Minbari Castes

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“

"Three castes: worker, religious, warrior."
"They build, you pray, we fight."

– Neroon of the Warrior Caste to Delenn of the Religious Caste

Minbari cultural tradition divided its population into three equal groups, or castes, Worker, Warrior and Religious.

Choosing a Caste

Whether one becomes religious, warrior or worker caste is something that arises early on, not through birth or genetics, but what you are called to do, or feel called to do. If you believe that you are called to the religious life, you go to that part for a time, a few years, and that is determined by you and to a certain extent, others. If you seem not suited toward that, they may work with you to find what you are more suited for (and perhaps you felt *expected* to be called a certain way, but that's not really where you're best suited).

-- posted by JMS on Usenet 14 Jun 1995

So I take it, from earlier comments of yours that Delenn chose her caste as a child (I believe you said it was due to her "vision" in the temple), that you are not born into your clan? In other words, If Delenn had chosen to be a worker, she would not be in the clan she is currently in, correct? If that's the case, then clans aren't necessarily organizations of relatives, right? Was her clan the "Mir" clan? Or was "Mir" her family name? Is that different than the clan? Is this correct?

Yes, Mir is her family; you are generally born into a caste unless you at some point decide that the calling of your heart is elsewhere, at which point you enter training for that other caste (with the permission of your caste leaders) until such time as it's finalized that that's what you want, at which time you're assigned to a clan within that caste. If you choose to stay in the caste you're born into, you automatically are in your family’s clan.

-- posted by JMS on CompuServe, Date: 03 Mar 1997 12:05:07 -0700

Marriage

Marriages are not arranged per se, but it is generally with the consent and blessings of your caste-leaders, to whose authority one submits. One also generally tends to marry only within one's caste (warrior, religious or worker).

-- posted by JMS on CompuServe, Date: May 27, 1995 11:05:00 PM

Worker Caste

The Worker Caste is one of the three Minbari castes.

They build. Perhaps this means they are society’s engineers, architects, technicians, construction workers and laborers.

Warrior Caste

Does this mean that there are Warrior and Worker Caste Minbari doing Religious duties in the temples and Warrior and Religious Caste Minbari doing Worker Caste duties as well?

No, those aspects are kept absolutely separate and caste-specific. It's only when you get into the warships that, by tradition, some Warrior Caste have been involved with the others, mainly as a courtesy.

-- posted by JMS on CompuServe, Date: 06-Apr-96 00:18:10

Religious Caste

The Religious Caste is one of the three Minbari castes.

Behind the scenes

The division of society into three castes is similar to the traditional European idea of the three estates: nobility (warriors), clergy (religious) and commoners (workers).