On Worldbuilding: — How Class Systems FALL [ Korra | Feudalism | WWI ]

you can almost say and i know you've been waiting for this class systems are complicated [Music] yes comrades the revolution is finally here however the revolution will not be televised not shown on this video you can serve the revolution by sharing this video anywhere and everywhere how did we get from a slave society to a free one from feudalism to capitalism fiction is often about radical change in the social order especially sci-fi and fantasy and class systems are an important element of realizing your world's history and why your world is the way it is understanding this sort of thing can give your world that little bit of extra depth so let's talk about how class systems fall or change but full center more dramatic so i want to say that we're going to do this in five parts peaceful change violent change what happens after class plague and war oh now cheers to the writing and world building software campfire for sponsoring this video we'll be reviewing it later part one peaceful change class systems can change or end when the barriers to class mobility significantly lower allowing people to cross into different classes easily and this is either up or down thus the class system as they know it ceases to exist like i don't know imagine if millennials could no longer buy a house a critical part of entering the middle class a good example of this is from the tang dynasty the competitive civil service examination system for the recruitment of the members of the ruling class account of the decline of the pre-tang and early tang aristocracy the chinese examination system made it radically easier for non-nobles to enter the ruling class here those barriers to rolling of being rich noble or already powerful were undermined by a new political religious idea to the point that it marked the decline of an old aristocracy it was a massive shift in the class system of the day what is this poor people getting an education not on my watch a major factor to consider here are guilds and unions which have been important players in breaking down changing or even reinforcing barriers to social mobility historically we see how this works in the elder scrolls series the emergence of the fighters guild lent power wealth and status to layman under a feudalistic system that they otherwise would not have members have legal exemptions for weapons can demand higher payments for jobs and are well respected guilds and unions give people a lot of bargaining power that challenge the way the class system works consider what unique privileges of power wealth and status that guilds and unions give its members guilds and unions like the uk miners in the 1980s have used their control of a large portion of the economy to boycott or pressure government bodies to enact laws that they want both unions and guilds increase the social mobility of their members but they can also restrict the social mobility of non-members by either denying membership or resisting change that would disadvantage them becoming part of the structures of a new class system themselves the likes of local morrow by scott lynch alludes to how guilds can become so powerful manipulative of individuals in its world building one night a powerful sorcerer knocks on the door of a less powerful sorcerer hey i'm starting an exclusive guild he says join me now or i'll blast you out of your boots right where you stand so naturally the second mage says you know i always wanted to join a guild right repeat as necessary until three or four hundred guild members are knocking on the door of the last independent major round and everyone who said no is dead in other words class systems are complicated a second way the class systems peacefully change or end is if the philosophy behind how the class system should work changes government programs in both japan and india working to help low-caste people who have been historically discriminated against reflect a changing belief in the validity of the caste system even in 1984 dr abraham thomas wrote does caste exist in india sure it does but not the same as it was 200 years ago or even 100 or even 20 years ago for an example from our modern day society journalist ben tarnoff writes today's top executives are devoted work worshippers these individuals aren't working out of necessity it's about the display of productivity as a symbol of class power in an era of extreme inequality elites need to demonstrate to themselves and others they deserve to own orders of magnitude more wealth than everyone else what we're seeing is that our own class system which largely accepted inherited wealth is now changing as political and economic tensions begin to climb to emphasize non-inherited wealth our definition of status is changing and the class system is too but these are good changes right well a lot of these are the nazis are also an example of people changing their philosophy to believe in a class system based on racial hierarchy and loyalty to the state not all social change is good so consider one positive changes to the distribution of wealth power and status and two negative changes to the distribution of wealth power and status across history part two violent change finally the more exciting stuff why would you have healthy gradual class change when you can have blood now revolution and civil war happen for a myriad of reasons so we're just going to focus on the class aspects of it class tensions are major internal economic and political forces in society so it's no surprise that the 1917 russian revolution the spanish civil war the finnish civil war the chinese revolution and so many others are underpinned by class tensions the different sides aren't just ideologically different but economically different though lower class people are of course conscripted to either side without much choice charles dickens explored this in his book a tale of two cities he goes out of his way to highlight the economic and social divide that led up to the french revolution more than he did the ideas of liberty justice and blah blah blah all that sort of nonsense which is what we often talk about when we think of the french revolution see though historical it was important word building to help us believe and understand how the revolution was inevitable or realistic those idealistic concepts might be there for your heroes but the average working person is more concerned with peace bread and land before they're thinking about those higher ideas popular support for violent class change doesn't spring out of nowhere consider showing the economic tensions that underpin the divide and more importantly the economic reform that both sides believe need to happen and with a peaceful or violent it's important to consider whether the change is top down or bottom up so you know here in shakespeare's hamlet actually no let's go with the lion king otherwise known as hamlet but fluffy scar rules the land placing the hyenas higher in the class system than they ought to be and the land suffers for it but then simba becomes king and he heals the land from a position of wealth power and status this is a top-down change in contrast the slaves of the mastery by william nicholson shows a radical slave society being overthrown by a class of enslaved people who have no power wealth and little status this is bottom-up change now in fiction these two different types of change provide for usually different types of stories top-down change stories allow for lost ears to the throne a more idealistic ending like the return of the king where defeating a bad ruling class solves the problems without worrying too much about the more complex real world questions and that's okay not every story needs to go into this sort of stuff it's also important to know that real world top-down change is often a little out of touch with reality because fewer people are involved in making decisions and this can lead to economic and social problems in contrast change stories typically allow for underdog characters revolutionary tales like mistborn where the ark is them acquiring wealth power and status till they can challenge the status quo real world bottom-up change is grassroots democracy but it's also often more violent because it naturally brings those without power wealth and status into conflict with those who do though historically an important factor in this type of change is some support from the top in some form catching fire by suzanne collins explores this through plutarch heavensby who works with the resistance from the capital to get katniss out part three after class littlefinger was right when he said chaos is a ladder in a storm of swords by george r martin daenerys overthrows the slave-driven class system of astapor chaos was left in its wake now daenerys did set up a council to rule the city with a semi-egalitarian class system but it doesn't stick a group of ex-slaves now a free class forcefully take power and the council cannot stop it see the council doesn't really control the city's resources or the military not really but this faction of ex-slaves become a strong enough force to do so see class isn't just an idea class is about the realistic and practical distribution of power wealth resources opportunity social standing so a change in the class system is often just really about a redistribution of those things to different groups of people creating a new class system which may be better or worse as for how that happens think about which group practically controls resources and military force afterwards they will form an important part of the new social class order regardless of the war or revolutions idealistic aims it's about who has the infrastructure to support them afterwards think about kuvira in the legend of korra she takes over after an anarchist plot decimates the ruling class of bar singh say the capital she's a military leader and the military is one of the only factions left with a nationwide organizational infrastructure left they pick up the pieces and who is there to challenge them the french revolution is famous for turning to tyranny and its aftermath see a new class system will often form out of the remnants of the last especially if there is chaos or violence this is also a really fascinating place for a story a post-revolution world where they're trying to realize these revolutionary ideals but it's more complicated than that this is kind of the world of a song of ice and fire it's after the revolution trying to realize these new ideas and well and things go pretty wrong pretty quickly you could take a deep look at what a world is like from the perspective of people who didn't have any wealth power or status before and suddenly find themselves in a new order where they have too much of it or too little of it the reality is class isn't simple no class systems are complicated realistically class systems change but they always leave a remnant of the past of sorts frankenberg's dune series sees the fall of the farfalug feudalistic system which uses terms like lord viceroy and duke but these terms survive the class system's end and they evolve in what they mean in the book heretics of dune everything doesn't just suddenly change like that we can see the history and how he will build this new kind of class system the question for you as the world builder is this what class systems did your society go through in the past and how is that reflected now linguistically socially and economically part four plague during the feudal age peasants were replaceable labor help help i'm being repressed bloody peasant but after the black plague that wasn't so true anymore forcing the feudalistic class system to change to give them wages wealth and their skills were rarer giving them a kind of status the nobility did try to stop this with immense taxes and the statute of labor is in 1351 but economic and social pressures won out and succeeded over time with the end of feudalism so firstly plague can change the economic worth of large classes of individuals as their skills become more valuable during and after the plague giving them leverage in changing the class system secondly people fled the cities during the black play to the countryside the rich and the poor the result was a decentralization of power across europe as cities declined where disease has struck historically will shift the geographical centers of power wealth and status like capital cities in your world as the upper class either flees or they die and new powers rise up thirdly this is all intensified by disease impacting lower income families more on average tolkien wrote about a great plague across middle earth that was greater in ravanin which had no great cities its people were little skilled in the arts of healing and medicine lower classes or less advanced civilizations lack health care have fewer resources and often an inability to self-isolate this means that there may be differences in the class system distribution of wealth power and status depending on where the disease strikes the working class of the placehead hardest may be able to demand more in the post-disease world leading to an emergent middle class part five war war challenges the class system in a similar way to how plague does as people shockingly die world war one meant that those who had previously been part-timers or casual laborers or unemployed could suddenly earn good money and feed themselves however it also challenges the class norms that underpin wealth power and status in britain women became an employee class in factories and shops to help the war effort and it meant that they demanded the vote getting power but the relationship between class and war also heavily depends on how popular the war is as york university history professor gerald jordan wrote conscription and the direction of labor made for a more inclusive sense of national identity in 1914 britain nationalism was one legacy of the war although war sensitized workers class and equality national sentiments in popular culture set limits on the political consequences of class feeling war can give a cultural feeling of purpose to inequalities it can be used by the powers it be to quell those tensions or create a sense of a bigger picture but this doesn't always work in contrast russia [Music] in world war one they had long work hours the costs of living were already an issue and they were made worse due to the demands of the war and it all contributed to the 1917 bolshevik revolution the bolsheviks promised peace bread and land and that's because when you strip away the facade of idealistic concepts of justice and equity people just want to go home and have stability if there are class tensions then how popular is that war which tensions is it making worse and which is it easing though i do want to note that war doesn't usually stop these tensions it just puts them on pause for a few years often then returning with a vengeance seriously go read about how many strikes there were in germany in world war one during the war and then after the war all of it leading up to well you know what and if you want to codify or visualize your class system alongside your magic system species or world timeline then campfire and their world building expansion allows you to have an encyclopedia which would make it pretty easy to lay out how your class structure works and how different groups perceive their wealth power and status it's a software designed for writing and world building and i've already done an extensive review of campfire before it's linked up in the corner now because i want to be really open and honest when talking about this sort of thing but bottom line campfire and the expansion is really good especially if your well building magic systems and languages i mean look at this page it's awesome i really do think would be a great place for you to get down just how your class system works and more importantly how it intersects with the rest of your world building because campfire is really built to be able to do that campfire does have a 10-day totally free trial down at the link below so i encourage you to go check it out and just see if it helps you and if you like it it's only a one-time purchase which i really appreciate in the era of subscription services there's also a fantastic timeline feature for you to map out how your class system evolved over time which i think is a really important part i do think the encyclopedia could be better integrated with the map so that you click on locations and it brings articles up and the map could use different icons like cities and mountains castles and spaceships but i do mean this when i say that i recommend campfire as a way to organize your world building and connect it all together especially for role players by the way as the item and character pages are really equipped for d d stance links are down below you get a cool word building software and it supports the channel and for the summary i'm gonna channel my year three english teacher all right class what have we learned today tim get that out of your mouth firstly peaceful ways class systems change include lowering barriers to social mobility and people changing their beliefs about the justification of social stratification guilds and unions are often important players in reinforcing or challenging the status quo consider what kind of story you really have and whether the change should be top down or bottom up to fit that secondly revolution and civil war often have science that come from broadly different economic classes likewise however idealistic your conflict is showing the economic tensions underpinning the violent class divide helps with realism thirdly consider which groups control the resources infrastructure and military after a radical shift in the class system especially if there's chaos they will be an important part of the new class system holding some combination of wealth power and status regardless of the idealistic games fourthly class systems may change but remnants of the history will always remain consider how past class systems are reflected in the language organization political structures and otherwise fifthly plague significantly impacts whose skills grow in value giving them more leverage it will also change the geographical concentration of wealth and power as cities decline and different groups are affected more weakening or strengthening their place in the class system and sickly war can mobilize groups into the economy leading to their political agency it can exacerbate economic tensions and it can lead to nationalistic unity depending on the popularity of the war all i've got to say now is join the revolution share this video far and wide to spread the revolution it does here at last yes and you can be part of it your revolution needs you i'm done this topic was hard thought it was going to be one video there was two thought it was going to just be two videos then it was three and i'm actually done now i think yeah i'm done i'm good i'm gonna go get a drink and a cookie and you can't stop me instagram and twitter down below come follow me there in the meantime i hope i've taught you the most important thing and that is class systems are complicated must crash capitalism me [Music] my um you

Channel: Hello Future Me

Views: 221,431

Keywords: explained, theory, lore, analysis, how to, worldbuilding, dune, 2020, avatar, korra, tla, last airbender, aang, sokka, zuko, fire nation, earth kingdom, earthbending, class, caste, indian, bladerunner, kuvira, wwI, plague, daenerys, game of thrones, dragons, revolution, communism, campfire, capitalism, slave, romans, kings, queens, medieval, littlefinger, tale of two cities, dickens, lies of locke lamora

Id: bbkSim9iaOQ

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020