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Right. The noble problem is genetic (fast and loose with how that works, but assume super science?) and tied to people being short. It makes it hard for people of strict noble heritage to see anyone too short as unique and worthy.

So, like an amateur in a herd of elephants, it can be hard for them to tell commoners, and other people's children, apart. (Including noble children...)

How that is handled is different from person to person, naturally. Alli Baker is nice and kind to everyone, but can't tell commoners from one another, almost as a form of face blindness.

King Richard has that as well, with people who are too small.

Some nobles take that to mean that commoners don't count at all.

The patrol Captain that Tor kept running into was mainly merchant class by blood, but also had that, so couldn't tell Tor from anyone else too small.

Ruel Havar (Yes, he has a first name.) has it in full force, but learned to see Tiera as a person, more or less, even if it wasn't his normal way of being.

In some ways, it's a bit like psychopathic behavior, except that it's based on a secondary condition being present at the same time. It was, genetically speaking, as well as socially, a mistake.

At the same time, the commoners weren't just made small, but had a reverse problem, making them servile by nature. Slaves, no matter what the laws tell them they might be.

Clearly, this is an exaggeration of the normal class struggles of many social groups, with size being used to give a visible sign of place.

(What, did anyone really think that wasn't all planned out?)

The trick then, is, can this condition be changed? If the fix is offered, would those who have power be willing to take it, in order to create a world that was better for most, if not better for them, personally?

It's a small portion of where the eventual storyline might head. (I haven't actually decided that yet, of course.)

If so, it will be a very background portion of things.

That actually brings us back around to my original point - Doris doesn't ask, she just does what she feels is right, so people don't really need to VOLUNTEER for correction. Since she's got all those noble kids around her all the time, seems like maybe she would be fixing what she already said was a horribly flawed system. Sure, the commoner/slave thing is bad from our current moral viewpoint, but there's a lot of difference between feeling like someone is better than you are and the way the nobles abuse the commoners and, as you said, seeing them as real people. Really, fixing the nobles would be the only thing needed to make Noram society the stable thing it was meant to be when first designed, as far as I can see.
I get that that takes away from a cornerstone of the main society of the series, and would make it a lot less three-dimensional, so I'm not ACTUALLY saying she should do that, of course. This is just a conversation, not a suggestion.

Doris has her own plans.



Just because she's survived, that doesn't mean she's actually sane... None of the old ancients actually are.

Hahaha. I read that and thought, "Well, that's terrifying." Not sure why.

Plus, she's really hot in her other form.

What, that's not scary?

According to Tor's nephew, she's not so bad in her older form either. It's not fair, really. She's completely weaponized, and doesn't even have to enthrall everyone like her sister, the Ancient of Soam, did. I still don't get how the others got away from that one. Worse, they seem to have forgotten how dangerous she was. Both sisters. They just let them do whatever and smile like idiots when they're in their hot forms. It's pretty mind boggling how they survived.



See? I'm boggled...

Doris (and Julie) are command line. Green and Brown were both slave line individuals.

Lyn Red hated Julie. Orange doesn't truly enjoy Doris... That's the kind of response you get from other Command line individuals.

Of interest, Kolb was neither one of those, being closer to a dedicated warrior line. I never mentioned that part, but I'm sure everyone guessed.