You see though the fact that the clergy and nobility hold the power confirms my saying. Because anyone with any power /become/ those positions. Minor houses exist, this is confirmed, they have had to come into being somehow, and what we know about Ishgard is that killing a legit dragon gets you status and prestige, hell there's even an early coerthan throwaway line that you don't get a proper grave unless you die via dragon, that's some spartan stuff right there (return with your shield or on it). Basically, any brumeborn that does anything of merit is promoted to either clergy or nobility in some form in order to keep the castes aligned. (Can't let any riffraff kill a dragon, so in order to rectify it, you are no longer riffraff, you are now a knight or a dragoon with a lower case d).
You misinterpret my meaning about meritocracy in Medieval Europe. In England and France more specifically, if you wanted to climb AT ALL you had two options if you wanted it to be in your control (because not everyone can be born hot and catch the eye of a lord), either you fought well or your dedicated your life to the church. Fighting well enough could possibly get you knighted, getting knighted could get you land, manage that well and you could move into pseudo nobility, perhaps even get married into an existing family. Granted you started as front line infantry.
The church, on the other hand, was the primary means for education. Great strides in science were born from the church first because that is where the smart people went. Gregor Mendel was a monk, the very way we organize the animal kingdom was born from the want to categorize and understand god's plan. Not only that, but churches took care of their own, a poor pauper with proper brains could live comfortably in the abbots. So it is an avenue for the less militarily inclined.
This is shown in Ishgard in both cases. The Scholasticate has dorms for its students, no matter if brumeborn or highborn and the knights are revered.
In fact, there are cases of overlap, Valeyeront and Reinette are canonized as saints though they were both Dragoons, one was an azure dragoon, the other one was just a dragoon.
Ishgard's culture is a war culture with a good deal of fascism (not the nazi sort, the classic needs of the state outweigh the needs of the individual sort) and religious fanaticism to boot. It rewards those who fight well or for those who perpetuate the narrative of righteous glory with heavy ties and parallels to pop culture representations of ye olde France and England.
Just remember that the hoops that need to be jumped through in order to ascend, especially in the military route, are monumental (literally killing a dragon) and there are systems in place to actively suppress or perhaps discourage brumeborn from ascending (as shown in scholasticate quest and in the convictory quest, not to mention guildleves that make the assumption that brumeborn dragoon recruits flunk out faster and more frequently than highborne).
thus once again the likening to medieval europe in my previous statement. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough, perhaps conveniently enough to keep the people in Ishgard quiet and happy with their lot in life (as happy as that is).Â
TL;DR,
Upward mobility is facilitated through church and military, goodluck being a farmer in Ishgard, especially after 5 years of winter.
ASIDE:
I am curious as to the view on merchants and traders in Ishgard, there seems to be a market district which peddles anything from armor to cooking supplies to jewelry and is located in the pillars (and maybe meant only for rich people?) Ishgard is not one to avoid decadence (to keep in line with the well off nobles) even in time of scarcity like post-calamity. They do not contribute to the war directly so I wonder how it is received.
You misinterpret my meaning about meritocracy in Medieval Europe. In England and France more specifically, if you wanted to climb AT ALL you had two options if you wanted it to be in your control (because not everyone can be born hot and catch the eye of a lord), either you fought well or your dedicated your life to the church. Fighting well enough could possibly get you knighted, getting knighted could get you land, manage that well and you could move into pseudo nobility, perhaps even get married into an existing family. Granted you started as front line infantry.
The church, on the other hand, was the primary means for education. Great strides in science were born from the church first because that is where the smart people went. Gregor Mendel was a monk, the very way we organize the animal kingdom was born from the want to categorize and understand god's plan. Not only that, but churches took care of their own, a poor pauper with proper brains could live comfortably in the abbots. So it is an avenue for the less militarily inclined.
This is shown in Ishgard in both cases. The Scholasticate has dorms for its students, no matter if brumeborn or highborn and the knights are revered.
In fact, there are cases of overlap, Valeyeront and Reinette are canonized as saints though they were both Dragoons, one was an azure dragoon, the other one was just a dragoon.
Ishgard's culture is a war culture with a good deal of fascism (not the nazi sort, the classic needs of the state outweigh the needs of the individual sort) and religious fanaticism to boot. It rewards those who fight well or for those who perpetuate the narrative of righteous glory with heavy ties and parallels to pop culture representations of ye olde France and England.
Just remember that the hoops that need to be jumped through in order to ascend, especially in the military route, are monumental (literally killing a dragon) and there are systems in place to actively suppress or perhaps discourage brumeborn from ascending (as shown in scholasticate quest and in the convictory quest, not to mention guildleves that make the assumption that brumeborn dragoon recruits flunk out faster and more frequently than highborne).
thus once again the likening to medieval europe in my previous statement. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough, perhaps conveniently enough to keep the people in Ishgard quiet and happy with their lot in life (as happy as that is).Â
TL;DR,
Upward mobility is facilitated through church and military, goodluck being a farmer in Ishgard, especially after 5 years of winter.
ASIDE:
I am curious as to the view on merchants and traders in Ishgard, there seems to be a market district which peddles anything from armor to cooking supplies to jewelry and is located in the pillars (and maybe meant only for rich people?) Ishgard is not one to avoid decadence (to keep in line with the well off nobles) even in time of scarcity like post-calamity. They do not contribute to the war directly so I wonder how it is received.
RPC wiki! Leave rumors! https://wiki.ffxiv-roleplayers.com/pages/Orrin_Halgren
