"Even the voice of conscience undergoes mutation." - Stanislaus Lec

Culture is the sum of the language, customs, beliefs, and art considered characteristic of a particular group of people. In this section, we have resources that can help you explore cultures of the past and present, and hopefully inspire visions of what the future might hold. It is important in this exploration to keep an open mind. One person's culture may seem strange or even horrifying to another person. This does not make it wrong, just different. We are not here to judge. We are here to live and let live. So how does each person or group go about creating a culture of their own? Many people look to examples from the past, which is useful because you have an established set of guides to start from, but difficult because most well documented cultures are ones based on estrangement. We can avoid this problem by focusing on the superficial structures (language, art, architecture, myths, and stories), and then recreating the culture as it might have been in an immanent world. Another option is to borrow a culture from fiction. The advantage to this is that you're not tied to any historical baggage that might give false impressions about you to the outside world. For example, if you are recreating an early Celtic culture, people might assume that you collect the heads of your enemies in battle. The disadvantages of a completely fictional culture include credibility (you may not be taken seriously by outsiders), and depth (most fictional cultures have very little detail). The one major exception that comes to mind is to be found in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien spent a great deal of time creating the world of Middle Earth, and he created it to be a real history of the world before recorded history. The Elves in particular are detailed, and include a beautiful, rich and complex language that he created, which is still studied by scholars today. Another exception to the rule is the Klingon culture from television series Star Trek. Like Tolkien's world, the Klingon language and history are quite rich, and have been developing for over 20 years now. This one probably lacks a bit more credibility than Tolkien because it's not old or English, but you must do what feels right for you. If in your heart you feel like a Klingon, the that's the culture that you should create. You can always modify it enough to be unrecognizable to the general public. It is important to remember that no matter how detailed your culture is at the start, that you may not see the fruits of your labor in your lifetime. Cultures take centuries, or even millennia to develop. Remember that we are looking at the big picture here.

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