| Seems as though my first inclination toward class structure was incorrect. Though early on there was little in the way of a class society, such a high ideal faded quickly. By 9400 DE there were seven very distinct classes. |
D'ni society, religion, and government were extensions of Ronay practices, which the early colonists re-instituted over a period of time. Ri'neref, the writer of the Age of D'ni, had radical ideas of how they should live, but those ideas evidently did not prove to be popular. They certainly did not last past the lifespans of Ri'neref and his disciple and chosen successor, Ailesh. By the time of Shomat, the third king of D'ni, they had fallen back entirely into the cultural practices of the Ronay with the exception of their penchant for abusing the Ages they wrote.
| Elite — The Lords and the Grand Masters of the Major Guilds. It was possible for private citizens to be accepted but if so, abundant resources were needed. It was only the elite who owned private libraries of Books and the private Islands. Quite a few obvious attempts to reach out and unify the classes although I'm not sure it did much good. Common Libraries, Major Guild scholarships, renovation of poorer districts, all seemed more political than life changing. Not surprising I suppose. |
Not sure how accurate this is. Aitrus, the husband of Anna and father of Gehn, owned private Ages, and he was not a lord or grand master of his guild. However, it was quite expensive to have an Age commissioned, so this probably held true for the most part. Still, I know of no reason why an upper class citizen with enough money could not have commissioned a private Age, if only from a lower ranked member of the Guild of Writers.
| Guild Members — Yes it was possible for the lower classes to attend but it seems by the end the schools were far too expensive and prestigious to allow for such. As a result, the graduates became a class among themselves. And a very high one at that. |
There were two levels of guilds: the major guilds and the minor guilds. Normal citizens could attend public schools as children, and be accepted into a minor guild on graduation. The major guilds were effectively family affairs; they ran their own schools, and only those born into a guild family were allowed to attend them. Guilds were the backbone of D'ni society, and just about everyone except the poorest belonged to one or another. While I'm not saying that there were guilds of garbage collectors or rat catchers, I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn there were.
| Upper Class — The lowest of the three higher classes. Such citizens had succeeded in private enterprise and most likely provide the elite with their banks, pubs, etc. No Major Guild education for the most part, but enough money to buy their way into the upper classes. |
People of this class were allowed to live on Ae'gura Island, although it probably took a previous family dying out to open up a residence there. This would have permitted them the luxury of visiting the Great Library and the Museum for access to recreational Ages.
| Middle Class — Mostly shop-owners and the like. Able to afford some luxuries of D'ni but still considered far from the Elite. Rare but possible for them to own Books as well as Private Ages. Seemed to make up most of the Minor Guild enrollment. |
This contradicts the earlier statement that only the elite could own private Ages, but this is more likely to be true. This class was included the people who lived in the residential neighborhoods scattered along the walls of the cavern, which had access to a common set of garden Ages for recreation. That would have been Eder Kemo originally, but later they had either Eder Tsogal or Eder Delin when Kemo was retired from service.
| High Poor — The higher class of poor seemed to be made mostly of industrial workers, many of whom spent their time on foreign Ages (before it was outlawed of course). It seems that this class, along with the lower two, did not own Books. |
This was the class that probably got the most benefit from social programs designed to raise the standard of living among the poor. It's also very likely that it was from this class that the residents of the Shamathen (later renamed Kerath'en) District of Ae'gura Island were drawn when king Kedri had it built during his reign.
| Low Poor — I can't seem to find a better name for them. However, seems clear that there were two classes of poor. These low poor were relegated to their own districts and rarely seen even with the middle class and never with the upper classes. Possibly used as servants although that was generally looked down upon. |
More specifically, this class was not allowed to visit Ae'gura Island, and did not have much access to linking books, except possibly for the books kept in the common library in the City. In the library, they would have only been given access to books written by apprentice Writers, work deemed safe to use, but not worthy of the better classes.
| Sub-low(?) — Reference to "the Least" (an undefined sub-class?) are found on rare occasions. Not enough data to elucidate. |
This is a can of worms that can cause arguments to break out among explorers. Yeesha referred to the Bahro as "the least", but she was the only one to do so. There are no written references to the Bahro in any book or paper found in D'ni. The DRC once mentioned that they'd found one or two mentions of a sub-class in D'ni, but nothing concrete enough to figure out anything about it.
The term "the least" was mentioned in Words of the Watcher, and it's certain that Yeesha read it since she used the book when she created the Path of the Shell quest. I strongly suspect that she used the term for the Bahro as a way of tying them to the prophesy written in Words, rather than because anyone else had ever called them that.
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