Never seen a Falleen, eh? Well, that’s
no surprise. My home world is rather isolated, and the nobility
likes to keep it that way. They don’t really want to
do anything to upset the established order.
Ya see, Falleen is a feudal society. There is a royal family
at the top, nobility below them, and then the rest of us:
the serfs. We have little, but that doesn’t stop the
nobility from taxing us. Blood from a stone you know. And
of course, living under feudalism, there isn’t much
room for advancement. I mean, you’re born into the
family you are born into, right? Unless, of course, you
stand out. If you excel at something, I mean, really excel
at something, then there is a chance that some minor royal
bloke will grant you a minor title. Make you a squire or
what not. That can put you on your way. It doesn’t
happen often, but it does happen.
So, what do serfs do? Same thing peons do in every other
society. They direct traffic, empty bed pans, teach children,
pick up litter, drive taxis, grow crops, deliver mail, fight
fires, off load cargo, ya get the idea. You more or less
do what your father did. So, some serfs are, of course,
better off than others. Usually the noble family you are
indebted to will leave you alone, as long as they receive
their taxes. I did say usually, right?
Well, it just so happens that my family lived
on the estate of Baron Xzuhal. My father was a game warden
for the Baron’s preserve. As such, it was his responsibility
to protect the reserve, and anyone, or anything in it, from
poachers and wild beasts. Since it was likely that I would
follow in his foot steps, my father began instructing me
in the crafts of a woodsman at an early age. Unfortunately
for me, my father died saving the Barons’s son, Miaxi,
from a (insert name of real tough wild beast here).
To Be Continued...
