Culture of Asteria

Asterian culture is a complex subject that goes as far back as the original settlement of the region by the Atemeraw over a thousand years ago.

Society

Confederalism

Asterian society exists largely in the form of municipal groupings in a cultural phenomena called confederalism. The earliest example of confederalism can be found in the Atemeraw peoples, who were united under one national entity, but largely divided into self-governing clans that consisted of several villages. Each Atemeraw commune was self-governing, with its own warrior class, hunting grounds, and waterways. Each of these communes were linked together by a wider confederal system, joining together for mutual defense, trade, and managing disputes between each clan peacefully. This system is widely regarded to have allowed the Atemeraw Confederacy to survive for nearly four centuries with little civil conflict, and to withstand attacks from larger tribal states. Confederalism continued when the Midlands Company began to settle the coastal regions of Asteria. The Milsboro Colony, Yarmouth Colony, and Waverly Colony all were self-governing, and as Ænglish and later Gaelic peoples settled in the region and formed new settlements, those regions became self-governing. When Faneria's monarchy established the unified Colony of West Asteria in 1775 and organized the region into counties, the confederal system survived. Cities and towns were drawn up and settled, often by members of the same church or militia. As the Atemeraw integrated into Asterian society, their ideas on individual clans being part of a wider political entity carried over. During the Asterian Revolution, this system of self-governing counties, cities, and towns made it difficult for Faneria to effectively defeat the rebels. The Constitution of Asteria enshrined the rights of self-governing counties, and while the central government has grown more powerful, Asteria is still widely seen as having a confederal, provincial culture.

Race and Ethnicity

Although legally there is no distinction between races and ethnicity, there remains significant differences, especially among different Levantine ethnic groups that reside in Asteria. The vast majority of Asterian citizens identify as their own ethnic group, regardless of their origins. Approximately seven out of every ten citizens consider themselves Asterians alone, most largely being of Ænglish, Gaelic, or Atemeraw descent, more often than not a mix of those three. Nearly every Asterian of Audonian descent, estimated at around 5.3% of the overall population, identify solely as Asterian as well. Due to past discrimination prior to the Asterian Civil War, Audonians sought to rapidly integrate into Asterian society, and abandoned many of their distinctive customs in order to assimilate. However, there is a resurgence of Audonian culture, especially in the Lower Counties, with Waverly having the largest ethnic Audonian population. Many reside in the Little Audonia neighborhood, which is the center of Audonian cultures, languages, and faiths in Asteria.

One of the greatest social issues likewise revolves around ethnicity. The majority who identify as Asterian are often in conflict with the Ænglish, Gaelic, and Atemeraw who chose to retain their pre-Civil War cultural identities. Due to the 1930s-era campaign from both the government and the private sector called Asteria for Asterians led by Maxwell Brown, people belonging to these groups began to identify solely as Asterian. Within a decade, the majority of Asterians identified as that group. The government, to justify this shift, argued that Asterians has formed a "...unique cultural, political, ethnic, and linguistic group, separate from the Levantines." Anti-Levantine attitudes especially developed during the 1950s, as the cultural push to create a unique Asterian ethnicity reached a fever pitch. Although the cultural movement slowed down and eventually ended by the early-1980s, it had accomplished virtually all of its goals, with 70.3% of all citizens identifying solely as Asterian, regardless of ethnicity or faith.

Family

The bedrock of society, according to the Asterian government, is family structure. Throughout Asteria's history there were two predominant types of family structures, those being the extended family, which was prevalent prior to the Asterian Civil War, and the nuclear family, which is the predominant structure now. According to historians, the Bed Time Massacres during the early months of the conflict in 1925 broke extended families apart. Due to the size of these families, and the many factions in the war, some of these interpersonal conflicts saw fighting among different family members. Paranoia developed, and following the conflict, the family unit was reduced to parents and their children. Over time the trauma within families from this conflict healed, but only in recent decades has the extended family structure returned, especially among Catholic families in the Lower Counties.

Religion

Differences of faith are one of the largest dividing points in Asteria. As a nation founded primarily by Protestants fleeing Levantia, the northern counties hold a view that Asteria is inherently a Protestant nation. The Episcopal Church of Asteria is the largest Christian denomination in Asteria, which is a particular church within the Chantry of Alstin. Originally, the Ænglish Rite was the largest denomination, and was nearly identical to the Chantry, but its founder, John Harrison, disagreed with Alstanus Ryefield declaring himself ruler of Alstin. The 1827 Council of Milsboro ended the Ænglish Rite and established the Episcopal Church. Approximately 65.2% of Asterians belong to the Episcopal Church and other independent Chantric denominations. The Ænglish traditions of the Chantry are dominant in Asteria's culture, with the organization of the Episcopalians lending itself to the self-governing counties, cities, and towns of Asteria.

However, 20.7% of Asterians belong to the Catholic Church, largely centered around the Lower Counties, where they form a majority. Social discrimination was common, especially during the colonial period under Faneria. The region around Yarmouth was especially impacted under West Asteria, with raids, burning of churches, workplaces refusing to hire Catholics, and other forms of discrimination. Asteria's religious division is also closely linked with racial and ethnic divisions, with the Ænglish largely being part of the Asterian Chantry, and the Gaelic and other groups being predominantly Catholic.