Society

Howaru has humans of different ethnicities, just like our Earth. A difference, however, is that all ethnicities are spread around the mega-continent, with nobody nowadays knowing in which geographical location each one originated. As a result, the concept of racial prejudice does not exist in this world, with skin colors being perceived as aesthetic differences with no associated connotations, like hair or eye colors. There is, however, a sense of chauvinism and nationalism, with rival cities and tribes often perceiving each other as uncivilized (fact that is quite ironic, giving the general lack of civilization).

Howaru is a world devoid of gender prejudices, with men and women generally being treated equally… equally bad, that is. There is, nonetheless, a picturesque difference with our world: while most jobs are performed by people of both genders alike, the occupations related to the use of **** (such as soldier, pirate or gladiator) are traditionally performed by women. Author Nanase Ohkawa explained this fact in the documentary about the manga:

“Some people have asked me if this was yet another modern story where men are depicted in an emasculating way to make the female protagonist look better… And the answer is: No! Not at all! Men in Howaru are not at home wearing an apron and cooking while the women are at war. This is not another feminist Hollywood movie! Men in this world are quite badass (otherwise they wouldn’t survive in that environment) and perform all kinds of hard jobs, such as hunters, miners, fishermen… Also, they all look like bodybuilders! I swear, there is no intention to make men look effeminate in any way. Actually, I find that sexist and quite offensive when American films do it.

What happens in Howaru is that, because of their physiological characteristics, women are more naturally violent and aggressive, and therefore more inclined to work as soldiers or gladiators, while men are generally more peaceful and try to avoid violent occupations. We even have our mental canon about why this is the case. It’s not explained in the manga, but I needed to give myself an explanation: what happens is that, in this reality, estrogens work a lot like testosterone in ours, and vice versa”.

While Howaru’s civilization is totally devoid of racial or gender prejudices, classism is present in every aspect of society and every corner of the continent. Each person is assigned a social class from birth (that of their parents), and will stay like that until the day they die.

The world’s population can be divided in three very distinct social castes:

1- Patricians: Kings, queens and their relatives. Descendants of ancient tribe chieftains that established their families as the ruling class in the different city-states. Patricians not destined to be kings (such as the younger children of the monarchs), are normally educated to be political advisors, judges, philosophers, alchemists or priests. They are less than 1% of the population.

2- Plebeians: They are the main demographic group of free humans. Their occupations include hunters, farmers, innkeepers, artisans and merchants. As opposed to slaves, these are free people who don’t officially belong to anybody. However, in actuality they are normally under the protection of some patrician, and therefore subject to their abuses. They are approximately half of the population.

3- Slaves: They are the lowest caste in Howaru. They perform the hardest jobs, including that of pulling carts for the transportation of passengers and goods. They have absolutely no rights and are abused and regarded as inferior by both patricians and plebeians. They are roughly half of the world’s population.