Those of you who have not read my previous Morgan Selwood books may be struggling with the class structure in Manesai society.
There are basically four classes:
- Mirka – These people are the leaders. Military command officers, presidents and senior politicians will be found in their ranks, as well as police.
- Vesha – Vesha form the business class. Merchants, traders, layers, accountants and the like. Some of them are very wealthy.
- Hasta – These are the technical people. Engineers, technicians, chemists, scientists, doctors.
- Shuba – The working class. Laborers, foot soldiers, farmers.
Genetic engineering has made it impossible for people from the four classes to create offspring with a member of another class. Manesai culture is heavily based on the Indian caste system.
But even if it wasn’t, point a finger at any part of the world and you’ll find classes, castes, restrictions on marriage and the like. The daughters of merchants would marry the sons of other merchants. Princes married princesses. Common serving men didn’t bother lusting after the daughter of the house. Although, in male dominated societies, men in authority thought nothing of having a bit on the side with the serving wench.
Marriages were (and still are) very often arranged by the families. And folks, this is still, by and large, true. I have simply taken one small step further in my science fiction and had idealistic genetic scientists make matches between classes childless. A place for everyone and everyone in their place. That’s sure to make for a peaceful society. </sarcasm>
Since humans are essentially tribal and we love to belong to groups, each class has developed sub-classes. Shuba are the foot soldiers, but one group was deliberately modified to make them bigger, stronger, more fearless than the rest. They are the Fleet’s elite troopers who also fill civilian roles as security police and body guards.
Admiral Ravindra is a member of the Darya sub-class within the Mirka. It is an elite group which produces most Manesai admirals. And the children of admirals (of course) tend to marry the children of admirals.
My three Morgan’s Misfits are
Jirra, who is a Hasta ex-Fleet engineer, Chet, who is Mirka and was a detective, and Toreni, who is elite Shuba.
You can find out more in the other Morgan Selwood books.
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