Editing Roddun (section)

==Culture==
Though roddun would rankle at the comparison, they are, in effect, a race of thieves - they have a thief-like mentality, rooted in a kin-centric morality, an upholding of vows as sacred, and, ironically, a distinct lack of materialism, and their society is organized in what is basically a thieves guild writ large.

Partly, this has to be blamed on the doctrines of the Reign of Men. As a non-hostile but non-human race, rodduns are not accorded citizenship; they can expect only the protections of society, and none of its benefits. For example, they can't officially own property themselves, but a guard patrol is obligated to protect a roddun denizen of their city from being attacked by thugs. For this reason, rodduns gravitate towards the "dropped" barrios - the most rundown or criminal-infested slums, the places where the city watch avoided going as much as they possibly could. Here, nobody contests their presence.

It's uncertain how much of an influence their lack of citizenship is, but rodduns organize themselves into what they call "tiztittl"; it translates as "working family" from their language, but humans tend to just call them "mischiefs". In practice, a mischief is basically a gang; it stakes out a territory, and basically controls it, offering protection to its denizens in exchange for recognition and respect. It's essentially a cross between a protection racket and a mercenary band, with the local mischief cracking down on crime, protecting the locals, and generally making itself useful.

Each mischief is led by an itztitl, the most respected roddun in the mischief, who maintains control only so long as he or she keeps being the one the rest of the mischief respects for his ability to make decisions and lead them to success. If their faith wavers, the itztitl must fight against their rival for the mischief's respect; the loser either dies or is exiled, having to join a new mischief. Alternatively, the itztitl can just accept their ousting gratefully and then leave to find a new mischief to belong to.

The itztitl of the biggest gang in the barrio is the boss; they call him (or her) "skitztattl", meaning "Poppa", whilst humans call him "King Rat". All other mischiefs bow to the King Rat of their barrio, whose territory encompasses the whole barrio - but no further. Each barrio has its own King Rat, and they gang up on any of their numbers who starts getting ambitious and trying to take command of all the mischiefs in the city. The King Rat is the only roddun who tends to let themselves live out their full 30 lifespan, such is the respect and admiration that they are held in by their underlings. They are essentially the Godfathers of the rodduns; they live and die by their ability to grant any request to anyone who comes seeking their help, although they are not required to be blindly generous - at its core, roddun society is held together by the principle of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". King Rats lose their position only when either they fail to fulfill a request which another itztitl then manages to achieve, or if they are challenged for their throne; this is a death match that cannot be refused or rescinded. If a challenger utters those fateful words, they fight until one or the other is dead. One of the grimmer duties that King Rats fulfill is as angels of death for their own people; when a roddun feels he or she is too old to live anymore, they give away all their worldly possessions, go to the King Rat, recite all that they have done in his (or her) service, and then challenge the King Rat for the throne. Almost always, the challenger is killed, for this entire act is basically a form of suicide ritual - a request for the release of death in exchange for having served faithfully in life.

Finally, to defend the rodduns against oppression from other races, there is the "Skootzik". The most literal translation of this roddun word is, “the one who drops my problems,” but a more concise translation is “troubleshooter.” They're a secret band of roddun assassins who report directly to the King Rats - even most roddun don't know that this Murder Inc. of [[ratfolk]] [[ninja]]s exists - and they employ roddun gemstone magic to augment their abilities in combat.


===Kinship===
The center of roddun morality is the notion of ''kinship''. Rodduns divide the world up into five categories, based on how closely they know a person: picture a grouping of five circles, with a dot in the center; that dot is an individual roddun, and each circle represents a distinct level of kinship. The first circle is immediate family: parents and siblings. Second circle is more distant relatives: aunts, uncles, cousins. Third circle is people one trusts, fourth circle is people one knows, and finally, fifth circle is people one does not know. 

To put things simply, roddun morality is based on the notion that the closer you are to someone, the more moral you are obligated to be to that person. A roddun bases its behavior on the simple question "How close are you to me?" and is judged by its peers on that same merit. That's not to say that roddun don't sometimes go against the grain, but their social cohesion is built around this distinctly nepotic view of obligations; a roddun is expected to favor those who are its closer kin during kin disputes. Being perceived as willing to act against closer kin marks a roddun as a criminal, someone to be shunned.

===Gratitude, Taking What You Need, and the Difference Between===
Rodduns, as mentioned above, basically form a cohesive society because they fully accept and integrate the principle of "You scratch my back, I scratch yours". Promises are sacred, and also transaction-like; the roddun psychology hinges around the notion that gratitude always comes in a tangible form. Words are empty, meaningless; you want to prove your gratitude, you do it with something physical.

And yet, at the same time, roddun are not a materialistic people; material goods are only valuable in so far as they are useful. Food is the ultimate currency amongst rodduns, because you can eat food and it keeps you alive. Other physical goods may make life easier, or be nice to look at, but the more their value to other races is in the aesthetic, the less value they hold to roddun.

By extension, this means rodduns believe in the principle of taking what you need; usefulness equates to value, in their mindsets, so naturally ownership is not important to them. If you don't need something, leave it for somebody else to take, or give to them if they ask for it. If you need something, take it - but only from those who do not need it. This is one of the reasons why the rodduns have so readily centered their culture around the notion of protecting the poor and the outcasts of society; they need every little scrap they have, so the roddun have no qualms about giving it to them. It helps that such people more intuitively grasp the rodduns' "quid pro quo" mentality.

This is further complicated by the roddun view that kinship dictates morality. Roddun often become Robin Hood-style thieves because they do not know the rich people they are robbing (making their behavior morally acceptable) and because the rich people are, by roddun values, selfish and immoral people, hoarding goods because they ''want'' them rather than become they ''need'' them.