Retko

A retko is a woven hat that broadly takes the form of a stacked pair of broad, shallow cones. The lower cone is wide and truncated at the middle, leaving a hole at the top. The radial supports curve upwards at the center of this cone to create spacers that hold the upper, smaller cone slightly away from it. The upper cone is smaller, solid at the top, and overlaps with the lower cone to exclude rain. The gap between the upper and lower cones helps to ventilate the wearer's scalp, especially when wind blows through it.   Both cones are typically covered in waxed or oiled fabric to help further exclude light and rain. This fabric may be colored white or dyed with earthy tones, and it is often decorated patterns, abstract shapes, or even the wearer's greathouse marque. The 'body' of the retko is held away from the wearer's head by a sweatband of rolled or twisted cloth. Friction between the sweatband and the wearer's head is typically enough to hold the hat in place, but most retkos also feature chinstraps made of woven fabric or, more commonly, a smooth ribbon printed with a kiokma pattern.

Retkos are common visual markers of Rostran heritage. The prototypical High Rostran chemist is portrayed wearing a retko and smoking a long, thin-necked pipe extending beyond the brim. Scholars and historians are also often associated with retkos and are portrayed as using the broad brims to shade workspaces as they whittle away at the dust of an archaeological site or stash notecards along the underside where only they can see them. Some mythological accounts depict heroes using oversized retkos as parasols or even turning them upside-down for use as impromptu boats or other vessels; the Rostran equivalent of a 'flying carpet' is a "retko astung" (cloud hat).