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This thread is intended to provide interesting stories and reactions about what your conpeople and concultures would do in response to something in human culture.

Provide a reaction or story about a given topic, then provide your own below it in bold letters.

Some examples: The Squalipsh tribes of my conworld would react mostly unfavorably to Pokémon, as they believe that spirits and demons (their representation of those would match fairly similarly) cannot be kept so simply in a ball and released to fight others.

They would tend to find things like television and movies to be real, as if they had a magical portal into distant lives.

The story of Christ would be viewed with belief, but they wouldn't believe that God is the only deity, and would respect most Christians, as long as those Christians followed the word of Christ. They would view the sacraments (the Eucharist) as something to avoid, because the message would not be taken metaphorically by the Squalipsh, as they avoid the idea of cannibalism.

How would your conpeople or conculture view the Roman Empire?

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[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīqua cupiditāte illectus hōc agō.
[tiː.mɔ.tʉɥs god.lɐf hɑwk]

Interesting idea. I think we had this on the conworlding forum too.



The Aidisese Empire would view the Roman Empire as a more corrupted extension of the Greeks. Specifically, the Romans inherited many of the good things from the Greeks, such as philosophy and art and what not, but they essentially continued the Greek civilization in a corrupted version, mainly because of the Roman's emphasis on martial culture. While the (more modern) Aidisese would admire the ways in which the Romans successfully attempted to combine various peoples into one empire, they would frown upon the Roman's often brutal and ruthless methods in conquest.


Next:
What would your conpeople/conculture think of fast food restaurants?

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I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

As they learned more about them, they would progress from shock to fear to uneasy acceptance to shock again.

Food, and the exchange of food, is an extraordinarily precarious thing for the Hiding Waters feayr. To eat something is to consume its spirit, and if that spirit was not taken in the proper way, one risks supernatural retribution on themselves and the entire pack. The skill and mastery involved in successfully taking down or trapping an animal is considered sufficient trade for its spirit (though the hunter/trapper still has to say the right prayers to be polite). However, you can't merely give meat to anybody else--then they would be taking what they had not earned, and the spirit could easily take offense. This is offset by a careful set of rituals performed at mealtimes, or any other time when food is shared.

The notion that you could walk into a building, hand a scrap of paper to a person you've never met, and then walk away with a hunk of meat would be terrifying. (Especially once they discovered that the person to whom you gave the scrap of paper was not actually the person who had killed the animal, and in fact nobody even knew who that was.) They would want nothing to do with anyone who had been in such a place for fear of getting caught in the crossfire when the spiritual revenge hit.

At some point someone would probably try to explain the idea of money in a way that connected it to the food-sharing rites, and that might set the more open-minded feayr at ease. But as the conversation went from there to the economy in general and they discovered that the fast-food industry was making a profit by demanding more in exchange than what the food was actually worth, and therefore robbing the spirits themselves, they'd clear out of the country entirely.

(Before all this happened, though, the feayr would be put off by the way service personnel use a more polite register when speaking to customers than the other way around--it would seem entirely backwards to them.)

What non-electrical modern convenience would take your conpeople by surprise the most?

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任何事物的发展都是物极必反，否极泰来。

Wow Trailsend, that's really awesome... And while I know a little bit about the feayr, I never stopped to think about how they'd react to human culture. I especially like the tidbit about the language registers at the register (lol), they'd feel weird that they're not being treated with a leading stance from someone who's giving them food... That's really cool.



This is a hard question.

I think books. In general for all the cultures of my conpeople, books are rare and only the priest/shaman or royal/leadership classes have them. A random Squalipsh man or Teskwan woman probably wouldn't understand the need to write anything down, especially when storytelling about astronomy, geography and history are all much more beneficial ways to remember information.

They just wouldn't understand our fascination or need for millions of books.

An Athanic man or woman would think it's amazing that's we've managed to print so many millions upon millions of books. Or that we can print our own books by ourselves at home, without the need to go to the priests and pay them to be scribes and waiting months or years for the finished product.

What country on Earth would your conpeople feel most comfortable living in?

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[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīqua cupiditāte illectus hōc agō.
[tiː.mɔ.tʉɥs god.lɐf hɑwk]

Only to be set at ease again when explained the subjective theory of value, I presume...



Well, all the respondents on this thread so far have been assuming that these conpeople are completely set in their ways and incapable of changing in any form. This simplifies the question somewhat, but is pretty unrealistic.

Midh probably wouldn't be very comfortable anywhere. Midh believe that no one has a right to a property aside from its owner, whether that owner is a clan or an individual. No matter where they showed up and plopped down, it wouldn't be long before governments would start coming to them and demanding taxes, the signing of treaties, and the abolishment of slavery. This would start fights.

What would your conculture think of the US's very high divorce rate?

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Eths wouldn't probably give a shit. But if, they'd think "Why the hell have 'ey married?".
In Eth culture marriage is optional, but judged as "better" than concubinage. Many Eth pairs live together not being married though.
Eth can marry only above age of 25.

What would your conpeople think about modern science?

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(native)
(learning)

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Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

I figure this could be a good way to get some work done on my two most recent conpeople. I will answer every question from both their perspectives. None have official names yet, but let's call them Silver People and River People respectively. The Silver People are explorers and travel the seas in their big boats. They remind much of renaissance Italy. The River People are a hunter-gatherer people who are just becoming agriculturalists. They live far north and have yet to discover metalwork. They are supposed to be a mix of Native American, Siberian, and East Asian.


The Silver People would probably think: "Wow! Imagine how much land we could conquer with that!"

The River People would think: "That's pretty neat, but what would we use it for?"


Next: Your conpeople meets you in person. What do they think of you? What would they do to you?

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

We'll assume it is a masculine Warrior Orc. Said Orc would most likely think "Oh. Squishy human. Wait.., you speak Orcish... and know about the inner workings of our culture?" Followed by taking me to the Priestesses to determine what exactly is going on and how an outside, especially a human, knows so much about their culture and language.

Next: How would your conpeople view the traditional Western gender roles?

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Dotjen
Kotanese

The Silver People would not react at all. Their culture is based on the Western culture.

The River People are slightly more egalitarian. They would be curious why women make themselves so pretty for the men while the men don't seem to put any effort into their looks at all. And they would also be curious why people marry and then not have children.


Next: Your conpeople meet a Jesuit missionary who tells them all about the Christian religion. How would they react? Would they embrace it, or perhaps kill him for heresy?

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

They would simply assume the missionary was talking about a particularly powerful group of spirits or maybe that they have the same gods but have got it all wrong, and they wouldn't believe the Creation myths. They might believe Revelations was an interpretation of their own end-of-times.
In their faith, there are a triad of 3 death gods and a myriad of lesser spirits that eventually lose their potency and fade from memory. The former are, in truth, the same being in different guises (unknown to my conpeople), the latter are ancestral spirits not keen on letting go of their lives (this is known to them). They believe that when one of the 3 competing gods overpowers the others, he will consume them. What happens then depends on which wins.

What would your conpeople think of fizzy drinks?

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I speak English and a touch of Gàidhlig.
I am creating a conworld, which I refer to as the Carrion Series, that will contain three languages, Iriex, Dvoen and Maxna.

"These would be really useful to hide the taste of some yucky medicine and make it easier to take!"


Next:
Someone walks into a library on your conworld (or in your concountry) and walks up to one of the librarians and says "What's with all the books?".

What do hearers (including librarians) think of that? How do they react?

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I am not responsible for the accuracy of my sources; they're responsible for their own mistakes, if any, and also responsible for defending their own statements if you disagree with them.

The Silver People would think the person was an idiot. "It's a library! Duh!"

The River People have no libraries, nor books.


Next: Your conpeople see the mushroom cloud of a nuclear charge. What do they think of it?

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

The Kron would be not very surprised at all. They have invented Nuclear Weapons, but they rarely use them.

The Paz would see them as some kind of extremely power magical spell until told otherwise.

The Sunago, Gskcar, Föro, Cryset, and Irdgard would flip the hell out, as they suffered heavy casualties from Kron's nuclear armament during Revelations (they pretty much forced the Kron to stop using them after the war).

Next: What opinions would your conpeople have about the internet and the extremely quick access of data is allows?

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Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

They might liken it to communing with spirits, assuming a large enough keyboard was available and the user was a Matriarch, thus able to read.
As some spirits are dishonest for their own ends, they might be less trusting of information found on it than many users are today.

Next: What opinions would your conpeople have about political correctness?

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I speak English and a touch of Gàidhlig.
I am creating a conworld, which I refer to as the Carrion Series, that will contain three languages, Iriex, Dvoen and Maxna.

The Alife would find it ridiculous, due to their emphasis on independence and thick-skinned-ness. They might say: Who cares what people say about minorities? Its their buisness! That is unless it is insulting towards plants or animals. To that they might challenge the insulter to a duel, as they worship them.

Next: What would your conpeople think of Heavy Metal music?

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"Wait for the starvation of glaciers, chicken hamburger Noel Weber Arthur."

= | = | =

Interesting question... Technologically they're only moving into the iron age by virtue of trade (completely skipping the copper and bronze ages) so their music is much more focused on percussion and woodwind instruments with slower tempos and an obvious rhythm. To this end, they may appreciate breakdowns or the skill associated with blasting or certain beat patterns (though they would wonder how anyone could dance to such high tempos), and as their hearing range extends into the bass range much further than humans', they might appreciate the idea of down-tuning... I think, however, that the overall timbre of the guitars and effects would so far away from what they are used to hearing that the likes of Deicide would probably would be less popular in their camps than at X-Factor.

Next: What would your conpeople think of cross-dressing (in general)?

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I speak English and a touch of Gàidhlig.
I am creating a conworld, which I refer to as the Carrion Series, that will contain three languages, Iriex, Dvoen and Maxna.

For the Essun this question is complex: Transgenders are accepted in Essun society, however transgenders have to go through their own separate set of initiation rites. Doing tasks or acting in roles that you haven't been properly initiated into is punishable by death.

A typical member of your conpeople stumbles across some internet porn. What do they think of it?

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Hmm, I was actually thinking about this earlier this week.

The Inyauk are very much the kind of people who are okay with showing sexuality but they would never talk about it. The Amjati on the other hand are happy to talk about it but would be very embarrassed to show it.

So Inyak would probably watch some of it, depending on their mood I guess. Whereas an Amjat would probably stay away just in case anyone saw them looking. The Amjat would then tell everyone that the person whose computer they saw said porn on was a complete deviant.

How would a typical conperson react to impressionist art?

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Ikasmu ati'uki nai uraiur.
Hinai nimuśim naimi nai sasamiur urukani. Śi'ama nai huhumiur na ni'amuśim nai sasamiur.
Pumaki nimuśim śima'a na ami nimuśim ara'a. Hini nihrasum i'aku tumra urukani na nihrasum sanik hraspir.

Early modern to modern Aidisese would love impressionism. They would find its colorful nature very attractive.

Keintapans, on the other hand, hate all art unless if it is for propaganda.


Next:
What would the average conperson from your conculture think about vegetarianism/veganism?

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I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

Midh are obligate carnivores, and their digestive tracts can't handle plants: If someone announced they were never going to eat meat again, they'd probably interpret it as the person trying to commit suicide by starving themselves and respond accordingly.

How does your conculture respond to suicide attempts?

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