Of course, the first thing we might think of is royalty. I think Americans are particularly inclined to romanticize royalty. Perhaps we kicked out King George III and became wistful. Kat remarked that many in the US at the time of its inception were not on board with all the aims of the Revolution, but wanted to knock George off the top and move up to become royalty themselves. How can we tell that Americans have this attitude toward royalty? Well, we can see it in Princess merchandise, in thousands of "rightful Heir" narratives, and all sorts of places in our culture.
Then comes the question of "nobles" and nobility. Does every noble think they have it in them to become a king? In Western European history, if you had weapons and armor, and/or you could direct people wearing armor, you would have power. This kind of wealth and power tended to be passed down through heredity.
One of the ways that kinghood/emperorhood is maintained is through the idea of divine blessing. It's not restricted to kings and emperors, but takes a more generally applied shape in the idea of prosperity gospel, where if you are rich it means you must be blessed or deserving.
How do you tell if someone belongs to the ruling class? One way is to look at the kinds of things they can get away with, including behaviors, patterns of dress, etc.
Who has restrictions on their behavior? What kind? Who controls how prosperity is allocated? Who gets to say who stays in the area? Who monitors the borders?
Sometimes historically there were holidays when the roles of servants and nobles were reversed. This might be a cool thing to introduce into a story world. In the Japanese obon season, in a particular region of Japan, there was an event where samurai had to stay indoors while others had a mass dance. Look for days set aside to subvert expectations.
I asked the discussants if we could try to tease apart power and societal value, as they are not always congruent. Artists, for example, may not have much power, but might have a lot of societal value. Japan even has a program designating artists as national treasures. In European history, Jews were restricted from owning land but were allowed to have monetary wealth. Since feudalism was based on land ownership, this restricted them from possessing power in some ways, but obviously not others.
Courtesans might not have any family power or traditional propriety, which means they might have influence but no security or direct access to power.
Power can be connected to age, gender, and many other possible variables. Patriarchy places value on men.
Make sure to consider formal and informal power. Also consider the difference between having the power to control your own life, and having power over others.
Bureaucratic gatekeepers can be lowly in their systems, but have the power of gatekeeping.
How many people's lives can you affect? Who can thwart you?
Checks and balances in government are supposed to counteract the unbridled use of power.
Who grants power? Is it God? Who has the power to take your power from you, how, and why?
Unions can create power where before there was little.
Who is admired? Are people valued for the services they provide to society? For membership in a particular social group? What do celebrities provide?
We must remember that once (and in fact, still) there are people who are assigned monetary value as though they were goods rather than people.
Whose children are protected?
Capitalism places a monetary value on people based on their productivity.
Kat encourages us to think of cherishing, or emotional value, as separate from other forms of value.
People who deal with garbage get marginalized in society, but this function of theirs is key to a healthy community. There can be people in a society who are vital but not valued.
When we tell king stories, we don't necessarily tell the stories of others around them. We tell the story of Frodo, but not of Sam.
The actions of heroes are not what make society function. Societies are complex, and without key pieces they would fall apart.
Outsider stories are not the same as the stories of people who are devalued. We have many stories telling about how wayward outsiders are taken into the community. Aragorn goes from an outsider to a king, not because he understands the people but because he is predestined.
There is power in violence. If you have no muscle, but you have guile and charisma and you can command people with muscle and weaponry, then you can command power. If you have no guile or charisma, but you have a lot of violent power, you may be able to command people but you have to at least be able to persuade people not to kill you while you are sleeping.
There is power in language - in oratory and in discourse. What role does it play in society?
Mutual protection societies tend to work best on a small scale, where people can check on each other and make sure they have an understanding of one another's needs.
In a secondary world, where do you introduce changes into a system of power? I talked about my otter aliens, who thought of art as the primary driver of life. In some ways, this could be compared to the way art was used for prestige in feudal Japan (even though I didn't use Japan as a model).
Potlatch is a phenomenon based on linking societal value to generosity, one's ability to give away things. It's a different basis for judgment.
Take a look at the excesses of the powerful and how they lead to revolution.
What kind of ostentation is permitted? What is suppressed?
Is there a distinction between old money and new money? What are the appropriate manners associated with being rich? How do those differ between groups? What is "style"? What is "culture," and what is "good breeding"?
Sometimes if you have enough money you can buy yourself a noble title. Money doesn't necessarily buy you social prestige, though, and you can be genteelly impoverished. Nobles have sometimes sold their daughters for cash.
The Gilded Age in the US involved a lot of people trying to use their money to become noble, and forge a form of nobility after the old forms of it had been rejected.
If you control a resource but don't have money, how much power do you have?
How do you decide which characters are pulling strings, and which ones are being pulled and don't know it?
The ruler Ventenari in Terry Pratchett's Discworld has a lot of power, a lot of money, and a lot of authority. He wants things to work and doesn't really care how. He has Vimes to keep things functioning.
If a character is lacking something, do they have enough power to access it?
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the discussion. I think a lot of interesting things popped up, and I hope you all find they give you ideas for your worldbuilding.
#SFWApro
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