Sagittaron Culture (As Established In-Game)

With the big handful of Sagittaron characters, there's been a lot of personal canon established for Sag culture, locations, and language. This page is a place for people to keep track of the little details they've been making up, so that new characters who want to have a "cultural connection" with established characters can easily do so.

Keeping in mind that Sagittaron, like any big-ass planet, probably had a range of different subcultures and pockets of cultural weirdness, what one person establishes certainly doesn't have to apply to all. I've divided the page up into a broad area and character sections for now where people can just braindump their details. We can organise it into something more coherent shortly.

Disclaimer: THIS IS NOT BSG CANON. The end.

Places on Sagittaron

From what I've seen in play, we've established that Sagittaron is divided into its Northern and Southern areas. The northern area (continent?) is where most of the economic progress is, while the southern regions are the poorer, more stereotypically "backwards" areas.

Aera Cura (Roubani & Partly Camille)

Very large city in the far south of the northern area, metro population of about 12 million.
Classic problems of big city in poor area: widespread poverty and unemployment, poor public health and poor civic and educational standards for a large section of the population. 50-60% live in poverty or slum conditions.
Huge influx of southerners live here, and as such it has many many pockets of strongly traditional citizens living in isolated neighborhoods called Bal'ash. They often come into conflict with less traditional northern mindset, though Aera Cura on the whole has very few "progressives".
Has a university (University of Aera Cura). Attendance at university is not common, for both economic and cultural reasons. Many traditionalists blame the university for destroying faith and their deeply-rooted culture.
Site of a great deal of terrorist violence, particularly car and building bombings.
Abortion is illegal

Cordova (Beckett)

Cordova is one of the major cities in the North
Fairly industrialized, but still class is separated by extreme cases of wealth and poverty
Workers have formed Unions, but these are often seen as beginner terrorist cells, and thus are broken up by the Government.
The architecture could be considered to be like our world's Moorish/Spanish influences
Cordova is a mountain city, and so is rather dry at times. Mainly during the summer.
The smaller neighborhoods in the city are built around either a Place of work, or a smaller temple site or meeting place. The only places free of housing are the University, and the Government Yard (Collection of Colonial buildings. Known as the Yard)
The city for being a Northern City is still considered Highly Traditional, and Religious
Many members of the Uprising were recruited from Cordova.

Lorestan

Site of a pilgrimage temple called Imamzadeh.

Port Kanpur (Kai)

Tiny fishing village deep in the impoverished, technologically backwards south
Neighbouring townships/small cities of Steele, Jaiphur and Shahad, the latter of which is connected by rail line (industrial, shipping) to the nearest major city of Aera Yazd on the southern continent.
Fishing, farming, textiles and some lumber.
Jaiphur was the site of one of Sagittaron's seven major temples, and also a hideout for several prominent ISA members. It was bombed during terrorist cell raids done by the military before the holocaust.

Pradesh Mountains & the Terai (Ninaza)

The Pradesh mountain range is located towards the eastern coast of the southern continent and is akin to the Himalayas, particularly the Nepali stretch that borders India. Sagittaron's tallest peak — Mount Kailāśā — is located here.
Deep within the mountains is an extremely fertile area called the Terai, which is a veritable mosaic of evergreen and deciduous forests, tall grasslands and savannas. Since it is a rather long and arduous trek to reach, with no transportation to or fro, few outsiders venture there.
There are no cities in the Terai, merely villages. For the most part, the level of technology never exceeded that of a pre-industrial society.
The people of the Terai call themselves the Tharu. While not xenophobic per se, it is unheard of for any other than the Deionei to venture beyond the Pradesh Mountains.
The Deionei, who are also called the Daughters of Demeter, hail solely from the Terai. Tharu priestesses reputed to be healers par excellence, many outsiders consider them to be mythical. Some legends say they can communicate with plants, possess the power to make barren earth fruitful, are immune to poisons, and even that they are dryads.
From time to time, a Daughter will travel across Sagittaron, as part of their religious rites, and will offer her services to the visited communities.
Numerous kinds of flora, of which many are medicinal, are exclusive to the region. For this reason, some of the medicines that the Deionei make are unique to the order and can be found nowhere else.
Kashmiri is the native tongue of the Tharu, although it has evolved into its own dialect over the millennia. The literacy rate is quite high. Some study Standard but aren't fluent, and it is rare someone exceeds elementary reading and writing levels regardless of how well they might speak.
Due to the rarity of contact with outsiders, the Tharu accent is very distinct. (It sounds like a cross between Kirghiz and Armenian.)
Many outsiders believe the Terai to be a mythical place, much like a Sagittaron Shangri-La. Some are aware that it really exists, however. Most who travel there do so on pilgrimages or to seek aid from the Daughters of Demeter.

Cultural Details (by Person)

Kai

Deeply traditional culture, emphasis on duty, family ties, deep-seated religiousness.
Arranged marriages are generally standard. See Roubani's section for more details. Generally, love isn't considered to be a necessary portion of such unions, but physical relationships on the side are all but assumed, so long as they are carried out with the utmost discretion. The more influential a family, of course, the better a mate they will be able to secure for their son or daughter. It is considered the duty of the couple to produce children and incorporate themselves into the extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins). Often twenty or thirty people in such extended families will live, work and pray together.
Modern medicine is deeply shunned, to the point of practitioners being cast out, stoned, ostracised and otherwise prevented from doing their work.
Faith healers are common, and almost always women. Generally the matriarch of the family, whose trade is passed down to her children. If she has no female heirs, then it may be passed down to a boy for a single generation. As such, female children are actually valued slightly more than boys.
It's uncommon for children to be formally schooled in this region. Almost all are illiterate, though a few who are better traveled to the north may pick up a bit of reading and writing along the way.
The south is incredibly xenophobic.

Roubani

Cultural subset with roots in the south.
Most won't touch modern medicine, even those living in Aera Cura or other big cities. There are those that do in a pinch, but generally faith healing and herbalism are still unwritten cultural law. Women are considered to be better at any type of healing. Even people who accept modern medicine won't go to male doctors if they can find a female.
Arranged marriage is a large part of the culture. The arrangements are first made by the parents when the kids are very young. At age 14 or 15 there's a ceremony (habriz), where the parents on each side meet the children and give their approval or disapproval of the final plans. The two marrying don't meet until the engagement ceremony (zhiraat) the night before or day of the wedding itself. An emotional connection in marriage is considered irrelevant. Married men often have discreet affairs. People who refuse to submit to an arranged marriage can be cast out of their family.

Beckett

Highly religious, and somewhat educated
Still holds to superstition, and more of the old practices
There are few arranged marriages in the North
Past times include fights over familial issues, and debating in the streets or at the meeting sites
Highly anti colonial

colonies culture

BS Hestia

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