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Great question!

Someone may have said this already, but a culture’s values often determine class systems. For example, I had an idea for a fictional culture that prizes asymmetry, quirkiness, and oddities  – a value that trickles into its concept of beauty (e.g., women purposefully wear their mascara asymmetrically, etc.). Since this culture values uniqueness (and therefore, may downplay or abhor convention), classs systems can arise: unique people are “higher” in society & are given more opportunities, whereas un-unique people are “lower” in society & are in lower positions. As a side note, there’s technically no such thing as an entirely un-unique person, but I digress 🙂

Try jotting down one or more key things that your world values (e.g., power, knowledge, nature) and things that threaten those values (e.g., weakness, ignorance, etc.) then come up with characters that would, therefore, be considered “high” or “low.” Have fun!