The Natural Order

Unlike things, one working whole.

What is not chosen is given.

The Natural Order is the philosophy of Teraell that begins from one observation — that what a person is capable of is not entirely their own doing — and builds on it the idea that people have natures, that natures differ, and that the order of the world rests on those differences rather than on anything men invented.

The foundation

People are different. Some are stronger, some smarter, some patient where others are not. Some are drawn to authority and are good at it; some avoid it and would fail at it. These are not choices; they are things one is born to, and a person cannot be remade into something they are not. Since the differences were not invented by men, the order built on them is not arbitrary. What men make, men can unmake; what is found in the world must be lived with. The only question left is how to live well with what one is given.

Genuine nature

Every living thing has a genuine nature — the truest expression of what it is. It cannot be chosen, and it is not a preference or a performance. One can sincerely want a life one's nature is unsuited to. One can discover, deny, or live with one's nature, but never exchange it. Knowing one's own nature is the duty of free and slave alike, and matters as much to a good master as knowing the natures of those who serve him. To be set against one's own nature is the most unnecessary suffering a person can endure.

Complementary roles

To be different is not to be a failure. Unlike natures are not ranked but are meant to complement one another — merchant and craftsman, leader and led. The example most often given is men and women: the man generally stronger and expected to lead through provision and protection, the woman his complement, often finding fulfillment in grace, support, and willing service. These are described as patterns found in nature, not rules, and are meant to be lived with grace and honor.

Those who diverge

Sexual and gender minorities are accepted as natural exceptions within the pattern, not violations of it. They are quietly accommodated in every city-state and none are ostracized. They are held to the same standards as everyone else: is the life led honorably, does it contribute to its station, does it uphold the order without demanding that others deny their own natures. The philosophy holds this to be consistent with its architecture: the Oathbond protects each person's right to live by their own nature, and a philosophy that demanded the denial of one's nature would be a tyranny — which the Pact of Reason rejects in every form.

What is offered as evidence

The Natural Order is not an article of faith and is not to be held as one. Its evidence: unlearned hierarchies of some kind in every animal species; six separately governed city-states that each arrived independently at ordered station; nine centuries in which no other arrangement has held; and the visible discontent of people who fight their own natures.

The three claims

Three claims are made, and most disagreement in the Known World comes from failing to separate them.

1. People differ, observably. Undisputed. No reformer or abolitionist argues otherwise.
2. Those differences form a pattern without exception. Contested. Defenders say that to admit an exception is to admit the pattern never existed. Reformers say the philosophy already admits exceptions — the free submissive, the person the system concedes is unsuited to their role — and that rules with exceptions are still rules.
3. A person's station can be read from the pattern. The most contested. Many who accept the first two hold that applying a general truth to a particular person is a separate act needing separate evidence: a pattern tells you where to look, not what you will find.

Contested in Teraell

The first claim is agreed by everyone. The argument over slavery in Teraell is, almost entirely, an argument between people defending the second claim and people attacking the third, each convinced the other has denied something obvious. See The Contested Ground.

See also

• True Mastery · What Might Means · The Pact of Reason
• The Contested Ground · Slavery