Geographic names

[HUMMAN]

I remember i saw a desert name in game footages, it would be cool to have this kind of names. Some important mountain, river, lake names. NPC's may use these names in stories, quests, cities may take name from these or vice versa etc.

 

[PoochieMoo]

I think this would be a really good feature to add. Villagers could also refer to these places instead of just settlements when giving quests. They could also have unique battle maps.

 

[DAWUSS]

IIRC the pre-Warband Calradia sorta had this feature:

https://sites.google.com/site/mbcharcreation/

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

IIRC the pre-Warband Calradia sorta had this feature:

https://sites.google.com/site/mbcharcreation/

It's been a looooooooong time since I last played the original Mount and Blade (which I'm going to have to change) but I don't remember any, canon, references to geographical locations.

The site you linked shows a map originally made by 13 Spider Bloody Chain, the map was originally posted as an accompaniment to a larger post in The Duck & Spackle Tavern. AKA where players post their own stories.

This particular post advertises itself as A Traveller's Guide to Calradia.

An interesting read if I do say so myself, but not canon: At least I don't think it was officially recognised as canon, though the quality is probably good enough. A real pity it was never finished, but I can understand why. It did seem like a lot of work. It wasn't perfect but it was entertaining.
(I'm going to use spoilers to make it more like a book and then post that here at a later time)

It would be pretty cool to have something like this is Warband or Bannerlord, officially or unofficially, though you could argue that the dev blogs already fill at least part of this role. And yes I realise the Encyclopedia is similar in concept to a Traveller's guide but a Traveller's guide is more personalised and generally told from a first or second person perspective. It also delves into more specific subject matters.

Maybe someone could even make a compendium about the geography, history, and cultures of Bannerlord with all the information from the dev blogs. Not too sure how much of that information is still relevant though, the game is still in development and keeps undergoing changes (the faction banners are a good example of this).

Warning: Very Optimistic
It would be pretty cool if a developer were to see this post, decides to get a map of Calradia and creates lots of unmarked locations that NPCs will reference and use for quests, each with their own little story that players can learn over time or many playthroughs, and puts that in the game.

Anyway back to the topic at hand. I reckon having named geographical points in Bannerlord is a good way to add extra lore (my personal favourite) to the world of Calradia, and provide a layer of history and environmental storytelling. For example in Warband Matheld mentions one of the very few unmarked locations 'Gundig's point' where Gundig Hairy-Breeks, a Nord leader from the past, intiated his ill-fated conquest of all of Calradia. This isn't anything major but gives history to the land of Calradia.

In Bannerlord we could have places like 'Tyrant Hill' where the ancient hero Calradoi Echerion killed the tyrant king Cypegos or 'Wilund's grotto' the final resting place of the Vlandian warlord Wilund the Bold whose Calradic name the Vlandians are named after.

I agree with what @HUMMAN said in the OP. It would also be nice if large landscapes or geographical features had names: the deserts are named, mountains/mountain ranges have names, rivers and lakes too. Settlements sharing names, or derivative names, and vice versa would also be a good feature.

 

[Oxtocoatl]

I would love this feature! Named rivers, mountain ranges and forests would add to the immersion considerably. This would also make some quests easier: What if the lord who wants you to attack a bandit hideout says "Somewhere in Mirkwood" instead of "In this area". It would feel so much more real and less randomly generated.

Or if you escort a caravan the Guild Master would present you with route suggestions, warning you that you should avoid Drogir`s Pass because even though it is the fastest route it is infested by bandits and instead take a detour around the Broken Teeth mountain range, losing several days in the process.

Theoretically this vocabulary could be extended to lords and their strategic discussions. "We must hold Drogir`s Pass or the enemy will flank us!" this would of course be mostly flavor text or quest giving, I don`t actually expect the AI to be able to make very complex war plans.

The best utilization for it would be to have battle maps vary not just according to the terrain they`re in but also which terrain. Not all mountains are the same and neither are all the forests. Larger battles could be named according to the nearest terrain. Then the game log might say that "Lords Alexios, Nikeforos and Julius of the Northern Empire were defeated in the Battle of Drogir`s Pass." And your fellow lords would reminisce, saying "I will never forget when we trashed the Imperials at Drogir`s Pass. It is a sweet memory."

A slight digression but I would love it if BL stole the Total War famous battle mechanic. In Total War games when you win a particularly big battle or have the odds stacked against you, the battle spot is recorded on the campaign map as a "famous battle site" and you can always see it and the names of the generals.
Of course we can`t have the game save all battle sites, otherwise the map would be clogged into uselessness in a month, but it could save, say battles where the odds are bigger than 3-1 and the smaller side wins, or simply battles that are really big, say, 800 total combatants, especially if the player is involved. It would be cool to visit these battle fields and walk among skeletons and abandoned weaponry, maybe even with the chance to speak to family members who come to honor their fallen fathers or to find loot.

But, as far as I`m aware so far TW has no plans for implementing named terrain into the game. Modding simple text on the Campaign map shouldn`t be difficult, but deeper implementation definitely will be.

 

[Hannibal Barca]

I remember i saw a desert name in game footages, it would be cool to have this kind of names. Some important mountain, river, lake names. NPC's may use these names in stories, quests, cities may take name from these or vice versa etc.

I think this a really cool idea.

And why are they not doing this in the first place.

Without it, it doesnt feel like a real world, where everything has a name. Calradia is an ancient continent and of course the mountains have names. 

 

[Revverie]

Things like what HUMMAN said in his post is what this game definitely needs to be completed. I need to love a place if I want to conquer or spend my time in. That's why Pendor is such a great mod, because of the rich Lore it had, it's something to expect for this game

 

[Iberian Wolf]

I have suggested this in the past and definitely support this feature. Shouldn't be hard to implement with transparent fonts and would add tremendous value to mods.

Also, please allow text to be added to the encyclopedia, so that a settlement description or character brief history could be added. It would work wonders for the immersion.

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the necro, for bringing this relatively dead thread back up, however I did say I would do this and I intend to come through on my word.

This is my attempt to make a compilation of old posts and format them into a book.

As a disclaimer I would like to state none of the following is of my own creation though I have taken some liberties with the formatting. Any other changes I may make I will try to make obvious.

...​

...

...​

隐藏: I.Preface:

The history of Calradia is a long and violent one. Situated in the northernmost regions of the Sudenium, the southern continent, Calradians have long fought one another over the lush resources of the land. Thus, much of their cultures are rather militaristic or are otherwise geared towards combat. I had visited the lands of the four nations a few months ago, and after the first dozen or so bloody skirmishes that nearly took my life, I had stopped counting. It is an unpleasant place, but for the sake of the readers I have gathered as much information and historical lore as I could. I must again caution you, dear reader, of the danger that lies in Calradia. It is an exciting and adventurous place to travel and to live in, but it is also a deathtrap for the weak, the stupid, and the unwary.

隐藏: II.Geographical Overview:

Calradia as a whole possesses a highly varied selection of temperatures and terrains. Let us examine each major geographical region in turn.

隐藏: 1.The Calradian Heartlands

The Calradian heartland is split into the Dhirimus, Pravenus and Sunus Plains, with each region having a respective city named after it, Dhirim, Praven and Suno. The heartlands are bordered by the Uxkhos mountain ranges and the Great Steppes to the south, the remnants of the Grifig Forests to the north, the southern parts of the Rhodos Valley to the west, and Ichamura mountain range and Vaega tundras to the east.  The air is quite hot in the summers and cold in the winters, except on  the  Richkevet mountain range, which bisects Pravenus and Sunus, and near Mt. Vaegir, which lies on the eastern border between the nations of Swadia and Vaegir. The three regions are well known in Calradia for their long growing seasons, and the grain that comes from these areas alone have kept the entire Swadian Empire well fed. Sunus and Dhirimus have the benefit of the nearby Zendar River, which provides plentiful irrigation to local crops, while Pravenus is fortunate to have comfortable amounts of rainfall per year as to avoid going arid. Save for a few disastrous famines throughout history, Swadian citizens have rarely known starvation thanks to the farmers of these plains. The three plains are also excellent for raising the famous Calradian stallions, as the plentiful grasslands and open ranges allow horse breeders to raise strong, tall horses.
By our standards, the mountains of Richkevet  are utterly unforgiving, with snow capping the peaks throughout the year. Many an army has been lost on the Richkevet ranges while trying to cross them. The tallest peak, Mt. Kevi, which is located directly south of Suno and directly north of the tiny Yaragar village, is Calradia's second highest mountain. The mountains are fairly rich in iron ore, and the resulting metal is of good quality, according to local blacksmiths. The area also possesses much gold. The plentiful wealth of the mountains is the key reason why Swadia, the nation that owns Rickevet range and the surrounding heartlands, is able to field and equip such large armored cavalry. It is worth noting that the source of the Zendar River is located in the eastern peaks of the Richkevet range.
The only safe pass connecting the heartlands is the Senuzgda pass. The southern entrance is well defended by Senuzgda Castle, while the northern entrance is guarded by Ryibelet Castle. The pass is so low and mild as to be a valley, and due to this comfortable climate, Senuzgda boasts some of the largest temperate forests in Calradia. Indeed, most of Swadia's lumber comes from here. Unlike the neighboring Nords, Swadia has been less enthusiastic about pillaging its lumber resources, and thus the forests of Senuzgda pass are still quite lush despite centuries of lumbering. The citizens of Senuzgda pass, especially the villagers of Elberl and Ehlerdah, rely on local game and food imports from Sunus and Pravenus for substinence.

隐藏: 2. The Great Steppes

In contrast to the lush plains of the Heartlands, the vast Great Steppes are arid wastes, full of nothing but endless stretches of dry grassland. The Steppes are bordered by the Heartlands and Ichamura and Uxkhos mountain ranges to the north, the southern parts of the Rhodos Valley to the west, and the gargantuan Ulanbakuk mountains to the south and east. The Steppes contain few natural resources except for, perhaps, the nigh uncountable horses that live both in the wild and domestically in the region. The area is best known for its steppe horses, a relatively small and rather ugly breed of nonetheless hardy and strong steeds. There is a small forest in the Sungetche pass, located in the middle of the Ichamura mountains, and a few groves found here and there, but for the most part the residents of the Steppes have learned to do without much wood. The land is also lacking in large bodies of any water, and as a result of both few forests and easily habitable land, most, if not all, of the residents of the Khergit Khanate (which owns the region) are nomads or are semi-nomadic.
The weather is some of the harshest in the entirety of Calradia. The summers are burning hot, as there is little to no natural shade. The winters are deathly cold, and the winter wind storms are especially deadly. Several military commanders in Calradian history have forgotten this little aspect of the Steppes, and as such many would-be conquerers of the steppe nomads found themselves losing more soldiers to severe weather than nomadic arrows.
Because of the inherently harsh lifestyle of the steppes, the people and animals from the region are abnormally hardy. Cattle raised on the steppes are well known for their tough but juicy and flavorful meat, and steppe horses are amazingly strong for horses their size, and can subsist on little grazing.

隐藏: 3. The Rhodos Valley

The Rhodos Valley is a long stretch of land in the westernmost parts of Calradia. It is bordered by the Ulanbakuk mountains to the south and southwest, the Yalenos mountains to the northwest, the Nedis mountains to the north, and the Heartlands to the east.  They are rich and abundant with life, but much of the land has not been farmed due to the rocky nature of the soil. This region is famous for its cool weather and excellent cattle. Indeed, the Rhodok tribes who live in the Valley produce some of the finest beef I have ever tasted.
The southern half of the Valley is called the Maras River Valley. The Maras gets its name from the Maras River, which is a short river flowing down from an extension of the great Ulanbakuk mountain range. The river itself is fed by the even shorter Pagundur River. The rivers are fast flowing, however, due to the steep incline of the nearby mountain, and combined with the rocky nature of the upper parts of the Maras River, the small river delta that contains Maras Castle and the surrounding regions are poor for farming. They are, however, quite rich in timber and game, which is especially useful for the relatively loosely organized Rhodok tribes that settle the area. The river ends as a lake, the Skutatoi Lake (the only lake in Calradia). I would recommend my more wealthy readers to tour Skutatoi Lake should they have a taste for excitement and adventure.  The fish are plentiful and the climate is quite nice year round, though visitors may encounter hostile bandits along the way. The land around the river and lake is hilly and rocky, and much of the area's wealth seems to come from cattle raising rather than farming or trading. Most of civilized Rhodok resides in the Maras River Valley.
Between the southern half and the northern half of the Valley is the Ibdeles region, a piece of land placed neatly between the western Yalenos mountains and the eastern Richvetek mountains. Aside from providing a relatively easily defensible passage between the two halves of the Valley, there is nothing more of note about the Ibdeles region geographically.
The northern half of the Valley, the Yalenos Valley, is where most of Rhodok grain originates. The weather is slightly colder than the weather in the Heartlands, and the soil is a bit rockier, but the land is suitable for farming nonetheless, perhaps because of the fact that the northern parts of the Heartlands are nearby. The Yalenos mountains provides some iron ore for metalworks, though there seems to be little gold to be found. The small Nedis mountains provide little of use. The Yalenos and Nedis mountains do, however, contain one important resource for the Rhodoks: soldiers. Many of Rhodok's toughest recruits come from the Nedis and the Yalenos.
Overall, because much of the terrain is hilly or mountainous, and since much of the grazing areas are taken up by cattle, horses are a rarity in the Rhodos Valley.

隐藏: 4. The Reyvas

The Reyvas is a large grassy field in the northeastern parts of Calradia. It is bordered by the Vaega Tundras to the east, the Zendar River to the west, the heartlands to the south, and the Sea of Storms to the north. The area consists mostly of gently rolling grassy hills, and because of the lush and pleasant surroundings, it is a popular spot for merchants who do not wish to brave the cold Tundras or the harsh Steppes, or have found little of value in the Heartlands and the Valley. Thus, the Reyvas is a region devoted to mostly trade. Before the current political situation, it used to be a place of lively trade between the Vaegirs, the Nords, and the Swadians. Now, it is a place of lively trade between the Vaegirs and the Nords. Because the region is officially owned by Vaegirs but is in practice shared by the Nords and the Vaegirs, almost all goods from across Calradia make their way to the two trade cities in the region, Reyvadin and Wercheg. Reyvadin in particular is where most of the finest Vaegir furs are sold, while exquisite smoked fish from Sargoth is easily shipped to Wercheg. The region is easily accessible, either by sea or by land, which is unfortunate nowadays since Swadians are liable to raid the region's smaller towns and villages to disrupt Vaegir commerce. Aside from trade, the Reyvas is also famous for its soft wool, which in northern Calradia only Dhirim wool can compete with. My dear readers might find the Reyvas the most suitable place for possible futures in Calradia, if one can quickly grow used to the constant sieges and raids.

隐藏: 5. The Vaega Tundras

The Vaega Tundras lies in the westernmost parts of Calradia. It is something of an anti-Rhodos Valley. Imagine, if you will, if you took the entirety of Rhodos Valley, removed the Maras River and Skutatoi Lake, and covered the entire place with snow. That is the Vaega Tundras. It is bordered by the Reyvas to the west, the Ikarmura mountains to the south, the Sea of Storms to the north, and by the Frozen Wastes to the east.
The winters of our lands are nothing compared to the snowstorms of the Tundras. There is a reason why the stereotypical Vaegir looks like a human bear, and that is because no sane man or woman would go about the area without putting on as many warm clothing as humanly possible. Luckily, fur is plentiful in the region, and the abundance of furs in the area, combined with the proximity of the Reyvas trading region, means that the otherwise resource-poor Vaega receives a steady supply of foodstuffs and tools through trade. Khudan is the primary fur city in the Tundras, while Curaw supplements its economy with some nearby timber. Although horses are not native to the region, the Vaegirs have learned to breed horses that can withstand the fierce cold of the tundras (though even then the horses are bred mostly in the warmer western regions), and thus the Vaegir kingdom is able to maintain a healthy cavalry force.
Between the Reyvas and the Tundras are two rivers that merge near the sea, the Kosovik and the Krivachek. The Kosvik is the river to the west and the Krivachek is the river to the east. Due to its fast flowing waters, it is rarely frozen even in winter, and thus animals often go to its banks to drink. This is why fur trappers on the Tundra prefer to hunt near the two rivers, though lately the number of animals have been low. There is a smaller river, called the Shapeshte by the locals, which conveniently flows through a large forest that the Vaegirs have used for lumber.
One more thing of note in the Tundras is Mt. Viig, which is located where the Heartlands, the Reyvas, and the Vaega meet. It is an old, snow-peaked volcano, and in terms of resources it is quite useless. Nonetheless, Vaegir tradition states that their ancestors descended from heaven down to earth and touched Mt. Viig (from which the Vaegir supposedly get their name) as they landed.

隐藏: 6. The (former) Grifis Forest

The former Grifis Forest is now a hilly and rocky grassland situated in the northernmost part of Calradia. It is bordered by the Heartlands to the south, the Sea of Storms to the north, the Zendar River and the Reyvas to the east, and the Ashkolon River Valley to the west.
Before the arrival of the Nords, the Grifis Forest was said to have been a woodland of truly gigantic proportions. I have found several records in Swadian archives containing the memoirs of past Swadian mountaineers, and many of them have expressed marvel at the endless green forests that one could see from the peaks of the Nedis mountains. Nowadays, one can see countless dead stumps from trees of old, and I am not lying when I say that I could build a comfortably sized house upon one of the stumps with room to spare. After the Nords came, however, the old forests were cut down and turned into a countless number of ships for the infamous Nord armadas, and today the land is not very different from the Rhodos Valley.
Most of the land is untouched. Since the Nords' food supply comes from the Ashkolon Valley, the rest of the nation is devoted to either trade or turning raw materials into manufactured goods. The Nords are not known for their mining, but are quite famous for their high quality weapons. They are not known to be great cattle herders, but they are experts at drying and salting various meats from across Calradia. They no longer have much timber to work with, but are famous for their bowyering and fletching skills. And, of course, the Nords are peer at constructing and sailing ships. All of this happens in the relatively pleasant Grifis Forest. The local Nords have made good use of old Swadian roads, thus facilitating trade between settlements.
Why the Calradians insist on calling this area the Grifis Forest instead of the Grifis Fields or somesuch is unknown to me. Perhaps all the bloodletting has addled their heads.

隐藏: 7. The Ashkolon River Valley

Another river valley of Calradia, the Ashkolon is what provides the Nords with their food. Considering the fact that the Nords are a numerous people, and the fact that Ashkolon is the smallest of the seven major Calradian regions, it is of no surprise that Ashkolon is an incredibly rich farming area. It is bordered by the Nedis mountains to the south, the Grifis Forests to the east, the Sea of Storms to the north, and the nearly unpopulated outskirts of the Skandin plains to the east. Although the Heartlands ultimately outproduce Ashkolon, Ashkolon boasts more crops per acre than the richest of the Heartlands areas. The Nords who live in the region are culturally more similar to Swadians than Nords, however, and my colleagues and other scholars have hypothesized that the region is mostly populated by descendants of Swadians taken as slaves by Nords.
The region has not one, but two rivers to irrigate from, the Ephisius River bordering the region in the west and the Bolga River bordering the region in the east. Because the region is so small and surrounded by many natural borders, the locals have all but developed a culture of their own. The area is also relatively untouched by the current wars that are ravaging the land. I would recommend Ashkolon as an excellent place for my wealthier readers of the rural persuasion to retire.

隐藏: III.An examination of Calradian culture and customs:

When many modern readers think of Calradia, their thoughts immediately jump to the four {five} warring factions; the Khergit Khanate, the Kingdom of Swadia, the Kingdom of Rhodoks, the Kingdom of Vaegirs, and the Kingdom of Nords. It would be unfair, however, to simply lump all Calradians into these four political categories and leave it at that, for there are a multitude of various cultures, sub-cultures, and ethnicities within each kingdom. Many are quite similar to one another, and over the years some have assimilated others, occasionally even merging.

1.The Tribes of Rhodos Valley
1.1.The Tribes of Rhodos Valley - Continued
2.The Kingdom of Swadia, formerly the Swadian Empire
2.1.The Kingdom of Swadia, formerly the Swadian Empire - Continued
3.The Free Cities of the Nords

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

隐藏: 1.The Tribes of Rhodos Valley

The typical Rhodok is fairly tall and muscular. Most Rhodok men sport goatees or beards and have curly brown hair, while most women either wear their hair in cornrows, in braids, or simply loose. The more militaristic among the Rhodok might have their women wear their hear in simple buns or ponytails. Most Rhodok are slightly tan and look a bit rugged, except for a handful of exceptions.
Although Rhodok is called a Kingdom, and is indeed ruled by a king, the political term is all but a mere title. Modern Rhodok is mostly a confederation of various tribes, most of them based in the major settlements in the kingdom. The current position of “king” in the kingdom is not a hereditary monarchy like the governing system that rules Swadia. Instead, the “king” is a powerful political and military leader chosen by the council of elders from each of the three major Rhodok cities: Veluca, Jelkala, and Yalen. These elders are, in turn, voted into power by elected peoples' representatives from both the three major cities and the many outlying smaller towns and villages.
So what was this little lesson in Rhodok politics about? To understand the many Rhodok cultures, one must always remember that the Rhodok peoples only fairly recently united under one flag (this happened in the winter of 1062, with the Treaty of Jelkala). Until then, the Rhodoks had been a number of independent towns and city states, each managing its own affairs with its own council of elders. Even today most citizens of Rhodok will identify themselves as, “Citizen X of Town Y”, not “Citizen X of Rhodok”. The most important principles beneath general Rhodok culture are, therefore, independence and family. To a Rhodok, “family” is simply a collection of people he loves, be they blood related family members or close companions. To insult a Rhodok is to invite death, for that Rhodok inevitably is a “family member” to another Rhodok, quite possibly one who is well trained in the art of spearmanship. It is also a grave insult to imply or state that a Rhodok cannot do something by himself. Offering help to a Rhodok must be done with great caution and tact if one does not wish to anger him. Many outsiders find the two ideas paradoxical. It is shameful get even the smallest bit of assistance from a stranger, but it is honorable to give one's all for a loved one?
It is of no surprise, then, that much of Rhodok customs and traditions revolve around these ideas of family and independence. The beginning of every year is celebrated with a great feast within blood families, followed by a another smaller, but still extravagant feast celebrated with close friends. The first is called the Day of New Beginnings, while the latter is called the Day of Reforging Bonds, or simply Forging Day. Many visiting outsiders, particularly the Nords, are confused by the Forging Day's misleading name when they arrive at Jelkala expecting the rining of hammers on anvils but instead find scenes of feasting and, in some cases, utter debauchery. Other celebrations include the Drikomos Exultoi Telekomos Omnipius, literally, “The Day When All Became One Family”. This holiday celebrates the 1062 Treay of Jelkala, when all Rhodok tribes “became one family”, so to speak. This day is often spent on watching elaborate parades made by the Rhodok armies and community construction projects. 
Rhodoks also celebrate rituals of manhood, for that is when a boy becomes a man and thus becomes independent. At the age of eighteen, a boy is taken outside the city or settlement and is given a private test by his father, which may vary between anything from a test of combat to seeing how well the boy had learned his trade skills. Should the boy pass the test and his father consider his son self-sufficient, the new young man is followed back into the settlement by his father and is expected to shout and boast his own praises. Should the boy fail his test, his father will drag him back to the settlement (though field executions of sons by humiliated fathers are not unheard of, and in some parts of Rhodok, are not illegal or even encouraged!) and will speak self-deprecating remarks on behalf of his unworthy son. From that day on, the boy, who in the eyes of his community will always remain a boy, will be considered a social pariah. Should the boy do something redeeming in the eyes of the community later on, he may be dubbed a man, though this is rare. If the boy had made good friends before his humiliation, those “family members” are still allowed to talk to him and interact with him, and some samples of Rhodok poetry and literature praise friends to stay loyal to comrades even though that friend would always remain a boy. The great Rhodok epic, Oryseus, has the titular hero subtly encourage and push his humiliated friend to do great deeds that would earn him the right of manhood. Note that under Rhodok law, only men may legally marry and have children, boys are strictly forbidden from doing so. Also note that there are trials of womanhood as well, and girls are also forbidden from marrying until they are considered to be women. Uniquely, Rhodok women are allowed to own property and gain inheritance from parents.
As mentioned above, there are several tribes of Rhodoks. All of them settled down as city-states, then later became part of the Kingdom of Rhodoks. The tribes are the following:

Major Tribes:

隐藏

• [size=10pt]Jelkalik

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• Yalen
• Veluca

Minor Tribes:

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• Epeshe
• Chelez
• Istiniar
• Dumar
• Glunmar
• Reveran
• Ibdele
• Veidar
• Buvran
• Dirigsene
• Sarimish
• Serindi
• Ilvi
• Chaez
• Fedner
• Ruldi
• Emer
• Jamiche
  
• Saren
• Pagundur

Students of Rhodok society may notice that each village and city is the home of an individual tribe.

Although the tribes consider themselves vastly different from one another and completely unique, they may be divided into larger sub-groups based on language, location, and general customs.

The Velucik group: Veluca, Emer, Jamiche, Fedner and Ruldi tribes.

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[size=10pt]
The Velucik group refers to the cluster of villages around the city Veluca. These tribes have lived right on the dividing line between the Rhodos Valley and the Great Steppes. As such, they are especially hardy and are more familiar with horses than most other Rhodoks. Their traditional clothing  is heavily influenced by nearby steppe nomad dress, and thus involves long sleeves made of soft, light, but sturdy cloth designed to keep out dust and the sun. The Velucik tribes speak a dialect of Rhodok that is essentially a mix of Rhodok and Steppe languages.  Rhodok diplomats to the Khanate often have Velucik roots. The Velucik tribes are known to be serious, grim, hardworking, and quite physically hardy, though many are lacking in formal education.

The Maras group: Ilvi, Chaeza, and Pagundur tribes.

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The Maras group consists of tribes who have settled around the Maras River Valley. Among the Rhodoks, they are considered to be hunters and trackers without peer, and it is considered a sign of manhood to bring down a swift game animal with a spear or similar. They are, in general, more athletic and fleet of foot than most other Rhodok, and are experts with crossbows, the traditional Rhodok weapon of war aside from the spear. Clothing mostly consists of garbs that are easy to move, run, and leap around in, and are simple to maintain. The Maras tribesmen speak “standard” Rhodok, mixed in with enough jargon and slang to almost be considered a dialect. Maras tribesmen are favored as scouts and marksmen in the Rhodok army and are known to think fast on their feet and be reserved and introspective. Lately, other Rhodoks have come to stereotype Maras Rhodoks as quietly bloodthirsty and savage, due to a recent string of serial murders committed by a mentally disturbed Maras.

The Jelk group: Jelkalik, Buvran, Dirigsene, and Serindi tribes.

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The Jelk group consists of tribes who have settled around Skutatoi Lake. The Jelks had settled around one of the most peaceful and tranquil areas of Calradia, and as such have become a group of philosophers and thinkers. They are stereotyped by their fellow Rhodoks as being snobbish and haughty, and this is not without a grain of truth. Regardless, however, among the Rhodoks the Jelks traditionally are the best formally educated, and many become great statesmen. Most Jelks try to clothe themselves to give impressions of others, often their current emotional state of being. This has come to the point where, in the Jelk dialect, the phrase, “konstropos tu vulome tristos” is used as, “are you feeling well”, but literally means, “your robes look as if they are weeping”. The Jelk dialect is relatively flowing and easily rolls off the tongue, but has a flexible system of grammar that both requires a degree of formal training to understand and is also highly expressive, which is important for would-be orators. Jelks often take government, diplomatic, or otherwise authoritative positions, for having a silver tongue among Rhodoks is to have power over them.

The Saren group: Saren tribe.

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The Saren are a small, isolated tribe away from both the Jelk and Maras groups. They are on the border between Rhodok and Swadia, and the village of Saren is used as a trading post between Rhodok and Swadia. Thus, Sarens have, over the years, developed great acumen in business matters. They are especially adept at dealing with large quantities of goods, such as grain, since Rhodok imports much of its grain from neighboring Swadia. Most Saren children inherit family businesses, and it is not uncommon for siblings to share or even employ one another if the business is large enough. Other Rhodoks view them, at best, as a wealthy tribe deserving of its riches, or at worst, as a tribe full of materialistic money grubbers. Saren society has developed a complex social system that involves showing off enough, but not too much, personal wealth. In Saren society, one must find the perfect balance between not showing off enough rich clothing and jewelery (or, if of the lower class, as looking as clean and tidy as possible), but also not showing off too much rich clothing and jewelry. Saren speak the standard Rhodok language, but tend to speak it at a clipped and rapid pace, often incorporating Swadian business terms. Some Saren are mistaken as Swadian immigrants if their accents resemble Swadian enough. Not surprisingly, saren are favored by Rhodoks as businessmen, and many a Rhodok army was saved from financial troubles by a brave and skilled Saren who payed off all of the army's debts.

The Veidar group: Veidar tribe.

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Another isolated tribe, not much is known about the Veidar except that they are seen as deeply religious (or, derisively, needlessly superstitious), even by other Rhodoks. Their village guards the entrance to the Veidic Forest, which the Veidar considers to be highly sacred. Few are allowed into the village, and fewer still but the strangely painted and decorated shamans are allowed into the forest. What they do there, no one the shamans know. Entering the forest is essentially a capital crime, for the Veidar have a law saying, “A bone Broken for every Twig snapped Underfoot”. Somehow, the Veidar always know that a man had entered their sacred forest, and somehow they always catch the intruders. Veidar tribesmen wear very simple clothing, sometimes made of gathered plant material or even just leaves. Some even wear forest-hued paint on both their faces and the rest of their bodies. The Veidar interact little with other Rhodoks, though they do vote some of their shamans onto the elder council at Jelkala when they can. The Veidar speak a language similar to the Jelk dialect, but is less eloquent and wordy. When spoken by the shamans, the Veidar dialect sounds almost like constant prayer.

The Yalenos group: Yalen, Ibdeles, Glunmar, Reveran, and Dumar tribes.

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The Yalenos group are warriors among the hardy Rhodoks. Settled in the Ibdeles region that separates Yalenos Valley from the Maras River Valley, the Yalenos provide most of Rhodok's frontline infantry, for many go into the harsh mountains to train. A boy in a Yalenos tribe is considered to be a man when he can hold is own against his father, and young lads dying due to their injuries during manhood trials is not unheard of. Yalenos are surprisingly soft-spoken, for it is considered to be a major insubordination to speak out against one's superior at any time. They are also stoic and have a reputation for bravery. Clothing in Yalenos society consists mostly of very simple but durable outdoors wear. Most Yalenos women keep their hair short or firmly tied, stemming from a tradition when the women had to defend the city-states while the men were out fighting, and any extraneous hair could have gotten in the way of fighting. The spear, as the other weapon of war to the Rhodoks, is also an important cultural symbol in Yalenos society. A Yalenos matriarch was once famously quoted to say, “Come back with your spears, or on them.” This was spoken in a time when a warrior's fallen body was carried back home on a stretcher made from his (hopefully) undamaged spears. The Yalenos language is considered to be the “standard” Rhodok language, though most foreigners will hear Jelk due to the prevalence of Jelk diplomats in foreign countries.

The Istinis group: Istiniar and Chelez tribes.

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If you, dear reader, are ever in Calradia and happen upon a delicious piece of steak, that steak likely came from Rhodok cattle, and almost certainly from an Istinis's pasture. The Istinis care for Rhodok's most famous export: beef. They are herdsmen without equal in Rhodok, and some say in all of Calradia. Though some Rhodoks consider them to be country bumpkins, most of are loathe to insult the people who bring them such delicious beef. The typical Instinis is gruff, unhygienic, and perhaps a little too attached to the wine skin, but is good natured and cheerful. Although the Yalenos are the warriors among the Rhodoks, the Istinis are physically more imposing, as their occupations of handling huge, strong, and rowdy cattle have given them great size and muscles. Appropriately, strength is considered to be of great cultural importance, for during fall festivals many Istinis celebrations include contests of strength. The typical Istinis ritual of manhood involves a boy manhandling as many cattle as he can into a pen, all the while showing signs of great strength and cattle herding skill. Istinis clothing consist of simple tunics and trousers that are easy to put on and, more importantly, easy to clean, and most Istinis, regardless of gender, wear traveling cloaks and bring walking staffs wherever they go. The Istinis language is similar to Yalenos, but tends to have different slang words and a noticeable accent.

The Epeshe group: Epeshe tribe.

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The Epeshe are the river people. They are a small and rather unimportant tribe, though they take great pride in once heroically beating off an entire Nording army marching up the Ephisius River, all by themselves. Among Rhodoks, the Epeshe are known to be sly and crafty, a skill that they apparently had developed while navigating the often treacherous Ephisius. Compared to other Rhodoks, they are of relatively slight build. They wear relatively simple clothing, often protected with a layer of wax or grease as to be as water proof as possible. The Epeshe language sounds musical and frequently varies in pitch. The Epeshe themselves claim that this due to their form of communication between river rafts, an art that they call keeterhaller. I must express my humble opinion that keeterhaller sounds as though someone were murdering a cat with a rusty knife.

Group specific celebrations include the following:

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Kandelphoros: Celebrated during the winter by the Yalenos, Istinis, and Epeshe groups, this is a celebration of the winter solstice. Celebrations include wild dances around a pine tree (or, in the case of the Yalenos groups, a march accompanied by war chants), drinking, and prayers offered to the gods of fertility and protection.

Hippokyrie: Celebrated by the Velucik group during the mating season for horses, these Rhodoks hold feasts in honor of the Horse Lord (a local deity adapted from Steppe nomad pantheons) so that this year's mares may have many strong colts.

Graduation day: Celebrated by the Jelk group during the end of the school year in Jelk universities. As the Jelk put great value on education, the graduation of their children into the next level of education is of great importance. Jelkalan citizens often consider boys and girls to be men and women when they graduate from Secondary schooling (about the age of eighteen). How the people celebrate is left up to families. Some hold extravagant dinners in honor of their children, while others simply relax for the day and move on with life.

Gastrophoros: Celebrated in the fall by the Maras group. Unlike other holidays for other groups, the Maras celebrate Gastrophoros with an entire day devoted to rest and prayer in order for success in the next hunt.

The Veidar appear to hold many religious celebrations throughout the year, but most are solemn and are performed with little noise or excitement.


As with any other nation, the Rhodoks have their own system of religious beliefs. Unlike the monotheistic Nords, the atheistic Swadians, the shamanic Khergits or the Vaegirs who believe that there are gods in all aspects of nature, the Rhodoks believe in a large pantheon of gods. There are not an infinite number of them, but there are many. Different groups worship different gods in different ways, but for the most part worship is conducted in elaborate temples where worshipers offer silent prayers to the gods while kneeling on cushions. Each god has its own sacred day once a year, but many groups often ignore the days while other groups celebrate them as fervently as Forging Day.
Although the Rhodoks are a religious people as a whole, they rarely export their religion outside of their nation, and are, in fact, more likely to assimilate gods from other cultures into their own pantheon, suchas the above mentioned Horse Lord. There have been times in the past, however, where bloody wars have been fought over the city-states of rival gods.
The following are some of the major gods of the pantheon:

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Joveus Molai, God of Creation: The all-father of the gods who created the gods, and later humanity, Joveus Molai is seen as a firm but ultimately loving god. He is described as a tall, muscular man with a lizard's head and the horns of a great bull, standing tall and holding a lump of mud in his right hand. According to the creation myths, Joveus Molai created the Gods out of dust from the stars and man from the mud of the earth. His sacred day is the spring equinox, when Spring begins and life starts anew.

Skutos, God of Air and Weather: The younger brother of Joveus, Skutos is seen as a fickle god, easily provoked into anger but also possessing a gentle side. Rhodoks frequently beseech him to send them plentiful rain while keeping away the storm demons. He appears as a laughing young man clad in a traveling cloak and walking stick, and is favored by the Instinis group tribesmen (in fact, they often emulate his dress). His sacred day is the third day of Second Monath (the second month of the year).

Vulkus Stromos, God of Fire and Destruction: The antithesis to Joveus Molai, though he is not seen as evil, only perpetually angry. Rhodoks have long noted the destructive properties of fire, but also its beneficial qualities such as providing warmth and cooking food. Sacrifices to Vulkus typically involve setting things on fire, and thus his holy day, the fourth day of Fifth Monath, is especially popular among youngsters. He typically appears as a frowning man with the body of a goat, with the tail replaced with the head of a child. The child's screeching is said to bring about the eruption of volcanos.

Inaria Illyasvia Stramolai, Goddess of Animals, Nature, and the Hunt: Joveus Molai's cold but ultimately fair sister, the Maras group revere her more than they do the all-father. Gastrophoros is named after one of her favored man servants, Gastrophos, who once brought down an impossibly large boar for the sake of his master and was granted the goddess's favor as her consort. She appears as a stunningly beautiful woman with an ice-cold face, holding a great bow in her hands (modern depictions  now depict her as using a crossbow too powerful for any mortal to wield). Interestingly, she and her brother are at odds with one another, for while one creates life the other guards and ultimately destroys it. Her sacred day is on the seventeenth day of Ninth Monath, which is also when Gastrophoros is held.

Andara Mantrophida, Goddess of the Will and Self: Andara is the deified aspect of Rhodok culture, that of independence and self-reliance. Her priests encourage their fellow Rhodoks to be self-sufficient and to do things by themselves if possible. Andara appears as a muscular woman standing tall and proud on a large rock. Her sacred day is the eighteenth day of the First Monath.

Indikulous Phobos, God of Family and Relationships: In contrast to his sister Andara, Indikulous encourages his followers to accept the help of others if necessary, and to in turn offer modicums of help to loved ones. The opposing beliefs of Indikulous and Andara represent the inherent paradoxical conflict between the two major aspects of Rhodok culture, and most of the relatively few religious wars in Rhodos Valley were fought between followers of Andara and Indikulous. The two priesthoods have since come to terms, though few priests of Indikulous offer prayers to Andara and vice versa. Indikulous appears as a very gentle looking man wearing a simple robe, offering an outstretched hand to a man lying stricken on the ground. His sacred day is the third day of the First Monath, and is the day when Forging Day is celebrated.

Grunwalder Tymodeus, God of Battle and Peace: The Rhodoks, while militaristic in one sense, are not very warlike. Unlike the Nords and Swadians, the Rhodoks are not very expansionist (though ironically, it is the Rhodoks who commit the most war atrocities in any given war), and rarely go about seeking fights to the death, either with other nations or themselves. When in 685 the warrior Grunwalder Tymodeus of the Yalen tribe temporarily united the tribes and drove off the invading Swadian armies, he did pursue the broken Swadian troops and slaughtered them to the last man, but then fell to his knees after the battle, weeping for the lives he had taken. After his many great deeds that forever secured Rhodos Valley in the hands of the Rhodoks, he was deified upon death as a demigod of Battle and Peace. The Rhodoks have come to recognize war and peace as two things that come right after another, and honor this through worship of Grunwalder Tymodeus. In modern times, Grunwalder appears as an extremely tall Rhodok wearing only a helmet, a tunic, and a cloak while clutching a broken spear and wearing a regretful look on his face. His sacred day is the seventh day of Eigth Monath.

Many other gods exist in the pantheon, but they are of little note and mostly worshiped by small cults or by individual blood families. It is still unknown precisely what the Vaedir worship.
...

Rhodok food and drink       

        Rhodos Valley is most famous for its excellent beef, raised in the Yalenos valley in the form of the rowdy and dangerous Istin breed of cattle. The flesh perfectly marbled and tender, does not spoil as easily as other beefs, has a soft yet pleasantly rough texture that tickles the tongue, and goes well with almost any sauce imaginable. A beef connoisseur may find a trip to the Valley well worth the expenses.
The rural folks in the area, especially the Istinis group cattleherders, have learned to consume as much of a single cattle as possible, mostly because overconsumption of their chief export is unprofitable. As such, beef delicacies in the Istiniar and Chelez regions include less...orthodox parts of the animal. A popular local dish is agalada, or pickled bull testicles served with sauce made from the bull's blood and bile. As horrendous as it sounds, I have tried the dish (after much cajoling by my Rhodok hosts) and it is surprisingly delicious. Other delicacies include glossai, a spicy soup where the main ingredient is ox tongue. Again, surprisingly delicious.
Of course, Rhodoks also enjoy more orthodox beef dishes, though they are served differently from the way meat is served in the other nations. Unlike Swadia and Nord, where seervants slice roasted meat into large slabs and bring them to diners as ordered, Rhodok servants  roast animals whole and place them on feasting tables where each individual diner serves himself. Also unlike Swadia and Nord, the meat is always spiced with sauces made from animal products (the above mentioned beef blood sauce, called aima, is quite popular) or local plant life. It is considered a sign of barbarism for someone to eat his eat meat unspiced. Dining tools are always a pair of feasting knives, one short and pointed but lacking  cutting edge and the other long and blunt but armed with a razor sharp edge. The latter is used to cut the meat into bite-sized chunks and the former is used to hold the meat in place and transfer the smaller  pieces of meat to the mouth. A recent fad has sprung up among the sophisticated Sarens, where the short piercing knife is forked at the tip in order to hold the meat in place more firmly.  Most other Rhodoks consider this new tool as a sign of excess wealth and frivolity.
Due to the prevalence of beef in Rhodos Valley, many people forget that the Valley is also known for its wines and cheeses. Cheese is a by-product of the many cows raised in the Yalenos Valley, and every year great wheels of cheese are shipped from Istiniar and Chelez to Yalen. The Maras River Valley, meanwhile, is famous for its vineyards. Jelkala and Veluca have long had a tradition of rivalry, as both cities feature high quality but distinctly different wines. Jelkala wine, known as glycolos, is sweet and contains less alcohol, and is suitable for long feasts and merrymaking. Veluca wine, known as dynatolos, is much stronger, and is suitable for relaxing after a hard day's work. Dynatolos is popular among the rural classes, while glycolos is favored by urban citizens, particularly by the upper class. Despite the good quality of Rhodok wines and cheeses, however, they are rarely exported outside of Rhodok, due to steep competition from Swadian wines and Ashkolon cheese.
Interestingly, although Rhodoks eat bread as a staple like the citizens of other nations (excepting the Khanate), they prefer their bread flat, not in round loafs. Recent youth favor the “exotic” qualities of Ashkolon and Heartland breads, but more conservative Rhodoks prefer the traditional flat bread, known as pita. Although it is good, pita is otherwise unremarkable  and is rarely found outside of the Rhodos Valley.
...

{Rhodok} Literature

The general Rhodok language, called Rhodic, features an alphabet made up of eighteen distinct letters. Linguistic scholars may notice that the modern Swadic alphabet is quite similar to the Rhodic alphabet. This is because early Swadians merged their old runic alphabet with the ancient Rhodic one. The alphabet completely different from ours, in that each individual letter is used to form words, and these clusters of words are used to create larger sentences. Thus, Rhodic writing is relatively easy to learn. The Jelk groups, in particular, boasts a near 100% literacy rate, even among the lower classes. However, the grammar and rhetorical structure of Rhodic texts are almost byzantine, and it is a mark of intellect and wisdom in Rhodok society to have mastered writing.
Rhodoks place great value on their old epics, which are extremely long poems that tell a fictional and pseudo-historical, sometimes even mythological, story about an individual. For example, the Oryseus is about the man Orys and how he overcame his initial struggles of failing to achieve manhood, and then how he went on a great campaign of conquest to subdue the Rhodok peoples' enemies to the east (which, at the time, were not Swadians). The entire poem is staggeringly huge (Zugeius Shen's esteemed translation of Oryseus into our language was about one-thousand pages long) and takes hours to read. Such epics are usually devoted to portraying a hero who displays qualities that the typical Rhodok values. Again with Orys, note how he redeems himself in the eyes of his peers by achieves manhood through self-reliance and individual strength, and how he devotes himself to his dear friend by subtly encouraging him to achieve manhood as Orys himself did. Other tales include the epic of Grunwaldeus, a great poem telling the story of General Grunwalder Tymodeus during his life as a mortal, and Genesis, the creation myth of the Rhodok tribes.  Some Jelk scholars have told me that in the days of old, such epics were devoted to memory and told by traveling minstrels and sages. I would declare these claims to be preposterous and mere prideful boasting, but judging by how the epics appear to be structured so that they are easy to commit to memory, perhaps those claims are not as outrageous.
The typical epic follows this rhyme scheme:

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A
A
B
B
A
A
B
B
C
C
B
B

And so forth. Combined with the iambic tetrameter rhythm (that is, four accented syllables per line, with every other syllable accented, totaling in eight syllables per line), the epics are made a bit easier to remember. Here is a passage from the Oryseus (Book 1, Verse 1-12):

Kolos! Meh glys rostoiphoto
Skutai adio kalosto.
Venis? Androdite itas,
Itas meh stophokiphitas
Do tri destoidephobo bo
Postigo phe de Orys ko.
Orys, ka trophen pa hitas,
Phobos to rex bo hephitas
Tri degos, meh quonos tophi
De ghebma. Tos do trios qi
Karekla os so philos tas,
De tas! Tas tristiophonas...

Again, note the iambic tetrameter and the classical AABBAABBCCBB rhyme scheme.
Of course, not all Rhodok literature is made up of epics. The Jelk group in particular is fond of using texts as instructional tools. And outside of Rhodok, the recent collection of Rhodok folklore, Diigimas, has proved to be popular with the nobles of Swadia and Nord. However, due to the lack of any kind of printing equipment in Calradia, books are very expensive and rare. A copy of Diigimas, for example, could cost a Swadian noble a fine suit of armor's worth of gold. Thus, aside from using parchment to record history, laws, business records, or to write down instructional information, Rhodoks do not write down much else. Reading for pleasure is a very rare luxury among the Rhodok, and little other fiction is read or even recorded aside from the great epics. As the Jelks value the few texts they have, however, they do what they can to produce as many copies of important and valued texts as possible, most of which are stored in the Bibliothikos Library in Jelkala. 
Rhodic writing is done not on paper made of plant materials, but parchment made from the stretched hides of young calves. Thus, writing material is something of a luxury, even to the literate Jelks. On parchment, ink made from a mixture of ash, water, and other products is put down by pens made from sharpened and polished sticks. Each stick contains a hollow that stores a measure of ink, and when the pen is pressed down on parchment, the ink is released in controlled amounts. When  a  text contains a number of a pages of parchment and must be bound together, a sharp, cylindrical metal object is used to punch holes on the edges of the parchment, then a thong of leather is strung through those holes to keep the pages together. Brushes are all but unknown to the Rhodoks, unless a Rhodok seeks to splash paint on a large surface, during which he will use a makeshift brush made from collected grasses. With this lack of cheap writing surfaces, most commoners' writing is done on sturdy clay tablets, as clay is plentiful in the Ulanbakuk, Nedis, and Yalenos mountains. For such instances, the writing simply scratches out words with a sharp object on the clay surface and carefully wraps the tablet if the tablet needs transportation, or otherwise lets the tablet dry out for easy storage. Due to the nature of the writing surface, the letters appear to be more angular than Rhodic on parchment, and there are minor rules involving punctuation and letter formation designed to make clay tablet writing more clear. Velucik tribesmen tend to make do with even less writing, and commit most information to memory.

{Rhodok} Language

Rhodic words, as mentioned before, are easy to write but very difficult to speak and to use in the construction of complex sentence structures.  This is because word order, stresses, and even a word's neighboring words can convey different meanings. For example, take the following sentence:

Kyrie do aeis triphoroticos

Meaning, “I stand between the sky and the earth”, kyrie meaning “sky”, do being the personal pronoun “I”, aeis meaning “to stand” or “to remain upright”, and triphoroticos referring to the earth, with implications of rich, soft, and fertile farming soil or a meadow depending on context. There is no descriptive word specifying where the subject stands in relation to the sky and the earth, but the fact that the pronoun is placed in between the words for sky and earth conveys the location in which the subject is standing. Now, take the same sentence again, but add an emphasis:

KYrie do aeis triphoroticos

Meaning, “I stand between the light of the heavens and the earth”. Notice that the first syllable of the first word, kyrie, is given a strong emphasis. In Rhodic, adding an emphasis takes the original meaning of the word and puts in on a grander scale, or “promotes” it, so to speak. Thus, “sky” is “upgraded” to “the expanse of the heavens”, which now gives a divine  implication to the sentence. Now let us examine the same sentence again, this time accenting a different syllab;e:

KyRIE do aeis triphoroticos

Meaning, “I stand between the realm of stars and the earth”. Now the sentence has astronomic and secular implications. And this time:

KYRIE do aeis triphoroticos

Meaning, “I stand between the great expansive of the universe and this earth”.
Trailing off words and pronouncing them more softly can “demote” a word as well:

Kyrie do aeis triphoroticos...

Meaning, “I stand between the sky and this lowly patch of mud”. Notice that the last word, triphoroticos, is pronounced softly and with the end of the word trailing off, as though it were not important.
Again, all of this is very complex, and even many modern Rhodoks are confused by the more complicated nuances of their language. Some of the less educated Rhodok even unintentionally insult one another by misplacing a word here, or stressing the wrong syllable there, and  so forth. As a whole, Rhodoks are quite thick-skinned about verbal abuse because of the ambigous nature of their language. Jelk students are, however, expected to have a degree of mastery over such nuances by the time they graduate into adulthood. Despite its complexity, Rhodic is quite the language to listen to, and a true master is a wonder to behold, both in literature and in oral performance.
Curiously, Rhodic, like Vaegish, is an entire family of languages of its own. Aside from relatively recent mixing of languages between Rhodoks, Swadians, Khergits, and Nords, Rhodic is not related to any other language in Calradia.
...

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

隐藏: 1.1.The Tribes of Rhodos Valley - Continued

{Rhodok} Music

Unlike many other cultures, the Rhodoks do not boast a great variety of traditional musical instruments, though those few are widely played throughout the Valley. Most of these instruments are wind based, meaning that the player must blow wind through them in order for the instruments to sound. One such instrument is the sakuola solinas, colloquially known as the bagpipes. The sakuola solinas, or more commonly the sakinas, is a set of long pipes poking out of a leather bag. It is a strange instrument, with the musician blowing air through one set of pipes into the bag, while the bag itself is squeezed to let air out through another set of pipes riddled with holes. These holes are covered up by the musician in a certain order to produce low to high notes. I personally found the sound to be loud, coarse, and obnoxious. It is regrettable that the sakinas are so prevalent among the Rhodoks, particularly among the tribes who live in the Yalenos Valley. Other instruments include the recorder, called in Rhodic the kapnismatos, and the more orthodox, horizontally played flute called the flogera. More skilled players may play the dyo kapnismatos, which, as the name obviously suggests, is a set of two kapnismatos recorders played at once. This requires a high degree of ambidexterity and coordination to play. The Velucik group tribesmen, being heavily influenced by neighboring Steppe nomads, also play a derivative of the nomadic recorder eschiglen, which the Rhodoks call the katachorifis. The sound produced from the katachorifis is noticeably different from the sound produced by a kapnismatos, and is rich, deep, and full. Most of these instruments are carved out of wood, bone, or even horn, the latter two materials being supplied by the many cattle in Yalenos Valley.
Music is an important factor to religious worship. Each god has his or her sacred tune (not songs, as the Rhodoks rarely sing)--for example, Joveus Molai requires a sakinas playing a complex melody with two flogeras providing the harmony. The larger temples, which hold services for each god during certain times of the day throughout the week, play the sacred pieces while the supplicants worship. Smaller temples, which are usually dedicated to one or, at most, a handful of gods do not do this. In earlier times, musicians who noticeably erred during their religious performances were often stoned to death by offended priests and even worshipers, such was the importance of music to the gods.

Here is a list of sacred pieces of the previously listed gods, and a brief description of each piece:

Joveus Molai: Deos Di Primavo, “Our God of Creation”. An uplifting tune requiring a sakinas and two flogeras.

Skutos: Aeras Kapritso, “The Capricious Air”. A playful tune that occasionally slips into thunderous melodes. Requires at least three dyo kapnismatos and a large drum.

Vulkos Stromos: Manios Fotios, “Fury of Fire”. A raging piece that sounds more like a cacophonous banging of drums and wailing of flutes than an actual piece. Requires two large drums, five small drums, and three flogeras.

Inaria Illyasvia Stramolai: Kynigis, “The Hunt”. The contours of the notes illustrate the typical Rhodok hunt, starting off slow and quiet, and ending with a fast paced and blood-pumping melody. Requires two flogeras, one to represent the hunter and another to represent the prey.

Andara Mantrophida: Egos, “Will”. For a sacred tune, this piece is rather dull, though for some it may stir up feelings of pride. Requires one sakinas to represent the goddess's solitary nature.

Indikulous Phobos: Oikogeneias, “Family”. A more interesting piece, this heartwarming sacred tune brings joy to the heart. Requires four flogera to represent the ideal Rhodok family, two parents and two children.

Grunwalder Tymodeus: Ichos Machimeus do Penthogoras, “The Sounds of Battle and Mourning”. The piece starts off as a battle march, then progresses to a chaotic tune representing the sounds of battle. It then finishes with a funeral march, all to represent Grunwalder's conflicting prowess in battle and grieving heart. Requires ten kapnismatos, three small drums, and a sakinas.

Cattleherders among the Istinis group are known to play kapnismatos as they watch over their herd, as they believe that the music soothes the cows and encourages them to make more milk or keep their flesh soft and tender. Hunters among the Maras group are also known to hum Kynigis while hunting, hoping to gain their goddess's favor. Otherwise, instruments are frequently used at parties and major festivals. Drikomos Exultoi Telekomos Omnipius, for example, involves entire orchestras of musicians. Funerals require instruments as well, though the dyo kapnismatos are usually kept out.
Recently, Swadian and Steppe musics have made their way into Rhodok youth. Adults have found Swadian street musicians to be very annoying, but rebellious children enjoy belting out Swadian tunes on their own kapnismatos.

{Rhodok} Sports and entertainment

Chiptochros

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The most favored “national” sport in the Rhodos Valley is chiptochros. The sport is best played on the rolling hills of the Valley, and involves two teams armed with long staffs, each staff the height of a grown man. The teams must strike with their staffs an inflated cow's stomach weighed with stones, and must maneuver the stomach (the chros) into a ring guarded by a man with an especially stout stick. Unless the chros is in the air, it must be struck by the ends of the staffs. Intentional striking of the opposing team members is forbidden, but ultimately inevitable. National teams are equipped with armor design to soften the hard blows of the staffs, but local teams have none of this protection. Amazingly, there have been almost no reports of deaths during this rather violent and bloody game though there are plenty of bloody faces and missing teeth.  Once the stomach is within the ring, the team must detonate the stomach by striking the chros especially hard. The usual game limit is either one hour or the first to five chros detonated, whichever comes first.
The game seems to have its origins in old war games, designed as a bloody but less deadly alternative to open warfare between the tribes. The staffs, in particular, seem to be analogues of tribal spears. Many professional chitpocros players are often soldiers, and many soldiers find chiptochros as a decent simulation of a real battle. At the moment, Yalen is the favored champion to win this year's national chiptochros tournament, with Veluca and Chelez as the strongest contenders. Jelkala is regarded as the national laughingstock of chiptochros, but the scholarly Jelkalans could care less. All the teams, each of which represent a tribe, have their own team tunes that are played every time they score a point.

Kaoberos

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A less violent sport is kaoberos, a sport that involves tossing a large, pillar-like log of wood as far as possible. Readers who consider this sport as odd should investigate the Nordic sport of pig tossing, schvinehurl.
In this game, the contestant must hoist a ten-foot long, two-foot wide log on their shoulders, run up to a line drawn in the ground, and hurl the log as far as they can. Any method may be used to hurl the log as long as the contestant does not cross the line, though many techniques have been developed over time to suit players of differing heights and builds. This sport is more popular in the Yalons Valley, and is much less popular elsewhere. As the men who specialize in this sport are extremely muscular and gruff-looking, foreigners (particularly foreign beef merchants who come to Yalenos) who do not understand the game regard these people, and sometimes the Rhodoks in general, as barbarians. The anti-Rhodok racial slur, “tossers”, has its roots in kaoberos.

 
Gastrophetos

隐藏

This is simply a marksmanship game played by Maras group tribesmen. There are no official tournaments, but youngsters regularly dare one another on hitting difficult targets. As hunting crossbows are regularly available in the Maras River Valley, the sport is quite popular, and several tribes have long petitioned to make official tournaments for the game.

Strategoi

隐藏

A much less physical game is strategoi, which is the Rhodok version of chess. The pieces and rules are very similar to Swadian chess, where the game was most likely derived from, but has a few different pieces (for example, there is no “knight”, which is replaced with a “sharpshooter”) with new requisite rules for each piece. Yalenos group tribesmen regularly play this game to sharpen their wits, while Jelk group tribesmen often play this for entertainment. Jelkala hosts an annual strategoi tournament.

Edafotrogo

隐藏

Literally meaning “land eat”, edafotrogo is a children's game played on any relatively flat dirt surface. The game requires at least two players but can theoretically involve an infinite number of players. The players draw a large rectangle on the dirt, and pick a spot anywhere on the perimeter of the rectangle. This is their starting position. The players then draw on the perimeter a semicircle pointing inwards towards the middle of the rectangle, choose irregularly shaped pebbles, place their pebbles in the middle of the semicircle, then take turns flicking the pebble three times in succession. Every time the pebble is flicked, a line is drawn from the pebble's place of origin and the pebble's resting place, and by the end of the three flicks the pebble must return to the starting point, or the player's efforts will be for naught. If the return to the semicircle is successful, the lines drawn are rendered permanent; this becomes the player's new “territory”. On the player's next turn, he must again flick the pebble three times and this time return the pebble to his territory, not necessarily the starting point. Again, if he misses, all his efforts will be for naught. The game becomes more difficult as it progresses as pebbles may not enter territories of opposing players. The winner is whoever ends up with the largest amount of territory. Rhodok children regularly squabble over this game, and the younger children often form social pecking orders on who can play edafotrogo the best.

{Rhodok} Dances

Aside from games, Rhodoks are also fond of dancing. Dances are almost never formal, unlike Swadians who often hold formal balls for social gatherings of nobles. There are several different kinds of traditional dances among the Rhodoks.

Kykylos: a circular dance around a bonfire, participated by both adults and children of all sexes. Participants hold hands and face the bonfire, all the while leaping from side to side to the music. Depending on how the music is currently being played, the entire circle may spin one direction or the other, or even not spin at all.

Exisono: a squarish dance held indoors during feasts, four lines of dancers (who are usually adults, as children have difficulty remembering the complex patterns) form a square and proceed to weave through one another to the step of the music. It is very complex and only the best dancers seem to know exactly what to do. The audience is usually the most entertained from this dance, as they delight in watching the less skilled dancers humiliate themselves on the dance floor.

Chorosdelada: another circle dance, this time it is performed around a large tethered bull. The participants, who are always adult males, must wear cowhide and a cow skull, and when not leaping back and forth while in the circle must vault over the tethered bull in the center. Successful attempts are answered with a cry of, “Choros!” (“Bull!”) by audience and the rest of the participants. There have been injuries during this rather dangerous dance, and not a few dancers have had their groins gored by particularly angry bulls while vaulting over the bovines. This dance is normally performed by the Istinis group tribesmen.

Kynigisdelada: performed by Maras hunters after an especially successful hunt, captured game are hoisted onto a large carrying spear and carried in circles around a nearby fully grown tree. The more religious among the hunters may also offer small gifts of thanks to Inaria Illyasvia Stramolai.
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Rhodok Arts

Rhodok paintings

The most common form of Rhodok visual art is the mosaiko, from which we derive the word mosaic. Pottery is common in in the Rhodos Valley, though it is rarely exported by the local merchants. Instead, damaged or otherwise unusable pottery is shattered into tiny shards, which are then pressed onto a flat wall of wet plaster. After the plaster hardens, a painter paints the “canvas” with paints derived from local plants and minerals. The process is long and painstaking, but the results are quite beautiful. Because mosaiko are either too heavy or too fragile to move easily, most are incorporated into structures as major decorations. The Temple of Vulkus Stromos in Yalen, for example, features one colossal mosaiko that makes up the floor, the walls, and most of the entire ceiling.
Subjects of mosaiko vary widely. The Rhodok gods are the most common figures found in modern temples. Each god is depicted as most Rhodok would see them—in the Temple of Vulkus Stromos, the Mosaiko of the Fire God (as the work is called) portrays Vulkus as a protector, a great firestorm that smites the enemies of the Rhodok people. As most Rhodoks are ignorant of foreign gods, such depictions of Rhodok gods feature Rhodok gods interacting with other members of the pantheon (such as the acclaimed Mosaiko of Joveus Molai Embracing His Brother, Skutos) or with just mortals (such as the equally famous Mosaiko of Indikulous Phobos Granting Orys a Family). Outside of temples, scenes of everyday life are a favorite among Rhodok artists. There have been famous mosaiko of people bathing, a woman working in the vineyards, a cattleherd serenading his cows, and so forth. Other subjects include scenes from the great epics, the most popular among these the Oryeus and the Grunwaldeus.
Particularly wealthy Rhodoks may commission artists to paint something on calfskin parchment. As only the finest parchment is used, and since Rhodok paints are mostly water-based (and as any of the artistic readers may know, water causes havoc on parchment surfaces), only the best artists are ever hired to make such works of art. Not surprisingly, only the very rich invest in such livery. Such paintings, once completed, are treated as family heirlooms, and among the Jelk group an entire career can be made of maintaining and preserving the fragile works through the ages. The oldest parchment painting that survives is actually the very first known parchment painting, Joveus Molai Brings Forth the Earth. The fact that this piece is nine-hundred years old indicates the great skill and dedication that the painting maintainers, the diatroi, possess.
Rhodok paint materials are derived from local wildlife. River rush extracts are cheap and popular, while finely powdered clay mixed with water is common for skin tones. More expensive materials include rust, flower extracts, and even powdered gold. Brushes are normally made from the tails of cows, though horsetail brushes are frequently imported from steppe nomads. As cows are abundant and horse tails are easy to come by, Rhodok artists do not put much value into their painting tools.

Rhodok pottery

Despite the abundance of clay in the Valley, Rhodoks rarely paint their pottery unless said pottery is to be smashed for mosaiko. This is due to the low quality of Rhodok clay. The clay does not hold colors well, both before heating and after. Some dedicated artists are trying to bring forth a “clay art” movement by scratching and carving figures onto clay surfaces, but this has yet to catch on. Such artists are common around the Maras River Valley.

Rhodok drama

Rhodok dramas are classics; they are something that the educated claim to be the greatest forms of art, but no one ever wants to watch them. They are long winded and boisterous, as most of them are reproductions of epics. Actors do not wear costumes while on stage, and the stage itself is almost entirely undecorated. Thus, settings and appearances are either announced by the play's narrator, or are illustrated by the lines and movements of the actors. The audience members must bring active imaginations to the play if they wish to enjoy themselves.
Lately, Rhodok drama has stagnated. Though the actors are ideally supposed to support the roles one another and create a seamless work of art through unity, recent dramatists have become egotistical showoffs, more focused on promoting their own skill. Criticisms are brushed away, the excuse being that such people are not actors and thus “fail to understand” the subtleties of acting. A new school of thought, centered in Yalen, is beginning to challenge the status quo, promising a fresh way of acting and plays that are not just based on epics. Said movement has been called neos ithiopos.
High class Rhodoks rarely watch dramas, as they are considered to be a form of entertainment for the lower classes. The more eccentric or bolder among the nobles may attend the occasional epic-based drama, but they do so from high above the stench of the masses by sitting on small rooms suspended by sturdy stilts. The especially brave nobles may even watch neos ithiopos, though such people are usually formerly low class merchants who only recently managed to buy their way into nobility.

Rhodok {F}unerals

As Rhodoks are fairly religious, most of them believe in an afterlife. To which afterlife the dead go is determined by how the recently deceased had been while alive. If a man were just and kind, he may go to the realm of Joveus Molai. If a man were cheerful and enjoyed life to its fullest, he may go to Skutos. The closest concept of an eternity of torment is the Akero, the Void. In here lie the atheists and the utterly depraved, those so evil that no god could possibly wish to accept them. Those cursed to Akero are said to spend the rest of eternity in solitude and absolute silence, feeling nothing, feeling nothing, hearing nothing, seeing nothing. A result of this is that Rhodok culture pressures its people into at least acting in accordance to the demands of one or more gods, if only to secure a comfortable afterlife somewhere. Recent Rhodoks, particularly those of the Swadian-influenced Saren tribe, have questioned this idea of multiple afterlives, demanding proof or at least textual confirmation. Since the Rhodok pantheon lacks a unified, singular sacred text, priests and the devout are having difficulty convincing the Saren otherwise.
Because the Rhodok believe that how one lives his life determines where he goes afterwards, Rhodok funerals are customized to fit the deceased. The surviving family, if any, guess at which god would accept their dead relative. When the god is determined, a local priest holds a ceremony dedicated to that god. As might be expected, each god is given his or her own ceremony. Those going to Skutos are sent off with much dancing and cheering, accompanied by musical bands and perhaps even a feast; those going to Vulkus Stromos are sent off by a huge funeral pyre with drums roaring in the background; those associated with Grunwalder Tymodeus are given a soldier's funeral even if they were not soldiers themselves, and so forth. Those believed sentenced to Akero are simply buried in a ditch without ceremony, though mourning relatives may pay their respects regardless. Funerals are funded by the state, but can be supplemented by private funds, so while the funerals of commoners are relatively elaborate, the funerals of richer citizens are downright luxurious. Some of them even commission tombs, which are normally square, stone structures built on burial grounds and contain sarcophagi.

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

隐藏: 2.The Kingdom of Swadia, formerly the Swadian Empire

The Kingdom of Swadia all but leaps into the mind when one mentions the word "Calradia", especially so for historians. The average Swadian is very tall and hearty, and are frequently the tallest among the peoples of Calradia. Most Swadians males possess straight hair and sport beards, mustaches, or are clean shaven, while most Swdian females have straight shoulder-length hair, occasionally tied back into a pony tail. Most Swadian hair colors are either dark brown or light blonde, sometimes a mixture of the two. Most Swadians have a placid and serious demeanor about them.
The Swadians were once the most powerful and populous people in Calradia until a major rebellion and a bloody civil war reduced them to a mere one-third of their former territories. The Kingdom of Swadia used to be an Empire, ruled by an Emperor who delegated power to lesser kings under his rule, until the last dynasty of Emperors died out and the most powerful among the kings took over—ever since then, Swadians have been ruled by a king, not an Emperor. Today, the Kingdom is organized much the same way as the Empire once was, but instead of an Emperor being served by kings, we have a King being served by lesser lords. This type of government, where each lord is granted a fief (a piece of land over which he is the supreme overlord), is called in Low Swadic feudalus. The entire political structure is very neatly organized:

The peon class serve the knight class by producing food and other goods necessary to keep the economy running, on top of providing extra man power for the army. Though peons technically have few civil rights, a wise nobleman knows better than to mistreat them.

The knight class serves the earl class by providing fighting men (both peon and themselves) for defense, raids, and other crises. Knights are given a degree of economic control over villages and make their livelihood from this during peacetimes, even though it is technically the earls and members of the duke class that legally own those villages. Knights form the elite cavalry corps of the Swadian armies.

The earl class serves the duke class by providing both men (in the form of peons and knights) and, most importantly, supplies. As earls directly control the economic businesses of each fief (a fief usually being a settlement at least as large as a village and its surrounding farmlands), they are responsible with providing the Swadian armies with food, blankets, tents, and whatever else an army needs, except for money. In times of peace, earls are expected to manage the economies of their various fiefs.

The duke class serves the king by providing the money with which Swadian soldiers are payed. Unless the king is also present, dukes serve as an army's supreme commander, as well. Each duke, of which there are four (one for each of the Heartland plains, and another for the Richkevet mountains), manage and coordinate the efforts of their earls while also providing an advisory council for the king. Money for warfare is paid in the form of taxes, which everyone of all classes, from the lowliest peon to the wealthiest duke, must pay in either gold or materials.

The king serves as the supreme authority of Swadia, though a king would be wise to not abuse his power. The Swadian political system is arranged in such a way that, should even the king lose the support of too many of the lower classes, there will be dire consequences. For the mightiest king is nothing without an army, or without a method to pay that army, or without a method to feed that army. In times of peace, the king approves of the laws that the Council makes. The Council consists of the House of the Sword, which is made up by the four Dukes, and by the House of the Spear, which is made up by the earls. The knights and peons also have a strong voice in the Council in the form of the Balif.

        As with the Rhodoks, the point of this political excursion is to illustrate how much the Swadian people value order. Though very few are obsessed with keeping everything neat and tidy, most Swadians are trained from birth to value efficiency and orderliness, and to abhor waste and laziness. They put great value on sound, just laws and will do their utmost to keep them. Swadians also place great value on  keeping their homes safe, which is understandable given their recent history. Many find the Swadians to be boring and stuffy, which may be true to a certain extent, but few peoples are as determined and steadfast as these hearty folk.
Thus, Swadian traditions and holidays (many of which are surprisingly new) stem from this value of order. Interestingly, Swadians also know the value of letting loose every once in a while, so some Swadian celebrations subvert the cultural values of order. A more orthodox tradition is the Dies Purgium, literally, “Cleaning Day”, a day set aside from mental and physical cleansing of the mind, body, and home. It is greatly frowned upon to not tidy oneself and oneself's possessions on this day. Another celebration is the Milles Pedix Educum, or “A Thousand Feet Marching”, a grand parade of Swadia's elite soldiers marching through the streets of Swadia's major cities. Given Swadia's propensity of providing its soldiers with vast quantities of steel gear, watching hundreds of knights ride by as the sunlight shines on their gleaming armor is quite a sight to see. Less orthodox traditions include Magnies Epulix, which is simply a wild party dedicated to letting any repressed feelings out, and the Inflectus Dominux , when the lords of the land sit together with the lesser folk in an attempt to “reconnect” with one another. Finally, a very somber tradition is Dies Solus, or “Day of Silence”, in deference to the day the Swadian Civil War started. Readers interested in recent Swadian history should peruse my other work, A Brief History of Calradia.
Swadians do not celebrate a child's progression from childhood to adulthood. Instead, they celebrate the time when a child is ready to make meaningful contributions to society. The specific day is known as Rities Subalespix. How this is celebrated depends on the child's future occupation (which is something that the child is expected to have decided by this time) and class. A peon going into professional soldiery might be anointed by the local knight and taken under his apprenticeship for martial training (though in times of need, this ritual may be ignored), while a young earl may have a small feast thrown as a send off gift as the lad goes off to be apprenticed to another, more experienced earl. Unfortunately for the women, because Swadia is male-dominated, most women are shunted off into domestic roles, though there are a handful of legends of women disguising themselves as men and riding off into battles. Most of these celebrations are quiet, simple things, though dear to the hearts of Swadians. To fail to celebrate Rities Sbalespix is to bring great dishonor on the family, but especially the child.
The Swadians are mostly united in terms of culture. In the days of the Empire, the people were less homogeneous, particularly the subjugated peoples to the east (who eventually rebelled and founded the Kingdom of Vaegirs), but the current Kingdom consists of only the Heartlands. All three plains, Sunus, Dhirimus, and Pravenus, are similar in climate and require similar livelihoods (that is, mostly wheat farming), so culturally, all modern Swadians are very similar. The mountain peoples of Richkevet are somewhat of an exception, but as they have been part of Swadia since time immemorial, they are also mostly assimilated. Swadians believe this as a sign of their cultural superiority, an indication that their nation is of one, powerfully unified mind. Other nations, in turn, believe this to be a sign of typical Swadian stuffiness. 
Uniquely, the Kingdom of Swadia is atheistic, a truly distinct cultural attribute in a world filled with religion. Most Swadians today find the concept of worshiping, to them, an abstract, invisible, and intangible being that hardly interacts with mortals rather strange. This can be traced back through Swadian history; when the Swadian peoples were first united under an Emperor, all local cults were abolished, and for hundreds of years the citizens worshiped the Emperor as a living god, a trait not unfamiliar in our own culture. After the death of the last of the Emperors, the fracturing of the Empire, and the foundation of the Kingdom, the Swadians simply did not have any gods to turn to, so thorough was the first Emperor's purging of other religions. Thus, modern Swadians, who have no living Emperor-God to revere, do not worship any god at all. Many earls and dukes are known to, perhaps arrogantly, believe that this atheism is a sign of true civilization, a sign that man has thrown off the invisible shackles of the gods and has rid himself of hokey superstitions.

{Swadian} Literature

Literature in Swadia is a curious thing. Swadian engineers have very recently finished their first prototype printing press (a rather crude looking device that looks as though it were stolen from our own country), but despite the potential for every man, woman, and child in Swadia to own a book or two, the Swadians have not seen it fit to distribute reading materials nationwide. Instead, the current printing device is used to mass-copy important legal documents, technical manuals, and similar—the few literary books written in Swadic are still handwritten and extremely rare. However, Swadian culture has its own share of stories that are orally transmitted for entertainment, sometimes by traveling minstrels. A favorite among the peons are the locustorix, which are small, entertaining tales designed to teach moral lessons. Locustorix told to children are normally edited by the story teller to emphasize the moral lessons, while  locustorix told to adults are designed to entertain. Since the common language of Swadia, Low Swadic, is rhythmically easy to organize, locustorix are often accompanied by minstrels singing or playing an instrument. Again, locustorix are rarely written down, only kept in memory. There does exist a certain Locustoris Codex  that contains a staggering number of locustorix, but this book is so rare that I have encountered only three in my extensive travels. The current king is known to own a copy, mostly as a conversation piece, while another copy is in the hands of one his favored dukes. The final copy I found was located in the treasure tents of the Khan of the Khergit Khanate, of all places.
It would appear odd for my dear readers that a technologically advanced society like the Swadians' is so illiterate. And while this trend of illiteracy among the Swadians is quite foreign to us, to the Swadian this is not only understandable but efficient. Approximately 60% of the nation's population consists of peons, almost all of whom never need to lay eyes on a piece of text due to their livelihoods. Few peons require education beyond how to count to one-thousand, as most take up careers of manual labor, and any writing  takes the form of scratched lines on a portable surface to represent numbers. This, combined with Swadian abhorrence of waste, has led to almost all peons to not bother educating themselves. As the Kingdom of Swadia still stands strong, it appears that Swadian peons indeed need not waste their time with intellectual frivolity. The same applies to knights, as they spend most of their time training for war, though a handful of the very wealthiest among them collect the occasional book to decorate their homes. Earls and dukes are literate by necessity, but even they rarely indulge in reading.
I have mentioned before that the primitive Swadian printing devices do churn out one curiosity: technical manuals. Almost all of these are kept in the libraries of engineering colleges in Suno, Praven, and Dhirim, and are perused by Swadian engineers. It should be noted that the engineers of Swadia, though technologically deprived when compared to our society, are a swift and efficient folk, and are practically a class to themselves. I should take a little time to elaborate on this cultural curiosity, these engineers.
The title of engineer, which is quite prestigious, is entirely merit based, so it is not surprising to find peons working together with earls. Young children, girls included, who show promise in the field of mathematics and mechanics are shunted off towards the engineering colleges in Swadia's three major cities, where they are fed, housed, and educated at the state's expense. Most of them find engineering work somewhere or another, the majority of these eventually serving the Swadian military as siege engineers. The very best are hired by private nobles, such as wealthy earls and all the dukes. Those who fail miserably are sent back home, where they are expected to return to their mundane lives. Future engineers graduate from colleges around the age of twenty, and their Rities Subalespix is included at their graduation ceremony. At most, only approximately a few dozen engineers graduate every year. Most of Swadian engineering is devoted to making, inventing, improving, and maintaining military hardware, so Swadian citizens benefit little from these educated elite. This devotion to military technology explains why Swadians are known to possess the finest steel armors and wield crossbows rivaling ours in power and range.
With that said, it is the engineers who benefit the most from Swadia's printing presses. Swadian presses are customized so that they can print complex mathematical equations as well as simple letters. The paper, derived from various plant products (again similar to, but also inferior to, our own), holds ink fairly well and is a suitable writing surface for quickly jotting down notes with a quill. The precise process is a secret and is thus unknown, but if it is anything like ours, it probably involves gathering and processing grasses for their fiber, soaking them in water until a soupy, milky mixture is formed, treating the mixture with various mineral chemicals to strengthen the resulting product, then draining, straining, and pressing the mixture to produce wet paper, which is then dried. Swadians appear to use various wild grasses for their fiber, so their paper's texture and quality tends to vary quite a bit.

{Swadian} Language

There are primarily two languages spoken in Swadia: Low Swadic and High Swadic. Both share linguistic roots with Nordic, which suggests that Swadic has origins in Nirsinium, the northern continent. Low Swadic is very simple and easy to both write and learn, though foreigners speaking more complex languages may find it a bit repetitive.
The grammar rules are as follows:
All nouns end with -x. Examples: Subalespix (change), diex (day).
All verbs end with -m. Examples: Educum (to march), ephistum (to kill).
All adjectives end with -s. Examples: Milles (thousands), dies (the day of __).
        An advantage to this system is that any word can be easily converted into a noun, adjective, or verb simply by swapping suffixes. Thus, ridilus (riding), ridilum (to ride), and ridilix (a ride).
The grammatical order is always: adjective, noun, verb. The adjective always describes the noun, the noun is always the object of the verb. If there are more than one nouns in the sentence, the noun that serves as the topic of the sentence (such as the knight in, “The knight fell off his horse”), that noun is placed first in the sentence and is given its adjective and verb, and is then followed by a brief pause and the rest of the sentence containing the second noun and its own adjectives and verbs. To emphasize association between the nouns, the second noun is turned into a compound word, combining the first noun and the second noun. Taking the knight and horse example, we have this:

Glemis knightix occidium, procerus knight-caberix.

Meaning, “The shining knight fell of his tall horse.” Literally, word for word, it means, “Shining knight fell, tall knight-horse.” Temporal tenses are indicated by hand motions, usually a right thumb pointed back over the shoulder to indicate past tense, and a flicking point ahead with the right hand to indicate future tense. Present tense requires no hand motions. In writing, an arrow is written over verbs that require specification as to whether it is in past tense or future tense.
Anything else that the speaker needs to further communicate (such as how quickly a horse ran) is supplemented by hand gestures. It is said that, to make a Swadian shut up, hand him two saddlebags.
Obviously, context, and therefore listener participation, is a very important thing in Low Swadic.
Low Swadic is represented by an alphabet that appears something like a cross between Nordic runes and Rhodic alphabet characters, which is not surprising given that the Low Swadic alphabet was heavily adapted from both systems of writing. Like runes, Low Swadic letters consist of mostly straight lines, but like Rhodic characters, they also form geometric shapes. Each letter represents either a consonant or a vowel, and words are constructed simply by placing them in certain orders. There are practically no superfluous letters in Low Swadic words.

        There is another Swadian language called High Swadic. This is far more complex, and is a remnant of Imperial court-dialects that existed before the Swadian Civil War. This was back when songs and poems were quite popular among the nobles, and the repetitive, dull Low Swadic was considered too simple and vulgar for poetic use. Nowadays, only earls, dukes, and the king use High Swadic, and for earls only during formal sessions. Peons and knights often consider speaking High Swadic as inefficient and wasteful.
High Swadic is very flowing and pleasing to the ear, as it is designed to do so, and is quite melodic and lilting. It is well suited for songs and music, but due to its long-winded nature, it does not make for the best prose literature. Almost no novels exist in High Swadic, though A History of Swadian Noble Bloodlines is a rare example. Due to its nature, Swadian diplomats and domestic nobles try to speak High Swadic to foreign visitors to impress them, and many foreign ambassadors to Swadia are required to at least be able to understand (and preferably speak) High Swadic. So far, the Rhodoks and Vaegirs are having the least trouble (as Rhodic is phonetically not too dissimilar to High Swadic, and many Vaegir nobles maintain High Swadic due to their Swadian ancestry), while Nords and particularly the Khergits have difficulty pronouncing the words.
As High Swadic is too grammatically complex to explain in entirety, I can only offer you, dear readers, a cursory glance at the language:
Sentence  structure is very flexible. Like Rhodic, words can be placed anywhere in the sentence, but unlike Rhodic, the meaning remains the same. The flexible word order exists to allow words to be arranged as phonetically pleasing as possible, and thus verbs and subjects can be placed at extreme ends of sentences while retaining the same meaning. Attention and comprehension is extremely important when listening to High Swadic, as one must have be fleet of mind to decipher whether the speaker could mean the knight is mounting the horse or the horse is mounting the knight (speakers must also be very careful to not imply the latter when speaking of knights and horses! It is surprisingly easy to do so, I assure you). Tenses are indicated not by gesturing but by conjugation: past tense verbs end in different letters than present tense verbs, which end differently than future tense verbs. Compare jeuoroux to jeura to jeuoriee, meaning, “Said”, “Say”, and “Will say”, respectively. Astute readers may notice that High Swadic words contain many superfluous letters.
High Swadic also requries a different alphabet from Low Swadic. Entire sentences can be written in High Swadic without ever lifting the pen, such is the nature of the letters. As for the the words themselves, they appear to consist of great loops and squiggles and are often distracting, if decorative. 
Some poetry in High Swadic is written down, such as the Vejusaine:

L'vejusaine du pronovie
Se voux no rejequo de viex
Porquois d'L'poisson dumonte
Satrois vimelo vejusaine.

Notice that the poem consists of eight syllables on each line. This particular poem is an example of a jeneux, a poem consisting of four lines, each line having eight syllables, and a word that both begins and ends the work.

{Swadian} Food and drink

As the Heartlands, where the entire Kingdom of Swadia lies, is almost entirely made up of  farmlands, it is of no surprise that the Swadian diet consists of mostly plant products. However, although Swadia is famous for its wheat, its denizens certainly do not subsist solely on bread. Since Swadians are very advanced (though not as advanced as we are) in agriculture, they have developed crop rotation techniques that both replenish the soil of the Heartlands and provide Swadians something to eat other than just plain bread. Thus, the average Swadian diet is simple and easy to prepare, but also varied and nutritious.
Panux is the standard Low Swadic term for bread (paneu in High Swadic). It is also the signature food of Swadia, as it represents the current nation in many ways. Panux is easy to bake and requires surprisingly little wheat to create, while being full of nutrition and long lasting—signs of Swadian efficiency. They are fairly light, easy to pack and store, and require few tools to both make and serve. The taste is rather bland, but with the right side dishes, that is easily rectified. The texture of the bread is quite pleasant and holds spreading well. Panux is also supplemented by other foods, though these are also simple and are plant products. Green peas, grown around the foothills of the Richkevet mountains and Mt. Viig, are a staple among those who live in the area, while Swadians near the Zendar River enjoy an assortment of fruits, turnips, squash, and other products. Meat is a rarity due to its expense in Swadia, and when it is consumed it is always in the form of preserved meats; ham, salted bacon, etc. Peons and knights mostly share this same diet (though knights can both afford and are privileged to more meat as they must maintain their physical bulk), while earls, dukes, and the king eat more luxurious fare, such as paneu riche, which is a softer and much tastier bread, and Rhodos Valley beef.
For dessert, Swadians eat either fresh or dried fruit, though this is difficult for peons and knights who live in the southern and eastern fringes of the Heartlands. When fruit is not available, the locals make do with a sweet tuber called radix, or what we would call sweet potatoes. Both fruits and radix can be made into various sweet pastries that are normally served during festivals, though Swadian fruit pies, called pix, are popular among young children.
Drinks, however, are a Swadian failing. Swadians rarely drink to excess, not even during balls, and only use alcohol as a method for purifying water. As a result, Swadia does not make much ale or wine aside from what is strictly necessary. In fact, roughly 80% of all alcohol in Swadia is imported from either Nord breweries or Rhodok vineyards (the more eccentric earls and dukes may import fermented mare's milk from the Steppes).

Swadian Oil

Though it is not a food per se, Swadian oil is a major export of the nation. Most of this is cooking oil derived from Swadian corn, and Nord fried shrimp cooked in fine Swadian oil with Sunum-wheat batter is simply delightful. Other oils are derived from mountain beans and are useful for lubricating armor, crossbow parts, and siege engines—Rhodok crossbowmen, in particular, have called Swadian oil their “lifeblood”. Most of the plants devoted to oil production are cultivated around the Richkevet mountains. As the mountains boast both a river (suitable for growing corn) and good soil for beans (suitable for lubricating oil), the village of Nomar makes a handsome profit off of its oil industry. Cooking oil is known as papus crocinux, while lubricating oil is known as lucus corcinux.

{Swadian} Music

Most Swadian music is sung. As they do not worship any gods and therefore lack temples, they have very few reasons to sing as  multitude, but Swadians do sing for family or court entertainment purposes, or to help concentrate on work. Working songs for heavy duty work (such as mining and a plowing) are well known among the peons, while knights often mutter battle chants to keep their minds focused during training. Earls and dukes sing less often, but I have often heard earls humming ditties to keep their minds from wandering as they do paperwork.
The range and keys of work songs vary widely, but all are very rhythmic and are structured identically. Here is a common song sung by Sunus farmers:

Graccus solix unum, torus matrix solum
Histus novux legium, onus torvix phixum

Malus terrix scutum, erus envux quovum
Sandrus tirfax rutum, onus torvix phixum

Each line consists of two complete sentences connected by a comma, and each word is only two syllables long. The rhythm is very lilting and heavy. Swadians who sing such songs claim to find them quite meditative.
High Swadic is used for courtly entertainment. Serious Swadian rulers have only used songs written in High Swadic to entertain foreign guests, but lately, dukes with a taste for luxury have begun to entertain themselves with such music. Songs in High Swadic are known as cantantou, and vary as widely as the language they are written in.

As most Swadians consider it a waste of time to spend time and resources on crafting and mastering a musical instrument, instruments are quite rare in Swadia. Again, almost all Swadian music is sung, not played. Exceptions lie in the occasional traveling minstrel. These traveling musicians, known as torubadrix in Low Swadic and troubadours in High Swadic, are known to play relics from Imperial times, which include the stringed lyrix/lyrie and the a wind instrument similar to the Rhodok  flogera. Torubadrix play at village centers and town squares during days of rest, and are treated as welcome breaks from daily life by Swadian citizens. Such performances, known as fasix, can be accompanied by small feasts. Unfortunately, the more serious among the village overlords, such as knights and visiting earls, disapprove of such frivolity and arrest torubadrix when they can. The harshest among them even have the minstrels executed for “disturbing the peace”.
Paradoxically, dukes do keep around instrumental musicians for the purpose of holding courtly balls. These musicians make entire careers out of providing background music nobles, and as such are allowed to possess and play instruments dating back to the Imperial era. The number of people who can repair and make more of these instruments can be counted on one hand, so these relics are treated with the utmost care by their musicians. Ball instruments include the lyrie, but also feature other instruments such as the viol, chelli, and rujeu. All are stringed instruments, played by drawing a stick stringed with horsehair across metal strings drawn taught over the hollow body of the instrument. They are beautiful to listen to and are subtle instruments, mellow yet powerful all at once. 

{Swadian} Sports

Intense physical activity is the realm of the knights. They spend most of their time preparing their bodies for war, and so it is no surprise that they have adapted some of their training regiments into sports. Participation in a sport is encouraged among all classes of Swadians, as it is considered healthy for both the mind and the body.
Talex is a combat sport between two competitors, each armed with a padded quarterstaff. The two duelists stand in a small circular ring and try to force the other competitor to step outside of the ring. The staff, called the talumex, is the orthodox tool for forcing the opponent out of the ring, but arm and leg techniques are legal as well. Excessive force and deliberate injuries disqualify competitors. This game has its roots in knightly polearm training exercises.
Lorvix is an acrobatic sport that involves athletes trying to vault over progressively higher oval-shaped mounds. A competitor's legs may not touch the mound, but otherwise any other technique is legal. As the mounds are stackable, it is a simple matter to increase the height of the mounds until either one or none of the competitors manage to vault over it. This game has its roots in knightly horse mounting training regimes.
Collux is a wrestling sport that requires mostly upper body strength and quick feet, useful attributes for any Swadian knight or peon. The object of the game is to force any part of the enemy's body (excepting the feet) onto the ground, using only grappling, throwing, and tripping techniques. Striking is not allowed. Wrestlers begin each match bent over and facing one another, each contestant's arms locked around the enemy's shoulders. This game has its roots in knightly close quarter grappling exercises.
Rugubux is a game involving a round ball. Instead of throwing or kicking it, however, it is carried towards designated zones by a single runner. For one team, the object of the game is to somehow get their runner past enemy defenders and into the scoring zones. For the other team, the object of the game is to prevent the enemy runner from getting past them. The team attempting to score has three tries to get the ball into the scoring zone, and should the runner be stopped (usually by brutally tackling him), the next attempt starts where the runner was halted. The other team gains possession of the ball if the initial team fails to succeed. A great deal of strategy is needed for this game, so it is of no surprise that this game has its origins in training skirmishes.
Younger children have their own little sports they play, but most of these are casual ball kicking or tagging games of little note.

{Swadian} Entertainment

Whereas sports are seen by Swadians as healthy ways to let out excess energy and relieve stress, less physical entertainments are regarded with less praise. More intellectual games such as chess are approved of, but debauchery is deeply frowned upon by knights, peons, and lesser earls. Dancing is not frequently practiced among the lower classes, as physical activities are devoted towards work or sports, and since  but nobles spend a great deal of time and money on formal balls.
The ball is an extremely important social aspect of high class Swadian life. Though seen by lower classes as utter wastes of money, resources, and time, the higher classes justify their apparently opulent balls by frequently inviting foreign ambassadors and nobles. The balls provide not only excellent food, music, and beautiful people, but also many chances to poison, assassinate, or otherwise discredit targets or even make secret deals. Of course, in order to bring in a steady stream of foreigners, assassinations are performed with great discretion, and most of the time Swadians seek to awe and unnerve their guests than try to kill them. Balls also give higher class Swadians opportunities to reconnect with one another, as they otherwise rarely have chances to meet, and establish solid bonds that may later come in handy in war or economics. Swadians proud of their Imperialistic roots enjoy balls as well, thinking of them as relics from bygone times. And of course, balls are excellent ways to meet future spouses or gain the king's favor.
The ball is still, at heart, an elaborate dance party. The most common dance at a given ball is the leveiuxchance, a graceful three-beat dance where the dancing couples move in a triangular motion while spinning. It is simple to pick up but takes a great deal of leg strength and training to make it utterly smooth and graceful. Trained dancers performing a proper leveiuxchance is a sight to behold.
There are other forms of entertainment, of course. Among young engineers, ballix is a popular building game. Multiple teams of engineers agree beforehand the terms of the competition, what each team will build, judging rubrics, and so forth. Making trebuchets is a common ballix competition. Wealthy earls and dukes looking for skilled engineers hold annual ballix competitions, the top or particularly clever teams earning patronage from the elite nobles. One of the stranger devices that I have encountered was a machine designed to fling cows over a great distance using compressed air, steel, and pig tails. I am still unsure as to how this was made possible, but it worked, and now the Swadians are working towards a reliable machine that throws cows.
Aside from chess, another popular game is efferox. Apparently developed by people who frequently lost their chess pieces, opposing players play on a chess board using eight identical pieces that move the way the rook does in chess. The object of the game is to capture all enemy pieces by maneuvering them so that, when a player puts down a piece, an enemy piece is sandwiched between the first piece and another one of his pieces. It is a simpler game than chess in many ways, as the pieces all move in the same way, but it is also quite difficult to master.

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

隐藏: 2.1.The Kingdom of Swadia, formerly the Swadian Empire - Continued

{Swadian} Art

Swadians do enjoy visual art, though they highly prefer works that are long lasting. They are also proponents of “quality over quantity”, so the few Swadian works of art that exist tend to be of a higher quality than the equivalent arts of other nations. It is thus no surprise, then, that Swadians love sculptures.
Most Swadian sculptures are carved from stone, usually those of the harder constitution such as marble and granite. As each of the three Heartlands plains have access to the rich stone quarries of the Richkevets, construction materials are in good supply: braver Swadians may try to quarry at Mt. Viig, but those who do run the risk of Vaegir raids. All cutting and abrasive tools, such as chisels and rock saws, are made of watered steel. Not surprisngly, stone carving, lithix absidum, is not a career for the poor, and in fact all professional stone carvers are under the patronage of at least an earl, for by themselves no peon could possibly afford the materials and tools necessary for the art.
The entire process of quarrying rock, carving it into a rough shape, and adding the finishing touches is a long and arduous task. First, the stone must be cut out from the earth. To do this, quarrymen split out blocks of rock from the mountain with nothing but large hammers and chisels, sometimes hiring engineers working piledrivers to drive particularly large chisels. Once the stone is freed from the rock, sawyers carve the rock into a cleaner, more compact shape, while also removing impurities if necessary. This lightens the load somewhat, and allows for easier transportation. From there, a stone carver must carefully, without making a single mistake, bring out the figure already lying in the stone with his assortment of tools, such as the chisel and hammer (ciselix and malix), the file (saex), and similar. Chisels are further divided into claw chisels (dentis ciselix), which are useful for adding texture and lines to stone, pitching chisels (ampelus ciselix) that can remove large chunks of rock quickly, and lettering chisels (prosus ciselix) that are used for general work. Hammers do not have specific categories, though stone carvers tend to use mallets of various sizes and weights according to how much control or power they need at the moment. Files are used to rub off thin portions of stone. When finished, carvers smooth out the rock with cloth-like tools made up of very thin steel wires, providing the stone a certain gleam.
For the stone carver, carving a sculpture is less of a work of art as much as it is a moving meditation of sorts. It is as close to prayer the atheistic Swadians can get. Some  carvers even go so far as to ritually bathe and cleanse themselves before even laying hands on stoneworking tools, though those who do so are seen as eccentric and inefficient. Nevertheless, stone carving is not just an artistic but also a spiritual experience for the carvers, and each sculpture can, if kept away from the elements, last for hundreds or even thousands of years. There exist in the palace of Praven statues dating back almost to the founding of the Empire.
For the Swadians who enjoy sculptures, stone carving means something a bit different. To the Swadians, a well made statue is a symbol of orderliness and stability. They think of the rhythmic pounding of hammer and chisel on stone and are comforted by it, and enjoy the perfect lines and beautiful contours of the sculpture. They appreciate more the objective qualities of a work of art, such as symmetry and examples of skilled stone work, rather than the subjective emotions that the arts of other cultures prefer to express. A Swadian will more readily appreciate a perfectly made statue of a man calmly sitting in a chair and staring straight forward than a less well made statue of a king participating in an exciting hunt with his dogs. Most Swadians, even peons, will keep a small bust sculpture around the house as an aesthetic decoration, usually made of long-lasting granite.

{Swadian} Death

Death is something of a subtly divisive issue among Swadians. Some claim that, because the gods do not exist, they have no fear of any sort of punishment at the hands of a divine being, and thus death is not something to be feared. Others claim that it is because there are no gods that there is no life after this, and thus the only life one will ever have is the present, and when that is gone, there is nothing more. These Swadians are quite terrified of dying. The divide is not readily apparent in common society, though the wealthy dukes and earls tend towards the latter view—many claim that death could possibly render their service to the Kingdom null, but I suspect that they simply do not wish to part with their title and wealth.
Regardless, Swadian funerals are meaningful but not elaborate. Each funeral is tailored for the deceased, designed to honor the career he had in life. A farmer might be buried in his field, with a eulogy by the village headsman, while a peon who went into professional soldiering might receive a soldier's funeral (a tiny parade by a handful of his comrades), with some final words by his commander. Knights are, if feasible, paraded through a portion of his fief and given a military burial, his final send off signaled with a loud blast from army communication horns. Earls might be buried in the most profitable spot on their fief (or, if that cannot be determined, their favorite spot), dukes are entombed within the Duke's Rest catacombs beneath each of the three major Swadian cities or deep within the Richkevet mountains, and the King is always entombed in the King's Rest in Praven. Swadians almost never bury their dead with valuables, for to them, such a thing is an overly sentimental waste of resources.

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

隐藏: 3.The Free Cities of the Nords

...

Controlling almost all of the northern edges of Calradia, the Nordic peoples are a relatively recent addition to the land. The Nords are renown for their great height, strength, and endurance, and for their startlingly keen blue eyes. No other peoples in Calradia can match the Nords in physical stature. The average Nord possesses a tall, heavily muscled form with emphasis on the upper body, and has shoulder-length, scraggly, light-blonde hair, even among males. Most Nords appear to be full of energy or even restless, constantly fidgeting as though they have much excess energy to expend.
The current Nord population are descendants of former raiders from Nirsinium who decided to settle in the rich woods of Grifis Forest. These raiders, though sharing a common language and culture, were very fragmented, considering themselves as belonging to a particular village than to a unified nation; as a result, the subsequent Free Cities are also rather fragmented, much like the independent city-states of Rhodos Valley before their uniting.
This disunity is a product of the Nord mindset. To the Nord, he is a member of a group (lið), whether that group be a family or his fellow shipmates or his fellow warriors in service of their lord (such warriors, and the group they belong in, are called drengnir). All others, even they look the same, speak the same language, or even share the same culture, are outsiders, people who are to be exploited for the betterment of the group. Most Nords belong to two groups, usually of their village of origin and their lords' service. A wise lord takes care to not lead his warriors in a raid against their homelands, but conflicts of interest do rise up among individuals. How they deal with this is left up to the individual, and to the Nords it is never considered dishonorable to kill in the name of one's lið—as such, a drengnir slaying a fellow drengnir in defense of his village, his first lið, is treated with a sort of wary respect. With all this in mind, it is of no surprise, then, that betrayal of one's lið or of one's fellow drengnir for anything less than for the sake of another lið is considered to be the greatest crime a Nord could ever commit. Such crimes are punished by a form of execution called gaeirrhask, where the criminal is impaled, through the diaphragm, to a tree and left to die to either blood loss or exposure. The corpse is then fed to the ravens, which is significant in that the Nords believe ravens to be the agents of ultimate evil, and so feeding a corpse to ravens signifies the utter contempt they have for the body.
The “Kingdom of the Nords”, as the Swadians call it, is therefore better called The Free Cities, as the villages and cities are very loosely unified and have their own laws. The major settlements of the Nords, which are Sargoth, Tihr, and Wercheg, actually have a startlingly low population of commoners. Instead, they serve as the personal homes (hqll) of powerful Nord warlords and barracks for their drengnir. Villages, meanwhile, serve as the headquarters of lesser warlords and provide homes and work places for the peasantry, who, in turn for being protected from enemies by the local warlords, provide food, goods, and other services to their protectors. The peasants also serve as a source for future drengnir as well, for every male Nord is required to master the spear, the sword, the axe, or the bow by the age of twelve. Particularly skilled drengnir are sent to Sargoth, Wercheg, or Tihr to serve higher lords.
Speaking of lords and their drengnir, the concept of lið applies particularly heavily to a lord and his warrior-servants. Warriors are expected to serve their lords, even give up their lives if necessary, and to spread his fame and prowess throughout the world. In turn, lords are expected to readily provide wealth, careers, and opportunities for their warriors to grow in fame. This is why drengnir live not with their familes but in great hall-like barracks with their lord. The bond between lord and drengnir is known as skutaj, and any member who violates the skutaj is to be tortured to death, often by castration.
It should be noted that Nord culture is strongly patriarchal. Though women are expected to be strong, they are never allowed to hold weapons or wear armor; some settlements even punish this with hanging. Young men, on the other hand, are expected to know how to wield a weapon, as mentioned above. In fact, among the more martial settlements a boy is considered to be a man when he can at least hold his own in combat against his father or another fully grown man.

Categories of Nords

The general reputation for Nords is that they are savage, bloodthirsty, and warlike. This is a reputation well deserved, for I have been a victim of multiple Nord raids (it is astonishing what one can do to another's body with just an axe and some “creativity”). It is not to say, however, that Nords are only savage, bloodthirsty, and warlike, as they are excellent craftsmen and merchants. All the Nords can be divided into four categories based on their economic expertise, though the Nords themselves do not think of themselves in such a fashion.

Nords centered in the Ashkolon River Valley are experts in agriculture. As I have mentioned before, this may be because Nord raiders kidnapped Swadian peons during raids and resettled them in Ashkolon, thus combining Ashkolon's fertile soil with Swadian agricultural expertise. The quality of the grain grown here easily rivals that of the Heartlands, though the volume is a bit less. The fine grain of Ashkolon feeds most of the Free Cities.
Nords living here are more docile and passive than Nords living elsewhere, for the Ashkolon is a rich an pleasant place. Though the people are hearty and strong, not many are skilled in the arts of war, for the Nedis mountains and other Nords have provided plenty of protection from raiders. Ashkolon Nords also sport more dark hair than other Nords, again lending credence to the idea that many Ashkolon Nords are mixes of Swadian and Nord.

Nords centered around Tihr descended from the original Nirsinum raiders who settled in Calradia. They are masters of the sail, and the Tihric Nords and their ability to sail even up rivers are the reason why the Rhodoks regard Nords as, “The Pale Devils of the North”. However, it was also the Tihric Nords who deforested most of Grifis Forest, for the need for so many ships outstripped what the forests could provide. Today, as there are practically no enemies on the sea to defeat, Tihric ships mostly either fish or run shipments of goods  from one end of the Nord territories to the other.
Tihric Nords are known for their wild tempers and adventurous hearts. Many are keen to notice changes in their surroundings (certainly a useful trait to have on the treacherous Sea of Storms). Nords from this region are skilled with the bow and the spear, which are common weapons aboard ships. Curiously, Tihric Nords also sport the most number of green eyes among the Nords. Other Nords claim that this is due to all the seawater they get in the eyes.

Nords centered around Sargoth are the harshest and toughest among the Nords, for they occupy one of the most miserable places in Calradia outside of the Vaega Tundras. Whereas Tihr benefits from ocean winds that at least keeps the place from freezing over too often, Sargic Nords have no such luxury. The area rarely freezes over, but the now barren former forest lands suffer from skin-tearing winds and long periods of cold, miserable rain. Thus, most Sargic Nords have learned to stay in shelter for as long as possible, and while staying indoors they have learned to master the art of crafting. Today, no other place in Calradia produces such fine weapons as the land around Sargoth.
Sargic Nords are known for their grim dispositions and harsh tempers. A saying among the Nords is, “To make a Sargy laugh”--that is, to do the nearly impossible. With strength and toughness developed by the harsh climates and hours of pounding iron with heavy hammers, the Nords of Sargoth not only provide weapons for Nords but also the best warriors as well. The best of the Nord warriors, the infamous Huskarls, come from this area. Sargic Nords are known for their prowess with axes and longer swords.

Nords centered around Wercheg are shrewd and are keen of mind. They have long matched wits and sacks of gold against Vaegir fur traders, and thus have become masters in the art of trade. Werchig Nords unify, in some ways, the Nord peoples, for they take advantage of all of the Free Cities' resources. They buy Ashkolon foods and Sargic finished goods, and hire Tihric ships to transport the materials to Wercheg. These materials are then traded for famous Vaegir furs (without which many a Nord would already have frozen to death, especially since the Grifis Forests no longer have any game), to hire Vaegir mercenary cavalry, and to buy more lumber as needed. Nord international economics would collapse without the efforts of the Werchig Nords.
Due to their more luxurious backgrounds, Werchig Nords are slightly more delicate-looking that most other Nords. Most are sharp of wit and tongue. Although they do not wield weapons too frequently, Werchig Nords are adept at fighting with knives and short swords, which are useful weapons to keep on hand when trade negotiations go...badly.


{Nordic} Religion

Unlike the atheistic Swadians, Nords do believe in a higher being, though unlike the polytheistic Rhodoks, Nords are monotheistic. The only god of the Nords is Guð. What he is like and what he has the most power over is under dispute, but all Nords agree that he is a terrible god not to be angered, and he is an all-powerful god of war. Nords tend to be very religious, for they often invoke Guð's name (especially before, during, and after battles).
Scholars think that Guð was originally a war god in Nirsinium pantheons who eventually absorbed the aspects of other gods and became the sole god of the Nords. This is mostly why the characteristics of Guð are rarely agreed upon aside from his martial aspects, as many peoples of Nirsinium preferred to, for example, worship gods of fire than agriculture, or of love and marriage than storms. This has held on even into modern times, where Guð is one god with different aspects.

Ashkolon Nords worship the agricultural and fertile aspects of Guð. Just as blood irrigates the soil and rotting corpses provide fertilizer, they believe that the great war god makes the land fertile with the blood and bodies of his enemies. This aspect of Guð, the Grower (Vaxa), is relatively more gentle than the other aspects. Yearly sacrifices of cattle and grain are offered on stone altars and are burned with fire.

Tihric Nords worship the weather aspects of  Guð. They believe that the terrible squalls of the Sea of Storms represent Guð's great anger, and also believe that the seas are  Guð's domain. According to their myths, Guð travels through the sky in his great warship, Uðr Riddas, and the stars that sailors use to navigate with are droplets of blood from Jormnund the Serpent, who Guð slew in a titanic battle before the beginning of time (the sun and moon are said to be Jormnund's eyes). This aspect of Guð, the Changing One (Skiptan), is fickle, changing from fury to calm in a blink of an eye. Sacrifices to Guð are done by “increasing Guð's wealth”: that is, offerings must add to the wealth of the sea, not take from it. Thus, common offerings include terrestrial animal sacrifices, which are tied to stones and hurled into the sea.

Sargic Nords worship the artisan aspect of Guð. Just as a Sargic warrior is expected to know how to make and repair his war gear, Guð also knows how to craft the finest of weapons. Sargic smiths thus believe that every pounding of the hammer, every piece of steel quenched, every coal of a burning forge are in praise of Guð, and that everything made from the earth is a reenactment of the time when  Guð forged the world out of nothing. The sacrifices made to this aspect, the Smith (Smíða), are rather gruesome if artistic. As Sargic Nords consider men to be the finest piece of work Guð has ever made, they see it fitting to use parts of the finest creations to make something in offering to their god. The typical yearly ritual requires three sacrificial humans: one man to provide the fat from which the coals of the forge will be ignited, one man to provide the ground skull bone that is sprinkled onto the hot iron, and one man to provide the blood in which the product (usually a sword) will be quenched. The object is then sanctified by the greatest smith in the region, and is then shattered and buried at the feet of a special altar. This aspect of Guð has a temper of fire and a temper of steel, reflecting the nature of the sacred forge.

Werchig Nords worship the commerce aspect of  Guð. As the god who created the heavens and the earth, is not everything his? And from that thought extends the idea that, because Guð owns the earth, he also owns everything in it, namely all the gold and silver in the world. Also, what is war but a trade in lives and death?  This aspect of Guð, the Trader (Kaupmaðr), has all Werchig Nords in debt to him, and so the yearly sacrifices to Guð are in the form of gold coins, which are melted down and buried beneath an altar. The next year, the supplicants “take out a loan” from their god by unearthing the previous year's gold and reforging them into coins, ready to be circulated once more. This aspect of Guð is shrewd and calculating, as all good merchants should be.

...
{Nordic} Language

Nordic is a relatively “uncorrupted” language, as the people who speak it have not interacted with Calradians for as long as the others have, and thus it is mostly preserved from the way it was before the Nords arrived in Calradia. Unlike the savage people who speak it, Nordic is surprisingly melodic and smooth. It is not sing song, but the tones sound smooth and all but rolls off the tongue. Many of the sounds seem to reach back far into the depths of the mouth and throat, and there are plenty of phonetics that would seem utterly alien to any readers speaking our own language.
Nordic is the product of thousands of years of evolution in southern Nirsinium culture. Though we know little of the Nirsin languages, we do know that Nordic has its roots from that area, and that those roots stretch back thousands of years. The exact date is unknown, but according to scholars of Nirsin history, proto-Nirs, the language that Nordic is derived from, formed a system of writing around the same time Rhodos Valley tribes entered their Bronze Age, which was some 2,000 years ago. Compared to Low Swadic, modern Nordic is very flexible and complex, while compared to modern Rhodic, Nordic is less emotionally expressive.
Nordic's grammar system is quite complex:

Words can be divided into adjectives, nouns, and verbs:
Among adjectives, there are possessive (the king's book) and descriptive (the red book)
Among nouns, there are nominative (Harold saw the horse), accusative (Harold saw the horse), and dative (Harold gave the sword to the warrior).
Among verbs, there are present, past, future, past/present/future conditional (If I were to do this, then...), and imperfect (I was/am walking). Among these tenses, there are further divisions by person: I, you, he/she/it, we, etc.

The following is a table of conjugated forms of the word “walk”:

As a noun:

隐藏

Nominative (the walk was...: Strinir
Accusative (...went on a walk): Striri
Dative (...to the walk): Strii

As an adjective:

隐藏

Possessive (the walk's...): Stria
Descriptive (the walking...): Striad

As a verb:

隐藏

Present (I walk): Stris
Present (You walk): Strisi
Present (He/she/it walks): Strisir
Present (We walk): Strisa
Present (You all walk): Strisia
Present (They walk) Strisiria
Past (I walked): Stras
Past (You walked): Strasi
Past (He/she/it walked) Strasir
Past (We walked): Strasa
Past (You all walked): Strasia
Past (They all walked): Strasira
Future (I will walk): Strad
Future (You will walk): Stradi
Future (He/she/it will walk): Stradir
Future (We will walk): Stradira
Future (You will walk): Stradia
Future (They will walk): Stradiria
Present imperfect (I am walking): Od  stris
Present imperfect (You are walking): Od strisi
Present imperfect (He/she/it is walking): Od strisir
Present imperfect (We are walking): Od strisa
Present imperfect (You all are walking): Od strisia
Present imperfect (They are walking): Od strisiria
Past imperfect (I was walking): Oa stras
Past imperfect (You were walking): Oa strasi
Past imperfect (He/she/it were walking): Oa strasir
Past imperfect (We were walking): Ao strasa
Past imperfect (You all were walking): Ao strasia
Past imperfect (They were walking): Ao strasira
Future imperfect (I will be walking): Aod strad
Future imperfect (You will be walking): Aod stradi
Future imperfect (He/she/it will be walking): Aod stradir
Future imperfect (We will be walking): Aod stradira
Future imperfect (You all will be walking): Aod stradia
Future imperfect (They  will be walking): Aod stradiria
Past conditional (If I were walking): Jao (pronounced “yow”) stroad
Past conditional (If you were walking): Jao stroadi
Past conditional (If he/she/it were walking): Jao stroadir
Past conditional (If we were walking): Djao (pronounced “jow”) stroa
Past conditional (If you all were walking): Djao stroasi
Past conditional (If they were walking): Djao stroastia

Quite the exhaustive list! Astute readers may notice certain patters in the conjugations, especially among the verbs. Unfortunately, each verb is conjugated in its own pattern, though some words share similar conjugation patterns.
The word “walk” does not feature any of Nordic's more curious phonetics. Listed here are Nordic's other consonants and vowel sounds:
Ð/ð: this letter sounds like something in between “th” and “d”, though depending on what word it is in it may sound just like “th” or “d”. For example,  lið is pronounced “lid”, while lirð is pronounced “lirth”.
Ø/ø: this letter sounds like a combination of “oo” and “ur”. For example, lør is pronounced “lour”.
Æ/æ: this letter sounds like something in between “eh” and “ee”. Thus, lær is pronounced “leir”, but not “leh-ir” as some readers may think.
Also, the letter “j” is often silent. In the above conjugations, the “j” in “jao” is pronounced like a “y”, and thus “yow”. However, when placed directly behind a consonant, it becomes like a normal “j”. Hence, “djao” is pronounced “jow”.

{Nordic} Language, Part Two

The standard word order is similar to the one used in Low Swadic: adjectives describing the subject, followed by a verb. As an example:
This is the standard, simple way of saying things in Nordic. Again, adjectives describing the subject of the sentence are followed by the subject itself and then whatever action the subject performs.

To mark direct objects, take a part of the noun that will serve as the direct object and attach it to the subject, just like how direct objects are marked in Low Swadic.

隐藏

Rauðiaoi mikill Rod-hestr areið.
Meaning: “The large red horse charged the Rhodok”.

Rodhir is the Nordic term for Rhodok, and the direct object marker is formed from the first three letters of Rodhir.

The word order can be switched around:

Rod-hestr rauðiaoi mikill areið

Or:

Areið rauðiaoi mikill Rod-hestr

All of which mean the same.

Nordic has its own writing system, which is slightly different from the alphabets that Rhodic and Low and High Swadic use. The basic principles are the same: various characters that represent individual sounds are put together to form words. The main differences lie in the characters of the respective alphabets.
The Nordic alphabet contains 27 separate characters, each character made up of lines of varying lengths. There are no curves in the characters, as this alphabet was designed to be easily carved onto hard surfaces, such as bare rock. Most of the characters have phonetically corresponding equivalents in the Low Swadic alphabet, with the exception of the more unique letters such as ð and æ. Like our own system, Nordic is normally written from top to bottom, and like Low and High Swadic, also from left to right. For decorative purposes, however, Nordic can also be written completely horizontally.
Curiously, punctuation marks are almost unheard of. Although Nordic uses pauses and such for emphasis, separation of sentences and such, there are no such things for the writing system except for large lines that separate sentences. Some Nords today make a small, comma-like mark to serve as impromptu commas, but not all Nords are familiar with this and are often confused when their more cosmopolitan cousins use foreign punctuation marks.

Nords are, of course, a martial people. Since dreingnir tend to spend much time amongst themselves while also isolated from non-warriors, Nord warriors also speak a dialect of Nordic that is actually more a list of jargon than an actual language. According to Nord historians, this battle language, known as orrðsta, is evolved from normal Old Nordic words that were condensed and contracted. It was designed to facilitate verbal communication in combat while also sounding harsh and fierce in order to disrupt enemy morale while taunting. 

隐藏

Arey: Charge. Normally preceded by whoever is to receive the command, and is followed by the target of the charge.
Fet: Infantrymen, usually heavy infantry. This does not include archers or skirmishers.
Hest: Cavalry, usually heavy cavalry. This does not include horse archers.
Due to recent conflicts with Steppe nomads, drengnir have developed a new word for horse archers: Boghet.
Bog: Archers. Does not include skirmishers, unless enemy skirmishing units are acting as archers. When fighting Swadians and Rhodoks, this also includes crossbowmen.
Hlau: Skirmishers. Includes archers if archers are performing a skirmishing role.
Skat: The commander of an army. Dasket refers to a supreme commander.
Raat: Retreat. May include a specific destination.
Veg: Walls of a fortification. Hlau aut veg translates to, “Archers on the wall”.
Hurð: Gates of a fortification.
Kald: Siege equipment.
Ma Kald: Literally, “Climb siege equipment”, or ladders.
Do Kald: Literally, “Stone siege equipment”, or catapults.
Bog Kald: Literally, “Bow siege equipment”, or ballistae.
Gneif Kald: Literally, “Tower siege equipment”, or siege towers.
Fram: Advance.

And so forth.

{Nordic} Literature

For the citizens of the Free Cities, the type of epic poetry known as edda is not only enjoyed but also holds incredible importance. To know the Nord edda is to know their history, for within those poems contains the entire past of the Nord peoples, and an entire career can be made of committing and reciting those edda—such people are known as byard, minstrel-sages respected for their wisdom. It is common for byard to accompany recitations of edda, called pylja, with musical instruments, which shall be discussed later. Alternatively, a byard may tell the edda in a dramatic, non-musical fashion like an actor on a stage. In Nord society, especially among dreingnir, it is highly rude to interrupt edda recitations for any reason short of an enemy attack.
Here is a passage from Edda II, an edda of the Nords' discovery of iron:

Hwilae das geardadum gomban weorðmyndum hyrde,
Feiskat djao thninge! Dorfing eafeara korðir
Phet oirne scolde, Das grond they fjorda
Skjald ongeat hwile. Mæd ceol gwi firde...

This is the typical patter of a given edda's stanza—four lines, each line containing a heavy pause in the middle and a ABCA rhyme scheme. The first half of each line is of three words, while the second half is of four words. The rules of construction are simple, but edda are more difficult to memorize than Rhodok epics as they are less repetitive; however, the construction of the edda allow them to be sung more easily. 
Because the Free Cities have yet to develop a printing press, and since Nords are unable to procure large amounts of neither paper nor parchment, very few things are written down except for the most crucial or complex of city laws (which, of course, differ from city to city). Also, few bother to both learn Nordic and write down all the edda, so there are almost no written copies of Nord literature in existence except for the Wordbearer monolith in Sargoth, an enormous pillar of natural rock upon which the entire Edda I is carved. The above excerpt is the written form of the Edda II that I managed to listen to during my stay in Wercheg and set down on paper in the same what that Edda I is carved upon the Wordbearer.
All edda take the form of stories about individuals. Edda I, for example, tells of the founding of the Norse people by the great hero Gjaldaf, and how he ousted a weaker nation from the southern coast of Nirsinium with only himself and a band of warriors known as the Five. The details are certainly exaggerated—one passage describes how Gjaldaf was impaled by a spear to a large oak tree and was left for dead, yet he survived for five days by trapping nearby squirrels for the first four days and consuming his own left eye on the fifth—and the tales are biased in favor of whoever is the protagonist of the edda, but in general the edda outline what is apparently the basic course of history the Nord peoples have followed. Not unexpectedly, the edda contain much detail about bloody battles and bloodier deaths.
On the subject of the byard, it is worth mentioning that these traveling sage-minstrels are given an informally respected, almost clerical, status. The superstitious among the commoners even go so far to claim that the oldest and wisest of byard are capable of sorcery or are given the right to speak to Guð  directly, and while byard do not encourage such foolish thoughts, they do not go out of their way to quash such rumors either, and this, combined with their normally mysterious demeanors, has caused some of the Nord peasantry to regard byard as semi-mystical. More practical Nords know better, of course, but byard are nonetheless treated with respect. Some lords even go so far as to consult passing byard for advice, drawing on the wisdom of the many edda. From the few conversations I have had with these traveling men, I have learned that byards are few and far throughout the lands, for men are not recruited to be byards but become them, and there are few among the Free Cities who would devote themselves to a life of traveling and learning.

 

[Lord Engineer (Castor)]

And that’s it, the original author didn’t write anything else.

The character limit for posts was my biggest enemy when compiling this.

And just because I kind of want to:
  Credits:

• 13 Spider Bloody Chain, all of the writing
• Lord Engineer, minor formatting and compiling

 

[lolbash]

Villages and towns and locations to go around those areas are fine.

No need to name every road and mountain and tree and rock in the game

 

[Do not look here]

No need to name every minuscule detail, but some larger geographical areas having their names would be a welcome thing. The names popping up on map when zoomed out in TLD is purely flavour feature, but it looks great and I'd like to see something similar in Bannerlord - not only for sake of game itself, but also as a thing for modders to use.

 

[John the Roleplayer]

Very nice work, Lord Engineer. If the game did contain some form of encyclopedia with background lore of Calradia, I would enjoy reading it, having a cup of coffee, taking a break from all the fighting.

 

[FBohler]

I remember i saw a desert name in game footages, it would be cool to have this kind of names. Some important mountain, river, lake names. NPC's may use these names in stories, quests, cities may take name from these or vice versa etc.

This would be a great touch to the overall atmosphere.