My conversion story

[Gemini]

Gemini, what is the culture like?

The most common element to the kind of cognitive degeneration necrotics experience is psychopathy, and that defines their culture. The ones who can't afford to completely replace their cardiovascular systems harvest gardians (the sole humanoid/sentient species) for organs. There are millions of them, in underground arcologies on Haven and long-forgotten orbitals.

The culture I've done the most work on is the protagonist's (Inowen). She comes from a religious/ethnic group called the Sindrien, which consist of seven different clans, and they get tattoos depending on their clan and their status in it. It's an atheistic religion, but with teachings like  reincarnation and some fantastic mythological stuff. Inowen doesn't believe any of it and has grown up a refugee, largely cut off from her culture and without any of the privileges she would have experienced. Her love interest is a member of her clan who clings pretty fiercely to his cultural identity and thus treats her like a princess.

The most dominant culture is the Caelorum, which is the remnants of the republic which governed the star system for countless millennia. It's based largely on Roman culture. Ambition is one of the most prized virtues. 

Some other elements of the culture--there are divas, who are basically like geisha but not expressed in Japanese cultural trappings. "Social alliances," which are alliances between families who possess vast generational wealth and collude with one another to maintain their place in society. After the fall of the Caelorum, they go from being behind-the-scenes manipulators to an overt aristocracy,