Social Strata

Decided that it was time to examine the social make up of 'The Return of a Nagus' so starting at the top...

The Emperor/Empress

This is a hereditary position but it has swooped between several races over the millennium as the direct blood line of on family has died out and a new era begins.  The main job of the Emperor/Empress is being the deciding vote in the Congress and keeping it from taking forever to debate an issue to death.  A combination of Speaker of the House of Commons and benign dictator, the Emperor/Empress' job wasn't so much give orders as guide the Congress into making the right decisions for the good of the people.  Herding cats maybe an easier task.

The Congress

Made up of the various ambassadors, ministers, dignities, envoys and diplomats that represent the planets of the Dynasty.  Often noisy, always divided into factions and habitually chaotic.  Alliances change by the day, sometimes by the hour.  Unless you are a native in double talk and scheming it is not a place to get a job, however it always seems to attract political hopefuls out to make their mark on Dynasty history.  The Congress Dome on Englansia is considered by some to be the centre of the Dynasty and is certainly the centre of the great debates.  Each planet has its representative so the Congress has grown in size over the centuries.
All of this was over turned when Morgan Chandler seized control of the Dynasty.  The Congress became a joke, where powerless diplomats debated issues only for their words to go unheard while Morgan and the Skilleths rules through brute force and abject fear.  During the time of 'The Return of a Nagus', many Congress seats remain unfilled as it is the only protest that the Planetary Governs can safely make.

The High Families

The ones with the money, the connections and the trade agreements of the Dynasty.  They can be as bad, if not worse, than the Congress as every member of the High Families are trained from birth to ever increase the value of the holdings of the Family Fortune.  The direct bloodline is also jealousy guard and there are strict rules for assassination attempts.  For most of their lives the Heads of the High Families are untouchable as the penalty for attempting to harm a Family Head or an Heir Apparent is death.  Actually killing one results in the offender being 'consigned to the void', in other words taken up in a shuttle and bounced out of the air lock.  The only time that this is not true is between the death of the 'Blood Originator' and their instalment as Head of the Family or their marriage.  To avoid the possibility of internal attempts on the Heir Apparent's  life, it was written into the laws that the holdings can only pace down the direct blood line, eldest to eldest.  If the Heir Apparent does perish then the Family ceases to exist as a High Family and the holdings must be passed on to a different Family.  As such normally the Rosinante are called in to act as body guards in this period as the Congress became tried of market contractions when an Heir Apparent was assassinated and the High Families started scrabbling to snap up the now free holdings.

The Guilds

With the High Families historically embroiled in scheming and back biting, controlling the stock market and the flow of finance, it was decided that having knowledge at the mercy of shifting alliances and always with the possibility of an essential piece of knowledge lost in an assassination attempt was not a good idea.  Therefore, the Guilds were formed with the idea that the High Families would handle the money while the Guilds protected knowledge and skill.  Though there is a measure of politics in the Guilds, to a greater or lesser degree, advancement is normally by examination and 'masterpieces'.  The exception to this is the Shardin.  Not quite a Guild but definitely not a High Family either, the Shardin are the information gatherers and processors of the Dynasty.  From the quite bar girl, keeping her ears open for the odd tip off of a drug dealer, to the Black Ops man hacking into the computer banks of a High Family, all are Shardin agents and ultimately answer to the Lord of the Guild.  Individual planets have their own information services but the Shardin answer to the Dynasty and to the Emperor/Empress.
After Morgan seized control of the Dynasty, many of the Guilds suffered division between those that supported Morgan and those that stayed loyal to Raquel.  No where was this more bloody than in the Shardin where being 'sanctioned' is a euphemism for being killed by order of a higher authority.  Office politics in the Shardin can be fairly fraught.

The Rosinante Templars

A semi-religious order, all members of the Rosinante are born with the Zi'kka abilities.  Set aside from normal people by these mental abilities, the Rosinante trained from childhood to control their power and always serve the greater good.  A Rosinante's first burden was always their duty, which was to do that which no others could, stand between the weak and those that would abuse them, guard the flock from the wolf and be the voice of reason in the face of hatred and persecution.  However, in the years preceding the Dark Wars, the Rosinante were more often involved in safe guarding the interests of the rich as they could not run any mission without permission from the Congress.  There is speculation that this may have had something to do with Morgan's fall to the Darkness.

Planetary Governors

 Responsible for the individual planets, the Planetary Governors are the heads of the 'local' governments.  Selection varies from world to world, with some being hereditary and others elected but all have to abide by the rule 'one governor, one planet'.

The Renegades

The flip side of the Rosinante, the Renegades are Zi'kka users that are followers of the Darkness.  They are the embodiment of selfishness and greed and are often found in the corridors of power; the Renegades normally use subversion and guile to take what they want from the Dynasty and as such are the most dangerous enemies of the Rosinante as they often appear to be upstanding citizens of the Dynasty.  Where there is a trade deal that puts profit before people, a building project that ignores the damage it is doing to the environment in favour of gain or cruelty performed in the name of sales, then there is the most likely place to find a Renegade.  However, a lot of the time it is just mortal greed and it is often difficult to tell whether there is a Renegade subverting people's better judgement or not.

The Free Companies

Those that are not exactly part of the power structure, if anything they are sort of the opposite to the power structure.  Smugglers, pirates, illegal slaving outfits are all counted as Free Company members but mercenaries also fall into this category as they are not controlled by any government directly, going where ever the money flows.

The Rest

Divided as ever along the lines of money, power and influence, with high class being comprised of those with money but not High Family status, middle class being the 'learned' workers such as doctors and solicitors, low class being manual labours, who most often inhabit the 'Termite Blocks' of the big cities and below all of them are the slaves, the indentured workers who can be bought and sold at the owners whim.  There are meant to be laws protecting the basic treatment of the slaves but the inspectors are often useless at their jobs or paid to 'look else where'.

So there you are, obviously the power structures shift and change as the books move as there are some big social upheavals in store for the characters.  However, if you want to write a 'realistic' novel you need to have these sorts of details organised while you write as it gives the text a depth that makes it feel as if the cities work, even when the readers aren't reading about them.  It also gives you an idea for what sort of characters you characters are going to be meeting and can lead to some interesting developments when they meet someone who doesn't conform to the usual power structures.