Rhian is the eastern most province in Rotaka and the largest. Like all of the eastern provinces, Rhian is a matriarchy, with a highly stratified society utilizing an informal caste-like system divided into the Royal, Merchant, and Labor classes, broadly speaking—there are subtleties and subclasses within those castes. Out of all the eastern provinces, Rhian has the strictest caste system, with very little mobility between the classes.

While the other eastern provinces have slowly aligned with the Empire's more egalitarian mindset over the centuries, Rhian has mostly resisted that trend, keeping both its classes in place and its men firmly beneath the rule of their wiser counterparts.

Their cultural strength is due to several causes. First, Rhian is fairly isolated. It's bracketed by the ocean on it's eastern and northern sides. It's separated from its largest neighbor, Sutan, by a mostly impassable mountain range on the west. With most of its population located in the warmer norther regions, it has relatively little contact with its southern neighbor, Roshan, and what contact they do have is usually tense, often leading to skirmishes, if not outright War. This isolation has developed an insular culture that views much of the outer world with suspicion.

Second, Rhian has an abnormally high concentration of shapers, almost all of which are women. While it's somewhat taboo to speak openly about, men are considered something of breeding stock, especially among the Royals, who try to keep their consorts among a "stable" of other Royals with the hope that purer stock will help them bearer girls who can shape.

One of the few sure ways to move upwards within Sutan's caste is to bear a girl who can shape. Any woman from the merchant class will immediately find themselves minor Royalty. When this happens, she is said to have lifted her family. If that shaper girl has brothers, they will likely be beset by suitors. Even the woman's husband may be beset by "stable" offers.

For a woman of the lower castes, the result of bearing a shaper girl is less certain. Her child may be valued, and she herself will gain respect and esteem, but her upward mobility will likely be limited. If she's of the labor class, she will likely remain there unless she has connections to the merchant class willing to invest in her. A lower merchant caste woman will find it easier to lift her family higher into the merchant caste, but she will not find herself among Royalty.

Bearing a shaper boy has somewhat of an opposite effect. A male who can shape is considered taboo and unnatural, violating the sacred order as established by The Mother. That boys in Rhian almost never exhibit the ability to shape is considered both natural, and an argument that they shouldn't shape.

Of course, boys are never tested for their ability to shape. Why would any woman risk their reputation? Nor are there any who would teach a boy even had he the ability to shape.

The upper castes are almost purely polyamorous, with most Royal women maintaining a "stable" of men. While this can be sexual in nature and often is at least once a month, if not more, men are also valued for their skillset. Many women make a priority to collect as diverse a stable as possible to help manage the household, and many men will seek training to become part of one as becoming stabled is one of the quickest ways to rise within society and even, on occasion, jump a caste.

Not all men are stabled, of course, just as not all women have stables. Many can and will work as simple employees. But those that are stabled are almost universally considered higher in the social hierarchy.

Rhians don't separate work from home, and so a woman's household is their business, usually. The woman who leads the house is called a Matron. For larger enterprises, this can get complicated, with entire families subsumed within the larger. Most of the time, a woman who is head of house within another will not be called a Matron unless she is acting as (or being referred to as) only the head of her smaller house. Inter-household politics can become rather intense, especially among the Royals.

Rhian has a contentious relationship with all of its neighbors but especially with Sutan, whose much more relaxed matriarchy is viewed as a perverse. It is not uncommon for them to be engaged in a protracted war.