"I can sell you a basket of tangerines for a measly 6 copper pieces! If I shipped these to your land, these would easily cost 15 silver or more, I'm telling you I'm practically giving them away!"

-The Great Fruit Merchant, Jahana Kharaas

Tesiphonian Culture

The Center of the Universe

Tesiphon is known as a land of fair weather and fertile fields, remarkedly mild in climate compared to the rest of Kelior, and rivaled only by the cooler climate in Yuyake. In particular, the land is known for its fruit trees, which grow ripe sweet fruit in abundance year-round. It lies on the northern coast of the Red Bay, and is bordered by Serpentinium to the north. Since before even the fall of the Great Jungle Kingdom, Tesiphon was known as the sweetest land in Kelior, where the rich and powerful spent their summers from across the Kingdom. After the fall, it became a productive Satrapy under the rule of the Bahrian and Mehtian Empires. In the former, in was unremarkable, quietly producing and slowly growing in strength. In the latter, it became a power-house of economic and military strength, and a source of constant agitation against the rule of the Tomb-Lords. Eventually, through turbulent times of war and chaos, the Tesiphonians proved victorious against the Mehtians, and the rule of Tesiphon over Kelior began. The Tesiphonians exhorted a professional military, with fine heavy cavalry, the Cataphracts, and slowly but surely conquered Serpentinium to put their raids to a permanent end. They played the Bahrians and Mehtians against each other to maintain stability and ensure that rebellions were short-lived and feeble. Most notably, they spread their state religion, the Temples of Elemental Fate, across the empire. Their unique pantheon supported a belief in each of the four elemental demi-gods, whom bound the limitations of the body, and the Goddess of Fate, who bound the limitations of the soul. Faith in the limits of folk's actions, and understanding the bound path of a kith's life, became core tenants of a religions that provided superb stability, for those settlements which took the faith up fervently. Now, the King of Kings is known to be one of the great powers of Adra, rivaled by some of the great empires, the Arissians, the Valenterans, etc. Today, Tesiphon, and the Empire it rules, is undergoing a golden age, the likes of which have not been seen since the days of the Great Jungle. This power and wealth is drawing both sycophantic allies, and treacherous enemies, all in search of grasping a piece of the blossoming prosperity. There are fierce enemies of the King of Kings in Arissia, Serpentinium, Ekmeht, Yuyake, and even the pirate coves of the Wine Faced Sea. And yet, The King of Kings sits more secure than it has ever been, safe against threats from within, and without.

          The Tesiphonians are a highly acculturated and highly sophisticated people. The wealth and plenty of Tesiphon has made even the poorest freemen in the land at least comfortable. Therefore, poverty, particularly the type of poverty to be found elsewhere in the world is looked at as unthinkable by the prosperous Tesphonians. Furthermore, land, rather than coin, slaves, or trade, is viewed to be the ultimate form of wealth. Thus, only the mighty land-magnates of Tesiphon are thought to be truly wealthy, even if there are others who are quite rich indeed. Still, while slaves are not used as the means of social cache that they are elsewhere in Kelior, slavery is extremely common among Tesipohnians, exactly because the country possesses so much wealth. Tesiphonians have a proud and domineering spirit, viewing themselves to be the center of their Empire, naturally, and viewing their empire to be the center of world, ambitiously. Therefore, they tend to view their own views on any given subject to be the last word on the subject. They view their educations and upbringings as the height of childhood learning, and doubt others were given similar opportunities. They believe their culture to be more refined than others, and certainly think their martial prowess, particularly on horseback, is the finest in all the world (contrary to their obvious competition in the Wild Steppes). And to some degree, this is accurate. Tesiphon is a place of learning, bringing scholars from across the empire, and the larger world, and collecting them into the famous Houses of Wisdom. These houses have spread across the empire, but the largest and most proficient of them remain in Tesiphon proper. Still, much of Tesiphon's success on the world stage has been from being in the right place at the right time, and as such Tesiphonians often suffer from a sort of confirmation bias, a false belief that their success is assured, and they often therefore fall the hardest when they do finally fail. Tesiphonians adore luxury, and this applies to most levels of Tesiphonian society. Beyond the bathhouses common elsewhere in the world, the cities of Tesiphon are dotted with salons, gentry pubs, smoking lounges, ladies' libraries, and gymnasiums. Even Tesiphonian adventurers are often remarked for seeking out the finest fruit wherever they are, for no fruit can compare to the fruit from Tesiphon. Still, Tesiphon is hardly a paradise for the people growing up there and living there. The expectations that parents and tutors place on children can be enormous, and many Tesiphonians grow up resenting their adolescence because of this. Tesiphon, like all of Kelior, is isolated from the rest of the world to some degree. However, Tesiphon is the most insulated of all of Kelior, other than perhaps Yuyake, and as such, Tesiphonians have very little exposure to the rest of the world, and are often therefore unprepared for some of its harsher realities. Finally, the Tesiphonians have never taken very well to the sea, and without the naturally adept seafaring Yuyakeese, their ports are often raided by pirates from the Wine-Faced Sea. Therefore, living in a coastal city can sometimes turn to be a suddenly violent existence. Central in the life of most Tesiphonians is their faith. Every settlement will, at the very least, have a shrine to each of the four elemental demi-gods in each corner of the settlement, and usually a temple or shrine in the center to Dramirus. The week often revolves around religious hours of worship, and the calendar is filled with religious holidays. Operating within the strictures of the faith is absolutely mandantory, and often, breaking these proscriptions can result in harsh punishment, or even death.

          The Tesiphonian people are most highly concentrated in Tesiphon, a nation which encompasses much of the coast around the Red Bay, the plains surrounding the Lake of Wishes, and the Hills of Tesiph. Tesiphonians also serve as administrators and representatives throughout Kelior, and abroad. The races of the Tesiphonian culture are most predominantly humans, loxodons, kenku, kobolds, goblins, and dwarves. While the ancient beliefs of the Tesiphonians varied widely, since the rise of the Temple of Elemental Faith, almost all Tesiphonians today have fallen in line, either for the benefits it brings, or for fear of doing otherwise. Tesiphonians tend to be proud, regal, and skilled. They also tend to be self-absorbed, pampered, and insular. The dominant language among the Tesiphonians is Old Keloran, though the elites tend to speak Loxocommon among each other.

If you choose the Tesiphonian Culture, you gain the following:

~Either a +1 to your Charisma score or a +1 to your Intelligence score~

~A -1 to your Constitution score~

~As a known language, either Old Keloran Common or Loxocomn~

~A Sub-Discipline in every knowledge skill on checks relating to Tesiphonian Culture~

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