​Battlefield Role: Light Spear Infantry Militia
Weapons: A long double-edged spear, a shoddy wooden shield and a small scythe as an improvised sidearm.
Outfit: Simple robes under padded armour and white cloaks. As their name says, it's all made of cotton. That's all that the government provides them. Many of them don't even wear boots.
Skill level: Mediocre polearm training.
Affiliation: City-State of Dione, in the Amphitrite Bay
Doctrine: Amphitrite's Way of the Seafarer
Strengths: Long and sharp spears do well against cavalry.
Weaknesses: Anything smaller than a horse, specially ranged units, can break their defense with ease.
Cottonmaidens
Cottonmaidens are temporary militias mustered from the rural lower classes of the City-State of Dione to either defend the city during an invasion or to bolster the army's numbers in the event of war. Relatively underpaid and intensely exploited by the upper classes as the main workforce of the local labour-intensive plantations, they are always needed back in Dione's countryside to cultivate and harvest the cotton fields, or tend to the silkworm farms of the region. The amount of riches generated by their work is enormous, though little of those riches are theirs to keep.
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As such, they can't afford good weaponry or armour, receiving their name because they wear cheap cotton outfits provided by the State instead of fine silk garments like the middle and upper classes above them wear. Their fighting skill is also rather mediocre because they have little free time to train, though their overall situation could be much worse than the one they live in.
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Although social inequality is pretty high in Dione and the upper class of rich landowners control everything in the region, the lower class is somewhat relatively well cared for. They are well-fed and granted good housing at the plantations they work in, having all their basic needs properly attended. Including even healthcare, security and entertainment.
Of course, the overall standards of living may vary a lot depending on which plantation they work. It's all on the landowner's hands to properly provide good lives for her workers or not, but more often than not the Dionean Elite takes good care of their plebeian workers.
That's because the Cottonmaiden numbers are vastly superior than the upper class population, while the middle class of Dione isn't an outright puppet of the rich like the Salacian Warrior Caste is in the far away City of Salacia. The landowners of Dione know quite well how a rebellion can severely hurt them, making a constant effort to grant a minimal level of comfort to the masses.
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Even more than that, the workforce of the Cottonmaidens is crucial to the businesses of Dione. Even in war, their militia is never used as cannon fodder. Casualties mean less hands to work the cotton fields and silk farms, dropping the productivity and the yield of Dione's plantations. As the Dionean generals are often owners of such plantations, they are sure to avoid any unnecessary bloodbath.