Cultural Backgrounds

[Golden Dragon Girl]

Another one I'll work on when I have the time. This one goes by planets, starting with Caligula and moving on from there.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=red,2,300]Caligula[/glow]

Author's note: Caligula is the childhood nickname of an insane Roman Emperor who appointed his horse as head of the Senate. It means "little boots."

Once, further into the planet's past than most Caligulans can remember, race was divided on color lines as it is on Earth now. However, after much efforts in the society to end racism, the population began to intermarry until skin color was as unreliable for defining race as eye color.

Caligula is a very contrary world, with a technologically advanced society living on most of the planet and pockets of tribal, primitive societies living in places like the Klaw rainforest or the Sa mountains. (Where Shangri is located.)

Several centuries ago, children with long, gracefully pointed ears began to be born into the population. This frightened their parents and the rest of society, and such children began to be called "2nd Kind." 2nd Kind are usually regarded as genetic mistakes and are shunned and feared, even as their population grows.

Several decades before LOP takes place (Think thirty or forty years), Kimuri Mishikari (whether this is his real name is questionable, but like on Earth names vary throughout the planet even though the language has been mostly homogenized) leads a group of 2nd Kind to the Sa mountains to build a city there, where they can live without prejudice bearing on their backs. They organize a religion out of their spiritual experiences while in the mountains and discover a way to tap into the commonality of sentient minds. (Telepathy.)

Kimuri names this discipline, and the martial arts that accompanies it, "Nijai," an old word from a dead language meaning "focus."

Most Caligulans do not gather for spiritual needs, finding time to fulfill it by themselves, and think of indoctrination cults whenever they hear of people gathering for religious rituals. The Nijai do not indoctrinate anyone, however anyone needing focus is welcome to practice. Until Silver captured the city, however, only 2nd Kind were allowed in the city itself-- Kimuri believed it was the only way to give 2nd Kind the emotional freedom they needed.

(Incedentally, if one were to ask Blue what religion he is, he would most certainly answer Nijai. If anyone needed focus on arriving at Shangri, he did.)

One of the most famous cities on Caligula is Casta Bay-- not for the wild nightlife spurred on by the presence of a spaceport, but because several years before LOP picks up it was the scene of the first large-scale 2nd Kind terrorist scare.

The most prevalent society (or country, whatever one likes to call it) on Caligula has no fixed name, and is often thought of when people refer to Caligula anyway. It is governed by a ruling family in which the current ruler usually passes the throne to the oldest and nearest relative. The rest of the adult family usually is given some kind of say in the actions of the ruler, although the ruling class tended to more or less leave their subjects alone until Silver took the throne.

Today, Silver rules Caligula with carefully applied force, hitting harder where the 2nd Kind are concerned and more lightly with the general populace (using a "you don't notice I'm taking your rights until they're all gone" method.)


Caligulan children usually refer to adults by their first name, except as a "Miss," "Mister" or "Mrs," the way that Zeva calls Blue and Red "Mister Blue" and "Mister Red." To me at least, it makes more sense than what we English speaking Earthfolk usually do.

Caligulans do not believe in sexual orientation. A person is a person, and attraction is based more on emotional and intellectual factors than what sex someone happens to be.
(They also don't tend to have very strongly defined gender roles compared to most Terran cultures.)

They have strong trading lines to the Drakon, and there are quite a few Caligulan spacers that wander the spacelines, some legitimate, many not.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=blue,2,300]Myrania[/glow]

Author's note: Don't ask me why I'm doing Myrania next, I do not know. Myrania was named at a time when I was obsessed with the letter "M."

Myrania is the world closest to Earth that has sentient, humanoid life, and the race that lives there is very close to human stock. The main difference is the telepathic powers of the women that allow them to dominate society. All Myranians are blonde and have brown, red or black eyes, lending suspicion to their planetary origins.

Myrania is a temperate, comfortable world with little variance in climate. If it weren't for how dangerous the women are, it would be considered the vacation spot of the galaxy.

Myranian men have the potential for personality, however are usually memtwisted so often while growing up that no personality has a chance to shape itself.

Memtwisting, a skill most women have, scrambles the memory information stored in a humanoid's brain so thoroughly it usually takes several months for him to recover. Some victims do not recover as quickly, some not at all. Basic personality and ingrained skills (like knowing how to get dressed or even to drive) are usually left intact.

Myranian women expect to be obeyed, and so when traveling offworld come across as bratty, manipulative, and domineering.

There has been a recent backlash in Myranian society involving young women going for non-Myranian men, who they find either have more interesting personalities or are simply more exotic. Older Myranian women worry this will turn them into a race of half-breeds.

Some cultural quirks!
Myranian etiquette dictates that one refers to a woman by her full first name when being formal, and a combination of a shortening of her first name and her family name when being affectionate, with the exception of within families and personal preference. Mariana usually refers to her sister by the formal "Shialla" as opposed to the affectionate "Shi Shi." Note that Daimon refers to her as "Shialla" as well.
Most Myranian men are given descriptive names like "Hunky," "Abs," and "Sexmuffin." XD

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=blue,2,300]Earth[/glow]

Author's note: We all know the basics about Earth, so I won't bother going into that. This is the stuff that is different due to this being an alternate Earth in a webcomic.

Unbeknowest to most earthlings, (Earthlings being Earthbound humans with no knowledge of the "Out There" or any means of getting there, Terrans being Earth stock humans found either off Earth or having a method of interstellar travel) Earth has been a "farming" ground for the peoples surrounding it for centuries. The trade has always been that of sentient property (and I DON'T mean it like the EU currently does, I mean human level sentience) and it has always been in the interest of these other races to keep us ignorant of their presence, as well as to protect our world as a source of ignorant humanoids.

However, in the past few millenia, a group of Earthlings discovered this exploitation, with help from some sympathetic aliens, and began to police the beings that came to the planet, later policing the humans that traded offworld and helping interplanetary refugees.

For some time they became very intertwined with the Christian church, and their symbol for recognising one another today still echoes that connection. (No one is going to be suspicious of someone wearing what looks like a Christian symbol anyway.)

Despite their efforts Earth continues to be a resource for the surrounding worlds, and many unsolved dissappearances today can be attributed to this people trade.

In the last century this organization contacted several world governments, that of the US included, and set up a quiet partnership with them. On occasion they send alien offenders to secret prisons funded by these governments.

The symbol of the organization, which has no true name (but has been called the MIB or WIW in the past.):

The interpretation once worn by Lily Wolf, now carried by her husband, Sam.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=purple,2,300]Geist[/glow]

Author's note: Where the heck is Geist?! Ah, yes-- tis where the Shadowfolk-- like Brenna Raveneye-- hail from. X3

Several years before where the comic starts up, Geist, one of Caligula's galactic neighbors, had been taken over by one of the Shades-- a man referred to usually as "Clarence the Evil." (It has been theorized that his given name, Clarence, contributed to his hatred of the universe and his desire to subjugate his own people.)

(XD Clarence was created on a whim late at night while I was in middle school.)

Clarence had discovered how to utilize a certain kind of mold, one which most Shades are horribly allergic to, in order to keep the populace under his fist. (Subjugation by disease, really.) Ironically, this same mold is very structurally similar to the molds humans use to culture certain milk products. (You may laugh but the shades didn't find it very funny.)

Clarence's reign of terror, however, was stopped short when Silver, who had been quietly building up a military force up till this point, swept in and used his superior forces and tactics to kill Clarence.

He then used the Shadowfolk's gratitude to take advantage of them, using them to supplement his regular forces.

The Shadowfolk are capable of concentrating static energy through their skin and concentrating it into a ball of energy, like ball-lightening, then throwing it. (This is why Brenna's gloves have no fingers.)

Culturally, the Shadowfolk were more or less devastated with the wars that led to the reign of Clarence.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=green,2,300]Hedise[/glow]

Author's note: "Hedise" is intended to bring to mind the word "Hades," which most of you should know is the name of the Grecian underworld. I've noticed I actually pull a lot from Greek, Roman and other historical sources when coming up with LOP stuff. I wonder why?

Hedise is the centerpoint of the Avernian United Worlds, a group of planets either mostly populated by or allied closely with the Wraithe people. Out of all those worlds, Hedise is the least pleasant, and is infamous for its slums, smog, nightlife and crime. It is the starting point for most of the nastier rumors surrounding the Avernian worlds.

Consensus agrees that Hedise is the most likely candidate for the birthplace of the Wraithe themselves, as in its less populated areas it remains a harsh and unforgiving place, and thus the theory arises that the Wraithe evolved to survive living on a cruel planet.

The law there is much looser than in most cultures, due to the fact that Wraithe do not believe they can actually permanently die, and so place less value on life in general. The strong survive and the weak are mainly ignored or exploited on Hedise.

Nevertheless, someone who is found to be "dragonmarked" (like Daimon or Blue) is highly respected, no matter what their station in life may have began as. The respect of a dragon commands the respect of others.

Daimon has been making small, gradual changes in his society since coming to power as the high general, hoping to ease his people into a gentler mindset towards their own.

Many Wraithe choose their own names if they randomly decide they don't like the one they currently have.
Wraithe are familiar with the concept of sexual orientation, having been in contact with plenty of other cultures, but don't care, and often revel in breaking other people's taboos.

Wraithe are not the only race to live on Hedise, but they are the most prominent. There is a large slave trade in Terrans and half-breeds in the Avernian collective, and the Wraithe supply most of the Earthling component, although there are space faring Terrans who have contributed.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=green,2,300]Zosia[/glow]

Author's note: Ted named the Zosians. I'm not explaining where it came from. XDDD

Zosia is a member of the Avernian collective. It is mainly populated by its native people, the reptomammalian Zosians, although there are plenty of offworlders, particularly around spaceports.
Zosia contributes a great deal to the Avernian entertainment industry, as many Zosians are rather dramatic people.

Zosian society is much more polite than that of Hedise, despite that they exist within the same collective, and violent crime is minimal-- Each Zosian is as capable as the next at dealing out damage, and they are not as capable as wraithes when it comes to taking damage. It is a social philosophy that reaches back over millenia.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=teal,2,300]The Drakoni System[/glow]

The Drakoni system is a trader's hub, both for sanctioned and illicit businesses. They are on a similar level in terms of political and military power to Caligula, although this has been a recent development as Caligula has become more proactive in the galaxy since the beginning of Silver's reign. For centuries, the Drakon and Caligulans were trading allies, since the Drakoni system represents a fairly safe link to the Avernian Collective, however, Drakoni leaders have been made somewhat shifty by Silver's recent imperial policies, aware that should he garner enough power to challenge them, he will. They stay out of Caligula's politics and like to remind Silver his jurisdiction does not extend there, although at the fleeing of certain Caligulan citizens he has argued the point.

The Drakoni system is policed loosely by a council, the head of which is a crossbreed Drakon named Weruk Raxilus. Their main function is to prevent abuses of sentient life, and so the slave trade so popular in the Avernian Collective is less prevelant here. (Weruk, incedentally, is a cross of the two races we have seen thus far in the comic, that is, Drakon'na and Drakon'ai. He has traits in common with both races.) Prostitution, however, is legal-- if one has a license and works in a licensed brothel. The authorities argue that this keeps both sexual violence down and violence on whores in general at a minimum. The brothels are usually combined with inns, hotels or bars.

There are five habitable worlds in the Drakoni system, two of which actually orbit gas giants. It is unclear which of these worlds the Drakon first hail from, and whether any of their historians know, most deem it unimportant. (Although since the furthest one from the sun is, technically, actually a space station of tremendous proportions, it's a safe guess that one probably isn't it.)

Because their reptilian bodies cannot metabolize alchohol as effieciently and much of what they consume exits the body without doing much, and because most Drakon find the sensation of a burning throat pleasurable (dating back to their ancestors preffering to eat meat still attached to a living animal), Drakon rum is famous in many circles as being the hardest, roughest drink available. (It's actually Morgan's favorite-- he's a bit of a critic.) Drakon cuisine involves a lot of animal flesh, what kind depending on the planet or even the area, and plenty of spices and fire.

There is actually minimal racism based on what merits one might gain from being of certain birth, but most Drakon are most attracted to their own race, which is why there aren't more crossbreeds.

All Drakon share the same language, although most also speak intergalactic-- it is a very strict one when it comes to naming types of things, and thus it is usually easy to tell the relations of things (outside of individuals themselves) even for the novice. (It also makes it easier for me to come up with names for things. XDD)

planetary names:
Dak'Marin
Dak'Lisar
Dak'Sepret
Dak'Galei
Ti'Dak'Nitak (This one is the space station, which is why its prefix is modified in such a way.)

The various planets' internal cultures vary slightly from world to world, much the way that different regions within the United States do. The differences will be gone into later.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=green,2,300]Chu'a[/glow]

Author's note: Chu'a means "snake" in Hopi. At least, that's what my naming book says.)

The Chu'ogin exist in that happy place in which they have just attained the stars, and have not yet learned much about their fellow space travelers. This makes them charmingly naiive by the standards of many outsiders, although obviously there will always be xenophobes in the universe. Chu'a consists of several large nations, and the Chu'ogin also have a colony off-planet within their own system, Pachua'a. These are held together by an intermarriage alliance of ruling families, although the governments of most of the nations are limited monarchies. Pachu'a is held slightly aloof in that it has no traditional ruling family to bind it to the nations on its motherworld.

Usually, fresh blood is introduced into the ruling families through uncrowned princes and princesses marrying people of lower station, and the nephews and nieces being the children married off, although in one country, there is actually a tradition in which the ruling queen's first daughter be fathered by a commoner of her choice, as opposed to the prince-consort! (Which means he doesn't really get to sleep with his bride UNTIL she's had the crown-daughter. Poor man.)

The dominant religion on Chu'a is a form of both snake and ancestor worship, involving the idea that snakes are the souls of people who have come before and as such must be respected, and that their wisdom should be looked to in times of trouble. (Considering that the Chu'ogin themselves are slightly snakey in appearance, it's actually pretty easy to see where they got the idea.)

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=red,2,300]Gotehu[/glow]

The Nekojin are the only off-Earth race that the Organization has a widespread alliance with, due to the fact that small pockets of them have lived peacefully on Earth at least since the nineteen hundreds.

Gotehu, their homeworld, is made up of several countries held together by a council of leaders, which meets twice a year and in the event of emergency. It sports diverse religions which are practiced more or less freely, and some Nekojin have transported Earthen religions back to their families.

Natives to Gotehin culture are very cautious people in interpersonal relationships, which can sometimes be mistaken for politeness. Much of conversation actually takes place in body language and inference, and some Nekojin raised on Earth meet with a similar difficulty, going to Gotehu, that an American may have to deal with trying to interact with Japanese for the first time. (The idea of the implied request, for example, in that a Gotehin native is much more likely to give and look for subtle hints in spoken conversation.)

(Konane, by the way, may be Nekojin, but he is NOT from Gotehu. He's from Earth. XD)

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=red,2,300]Raliin[/glow]

Author's note: That's Rah-leen. XD

Raliin's people, the Sican, wander the planet in tribal groups or gather into city-states. They occassionally embroil themselves in violent little wars, most of which do not last long and are usually ended with treaties sealed by the exchange of tribe members. (Usually men, since they are a female dominated society.)

Sican gender rules are somewhat confusing to outsiders-- their women are tall and robust, although hardly unattractive to males of other human stock, while their men are so slender and effeminate as to be mistaken for females by people of other races, and usually dress in ways appropriate to a "subserviant" gender. Thus, early studies suggested that they were a unisexual race despite obviously having gender divisions. (Hey, even scientists make some pretty silly mistakes.)

Sican women consider the duty of giving birth to be more dangerous and worthy than even that of warriorhood, and surround it with much ritualism. Unlike most mammals of their developmental level, Sican children usually wean themselves around 3 months, and are handed over to their fathers at that time until they reach adulthood. (The studied Sican tribe calls a woman's time out of combat due to pregnancy and nursing "The Year of Creation.")

Religion on Raliin is still fairly primitive, and the various objects of worship are usually derived from nature. This gives some Sican a nearly obsessive fascination with visiting offworlders, and it is advised by both surrounding authorities (the Drakoni and the Avernian Collective) not to be seen if possible. (Especially if one happens to be a man. XD)

Even wraithe are somewhat wary of traveling to Raliin-- Sican women possess an ability similar to their own changing, if they are properly provoked, and are more likely than most wraithe to band together. (They are also more likely to have training; as Ted points out, since so few things can hurt a wraithe, wraithe don't tend to bother really learning how to fight well.)

Most Sican women wear their hair short, while most men wear theirs comparitively long.

(Our valiant heroes-- that is, the Fayse family-- spent a rather interesting but brief period hiding out on Raliin while first fleeing Caligula-- the details are best left to an actual story.)

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=black,2,300]Abetzi[/glow]

Home to the main font of information in the Avernian collective, Abetzi is a cold, dark planet usually shadowed by its enormous moon. The native Feuri are obsessed with the religion of science and knowledge, and so built a massive Temple Library which, in modern times, houses backups of most of the information about everything in the Avernian Collective in gigantic computers and hard copies, which at one time the Feuri created by hand, like crazed monks. Most of the studies of Wraithe physiology took place here, because the Wraithe themselves never cared much.

Most of Abetzi society is centered around the Library, and it is a Feuri parent's greatest dream to send a child there to study (although, of course, most towns and cities have their own, smaller libraries.) The head of the Library could almost be compared to the Pope on Earth.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=orange,2,300]Bohdan[/glow]

A member of the Avernian Collective.

One of two worlds that supply much of the food that Avernians eat, Bohdan is also home to a massive pharmeceutical company that uses Bohdan's equatorial rainforests to develop most of its drugs. These drugs are shipped all over the Collective, as well as to other worlds outside the Collective, such as to Caligula and the Drakoni system, and in the past century, to Chu'a.
Bohdan only has two spaceports and both are on the water, since the company (called Denex Incorporated) owns much of the land in the planetary launching zone, and refuses to develop a square foot of it.

Many of the pharmeceutical researchers work and live in a ring of space stations that orbit the planet, and most people in the Avernian Collective, when they say "on Bohdan," actually mean "within one of the stations." Most of the people that work there are Zosian, Lisyur, and Feuri, along with a smattering of free Terrans.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=orange,2,300]Corradeo[/glow]

(Author's note: I may expand this later.)

A member of the Avernian Collective.

Known for its shipyards and mining operations. Most Corradeans work in one of the two industries, or as entertainment or service for the miners and shipyard workers, although there are also a few relatively small farms.
The Corradean population is made up mostly of Wraithe, Zosians, and Blorbs, although there are a few imported Trai colonies (good for menial labor) and a mixture of other races, including Terrans.

[Golden Dragon Girl]

[glow=Purple,2,300]Ksathra[/glow]

(Author's note: Please tell me if any of the wording here is unclear. I'd like to know.)

A member of the Avernian Collective.

The people of Ksathra live among enourmous ruins, belonging to a culture long gone and a race presumed long dead. They have, in actuality, transcended mortality, by transferring their minds and souls into noncorporeal forms. The buildings and monuments have fallen into disrepair simply because the Transcendants no longer have need of them, although they do occasionally hold meetings there and visit their former homes, frightening the current inhabitants. Thus, Ksathra's ruins are thought to be haunted. It is thought that Ksathra might once have been the Capitol of some massive interstallar empire (perhaps the one that seeded human races throughout this sector of the galaxy), but the Transcendants (called "ghosts" and "Brights" by everyone else) no longer care.

Despite the Transcendants's presence, many entrepreneurs brave the ruins in search of ancient technology, because what has been found there is so advanced as to defy the laws of physics even more than I usually do in this comic. XD (Think Red's wardrobe, and the shrinking device.)