Nisarg said:
Last I checked, that's exactly what happens - 4th and 5th level serfs become adventurers, go to the big city, and either get shipped off to Xendrik or make names for themselves, becoming wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.
The nobles in Eberron tend to be in the 3-5 level range, the commoners 1-2; PCs, whether common or noble, tend to get well beyond 5th if they survive. However, their lives are considerably more dangerous, so very few of them ever hit 6th level. Those who do become part of the upper class by default (or by wealth-by-level guidelines).
A PC's starting gold is enough to pay for the food and shelter of a dozen peasants. By the time he hits 3rd level, he's rich. By 6th level, he has a fortune. By 10th level, he's got more cash (admittedly, much of it tied up in non-liquid investments like magic items) than most any regional lord.
Nisarg said:
You're also apparently saying that in D&D worlds feudal lords have a vested interest in having highly educated serfs, because those serfs will be participating in combat with the goblins.. is that correct? because I don't get that point at all. In the real world peasents were regularly forced to serve in their feudal lord's armies, and it was just one more reason why you would NOT want peasants to be educated at all.
As soon as a serf is even slightly educated, they'll become more aware of how mind-numbingly crushing their existence is, and want to better it. The serfs wanting to better their existence means they won't want to be your serfs anymore.
I don't entirely agree regarding educated serfs, but it's really beside the point.
Education means the difference between a 1% chance of having Adept levies and a 3% chance of having Wizard levies. That IS the difference between winning and losing. An army that can't manage the latter WILL lose. Simple as that.
Since life in Galifar appears to have been relatively easy and comfortable prior to the Last War, there was no sweeping drive for educated serfs (who are quite able to 'better' themselves if they're willing to risk life and limb on a daily basis) to rise up and overthrow their not-terribly-oppressive overlords. Revolutions spring up far more often from starvation than from education. Education, if anything, simply made revolutionaries more successful than their predecessors.
Once again, the Last War, a time of actual hardship based off somewhat flimsy motives, seems unrealistic. The War surely trained many veterans to higher levels (3-4, at least) and gave them a reason to want to rebel - particularly if they were spellcasters with sufficient Knowledge ranks to know that while Khorvaire beat itself to a pulp, cyclopean powers loomed on basically every other continent, possibly waiting for a chance to strike. A century of this? No, that's NOT realistic.