Dinamid Republic

Dinamid Republic prior to the Iron Crusade, 20 NCE

## Heraldry

The Insigne Dinamid, or the "Emblem of Dinam"

The **Dinamid Republic** was a historically significant civilization that at one time encompassed most of Neuphany. Into its final years, this even included historic elf and cambinoid holdings. Its hegemony was referred to as **Dinam**.

The Dinamid Republic is the successor state to the Kingdom of Themyscria, which broke apart after King Solomon's successor, Rivec, was overthrown during the Themyscrian War of Realms. The judges of each kingdom convened, and the Lenorum Senate and Madelian armies were consolidated.

The Dinamians are credited for a number of achievements in science, mathematics, technology, philosophy, governance, academics, and military strategy. They are perhaps most known for their feats of engineering, many of which remain standing and some even still in use today. The Dinamid Republic was known for its well-maintained network of roads and an array of public services that were available to all citizens, including subsidized grains to commoners and a well-coordinated postal system that still exceeds modern standards.

Though later civilizations would refer to themselves as the Dinamid Republic, including early Ascanium, it is usually accepted that the Dinamid Republic collapsed with the burning of the Common Forum in Lenorum on 19 July CE 1.

## Society and culture

### Names and *genus*

The way that lineage was traced in the Dinamid Republic was by keeping a *genus* appended to one's name, as a method of enforcing the class system that arose after the Republic formed. This marked one's lineage to particular individuals in one's past, giving esteem or clout to those in the *equestrian* or *senatorial* classes of society.

At the outset, the list of initial *genus* were quite diverse, and the Senate concluded that in order to preserve the diversity and retain the usefulness of this system, they would also bestow *cognomens* to particularly noteworthy or distinguished individuals. These were handed out sparingly, as they required a full Senatorial vote to be given. Notable examples include Brutus Mandus Draco, "The Dragon," and Gaius Virilo Olivius, "The Peacemaker." These cognomens would remain with their descendants.

A genus was passed down strictly through the father, as it was supposed to associate one with a family Patriarch, an extremely important concept to Dinamid society. It was considered respectful to the family of the mother to give the first name of a child the first name of her father, or another patriarch of the family that was deemed noteworthy.

While it could be deemed appropriate to call one by their *genus*, it was generally seen as confusing to call one solely by their given name without their *genus*, as many shared their given names, but not as many shared *genus*. Most individuals were referred to by their *genus* except in a few cases. Those with cognomens were only referred to by that cognomen. Senators would use the whole name in the Common Forum, regardless of one's class. Most prominently, anyone who ever served as a Kaiser or a Senator had to be referred to by their full name and title when discussing them while they either are currently serving or describing a time in which they were serving. The exception to this rule was if the individual had disgraced themselves and were removed from office, as with Pyrrian Copiatus.

### Class and social status

The eldest male living in a family, on the paternal side, was considered the patriarch and rightful ruler of a family name. The patriarch had complete authority over family property and all family members. This does not extend merely to maintaining property or handling business decisions, but can even result in a patriarch having his son or grandson executed for familial transgressions.

Citizenship was the most sought legal distinction and offered legal protections and rights, especially the right to vote, but those who were investigated and found guilty of a moral crime by a *quaestor* were most often stripped of such rights. Citizenship was taxable, and unpaid taxes was a capital offense. A form of limited, voluntary slavery allowed wealthy creditors to negotiate payment of debt through bonded service. Poor, landless citizens of the lowest class might contract their sons to a creditor, patron or third party employer to obtain an income, or to pay off family debts. This practice was superseded by traditional chattel slavery when slaves became more readily available to the average citizen. This decline began roughly around the end of the Epicurean War, and fully extended to even poor Dinamid citizens by the end of the Perthic Wars.

Slaves were simultaneously family members and family property. They
could be bought, sold, acquired through warfare, or born and raised
within their master's household,. They could also buy their freedom with
 money they have saved, and their sons were eligible for citizenship. This degree of social
mobility was unusual in antiquity. Freed slaves and the master
who freed them retained certain legal and moral mutual obligations.

Citizen men and citizen women
 were expected to marry, produce as many children as possible, and
improve or at least conserve their family's accumulated wealth, fortune, and
public profile. Marriage offered opportunities for political alliance and social advancement. However, marriage between the patrician and plebeian classes was rare and socially forbidden; this is not as much the case in a freedwomen or freedman wedding their former masters, as even though they were lower status as freedmen, they were still familial and maintained the client-master relationship affording them special patrician status in the case of marriage. Women in any marriage were strict property of their husband, as once dictated by Mamun in the days of the Kingdom.

The Dinamid Republic was most known for its highly stratified system of social class, inherited mainly by accumulated wealth from the Kingdom of Themyscria. Despite the wealth of its core Madelian demographic, Solernia and Illyria's emergence as military, economic, and political powers greatly overshadowed the former kingdom's capitol in the days of the Republic. The social classes were determined strictly through property and material wealth, and are as follows:

\*Note that once a man's wealth fell below 110 platinum pieces or he became landless, he was stripped of his citizenship entirely.

### Law and order

The laws and edicts of the Dinamid Republic are largely lost, though its contrast from the Orcish societies of the east are stark in that the lack of legalism and formally written laws mean that much of the power is left to the *quaestor*, whose job was to pursue and investigate serious criminal activity. Dinamid citizens were compelled to follow what was called the *common law*, and civil cases could be brought to any male citizen for judicial assignment, so long as both parties agreed on the judge prior to adjudication. Serious matters of murder, corruption, or rape were brought to the *quaestor*.

While suspects of crimes were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned.
Instead, punishments were commonly monetary fines, enslavement, and the penalty of death. This can range from crucifixion to being forced into a coliseum, where capital punishment was often decided upon by the crowd. Most criminals sentenced to death received the latter, though slaves and pirates were most often simply crucified.

### Food

The most common staple crops consumed during the Dinamid Republic were wheat, barley, millet, and rice. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, carrots, grapes, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, mustard seeds, spinach, chick peas, eggplant, and poppy seeds. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included pigs, cows, geese, and sheep, though meat was far less common at the table; most often, eggs and dairy were eaten instead, with only scarce accounts of meat being eaten. Most often, this meat was often young, with veal and lamb being the two more common dishes. Oysters and fish were taken from the sea, and served as being the most common foods in the Dinamid Republic at any time (next to bread and cereals). Hunted game like deer and partridge was common in rural areas, but most citizens did not eat game.

Dinamians often consumed a fish sauce called *garum*, which was a staple for their culture and was used for cooking, as seasoning in place of salt, and even to dilute wine. The sauce was likely made from tuna, though this is disputed. Other seasonings include honey and sugar traded with the Emirate of Lonen. Olive oil was also a staple of early Dinamid cooking, but became less prominent with the upper class who preferred *garum*.

### Clothing

The types of clothing worn and the materials used during this period depended upon social class. Wealthy folk could afford silk robes, skirts, socks, and mittens, coats made of badger, beaver, or fox fur. They decorated these loose-fitting robes with the plumes of birds such as ducks or quail, and even peacock feathers late into the Dinamid Republic. The color of clothing often indicated one's social class, with purple and red being Senatorial, and lower classes only being able to afford inexpensive dyes like orange, yellow, green, or black.

The wealthiest Senators could afford slippers with inlaid leather, pearls, and silk lining. However, most patricians wore red and orange sandals, and soldiers wore
 heavy boots. Women wore closed shoes of colors such as white, yellow, or green.

A locket-like amulet was worn by children. When about to marry, the woman would donate
her locket to her god, along with
her toys, to signify maturity and womanhood. Boys would do this much later, either when he was married or when he became a soldier.

Plebeians commonly wore clothes made of hemp, wool, and leather.

### Education

Schooling in a more formal sense was begun around 200 NCE. Education
began at the age of around four, and in the next eleven years, boys
 and girls were expected to learn the basics of reading, writing and counting. By the age of fifteen, they would be learning Dwarvish grammar and literature, followed by training for public speaking. Oration and rhetoric was an art to be practiced and learnt and good orators commanded
respect; to become an effective orator was one of the objectives of education and learning.

Poor children could not afford proper education, though it was most often the case that services of slaves were utilized for imparting education. School was segregated by sex, with girls being tutored at home by slaves and boys attending a school with at least a dozen others his age. Boys would learn from philosophers and legalists, and former Kaisers and Senators commanding large sums for their time.

### Art and literature

#### Poetry

The literacy rate among Dinamid citizens was close to one hundred percent, and this meant that indulging in literature was almost universal in Dinam. Poetry, though a small part of literature today, was far more integral to a person's life in Dinam than it does in the modern day. Prose and grammar were often experimented with in poetry, and most citizens who could read and write often wrote personal poetry that would be chiseled into the walls of their homes for future generations to enjoy. Poetry was the first sort of literature to arouse human interest in questions of style, and the first departure from the dwarf treatise and essay. The importance of poetry in the Dinamid Republic was so strong that by the time of the Magdamolia, the reading and teaching
 of poetry made up at least four years of a youth's education.

Most homes had volumes, though not complete sets, of the Ten Thousand Laws of Melakesh. These often were comprised of laws with special signficance to the family identity, such as loyalty or kindness to fellow man.

Dostovus represents the pinnacle of Dinamid epic poetry. His *Lenor Innamorato* was produced at the request of Horace Virilo, and tells the story of Lenor's youth, his death and resurrection, and eventually his fathering of a son Caeled. In another instance of epic poetry, Lucatus expresses in his work *On the Nature of Things* a number of early scientific theories and the first instance of taxonomy. Some of his science seems remarkably modern, but other
 ideas, especially his theory of the races, are no longer relevant. Even Kaisers such as Horace the White Tiger produced his *Metamorphoses*, written in dactylic hexameter
 verse, the meter of epic, attempting a complete mythology from the
creation of the earth to his own time. He unifies his subject matter
through the theme of metamorphosis.

### Visual art

The most striking examples of Dinamid art are found in the many marble sculptures and frescoes that remain the center of what is known about Dinamid culture today. At one time, most homes, even those of plebeians, featured stunning collections of frescoes detailing their family histories and mythology. A special viewing room for these frescoes were often in a well-lit sun room, where the frescoes were shellaced and glowed brilliantly during the day.

Though this formed most of the early art of Dinam, woodblock prints used to translate Elvish scriptures in the grew in popularity as being exotic and signs of wealth and worldliness. Woodblock
printing consist of the engraving of images or pictures on a piece of
wood, which is then pressed against a price of paper. It was first and foremost a convenient method of the reproduction
 of printed text until further innovations allowed paper-to-paper reproductions. However, woodblock prints introduced in the Third Era circulated greatly during the Fourth Era, and were used to produce goods such as calendars. Later in the Fourth Era and into the Fifth Era, these prints were depicted events and scenes
of prominent Elvish figures, with its foreign nature inspiring awe and speculation.

### Ceramics

Ceramics were heavily inspired by the old Madelian styles, which grew after the Perthic Wars thanks to many Boriat artisans migrating into *Cantabria* and *Velusia*, teaching the emigrating Corrivalians their style of pottery and ceramic-shaping inspired by elven designs. This included the chambered climbing kiln, which allowed high temperatures with more precise control. With the acquisition of porcelain in Laconia, ceramics after the Perthic Wars began to develop. The early
wares were relatively small and imitated dragon-men underglaze blue and white porcelain. Later varieties branched out into magnificently colored porcelain constructs, what few remain commanding high prices and occupying the bed chambers of kings and queens.

### Lenorum-inspired aesthetic

As the capitol and largest city, Lenorum has long been the source of many forms of art and aesthetic. The earliest are the *bonsai* trees used to replicate the "holy garden" of *Zamaria*, said to have been created by Lenor's son Caeled when he first learned of the son of Melakesh. Replicating the island's sacred garden in their own home became a sign of dignity and piety among patricians, and *bonsai* was a key form of expression in linking one's own family history to that of Melakesh. Sometimes called *serenity gardens*, these miniature trees and scenes also contributed to complex, miniature arrangements that appeared in the homes of the wealthiest citizens of Lenorum.

Another key piece of art inspired by Lenorum was produced during the Thirty Years' Siege. Today it is most often associated with Goodfellow regiment and artistic talent, but in reality the painted scrolls that once embodied elven aesthetic were created by Dinamians with limited resources. The lack of dyes, shellac, and timber made artistic expression difficult, though inside Lenorum artists experimented with paper and ink to create early scroll-paintings. After the siege was lifted, Gaius Olivius became enamored with this new form of art and implemented it into his legion's curriculum, though they were able to produce beautiful colored scrolls thanks to the lack of restriction on resources.

The Dinamid concepts of beauty range from what is called "subdued" beauty, or beautiful scenes made humble and sometimes surreal, and "elevated" beauty, wherein banal or even inconsequential scenes are made magnificent by scale or by color. Though epic scenes are by no means downplayed in Dinamid art, what little exists today depicts contrast as being the core to the Dinamid style.

### Entertainment

Leisure in the Dinamid Republic was characterized by an unprecedented series of developments in theater, music, and other
entertainment. New poetic meters for music were invented during this time, with the first recognizable stringed instruments being invented during this period. Today, this meter is still sometimes used by monasteries for their own music.

Music and theater were
influenced by the social gap between the patrician and plebiean classes, and
 different arts became more defined as this gap widened. Several
different types of theater emerged. Some, such as *shibaeas*, were only available at a certain time of year, while some companies
only performed for nobles. Satires of local news, fashion trends, and advertisements were often performed for the lower classes, referred to as *parodiam*.