[Lawtan]

Basic Overlay of Fictional Cultures

Superstructure

a) Worldview (“All are represented by sacred Math” or “Mankind has Sinned before God”)
b) Mythology (Origin story? Values through…something? Methods of worship?)
c) Knowledge (Mathematics? Impractical Steam Power? Astronomy? Military?)
d) Values (Individualism would be a Western value…perhaps honor, or memory, or even a certain physical form, etc.)

Social Structure

a) Language (Symbols, Body Language, Phonetics, Dialects)
b) Distribution of Resources (Trade and Tax)
c) Rules (Laws and Codes - how they are enforced)
d) Class/Caste (In Caesar’s Celts - the Druids, the Equestrians, and the Civilians)
e) Subgroups (Political Parties, Exiles, Subcultures, Good mythical example being the Fair Folk)
f) Roles and Relationships (Marriage, Friendships, Gender, etc)

Infrastructure

a) Subsistence Strategy (How a culture survives – Nomadic? Animal herding? Crop Rotation?)
b) Production Technology (Smelting? Cranes? Plows?)
c) Overlay of cultural centers (Cities, Roads, Nomadic Paths)

Environment

a) Resources available (Salt? Wine? Wood? Ore?)
b) Threats and Dangers (Lions and Tornadoes and Faults, oh my!)
c) Natural Events (Seasons?)
d) Locals (the biome, non-threatening animals, other cultures)