n7axw wrote:Here is another thought. Consider the bureaucrats. Corruption and bribes probably explain how at least some of them got their jobs. I wonder what percentage of the population they are. And we do know from textev that they are a power center countering the aristocracy, having managed to build an imperial army independent of the feudal levies. That suggests competence however corrupt they might be.
Don
So, to sum up what was discussed above:
- Harchong has an overgrown nobility which owns most - if not entire - land and industry;
- there's a bureaucratic class which is powerful enough to work against the nobles if necessary;
- there is some kind of middle class the bureaucrats come from (if they came from nobility, they would be unlikely to counter the aristocrats);
- the bureaucrats get their posts either by belonging to right family (which would make bureaucracy sort of "second nobility") or by the way of tests (which doesn't preclude the previous option);
- there are many, many, many peasants/workers/serfs/slaves who don't own their land and with whom the nobles can do as they please, which in past led to uprisings and revolts;
- Southern Harchong has bigger and/or newer industrial base than N. Harchong, but its nobles are likely less influential and imporant than N. Harchongese aristocracy.
- S. Harchong probably has more members of the middle/bureaucratic class than N. Harchong, which leads to some cultural differences between South and North;
- N. Harchong is more zealous/religious than S. Harchong.
I guess that gives us a rough sketch of what their society is like. Anything I missed?