The Celestial Order

Belief and religion are incubated into a samurai from birth—and before, from the time of their last death. Spirits and gods are a fact of life for samurai, and faith folds with honor a thousand times over in the steel of a samurai’s soul: faith in the gods, faith in the cycle of reincarnation, and faith in the divine mandate that binds the Empire together.
The Emperor is a divine being, charged by Lady Sun with overseeing the mortal realm. The blood of literal gods—the Kami—runs through the veins of the Great Clans’ ruling families. The will of Tengoku organizes all of existence into a hierarchy. This system—the Celestial Order—is sacred and unquestionable, ordering both Heaven and the Emerald Empire. 
From the Emperor to the lowest burakumin, all are born with a dharma, a sacred duty of the soul; the performance of this duty in life is how a Kigani's karma is measured, determining their judgment in Meido and potential rebirth into a higher or lower caste.
Most souls are reborn, returning to live new lives in mortal bodies—a belief that predates even the Empire. However, Kigani also worship their ancestors, a seeming contradiction. Each soul’s dharma accords them a destiny preordained by Heaven; so long as that destiny goes unfulfilled, the soul will be reborn.
Only when dharma is completed is the soul permitted to shuffle off the Celestial Wheel and enter Yomi, the Realm of the Sacred Ancestors. The fear of death holds little purchase in Kiga—so long as it remains untainted by Jigoku, the Realm of Evil, a soul will return again to the Emerald Empire until it fulfills its destiny.

Those Who Serve

The samurai, “those who serve,” rule Kiga in the name of the Hantei. The class consists of many social ranks: The kuge, or houses of the nobility, consists of the Emperor, The Shogun and Imperial families, the family lines of the clan champions, the heads of vassal families, and the greatest servants of the Hantei. 
The buke, or chivalric houses, comprises all other samurai, including provincial daimyō and city governors, magistrates, and others. The vast majority of the buke are warriors, courtiers, and shugenja, down to the jizamurai, or half-samurai—those not allowed the name of their lord, including rōnin. 
Custom forbids a samurai from questioning or opposing someone of higher social rank without extreme justification, or treating those of equal rank with anything less than complete respect and courtesy. They may treat those below them however they please, although Bushidō still governs their actions.

Those Who Work

The vast majority of people in Kiga are the bonge (also called heimin, or “half-people.”) These peasants keep the nation running by cultivating the land, crafting the tools and implements of daily life, and transporting those goods across the Empire by land and sea. Farmers who grow rice and other food are considered the most important of the bonge. 
Below the farmers are the craftspeople: carpenters, blacksmiths, brewers, and practitioners of the other skilled trades. Below them, all are merchants, regarded with contempt by all others since they do not actually make anything themselves. 
Seldom permitted to carry weapons (save for ashigaru, peasant military levies, and budōka, armed retainers to samurai), heimin have few defenses, physically or legally. 
As a being with a higher social and spiritual status, a samurai may demand anything from heimin who belong to their lord without recompense, and can kill any heimin who disobeys or fails to show respect. Yet, the samurai are also responsible to heimin, as described in the Celestial Order; the bonge’s dharma is to work the land and obey the samurai, and it is the samurai’s duty to protect the heimin and administer the Empire. Slaying a heimin means answering to that heimin’s lord.

Those Who Do Not Belong

There is a third class, called burakumin, or “hamlet people,” who are sometimes known as hinin, or “non-people.” Due to their proximity to death or dishonorable acts, these criminals, torturers, undertakers, butchers, and tanners are considered unfit as companions for samurai save in the direst of circumstances. Even a kindly lord’s speech might be discolored by the pejorative term eta, a slur meaning “abundance of filth.”
Burakumin are considered deeply unclean, and associating with them too often requires the samurai to undertake special purification rituals. Burakumin must live in special villages on the outskirts of society, and they are deeply afraid of samurai. More so than bonge, burakumin can be killed for no reason at all, without legal consequences. Testing newly forged blades by cutting down the nearest hinin isn’t uncommon.
Entertainers who aren’t samurai, including geisha, are also technically hinin for a special reason: because they are non-people, a samurai may fully relax around them with no social stigma. The stress of maintaining one's face can and will wear on even the most stoic of samurai. In the company of a geisha, under the gentle strains of shamisen music, a samurai may laugh, complain about their lord and family, or cry at their lot in life.

Type

Religious, Holy Order