Rodos (ROH-daws)

The noble nation of Rodos likes to think of itself as the most militarily advanced country in all of Calistaph. They might even be correct, as their elite soldiers are hired far and wide to fight for other countries. So long as these fights don’t hurt Rodosian interests, the country is happy to send its warriors out as mercenaries and profit from their valor. Within the country, many matters that would normally be handled militarily are instead contracted out to local mercenaries. As a result, Rodos is able to maintain a significant military presence without an especially large army, and mercenary companies are typically well-regarded and well-compensated within the country's borders.

Rodos has three major cities. Epheros, the capitol city, Psicus, the military center and hub of land and river trade, and Stanae, the great port on the southeastern coast of Rodos. Each city is also the seat of power for a major region of Rodos. Those regions are then divided into provinces, which are governed from a local city or town. The militaristic "chain of command" applies within Rodosian government as well, as the nobility is stratified into distinct ranks, each of which has significant authority over all ranks below. Beyond the cities and towns are the villages and hamlets of farming folk, often indentured to nobles living in more comfortable settlements. And, like every other country, Rodos has its share of ruins from the old kingdoms and mysteries of ancient divine magic.
 

Races of Rodos

Rodos is a primarily human kingdom, and like many human kingdoms it is ruled by tieflings, sometimes referred to as the Desmoni (singular, Desmonus). Native humans typically have a bronze or espresso complexion, black hair, and blue, green, hazel, or light brown eyes. The native tieflings typically have a dark bergundy complexion, black hair, a single pair of horns, and no tail. Members of other races can be found in any city, and most towns as well, but not in great numbers. A quick way for a foreigner to earn local regard is by performing well as a member of a local mercenary company. Though Rodosians tend to dislike foreignors, they are a practical enough people to respect someone who can pull their own weight, and then some.

Society

Ruled from Epheros by their king (also known as the Prime Hierarch or First Hierarch), Rodos has a loosely theocratic feudal system in which nobility owns land and employs peasants and freemen to work as farmers, artisans, soldiers, etc. Clergy are held in high esteem and possessing any special favor with the gods can swiftly grant anyone a seat at the right hand of high nobility. Many of the knights are also partially trained as clergy so they can tend to the spiritual needs of their soldiers and invoke the divine to grant them favor in battle. When the gods do not speak on a matter, however, it is left to the sitting nobles to decide what to do, and their authority is surpassed only by other nobles of higher rank.

While many races can be found in Rodos, not all are held in equal esteem. As already mentioned, tieflings are considered by many to be a superior race, while humans are considered to be the free element of the nation; they are numerous, listen well to authority but not so well as to be entirely stunted by dogma, and they are loyal and curious. Dwarves and minotaurs are also held in high regard as more lawfully-minded races that support the social structure and culture of Rodos. Dragonborn, rare and barbaric as they are, enjoy certain protection due to their ties to Mithrais, who is greatly revered in Rodos as the god of light and law. Other races, such as leonin, centaurs, and tritons, are regarded as equal to humans, but slightly more suspect as they are likely to be foreignors.

Rodos has a renowned force of highly trained soldiers from Psicus. Psican elites are hired out as mercenaries to other countries, and those soldiers who don't make the cut serve the military as scouts and border patrols. This standing force is relatively small though, supplamented by local mercenary companies and drafts in times of need.

Social Ranks

• Hierarch: Highest nobility below the king, has enough land that s/he has other appointed nobles to govern portions of it. They're responsible for one of Rodos's four regions, giving them authority over other landed nobles in their domain.
• Heparchon: Upper nobility, responsible for the management of regional capitols and large cities. They serve directly under hierarchs and employ lesser nobles to manage sections of the city and specific city interests, such as policing and tax collection.
• Archon: Higher/middle nobility, oversees a province from its central town or small city and pays tribute to a hierarch. They typically own a significant portion of their province, and have authority over other landed nobles in their domain. As they're responsible for numerous towns and villages, they usually leave the management of their land to kurios.
• Giapneumos: Middle nobility, typically owning large swaths of land (50-200 square miles) and employing Kurios and freefolk to manage it. They typically rule a town or village and pay tribute to their provincial archon.
• Kurios: Minor nobility, fill in administrative duties, clergy, lower military leadership, etc in towns and cities. In towns they will often also serve advisory roles to the Archon and as liaisons between the freemen and the nobility. They do not have any subservient landed nobles and do not own any land themselves.
• Eugenis: Minor nobility, typically own 12-40 square miles of land, including a small town or large village. They employ peasants and are legally responsible for the protection and legal representation of their peasants. They pay tribute to the provincial archon.
• Hippeis: (Knight) Almost always nobility, typically minor or middle nobility, and typically trained in religious traditions in addition to combat training.
• Freefolk: Those who work for their own profit in towns, cities, and larger villages. They typically have to pay for their own housing, renting property from the noble who owns it.
• Peasant: Employed by nobility, or occassionally by freemen, usually in contracts that run from planting through harvest. The peasants are paid a small cut of the profit from each harvest, and their basic needs are paid for while they're on contract. They typically live in small towns, villages, and hamlets on the land owned by their employer where they’re usually allowed to live through the winter after their contract is served if they sign on for the next year.

 

Laws & Enforcement

The First Hierarch of Rodos insists upon uniform laws throughout the country, and he mostly has his way. How these laws are applied, interpeted, and enforced varies from region to region. Generally speaking, the more broad and impactful the subject is, the higher up the decisons of interpretation and enforcement are made. In urban areas, these decisions are closely followed because the authority that ordained them is physically closer. Rural areas often get away with choosing for themselves how to dispense justice.
  The general philosophy of Rodosian law is to encourage ordely communities, and to disuade discord with the threat of severe punishment. Any crime involving the loss of life is punished by execution. Destruction of property, theft, dissention, and other crimes may be punished with execution, but are more often punished by removing fingers, branding faces or hands, and so on. Of course, after being punished enough times, repeat offenders are eventually executed.
  The most common method of law enforcement is tasking local guards with the investigation of murders, assaults resulting in permanent disability, and vandalism of public infrastructure. Smaller matters, such as theft and damage to private property are often handled either by the victim or by a local organization dedicated to the general dispensation of justice. While laws exist prohibiting these lesser crimes, the only way for them to be lawfully resolved is to bring the victim and the perpetrator to a judge who will hear their case. Rather than trying to force a perpetrator, suspected or actual, to face a trial, most victims simply retaliate in a way to dissuade a repetition of the crime. This often results in a feud that eventually escalates to the point of murder, at which time the local guard would get involved.
  Local organizations dedicated to justice take many forms, such as volunteer police forces that bring criminals to trial, angry mobs that kill any and all suspects, vigilantes both individual and incorporated, and secret societies of masked brutes that follow the orders of a god. The ruling noble, especially in rural areas, will either condone or condemn these groups, and sometimes even grant them legitimacy.
  Judges in Rodos are often lesser nobles appointed by ruling nobles. In cities there are one or more who work regularly overseeing trials and personally determining the outcome. In rural areas, the ruling noble serves as the judge as needed, or will pool resources with neighboring communities to employ a judge that visits each community regularly to handle any cases that have arisen.
 

Rodosian Cuisine

Rodosian cuisine is generally centered on the fruits and roots that the jungle provides in abundance. The most common produce is farmed, including boryo and glie. Meat is less central central, but still important. Kierda are the only fully domesticated animal in Rodosian agriculture, and their meat is more lean than the kind of beef that we're used to, but it's still fattier than wild game. Hunting is common practice for Rodosians, and favored game includes ghost lizards and daragi.
  Rural communities tend to favor hearty stews over the elaborate roasts of the upper classes, but everyone enjoys the crumbly, moist cakes made with glie flour.
 

Religion

From among the Elder Gods, Mithrais, Odarr, and Yaris are most worshiped. There are also a slew of Mortal Gods who originally lived and fought for Rodos, or can otherwise tie their apotheosis to Rodos in a way that earns them worship in the country. Grand temples of the Elder Gods can be found in every city with subsections for mortal gods who seem aligned to the patron of the temple. In towns and villages it is common to have a statue of a god over the fountain at the center of the agora (open air market) from which people draw their fresh water. It is customary for the wealthy to put a coin in the fountain when they take water, and at night the poorest in town may take the coins to feed themselves. Smaller temples are frequented for blessings and prayers and small shrines along roadsides and pathways collect offerings of incense, food, clothing, and money. Like the coins the agora fountain, it's expected that the poorest will take what they need from these offerings.
  To replace above paragraph: Rodos favors Mithrais. Around 20 years ago, the First Hierarch declared the worship of Mithrais to be the state religion. Since then, urban centers have shifted dramatically towards the worship of Mithrais above all other gods. The effect has been slower to reach rural communities, many of which still worship Odarr and several other Elder Gods. The main reason for this decision by the First Hierarch was to advance his military agenda.
  The role of religion in Rodos is to give purpose to life and provide wise council to the ruling class. Rodosians generally believe that by putting the desmoni (tieflings) at the helm, they are honoring the gods' gift of aid that resulted in victory for the mortal races over Niadra and her spawn centuries ago. They see it as their duty to make the most of the gift by staying militarily strong and ready to fight should Niadra ever return. To that end, Rodos sees its weaker neighbors as lax in their duty, and wages war ostensibly to encourage them to shape up or take over for them if they are so lax as to allow themselves to be conquered. Every craft and profession draws its glory from how it supports the nation in its readiness for war, and clergy of any god in Rodos minister to their community and advise their nobility with that in mind.
  Mithrais, as the god of kings and of law and order, was the most favorable option to the King for promoting the role of religion in his Kingdom while also fortifying his power as king and putting the suggestion of a divine mandate behind military service. Though it's typically considered propaganda even by those faithful to Mithrais, the High priest of Mithrais in Epheros declared that the desmoni actually have draconic blood, not demonic, as a result of the ancient pact. Commoners are quiet about contradicting temple doctrine, but they largely believe that this was just another move to put Mithrais, also the god of dragons, above all other gods in Rodos. 
 
 
 

To read more about the Gods, check out the Pantheon of Calistaph.

Funerary Practices

Despite having one god of the dead, Zerus, Calistaph still has a huge variety of rites and rituals for saying goodbye to, and caring for the bodies of, the dearly departed. In Rodos, when a death occurs the family will notify the nearest temple. Sometimes this is a temple of Zerus, but usually His temples are built some distance outside of settlements, so it's usually a temple of Mithrais that initially responds to the event. Whomever was sent to notify the temple will return with a priest or acolyte and a small group of attendants who will load the remains onto a ceremonial cart called a necrotrox (usually just called a "trox"). The priest and attendents will strictly ignore the family, except to gently push them when they try to get in the way, while the family will beg the priest to resurrect their loved one and offer gifts, usually promises of luxuries that are well beyond the reach of the family. While they will ostensibly try to stop the priest and attendants from taking the remains while begging them for resurrection, it is strictly performative. Once the body has been laid on the necrotrox, a family member will present the priest with an actual gift. This is the first time that the priest will acknowledge the family, and it is only to accept the gift and politely decline to resurrect the dead. The whole group then proceeds to the nearest temple of Zerus, led by the priest. The attendents will usually push the necrotrox and hold the body to make sure it doesn't fall off, and the family will follow behind. In rural areas where there may be few or even no acolytes, the family will fill the roles of the attendants.

Once they reach the temple, a priest of Zerus will welcome them all and guide them to a chamber with an open roof and wood stacked for a funeral pyre. (The temple that first receives notification of the death sends a runner to the temple of Zerus so that they can make their preparations.) The clergy of Zerus then take over, moving the body onto the pyre and allowing the priest and attendents of the initial temple to quietly take away the necrotrox and return to town. Again, the family will beg the priest to resurrect the dead, but this time the priest of Zerus. Wild promises will be made to convince the priest, and one real gift will be presented. And again, the priest will accept the gift but decline to resurrect their loved one. Attendants will light the pyre, and the family will remain until it burns out. Usually some bedding is brought to the pyre chamber so they can rest more comfortably while they wait. When the fire goes out, the family will sweep up the ashes and put them in an urn. Many urban families have a large urn that rests in the temple of Zerus for the collected ashes of their dead. Poorer, smaller, and less established families may instead take the urns home or simply store a collection of small urns in the temple. The temple columbarium is never closed and is maintained by mourners who go regularly to clean their family resting place. In more rural areas, it is common for families to take the urns home and hold a ceremony in the planting season to scatter the ashes in the fields before they're plowed and tilled. These communities hold the ceremony every year, scattering the ashes of everyone who has passed since the ceremony last year.

The two gifts given to the priests during this ritual are the means of payment for the services rendered. It's known that the priests will not resurrect the dead, but trying anyway is a way of expressing loyalty and attachment to the departed person while also acknowledging that they are now dead. The gifts are chosen by the departed person before their death, when possible, and by the family otherwise. Though the gifts are presented as a performative inducement, they are given in genuine hopes that Zerus will see the generosity of the departed and/or their family and judge them more favorably as a result. Because of this practice, temples tend to accumulate miscellaneous items. In larger towns and cities the temple will have one or more thanempoli (singular: thanempolis) whose job it is to find buyers for these goods. They can't simply set up a market stand and sell these things, as most families would be disturbed to see their funerary offerings being hawked by the temple. Instead, thanempoli will take a handful of goods and keep them concealed until they identify a potential buyer. Thus, the liquidation of the funeral fees is carried out discreetly and respectfully. In smaller locales, the priest will take on this task, usually covering their face with a mask or veil to dissociate the seller of funerary offerings from the clergy of the god of the dead.

Many particulars in this ritual will vary by locality. One town may practice loud wailing as the body is carried out of town on the necrotrox, while another may use a particular bell to announce the procession. Some places welcome friends and townsfolk who wish to join the procession, while other communities consider it a private event for the closest family only. Virtually every step of this ritual is subject to tweaking by local traditions. The core of it, however, is importantly the same throughout Rodos. It's believed that after death, the soul lingers while it waits to be picked up by Serapis and ferried to Nephtenerash, the hall of Zerus. Failure to show loyalty or affection for the deceased while its soul is still present can upset the deceased person and cause them to stay behind and haunt the home. The purpose of the pyre is both to serve as a bright signal and smoke sign for Serapis to help him find a soul in need of transport, and to destroy the body so that the soul is not tempted to stay behind and try to live again.

Currency & Economy

Rodos uses birds to symbolize its currency, and this works its way into the vernacular with terms such as a "flock" referring to an amount of coins, or "squawking" to refer to bragging about wealth. Rodosian coins are made at the royal mints, of which there is one in each of the major cities. City treasuries and wealthy nobles will often keep the majority of their wealth in bricks, sending them to a mint to be converted into bars and coins for a modest fee when their flock gets small. A brick of gold, silver, or copper weighs twenty pounds and is intended to be very inconvenient to move so as to deter theieves. A bar is smaller, equal to forty coins, and is usually referred to as a "fat" bird. All Rodosian coins are minted with a ridge around the edge of both faces so that if someone tries shaving off the edges, the ridge will be noticeably cut into. Attempting to use shaved coins is considered a crime against the crown, but if you're in possession of a shaved coin you can take it to a mint to be weighed and potentially exchange for lesser coins adding up to the worth of the shaved coin. This is, of course, wildly impractical for peasants who almost exclusively trade in sparrows and can't make the trip to a major city every time they get a shaved coin. This is one of the struggles of peasants in Rodos, that they will occasionally get stuck with shaved coins and only other peasants, sympathetic to the situation, will accept them. Some freemen are likewise sympathetic and will accept shaved coins from the peasantry, stockpiling them until there's enough to take to a mint and exchange for proper coins. Often though, trying to pay in a shaved coin will result in local guard being summoned to imprison you until you pay a hefty fine for "attempting to steal from the crown." The crown also encourages use of Rodosian currency over foreign currencies by counting the latter at half value when used to pay taxes.