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Use-castes are ways of dividing people into how useful they will be during a Fifth Season. For example, members of the Resistant use-caste are supposed to be better at surviving famines, Breeders are selected for being healthy and having desirable physical traits, Innovators are meant to be intelligent problem-solvers, and Strongbacks are used for heavy labor. Even outside of a Season almost all citizens of the Stillness use their use-caste as a second name, inheriting it from their parent of the same sex, as useful traits are supposedly passed down most successfully in this way. Damaya is born a Strongback, then is referred to as Orogene at the Fulcrum, and when she becomes Essun she takes the use-name of Resistant.
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Use-caste Term Timeline in The Fifth Season
The timeline below shows where the term Use-caste appears in The Fifth Season. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: you, at the end
...teacher at the local “creche.” Her husband is named Jija, a member of the Resistant use-caste. Essun has two children, one who is now missing and one (Uche) who is dead....
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...Uche was killed before the quake). Lerna leaves to find the head of the Resistant use-caste (which Essun has claimed to be a part of) to tell her that Essun is...
(full context)
Chapter 2: Damaya, in winters past
...though Mother angrily calls for her to come down. The man tells Damaya (using her use-caste name, “Strongback”) that she doesn’t need to be afraid, that he has come to help...
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Chapter 5: you’re not alone
...himself as Hoa. Essun is suspicious, assuming that he must have a comm name or use-caste name and also that he probably isn’t alone, but the boy says there’s no one...
(full context)
Chapter 6: Damaya, grinding to a halt
...and came out with his bodyguard, Shemshena. Shemshena was a skilled warrior of the Innovator use-caste who had studied orogenes and the way orogeny worked. Before Misalem arrived, she had evacuated...
(full context)
Chapter 7: you plus one is two
...reluctant to give any answers and doesn’t seem to have a comm, parents, or a use-caste name. Essun assumes that he is lying, but he also seems too young to be...
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Chapter 13: you’re on the trail
...and Hoa on their journey, introducing herself as Tonkee but not giving a comm or use-caste name. She claims to have joined them just because Hoa is so interesting to her,...
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Chapter 15: you’re among friends
...Rogga Castrima, and Essun and Tonkee are both surprised to hear “rogga” used as a use-caste name, considering its negative implications. Tonkee, clearly fascinated by Ykka, also comments that Castrima is...
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Chapter 21: you’re getting the band back together
...professions, and even more by being a trans girl, as the members of the Leadership use-caste “breed among themselves” via arranged marriages. Her family finally decided to “bury” her at the...
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