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The Bane, or Life-Poison, is an energy which exists in all things alive and formerly living. In the distant past, its presence was like that of the heat of a flame, easily sensed by even the most raw infant, and able to be manipulated at will with a bare modicum of training. In those days, the power of the Bane was used to work great wonders, and the roots of living trees and stones made from the fossils of long-dead creatures were used as readily as the mattock and the spade to build the great empires of old.
Centuries ago, this changed. The power to manipulate the Bane ebbed from humanity. In greater and greater numbers, children were born without the ability to work or even sense its power. The great sorcerous empires shook apart in the resulting upheavals, and the countries which rose in their shadow built with sweat and machines what their ancestors once wrought with the sheer force of their will. Only the Elves of Takara and Butea retained their universal mastery over the Bane, a quality which has done much to reinforce their own self-regard.
Yet not all humans have lost the powers that their ancestors once took for granted. It was quickly discovered that some rare few individuals retained the ability to sense the Bane, and that if they bred with those who possessed the same ability, their children would inherit such a power. On rare occasions, it was even found that such offspring would even be able to manipulate the Bane as well. These individuals quickly became marked out, exalted as a class above the rest of humanity, a chosen group spared the loss of Banesense and Banecasting due to some intangible superiority. In the Northern Kingdoms which sprang up from the ruin of Old Calligia, these familial lines quickly amassed influence and power, establishing themselves as a social class of their own.
These were the first Banebloods.
Banebloods make up about one out of every two hundred humans. In the Northern Kingdoms, Baneblood is synonymous with nobility, for it is believed that only those who have retained the ability to sense the Bane have the perspicacity and the judgment required to rule. In Tierra, this is referred to often as the Blood of Command, and it serves as a mandatory requirement for almost any position of real power or responsibility. With only the rarest of exceptions, only a Baneblood may hold noble title or a seat in the Cortes, command soldiers in the King's Army, occupy the highest offices within the King's Navy and civil service, or marry another Baneblood. Banebloods are considered to possess an innate sense of honour, and are seen as a result to be more trustworthy and morally upright than those born as Baneless commoners.
Two Baneblooded parents also possess a very small chance of creating one of those rare individuals capable of manipulating the Bane: Banecasters. Although even such gifted individuals can only manipulate the Bane with the aid of intensive training and intricate patterns of pine-wax baneseals to channel the caster's will, a Banecaster of sufficient power could replicate, to some degree, the feats of their distant ancestors. However, no two Banecasters possess the same degree of power. While training might teach a Banecaster the fundamentals, some are simply born with greater capacity than others. To measure such potential, the Kian have developed the Test of Calibres, a process by which the potential power of a relatively untrained Banecaster may be categorised, with the First Calibre being the weakest, the Ninth being the strongest, and the Tenth Calibre being maintained solely as a theoretical maximum of human ability.
Very few Banecasters exist in the highest calibres, but even the weakest may be capable of assisting in the process of Enchantment, wherein a Banecaster, working either alone or in concert with other casters, might use etched runes impregnated with special oils to impart extraordinary qualities upon inanimate objects, creating metal or wooden objects of immense durability or supernatural properties, and devices which are capable of doing the otherwise impossible. Such processes are immensely expensive and time-consuming, but objects enchanted in such a manner are highly prized—as are those capable of creating such works.
While most children born to a Baneblooded parent are heirs to immense societal privilege, there are exceptions. In every generation, there are children born to Baneblooded mothers who are not themselves Banebloods. As it is generally understood that any pairing of Banebloods would create Baneblooded children, these unfortunate infants are generally assumed to be the product of a particularly loathsome form of adultery, a crime for which the mother is harshly punished, and the child must suffer under the stigma of Deathborn-Bastardry.
Deathborn-Bastards are not well-regarded in Tierran society. Considered to possess the ambition and ability of a Baneblood with none of the restraint or integrity, they are seen as the product of a betrayal of the natural order. As a result, Deathborn-Bastards are considered to be naturally untrustworthy and innately prone to duplicity and all manner of villainy. As a stock character in Tierran operetta, he is a schemer filled with low cunning but devoid of loyalty or morality. He inevitably betrays his benefactors and pursues villainous schemes solely for the joy of petty cruelty.
Yet in many ways, Baneblood, Baneless, and Deathborn-Bastard alike play only the parts which society has written for them. The Baneblooded lord is seen as an embodiment of honour and dignity, so it is his actions which define what those words signify. The Baneless commoner is told her entire life that she is unsuited for command, so she has little chance to even consider the possibility. The Deathborn-Bastard, treated as a scoundrel in the making since infancy, has little means to resist the narrow path he is put on, save by revenging himself against those who have forced him to take it.
It is not an equal system, nor a particularly fair one, but it is one which has stood for centuries, one that shows precious little sign of changing.
Yet.