Cultures of the void
How the solar nations meet the same situations in different ways.
Daily life aboard
Life aboard
Ordinary life goes on aboard, but most crews can expect to be away from home for years, or forever if they find somewhere to settle. Families rarely travel with the flotilla itself. They usually follow later on colony freighters, once a suitable place has been found.
Void funerals
Every faction has its own funeral traditions, from Saturn's solemn rites to Phobos's roaring send-offs. Strip away the hymns, flags and speeches, though, and nearly all of them come down to the same thing: a ritualised way of blasting someone out of an airlock. Old voidsmen joke that the only real difference between a hero's funeral and getting spaced for mutiny is the music.
Pastimes of the void
Voidsmen pass the long voyages much as people always have, with games, media and sport, though tastes vary with culture and nation. Fencing is popular among the nobles of Titan, and NOVA crews keep the old sports of Earth alive. Ordinary plutocrats often simply plug into a synthworld, a digital existence, and escape there for the entire trip between orbital bodies. Such immersion is illegal in most nations.
Children and the young on flotillas
Phobos only takes onto its warships people who have seen battle. That means years on Mars as a teenager first, the rite that earns the honour of serving the Confederacy in the void.
Ce-Co will have children aboard, though not the very young; teenagers yes. Skill and maturity can get someone onto a ship earlier.
NOVA takes only those eighteen or older and fully qualified on any expedition.
The Kingdom of Saturn is crewed by older people. The young usually stay within the Kingdom until boredom, ambition or the weight of parents and grandparents pushes them into Her Majesty's Navy.
The Plutocracy has few hard rules. Flotillas are often a syndicate or family, so the young are sometimes aboard.
Education and training
Schooling usually happens on stations or colonised worlds, not on a combat flotilla. Aboard, you get training and experience more than classroom education. Learning can be traditional (school, parents, family) or harsher indoctrination. Cybernetic downloads can pour expertise straight into a brain, but that tech is grey at best and heavily regulated by NOVA and stellar law.
Pets and companions
Animals aboard are surprisingly common across every faction. They are usually engineered or cybernetically enhanced so they stay obedient and reliable, or else kept in cages or tanks. Different nations favour different beasts. The Kingdom of Saturn likes hunting dogs, tigers, lions, eagles and the rest of that noble menagerie. NOVA often keeps a few monkeys as ship pets, normally regulated or cybernetically enhanced for compliance. Phobos very commonly keeps the synthetic animals bred for Mars: creatures genetically designed to live there. The Plutocracy has all sorts of weird stuff, complete genetically engineered monsters that really should not exist. Ce-Co is stricter about pets aboard, but every faction accepts that, psychologically, keeping animals is good for the crew.
Ce-Co also has gemlings: crystalline, gremlin-like creatures that live in the ships. Outside the Cooperative almost nothing is known of them — where they come from, or even what they are. Aboard they are treated as pets, mascots and pests at once, and they cause all sorts of problems.
Music and celebration
Taste is personal everywhere, as it always has been. Nations lean toward certain styles without owning them. The Kingdom of Saturn promotes classical, religious and parlour music. Saturnian youths may listen to, and even make, Plutocracy-style industrial dance music, though most of that sound still comes from the Plutocracy and travels far. Martian clans keep old songs of their own, and Ce-Co has work chants common on the job.
Drink and intoxicants
NOVA keeps strict regulations on duty: clear head, clear record, and discipline if you break it.
The Kingdom of Saturn drinks at table, wine included, as part of civility and celebration, though excess that shames a house is another matter.
Ce-Co leans austere: little patience for wasted work-hours or spoiled focus, even off the clock. Even so, some individuals are renowned for making their own moonshine.
Phobos drinks hard after a fight; celebration and relief matter more than neat rules.
The Plutocracy allows anything you can afford.
Gambling
NOVA regulates it tightly, like everything else.
The Kingdom of Saturn sets no limits; plenty of nobles ruin themselves at the tables.
Ce-Co looks down on it but may allow it.
Phobos thinks little of gamblers; it happens anyway, usually on fights of skill rather than pure chance.
The Plutocracy has no limits, though collecting a win is another story.
Humour and satire
NOVA commanders may punish open disrespect to keep military discipline. Mocking a Phobos leader to their face is unwise; a leader who takes mockery poorly looks weak. Ce-Co Foremen are close to their crews, so jokes about them are common if love and respect remain. Saturn keeps hierarchy but has a healthy satire tradition, even light mockery of the Queen. In the Plutocracy it depends on the Plutarch; most are unstable, so best not to offend.
Holidays and holy days
The Kingdom of Saturn and Phobos keep their own holy days when they can, but will fight through them in wartime.
NOVA is secular: no religious days off. There may be a civic holiday for the end of the Solar Supremacy and NOVA's part in it; otherwise leave is contractual.
Ce-Co also negotiates contractual holidays by success, plus labour days, and strikes are common.
In the Plutocracy, people celebrate what matters to their syndicate or family, as they please.
Injury, disability and aftercare
Every organisation, even the Plutocracy, offers some compensation or a life after heavy injury; people would not serve without that security. The Plutocracy also dabble in slavery, though, so some voidsmen are indentured with no insurance at all.
Medical consent and treatment
NOVA sticks to its regulations and expects others to. Ce-Co puts productivity first; medical care is something you commission from the Cooperative. Phobos assumes you'll take the hard option and endure pain if you must — strength matters. Saturn allows honour and choice within Christian doctrine: nothing against God's laws. In the Plutocracy, if you still have bodily autonomy and the money, you can buy almost anything.
Faith, family and names
Religion and Sovereign cults
For the cults themselves, see Cults of Sovereign.
NOVA has a no-religion policy on paper. In practice most people are atheists, Christian or one of the other old faiths of earth. Cults of Sovereign are treated as a nuisance and a joke, though you can still worship Sovereign and serve in NOVA.
Phobos expects the Martian faith in MacTavish's prophethood. Anyone outside it is laughed at, disdained, and usually kept from the best seats at the table.
Ce-Co is broadly anti-religious. There is no official ban so long as faith does not get in the way of success, but most religions are treated with derision.
The Kingdom of Saturn keeps its Church of Saturn: honour, duty, loyalty to the Queen, and an absolute ban on worshipping Sovereign. See Faith: the Church of Saturn.
The Plutocracy allows anything you can pay for.
Marriage and family
The Kingdom of Saturn rarely marries for politics. People marry for love, and fidelity is highly valued; adultery can be punishable by death, though that sentence is not always carried out. Every marriage needs the Queen's consent, usually checked and signed by someone beneath her at this scale. Once married, a couple may live an ordinary life and have children in the ordinary way, but a great many expand their potential with surrogate wombs. Gametes as haploid cells are not valued as people; fetuses are. A fetus is treated as a member of the family as much as a child already born, so the loss of even a single fetus is very sad, though expected.
NOVA has a system of marriage much like Western Earth in the 21st century. People marry, divorce rates are sadly high, and some do not treat the bond very seriously.
Phobos does not really marry in the traditional sense. A person can be joined to multiple partners, and having children with different people is only slightly looked down on. That comes from Martian clan culture: so long as it stays within the clan and the children have some support structure, it is considered okay.
Ce-Co makes family a matter of debt. Every child you have becomes part of your obligation until that child can provide for themselves. Anyone you marry brings their debt into yours, so you have to be very careful who you marry for financial reasons. Concepts of love are less discussed, though they exist.
The Plutocracy is political here. Two Plutarchs, or their children, may marry to create alliances. Ironically they are more like the ancient medieval and feudal societies of Earth than the Kingdom of Saturn is in this regard.
Names
In Phobos and Ce-Co, true names are earned: a childhood name from your parents is not a proper name until a superior grants one for success. Saturn names proclaim station, descent and closeness to the Queen. NOVA keeps the name your parents gave you, plus rank or title. In the Plutocracy, if you know someone's name you must know them very well; names are not casually shared.
Ship names
A ship can be called almost anything; these are only typical conventions.
The Kingdom of Saturn prefixes Queen's ships HMS and draws on old Earth kingdoms: Victory, Speedy, Ishinawa, Horoshina.
Phobos uses MS plus strong words: Strength, Dignity, Power, Endurance, Beast.
NOVA uses NS and noble ideas — Aspiration, Exploration, Justice — or old Earth cities.
Ce-Co only assigns serial numbers; long crews still nickname a hull Sturdy or Old Girl.
The Plutocracy names to scare: mythic monsters, weapons, deep-sea creatures — Dagger, Hydra, Medusa, Stingray, Leviathan.
Honours and recognition
NOVA has official medals for bravery, success and long service.
Phobos has nothing official; clans mark honour with tattoos or scarification, often on the face.
Ce-Co rewards good work with promotion.
The Kingdom of Saturn grants titles (baron, earl, lady and higher) plus land, machines, money and lasting family status.
In the Plutocracy, money and control matter most, though a Plutarch may also grant made-man status or higher standing in a syndicate.
Honour, crime and conflict
Honour, failure and loyalty
Phobos, the Kingdom of Saturn and Ce-Co are honour-based: break your word and your reputation suffers badly, though each offers a path back. Saturn, as a Christian society, believes in forgiveness, but only with real repentance. In Ce-Co, proving yourself another way can redeem you; if you fail in leadership, blame often falls on whoever promoted you too soon or wrongly. On Phobos, failure can make you an outcast and branded (not always literally); you earn respect back through combat or success tied to the offence.
NOVA uses regulation and protocol: demotion or prosecution, depending on what you did.
The Plutocracy has few shared standards; each syndicate or family sets its own. Loyalty to the syndicate and the Plutarch is prized above all, which does not mean people stay loyal. A clever betrayal that makes you Plutarch yourself will still win respect from many.
Duels and personal violence
Phobos ritualises it: you declare, and peers must watch so honour is kept and the outcome is known.
NOVA bans it outright; fighting fellow voidsmen means prosecution.
Ce-Co also forbids it, mainly as counterproductive to the Cooperative's aims.
The Kingdom of Saturn already allows noble duelling as an accepted way to settle disputes though this is condemned by the church. See Faith: the Church of Saturn.
In the Plutocracy, a literal stab in the back is not uncommon if the timing is right; close family members are usually spared, though not always.
Surrender
What happens after you strike your colours depends entirely on who you are surrendering to.
NOVA will usually arrest you much as a civilised power treats an enemy combatant: law, procedure, and relatively decent treatment.
Phobos weighs how you fought. A good opponent may be treated well; a coward gets disdain. Torture is unlikely.
The Kingdom of Saturn is similar: fight honourably and they treat you honourably. Prisoners who commit a real affront, such as murdering hostages, may be executed, and particularly dishonourable enemies have been known to lose their heads.
Ce-Co treats it as a trade negotiation: what you hand over for not being destroyed, and for decent accommodation.
The Plutocracy is another matter. All bets are off. Better not to surrender to a Plutarch: you might end up in a brain box. Fall into a Plutarch's hands and you would be lucky to end up only as an indentured slave: they can do worse.
Spies and informants
In the Plutocracy, everyone is assumed to spy for some syndicate; being caught is the shame, then you're turned or dealt with harshly if useless.
NOVA and the Kingdom of Saturn have formal rules; spying can mean hanging or other execution.
Phobos usually beats proven spies to death when caught.
Ce-Co can put a spy to hard labour.
Desertion and breakaway fleets
Every faction punishes desertion; nations want to stay whole. Exploration fleets that declare independence are almost never accepted by the home nation. Saturnian nobles who crown themselves on a new world are disowned by the Queen and treated as enemies. NOVA admirals have gone rogue and set up as little despots in the void. Ce-Co Foremen who default and leave are chased: Ce-Co often sends flotillas to "repossess" their lost property.
Trade, property and news
Traders, taxes and debt
Traders and other neutrals move through every nation's void. Whatever the flag, if you pay the taxes demanded and keep up with your debts, you will usually be treated well enough. Fail to pay, and each culture answers in its own way.
NOVA treats unpaid debt as a criminal matter. Expect prison and confiscation of property, much as a civilised state deals with serious default.
Phobos is more direct: they may simply take some of your goods as payment and send you on your way, with or without goodwill depending on how you behaved.
Ce-Co may offer (or impose) induction into the Cooperative. Your debt becomes Ce-Co's problem and you become one of them: austere, bonded, and oddly secure. For some traders that is a disaster; for others it is a way out.
The Kingdom of Saturn will expel you from its void holdings. Honour and order matter; a debtor who will not pay has no place in the Queen's void.
The Plutocracy recognises no such niceties; fall behind a Plutarch and they might repossess your body.
Trade between nations
Nations use Sovereigns for trade with each other, and each keeps its own currency at home. Nobody truly believes in free trade, though NOVA may pay lip service. They all trade when it suits them. Ce-Co in particular signs large mineral contracts, which can end if war comes or the deal no longer serves the Cooperative.
Who owns a warship
Rich Saturnians and Plutarchs can field private flotillas. NOVA keeps hulls as property of the NOVA navy. Ce-Co ships belong to the Cooperative, not to individuals. Phobos treats ships as Phobos property, assigned for a task, though captains still grow fiercely possessive of their hulls.
News and propaganda
Inside the human solar system, communication between nations is easy, much like the old internet. That does not stop crackdowns on foreign propaganda. Ce-Co shrugs at other nations' opinions and media. NOVA is the most open to outside information, but even it talks of filtering enemy propaganda and misinformation. Phobos is so insular, fixed on MacTavish's teachings, that most look down on foreign belief, media and ways of life. The Kingdom of Saturn has the most trouble with restless youth who grow disillusioned, then later value their place; it does not press hard against foreign media. The Plutocracy exports more than it imports: it can make almost anything and ship it across the system, so its media stays popular.
The frontier
Refugees and newcomers
NOVA has strict rules: anyone who claims refugee status officially is meant to get sanctuary and help. That is massively abused by smaller nations, and the Plutocracy in particular often sends people who later turn out to be spies.
The Kingdom of Saturn accepts new people sometimes, then often integrates them by marriage or by giving them a specific role in the Kingdom. One defeated belt nation instead stayed a people of its own: see The Pioneers.
Phobos does not normally accept refugees, and not many would go there. Its culture is so aggressive and unlike most of humanity that NOVA is the more popular landing.
Ce-Co is very willing to let people enter the Cooperative and join its economic regime.
The Plutocracy is effectively a nation of refugees: its ancestors fled the Solar Supremacy, often for nefarious reasons such as dark technology or because they were wanted.
Alien contact
The Plutocracy has no fixed rule: they do whatever suits their gain at the time. The other factions often give an air of care while thinking of their own needs. True communication with aliens is rare; most are so biologically different that their societies are often incomprehensible, sometimes needing cybernetic change even to talk. A few more primitive aliens can be reached and occasionally taken as a protectorate, but that is uncommon. Most aliens sit outside human comprehension, which is why many faiths do not treat them as human-like. Close work with alien auxiliaries can soften attitudes, but it is case by case, depending on the alien.
New worlds and strip-mining
There are so many moons that even NOVA rarely objects to strip-mining an empty rock, bacteria included. Complex life is another matter: NOVA would find another way to exploit the place. Other nations do what suits them. In practice they seldom need to gut a life-bearing moon when barren ones are plentiful.
Maps and navigation data
Real charts — moons, routes, mapping data — are valuable. They are rarely given away free; usually sold, and only when it benefits the seller. Exploring and mapping new systems for later colonisation is a big part of life in the free void.
Distant colonies
Home nations still count far-flung settlements as their own and work to keep them friendly: protection now, light taxes when the colonists will bear it. Independence is a known risk later. The aim is to push people out into the galaxy to colonise, not keep them bottled up at home, so keeping colonies happy matters.