Chat Thread 3: Remaining Sense of Payne

Alright so a desert culture.... alright so these cultures generally thrive off of rivers for fertilization and water an example would be the nile.  Even if they have the technology to obtain these basic needs, there's still going to be some sort of psychological importance for the river due to the many years it has been used.  So they could end up being very protective of their land due to the need for a river, or they could be very protective of their basic needs resources such as shelter water and food.

People in the desert also tend to have a more make due culture.  In ancient Egypt they treated their kids more as pets until they came of age and let them run about the place naked because it was a lot cheaper then to constantly clothe them and considering you have a tyrant, the peasants are probably fairly denied of their resources.

However since you said minerals tend to be the hardest to find resource the culture can be influenced in various ways.  Minerals tend to be a lot more expensive then average food, so finding a single mineral vein or more valuable material can push a single person into a lot of wealth and prosperity.  Now, if the tyrant confiscates these veins then the culture will develop a more work together approach and will end up more rebellious due to that fact as they will be making more organizations.  However, if he rewards the finder of the vein then it will be more competitive and the rebellion will have less of a ground work with the organizes of said rebellion more focused on exposing more of his ill deeds rather then making an active effort to overthrow him.

Also, the main city of the desert tends to be very highly wealthy since it houses the king and considering how they focus on veins they are probably spread out since the veins of the capital I assume have run dry at this point.  So there are probably remote villages that contain villagers who are instructed to find veins, then comes into play the distance factor.  The farther away the village the less power a government will have over them, so people who are farther away will be more dramatic and seek freedom more openly (Especially since the army sucks and the desert makes travel difficult).  Though, if they're caught the king might keep extra soldiers there to keep an eye on them.

Also mind you that in terms of music and expressions it will be highly focused on what's available.  So people are going to be taking resources from cacti or such to create their way of life.  But considering the mineral aspect, I think your civilization would take high pride in appearance and jewelry as being garnished by jewels would add a lot of respect and put you in a higher and stronger position in terms of trading and persuasion when people see that.

I think plays and music would be turned down though, as an oppressive king will make the civilization more depressed and culture more scarce, so there will be more philosophers and more of a Victorian sort of culture