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Old 07-11-2022, 12:08 PM   #711
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: 'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

Folklore and Legend:

Sophants have not given up their need for myth. Some myths are connected explicitly to a religion or ideology, some to a famous epic and some are acknowledged to be fictional.

Different cultures have traditions based on their ancestral or cultural (often an "adopted culture") background and sometimes on a widely revered author. Caledonians for instance have a liking for Celtic tales. Similarly Swordies have not only bloodthirsty tales similar to the work of Scops and Skalds but local imitations of old traditional fairy tales. Water and forest spirits, monks and hermits or druids (for those who wish to evoke prechristian traditions) with mysterious abilities and so on are beloved by Caledonians, while Swordies predictably have tales of dragons, trolls, Alvar, and Dwarves. Aslan as is well known have tales of their ancestors as well as of mysterious creatures which some have compared with fey.

Some tales are held among starports, and common among crews and service personal. The "Allyfolk" are a type of fey that enjoys labyrinthine things and fears what is broad and straight. They are also according to most legends afraid of the light and avoid sunlight, as well as artificial lighting. Gremlins are known to anthropologists to have been invented just before starflight. Now it is a catch all for creatures that inhabit software. These are of various types from the benevolent to the harmless trickster to the malicious.

Loyal machines of various types are even more popular with the advent of computers and extend the precedent of anthropomorphized ships and weapons. Some inhabit one given user's computer system and some are as big as the guardian spirit of a starship. Many cultures have esoteric rituals for the naming of ships, or in some cases other types of objects (both Aslan and Swordies name practically everything).

Some type of ancestor veneration is popular among many peoples even among Caledonians whose official religion is either Reconciliationist or Neopresbytyrian in imitation of ancient Scotland. Modern computers make that easier: a journal by a past military or political hero, spiritual leader, or simply a respected entertainer is often made into an icon and future generations can know their appearance and modes of speech.

The uses for those ideas can range from mere decoration to a full on space-fantasy. Another idea is to stop in the middle of an adventure and tell stories (this is really better done in a book perhaps but might be a way to have an intermission to a campaign).
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Last edited by jason taylor; 05-15-2023 at 10:56 AM.
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