“Order is Freedom. Work is Worship.”
Filed under: Aegis Department of Societal Intelligence — Class Ω-Restricted Archive
Civil life in Xratinia is defined by one core belief:
“Every citizen is a blade — sharpened, maintained, and used when needed.”
The line between soldier and civilian barely exists. Every worker is trained to fight, every fighter can repair a machine, and every child grows up knowing their signature must be as precise as a sword’s edge.
Society functions like a living forge — heat, pressure, and routine transform individuals into instruments of stability. There is no crime without consequence, no work without pride, and no idleness without shame.
All Xratinians are registered by Forge Record, a steel-bound ledger containing their name, family line, and service oaths.
Citizenship is earned, not granted — one must complete basic labor or defense service by age 18.
Failure to serve renders one Rusted, stripped of rights and public respect. Rusted citizens live outside the walls and cannot hold property or vote in city assemblies.
While castes exist (Miners, Soldiers, Keepers), movement between them is possible through merit.
A miner who invents a more efficient furnace design may be elevated to Keeper status.
A Keeper who refuses to work under duress can be demoted to Rusted in a single day.
Social rank in Xratinia is not about wealth — it is about endurance and contribution.
Gender distinction is almost irrelevant. Men and women train, fight, and labor alike.
Families are co-forged units: parents raise children collectively with neighboring households in Forge Clusters, small community blocks that share resources, workshops, and communal kitchens.
Marriages are arranged by personal oaths, not legal contract. Divorce is rare and culturally dishonorable. The death of a spouse is met with quiet respect — the survivor forges a ring from their partner’s armor and wears it on the left hand forever.
Each city is overseen by a Warden-Governor, chosen by the King or House Miyakoshi for life service. Wardens act as both mayor and military coordinator, responsible for maintaining productivity, discipline, and order.
Xratinia has no written constitution — only the Iron Decrees, an evolving set of rulings passed down orally and inscribed in steel tablets placed in every major square.
Punishments are physical and public, focusing on correction rather than cruelty.
Common Sentences:
Brand of Rust: Burned symbol on the palm for dereliction of duty.
Labor Reforging: Hard labor in mines until oath reinstatement.
Silence Sentence: Mute service — a year of vow-bound silence as guard duty.
Executions are extremely rare; dishonor is considered a worse fate than death.
A closed advisory body of ten Keepers and one noble representative.
They manage resource allocation, civilian affairs, and communication with other nations.
The Council does not legislate — it enforces, ensuring the King’s word flows through every gear of society.
Every Xratinian treats labor as sacred.
The act of forging, mining, or constructing is considered a spiritual extension of the Crown’s will — “To build is to pray.”
Factory shifts are 12 hours, six days a week.
Every seventh day is The Cooling, a national rest period where forges are extinguished for 12 hours, and the population gathers for communal meals, repairs, and quiet reflection.
Guilds replace unions — they are sworn brotherhoods that oversee training, ethics, and production standards.
Each guild operates under strict codes and ancient oaths.
Examples:
Hammerwrights Guild: Oversees armor and weapon construction.
Chainmasters Guild: Manages logistics, machinery, and rail systems.
Recorders Guild: The historians, scribes, and teachers who preserve written law and industrial knowledge.
Guilds are apolitical — betrayal or corruption within a guild is treated as treason.
External trade is minimal. The motto “If it can’t be made here, we don’t need it” remains literal.
Limited black-market trade occurs along the Veridian border — usually foodstuffs and fabrics from HavenReach. The government tolerates it quietly, as long as it remains contained.
Children attend public schools called Forge Halls from ages 6–16.
Curriculum includes metallurgy, engineering, combat basics, ethics, handwriting, mathematics, and environmental discipline.
Graduation requires:
Forging a functional blade or tool by hand.
Writing a 10,000-character essay on national history without error.
Firing 50 rounds from a plasma rifle with 90% accuracy.
Those who fail are remanded for two years of industrial labor before being retested.
Elite instructors descended from the Recorders Guild. Their motto:
“Knowledge is steel — sharpen it, or it dulls the world.”
They train not for creativity but for clarity. Every sentence, drawing, or formula must be perfect.
Students learn precision through repetition until skill becomes instinct.
Patriotism is instilled through ritual rather than propaganda.
At dawn, every school rings the Bell of Alloy, and students recite the national creed:
“We are not born strong — we are tempered.”
Xratinia has no gods, temples, or clergy. The people believe divinity lies in the act of creation.
Forging metal is akin to forging self. Every strike of the hammer is a meditation.
The only sacred text is “The Tempered Words” — a series of proverbs carved into a metal slab in Ironvale’s Silent Square.
Sample Verses:
“To shatter is to begin again.”
“The forge does not forgive; it remembers.”
“Those who shape the world must burn with it.”
When a citizen dies, their armor or work tools are melted into a Steel Shelf piece — a personal relic displayed in the family’s home.
After ten years, that piece is re-smelted into public infrastructure — symbolizing that no Xratinian truly dies, they simply change form.
Funerals are silent. Only the ringing of anvils marks the passing of a soul.
Industrial percussion dominates — drums, hammers, anvils, and rhythmic chants.
Songs are used for timing in work and battle, rarely for leisure.
Lyrics center on endurance, unity, or loss.
Most art is functional: murals carved into steel panels, sculptures made from melted armor, or engraved weapons.
Color is scarce — black, silver, and rust-red dominate. Symbolism matters more than beauty.
The Cooling Day: Every seventh day; symbolic reset of the forge.
The Day of the Anvil: Annual national holiday celebrating laborers; no work, only communal feasts.
The Night of Chains: Once every decade — citizens fast and march in silence, dragging symbolic iron chains to honor the first miners who built the nation.
Oral history is preserved through Steel Tales, short parables of perseverance told by veterans and miners.
Children learn morality from these stories, not religion.
Xratinians are stoic, grounded, and utterly pragmatic.
They rarely laugh, but when they do, it’s genuine and deep — the release of pressure from a well-kept furnace.
They believe peace is temporary, but duty eternal.
Their unofficial motto, spoken among civilians:
“We may die tomorrow, but the forge stays lit.”
“They are not soulless — they are focused.
Where we worship freedom, they worship function.
They have replaced prayer with productivity and found peace in repetition.
Their world is not cruel. It is honest.”
Summary:
Xratinian civil society is a balance of ritualized labor, absolute discipline, and practical unity.
There are no heroes, only citizens who perform perfectly.
In a world obsessed with progress, Xratinia has perfected purpose.
“They built their heaven with their own hands — and it smells like smoke.”