Personal pride can be achieved from being the best that there is, even if the parameters are narrow.
Diggir shovels shit for his livelihood, but he is also very good at it, the best, perhaps. Or not, as he doesn’t belong to a guild or anything.
While there are places with modern toilet systems, with pipes and whatnot, many of the more esteemed residences still use the old way, with humans transporting the excrement instead of pipes. Retrofitting a castle’s plumbing can be expensive….
And so it is that Diggir shovels the shit of the queen. That shit doesn’t sparkle, and he is not paid any extra because of the royal backside it came from. When you factor in the risks of being anywhere near a powerful, volatile woman, Diggir perhaps has the worst job in the world, but in a fancy location.
Being born into such an occupation doesn’t mean he is suited to it, so thankfully it is not a difficult job. But unfortunately Diggir is quite smart, and he spends much of his working day pondering, speculating and scheming. There must be more to life…
Fun fact: he digs through the shit he is tasked to remove, in case an accidentally swallowed gem might be there. Or a win that cannot be imagined from his lowly station.
Dreaming of such a win, an escape, is possibly all that keeps him going.
