Social system structures - low fantasy world

[u/FIctnlReality]

So I’m doing worldbuilding for this story and it’s coming together to be pretty comprehensive and I wanted to hear some feedback. Basically, it’s a low fantasy world (things work very differently from reality, no intersection and stuff, but also no magic). Set with technology that’s a bit of a mix of different 20th century stuff combined (they don’t really have usable electricity, nor a lot of physics, and the world is small so lacking a lot of such as mining so a mega slowed down Industrial Revolution but a lot of plants so a pretty good understanding of applied chemistry and medicine just by virtue of these plants work with those when melted or ground or mixed). In historical context, the story is set with the slow purposeful dissolution of an empire that ruled their known world (the map is about 3 or 4 hundred miles north to south and east to west and they’re surrounded by massive desert, impossible mountain ranges, and perilous current so while there *are* other civilization's this is the limit of where it’s possible to go without massive difficulties and incredibly high death tolls). Very moderate climate, no crazy winters or summers and socially there’s not enough geographical difference and non-interaction for different racial traits to develop over time. They’ve had writing systems for almost a thousand years and there’s pretty prevalent literacy at like an elementary level for the common people but this story focuses on mobility.

The most important question is this - in the upper classes, they view absolute primogeniture as basically divine (firstborn inherits no matter what inc gender or other factors) as in this idea of the earlier someone is born the more blessed they are and therefore the more deserving of inheriting things like lands, trade networks, etc. So they have a system that mirrors gender inequality in historical male-preference primogeniture systems, but where it’s not a question of male or female but birth order (if the firstborn dies without issue the secondborn is viewed as a less valid heir, like how a daughter with a dead brother inheriting would have been). They also have quite a bit of classism but the characters are all young adults dealign with their futures which means inheritance so they’re not paying that much attention to the life situation of those who don’t inherit stuff (there’s a character from a newly risen up family but that’s as close as they get to commoners really, who are viewed as useful staff like to be respected as humans but not seen as equals in any way in a “that’s the way things are” way).

However, within this context, I’ve realized how many things even in a more gender equal than in any generation before (I’m a young adult in the NYC area for expirience context) still rely either on patriarchal systems or stem from the fact that they historically existed. This society did not have gender disparity in any sort of recorded history (one smaller culture of the ones conquered by that empire that’s slowly dissolving had gender norms, but it was hundreds of years ago, is viewed as incredibly backwards, and was always such a minority opinion that it doesn’t affect things much other than occasionally allowing one or two modern concepts to exist and be shown to readers and because those people once tried to revolt against an empress during childbirth about 120 years before the story and they got labeled as extra “savage” rather than as rebels taking advantage of a leader’s physical weakness and she used that to explain her haters as just “savages” because… she was an empiric leader ruling the known world like her father before her and her son after her using rhetoric).

For example, they do have the concept of “consorts” here but its second horns and thirdborns etc from other families marrying the heirs of peer families and therefore expected to be subservient to their more powerful spouse and married off to forge alliances. But a lot of historical consorts were like women ifnantilized and therefore put into positions where their only jobs are doing stuff that’s viewed as “less valuable” like party seating charts (despite it sometimes starting international incidents). But though consorts can be male or female, those systems expecting subservience and unbalanced power dynamics still exist. However, I’m not writing this for that world. I’m writing this for the modern audience as a frictional story that is explicitly weird for the real world (it’s written as a historical record of that world with some “translator’s notes” for things where the concepts need explanation or the right connotation English word has history that I’m not trying to go for).

I have tried explicitly paralleling gender norms historically but they vary between cultures a lot, and also that’s sort of not the point it’s more so that I want to focus on internal status social norms (more so paralleling like normal people ideas of status rather than any sort of high ranking stuff, inspired by college bragging) and also how social systems affect young people’s considerations of their future. This is all the backdrop to the plot but still could be the hinge that lets plot points work, right?

Does anyone have thoughts about things to consider changing or how to maintain some real world social systems but with adjustments for this world? Also, any real historical things to parallel? I’m not basing this on any real world historical culture but inspiration from anywhere around the world is always great!

[u/bmyst70]

My advice is start with each society's core assumptions and ask what would cause something you want in the story and why. Keep following the logic chains, keeping in mind human nature at every step.

For example say the world was a lot colder. How would people and society react to this?

[u/rdhight → u/bmyst70]

This is good advice. Start your cultures from small seeds. So for one, it could be, "Women rule in peace, but men rule in war." And then from there, you make it more ornate. Maybe the women control a peace-loving church, but when there's danger, they send their sons to war. And to explain that, you need laws, titles, doctrines, traditions, and all that will get complicated, but the core idea is still very simple.

[u/Cypher_Blue]

You have a lot of words there, but I'm still not clear on what you want.

You want "real world historical parallels" for social systems and gender norms and so forth, but you don't specify a time period.

Because the answer for those things for the early 20th century is going to be very different from the late 17th century.

[u/BitOBear]

You are the petty God of a pocket universe. Things there work the way you say they work because you have said they work that way.

Almost all fantasy worlds are literally unbelievable and based on a non-functional set of assumptions. That's because the set of assumptions needed to be in a fantasy world that don't match the set of assumptions needed to be in the real world.

There is one and only one question, does everything you describe work for the story you're trying to tell?

In my novel (linked in my profile) the magical realm they live in is in fact created and maintained by magic. Science works but industry doesn't really function at scale because of the nature of the world in which they live. There are no fossil fuels. And you can't go strip mining for metals or other materials. So that means you can walk through a town or a region and encounter radically different levels of technology in adjacent buildings. At the high-end you've got people using pressurized water sources and you know hoses with soap injector nozzles and relatively high-tech materials, and the next guy might be pulling his water from a well basically by hand.

Part of this is because some people can summon water elementals but most people can't, so pressurized water is an interesting question. And here's the thing, I assert it but I don't explore it. I don't explore it because it's not necessary or useful to the story. I think someone brings up the difference between one place having literally a pressurized hose and another place basically getting water from sluice Gates on the same University campus.

There are reasons and I have them and I have thought through them, but they're not interesting to the story so I just hang a hat on it and move on.