RHOCROPOLIS

In mathematics, Spearman Rho represents the correlation between two data points in metric association. The formula of which is:

The term "Rho" from the Greek, conveys "average" in distribution or density value or middle value. The Chi-Rho symbol was used in pre-Christian texts to mark significant passages, and overlaid IX and ⲣ symbol to represent ⳩ - the Symbol of Christ. (Wiki)

The represents the victory of life (ⲣ) over the cross IX monogram which represents lesous Christos (Jesus Christ, in Greek), used by Emperor Constantine in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

The Rho with the name of the King, marked upon it, the sign of the passing of the King over the significance of the people in judgement, so written, echos to the Rhocro - the Refuges of the Fallen Worlds.

The ⳩ showing the life which is barred as in the symbols upon Chrismon of Saint Ambros on the Eastern Wall of the Milan Cathedral, features the Alpha and the Omega of the Chi-Rho that day. So symbolizing the promise of the coming of the King to overcome the concentration of the population of the world - this mark represents also the end of terrestrial law against the authority of the King.

It was written in 312 A.D. that by witnes of Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius of the vision of Constantine I at Milvian Bridge, "He had a dream in which he saw the chi and the rho, the first two Greek letters of Jesus' name, saying ‘In this sign, conquer’, and so he had that emblazoned on a banner he went out the next day under the name of the crucified." and so recorded "In hoc signo vinces" (In this, conquer).

To further understand this in Beyond War, we must speak first of the "Rho", the "Rhocro", and of the "Rhocropolis".

In BEYOND WAR

A Rhocropolis is a Rhocro - a City of the ordinary.... meaning a city of people who are for whatever theme, not the elite or the elect, but representative of the public for whom the state served, in the making of such place, and this their dwelling and protection.

In Beyond War, this term relates to the great cities of the lost words, survivors of the destruction of their solar systems and planets. These cities were built by the technology of the Pre-Cataclysm to act as lifeboats that could flee their world should the star fail or other disaster or war overrun their position.

They appear in the skies above worlds, or in the hills or caverns of planets and gas giants, as designed to suvive and defend themselves best from assault. Their towers and walls built to grasp the land and bite deep into the soil so as to secure them from any ordinary assualt or threat that may exist in the nameless time.

Despite the wonder, the residents usually have very little understanding of the technology which protects them, having lived in these refuges for centuries and over the generations abandoned the need to understand fully the reason the tower floats above the clouds or spires turn and machines walk the corridors in silence - watching for thousands of years for the enemy to come again. Their place in the sky and deep beneath the earth and stone far under the mountain give rise to legends of people rising to the sky and dwelling in the deep places beyond ordinary human beings.

The Rho

The Rho, as the people call them who know of the Prayer of Blood, speak of these refugees from far away as gypsies and often people of deceit - for they often take advantage of the people they meet and hold their gifts and security over them for fealty, depsite having no real knowledge of the power that resides within the flying cities and towers nor how to use it fully.

The term "Rho" is therefore a derogatory word among the blood, for their culture betrays an ignorance of man that led to the burning of their worlds - and often never change for the ignorance of its folly in their exile.

Because the cities contain factories and fabrication equipment, data, and archives, they are prized and quick to fall when organized forces approach a planet - often without any understanding or provocation known. This has made the surviving cities very isolated and secretive from others, often hiding their origin and nature when venturing forth into the world of ordinary men and teresstrial civilizations. One never knows where the enemy is or who is listening.

As such, the dealings of the Rho are very limited, and despite their species being very similar and not limited only to human beings, their concern and privacy often evoke more mystery than political interference in passing among the surface world.

The Sanguine

Sanguine often seize a Rhocropolis for a personal home, finding its ability to disappear and reappear at will each day a valuable weapon in the distracton from their own ability to jump from world to world during battle. Primitives will, after all, attack a castle before they think to kill a King.

Thus are the Sangine and the Kai'Gi know for their "moving Castles" and "hidden cities", and "towers" that can never be found or move between the day and the night.

The appearance of two Rhocropoli at a single place usually means battle, and the weapons within sufficient at times to threaten even the Ethran or Kai'Gi in force, support the use of smaller Rhocropoli to attack and command assaults against the great cities.

Yet like any relic of the Cataclysm, there are Rhocropoli laying silent - empty of all their inhabitants - waiting for the taking if not for the automated systems that defend their gates and halls. Ghost ships, their occupants consumed by the Fall.

In some cases, a sole survivor remains - protected from the Fall - and in those ancient beings the knowledge of what came before resides with dark resolve that threaten Gods and Kings alike.

These cities may appear, at times, and let themselves be discovered and explored, settled, and occupied by primitive people - only to suddenly blink away and take entire nations with them as slaves and camoflauge against the coming Dark.