Werra wrote:Arioch wrote:Among Loroi, ships are usually thought of as feminine. But kind of for the opposite reasons from our own history.
Is Trade a gendered language in which every subject has a genus, like German and French for example?
No, Trade is mostly gender neutral, as you might expect of an interspecies
lingua franca. But in the English translations I'll be using feminine pronouns.
Werra wrote:Arioch wrote:Without the title being hereditary, I'm not sure there's all that much difference between the two.
There are a lot of differences, but most aren't readily apparent to a modern person, since we don't think in those categories anymore.
The most important difference is propably that nobility is not something one does, it's what one is. A director can clock out of work and be otherwise an ordinary citizen. A noble can not.
Well... people in high corporate or political office don't get to "clock out" of their jobs either. If there's a crisis at 3 AM, you're getting a phone call. If you get caught in a compromising situation, it doesn't matter that it happened outside of office hours. The same can be said of pretty much any public servant or member of the military; I don't think it has much to do with the positions being hereditary.
What it does mean is that you can quit or get fired, and that you have to demonstrate some kind of qualifications to get the job in the first place.
Werra wrote:Nobility is far more a judge of character than a job is. A good comparison might be the respect the US pays its veterans. Once attained that respect is bound to the person and losing it would require a truly public disgrace.
There are plenty of historical examples of aristocrats acting like complete barbarians; I don't buy that they're inherently "noble" in character. I think that's largely a modern affectation. In a world where modern aristocrats have very little political power, of course the courtly trappings and manners and reputation concerns of their class become paramount.
Werra wrote:It's likely the Lorois understanding of nobility -if they have one- is hugely different. But let's say they have. Where would nobility start for them? What rank/position does one need to attain?
The warrior class itself is a sort of hereditary "upper class," in a sense, similar to the
samurai class of Japan or what the knightly landed class eventually became in Europe. Warriors
are held to a strict code of conduct, and they
can be demoted if they do not adhere to that code. Members of the military do not "clock out"
And as I mentioned, there are still powerful families. Ashrain certainly has more influence than her rank demands because she is related to the currently serving Emperor, and as we will see, the Emperor's nephew gets to do things that a male would not normally be allowed to do. But that only goes so far. The Loroi mostly idolize heroes for their abilities and accomplishments rather than their parentage.