Appearance

The people of Kethol are a slightly built people of medium height.  They have black hair and very dark brown eyes.  The top lids of their eyes form a slight protective fold.  They have somewhat broad faces.  Their muscles structures tend to be long and lean.  Most peasants are thin, but some of the merchant and noble classes are fat.

There is a wide variety of dress among the noble and merchant classes.  Styles are ever changing.  Silk is the most popular fabric though.  The only true rule is that nudity is a taboo.  Not even the most brazen would wear something that exposes their private areas.

The peasants generally dress in loose, functional clothing.  Both sexes wear durable trousers, tunics that are drawn closed with a sash and sandals.  Hats made of straw are also common when working in the fields.  Even the farmers are doing well at this point in history.  Most can afford two sets of clothing.

Basic History and Government

The United Kingdoms of Kethol is made up of three kingdoms.  They are Selta with her capitol city of Great Lakes, Massunica with her capitol city of Lorado and Ulach with her capitol city of Carson.  Selta is ruled over by High Queen Tabina of the House of Romana, Massunica is ruled over by King Rocklar of the House of Kear and Ulach is ruled over by young King Odeon of the House of Theet.  High Queen Tabina is the ultimate authority in the United Kingdoms.  The other rulers pay tribute to her and defer to her judgment.

The capitals each have a beautiful palace made from stone, bamboo and wood.  These palaces are easy to defend.  There are walls around the cities as well, but they are very fair out.  Kethol has been at peace for so long that these walls are in disrepair.

Each capital city has a parliament.  The members of this parliament are voted for by all of noble birth in each kingdom.  The parliaments advise the rulers.  They can over rule the decision of a ruler, with a two-third-majority vote.  The members of each parliament hold their position for life.  This system has been in place for about three hundred years.  It was established after the nobles of the three kingdoms rose up and rebelled against the corrupt High King Hugo.

The three kingdoms became united under the rule of the high king, or queen, over seven hundred years ago.  The Queen Moab blazed a path of destruction and death across the whole of the three kingdoms, until not one noble house was left.  She appointed new houses to the nobility, drawing on the middle class merchant houses.  They supported her against the cruel, evil leaders of their lands.  She united the kingdoms under the banner of her house, the House Romana.

As things stand now, a council, under the authority of their respective shire councils, rules each town and village.  The shire councils are under the authority of the three royal councils.  The local level councils get members through a vote of everyone in the circle of their authority.  Every farmer, herder, woodsman or craftsman has a vote.  Men and women both can vote, as can any child over the age of fifteen.  These local councils can pass laws and appropriate tax money.  They must still follow the directives of the councils above them though.

Citizens can pass from kingdom to kingdom as they wish.  There are border guards to help regulate trade, and impose tariffs and taxes, but they do not stop the free movement of citizens.  Most citizens never leave their home village though.

Each noble and ruler has a small standing army, but there is not national army.  There has not been a war, or even a civil struggle, for about fifty years.  These small armies act more as honor guards and bodyguards, than as armed forces.  Still, there are trained militias that can be called up in emergencies.

Economy

The farmers frequently own their own lands.  When the first High Queen took over, she redistributed the lands.  She gave every family in her realms a plot of land to work.  As time has gone on, the local lords have bought a lot of this land back.  They waited until a farmer had a bad season, then lend him money.  When he could not pay the money back, they took his farm and then allowed him and his family to stay on as sharecroppers.  There are still some independent landowners though.  Even the sharecroppers live a good life, compared with the peasants of most kingdoms.

The mountains are a rich source of gems and minerals.  There is also gold in many of the lakes and streams.  The UK of Kethol is a wealth Empire.  They also do a brisk business trading with other nations by sea.

Education

Kethol has one of the best educational systems in The World.  Each village and town has a school with a full-time teacher.  Each child has the opportunity to go to school from age six until age twelve.  They are taught reading, writing, arithmetic and history.  Even the lowest peasants send their children, hoping that they may become merchants or craftsmen.  There is more movement among the social classes than in any other nation.  Still, it is likely that a son or daughter will follow in the social footsteps of his or her parents.

There are many universities and colleges in the capitol cities and even a few in the bigger towns.  Both women and men can enroll, though there is discrimination against women in these schools.  Many professors still make women sit in the back row and a few make them sit in the hallways.

Gender Distinctions

Kethol is generally a male dominated society, but within the past two hundred years women have won the right to vote, the right to an education and the right to own and operate businesses.  A woman can now legally make a living and own land.  Still, there is not such thing as affirmative action.  Each woman must fight her own battles.  It has always been possible for a woman to ascend the throne, if there is not male heir.

Technology

Kethol has many technological advances over the other nations.  Kethol produces the best mechanic devices in The World, including clocks, crossbows, horse drawn agricultural devices, simple printing presses and wind powered grinding wheels.  They have even begun to experiment with an explosive black power and using steam pressure to move mechanical parts.

Arms and armor

Kethol allows citizens to carry a single, visible weapon.  The most common weapon carried is a cudgel or staff.  Still, many young men and some women have started using long, thin, pointed steel blades called foils.  The crossbows being produced in Kethol are now so powerful that they punch right through chain mail armor.  Many are abandoning armor and long swords in favor of the newer fighting styles that emphasize these new kinds of swords and the quick, deadly fighting style that has developed around their use.  This style of fighting has not spread much past Kethol's boarders yet.

Family Structure

Every person, from the High Queen to the lowest sheepherder, is a part of a house.  The house is lead by the oldest living male member.  Most villages are made up of one or two houses.  These houses can have hundreds of members.

Children continue to live with their parents throughout their entire lives.  When a woman marries, she leaves her parent's house and becomes a part of her husband's house.  It is forbidden to marry within one's own house, even if the one you wish to marry is a second cousin.

All children stay with the women until they are about eight.  After that the boys go with their uncles and fathers to learn the family trade.  This has changed a bit among the merchants and craftsmen.  It is now more common to see girls learning the trades of their fathers.  There is also more mobility among the classes.  Houses of a higher social level sometimes adopt well-educated young farmers.  Their families work long and hard to buy them a place in these classes.  These social shifts have only been legal for a few hundred years.

Housing

Most houses and building are built from bamboo stalks and thatched roofs.  Some richer folk use wood as well, but even their houses use bamboo for their basic frameworks.  Despite the nearness of Emdoor, much of Kethol has warm, almost tropical weather.  Many higher-level nobles do use stone to build their homes though.  There are also beautiful stone temples and shrines through the three kingdoms.

Religion

Religious leaders can be men or women.  All religious leaders are part of special orders.  They are pledged to remain celibate and in poverty.  Many live in temples or local shrines, but some travel the land begging.  Some orders are very formal and structured and others are very loss.  It is even know for someone to declare him or herself a new order and go around trying to recruit members.

The people of Kethol worship the god Horris.  He is known as the quietest and most philosophical of the gods and goddesses.  They also pray to their family members that have passed on.  They believe that these family members watch over them and have the ear of Horris. 

They do believe that a soul can be re-incarnated, but they do not think that EVERY soul is.  Most simple watch over the family and wait until the Day or Reckoning.  Still, some are so good and holy that The Divine Mother and Horris decide together to send them back.  Many of these re-incarnated ones are the heads of religious orders.

Seagoing

Kethol used large ocean going ships.  They use up to three masts and are the envy of the world.  They are a peaceful people, without much of a navy.  There are some commissioned coastal defense vessels, but they do not send naval forces out into wide-open oceans.  Still most merchants arm their vessels with powerful arbalests.  Some even have small, deck-mounted cannons.  Their crews are armed with clubs, cutlasses and powerful, compact crossbows.  They are not an easy target.  Some rich merchants even have started to carry primitive, experimental hand held cannons.

Kethol has been trading peaceful with the Tarabethian Islanders for a long time.  In recent years, they have clashed with Get.  Odeland and Get have been at war over control of these Islands.  Kethol has sided with Odeland, but still has not committed naval vessels.  They have been slowly driven out, but the current Queen has not seen fit to commission more naval vessels.

Trent's Corner

Trent's Corner is a large, independent town.  People that came from Kethol about four hundred years ago populate it.  They were fleeing religious persecution by the King of the time, King Korr.

They believed that praying to ancestors was blasphemous.  They refused to participate in public religious services that King Korr required, because they contained such prayers.  Specifically, King Korr had ordered the people of his kingdoms to gather in public to pray to his father and his ancestors.  He tried to claim that they not only had Horris' ear, but that they were avatars of Horris.  He himself claimed divinity.

The people of Trent's Corner, under the leadership of Trent Maomi, were persecuted.  The King had them arrested and publicly tortured and then killed.  They all hide, but he sought them out.  Almost two thousand of them died.

His sister Jenna murdered King Korr.  She took his throne and abolished his religious requirements.

It was to late for the people of Trent's Corner though.  They had fled the evil king.  The remaining five hundred or so managed to make it past Emdoor to the empty South of the continent.  They founded their own settlement.

The people of Trent's Corner are a very devote, very simple folk.  They reject ancestor worship, violence and technology.  They believe that living a simple, reverent life is what is required.  They worship The Divine Mother, Her son Horris and The Mysterious Unknown Father.  They are the only other group besides Get that actively worship a father figure.  Their worship focuses mostly on The Mother though.

The people of Trent's Corner use simple horse drawn tools, live in sturdy wooden houses, wear sturdy brown clothing and do not use any ornate decorations.  The unmarried women and all the men wear their hair long and tie it back when working.  The men wear moustaches when they become married. These moustaches are allowed to grow long.  The moustaches of the old men pass down to their chests. The married women put their hair back in buns.  All use simple leather ties for their hair.

The people of Trent's Corner do little trading with the outside world.  They horded metal tools carefully.  They have smiths, but have no available source of stock.  Once every fifty years or so, they send a party North to trade for metal.  They take some of their fine cattle.  Everything else they grown or raise themselves.  Their wood comes from the forest to the North and their living comes from the soil, and from chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle.