The original seven worlds of the Star Kingdom were colonized by the Thule Venture, an enterprise founded and funded by Jarl Danjamin Royce of Eisenheim in the Pillars of Dehradun sector of Eirangard. Consequently, Persican culture is primarily a blend of Nordic and Celtic cultures, seasoned with styles and affectations from ancient Rome. Since unification under King Cambrius of Persica, certain motifs have become prevalent that both emphasize the ancestral patterns and present them as distinctly Persican.
RELIGION
The Star Kingdom of Persica is religiously diverse, encompassing a wide range of beliefs and customs. Persica has no official church, and the Government is officially committed to religious pluralism. While a small percentage of citizens in the Star Kingdom adhere to the ancient religions of Old Earth, most Persicans of faith – including the Royal House of Corvida – belong to a denomination of the Runic Circle, descended from the Nordic neopagan traditions of Eirangard. A large subset of Persicans belong to the Druidic Circle, a Celtic version of the Runic Circle.
Runicism is loosely derived from the Norse Neopaganism of Eirangard, but also shares many traits with Druidicism. It too is a communal spiritual connection, though not limited to the natural world; it includes the entire world and embraces technological advancement, where Druidicism values simple, more terrestrial connections. The pantheon of semi-deities, heroes, and champions include Odin or Woden, also known as the All-Father; Tyr, the greatest of warriors; Raen, lord of the seas and weather changer; Hela, shepherdess of death; and Wyrd, the incarnation of chance.
Druidicism is a less a religion than it is a communal spiritual connection to the natural world. Central to the faith is the idea that all things are interconnected; the seasons, the life cycles of humanity and the world around them, and the apparent order of all things. The belief that all things have their own spirit, similar to Shintoism, and the exploration of the natural order through the scientific method are mutually inclusive. Celebrations and observances include the solstices and equinoxes of the sun cycle, the lunar patterns, the sowing and the harvest. Balance and karma are also strong concepts in Druidicism. In addition to the natural spirits are a pantheon of semi-deities – more like heroes and champions of legend and myth that are venerated, and whose interventions are often sought. These include Dadga, the All-Father and chief amongst Druidic heroes; Fionn, greatest of warriors and champion of courage; Atalanta, the legendary ancient naval commander and hero of the seas; Morgana, the lady of death; and Arawn, the champion of fate and chance. These icons represent certain facets of the world and provide a source of potential providence. As they are – purportedly – based on real Persican ancestors that once lived on Old Earth, they aren’t worshipped as gods, per se.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
In the Star Kingdom, public holidays are days on which most businesses and non-essential services are closed, although an increasing number of retail businesses (particularly the larger ones) do open on some of the public holidays. There are restrictions on trading during Yuletide on Aesingar, Atramentar, and Orcadia; during Hallowtide on Morrigaen; and during Harvestide on Bridon. Because of the differences in planetary solar revolutions and consequent season lengths, each world in the Star Kingdom has its holidays determined by the planet's senior druids in cooperation with the CrownForce Navy Chronologics Office.
OSTERTIDE
Ostertide is a holiday marking the end of winter, the beginning of spring, and the sowing season. Renewal, resurrection, and rebirth are primary themes of the celebration. Ostertide is observed at different times of the calendar year depending on where the planet is in its seasonal cycle, determined by the planet's senior druids in cooperation with the CrownForce Navy Chronologics Office. Common activities include "osterfreshing", a cleansing of the household; many religious organizations conduct special sermons; and a number of denominational observances such as Easter, Imbolc, Lupercalia, Lent, Mardi Gras, Ostara, Passover, and Ramadan take place during Ostertide.
LUMATIDE
Lumatide, or Lúmatide, is a celebration of midsummer, the longest day of the year, as well as a Druidic holiday marking the forthcoming harvest season. Persicans typically honour the day with outdoor gatherings and activities, particularly at the shorelines of rivers, lakes, and oceans.
HALLOWTIDE
Hallowtide is a celebration dedicated to remembering the dead, and a Druidic holiday marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year. Activities include Venerations, remembrances of deceased loved ones ranging from somber to jubilant; hollowing out and carving kookerbitas into "shadowsquashes" with faces or images and lighting them from within; lighting bonfires, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror-genre vids. Many Christian sects abstain from eating meat during Hallowtide. Druidics see the holiday as a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the spirit world could more easily be crossed.
HARVESTIDE
Harvestide is a holiday for giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year; celebrated on the second Lunaday of Octobris. Harvestide is derived from the Thanksgiving holidays observed on Old Terra and is similarly celebrated with the gathering of families and loved ones around a bountiful harvest dinner including a roasted gallo.
YULETIDE
Yuletide is a celebration dedicated to celebrating the end of a calendar year, which typically falls around midwinter and the solstice, and heralding the forthcoming spring. Activities include family gatherings and gift exchange, feasting, and brightly coloured decorations that are considered to counter the often drab and dusky winter season. Sacrifice is also a common theme, with Resolutions and periods of Abstinence being undertaken by adherents to most religious faiths. Celebratory music and songs called "carols" are immensely popular during Yuletide, and hearken back to many different religious traditions.
BIRTH AND DEATH
Birth and death rituals in the Star Kingdom have not changed much since colonization, nor indeed very much since humanity existed solely on Mother Terra; the ancient religions maintain their time-honoured traditions. There are, however, a few notable exceptions, particularly where the Druidic and Runic faiths are concerned.
Once pregnancy is confirmed, Druidic women choose their hodii, their midwife. Under the law, hoden (plural) are required to meet certain educational criteria in addition to being intimately familiar with Druidic traditions and rituals. The hodii acts as both OB-GYN and spiritual guide, culminating in the delivery of the child. Some of the more esoteric customs persisting through the duration of the pregnancy include ensuring there are no knots or belts or ties present in the home, visitors and witnesses avoid crossing arms or legs while in the presence of the expectant mother; doors and windows are often unlocked, though this is less strictly imposed in certain safety circumstances or environments; mirrors are covered up; and certain berry jellies feature prominently in the expectant mother’s diet. Delivery most frequently occurs in hospitals, in specialized rooms. When labour has sufficiently progressed and delivery is imminent, the mother enters a circular birthing pool (typically constructed of real wood) and is partially immersed in water that is salted and consecrated by the hodii. The mother is attended by her own mother, female family members, and female friends as desired. In an adjacent room, the father witnesses the birth with his own father, male family members, and male friends as desired. When the child is born, the men drink to the baby’s health and fortune and the father announces the child’s name (agreed upon with the mother beforehand). The child is cleaned and presented to the mother, who then invites the men to join the women. The mother presents the child to the father, who traditionally presses a silver coin into the child’s hand. Gripping the coin for a few seconds or more is considered good luck.
For women of the Runic faith, a pregnancy proceeds in typical fashion with regular visits to an OB-GYN at a medical facility, dietary supplements and exclusions, and genetic screens for common defects and conditions that are corrected as needed. Traditionally, in the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy - the third of five aetts in the Runic birth cycle structure - the expectant mother pricks her finger and, with her blood, writes the child’s name in runes upon a plaque of wood which is displayed in the home or child’s room. The practice has been modernized in the last century or so: the wood plaque has been replaced by hard copy made of actual paper or vellum, usually with decorative designs; and while the writing is still “inked” in the mother’s blood, it is extracted by a specially designed stylus or pen. The page is often framed and displayed, or simply kept as a memento.
Death rituals for the ancient faiths continue to include funerals with eulogies and prayers followed by procession and terrestrial burial. Cremation is the most popular alternative to burial due to its cost-effectiveness; cremation does not require prior embalming, a full casket, nor a terrestrial burial plot. Among the noble Houses, interment in elaborate tombs on family property continues to be the common practice. Other popular alternative funerary methods available to Persicans include cryogenic storage, burial at sea, and interment in a self-propelled sarcophagus programmed with a trajectory into the system primary.
There are two main Druidic funerary practices, similar to cremation and terrestrial burial, though more closely resembling the ancient manner. For cremation, the deceased is transported to a privately-owned mortuary that specializes in Druidic rituals. These are typically located in pastoral settings: coastlines, hilly meadows, or forest clearings. The deceased is placed on a pyre, the design and construction of which is chosen by the family of the departed. Family and attendees may stand or be seated as the pyre is lit and witness the return of the mortal vessel to the Powers and Elements. Terrestrial burial involves entombing within a small earthen mound, called a barrow. A selection of possessions and mementos are entombed with the deceased. On the first anniversary of the burial, a sapling of one of the Great Trees is planted atop the barrow. This funeral option is rather expensive and generally chosen only by wealthy Druidics.
Runic adherents also have two main options: burial at sea or in space. Naturally, both involve fire. Burial at sea facilitated by specialized mortuaries; the deceased is transported to a chosen location at least six kilometers from shore. A small decorative water craft called a longboat, containing the deceased and selected possessions, runestones, and mementos, and rigged with an ignition device, is lowered onto the water and allowed to drift for a short distance while ritual prayers and eulogies are read. The ritual is concluded when the attendant mortuary agent triggers the ignition device. Family and attendees witness as the longboat is consumed in flames and sinks beneath the waves. Burial in space is similar; instead of a longboat, the deceased is contained in a self-propelled, decorative sarcophagus. Instead of an ignition and flames, the sarcophagus is rigged with a high-explosive device of sufficient yield to vapourize the sarcophagus and its contents. This is done at a much greater distance, but has the benefit of briefly turning the departed into a tiny star.
For the soldiers, sailors, marines, and guardsmen of CrownForce who have died in battle, CrownForce veterans, and prominent military figures, a military funeral is provided by the Crown and Government. Individual honours vary but all military funerals include a guard of honour, a flag-draped coffin, a three-volley salute, and interment in the Royal Fields Cemetery in the Royal CrownForce Park on Persica Prime. Further, the names of all military dead are inscribed on the Brightstone Wall by year of death and in alphabetical order. The Brightstone Wall, also located within the Park, is constructed of brightstone panels two meters square above ground – the wall panels are sunk a meter into the ground – by a half meter thick. Currently there are six hundred thirty-four panels, running for nearly 1.3 kilometers, inscribed with the name of every member to have died in service to the Crown since 2953. For specific conflicts, memorial cenotaphs are erected to honour the participant dead en masse.
Royal and state funerals for monarchs, nobles, and peers include elaborate processions and ceremony, followed by a period of lying in state and then interment in House tombs. For those most prominent Persicans, monuments are often erected.
EDUCATION
While education in the realm is the responsibility of the Consul Eruditis, the day-to-day administration and funding of schools is the responsibility of local authorities. Education in the Star Kingdom is for the most part provided publicly, funded and overseen by national, planetary (margravial), and local baronial governments. Education is within planetary jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the maerk. Education in the Star Kingdom is generally divided into primary (Grade 0 through Grade 5), middle (Grade 6 through Grade 8), secondary (Grade 9 through Grade 12), and post-secondary or tertiary education. Within the maerks under the Ministry of Education, there are baronial and district school boards administering the educational programs.
Education is compulsory up to the age of 17 on every planet in the Star Kingdom, or as soon as a secondary school diploma has been achieved. The only exceptions are students demonstrating technomantic aptitude, who are initially screened at age thirteen and again the following year. If the aptitude threshold is met at age thirteen, students are placed in advanced education courses for the year. All students meeting the aptitude threshold at age fourteen are diverted to the Triskelion Academy on Persica Prime.
LANGUAGE
The Star Kingdom’s de facto official language is Standard English – though typically called Saxonish, an Old Welsh-derived term. English has been the primary language of interstellar governments since the days of the Human Continuity Project. Most Persicans speak the Crown administrative language of Persican, and approximately 97% of Persicans speak both English and Persican as both languages are taught throughout primary, middle, and secondary schools. Immigrants from Eirangard and other star nations have brought their own native languages with them; major languages spoken in the Star Kingdom include Norish, French, Nihonese, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic.
SPORTS
The roots of organized sports in the Star Kingdom date back to the 2890s. The Star Kingdom’s official national sports are battlechess, football, and futbol (soccer).
FOOD AND DRINK
The cuisine of the Star Kingdom reflects its history. The Eirangard-originated settlement of the Persican Cluster brought with it a number of various ingredients, spices, herbs, and cooking styles most strongly reminiscent of the Old Earth regions of western and northern Europe, and North America. The various styles continued expanding well into the 30th and 31st centuries. As a fresh influx of immigrants arrived from many different planets during the Reunion period, there developed a rich diversity in food preparation throughout the Persican Cluster.
In addition to the familiar staples of Terran cuisine – including livestock, fruits and vegetables, grains, and seafood species – the diets of individual colony worlds provided local flavours from native flora and fauna. On Persica Prime, many dishes are seasoned with a perennial herb called sagano (Xenosalvia hirtum vulgare) or spiced with cracked blue peppercorns (Xenopiper azurium ajantis). The breadbasket world of Bridon features a red meat called bova, from the hexapedal livestock animal bovex (Xenobos taurus lopicus), a crossbred species borne of Terran cattle and local herbivorous lopex. Bova and other meats are commonly flame-broiled with herbs in a way that hearkens back to the fogo de chão style. Orcadian diets tend to feature fish and seafood, both wild-caught and farmed, often cooked with rice and salty cheeses and spiced with locally grown molonar peppers (Xenocapsicum chinanga orcadiensis), a pungent chili pepper of medium heat.
As the Serran Expanse was explored and settled by colonists from across the Star Kingdom, these cuisines blended or fused and were also supplemented by local ingredients. Morrigaen palates favour Terran gourds, herbaceous vine fruits, and local free-range fowl such as the gallo (Xenomeleagris gallopavo domesticus). On Rayne, seafood pastas and ramen are prepared in rustic fashion and considered comfort food. Serratanis is known for near-vegetarian cuisines, replete with fresh vegetables and only small amounts of lean proteins.
On the dozens of stations and domed installations found throughout the Star Kingdom, denizens bring their palates and recipes with them; food and drinks tend to be simpler versions of planetside fare. Though not a particularly celebrated fact, the voidbound populations are the largest consumers of alcohol per capita. Some of the locally brewed spirits have become popular “dirtside”. Among them, Dramevin Mead is highly regarded by House Corvida. A distilled spirit called rue has gained immense popularity in recent years; the blue-black distilled spirit is derived from local botanical herbs and a subspecies of duskwood found on Amaranth, where the drink originated. One brand in particular, Dark Murmur, is sold across the Star Kingdom and even exported.
While these are distinct flavours and styles that typify the planetary cuisines, diets are also largely influenced by cultural heritage and local availability of ingredients. Imported food and drink from other star nations are generally well received and often prized, inciting culinary trends for a time. Indeed, when a chain of cafés featuring Pavonian Tea from the Pharthan region of Threshold opened on Nova Cambria, it was wildly successful and has expanded to include franchises on every world in the Star Kingdom.
ENTERTAINMENT
Early in Persica’s colonial history, entertainment programmes comprised the collection of shards (once called shows or videos) brought with them from Titania. Nearly all of these shards remain in circulation on the national mesh (once called network or web), generally available as public domain. After Unification, as the colonies expanded and flourished, outward-looking shards about futurist or sci-fi topics were most popular, with programmes that speculated on alien life and dramatic interactions with other star nations, both allegorical and fictional. In the mid-3000s, following the age of exploration in the Serran Expanse, shards about colonial pioneering featured prominently on the mesh. In the same time period, professional sports, particularly battlechess, were gaining broad fan bases. In 3084, the first Valkyrie Cup was uploaded and millions across the Star Kingdom watched the Threnody Thunder defeat the Hallowgard Shadow in the Premier Battlechess League championship.
As three-dimensional projection gave way to more immersive VR experiences, shards produced by amateur sources erupted in number. Uncounted billions of shards were uploaded to the mesh on seemingly every conceivable topic. Crown regulations shepherded the shards into a more cohesive medium, and the Persican Broadcast Corporation was created as a central hub for shards in the Star Kingdom. A number of nationally funded shards featured military epics about the Technomantic War and Unification, documentaries about the natural ecosystems, flora, and fauna of Persican systems, and a wildly popular fictional series featuring the dramatic adventures of a team of Vindicators (law enforcement technomancers) called Zero Hour.
Most recently, the highest-rated shards include a melodramatic series called Harrow Court, following the interconnected lives of a group of neighbours living in the lower-income areas of Hermitage, in the Nova Cambrian district of Clearview. The Premier Battlechess League retains one of the highest number of subscribers, with the Valkyrie Cup match being viewed by an average of seven billion Persicans. A spin-off of the original series, Zero Hour: Excidium has proven even more popular than its predecessor.
In literature, the classics of history have always been popular in Persica, particularly those written by authors from Intersystem Alliance worlds. Local authors who chronicled the seminal years of life on Persica Prime gained wide popularity throughout the 31st century. Prominent books tend to mirror topical trends in shard popularity, though in recent years, a baroque style of writing has been much in demand and garners critical acclaim.