and the Nobility.
Now, you have to keep in mind the Imperial Church has the power to say who is and who does not have Noble blood. This directly determines who is in power and who isn’t. This is roughly the equivalent of the Popes ability to excommunicate.
In addition to that, power over the nobles, the Church serves as a buffer between the Nobility and the Citizens. The church is directly responsible for many of the things that typically take place in the domestic sphere of government such as education. Now, education levels vary depending on where you are in the Empire. You are more likely to be educated if you live within a city, and than if you lived in a tiny little rural village. When I speak of Education, I am not talking about a twenty grade, get a strong foundation type education. I am speaking of a very fundamental type education: addition, subtraction and rudimentary reading and history.
Cities might have schools, while towns might have a one or two room schoolhouse, and a village might have children sitting outside somewhere with a lone priest teaching children of all ages.
The Imperial Church also functions as a Judicial Branch of Government. No case can be heard without at least one priest present who knows the law. In towns and villages the town council typically serve as a jury and a priest as a judge.
For the High Nobility, they may only be tried within the Imperial City. Children of the Nobility are educated longer and on much more things. They are raised in a all boys or all girls like setting, where the priests and priestesses rule over their lives until they are old enough to return to their parents to get married. They are educated about politics, history, various forms of pseudo-science, philosophy, mathematics and advanced reading. They are also kept well away from commoners.
Now, the Imperial Shadows is another institution all together. You could think of the Imperial Shadows as a special police force. They are the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Secret Service all rolled into one. They receive their name, the Shadows, based on their job description which is to Shadow certain people. A common saying, “Most people only have one shadow, but nobles have at least two." The Imperial Shadows is in a way the hand of the Emperor. Every Noble house has at least one Shadow residing within it. He arrives under the guise of providing council, but his real job is to keep an eye on the Noble family. The Imperial Shadows have put down more than one rebellion before it even started. Everyone knows what their role is, and most people are terrified of them - an image they go out of their way to promote.
See, you have to understand that magic in the Empire is something very frightening. Those born with the talent for magic, if untrained are a hazard to themselves and everyone around them. Before the Empire was formed, and once Humans had evolved the ability to use magic, those few that survived and mastered the craft were eventually able to come together and take over entire Kingdoms. They then warred with one another causing an untold amount of deaths during a period known as the War of the Magi. It all culminated in an accident that set every known civilization back at least 1000 years. The result of that "accident" is a sizable wasteland area.
It was after the War of the Magi that polygamy became widespread. There were so few men left after the war that the women outnumbered them at least three to one.
After the War of the Magi the people were eventually able to wrestle control from the mages. The end result is a long standing tradition of a hatred of magic. Even today, with the Imperial Shadows, in many rural villages where those exhibit the talent they are lynched by the villagers.
One of the main goals of the Imperial Shadows is finding those with the talent and training them. The Imperial Shadows are also the supreme lawmakers when it comes to magic - they make what practices are and are not acceptable, and those violating those practices are brought to them for punishment. This is how the Empire controls mages, by integrating them into the system.
Without the Imperial Shadows the Empire likely would have never come into existence in the first place, and now they function as a sort of political glue that holds things together. Not only do they serve as spies and sometimes assassins for the Emperor, but also they serve as bodyguards. The Emperor has at least twelve shadows with him at all times, six to either side, making it virtually impossible to assassinate him. A Shadow within a noble house also protects the noble from assassination attempts, although "accidents" have been known to happen.
Many people believe, perhaps rightly in some regards, that the Empire is really run by the Imperial Shadows. There might be some truth to some aspects of the claim, but the truth of the matter is the Imperial Shadows benefit more from a steady and stable Empire than a chaotic one. They seek to maintain order and often do not directly involve themselves in local politics.
How empirically-based is the church's test? It seems to me that if the test is genuinely empirical, there might be real problems. Families would amass power but would be unable to join the aristocracy; this seems like a recipe for instability. Most aristocratic systems, to survive, have to be able to absorb people whose blood has not historically been noble.
As I stated above, but will make clear, the Church has changed a lot over time. The test is not even close to being empirical; in fact I would wager that not a single person in the nobility is actually related to their legendary hero (whose name has changed at least three times).
Typically speaking, you would be raised to noble blood by having a certain amount of status or wealth in society. You approach the Church with your records based around your lineage. If you do not have any, you can request that the Church do such a study for you. The Church then takes those records and has a period of "review" in which they check for "errors." During that process, the Church secretly debates how your influence would affect the political landscape; they weigh the pros and the cons of admitting you verses not admitting you.
It looks something like this: Your sixth cousin twice removed had an aunt whose great grandmother was the sister to soandso1, who we know is the third cousin of soandso2, who we know for a fact was related to soandso3, who we know has noble blood.
That is pretty much how it would look. You would then be raised as a low noble, which would allow you power within the region in which you reside. Your goal as a low ranking noble would be to try and get your son married to a daughter of another noble higher up the bloodline. The Imperial Family sits at the top as having the most noble blood. Only another High Noble may take the Imperial Throne, which only very rarely changes hands.
More or less, if you are wealthy or have a lot of influence then you have a 50/50 shot of the Church saying you have Noble Blood.
I have a few concerns about where you are going here but before I launch into them, let me ask you a hypothetical question: what would happen if a powerful noble decided to pay a private tutor to educate his children at home?
Well the first thing it would do would anger the Church. It could elicit all sorts of responses; most likely the Church would approach the family and ask why they are violating custom. If it is a low noble family, they may let it slide, but may find some way to retaliate indirectly later on. (They would also most likely also spread heinous rumors about your child. Either your child is so dumb that they cann't get a proper education, or that your child is so ugly you are afraid to let him/her out in public, etc.)
If it is a member of the high nobility, they may receive a veiled threat of having their bloodline "under review." Which basically would mean that the Church is threatening to say "Whoops! We made a horrible mistake. You are not a noble after all!" Although that would only happen if there were other factors involved as well. Having your bloodline called into question is a serious and big problem, the equivalent of a medieval king being excommunicated by the Pope. Although, differing in the fact that you would be stripped of all your titles instantly as well as those that carry your blood.
The family would suffer pressure from all sides if the Church wanted it to be so. They would suffer politically and socially. Their family could be ruined.
This seems really strange. In every polygynist society I can think of, non-elite men could not financially afford more than one wife and the number of wives has varied directly with the status, wealth and power of the husband. As with arranged marriage, I think you are giving commoners a custom that does not make economic sense for people of their station.
Yes, I agree… I think I went a bit overboard. I am taking that back into review and I need to read more on polygynist societies.
What motivates the parents of commoners to choose spouses? And what gives them the power to exercise the influence they do? With aristocrats, the answer to these questions is obvious; for commoners, it is not.
Well it is more important for landowners than your typical commoner. Owning land is a very big thing, as it gives you the right to vote and cements your right as a citizen. The goal of any new family is to try and buy a small piece of land. In cities, members of Guilds also reserve the right to vote even if they do not own land.
Does this mean that second and third wives tend to be of significantly lower social standing? I can't imagine a father wanting his daughter to be an nth wife when he she could become somebody's first wife.
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So, what motivations or incentives would a first wife have for this addition to her family? I can see many downsides and very few upsides.
This is true… I think I am going to have to seriously reevaluate the way the whole multiple wives concept works. I was hoping to give women more power in a marriage than this, but now I am leaning toward having all the power reside with the first wife and having subsequent wives subservient to her. This would allow the nobility to take more than one wife, without fear of the first female losing power.
Hence me spending time on this stuff. My style comes off as combative and adversarial often but I hope that it, at the very least, makes GMs ask themselves questions they otherwise would not. I am grateful that you have taken my responses in that spirit.
Well, I do not find your style to be combative or adversarial, just assertive and to the point. Which I actually find helpful when dealing with things like this. Your suggestions and help has been extremely welcome and really, I do not know how to thank you enough. You are giving me lots to think on as well as resources to look up, which serves me even more.
I hope I answered all your questions, and I hope that things make more sense.
