Life in the 'Fading Suns' universe

The noble class makes up less than 5% of the population but own most of the land and property in the Known Worlds. Serfs cannot own land, these people make up 80% of the population and are owned by their liege lords. A serf has no rights save those left on the statute books of their individual world and whatever their liege deems to grant them. The remainder of the population are “freeborn”, usually professional people who dwell in cities, members of the Merchant league and the Church. Freemen may own property and have more rights than serfs. The Church is subject to it's own laws and strictures.
Everyone, but everyone owes fealty to someone, the only exception being the Patriarch of the Church and perhaps the Emperor and that really is a matter of theology and high politics. Every Serf is owned by a noble, every noble has in turn his liege-lord, all the way up to the Imperial throne. The Merchant league has its own chain of obligation, more akin to the Mafia than traditional feudalism in many cases but the Leaguemeister ultimately calls the shots but still has to bow to the Emperor.

Everyone is raised to know their place. To be a noble is to be placed at the top of the pyramid, a status ordained by God and sanctified by the Holy Church. For the serfs to attempt to better themselves is regarded by many as a rebellion against the divine will.
The egalitarian ideals of the 2nd Republic were shown to be bankrupt both morally and spiritually when that state collapsed a thousand years ago and plunged the universe into chaos. Doctrine states that the suns began to fade at that time as the Pancreator showed his displeasure at the way mankind had used his creation and that now only penitence and obedience to the divine plan as revealed through his Church can save mankind from the ultimate judgement of the Pancreator.

Technology is deemed to be a temptation that leads man from the Pancreator. The Church and Nobles are permitted to use it so as to safeguard the souls of the penitent masses. The weapons and starships used by noble and church fleets, along with their other advanced devices are not mere luxuries but are things to be endured for the good of the peasantry.

A peasant who labours all day in the fields behind a beast drawn plough, returning to his wattle and daub hut to a meal of roots boiled over an open fire and sleeping in a louse infested bed of straw is in his way, in a spiritually more exalted state than the noble who spends his day hunting with a laser carbine, feasting on delicacies from a dozen worlds and sleeping in synthi-satin bedding. This is the doctrine that is fed to practically everyone from birth.
The Church exists to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. For without the Church, no-one can find divine grace and enter into the light of the Pancreator after death. The church is also the only place wherein one can find miracles worked in the name of the Pancreator. Those who practise such rites outside of the fold of the Church are heretics or worse, traffickers with dark powers. For as there are powers of light, so are there powers of darkness. The arts of psionics, once popular in the 2nd Republic are deemed as such trafficking and all telepaths must be turned over to the church lest they corrupt the innocent.

Some within the Merchant League and a few mavericks in other walks of life believe that the 2nd Republic was a noble enterprise, that saw the highest flowering of human endeavour and achievement. The fact that it failed was due to the plotting of evil men and the nobles who took over in the chaos have exploited the situation with the connivance of the Church to maintain their position. There are those within the League who hope one day to throw off the shackles of superstition and prejudice, free the serfs and restore a 3rd Republic to the stars. Some of course just want to overthrow the nobles and set themselves up as lords.

What does this mean to the average Fading Suns character? Well, if you are a noble then you will have been raised in a position of privilege. Unless you are a very minor member or a very minor family, you will own land or expect to inherit some. A noble will have been given at least a basic education : tutored in church dogma by a confessor, warcraft by a specialised tutor, taught how to operate those technological devices the characters family possesses and trained in etiquette and protocol.

The nature and wealth of a characters family will dictate the stress that is put on each facet of his or her education. Poorer families will not be able to afford the best House Torenson protocol tutors, or a Guild Engineer to teach maths, or afford the services of a Muster Mercenary fencing tutor. Nor would House Hazat place the same stress on theology that a Li-Halan noble would, or House Decados emphasise ethics in the same way as a member of house Justinian. These tutors will often be close companions to a young noble, if the family is rich enough or of sufficient status then each noble would have their own retinue of tutors and attendants. Confessors are often assigned to a family or individual noble for life. Most nobles will also have a personal bodyguard, building up a bond of trust over the years (unless the noble is very paranoid).

Nobles live much as their counterparts in the middle ages did, in fortified estates, surrounded by their House armies and the riches drawn from their lands. In the Fading Suns universe however, the family heirloom weapon might not be a well crafted sword but grandfather's blaster-rifle. Developing new technology is not permitted but maintaining that technology that survives is.
Many houses have legions of troops equipped with weapons that date back to the 2nd Republic backed up with peasant levies armed with spears, swords and perhaps a few muskets. Rank and file regular troops have at best automatic rifles and flak armour. The best weapons are reserved for the noble elite.
Horses and similar animals are used as transport, with powered vehicles being quite rare and more often than not steam or petrol powered. Fusion powered skimmers are a mark of extreme wealth.

Even the majority of nobles and all but the most sophisticated urban populations live at a level on a par with the Victorian era, electric light is not that common and the nearest thing to a mass media on most worlds is the town crier (almost all peasants and a good few nobles cannot read anyway). Medical technology is equally patchy. The Amalthean sect of the church can work wonders with their Pancreator given healing powers and these are the nearest thing to a health service that any serf will ever see but these healers are few and far between. Most peasants must make do with village wise women (often one step ahead of the inquisition sad to say) or travelling quacks. More affluent people can afford League doctors and their technological wonders. The very rich might even have access to medical nanites and regeneration gear.

Travel is uncommon, it is sometimes easier to get from one world to another than from one continent to another. Peasants fear and distrust strangers and even a noble can be lynched in the wilds of an unfamiliar land if they look and act too oddly. Aliens that stray too far from the more cosmopolitan cities are apt to be chased away by stone throwing mobs at best. In these apparent end times, trust is a rare commodity and people tend to stick to what they know.

Recent years have seen some radical changes in the politics of the Fading Suns universe. 500 years ago, Vladimir I was proclaimed Emperor and promptly assassinated. In the turmoil that followed the present five great Houses won through the initial civil conflict and eradicated the other five great Houses that had put Vladimir in power. For the next four and half centuries a shaky status quo existed under a series of weak Regents.
Fifty years ago, Darius Hawkwood launched a bid for the throne and so a bitter Civil War broke out. Darius did not achieve his goal but his son Alexius did. Winning tacit league support and the alliance of Houses Li-Halan and Al-malik he was able to defeat the forces of House Decados and The Hazat to become Emperor.

In the years that have followed his eventual victory in 4993, Alexius I has begun a series of reforms. He has also commissioned a new Order of Knights : The Order of the Phoenix (The Phoenix being the Imperial banner) and charged them with investigating the Fading Suns phenomenon and to seek out lost worlds. All nobles are invited to join and are promised land on new worlds.