Status Symbols

These descriptions strictly apply to the Empire, but many carry beyond as well.

Clothes —

Low-status features:
- Aeromer or plastic material
- From a vending machine
- Passe style
- Employer's/master's logo/name/colors, writ large

Mid-status features:
- Organic weave
- Machine-tailored
- Current style, fashionably "daring" style
- No logo

High-status features:
- Imported or cultured material
- Human-tailored
- No style, antique style, go-to-hell style
- No logo, or your family or personal sigil (very small)

Vehicles —

Low-status features:
- One small one
- No air-cars
- No autopilot

Mid-status features:
- One or two big ones
- Amphibious air/ground cars
- Autopilots

High-status features:
- Several small ones and one or two VERY big ones
- Separate populations of ground and air cars
- Autopilots and a live-in mechanic

Housing & Furnishings —

Admiralty, Senators, other high-upper class:
A country estate or a large town house, or both, often plus additional apartments, with live-in servants, any robots kept out of sight. Conservatories of rare flowers. Old or custom-made furniture.

Officers, other high-middle and upper class:
Large apartment or condo, or small town house or country house, with a servant on call and a compact, expensive robot or two. Lots of potted plants. Old or machine-tailored furniture.

Bourgoisie:
Small apartment or condo, often over the shop, with large, brightly-painted, gadgety robots for the prosperous (or officer-like ones for the pushing). New furniture.

Proletariat:
Apartments in large urban blocks or over the shop, with lo-rez teleform furniture and shabby solid items for the down-trodden, hi-rez teleforms and gaudy new solid items for the prosperous.

Slaves: A back room with a cot, period, or a barracks.

ID Cards —

Imperial citizens routinely carry ID cards that serve as credit and debit cards, remote keys, phones, and sometimes terminals. Everyone has a simple one issued by the crown, but it is very common to have multiple (notarized) copies made with vanity features.

Admiralty & Senatorial Families class:
- Issued: Heavily rounded corners, almost oval; black with full name in gold, in a small, proportional serif font.
- Vanity: the same, but with favorite form of name in lower left corner and family sigil in upper right.
- Haute monde: Leave off sigil. Or a solid black elliptical card with name, initials, monogram, or sigil incised or in relief.
- (Note: Imperial and high senatorial families often go without vanity cards, or cards at all.)

Officers, other upper-middle and upper class:
- Issued: Rounded corners; black with full name in white, in a small, proportional serif font.
- Vanity: Mock admiralty cards, with a vanity sigil in place of the genuine admiralty/senatorial sigil.

Bourgoisie:
- Issued: Rounded corders; white with full name in black, in a small, proportional serif font.
- Vanity: Rounded or elliptical cards in deep colors or dark grey, favorite form of name in white or gold, vanity sigil or corporate logo.

Proletariat:
- Issued: Same as bourgoisie.
- Vanity: Rounded, elliptical, or circular cards in a wide variety of bright colors and patterns, favorite form of name in a contrasting color, optional vanity sigil or corporate logo.

Slaves & Convicts:
- Issued: Squared corners; white with full name, ID number, owner's full name and number (if slave), case and sentence code (if convict) in black, large, monospaced, sans serif font, holographic mug shot (which is why no one else has their picture on their cards).
- Vanity: None.

Personal Media Use —

Low-status features:
- Familiarity with crude mass entertainment
- Showily gadgety interface.

Mid-status features:
- Familiarity with "educational" and "cultural" mass media
- Familiarity with technical details
- Understated, customized interfaces

High-status features:
- Unfamiliarity with contents of mass media
- Unfamiliarity with technical details
- Invisible, highly customized interface

Personal Media Presence —

Low-status features:
- Audience is mostly low-status
- Presentation is splashy, vulgar, shows off technical tricks

Mid-status features:
- Audience is mostly middle-status or low-status subordinates
- Presentation is in a formalized format

High-status features:
- Audience is individual, not general
- Presentation emulates face-to-face conversation or letters

Speech —

Low-status features:
- Regionally accented Universum
- Trade jargon
- Current slang
- Use of Koliot or Old Settler terms

Mid-status features:
- "Hi-I'm-from-nowhere" Universum
- Avoidance of jargon or slang while "on-duty"
- Appearance of passe slang while "off-duty"
- Avoidance of Koliot or Old Settler terms at all times

High-status features:
- "Hi-I'm-from-nowhere" Universum
- Avoidance of trade jargons
- Free use of slang and Koliot and Old Settler terms except at the most formal times