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Old 02-05-2021, 07:30 AM   #8
Astromancer
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: Cultural additions to the setting

All cultures except some very small scale band-level societies have some kind of mystical beliefs. Even when it becomes acceptable or fashionable to reject all religious and mystical beliefs, there are always subcultures that passionately cling to and elaborate mystical, magical, occult, and paranormal beliefs. Transhuman Space, even if you totally exclude any paranormal phenomena from reality, is a brilliant breeding ground for occultist groups and beliefs.

Now as with the contemporary New Age (which has roots back in post-Napoleonic Europe) most of this will be mere fashion and the adult equivalent of peeling apples on Halloween while looking over your shoulder in a mirror. But some folks will take this stuff profoundly seriously. And with the ability to take groups of people out to the belt or further away isolated communities could become self-reinforcing. In other words, the plot of the film Midsommar becomes very plausible.

Give a subculture enough space and time and it could become a new cultural memeplex with the power to transform or destroy the present culture or cultures.
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