Ysvalian Social Structure

Ysvalian hierarchy is fast and loose, with no social class being considered as ‘above’ or ‘below’ others. Not even the priests of the Light, regarded as senior citizens in social, philosophical and spiritual matters, expect or receive special treatment because of their status.

Overview
Hierarchy is still possible within a single social class; there still are senior knights within the orders and senior priests within the Temple. Duks are higher than Yrls, and Yrls are ranked by age and experience. Peasants unofficially rank themselves by their shown degree of piousness and devotion to the Galadyan faith. Still, peasants as a group are not lower than priests, knights or Yrls. There’s no penalty for a peasant to disrespect a Duk, and murdering a priest is not punished differently than murdering anyone else. In fact, during crises, knights often help peasants before Duks or priests, as they tend to be less fight-capable as a rule—and not even this rule is the norm.

Even as regards material possessions, the richest, most powerful Duks have little more than the simplest peasant—a rooftop, a guaranteed warm meal and a promise that the local knights will come aid you in need. A person’s wealth is measured by how many people they can invite to dinner, and in this some commoners outmatch merchants, and some merchants outmatch some Duks.

The little social division that exists in Ysval concerns, first, the heredity of Duks - which may be challenged by popular vote, or more often, priest appointment—and second, the tasks expected of knights, priests and commoners—although most knights know some light magic, most priests help with tilling the fields and most commoners have fought armed at some point.

Priests
Priests of the Galadyan Faith, known officially as lightpriests, are the most distinct social group in Ysval, and the closest the Alliance has to a privileged class. They may demand given food and shelter everywhere, from anyone, at any time, and they rarely need to actually demand it, as Duks, knights and commoners alike trip over each other to offer it. Their advice is rarely ignored, their wisdom rarely confronted, and they are allowed to speak to anyone in any tone without expecting violent reprisal. However, they live in relative poverty as compared to even the poorest farmer, often sleeping on the road, and barely having a meal a day, as part of their job to travel between towns carrying the light.

Lightpriests have the right to intrude on any home at any hour, and ask any question of family members—usually whether they are happy, their relatives treat them well, their Duk has been fair, or they know anyone at home or in their neighborhood that has been slipping in their community duties. They cannot enforce rules or execute punishment, but they can inform the knights of any misdeed, or at least advise the offender to straighten their ways before there are consequences. In return for the food, shelter and information, the priests freely provide their light powers, often in the form of blessings or healing, and gentle but firm advice on the proper way to carry on living. Thus, with soft words and humble requests, the priests keep the whole Alliance on a tight leash.

Duks
Duks are the leaders of Alliance Dukedoms, elected among a city’s most prominent family heads. Their leadership is mostly honorary, based on their combat reputation and their ability to hold council in large homes with large feasts, but mostly they let their subjects rule themselves—or rather, they wait for the priests’ advice just like their subjects do.

Besides being honorary members of their city’s knightly order from birth, a Duk’s closest relatives receive the honorific of Yrl, meaning ‘part-ruler’, or ‘ruler of a share’. Although the Duk title is only granted by popular election, it’s common for a Duk’s successor to be chosen from their Yrls. Other than this, Yrls have no part in Ysvalian politics, other than the power gained from their knightly order membership.

Knights
With Duks functioning more like family heads than a higher class, there is no nobility in Ysval. If anything, knights and their orders fulfil the role of a ‘court’ to the Duks, advising them on ruling and organizing the Ream’s defense.

Each knightly order is in charge of peace and safety in their city and dukedom, but they can only command the people in times of war or criminal trials. Besides their military rank, Knights are the ultimate judiciary instance in case the priests or local family heads need a higher authority to pass on a sentence.

Militia
An unofficial social class, consisting of every able-bodied adult or teenager in a city, and summoned to fight during attacks or war, a city’s militia is under the command of the knights, or their Duk directly, depending on the situation. Militia are simply armed civilians, although many of them work as neighborhood guards, enforcing peace and law for the rest of the people. Since anyone in Ysval has the authority to denounce a crime to the local family heads, the militia’s role is mostly limited to providing a strong arm to make sure that law gets served.

Neighbors
Finally, commoners—which Alliance law refers to as ‘neighbors’—include every citizen without a political, religious or military charge. Any Ysvalian from any species, be it human, halfling or giant, is considered a neighbor. Human founders, pint families and the rare hmyr or immigrant that seeks Alliance citizenship, have the exact same rights and responsibilities under Galadyan law.

Neighbors govern their own families and neighborhood by consensus, with family feasts or clan gatherings serving as a place to resolve disputes or bring grievances to one’s elders. In this sense, family heads are the de facto civil authority of the Realm, charged with deciding issues from crime and punishment to resource sharing. At this level, the most popular families and their members tend to have the greatest political power, but they are under a more public eye, increasing their risk of being pointed at for misdemeanors.

There is no official distinction of neighbors by trade; in fact, most Alliance neighbors practice more than one trade, just as the priests, militia and rulers practice crafts and farming themselves.