PmWiki | Tripocalypse / CulturalNotes

Due to massive narrative control on the Deity's part, culture did not change much during the Tribulation proper, despite the sheer scale of political change and metanatural disasters. Post-Snare, of course, this changed almost overnight.

Most remaining settlements are small, with their governing Commonwealth a distant presence that is generally easy to ignore unless provoked into action; this, along with the disruption of planetwide supply chains and backlash from years of one-world rule, has caused globalization to recede severely -- travel from even just one English town to the other and the accent will be subtly different, move between the cis and trans sides of an Alpine valley and "polenta e osei" will mean two slightly but noticeably different receipts, and so on.

Storytellers are important community figures that has grown to provide a counterpoint to priests, shamans and chaplains in most settlements and even replace them in quite a few of them - it turns out that people need a living repository of community memory regardless of the arrangement they have with their gods. Storytellers are rarely elected or appointed, rather, they generally emerge; their role in society is to make sure that the immediate community has enough of a common memetic background to avoid fragmentation. Storytellers are presumed to have a role in either preventing new deities from appearing, or making sure that if they do appear, they remain approachable (cynics might say weak) enough to be negotiated with locally.

Due to the primary guiding force in the solar system being Narrative Causality since the beginning of Loki's Maximum, a form of passive NC has begun to develop and express itself. Hosts of Protagonist Syndrome are often unaware of the change that has come over them, and mean no harm with their tendency to sweep others up into pursuit of their goals, whether these goals are of the like of changing global geopolitics, or simply "I really need to get to the store for some icecream." However, they are never without a goal, they are always eager to talk about it to anyone who shows the slightest interest. Unless one is capable of actively maintaining and defending one's own internal narrative constancy, upon hearing about their passionate goals, most individuals will immediately be eager to support the Protagonist Syndrome Sufferer, or oppose them. Do not confuse having been made part of their Opposition with the urge to smack them in the head and tell them to wake the fuck up and deal with "real life", such as it is; the latter is normal. PS sufferers can often be identified by the fact that they are extremely uncomfortable when wearing anything but a single specific outfit that is extraordinarily gaudy by nearly any social standard, and that they can transport this outfit through the grid with them, without expending noticeable effort. (As written by Kite Winters)

Hollywood and Bollywood are enjoying a tight race for cinephiles' hearts and minds; the CGI boom that was beginning to happen when the Rapture occured fizzled out due to the simple fact that computers are needed elsewhere, so now we're back to plywood sets versus dance numbers. A continuation of Star Trek, made possible by the retrieval and restoration of most of the original indoor sets, is due to be released any day now. Japanese animation has changed in theme somewhat, but not in quality, although it's still seen as "for kids" outside Japan and part of ANVIL.

Music is a big part of everyone's life -- God was defeated by hard rock and electronica, and these genres remain popular throughout the world, the latter genre being the new "new thing" since synthesizers are beginning to be affordable again. Wide-area broadcast being difficult, bands spend most of their time on tours -- studio albums may benefit from blue-zone recording equipment, but lose out on picking up the fans' energy. Given music's role in aligning people's thoughts temporarily, "battle of the bands" is one of the sanctioned ways to settle disputes between communities. Classical music has made a comeback simply due to the lack of infrastructure requirement; cello arrangements for classic rock songs are the latest fad.

Subcultures are beginning to coalesce around a common element, be it philosophy, work ethic, or even music. A few subcultures are starting to generate a shared imago, as in the "lizardpunk" movement or the more recent declaration of semi-autonomy by the Dwarfs of the Alps. SABRE and PATRIOT psychohistorians have suggested that unless the respective commonwealths can offer a common cultural identity to the marketplace of ideas, the world will look like your average D&D campaign in three or four generations. Scholars of the other commonwealths have indicated that this is less of a factor elsewhere in the world. Representatives of SABRE and PATRIOTS have indicated that psychohistorians need to geek out a little less.