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Fantastic Caste System: Difference between revisions
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This trope might owe a debt to both [[Plato]], whose [[Utopia]] in ''The Republic'' was highly socially stratified, as well as Karl Marx, in his conception of the relationship between bourgeoisie and proletariat. When a fantasy or alien race has specialized castes with physical dimorphism, as with worker and queen ants or bees, that's [[Hive Caste System]]. India's caste system also provides ample analogies. Compare with [[Urban Segregation]] which has some overlap as well as [[Divided States of America]] which similarly extrapolates on a real-world situation.
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== Anime and Manga ==
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* H.G. Wells' ''[[The Time Machine]]'' is one of the creators of this trope, having the protagonist explicitly comment that the two species, the Eloi and Morlocks, were a result of social inequality reaching an extreme. It does differ from later examples though, in that both the elites (Eloi) and workers (Morlocks) are dehumanized and there's more [[I'm a Humanitarian|"quid pro quo"]] ([[It Was His Sled|Morlocks hunt Eloi]]).
* ''[[Brave New World (Literature)|Brave New World]]'' has different classes of people produced through embryonic manipulation (specifically oxygen starvation and alcohol poisoning of Delta and Epsilon caste embryos to physically and mentally retard their growth) and the manual laborers of the lowest class are created to be practically simian. (And everyone is psychologically conditioned to accept this ranking, as applied to self and others, as obviously and unquestionably justified.)
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty
* Early in his career, Piers Anthony wrote a short story, "In The Barn", about a parallel Earth where all non-human mammals had gone extinct millenia ago. Rather than go without milk, the inhabitants developed breeds of ''humans'' to serve as milk cows, with too-bloated-for-anime breasts and tongues clipped at birth to ensure they'd never learn to communicate. An [[Anvilicious]] parable by a vegetarian, it would've been followed by two more stories -- one set in a slaughterhouse (eek!), the other at a rodeo (urk!) -- if he could've sold them at the time.
* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s short story ''Strikebreaker'', an entire inhabited asteroid is on the verge of death, as the man who runs the world's septic treatment plant goes on strike, sick of his family being ostracized for his job; putting the planet at risk of dying from the backup of waste. A visiting reporter from offworld, not willing to let everyone die from their bigotry, volunteers to go operate the machinery. With the knowledge that the asteroid can get someone from offword to operate the plant, thus his strike has failed, the worker goes back to work. At that point the reporter is told (over radio) to go directly to his ship, and not to interact with any citizens; thanks for saving the entire asteroid, now piss off, you disgusting outcast.
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** The Supreme Overlord is actually considered a caste unto himself, combining elements of all the other castes barring Shamed Ones. He also usually shares his caste with a dozen or so potential successors identified by the priests, but the current Supreme Overlord, [[The Caligula|Shimrra]], had them all killed in a fit of paranoia sometime before the series began.
* Transformers: Exodus starts with a caste system that ends with the uprising. Interestingly the lower caste workers fill the Decepticon ranks
* The Final Empire from ''[[Mistborn]]'' has a very strict and oppressive social system that goes, in order from least to most influential, skaa (peasants / slaves) --> Terrismen (a subjugated nationality who serve primarily as elite servants) --> nobility --> [[Corrupt Church|Obligators]] --> Steel Inquisitors --> [[God
* In the tie-in book ''Bogus to Bubbly'' about the ''[[Uglies]]'' series, Scott Westerfeld tells about the strict age-deffined hierarchy in the society. Littlies (age 0-11) lived with their parents and were the only people allowed to have traditional family bonds. In fact, parents were encouraged only to have one child every 10 years to keep the population down and stop sibling bonds from forming. Uglies (12-16) were forced to move away to dorms and socially programmed to hate themselves and anticipate the upcoming "Pretty" surgery. New pretties were people who had just had the surgery to make them prettier and more complacent, and they were encouraged to live a crazy lifestyle. Middle pretties were pretties with children and jobs. Late pretties or crumblies were the elderly, who often lived to their middle hundreds.
* The Garth Nix series Seventh features a large, towerlike complex which is home to an entire society with a color-based caste system, based on their color-based magic system, where a more powerful color in magic equated to a higher rank in everything else. A person who was designated Green, for example could use magic, visit floors of the complex, and engage in hobbies associated with Green and all lower-ranking colors, but couldn't do anything or go anywhere more highly ranked without special dispensation. At the bottom of the stack (and on the bottom floors of the complex) were an uncolored servant caste; being made a member of their ranks was considered the ultimate punishment.
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== Webcomics ==
* [[MSF High]]: The legion are something of these. the Divine even more so.
* The [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] of ''[[Homestuck]]'' are arranged into one called the hemospectrum (pictured above), based on their [[Alien Blood|blood color.]] It goes from red-blooded trolls as the bottom caste, [[Rainbow Motif|through the rainbow]] to [[Blue Blood|blue]]- and [[Color
** Most of them wear clothing and type with colors that signify their blood. Karkat is the only one who doesn't, opting for grey in order to make his blood color anonymous. This is because he is a mutant, and the only one with (human-like) candy-red blood (as opposed to Aradia's rust-red). He doesn't even fit ''anywhere'' on the hemospectrum, and is intensely ashamed by this to the point where he is constantly angry.
** {{spoiler|The pre-[[Cosmic Retcon|Scratch]] trolls also have a hemospectrum, except that it seems to be based on ''noblesse oblige''. The longer-lived higher-castes are expected to serve the needs of the lower castes.}}
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