The temptation is to start fudging things to make more sense. That is, something that makes sense for a person who lives in 21st century Europe.
But I realised that one of the things I find fascinating about ancient cultures is how some of the things we know (or think we know) about them can seem so alien. It's a form of culture shock.
I think true culture shock is something less and less people experience as the world becomes more globalised. It's an intense and often uncomfortable experience that can last weeks or months. You feel the rug has been pulled out from under you because so many things you thought were fundamental to normal human behaviour are just arbitrary. Whole societies of people can have completely different ways of looking at and interacting with the world.
When I roll up a culture that doesn't easily slot into pre-conceived ideas I have I get a hint of that feeling. Part intrigue and fascination, part confusion and a sense I can only describe as 'WTF?' I now realise that is a great feeling to invoke in Sword & Sorcery in particular.
While Science Fiction and High Fantasy can include all kinds of strange and truly alien characters and cultures, I wonder if they are so obviously removed from our day to day experience of life that they can be experienced at a distance with a sense of safety.
In contrast the Sword & Sorcery genre usually only has human characters and cultures. And one of the things that makes the Sword & Sorcery genre is the sense that things are mostly normal and within our expectations of the world, but that there is strange edge to everything. A type of uncanny valley that provides a sense of discomfort or danger.
So if you're using my culture generator or any other random method to generate characters, cultures or factions for your world I encourage you to ignore your initial instincts for things to make sense or fit together nicely. Create a narrative where everything doesn't neatly line up, something that seems a bit strange.
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