Books from the Angel KerBop
Vaudevrea
Vaudevrea, also called Vauvrea, Vaufrea, and Vau-Freah (a combination of Vaudeville and LaBrea, for those interested) is the capital city of the country of the same name, which has widely embraced the 5-Cardinal Categories method of organizing society. Visitors to the land of Vadevrea are often stunned by the degree to which Vaudevreans adhere and cling to their Five Official Categories. See below--
The Vaudevrean Categories
The Leaders (Category 1)
Category 1 are the supreme leaders and rulers of society, and their numbers are few. Category 1 is the most difficult of all the Categories to enter, and their secrets of membership are guarded. This Category used to be called The Masters, however it was changed to The Leaders because the former term was seen as loaded and abusive. However, it is rumored that members of Category 1 still refer to each other in the original term, when members of other Categories aren't around.
The Organizers (Category 2)
Organizers manage the masses and serve as intermediaries between the Leaders and Categories 3 and larger. These are greater in number, and it is said that the defining traits of Organizers are extraordinary visionary and planning skill, talents in broad range from language to math and also analytic and humanitarian abilities. In addition to being well-versed in many aspects, however, Category 2 must excel at at least one of them.
The Engineers (Category 3)
Category 3 are exonerated for being the designers of all infrastructure, digital and otherwise, which holds society together. Planners of artifice and crafters of mechanika, scientists and coders make up this class. The Category is reserved for those that architect in various ways, and not those that tend to the infrastructures once they are built.
The Creators (Category 4)
Them that create, artists and writers and producers, all belong to Category 4. While the products of their labors don't always have immediate obvious financial benefit, Category 4 exists to venerate and give significance to those that create the "culture" of Vaudevrean society.
The Maintainers (Category 5)
Category 5 contains most of the rest of society, who are said to "maintain" the working world in many ways. This category extends from janitors and waitresses to "common-day coders" who fix bugs and manage message boards and oversee the daily functioning of machines and systems. While every Category is seen as having merit within itself and its members encouraged to be proud of their placement, Category 5 in particular is rumored to be spoken of, especially by Categories 1 and 2, in derogatory terms.
The Uncategorized (a.k.a. "The Homeless")
Not much is spoken about those who have no category, which is the equivalent in other societies of being homeless. Children in Vaudevrea are taught from a very young age that their personal relevance and importance as individuals is given them by their Category, and so not having one is seen as a horrific state to be avoided. Very early on, Vaudevreans identify with and start modeling themselves after their Category, making themselves unmistakable reflections of all that is expected and imagined of that category, so as to avoid the Uncategorized state. Such persons who cannot find, or refuse to identify with, one of the 5 cardinal categories, or who propose deviant and alternative "categories" of their own creation, are often found on the edge of cities, in hiding, or in "off-grid" conditions in remote places. Sometimes groups of them huddle in safe-houses for a time, celebrating un-recognized categories or other variations on statelessness. Sometimes they are rounded up and forced into Category 5 workhouses so as to be useful and "cognizable" by others. Other times, they are simply "removed," no one knows to where.
Pictures of Vaudevrea
