Who are the upper class?
While the Emperor is credited with many amazing attributes, even he could not have taken control of the world alone. He needed help from the power brokers of the rest of the world, the corporate elite, political leaders and the wealthy nobility. In secret, he made pacts with several of the shadow leaders of the world, promising them and their descendants even more wealth and power in the new order. For the most part, he fulfilled that promise, although the world if far from being the utopia Victor promised.
Initially, Victor made deals with eight dynasties to begin his campaign. All of these families had global roots and interests, and together they made an exceptionally powerful cabal. These eight families have become known as the ‘Founding Families’ and their descendants form the elite of the upper class.
Most of the Change Cage city governors are from a founding family, as are most of the high-ranking members of the Administration.
They make sure that other members of the founding families get the best opportunities and promotions.
Less than a quarter of the upper class is made up of the founding families. The remainder are those who joined Victor’s movement once
it was clear how the chips were going to fall.
Each of these families traded in their wealth or power to jump on the Emperor’s bandwagon and they have been duly rewarded. However, they still form a second tier within upper class society. Each of these lesser families is keen to marry into one of the founding families, not only for the additional opportunities that open up to them but also for the social benefits of being part of the Neovictorian high nobility.
While others work for their money, the upper class is financed by the city. Each of the families of the upper class has a noble title bestowed by the Emperor, and each title comes with an annual stipend. This title is claimed by the eldest male heir of each family line, with a complicated series of rules about where it might pass should there be no obvious choice.
The system makes it extremely rare for such titles to pass to any female descendants, as the upper class believe their delicate womenfolk are not cut out for such responsibility.
The amount of the stipend depends on the title. At the bottom of the scale is Baron, rising to Earl, Count, Marquis and finally Duke.
In some of the Asian and Eastern cities the names might be a little different, but the same five tiers are in place. Most Neovictorians don’t question why the wealthy should receive this wealth for free. To the poor, the rich are simply the rich, where they get their money is neither here nor there. Very few people even question the source of this wealth. Those who do ask are told that these families owned land, wealth or property which they gave to the city or Emperor to create the Change Cage cities, and that this stipend is a form of extended
payment for their patronage. Those who know more of the real histories understand it to be the reward they got for signing up to the Emperor’s plans.
While the stipends are quite large, only the head of the family actually gets it. It is up to him to decide how much money the rest of the family might be granted. Usually this means he simply pays their tab when they go shopping, as handling money would be a little vulgar for the upper class. Many of these family patriarchs are quite stingy with their wealth, meaning their sons (but not their daughters who must stay at home!) must find work to cover their expenses. This is usually done by joining the Administration and becoming an overpaid Clerk. It is also generally assumed that a ‘young man must make his fortune’. Many are drawn to the glorious tales of being an IAN officer or a plum position in the Administration simply to gain status in society.
The family patriarch holds almost complete financial control over their children and siblings. The upper class buy almost everything on credit, with all bills passed on to the family.
Should the family start misbehaving or damaging the family reputation the patriarch can refuse to pay their bills or even cut them off completely. Effectively the patriarch can cast anyone in the family into destitution, the mere threat of which is usually enough to curb their behaviour.
Day in the life
Daily life is filled with pleasure and indolence for most of the upper class. The first part of the day is spent getting dressed. Even for children this can be quite laborious and requires a valet or maid to assist. Breakfast is served as a buffet for the family to partake of once they are up and dressed. The servants will keep food ready in the dining room until around 11am when it is assumed those who haven’t come down will either not be coming or will happily wait until lunch time.
After breakfast the family go about their day.
Ladies will get on with reading or embroidery.
They might go and visit friends, but only if a gentleman is free to accompany them. If calling on another female acquaintance they might be allowed to go with a female friend or relation, but this is somewhat informal.
Otherwise they might be waiting for visitors to call. Generally, the higher your status the later you might call on people. So the lower levels of the upper class do their ‘rounds’ in the morning and await visitors in the afternoon.
Children will be sent to the schoolroom with a governess for their lessons.
Gentlemen might occupy themselves in several ways. There may be accounts and family business to be done in their study.
If they are part of the Administration they will have to go to work, or at least into the office. Those of very high status who hold Administration positions are free to go to work as they see fit, working from home or just shirking their duties are acceptable. However, there will often be some ambitious person under them looking to prove themselves and oust their boss. So, Administrators who
want to rise higher than Clerk need to get their act together. Gentlemen of leisure have several options available to them.
They might pursue some profession, such as Doctor, or simply enjoy learning for education’s sake. They might go to their club to meet friends or to just get away from the family. There are several physical pursuits they might enjoy as well, such as training in Baritsu. Finally, they might choose to spend some time with their wives and stay at home reading, but this is quite unusual (unless they have promised to accompany some female relation on a visit).
Like breakfast, lunch is an informal affair.
The servants will provide a light meal at the request of those who are in the house. The time lunch is served is very variable, anytime between noon and 5pm depending on what those at home prefer.
In general lunch is only taken at home by the children and ladies of the family. Most men are out and about and will eat lunch at their club or one of the restaurants and
‘chop shops’ to be found in the shopping districts.
The afternoon continues in much the same way as the morning. However, in the afternoon ladies are a little freer to go out and about. Generally this is because they must be accompanied by a gentleman and it is polite to allow the gentlemen the morning to go about any necessary business. Ladies of high status usually do their visiting in the afternoon, leaving them free to shop or visit as they see fit, calling in on acquaintances as they desire.
Lower status ladies must ensure someone is in to receive guests in case they call in the afternoon.
As the day wears on, dinner approaches, which is a very formal affair even if the family is not entertaining any guests. Generally the family will need quite some time to dress for dinner, so those who have been out and about will aim to return by around 5pm or 6pm. When they are changed into proper evening wear, they gather in the parlour for drinks. At around 8pm dinner will be served, as long as everyone is assembled. The family will escort each other into the dining room as a group where a large hot meal will be provided. Anyone who arrives in the parlour late is therefore holding everyone up, which is considered very rude.
Dinner might easily last until 10pm, when the ladies will retire to the parlour. There they can relax and gossip, play cards or otherwise socialise with other ladies. The gentlemen remain at the dinner table where they might smoke cigars and drink port. Without the ladies present their conversation may turn towards business and politics, or other topics inappropriate for the company of ladies.
When they have had their fill of port and cigars, the gentlemen retire as one to the parlour where they might join the ladies.
There the whole company might play cards or entertain each other with music and song.
Such group gatherings are one of the few times single men and women are allowed to talk to each other. As the evening wears on, each member of the family may choose to go to bed as they please.
Women in the Service
While it is highly discouraged, some women do manage to join the Administration. They tend to enter the service as assistants to Administrators rather as part of the system of Clerks.
Basically the more vocal and dedicated women who don’t give up on the idea of a career of their own are given a secretarial position to shut them up. It is assumed they will find a husband in the service and leave when they marry. Some fathers actually place their unmarried daughters in the Administration for this reason if they fear their chance for matrimony is passing them by.
However, women driven enough to fight the social attitudes lined against them are more than a match for most men in the service. While some do marry and leave the service, or walk out in disgust at their second class status and lack of respect, others bide their time. Underestimated, and often not seen as a threat, these women are often trusted with secrets no Administrator would share with a male subordinate. One day the woman finally uses her leverage and contacts and carves out a new position for herself, often replacing her superior.
In this way, while there are very few women in the Administration, a disproportionate amount are governors and even Ministers. The few who manage to carve out a career are dangerous, intelligent and ruthless opponents, who have had to face challenge and adversity at every step in their career. These traits ensure they rise high in the Administration.
Attitudes to others
The upper class only really notice their own social peers. To them the servant class and lower class folk are much the same. The only difference being that they sometimes see servants and rarely ever see the lower class.
To the upper class their ‘inferiors’ are simply not worth noticing. They are the ‘little people’
who scurry about doing jobs that are beneath those with breeding. Most assume that this is because such stock is fit only for such work.
They see the servants and factory workers as lesser humans, and not worthy of any notice even if it should be bestowed.
To the upper class the servants and lower class folk are unintelligent and morally corruptible.
They need to be contained and controlled for their own good. The servant class are the best of a bad lot, and they should be grateful to be elevated to stand in the presence of their betters. However, in essence they are no different to the lower class, just a cleverer species of monkey as far as the upper class is concerned.
This does not mean to say they cannot be kind and generous to their servants and the working class. In fact, several upper class groups work (as a hobby) to try to improve the lot of the poor where they can. However, they are equally capable of being nice to their pets and small children. It is not uncommon for the upper class to view their servants as little more than tools and possessions. When young men of the upper class begin to notice girls, they are often counselled to have their way with one of the maids if one should catch their eye. What the maid in question might have to say about such treatment is immaterial.
She is there to serve the needs of the gentry, whatever that might be. This institutionalised rape is not especially common, but it isn’t rare either and young girls are warned against finding themselves alone with any of the gentlemen.
So the upper class really only concern themselves with their peers. To be fair, they have a lot to concern themselves with. As the patriarch of the family controls the purse strings, the entire family is looking to ingratiate themselves above all others so they might command a greater share of the wealth.
Outside the family there is a complicated dance of social power to make allegiances by marriage to the more powerful families, most especially the founding families. Almost any dirty trick is acceptable, and those who suffer from them are only upset they didn’t think of it first. Every glance, meeting, conversation or gift is loaded with meaning and potential.
Plotting is so endemic that some gentry send each other random gifts just to distract them, making them wonder what it might mean and who it was from. Nothing is done without motive, nothing said without careful measure.
It’s den of vipers.
Traditions
The upper classes are mired in the complicated rituals of etiquette. They live and die by a labyrinthian series of rules governing every aspect of their daily lives. This goes from who they may speak to at any given time to which fork to use for each course. Many of the rules are obscure and pointless; in fact, most of them are. To a certain degree, that’s the point of them. The rules serve several purposes that are vital for the upper class to continue
functioning.
This first problem they solve is that of infiltration. For all their protestations, there is nothing that makes the upper class very special. Someone who knows their ways might be able to pass themselves off as one of them quite easily with the right introductions.
The rules of etiquette make this almost impossible. The upper class learn these rules from the moment they are born and they still get them wrong on occasion. Any interloper will instantly reveal themselves as soon as they join any social gathering; they probably won’t even know how badly they stand out simply by addressing the wrong person first or even wearing the wrong tie.
The rules are also complicated to give the upper class a sense of grandeur. They must be civilised, they reason, as they have so many rules for polite society. However, the rules are not to provide a background for civility, but in truth they are to create an even battlefield.
In the wars of reputation and one-upmanship, etiquette is both a weapon and a defence.
As a defence it makes your enemies more predictable. If you know they cannot speak to you until after the soup course you know you have the soup course to form a strategy. Their use as a weapon is obvious, as any failings cause a loss of valuable reputation. You might either attack your enemies directly, or place them in such a position that they cannot retaliate without breaking the rules.
A complete listing of all the rules of etiquette would take several volumes, but a few are worth detailing here. Most of the rules
concern themselves with underlining the differences in station between the layers of the upper class. Those who claim lineage from a founding family stand above those who don’t. Those with noble titles are above those without. Those related to a higher title are greater to those related to a lower one.
Those with more wealth and power trump those with less. Often the distinctions are slight, which makes it all the more important to emphasise them!
The first rule of society is that no one may speak to anyone they have not been formally introduced to – even to ask them for the time or to pass the salt. Such introductions are easy to facilitate, but must be done by a third party. Should you not know the right person to introduce you to someone, there is often a master of ceremonies at any gathering who is assumed to know everyone. It is up to the lower status party to seek to be introduced to the higher status party, unless the lower status party is some sort of celebrity. Once introduced to someone you may call on them and speak to them in society. They become an acquaintance, but not a friend. Few people refuse to be introduced, but it does happen, usually when some one is trying to get to know someone far above their station. Being refused an introduction is quite a snub and deeply embarrassing to the petitioner.
A common pursuit of the upper classes is to call on each other at home. In general, those of lower status are expected to make calls in the morning, while those of higher status do so in the afternoon. This allows the higher echelon to take their day at a slower pace when they arise. There is a certain amount of confusion
when those of middling status choose the wrong time of day. However, should they wait in at the wrong time they will discover their lack of status by their lack of visitors.
When calling on another member of the upper class you present a calling card to their servant and await a response in your carriage.
The time it takes the visited party to respond
The time it takes the visited party to respond