People, Classes, and Special Roles

Survival depends on many kinds of labour. Trains and settlements need people who maintain machinery, grow and prepare food, provide security, conduct research, and keep essential systems operating. The terms below are a shared framework for the setting; each faction interprets status, work, privilege, and authority differently.

The eight standard people categories

These are broad population, social, or occupational categories, not rigid jobs that every person must fit perfectly. Children is an age group rather than an occupation, and some categories can overlap.

Class	Place in society
Worker	Performs essential physical and routine labour: loading cargo, cleaning, maintenance assistance, food preparation, and general upkeep. Workers are the backbone of most trains and settlements.
Engineer	Operates, maintains, and repairs locomotives, ember systems, machinery, and other mechanical infrastructure. Engineers are vital wherever complex equipment must keep working in severe conditions.
Researcher	Studies embers, the environment, old-world technology, and the Great Forge. Researchers may work in laboratories, dedicated research wagons, or field teams.
Elite	Describes people with wealth, inherited status, political influence, or privileged access to resources. Elite status often brings better accommodation and comfort, but does not necessarily indicate a particular occupation.
Slave	Describes a person held in bondage and denied freedom. This is a coercive social status rather than a normal occupation; a person held as a slave may also have engineering, research, worker, or other skills. Slavery is accepted, outlawed, concealed, or contested differently across factions.
Soldier	Provides armed security, combat capability, and enforcement. Soldiers may guard a train, protect a settlement, escort cargo, or serve in larger military formations.
Specialist	A rare, highly trained person equipped to perform dangerous or technically demanding work beyond ordinary crews. Specialists may have expensive cold-weather equipment and training for work outside the train, including exploration, scouting, salvage, recovery, and field engineering.
Children	Children are a distinct age group who depend on adults for care, safety, education, food, water, and warmth. They are part of a train or settlement’s population and future, not a job or occupation. Their lives and opportunities vary with the faction and community. A child may also belong to an Elite family or another social group; age and social status are separate aspects of identity.

These categories do not all describe the same kind of thing. A wealthy engineer might be Elite by status and Engineer by occupation; a person held in bondage may retain another skill; and Children describes age rather than work. Children require care and resources, and their presence affects the long-term future of a community.

Five shared special roles

Special roles add a narrower function or social position. They can appear in more than one faction, and no faction needs to have access to every role. A role’s presence does not mean that every member of a faction holds it.

Special role	Function	Likely associations
Fanatic	A zealous adherent who enforces doctrine, inspires believers, or participates in radical acts such as sabotage. Not every religious person is a Fanatic.	Primarily the Church of the Last Flame.
Slave	A person held in bondage. This is a status rather than an occupation and can overlap with another class or skill.	Present where slavery is practiced or hidden; its prevalence varies by faction.
Diplomat	Negotiates treaties, passage rights, trade agreements, and relations between groups.	European Concord, Meridian League, and Craterborn are plausible users.
Officer	Holds command authority over soldiers or organized security operations.	American Continuity, European Concord, Eastern Directorate, and other forces with formal command structures.
Salvager	Specializes in recovering useful machinery, materials, and old technology from wrecks and abandoned sites.	Craterborn, Iron Compact, Pale Directorate, and some White Wolves groups.

Proposed faction distribution

The following is a working proposal, not a rule that has to be finalized for canon. It indicates where a role could make sense, rather than claiming that a whole faction is defined by one role.

Faction	Potential special roles	Notes
Craterborn	Salvager, Diplomat	Salvage expertise and trade brokerage support their influence around the Great Forge.
American Continuity	Officer	Military command structures are central to its identity.
European Concord	Diplomat, Officer	Treaties and coordinated security fit its federation model.
Eastern Directorate	Officer	Organized security and industrial coordination may use formal command roles.
Meridian League	Diplomat	Regional cooperation and trade negotiations fit its political structure.
Iron Compact	Salvager	Recovery of industrial materials and machinery supports its economy.
Hearthbound	None assigned for now	Local communities may still include skilled people; no shared special role is assigned at this stage.
White Wolves	Salvager; Slave in some groups	Salvage expertise may be useful to raiders. The presence of enslaved people in some gangs does not imply that every gang practices slavery.
Church of the Last Flame	Fanatic	The role represents zealous enforcement, not all members or believers.
Pale Directorate	Salvager	Recovery of equipment and old research technology may be essential to under-resourced teams.
Frostborn Clans	None assigned for now	Their knowledge and skills can remain part of their ordinary community roles rather than a special-role label.

Faction differences matter

There is no single social order shared by the whole world. Some factions grant privilege through wealth or rank; others emphasize local cooperation, state authority, religious obedience, or industrial contribution. Slavery may be openly practiced in one place, outlawed in another, or officially denied while persisting in secret. These differences should be defined faction by faction rather than assumed from a person’s class alone.

Specialists and the cold

Specialists are uncommon because their work is dangerous and expensive to support. Their cold-weather clothing, protective equipment, training, and supplies require resources that ordinary crews may not have. A Specialist Wagon can store and maintain equipment and prepare teams for expeditions beyond the train, but Specialists can also work from other suitable facilities when a dedicated wagon is unavailable.