Pelithine Culture

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paizon - go-like board, but with both chess-like pieces and also fixed fortification stone - nine Throne positions, capture for major power - capture space to harvest Charon/pneuma from it to bear on new pieces - special mantle pieces? or the pieces are named after the mantles and have different abilities? - created by the old Sentinel, and said to contain hidden bits of her lore, or lead to them. lots of famous paizon-puzzles. might even be divinatory when done in the right places? - said to represent the struggles of the Theoagonas

nectar & ambrosia?

Warfare

crossbows - pelithines hold great admiration for archery and most regard the crossbow as a weapon for conscripts and acrolonian thugs, although they did invent the ballista. some arcanists have developed an interest in crossbow, particularly small pistol-like ones favored by the Cult of the Unseen.

curved longer blades, ranging from scimitars to heavy-tipped tulwars, favored by sailors and cavalry kukri-like sickle knives

chakrams

leaf-bladed spears, good as staff-spears and throwing spears sarissae - 20 foot long pikes used in phalanxes javelins with throwing straps

gladius-style short swords carried by infantry and in cities

round and oval shields composite bows, slings greek-helms leather armor with varying levels of metal plates, greaves, etc, up to something like lorica segmentata; chain and scale do exist as well

heavier armor is used only by certain armor mages, the climate of much of pelithos doesn't favor heavy armor (nor sea-faring) tridents, nets clubs, staves, sickles

phalanx combat, perfected by the aletheiads, particularly necessary against the centaurs, who fight like a cross between mongol horse-archers and european heavy cavalry

extensive array of siege/ship weapons and fortifications

Pelithine-fire, a treacherous weapon (invented by the Brand) but deadly at sea, sprayed from tubes, hurled in bombs thrown, launched from catapults, or bound to ballista bolts; shipwrights have invented a variety of ways of making ships more fireproof: wood treatments, certain choices of tree (shaped by the cornucopia), thin metal plating

naval battles usually involve skirmishing with fire weapons and then either grappling or ramming and boarding

Language

magical/cosmic- supernal (more known on Pelithos than elsewhere, due to archons, always comprehended)- furian (used by titancults)- arcadian- obyrith- abyssal- gravetongue (somewhat known, achridanoi, people hanging around Epolosia)- draconic (from furian?)- gargan (from furian, giantish, also azer, weirdly similar across all realms)

ancient - Paleoglossa (pre-arcadian fey dialects, basically lost) gilded / arcadian age

- Proiglossa (morningtongue)- Esperaglossa (eveningtongue) - ancient minotaurian fensir (dead, minotaurs) - Imperial (old acrolonian latin)- old centaurian (dead/ritual, Turkish?)- old barigor (dead, used by the invaders and the holdouts) shattered age - Aletheian (from old Imperial, borrowings from glossan)) - Aplosi (mingling of old centaur and glossan from grigora, used by the tribes) - Peshehar ("biting face", leukrottan, from old barigor, mingling of furian/gargan) - Iretigu (cyclopean, from old barigor, mingling of furian/gargan; many speak some Aplosi too) - High Pythian (glossa-descended, but intentionally shifted to create cultural distinctiveness for use by high caste pythians; also used by the oread quasi-slaves of the empire, still used by the lamia and gorgons) - Low Pythian / Chemari (originally used by low caste pythians, slaves, has become the regional dialect of the oread diaspora, golden wastes, phidion coast, and other former pythian holdings and influences (Limani, Chemaros/naiads, Pyrgos) - Epolosian (glossa-descended, merger of the two old tongues, probably closest and purest to old glossan, pride of culture and scholarship in epolosian) - Potamian (glossa-descended, Thalestris kept the two glossas alive in Tapiseri, but even she couldn't prevent some drift over the centuries)  mandragora chiefly speak a debased Potamian - Neriadese (used in Boreals, Southern Isles, and Dragon's Tail and other neriad dominated regions, a drift of glossan similar to Epolosian and Potamian; dead after they left in the Great Migration) epolosian, neriadese, and potamian are very close though, like Spanish and Italian, or maybe even Portuguese) - Emenablu ("language of fire", gargan/draconic-like mortalized version of furian used by the Azer) - <Psarian> (rapidly drifted neriadese, mingled with Furian, still spoken by the psarikampoi; distinct northern and southern dialects) <synnephion> (spoken by the harpies and oreads of synnephion ori and opagos, glacial-satyrs too) <margaritarian> (descended from acrolonian latin and fensir, admixed with glossan) Gidan??? - western satyr, from Gida's tribes?

southern isles mostly speaks Aletheian, Epolosian, and Margaritarian, with a surprising amount of psarian

Dragon's Tail? Southern Isles?

vasileia speaks a stew of Potamian, Margaritarian, dragon tail neriadese, synnephian, etc - satyr?- harpy? - synnephian (glossa-descended with furian influence; oreads)

dark age - Lascivian (dark acrolonian latin, officially used in the Hegemony and Calcaria, widely known in the Vasileia and western Aplos/New Aletheia) - Formica (divered from margaritarian, due to changes in vocal structure and isolation enforced by besieging acrolonians) - Agrian (visitors from Acrolon) - Tradespeak - Thalassan (the abrupt departure of the neriads left the Boreal and Thalassan isles empty, killed their old language, to be replaced with a creole of Chemari/Low Pythian, Potamian, and Aletheian), used a fair amount on the Phidion Coast and Limani Gap as well, due to the strong influence of the Boreals during the war.

the feminine is the default gender in the the Pelithine language