Raikoth Autonomous Region

In the Cimmeria and Raikoth Special Autonomous Region of the Benacian Union, the Raikoth Autonomous Region was established as a means whereby the historic cultural identity of Raikoth could be preserved against the encroachments of the modern world.

Note: Portions of the text written in italics are unaltered from the source material provided originally by Scott Alexander. These sections may be updated to match the present context in due course.

Government

The government is run by enlightened stigmergy, an emergent system of prediction markets and utility calculations that operates very nicely without any central authority. There is a Conclave, mostly of the High Priests of Joy, who try to figure out what's going on and why the government has the policies it does, but they have very limited ability to change policies except in cases where some sort of bug has caused the math to completely depart from reality.

Harmonious Society

Social control is exerted neither by guilt nor by shame, but by fine-tuning society so that it's in most people's interests to do what is socially expected of them, and by trying to change people's personal psychology enough that there are no irresistible antisocial drives. If someone does something very wrong, they're encouraged to visit the Priests of Beauty, who will help them either by counselling, lifestyle changes, or medication. If that doesn't work, they usually choose to leave the cities and go the monasteries or colonies.

Honor...well, breaking a promise is usually enough to get you exiled pretty quickly, although there's a pretty complex set of traditions around promises to prevent you from getting arrested every time you promise to go to breakfast with someone but oversleep. There's less emphasis on the "you have insulted my honor, I challenge you to a duel" sort of thing.

There's pretty good gender equality, in that there are often female high priestesses, high lotters, businesspeople, et cetera. On the other hand, there's still some pretty strong belief in traditional gender roles, and nobody seems too bothered that there is an uneven ratio of males to females in these positions. Maybe another way to put it is that the economics and politics of gender are more liberal than the sociology; there aren't huge obstacles for women who want to gain high positions, but they're probably less encouraged to do so.

Culture

Almost entirely mono-ethnic; there are still traces of the genesis of the Raikothin race from the union of several other racial groups thousands of years ago, but foreigners are not invited to immigrate unless they have completely absorbed the Raikothin language and culture, which almost never happens. There are a few Shirerithian officials in Tala, a few foreigners in the larger cities who against all odds have passed the assimilation process - but other than that it's Raikothlin all the way down.

The Raikothlin do tend to obsess over their relatively small internal ethnic differences, though, and although a foreigner couldn't tell the Sithlin apart from anyone else based on appearance or dialect or culture they're still treated about the same way the [Babkhans] treat the [Baatharzi] or [Kumaranchi]. Tairakothlin and Illikothlin also consider themselves distinct groups, although no foreigners take them seriously.

Mythology

Old myths and four thousand years of history. Some stories are indigenous folktalkes older than Raikoth itself - Authi Kalirion who was raised by bears, Kasi Elution who lit the sun by climbing the highest mountain with a torch, Kadmi Rachumion who talked to the volcano and received its promise not to destroy the world. Others are relatively recent stories covered over with myth - Rhoni Karusion the fiery Paladin warlord, Rhoti Inkenion who helped conquer Bosworth during the War of Jeremy's Nose, Yyiji Tonkothion who expelled the Babkhans from Elwynn and began the Great-Who-We-Are-Becoming...actually, any stories about anyone who fought off the Babkhans are pretty popular. And then there is Nithi Kirenion's prophetic dreams about the story of Galinomai, whose influence on modern culture cannot be overstated. Most stories are told in the form of chant or poetry, a lot like our own Kalevala or the Song of Hiawatha.

A form which has caught on recently is the Galisipsimbl, or Galisyin romance, which tells the stories of the warrior-trickster-ambassadors of Raikoth and their travels through foreign countries, usually much embellished to the benefit of the Galisyin involved.

Aesthetic

Raikothin ideas of beauty involve natural forms, geometry, and extremes of detail - either minimalist or completely over-the-top. Portrayal of order, even hidden order amid apparent chaos, is smiled upon; portrayal of discordance, rage, chaos, or political ideas as typically understood are not.

Society should be calm, quiet, clean, and well-ordered, but also spontaneous, happy and full of genuine (if subdued) emotion. Unacceptable behavior is loudness, vandalism, uncleanliness, having strong political opinions not reducible to math, stuffiness, or excessive grandstanding/narcissism. Although Raikoth has had autocratic periods and even times when the country has approached a caste system, autocracy and caste systems are now loathed thanks to their association with Babkha; opposition to these two ideas is a tolerated exception to the dislike of politics.

Urban areas

All Raikothin cities are walled by tradition, but their growth over the millennia has led to a series of concentric walls as space within the earlier walled areas runs out. Within the walls are large, geometric, and usually very old buildings mostly of white or grey stone - these are mostly government, ceremonial, or commercial buildings. Outside the walls are roundhouses, pretty similar to yurts, where most of the population lives - only the very large cities like Kalen will have "apartment" buildings. These are arranged in neighborhoods, originally centered around springs of water but now usually around artificial fountains; people tend to stay in the same neighborhood for much of their lives and they have a sense of community even in the largest cities.

The streets are clean and - most surprising to visitors - almost dead silent: there are no cars or animals, and it's a taboo to make noise in public places. People are genuinely friendly in their neighborhoods and guardedly friendly in the city at large.

Children and animals

Children hang around in their neighborhood most of the time, and are raised somewhat communally in mixed-age playgroups (although not in any kind of hippie or commie sense of them not knowing who their parents are or not having families or anything like that - more like the way it tended to happen in old hunter-gatherer tribes. They're left pretty much alone by adult society until age eight or so, when they get ten or fifteen years of education and training.

Pet dogs are pretty common, especially in rural areas where dogsleds are still a viable means of transportation. Ever since the Galinomai stories gained popularity, there's been a move to more tropical pets, especially parrots and snakes - although needless to say this only works in very climate controlled areas. Some people in Sithli of all places have been trying to breed cold-resistant parrots, which would be interesting if it worked. There has been some limited domestication of the dolphin and the polar bear; private individuals probably wouldn't have these as pets, but some "animal hobbyists" might have working relationships with them and the priesthood keeps some domesticated polar bears around for impressive ceremonies.

Despite a period of near-universal vegetarianism during the Saquithve age three thousand years ago, the realities of life in the far north have forced most Raikothlin to eat animals, though a few monasteries still hold out. Fish are by far the most common, but musk ox, reindeer, seals, and walruses are all eaten, usually a combination of those raised on farms or aquaculture plots and those hunted in the mountains. There are strict laws restricting hunting to people in small villages who need the meat for themselves which have prevented the local wildlife from being wiped out; other laws restricting the technology useable for hunting (in some cases as far as bows and arrows) also helps. Polar bears and dolphins are both completely taboo and may not be hunted or eaten.

Economy

About a third of the Raikothlin are farmers, fishermen, hunters, gatherers, or in related rural agricultural occupations. Another third are in the "government occupations", mostly the priesthoods, which aside from administrative bureaucracy and religious ritual also handle science, philosophy, medicine, psychology and education. The Paladins, who maintain civic order, are also in this group. The remaining third are in business and industry, although because of strict control on things like retail and marketing the economy is skewed towards art/craft, technology, infrastructure, energy, and software. In a society that expands at a glacial pace, there's very little construction or infrastructure, although manufacture of various vehicles (usually bizarre) and mass transit systems is growing.

Most Raikothlin don't have very high aspirations, in the sense of becoming rich or moving to Hawaii or becoming a movie star. The ideal is to live a happy life with a partner (or partners) and children in a beautiful community, enjoy Nature and meditation, and maybe leave behind some art or poetry or particular elegant mathematics. There's not a lot of room to become rich, there's no government to rise in, and the priests don't get many special privileges. People usually just pursue their own hobbies and relationships.

People will often switch jobs and locations several times throughout their lives. It's relatively common for people to live in rural areas until their kids grow older, move to cities so that their children can go to the city schools, and then move back later. Many people will try to avoid having the sort of job that ties you to one location, and because of the ease of living off the land there's not the same sense that you have to get money RIGHT NOW or you'll be falling into debt.

The monasteries are usually ready to take anyone who doesn't know what else to do. They usually stand on distant mountaintops where they hunt and farm and meditate in a strictly regimented life. Some of them are for social outcasts and criminals, others are for spiritual seekers, and others are just plain weird.

The idea of "wanting a better life" is sort of foreign to Raikothlin. If they're happy, they stay where they are. If they want more nature and spirituality, they'll move to the monasteries. If they want more money, they'll often move to the colonies, to Elwynn, or to the rest of Shireroth.

Income ranges

There is a wealth ceiling of around $500,000 a year; that is, the tax system allows you to approach that amount but never reach it. In practice, there are very few people making over $200,000, and even if you do there's not a whole lot of ways to conspicuously spend that kind of money. Most people both are and appear pretty equal, although natives who know what to look for have no trouble picking out social classes, and there are many luxuries which are either limited to the rich or which the rich can afford much more of.

Although poor people making less than about $15000 a year are common, they tend to be either hard-working rural farmers or people in the cities who have devoted themselves to a less lucrative field like art but who still live comfortably.

The average income is probably around $25000 or so - slightly less than in [Natopia], and taxes are higher - but there are also much fewer expenses, much more provided free by the government, and much greater ability to subsist off the land when necessary.

Poverty

Raikoth tries to avoid is the existence of a permanent underclass of unskilled and uneducated poor people who can't fit anywhere in society. Whenever these people start to turn up, it usually gets rid of them through voluntary sterilization programs, voluntary relocation to monasteries, and exile. After four thousand years, it's mostly eugeniced-away the problem.

There are still poor people in the sense of "people with less money than average", but the Gini coefficient is pretty low and they're still educated and able to get all the necessities of life and then some. There's enough usable land free that anyone who really wants can go claim a spot out west, and the monasteries are happy to take anyone and give them a liveable monastic lifestyle.

Transportation

Transportation is usually by foot, but some cities have mass transit, usually a sort of monorail pod like this one though obviously not solar powered. A few cities are experimenting with glidderies (thanks, Neverness!), ice-covered streets that can be navigated on ice skates more quickly than by walking, and many smaller villages are already being built this way.