### The Culture of the Kingdom of Rebmos
The **Kingdom of Rebmos** is a rigid, clockwork monarchy where **progress is pedigree**, **innovation is inheritance**, and **class is destiny**. Life in the northwestern heartlands is a symphony of steam-whistles, ledger-books, and whispered hierarchies.
**Daily Rhythm**
Dawn is announced by **factory klaxons** at 4:45 sharp. Citizens rise, don **brown wool uniforms** (gold piping for the wealthy), and recite the **Oath of Industry** while polishing boots with coal-oil. Breakfast is stratified:
- Aristocracy: poached quail eggs on silver trays.
- Middle class: rye toast and machine-brewed tea.
- Low class: **gruel ration** stamped with the day’s production quota.
**Hierarchy and Appearance**
Status is **worn, measured, and taxed**.
- **Iron Aristocracy** wear **brown frock coats with gold cog-buttons**; top hats are mandatory, height proportional to net worth.
- **Engineers** sport **monocle-lenses** etched with patents; a missing lens is social suicide.
- **Middle managers** pin **brass gear-brooches** to lapels—one gear per promotion.
- **Low class** are issued **serial-numbered collars**; removal earns a night in the **Stocks of Shame**.
**Education and Labor**
Children enter **Academy Forges** at age six. Curriculum: arithmetic, etiquette, and **blueprint recitation**. By ten they can strip a steam-rifle blindfolded. Labor is **contractual worship**:
- Aristocracy “oversee” from velvet offices.
- Middle class crunch numbers in glass-walled counting houses.
- Low class toil 18-hour shifts; **exceeding quota** earns a **Merit Mark** (a gold stamp on the wrist, valid for one week of slightly better rations).
**Art and Leisure**
Art glorifies **wealth and machinery**. **Oil portraits** show tycoons posed beside their first patent. Theater is **Industrial Opera**: tenors belt arias while stagehands assemble functioning locomotives mid-performance. Music is **brass-band marches** played on factory rooftops. Leisure is **Invitation Only**:
- Aristocracy host **Gear Galas**—dancing beneath chandeliers powered by child-driven dynamos (legal loophole: “apprentices”).
- Middle class attend **Ledger Luncheons**—discussing stock prices over weak tea.
- Low class are granted **one Sunday off per month** to watch public executions from designated bleachers.
**Law and Punishment**
Justice is **mathematical**. Crimes are assigned **Efficiency Points**; punishment balances the ledger.
- Minor infractions (tardiness): **Deduction Shifts**—extra hours, wages garnished.
- Major crimes (theft, dissent): **Reeducation Forges**—offenders emerge with **clockwork limbs** and a new serial number.
Public trials are held in **Courts of Gears**: judges wear **brown robes with gold scales**; verdicts are read by **automaton criers**.
**Death and Remembrance**
Funerals are **Profit Assessments**. The body is weighed on **golden scales**; estate taxes are calculated on the spot.
- Aristocracy: cremated in **patent-sealed urns**, ashes mixed with molten gold.
- Middle class: buried in **uniform caskets** stamped with final wage grade.
- Low class: **unmarked pits** behind factories; families receive a **gear-token** (redeemable for one day’s gruel).
Widows wear **brown veils with gold thread** for 100 days; widowers shave one sideburn.
**Holidays**
- **Day of the First Patent**: parades of steam-carriages; citizens exchange **miniature gear-pins**.
- **Feast of the Iron Harvest**: a week of mandatory overtime; top producers receive **golden wrenches**.
- **Night of Silent Ledgers**: once a year, all accounting ceases for six hours; citizens stare at walls in terror of idle time.
**Language and Etiquette**
Speech is **clipped and contractual**. Greetings: *“Profits rise.”* Farewells: *“Balance favor you.”* Insults are **financial**: “Penny-pinched pauper,” “Bankrupt bloodline.” Physical touch is minimal—**ledger-handshakes** (palms pressed flat, fingers splayed like balance sheets). Eye contact is a **valuation stare**; the first to blink owes a favor.
**Gender and Family**
Roles are **economic**. Men dominate heavy industry; women excel in finance and patent law. Marriage is a **Merger Contract**, signed before a notary and sealed with **dual-stamped wax**. Children are raised in **Boarding Foundries** to maximize parental productivity. Inheritance is **patent-based**—daughters inherit blueprints, sons inherit factories.
**Attitude Toward Outsiders**
The Anointed are **useful zealots**—their faith keeps the workforce docile. The Red Suns are **“dust-rats”** to be exterminated. The Legion and Covenant are **“superstitious saboteurs”** whose magic threatens patents. Contact is through **trade envoys** in brown topcoats, armed with **ether-ledgers** and bodyguards.
In every tick of Rebmosian culture, **wealth is worship, innovation is bloodline, and survival is a balance sheet**. To live is to turn the great wheel of capital, one calculated risk at a time.
There is no such thing as "Retirement" in the Kingdom of Rebmos, whether the work is light or severe. And because of the chaos of its economy, it is accepted that both men and women will participate in the workforce. This usually leaves the children -- if they have them -- under the watch of kingdom-appointed guardians, who are all too eager to inform them of the virtues of the Rebmos Kingdom.
This practice has been in effect for a half century, and the current generation of Rebmosians know nothing outside of what the kingdom has taught them.
Given the state of the kingdom, the high class of Rebmos are comprised of the most intelligent or scheming, or both. The middle class are those that managed to dodge the poverty line by working for the elite. Below them are the "dregs" of society; Beggars, outlaws, and the enlisted soldiers of the Rebmos Military, who are generally full of those who with no other choice.