Caste

What follows is an overview of the caste system of Lucani society. All names are rough translations of the native Lucani names, which have yet to be phoneticized.

Sage

A religious class who's job it is to collect all the knowledge of their species and distribute it to the other classes according to what they need. Their duty is considered culturally the most important and typically their word would be law historically though the power keepers sometimes overtook them. In the modern day most of their power and duties are ceremonial, but if you are one you still have lots of societal privilege. exclusively carnivorous as meat is hard to come by and therefore it was a sign of respect to give the higher classes meat, as well as early on more carnivorous Lucani secured the best positions due to intimidation.

Power Keepers

Originally created when early sages delegated their managerial duties so they could focus on gathering knowledge, they historically would manage large estates to make sure food was being produced. In the modern day they've evolved into something akin to a police force, though they usually aren't typically armed and rely on their authority and control over the public to enforce the laws. Also exclusively carnivorous traditionally for the same reason as the sages, but in modern days power keepers aren't considered much different to the river swept so they're likely to be omnivorous

River Swept

Originally the name for an emergent class of plant cutters who started traveling up and down the river to trade goods between estates, the caste has expanded quite a bit in the modern day. Today almost every Lucani you meet would consider themselves river-swept, if they even consider the caste system at all, and they might judge you weird and old-fashioned if you claim to be anything else. traditionally mainly herbivorous but they'd have greater access to meat compared to plant cutters, in modern days they're totally omnivorous

Makers

An off-shoot of plant cutters who specialize in goods other than food. They're traditionally better regarded than plant cutters but in the modern day this category would only be referred to as a cultural reference and not a real group.

Plant Cutters

The word cut here refers to both eating plants and harvesting them. an exclusively herbivorous caste who are responsible for farming and other food production. they typically lived on estates managed by power keepers and would form communities with makers on these estates which functioned semi-independently. In the modern day the only people who consider themselves a plant cutter are especially traditional rural farmers.

Cursed

Not a real caste, but instead Lucani they have been removed from the system due to showing signs of being corrupted by night shadows. Often any group who challenged sage authority would be branded cursed. Opinions varied over time about how acceptable the cursed are in society, sometimes being seen as misguided but redeemable and other times being seen as totally hopeless. In the industrial age many lucani who questioned the existence of cities were branded as such and forced into plant-cutter communities as a punishment. Lucani consider their species essentially good so if a Lucani is acting out there has to be an outside force acting on them.