A culture is more than clothes and food. Visible details emerge from values, power, taboos, memory, and material constraints.
Below the cultural iceberg
Cuisine and architecture are visible. Trust, shame, time, purity, and legitimate power sit underneath and shape what people do.
Geography meets history
Terrain creates pressures but not destiny. Migration, trade, war, and disaster can produce different cultures in the same environment.
- Name the scarcest and most abundant resources.
- Choose two remembered historical breaks.
- Create an internal counterculture.
Magic changes institutions
Truth magic, resurrection, and created food affect courts, class, labor, and everyday habits. Ask who controls the magic, what it costs, and who is excluded.
REINFORCE
Turn it into play in three questions.
This is not about points; it helps you recall the key ideas while preparing.