Social Classes Within Gathran

by Ulff Lehmann · August 23, 2025

After the Rebellion, long before Gathran came to dominate Taogh, the tribal structures and hierarchies began to form. This was a slow process in every faction, despite the fact that during their enslavement, the sunargh masters had differentiated and segregated their elves according to profession and skillsets. Tribal classes developed alongside those sunargh-prescribed lines, and though up- and downward mobility was still possible, such advancement was difficult. Even now, so long after the Contraction or Decline, the classes within elven societies are still prevalent.

By and large, Gathrani society is divided thusly:

Mage or noble and commoner. Before the Decline, the Emperor or Empress stood above the nobility, but with power shifting towards the Council of Mages, only noteworthy classes remained. Slavery was something Taogh’s elves loathed with a vengeance due to their own history. Captured enemies were treated differently, sure, but even they received pay for whatever work they did, provided they posed no danger to society in general.

Can prisoners, then, be considered a third social class? Not quite. Their native status as royal, noble, or commoner mattered only inasmuch as their education allowed for different “employments.” A former noble, for example, with their higher education, was much better suited for assisting in the bureaucracy or even assignment as a tutor in noble households. Were the prisoners paid? Yes, but only after food and lodgings were subtracted. As such, they were definitely treated differently, but they received the same medical treatment and access to baths and so on as their captors. (Maybe the distinction can be considered a mere formality? Considering that slavery was something Taogh’s elves were viciously against, turning prisoners into a minimal wage force, they were only slightly above slaves. ~T) (Yet they weren’t slaves. ~H) (This requires further study and discussion, doesn’t it? ~T) (Indeed. Last Traghday of Heat, in the Atrium? ~H) (It appears as if T and H did get together in the Atrium, and in the same year. Will have to look for the results of their discussion. ~P)

Noble and commoner, mage and commoner. Even within these two classes there is a hierarchy. Ranks of higher, middling, and minor nobility are determined by the area of land owned. The number of canthans in a family’s possession was the deciding factor on their status within noble society. Any purchase or transfer of lands had to be ratified by the ruler. The ruler could also confiscate lands, thus ruining a family, or grant lands, thus elevating a family to noble status.

The commoner class can roughly be divided into skilled and unskilled laborers, but even there, distinctions have to be made – and these distinctions can be difficult. While a farmhand is unskilled, a farmer is not. Yet, is a smith’s helper considered the same class as a farmhand? Is a smith the same class as a farmer? In the end, money is the deciding factor. Annual income or taxes paid determine which sub-class someone belongs to. A merchant might think themselves better than a smith, but that is not necessarily the case.

As the nobility began to breed specifically for magical ability, that class began to naturally transform into the Mage class. But some landowners did not possess the means to do this, and so a third class was born. And even though this transformation into a new class is comparatively recent – less than twenty thousand years – the changes brought with it were felt throughout the empire.

The territories and provinces adapted to this change only slowly, if they did so at all. (Kalduuhn never bothered with it, and they were in close proximity to the Gathrani heartland. ~G) As the Mages toppled the imperial throne, replacing it with a council, the vast realm tumbled into chaos. Bureaucracy was “streamlined” – which in truth meant that the Mages lined their own pockets while the payments set aside for Leghans and various other services stalled and eventually falterted. This, in turn, resulted in a loss of control over far away provinces. Ultimately, the Mages’ revolt was a disaster, but the damage was done.

Mages, Nobility, and Commoner thus became the new social norm in Gathran, or what remained of the Empire.

Education

At the height of the Empire, when Gathran was synonymous with culture, an imperial decree required every citizen be literate and able to perform arithmacy. Over the centuries, tens of thousands of schools sprang up all over Taogh. And while erecting school buildings was easy, training teachers was not. (Really? Who would have thought. Decrees are rarely realistic, but it was a valiant effort. ~W) As Philosophers and Librarians scrambled to streamline the education process needed to train the tens of thousands of teachers to serve the schools, debates broke out as to how to educate millions of adults and multiple millions of children.

Before said decree, well-off families employed tutors that taught their children whatever the parents desired their children to learn. Tutoring was lucrative but, for the children, also limited, since the curriculum depended on the parents’ priorities. Philosophers and Librarians had always been aware of these limitations and, after notifying the Emperor of their conclusions, they began, with the Emperor’s blessing, to create guidelines and a curriculum to be applied in the new schools. In their view, teaching how to think was just as important as literacy and mathematics. Such lofty goals were, of course, wasted on much of the populace, but during the height of Gathran’s power, such aspirations seemed only reasonable. (Some say the gods had a laugh, chastizing philosophers for their attempt to capture divine knowledge. ~T) (Some say they can walk on water. They drown, always. ~K) (Still, why are there so many idiots, if the gods wanted people to be wise and smart? ~T) (The gods like to be entertained, and if everything could be solved by decrees that everyone obeyed, there would be no entertainment. At all. ~D)

Thus, for a few generations literacy and mathematic competence stood at an all-time high in the Empire. But, as is always the case with such things, complacency set in. As one emperor died, their successors, faced with different crises, shifted imperial policies away from high standards in education, thinking the systems already in place would maintain themselves. (Complacency fucks everything in the ass. ~D)

Over time, education requirements devolved into quotas that needed to be reached, standards devolved into goals to be met, and eventually a vast portion of the population could barely write their names.

The situation only worsened when the Council of Mages rose to power. Schooling became, once more, near exclusive to Mage families. Maintaining their delusional stranglehold on magic became their reason to live – an utterly ludicrous goal, since the military had always trained Obhans, and had required literacy from their soldiers. Seeing opportunity in the decline of public schools, the Leghans scooped up wandering, unemployed but highly-skilled teachers, turning them into the backbone of basic training.

It’s ironic, when you think about it, that the military realized that one Emperor’s dream, thousands of years after that dream was withering away. Much of a Leghary’s training still involves marching, building camps, and weapons’ drills. But acquiring a basic education accounts for a third of their two years of training. As a Leghan is pretty much a democracy in which any capable soldier can ultimately be elected to the rank of Leghany, everyone needs to be educated. Regular tests of physical and mental capabilities have been a backbone of a Leghan’s life for millennia. (And no, we don’t sit down and hold spelling contests! What we actually do is write down texts which are dictated. Canthaneanhs and Obhanhs do this on the Canthan level, there is no reading aloud to the entire Leghan! ~P)

One can hypothesize that Gathran’s decline and eventual collapse has its roots not only in a cabal of nobles trying to accumulate and monopolize magical power and knowledge, but also in standardization and, in essence, “borification” of education. As the old Philosopher Hlanthandor said millennia ago: “Everyone learns differently, and to pick one approach to fit every pupil insults both philosophy and pupil.” Sadly, as resources were shifted elsewhere, this is exactly what happened. People are inherently short-sighted, and even with a longlived race such as ours, things of vital importance are relegated to the back of the public mind when something new and exciting comes along.

Addendum: Breiambhéo learned from the sins of the past. The first rulers, those who had experienced the Decline, Contraction and eventual Fall of Gathran, knew what had caused it. Proximity to the source can shroud an issue, and the further away one is from the central problem, the clearer one’s vision of the problem. In New Gathran, many laws may be changed, if new, different facts present themselves. Other laws are immutable, and The Law of Education is one of those. Anyone who tries to subvert or alter the methods and financing of education will be executed without hearing or trial.

We know of similar cases from countries further east, but most societies, especially those dominated by humans have learned even less from history. (The Cycle of Stupid is a constant, and only constant vigilance can counteract the idiocies a society comes up with. ~D) (Preach! ~P)