The Opening of the Castes
Inithar's Folly changed a great deal of things.
The loss of the finest minds of Inithar's Refocyte-smith caste, and of many of their head families, was such a blow to Inithar that it changed the course of their history and their place in the world. The craft-castes of Inithar were by definition closed -- which meant that the replenishment of the Refocyte-smiths would have to wait, in the generational uprearing and training of new Refocyte specialists. This meant that the damage done by Inithar's Folly would affect Inithar's capabilities for decades, possibly even centuries. Inithar wouldn't reach its peak within the lifetimes of those then alive, or their children, or their children's children, or perhaps even their children's children's children.
And for a long time, that is precisely how events played out. Crippled by the combination of its reliance on its most powerful resource and the scarcity of those who could not only work on Refocyte technology but advance it, Initharian industry grew slowly, unreliably. Whereas other countries tore into the industrial era with aplomb, cities rising smoke as factory after factory rose up. But for Inithar, every new type of machine was a miracle, every factory a careful effort straining the resources of the few Refocyte-smiths in the country. Inithar fell behind. Whereas it had once sat atop the world, immovable, a gem of prosperity and trade, its ports jewels of greening silver, and the rainbows of hundreds of kinds of goods, now its former friends turned away from it, skirmished with it, as the promise of Initharian prosperity declined not only for its own citizens but for those who would have traded with it.
And Initharians were not happy. There had already been some level of discontent about the lack of social mobility within Inithar -- not every son of a woodworker enjoyed or succeeded in the lifestyle of a woodworker. But always this discontent had been countered -- the caste system, it was always explained, was responsible for the Inithari excellence which had kept it in such a prosperous position for so long. Now, though, the Initharian excellence wasn't so apparent. Now, that social mobility that had so long been denied was evidently the cause of Inithar's decline and suffering. Now, what had only been occasional voices and swells of disagreement became a full blown sociopolitical crisis, as protests against Inithar's strictly stratified, restrictive, and now damaged castes came from all angles, but were fiercely opposed themselves by the supporters of the ways that had seen Inithar through so many centuries, and those who felt that destroying the castes would reduce Inithar to naught but unskilled, purposeless amateurs.
In the year 1861, Viliami Nima was in a dilemma. With Inithar's Folly eighty years ago, the Nima family had been left as the most major of the surviving head families of the Refocyte-smith caste, and it had taken a very central position -- but that wasn't doing Viliami terribly many favors. Though able as a Refocyte-smith, Viliami's father had proven essentially inept at carrying the role of guiding the Refocyte-smiths -- and he was not the only one. This trend had contributed to the industrial decline of Inithar, and now the hue and cry surrounding the Refocyte-smith caste was deafening. Those who despised the caste system felt that the very existence and leadership of his caste was responsible for Inithar's problems. Even those who favored the caste system acknowledged its failure and simply dismissed it as an unfortunate anomaly. This meant the caste's social position was in danger, as was Viliami's own power and prestige. And not only that, but Viliami Nima could not help but feel the criticisms of those who opposed the castes were correct. Inithar's future, and his fellow smiths', were doomed at this rate.
And so Viliami took an action that would change the fabric of Initharian society wildly and permanently. He gathered opinions from the opponents of the caste system, then gathered the people of his caste, and then made an announcement: his caste was now the Fellowship of Refocyte-Smiths. No longer would birth be the sole determiner of who could join that profession, but instead all who were willing to work to prove themselves would be able to join the Fellowship, -- and raise through its ranks as they continued to work in it. Furthermore, those who desired could leave, and contact with other professions was encouraged thanks to these two development.
This may not have been a complete and total destruction of Inithar's social model, but it was an extremely controversial change nonetheless -- but with the social pressures on Inithar having nearly reached their bursting point, it was a change that caught on. One or two other castes whose members were increasingly liberalizing followed Viliami's lead and announced their change to the model of Fellowship -- and then as momentum built, as other castes started to lose members to the Fellowships, as external pressure grew, caste after caste changed to Fellowships. It was a process that took decades, but by 1911 Inithar's society had seen a total reformation, with the caste system fully replaced by the Fellowship system, and with some unpopular and small castes like the artistic castes even totally vanished.
Of course, with a reformation this large and rapid there is still a great deal of controversy. Supporters of the old ways are still present and often both vocal and angry, discrimination in favor of those from more established and experienced bloodlines is still a decidedly present factor among the Fellowships and even among society as a whole (exacerbated by the culturally important record of family achievements that the Tales of Color are), the drive to work to prove oneself to one's Fellowship often sees people working themselves to the very brink, and politics has taken on a wildly unpredictable and sometimes cut-throat nature, as the political power of each Fellowship in government is affected by the number and stances of its members, leading to jockeying for members -- and all of these issues are hotly debated by Initharians themselves. But while rigidity and strict stratification ruled previously, now social mobility between professions, mutual support and decision-making within Fellowships, education and productivity, and a new openness to working with other Fellowships and even with foreigners and their ideas has led to an Inithar that keeps both the generational knowledge of the old days and gains the innovation and self-actualization of the new days.
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Topic: Mechanized Warfare: Inithar Thread / Final Phase, 1941 Cold Season (Read 38343 times)