Minbari - Society

Society

The Minbari society is structured around three quasi-ethnic castes, similar to Georges Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis. These castes are called Worker, Warrior, and Religious; Neroon succinctly describes their roles to Delenn thus: "They build; you pray; we fight", though in an early episode, Lennier states in an interview conducted by a human character that the Minbari have only two castes, Religious and Warrior before pointing out that he and Delenn are both of the Religious caste. Membership in a caste appears to be a hereditary matter - children of parents from one caste will usually follow their parents. If the parents are of different castes, the mother's caste takes precedence - any children would belong to the mother's caste. Sometimes Minbari who have a deep feeling for one caste - which they refer to as a "Calling of the Heart" - will join a different caste. The castes are not as limited as their titles would suggest, and to some degree try to be self-sufficient. For instance, all three castes maintain armed security forces. However, the only caste permitted to maintain a full military force among the three has always been the Warrior Caste, with the exception of the Grey Council's Sharlin Class Warcruisers. In 2260, the Religious Caste broke this tenet held so importantly by the Warriors, in having their members work as assistants to the Anla'Shok, crewing the White Star Fleet in battle, and helping the Worker Caste to build the ships. Although never explicitly stated, it is implied that the worker caste is much larger than the warrior or religious castes.

Each Minbari caste has leaders which are referred to as elders. These elders oversee the governance of the internal matters of the caste.

Until the breaking of the Grey Council in 2260 each caste held equal power, an institution created by Valen a thousand years before to put an end to civil war between the castes and unite them against a common enemy, the Shadows. Following the reformation of the council, the workers were given a majority of 5 satai, with the warrior and the religious castes both having 2 representatives.