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Approved Submission [Nepleslia] Hanyadi Ethnocultural Group

Firebrand

Inactive Member
Submission URL
https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=faction:nepleslia:culture:hanyadi
Submission Faction(s)
  1. Nepleslia
Submission Terms
  1. I agree
Another Ethnocultural group for Nepleslia, the same sort of group as the Kuznyetski, but with various differences. My Inspirations were a combination of Ethiopian Amhara, Scottish Highlanders, Various Pacific Islander groups for their social ills, and African Americans (specifically the Gullah and related groups in the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia).
 
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Alright, it's time for me to put my thoughts into words as the FM. Take note that while I have experience as a member/active participant of the NTSE, I am not currently one; any comments about the NTSE are my basic knowledge and prior experiences being put forward into concerns.

But the biggest thing here: I believe this idea can work with changes/considerations.

------------​

Firstly; I spoke before that I do not like the drug usage, as I find it brings questionable suggestions or themes that don't really mesh with Nepleslia. Qatl is definitely comparative to Khat and the first paragraph section is very dangerous in this light. Specifically...
Qatl is the most commonly used drug in Hanyadi culture, not counting caffeine or alcohol. Everyone chews Qatl: Fathers, sons, children, pregnant mothers, even the elderly. It is a light stimulant, akin to strong coffee, and produces feelings of euphoria. Chewing the leaves, dried or fresh, is enough to get the affect desired. It has no early onset downsides, with the only real negative effects being depression, infrequent hallucinations, increased risk of oral cancer, and impaired inhibition when chewing it. It gives you a happy feeling to just sit down and chew it, you don't even want to have sex or eat anything.
I've never known SARP to allow/hint at child drug abuse. I think this line would also fit questionable areas with pregnant mothers using it. I am aware that this drug is a central part to your culture and drugs are far from new to Nepleslia. But the idea of an entire sub-culture drugged up is very alarming to me. Especially given the additional factors that lean them further from being "Nepleslian brained".

To put it more simply, Kuznyetski have a unique way of living communally and a gun culture that's fanatical/spiritualist in a way compared to normal Nepleslians. But apart from these, they could still pass for Nepleslians, as they are fine with cybernetics and very pro-freedom. As a sub-culture, they're identified as Nepleslians quite significantly despite their major differences. As an FM and experienced Nepleslian, I think Qatl alone is a very massive cultural shift in how they act.

Secondly; the opening section needs to be less meta, I think. AFAIK we're intended as a site to avoid directly pointing at a culture in articles/setting-descriptions unless absolutely necessary. The bit about Kuznyetski also devalues them considerably to just write them off as Russian-Siberians; they're not. The only thing really similar is a more communal upbringing and their name. But beside this, there's going to be issues here that I can tell the NTSE will tell you to clean up so that's all I'm going to talk on this one.

Thirdly; their family structure is quite similar to the Kuznyetski. The societal roles are pretty different, however. The only issue I see there is that normal Nepleslians would very likely butt heads with them and call them "backwards" due to custom-restricting roles based on gender. Nepleslians don't treat women as weaker or inferior; Nepleslian women are - by necessity - hella strong and proud to the point they could probably mock most other women in the setting.

I also think there's not really a need to mention things like homosexuality and transgenderism; those are things Nepleslia really gives zero shits (sorry but I need to use the curse to express the dismissiveness they have) about. There's a reason why there's a meme about how most Nepleslian men are probably gay, due to shirtless art or 90-10 splits on men-women. Nepleslia is a transhuman society, capable of cloning you a new body if you want one. The idea of them caring about whether or not you are transgendered shouldn't exist because they don't have the problems that our modern society has. If someone wanted to be made into a robot, they just need to pay some money and/or work for Nep state branches/military and they could be put into a robot body.

Fourth; I don't think they should be uncharacteristically big. You need to understand that Neplelsians - modern ones - very likely have some degree of ID-SOL in their bloodline if they had anyone in the military. Nepleslians characteristically are generally bigger than most other "Humans" (Minkan, ACTUAL Humans, etc) and are prone to being muscular because they're a hard, industrial military nation. The other thing - their crime issue - is fine.

Fifth; Cybernetic aversion. Now, I get that you wanted them to stand out. I saved this so late because I think you want Qatl to be a bigger part of them than this.

But if you want cybernetic aversion, I do think we have an issue.

Nepleslians rely on cybernetics a lot; even though they can print bodies off the industrial line, Nepleslians are a very "cyberpunk" inspired society. Not only that, but they interact heavily with Freespacers. Biotics and enhancers are more Yamataian than they are Nepleslian. In fact, this was the very reason that a few years ago @Wes shot-down my ID-SOL 2 pitch back when I was new to the faction and its history. Genetically upgrading themselves isn't something that made sense to him nor does it to me now; the only reason the ID-SOL returned is that they serve as a cultural icon and symbol of power to Nepleslians, alongside filling a much more tough soldier that can literally fight with their body being shot to pieces.

------------​

Now I will say I condensed this with my most blatant/need-solving issues with this. As the Nepleslian FM, I've always pushed to promote using what we had and a new culture is great... but so far it blurs with the Kuznyetski and doesn't really ring in-line enough with Nepleslian ideals to be tolerated. I'm sorry it took me a bit longer to get around to giving this but I wanted to be sure that you had an idea of the crux of my issues (as well as some others that seemed similarly shared among my closest confidants) with the Hanyadi. I do think you have something that can be interesting here (see how I didn't really present issue with a lot of your other sections) but it needs to be polished down into a gem that fits the faction.
 
The Qatl thing I can absolutely get rid of- It was put in to make sure people didn't get the idea of them being mary sues who were better and more noble and 'pure', and to give parallels with drug problems among real world minorities to make sure people didn't see them as being a noble savage type.

Secondly: sure I ca ndo that

Thirdly: Okay but what's the point of them being an ethnocultural minority if they have customs that don't butt heads with the Majority? That's kind of one of the thigns that makes a minority a minority. Also the part about homosexuality and transgenderism, I feel, might need to be stated but for an OOC reader looking in to the setting, or at least that was my thinking.

Fourthly- I think them being uncharacteristically big fits, given that they're descended from the original Amazonians of Hanya. That, and they're big in a different way to ID-SOLs.

Fifth: They aren't against cybernetics. They're against complete limb replacements for the sake of upgrading, and prefer their cybernetics to be less "HEY CHECK OUT MY CHROME" and more "Can't tell how aug'd I am". Any Hanyadi is just as likely to be chock full of cybernetics as anyone from Funky City; their cybernetics are just more likely to be along the lines of Deus Ex Human Revolution or Ghost In The Shell instead of "Clearly cybernetic limb with claws and lasers".
 
The Qatl thing I can absolutely get rid of- It was put in to make sure people didn't get the idea of them being mary sues who were better and more noble and 'pure', and to give parallels with drug problems among real world minorities to make sure people didn't see them as being a noble savage type.

Secondly: sure I ca ndo that

Thirdly: Okay but what's the point of them being an ethnocultural minority if they have customs that don't butt heads with the Majority? That's kind of one of the thigns that makes a minority a minority. Also the part about homosexuality and transgenderism, I feel, might need to be stated but for an OOC reader looking in to the setting, or at least that was my thinking.

Fourthly- I think them being uncharacteristically big fits, given that they're descended from the original Amazonians of Hanya. That, and they're big in a different way to ID-SOLs.

Fifth: They aren't against cybernetics. They're against complete limb replacements for the sake of upgrading, and prefer their cybernetics to be less "HEY CHECK OUT MY CHROME" and more "Can't tell how aug'd I am". Any Hanyadi is just as likely to be chock full of cybernetics as anyone from Funky City; their cybernetics are just more likely to be along the lines of Deus Ex Human Revolution or Ghost In The Shell instead of "Clearly cybernetic limb with claws and lasers".
  1. Awesome.
  2. Great.
  3. The only reason I wanted to snip the part about homosexuality and transgenderism is because of what it could imply. The best way to explain it is that directly addressing it as if the Hanyati were accepting of it might make people leap to the idea that the rest of Nepleslia doesn't. But the other element, I suppose, is fine. I would like you to consider shifting the similarity to the Kuznyetski but that's not a big deal given the other differences.
  4. Maybe we can stipulate that their women are uncharacteristically big, then? Seems like an okay difference, given that the Amazonians are women in the lore/scattered fragments.
  5. If that's the case, alright. The way it's worded currently didn't really give me the impression they would show off their cybernetics at all and actually were entirely against it. The latter paragraph especially made me think they were entirely against them, as you basically shot off alternatives/non-cybernetic augmentation in a section titled "Cybernetic Aversion". It might be good to reword this a tad to make that more clear.
 
Alright, I think I've made the changes @Legix wanted. I've added in a familial clan structure to try to make them less similar to the Kuznyetski- I considered adding in an Kushitic style age grade system, but I figured that wasn't nepleslian enough.
 
I dunno why I needed me to come back; I thought I made it clear that my issues were the biggest/ones I wanted to be solved, then I would be fine with it. If the NTSE see it as approvable now, they can approve it. Otherwise, I'm sure they'll catch/help with any other errors. These were just the big ones that needed changing for the faction.

TLDR: FM-Approved, as it had been, so long as the NTSE make their passes and help clean it up from errors and junk that are more minor.
 
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