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[worm-dancer.livejournal.com]

The Cultural Background Meme:
'
How does your character's cultural background effect their experience on the meatship? Their thought patterns? Has it led to any hilarious misunderstandings? Basically this is the meme where you expound on the culture your character came from.

If your character is from the 20th/21st century "first" world and not otherwise a cultural minority then expound on how they percieve the cultural backgrounds of other characters too.

Comments

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel is an Abh, the native people of space (insofar as space has natives anyway).

The ancestors of the Abh were 29 clans of genetically engineered slaves, created by a planet of culturally chauvinist Japanese descendants. These slaves eventually broke free of their home planet, stole their own starship and set off. However they could not shake the suspicion that their former masters were planning to recapture them. So they turned around and destroyed their former home. As it turned out, they were not being followed and their creators did not have the resources to recapture them anyway. Over thousands of years, they evolved into an empire that spanned half the galaxy.

Guilt over this affair is one of the defining characteristics of Abh culture. The other is a feeling of closeness towards space (they call themselves "the Kin of the Stars") and a capacity for wit. Most Abh interactions involve at least a little maneuvering to find ways to politely insult each other.

Abh society is divided into landers (land based humans such as you or me, and are generally left alone, the Abh considering ground worlds to be responsible for their own affairs), direct subjects of the empire (such as non-Abh crew on Abh vessels and servants of Abh nobles) knights (full Abh who own no territories), nobles (Abh who oversee territory, such as Admiral Spaurh) and the royal family (the Abriels, such as Lafiel). It is possible to be promoted from lander to subject and from subject to full Abh citizen, even if one was not born an Abh.

Lafiel grew up at the very top of this pyramidal society, and it often shows in her haughtiness. However all Abh nobles and royals are required to serve long terms in the military and as merchants and Lafiel has spent every year since age 13 in the Star Forces. This colors her thinking, making her see things in starkly hierarchical terms. It sometimes makes her inflexible but also makes her a good teamworker.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Oh, also the Abh carry a cultural obligation to preserve the culture of their home city. This will cause her to act weird towards any Japanese characters on the ship, a mixture of guilt and hanging on their every word.

The Abh language is called Baronh and is a distant descendant of Japanese although it sounds a lot more like a gluey blend of Russian and Welsh.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Oh also Abh tend to address each other by full names, which include family name and title/social position. So Lafiel is actually Abriel [family name, the royal family] Ne Dobrusc [of the Dobrusc line] Boeurh Paryunu [viscountess of Paryunu, "the country of roses"] Lafiel, Deca Commander [military rank, lit. commander of twenty, which is the crew of an Abh destroyer], Acting Empress [since she's the only living Abriel].

Obviously she's rather uncomfortable using people's first names and will avoid it whenever possible.