the lie of nobility in ascendance of a bookworm
i wanted to write a quick meta about why the distinction between commoners and nobility in jurgenschmidt is a false one, a lie perpetuated to maintain an unjust social hierarchy.
in part one of ascendance of a bookworm, our protagonist, myne, slowly discovers that the illness she suffers from is known as "the devouring" and results from her having mana as a commoner. it is a relatively rare illness, we are told, and the evidence of this is the commoners' almost complete lack of awareness of its existence. the only commoners myne encounters who are familiar with this illness are extremely wealthy ones who have dealings with nobles.
one of these, frieda, is able to purchase magic tools from nobles that allow her to remove the mana from her body, preventing her from dying of the devouring. in the temple, myne learns she can dedicate mana to the divine instruments to save herself from dying.
later, once myne gets to know ferdinand in the temple, she begins to learn more about mana and noble society. she is taught that there are different social strata among the nobility, and they are divided based upon their amount of mana. only those with similar amounts of mana can successfully produce offspring together, so marriages among nobles are restricted to those whose mana matches. ferdinand informs her that, based on the fact that the original myne was on the verge of death at the age of five she was likely born with laynoble levels of mana. however, due to myne unconsciously compressing her mana from the time she regained urano's memories, she now has archnoble or higher levels or mana.
we encounter other commoners with the devouring, such as dirk, who is already near death at only six months old. ferdinand indicates that he was born with an amount of mana in the upper mednoble range. there was also benno's childhood sweetheart, liz, who had such a small amount of mana that the devouring didn't kill her until she was near adulthood. we also learn that occasionally gray shrine maidens who are being sexually exploited in the temple are impregnated by nobles or blue priests--in other words, people with mana.
while myne is told that the distinction between nobles and commoners is that nobles have mana and commoners don't, all of the above examples prove that this is actually a lie.
if nobles and commoners were genetically distinct in any meaningful way, people with the devouring wouldn't exist.
as myne learns more about using mana and mana compression, she is taught that she has a mana vessel, an organ inside her where her mana is stored and where she can compress that mana to increase her mana capacity. but myne was born from two commoner parents, effa and gunther, neither of whom has enough mana in them to cause the devouring. nevertheless, despite the fact that they lack mana themselves, they must have the genes necessary to develop a mana vessel. otherwise, how would myne have one?
frieda, dirk, and liz were also born among commoners, but the only way they could have significant enough levels of mana to cause the devouring is if they, too, were born with a mana vessel. it's also important to note that if commoners and nobles were truly genetically distinct, gray shrine maidens (of commoner origin) would never be able to conceive children with blue priests (born of noble parents) or nobles.
in other words, the story itself tells us that many commoners do have mana. "the devouring" is simply the consequences of those commoners being denied access to the magic tools necessary to expel that mana from their bodies. this is further demonstrated by the fate of philine's little brother, konrad. he was born among nobles but develops the exact same symptoms as the devouring once denied access to his childhood magic tool.
it's possible that, if not denied access to magic tools and knowledge about magic, most or even all jurgenschmidt commoners might be able to use mana.
within noble society, myne learns about noble pregnancy and the fact that pregnant nobles must carefully channel mana into their growing fetus. channeling too much mana will cause miscarriage. channeling too little means the child will be born with mana levels not befitting the family's rank. we see this happen with characters such as bezewanst and shikikoza. there's all kinds of horse-trading of children going on behind the scenes in noble society, fully exposing the falseness of the distinctions between different social levels of nobles. an archnoble child can be born with mednoble levels of mana, and vice versa. this is because the amount of mana a child is born with isn't determined by inheritance alone but rather by the effects of mana in utero.
if commoners had this knowledge and were taught how to intentionally channel mana as nobles are, pregnant commoners could similarly channel mana into their growing fetuses to ensure they are born with mana. in fact, something similar to this is likely what causes "the devouring" among commoners in the first place. pregnant commoners sometimes end up unintentionally being exposed to greater amounts of mana than usual--through their food, the ambient environment, contact with feystones, or the like--and that stimulates the accumulation of mana within the growing fetus.
what's more, those born with lower levels of mana can raise their level of mana to one considered appropriate to a different social stratum using a good mana compression method--just as myne and damuel manage to.
in conclusion, the commoners and nobles of jurgenschmidt comprise a single genetic population. there is no meaningful genetic distinction between them. they are able to reproduce with one another, and differences in amounts of mana between them are entirely due to environmental factors rather than genetic ones. the lack of mana-wielding commoner families is due to the nobles' intentional monopolization of knowledge about magic, which leads commoners with mana to die before they reach childbearing age--unless they enslave themselves to a noble.
the stratified society we see within present day jurgenschmidt is set up to reinforce this artificial distinction between commoner and noble, between laynoble and archnoble, between those with "the devouring" and nobles who have simply been denied access to magic tools. the system is set up to concentrate the power and wealth associated with mana in the hands of a few families at the top. the truth about the nobility of jurgenschmidt is that the supposed basis for their nobility, their exclusive possession of mana, is a lie.
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hmm what about obs pda or lack of pda?
our beloved summer; a drabble
“Kiss.”
“Hmm? Oh, Jungkook, mphmm—!”
A sudden hand squishes your cheeks together and angles your face toward him, making your eyes widen in surprise. Jungkook plants a quick one on you, right as you’re both queuing in the campus cafe, in broad daylight, where everyone can see you.
With your eyes still big as saucers, he flashes you a bunny grin when he pulls back.
“What are you doing?”
He simply shrugs, like you just asked him a stupid question. “Kissing?”
“I know what kissing is!” You roll your eyes, then lower your voice like you’re harboring classified information and Jungkook just spilled it to the rest of the world. “But we’re… in public!”
He leans closer to your face and drops his volume to match yours. You think he might kiss you again, but it sounds like he’s making fun of you; he’s so annoying. “So?”
“So… save it!”
You aren’t a big fan of PDA, never have been. Chick flicks and romcoms have made people such suckers for all that stuff, but you just think it’s kind of icky. Of course, Jungkook just pecked you, it’s not like he was shoving his tongue down your throat while everyone cheered you on. And you have no qualms with being a little gooey when you’re around your close friends. But still.
Out in the open like this, the most you did was stand next to him with your arm brushing his. The pair of you looked like buddies rather than two people dating.
“You don’t like it?” he asks.
“I don’t particularly enjoy it with other people watching, no…”
Jungkook hums in thought for a brief moment, deflating, as you inch a little further up the line, right by the counter where the barista is wrapping up someone’s order. “Anything at all? No kissing, no hand holding, nothing?”
“I— I don’t—”
“Hi! What can I get you today?”
You direct all your attention to the girl in front of you, manufactured smile on display as she prepares to jot down your coffee orders. You recognize her from one of your elective classes earlier this semester before she dropped the course.
Jungkook offers to pay for both drinks, and you only let him do it this once because he insisted, as you’d already covered for his coffee the last time. You can tell he’s starting to become a little off; he doesn’t even let his arm touch yours anymore as he pulls out his card and swipes it on the machine, and he’s quiet the whole time you wait to pick up your desired iced lattes.
You nudge him with your shoulder to get him to look at you.
“What?” he asks.
“What?” you echo. “Is that a problem?”
“Is what a problem?”
“Me, not wanting to get… sentimental in public.”
Jungkook shifts his weight onto one side as he leans against the counter, regarding you with a kicked puppy look on his face. You don’t know if he’s trying to guilt trip you on purpose, but it’s kind of working. Maybe. Definitely. It’s the goddamn gigantic eyes.
“I don’t know,” he says earnestly, toying with the loose fabric at the hem of his shirt. “I’d like to do it sometimes. Not like excessively or anything. Just a kiss every now and then. Hold your hand when we’re out together. Y’know… that kind of stuff.”
You still for a minute, watching as the barista cooks up your much needed caffeine intake of the day. Ice, milk, and a heaven-sent shot of espresso. But even that satisfying visual of liquid goodness meeting your beloved oat milk can’t distract you from the muscly man who’s pouting next to you.
Jesus Christ.
“Okay, fine, Jeon–” You stop yourself when he glares at you, a reminder not to call him that anymore now that you’re no longer arch nemeses, “Fine, Jungkook, how about a compromise?”
You hold out your pinkie to him, very childishly, like you’re five years old again and making promises for forever. He looks at your finger and then at you, blinking twice at your wordless offer. You wiggle it in his direction, waiting.
“Well? You said you wanted to hold hands.”
“That is not your hand,” he counters with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s a compromise,” you say. “Baby steps.”
“Are we in kindergarten?” Jungkook rolls his eyes but takes your pinkie anyway. It’s warm where your skin meets his. He yanks you forward by the sheer force of his littlest finger, until you crash into his solid body where he steadies the both of you with his free hand holding onto the counter. You gasp, wide eyed again, making a few pairs of eyes dart to you from where they were practically glued to their laptop screens.
“Hey!” you grumble, instantly embarrassed because now even the barista is looking at you weirdly. Some people are frowning at the pair of you absolute clowns for disrupting their study session.
Jungkook looks at you with a smug look adorning his features. Your faces are too close for comfort, and your cheeks flush from both the self-consciousness that the cafe-goers are judging you, and from the proximity between yours and Jungkook’s body — which is practically none.
He ducks to hover his mouth over yours, relishing in the way you squirm and try to move away. The man seems unfazed that everyone here is either highly irritated, or intrigued by this weird act that you two are putting on.
You stop wriggling, however, when Jungkook locks your lips with his own, and you think that the sudden lack of air is making you short-circuit because why is this so disgusting sweet but also disgusting cute of him?
You feel him smile against your lips and his pinkie tighten around yours. You could practically taste the sweetness of it all.
So much for baby steps. He’s so fucking annoying.
The kiss doesn’t last long at all. Fifteen seconds, tops. When Jungkook parts from you, he’s got a shit-eating grin on his face, the one you’re so familiar with, the one you used to hate with your entire being.
“Dialing back the PDA starting… now.”
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