Criminal

Domain and Regency » Manorialism » Social class » Criminal

Part of a series on Social class

Rural Ranks
Serf · Yeoman · Gentry · Nobility
Urban Ranks
Criminal · Laborer · Craftsman Guildmaster · Guilder
Regional Variation
Anuire · Rjurik · Brecht · Khinasi · Vos

A criminal may be a vagrant, a wanderer, or even a bandit. Their home is the street, and they rely on charity and their wits to get by. Criminals are regarded as the lowest of the low, and are completely without standing among the other social classes. Their work often deals with garbage and burial of the dead, if work can be found at all. The result is that for members of this group to get by, they must on occasion steal what they need, often food, sometimes clothing or other necessities. Even the life of a serf is an improvement in material standards for the criminal. Because they are shunned by others, criminals tend to keep to themselves, only interacting with their own kind. But it is also the case that criminals prefer to avoid their betters because the slightest misstep could lead to the harshest punishment, and their position will earn them no respect compared to even the poorest laborer, as long as the laborer is presumed law-abiding.
Criminals are filthy and their clothes may be little more than rags, living in shantytowns or garbage dumps that are both home, place of what work there may be, and source of food such as it is. In larger cities these sad characters can be seen wandering the streets, begging, looking for scraps, or simply unaware of the world around them. Even serfs want nothing to do with this scum, many of whom fled serfdom for the hope of a better life in the city. To the serf, there misery serves as a bitter reminder that, although their lot is hard, it could be much worse, and that there is a natural order to things that is best obeyed.
If a criminal is to improve his situation, adventuring is one of the only ways to do so. Although some might have family that they seek to bring out of poverty, most criminals who succeed as adventurers want nothing to do with their background and former life. Rogue is by far the most common profession among adventurers of this background, although not usually by a conscious decision. Rather, these folk tend to fall into petty crime and if they have talent, work their way out of the shantytowns and dumps. Around 75% of all recorded crime is petty theft. Serious theft might make up 10% of all crime. Violence makes up about 10% of recorded crime; murder was relatively rare. Even so, people tend to have a disproportional fear of gruesome crimes than about minor theft, and color their view of this social class by the conduct of its most outrageous members.