The Class System

The Seanchan is a culture focused on an idealised code of honour, but at the same time is a society founded on slavery, a society where people are owned as property and traded as animals. It is not much surprise, then, that there exists a class feudal system much more complex than any in the Westlands.

It is perhaps because of how soaked Seanchan culture is in slavery that freedom is a completely independent factor to honour: while it is rarely bestowed, most free men would leap at the opportunity of being raised to a high level servant, at the cost of the freedom of themselves and their children. It is rare for one to move between the social orders, although disputes within them are commonplace.

The lowest level of the system is populated by the lowest da'covale, Old Tongue for 'those who are property'. This level would include, for example, the Shea Dancers. Above them rank the commoners and merchants, which are slightly below the mainline military.

Above them rank the covale of The Blood. The Blood is the nobility of the Seanchan, which originally descended solely from Luthair Paendrag and his armies. It is possible for commoners to be raised to The Blood as a reward, a privilege that will affect all their offspring and direct bloodline.

The Blood's property includes their so'jihn and their soe'feia. A so'jihn is the Voice of a member of the Blood. Using their so'jihn, a member of the Blood is saved from communicating with one of the lower classes. A message is conveyed to the so'jihn using a complex system of hand gestures, not unlike the Handtalk of the Far Dareis Mai. The position of so'jihn is usually hereditary.

The Imperial Family members each possess a soe'feia, or Truthspeaker, whose purpose it is to communicate the frank truth no matter how embarrassing or painful it may be. A soe'feia may go to very extreme measures to convey this truth: the last Emperor of Seanchan was noted for allowing his Truthspeaker to slap him once in public.

And the very top of the class system sits the Empress or Emperor. Invariably a direct descendant of Luthair Paendrag, she or he rules absolutely: to the Seanchan people, they are the avatar of the Empire. The successor to the Crystal Throne is nominated by the current ruler from their immediate family. Competition between potential heirs is not only common, but encouraged.

The Empress' possess several sections of property tied directly to the Imperial throne. The Seekers for Truth are a large spy and policing organisation stationed in the Tower of Ravens, the Imperial Prison. Granted almost unlimited powers over all members of society – including the ability to arrest The Blood – the Seekers are both well honoured and feared. They are a large scale, organised operation for rooting out Darkfriends and treasonous members from any strata of society. They are all tattooed with ravens – an Imperial motif – and images of the Tower, in order to identify them. Closely connected to the Seekers are the Listeners, who act as a passive network of eyes-and-ears.

The Deathwatch Guard share the raven tattoos. They are the Seanchan's most elite, crack soldiers, as ready to die as they are to kill. In distinctive very dark green (often misunderstood to be black) lacquered armour and weapons, the Guard, while being the direct property of the Imperial Personage, are ranked very highly. Occasionally, members of the Guard are loaned to others as a sign of favour. The Guard rank slightly higher than the Seekers: while the Seekers are enough to make almost any Seanchan sweat cold, the Guard only worry that it is frowned upon for them to kill a Seeker unless they have to. The most elite section of the Deathwatch Guard is assigned to keep the Empress herself safe, and is never loaned.

The idea of the class system is not completely restrained to the humans of Seanchan, and nor are they the only members of the Deathwatch Guard: a portion of the Guard is made up of Ogier, called Gardeners. Noted as fierce and the most deadly soldiers of them all, the Ogier are notably grimmer than the stedding-dwellers across the Aryth Ocean. The Ogier Gardeners, although Deathwatch Guard, are peculiar in that they are not in themselves property.

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