Culture Building
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@Ominous But that still gives them gender specific roles. Yes, they serve the same purpose but calling them 'valet' and 'lady's maid' still makes them gender specific roles.
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@icanbeyourmuse Okay, but to a certain extent it's just easier to let some amount of familiar terminology lie. They're not gender-specific roles, they're the same role with gender-specific names. That's not the same thing.
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@icanbeyourmuse said in Culture Building:
@Ominous But that still gives them gender specific roles. Yes, they serve the same purpose but calling them 'valet' and 'lady's maid' still makes them gender specific roles.
Or is it more like gendered names for the same role. Prince/Princess. Mother/Father. Brother/Sister. Rather than Child of Regent, Parent, Sibling.
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@mietze Right. It's why I referred to it as the prince/princess thing. I guess god/goddess or actor/actress would have been a better reference. Same role, different title.
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My view is that the writing of cultural analogues has to keep two things in mind:
- Does it make sense in the game theme without having to argue a lot of justification?
- If you were the worst player and not the best player, how would you interpret this information?
To the first, if you have to really work at explaining how it works in a theme then it probably doesn't. Some things slot well into a game theme but if it feels like its a lot of work to bolt it on, then its probably not a good fit to start with.
To the second, I think you do have to think several moves down the line about how someone who isn't going to spend any time googling things much less think critically about a nuanced culture scheme is going to do with it. They usually do the opposite: boil it down to its most reductive and offensive tropes. And they're not being trolls, they're just drawing from what they don't know and filling in the blanks and the result is your highly considered theme gets reduced to a pile of eugenics and racism without any one realizing that's what they're actually doing.
Also, I don't play on Arx but so I'm lacking context but I'm not sure what added value this culture would provide to the game as a whole? Another culture option? Just something new? Something else?
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I don't know. The fact that there is a Thrax aside exception means that other exceptions may be possible, particularly if they are relatively small things. Everyone else would be free to view this group's beliefs as nonsensical superstition.
It's obvious that gender equality and player freedom is the goal. There is an IC justification for it, but the IC justification exists to serve the goal of letting players play any sort of concept as male, female, or other, without having to deal with sexism in the setting. Those who don't mind dealing with gender restrictions can play Thrax.
Unless there is going to be a big plot revolving around pearl diving in that little county that would exclude male characters, my only reaction is an enormous "Eh. Why not?"
On the other hand, it's such a small thing that it may be simpler not to include it, if reactions like these are anything to go by!
And while princes and princesses are one and the same,, you do see a lot of princesses in dresses, not a lot of princes.
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It's a lot more likely in Arxian society that it would be "smaller people and children/adolescents are favored for this task", instead of women.
ETA: men can be tiny, too! No gender bias goes both ways, there's no undue expectation that all men are hulking, powerful badasses who have never shed a tear in their life and walk off lost limbs.
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@Kanye-Qwest excuse me, but there's documented proof that men are just that...
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I see 0 proof that is a man.
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@Kanye-Qwest a fair point. It may very well be six squirrels and a sloth stacked atop one another.
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At this point, I probably will drop that element. And to be fair, I don't know when I will submit this County because there's still Riven on the roster.
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Constructively, when it comes to culture building in a setting (RPG or not), one thing to keep in mind is that the culture that you're building should definitely fit within the setting you're building it for. All too often I see people try to shoehorn make-believe cultures based on the author's wants, based on their cultural perceptions of our world, and it just always comes across as heavy handed as fuck.
Secondly, especially in an RP setting that you intend to be open to others, I always suggest a certain disconnect of self from the culture. If it turns too much into "playing house", the author is going to find out that others aren't "doing it right" or other players attempting to leave their mark on the culture might be met with negativity.
Fifth World had some great cultures. When people made a culture, many of them seemed to be based on the cultural result of the surrounding geography, so you ended up with a seafaring culture in a sci-fi age, and some cool ones built around how living in the shadows of ash and volcanic surroundings would affect the mentality of the people. What's important to them? RAIN? Cleanliness? Neat stuff like the way Fremen reacted to water.
Concepts regarding gender equality are subjective and prone to political argument, but as a whole I don't see many players having issues with matriarchy. So, after reading your initial idea, my critique is this: If you're going to write a feminist idea into a setting, you need to constantly ask yourself "why?"
- Why would a goddess favor women over men?
- Why are women better at things than men?
- What is an honest, male-viewpoint in this culture's reaction to this? Wouldn't some feel neglected? Ambitious? That they have a glass ceiling? Do they worship other gods? If the culture is female-centric right down to religion, trade, etc, then what do male children study?
(Realistically, or logically, there would be impact)
If you find yourself having to ignore answering these questions, then you're not really creating a culture, but could be instead creating a sandbox roleplay idea tailored to your own personal preferences.
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I don't recall that she said it was a matriarchy or that women were favored over men.
Just that women were the ones engaging in this particular profession for religious reasons.
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Wow. The Arx crazy is just spreading out through the forums here like kudzu.
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@Admiral I was being more general. I don't play on Arx
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- Originally, the idea was that the goddess favors women in this specific venture because she is a feminine divine herself.
- They're not "better at things", it's one particular task.
- Men are not prevented from doing this, but by and large people tend to believe women are better at it because of a piece of folklore. If a family is starving and it's only the son that can do the diving to keep food on the table? You can damn bet he will. The culture is not all female-centric, there are other deities.
I've already stated that should I submit this org, I'll be removing the feminine element, but in the interim, boy you sure did out me for the rabid feminazi I am!
"If you stand for nothing Burr, what will you fall for?"
-- Hamilton: An American Musical -
Not quite culture building perse, but one setting which I've been writing in for awhile have a culture based around magic and how magic works which I've been going back and forth on for awhile. I know I want magic to be something limited to twins, I've notions of that two souls are needed for such things.
The mages travel the countryside and seem to eerile know when twins have been born somewhere, and take them away to be trained to becomes mages themselves. This among with a setting distrust for magic have made them fairly hated, and there is a semi-regular pratice of twins being left in the woods to die to spare them the fate.
So for the magic/mages themselves I've a few options I have considered.
A: The twins grow up learning the mystic art, and magic can only be done when the two are with eachother.
B: The process involves the twins having to battle eachother, and in the end both souls come to reside within one body.
A is the norm but B is something done, potentially tabooo.As you might expect, one story point is the protagnosts' having their twin children taken.
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@Olsson I admit option B gives me bodily autonomy squicks, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if you want to include that as a theme to explore. The concept of twins as two souls in one body has been explored by authors (Neal Shusterman and Tanya Huff come to mind) but only the latter explored the idea of bodily autonomy.
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@Cupcake said in Culture Building:
I've already stated that should I submit this org, I'll be removing the feminine element, but in the interim, boy you sure did out me for the rabid feminazi I am!
I was being constructive. Take it personally if you want, or don't.
