Rich Officer / Poor Officer

 There are times when where you come from matters.  Like what?  Let’s imagine two young officers in the military.  One is 29yo and grew up poor.  But he fought to earn a place within the military.  He is the type of officer the soldiers will follow, tough when he needs to be; a coach when he needs to be.  He is now sharing quarters with a young officer.  He is 24yo and a nobleman.  He was commissioned in the military because he and his father thought he would look good in the dress uniform.  That’s not to say he can’t fight.  He has had fencing lessons his whole life and has won two duels.  But his bunk mate - that guy has seen some stuff.

The first officer gets up in the morning and starts shining his boots.  He wants them to be perfect.  He remembers when he couldn’t afford a pair of boots and he takes pride in making his boots shine, because he is proud of what he has earned.  But his wealthy bunk mate pays someone to shine his boot s for him, and he isn’t all that concerned.  After all, what he wears while on active duty isn’t what he would wear to parties and ceremonies, so they don’t really matter.

These two show something that can happen in our world relatively easily - in most first world countries, people can rise above the social status of their birth.  This is often the case in our fantasy worlds too, but maybe a little too often.  At different times in some places, it was possible for a hard worker to get noticed and be promoted.  Militaries are often known for being one of the few places that allowed for this, at least to a point.  It isn’t entirely inconceivable that the poor officer pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made it to where he is today.  He absolutely could be paired with a young nobleman.  Depending on who they report to, it might have been purposefully, maybe hoping to teach the young fop something he does not yet know.

But they are going to go about their lives differently.  The wealthy officer may assume he can buy his way out of everything, from losing equipment to insulting some young lady.  The poor officer is going to walking on eggshells in many circumstances, knowing that he doesn’t have the family connections to get himself out of trouble should he break some rules and get caught.  We would often think that he would be far more worried about his gear, either because he cannot afford to replace it, or because it means more to him having had so little as a boy.

A lot of this is stereo-typing; we know!  Their personalities wouldn’t necessarily turn out like this.  There are rich kids who appreciate what they have and act responsibly, but those stereo-types often have that pesky kernel of truth to them.  This is why knowing the character history (whether it be PC or NPC) is so often important.  How they got here, often tells you why they are who they are.