Inverted Social Order

The Kosekin society reverses conventional values: poverty is honored over wealth, death is desired over life, and the lowest classes (paupers) are the most esteemed, creating a satirical mirror of Victorian social hierarchies.

The Kosekin revere darkness and death, making human sacrifice an honored act, inverting Victorian moral values.

The Kosekin value death over life, reversing the narrator's moral framework; the wounded are killed as a sign of honor.

The Kosekin's ruling passion is self-denial and hatred of self; they compete to help others, and the narrator and Almah are considered owners of the city.

Almah explains that paupers are the most honored and influential class, while the Kohen is the lowest, inverting typical Victorian social hierarchy.