Palatines

The people of the northern shores of the Palatin sea named after then, the Palatines are an old and proud people. Empire builders since over 700 years ago, the Palatines' reach may have diminished in recent centuries but they still believe they are a people unlike all others.

The Palatines have been highly influential on their neighbors, and in particular Palatine names can still be found among the Valens and the Khelish who the Palatines used to count among their subjects. The Palatines have also had a tradition of burying successful emperors and generals in those lands that they conquered, and the Valen and Khelish realms are still dotted with the Tombs of the Palatines, though many have since been looted as the empire has retreated.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

Nepia, Visellia, Pontia, Isidora, Livia, Attia, Tullia

Masculine names

Sisenna, Sergius, Aspasius, Cario, Demipho, Gaius, Petrus

Family names

Maursus, Segestes, Cotta, Dignus, Petreius

Culture

Shared customary codes and values

The Palatines, like many other peoples in the world, hold in high regard the ways of their ancestors. A successful people, they believe that the ways of their ancestors provide a moral code for them to follow. Deeply religious, the Palatines believe that divinity arises from the people, and acting in a right relationshup with the gods is what ensures the success and prosperity of their people. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Popular Ghost, which is seen by the Palatines as a correcting spirit, setting the right a people and particularly a ruling class which has gone astray, and restoring the proper ways of the Palatine.

Palatine society is hierarchical at heart, though the Palatines tend to consider these hierarchies more based on merit than blood, and subject to change should their betters fail to serve the Palatine nation. Nevertheless, the two orders of patrician and plebeian have endured throughout Palatine history, even if individual families have been able to move between the two. Slavery is also not proscribed in Palatine culture, though the institution has greatly waned in prominence from its height hundreds of years ago. In Palatina, it is still possible, in extreme circustances, to be made a slave to settle a debt, or to be captured in war and sold. However, the Palatines' retreat from imperial ambitions has gradually atrophied the institution. The Palatines have particular dress codes denoting which order of society one belongs to, and in particular the dress of Atransian senators is not to be falsely imitated.

The Palatines, being wealthy and proud, are known for their literature and philosophy. Song and satire are likewise important to them, believed to be crucial for holding society to account.

The most important virtues of a good Palatine are their piety and right relationship with the gods, their trustworthiness and their word, their discipline and self control, and their dignity and reputation.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Of particular import to the Palatines is the tradition of patronage, a sort of vertical social relationship wherein the senior and more powerful party would use their access and status to aid their client, and the client would in turn serve their patron in various ways. Though the roles in this kind of partnership are clearly defined, no formal contracts are used, and instead a sense of obligation and gratitude is expected to bind both.