RVA: Foxen Military Caste
Nov. 24th, 2014 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalFoxen castes are pretty well defined.
Nobles are, well, nobles. They’re the ones that collect taxes, own the land, and make the laws.
Commoners obey the laws, do the work, and run the businesses. They also happen to own most of the orbitally based communications and news gathering companies, which have historically resisted being taken over by the Noble caste to be used as propaganda arms, and whose autonomy is now law. [1]
The Military caste wears uniforms. All the uniforms. Which is why the name “Military” is a bit of misnomer. “Service” would be more accurate. The most obvious and common form is in fact in one of the branches of pure military function, such as the space forces, marines, ground troops and the relatively tiny “wet” navy. But the requirement that every Commoner and the fact that most Nobles spend three years in mandatory Service, means the services have more bodies than they really need to in the Shooty Bits portion of things, and not every foxen born into the Military caste has a yen for either firearms or logistics. So they do other things too.
The most obvious is the Coast Guard, which like on human worlds has a quasi-Military and safety function. Slightly less obvious are municipal Civil Protection units [2], hospital workers (Doctors and nurses included), even municipal waste recycling personnel. Basically anything that involves working in a group in a public service occupation and that involves wearing a common uniform. Sometimes not even that.[3] Which can lead to certain oddities such as a Countess’s heir boldly leading a repair team into the municipal sewer system to fix a vital drain. [4]
Given its nature, the Military Caste has the most fluid population of all three. You can be born into it, and many are. But staying in it requires following one of the above mentioned career choices, otherwise you drop back to being a Commoner. And Commoners needn’t be born into the cast to join it. During their three year Service tour, they’re considered de facto Military caste. If they choose to extend their Service a decade or longer, they may choose to join the Military caste permanently. The opposite, a Noble deliberately choosing to demote themselves to Military, is much, much rarer, but not unheard of, especially for ones that have devoted their careers to small “m” military service.
[1] Yes, that’s an unlikely dynamic, but the Nobles have found it more useful to let the Commoners have control than have only a few nobles keep control out of a few hundred of their peers.
[2] Much like many 21st C. non-USA nations, the CP’s are a national police force. Though they are considered Military caste, there’s actually a pretty hefty wall keeping former lower case “m” military veterans from just switching positions once their term of service is up. For one thing there’s a definite difference in how to conduct their jobs, with ex-military being considered too prone to seeing members of their local community as potential hostile combatants, rather than neighbors.
[3] The Librarian War of the late Pre-Interstellar period was perhaps one of the more passionate, if mostly bloodless events involving the Military Caste.
[4] The Adventures of Viscount Brownpants, a popular fact based cubling series, reruns of which still air today.
Nobles are, well, nobles. They’re the ones that collect taxes, own the land, and make the laws.
Commoners obey the laws, do the work, and run the businesses. They also happen to own most of the orbitally based communications and news gathering companies, which have historically resisted being taken over by the Noble caste to be used as propaganda arms, and whose autonomy is now law. [1]
The Military caste wears uniforms. All the uniforms. Which is why the name “Military” is a bit of misnomer. “Service” would be more accurate. The most obvious and common form is in fact in one of the branches of pure military function, such as the space forces, marines, ground troops and the relatively tiny “wet” navy. But the requirement that every Commoner and the fact that most Nobles spend three years in mandatory Service, means the services have more bodies than they really need to in the Shooty Bits portion of things, and not every foxen born into the Military caste has a yen for either firearms or logistics. So they do other things too.
The most obvious is the Coast Guard, which like on human worlds has a quasi-Military and safety function. Slightly less obvious are municipal Civil Protection units [2], hospital workers (Doctors and nurses included), even municipal waste recycling personnel. Basically anything that involves working in a group in a public service occupation and that involves wearing a common uniform. Sometimes not even that.[3] Which can lead to certain oddities such as a Countess’s heir boldly leading a repair team into the municipal sewer system to fix a vital drain. [4]
Given its nature, the Military Caste has the most fluid population of all three. You can be born into it, and many are. But staying in it requires following one of the above mentioned career choices, otherwise you drop back to being a Commoner. And Commoners needn’t be born into the cast to join it. During their three year Service tour, they’re considered de facto Military caste. If they choose to extend their Service a decade or longer, they may choose to join the Military caste permanently. The opposite, a Noble deliberately choosing to demote themselves to Military, is much, much rarer, but not unheard of, especially for ones that have devoted their careers to small “m” military service.
[1] Yes, that’s an unlikely dynamic, but the Nobles have found it more useful to let the Commoners have control than have only a few nobles keep control out of a few hundred of their peers.
[2] Much like many 21st C. non-USA nations, the CP’s are a national police force. Though they are considered Military caste, there’s actually a pretty hefty wall keeping former lower case “m” military veterans from just switching positions once their term of service is up. For one thing there’s a definite difference in how to conduct their jobs, with ex-military being considered too prone to seeing members of their local community as potential hostile combatants, rather than neighbors.
[3] The Librarian War of the late Pre-Interstellar period was perhaps one of the more passionate, if mostly bloodless events involving the Military Caste.
[4] The Adventures of Viscount Brownpants, a popular fact based cubling series, reruns of which still air today.
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-24 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-24 06:01 pm (UTC)Also, I'd expect the autonomous orbitals would be thanks to human influences.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-25 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-25 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-25 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-25 06:05 pm (UTC)