Humanity: Culture

Humanity as a whole do not have a single mindset to anything. Thus, due to not having a militaristic, functional outlook at life like the turians, or the tendency to devote their lives to science or finance like the salarians or the volus; humanity has a very diverse cultural history. The culture and lifestyle of humans will vary from world to world, continent to continent, and even city to city. It is indeed, very interesting to observe.

Humans are generally seen to be very intelligent, abnormally ambitious, highly adaptable, individualistic and thus, unpredictable. They have a powerful desire to advance and improve themselves, and do so with such assertion that the normally staid Council races have been taken aback by their restlessness and relentless curiosity.

Globalization, Equality and Identity

The discovery of the Martian ruins fundamentally united the inhabitants of Earth, resulting in the swift and sudden culmination of the pan-global cultural identity that had been slowly but steadily developing since the 21st century. Upon the foundation of the Systems Alliance, humans began to see themselves as a single, collective group: human as opposed to alien. This has eliminated racism and gender inequality to a great degree. Both males and females, of every race and color, work together in military, non-military and domestic roles.

After the establishment of colonies, a new kind of tribalism came into being: Earthborn versus colonist. The colonists, especially the ones on the verge of Terminus Systems, began to see themselves apart from Earthers. Ironically, the cultures of colonies are rooted into Earth culture: the initial colonists, after all, came from Earth. Cities on Watson, Elysium and Bekenstein can pass as any Earth megapolis, from similar urban planning to celebrating the same festivals. However, class-A colonies tend to hold themselves distinct from Earth and a Terran identity.

Language

Due to the multiculturalism among humans, there are hundreds of languages still spoken. Human translator technology was already very advanced even before first contact, virtually negating the need to learn a second language other than the one born with. However, due to traditions, most humans are bilingual or trilingual, some speak more than five or six languages; including alien tongues.

English is thelingua francaof humanity and also the most spoken language, followed closely by Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi. Other popular languages include Portuguese, Russian, French, Swahili, Farsi and Bengali. Some humans learn asari and turian tongues to better assimilate with their cultures.

The spacer and colonist humans speak various forms of creole and pidgin languages, rooted into Earth languages but later mutated out of recognition.

Religion

Religion was, and to an extent, still is a major part of human culture, despite the fact that society is largely secular by the 22nd century. The discovery of the archives led to a series of commotions among those belonging to fundamentalist faiths, which ultimately resulted in the disintegration or revision of these religious beliefs. Catholicism maintains a presence in human culture; however, its followers and influence have diminished radically since the 21stcentury, especially after the discovery of the Mars Archives. The assassination of Pope Clement XVI and subsequent replacement by Leo XIV in 2171, believed to have been Cerberus' doing, brought out a very militant face of the belief. People became disconnected and alienated from it and now, Christianity as a whole, including evangelism, orthodox and Protestantism is on the brink of extinction; followed by Judaism.

Islam, once one of the largest religions, has severely diminished, with a few million followers spread dispersedly on Earth and the colony of Uqbar. The belief never recovered from its days of being linked with terrorism during early 2000s, and the leading clerics' denial of aliens existing further detached it from people. Islam has tried to revise its teachings under Sufi scholars; however, it probably will never get back to its heydays of billions of followers.

The most popular religious beliefs in humanity are Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Neo-Hinduism. These ancient religions radically revised themselves at the onset of space exploration, providing a welcoming outlook to universal cohabitation. The asari Siarist belief, the turian Spirit belief and the drell Pantheon are also gaining popularity amongst humanity, especially in the colonies.

Festivals

Human festivals are mostly based on tradition and not on reasonability. The festivals that current humans celebrate have been celebrated for the last millennium or so, only a few new inclusions have become universal.

St. Valentine's Day, a holiday themed around romantic love and the greeting card industry, is immensely popular on Earth and the human colonies. This festival, based on gaining a mating partner's favor, has been around for centuries. Through humans living in other worlds, it has become popular among the asari and volus (who embrace its unusual mix of commerce and reproduction). Several festivals began as religious ones, but now has adopted a secular nature. Among these are Christmas, Halloween, Diwali, Passover and Eid-al-Fitr (the latter requiring various mathematical calculations to fix the date). Chinese New Year and Gregorian New Year are both celebrated, the latter all across the galaxy now. Since the Gregorian calendar is synced with the galactic calendar, New Year's Eve has become an inter-species festival, with celebrations taking place on numerous worlds, and even on Thessia and Palaven.

There are other non-traditional and historical festivals celebrated. The colony of Shanxi celebrate 'Liberation Day', as a remembrance of its liberation from turian occupiers. Elysians celebrate 'Blitz Day', for the repelling of batarian invaders during the Skyllian Blitz. Almost all nations on Earth and human colonies celebrate "Victory Day", to commemorate the victory in the battle of Earth and the vanquishing of the Reapers.

Some regional festivals have garnered galaxy-wide fame for their energy and entertainment purposes. The Rio Carnival, the Oktoberfest, the Glastonbury music festival and the Holi are popular amongst human, asari, turian alike.

Film and Media

Humans used various chemical compounds to capture images prior to digitization. The technology to capture motion picture and the film industry was initiated about three hundred years ago, in the former USA. The North American film industry, now galactically known by its nickname "Hollywood", has been the leading industry in human filmmaking for the entirety of this tenure. It is closely followed by the Indian industry, and various Far Eastern industries like the Korean industry and the Chinese industry. Films tend to be produced in 8K Supra-max theater displays, 3D holo-displays, and augmented-reality simulations. Live performances such as plays, ballets, operas or cabarets are considered high art and a sign of sophistication.

European Union differs starkly in this regard. The European (especially French) culture has always held high art in respect, and they generally tend to look down on the mainstream motion pictures. European cinema is based on artistic,avant-gardeaspects and are generally not commercial.

Human cinema has evolved along with technology. Old-style theaters still exist for premiers and plays, but it is supplemented by streaming and augmented-reality products. The entertainment giants Westerlund Corporation, Mimetic Entertainment and Disney-Tencent produce large volumes of media. Consumers, who pay subscription fees for data-pads, holo-screens and augmented-reality simul-domes, get to enjoy movies, serials, documentaries, vidcast discussions and live simulations. Popular genres include action, comedy, romance, horror and immersion. Cultural phenomena like 'Star Wars', 'Terminator', 'John Wick', and 'Rocky' have become popular amongst other species.

Pornography is also very popular, with a separate industry. Asari and female Quarian pornography seems to be extremely popular with human males. Adult actors can either perform choreographed scenes, or engage in improvised streaming sessions on their personal extranet services.

The fringe, alternate-media movement in human media is of interest. Like artistic productions, these media also tend to look down upon the mainstream. However, they consist of genres deemed 'low', 'uncultured', 'unethical' and 'unsocial' by the mainstream. The alt-media include brutalist pornography, dark and gory films, action with brutal and gory scenes, and various anti-society themes.

Sports

The advent of augmented reality and the scarcity of physical playing ground has seen virtual games take the spotlight and field games take a back seat in human culture. Various games, played on devices ranging from dedicated gaming consoles to omni-tools are one of the biggest entertainment sources of humans. Roleplaying games, action games and various other genres exist. Galaxy-spanning online multiplayer games likeSlayers, Code of HonorandGalaxy of Fantasyare very popular amongst humans as a method of passing time. Non-competitive games also include chess, poker, solitaire (all of which are extremely popular with elcor, turians and asari), Ludo etc. The elcor and the asari both have a talent for chess, and almost half the grandmasters in current the current chess scene are either elcor or asari. Turians and batarians have taken to poker very well. Galactic games like Quasar, Kepesh-Yakshi or Shattered Eezo are also very popular amongst humans.

Humans are very keen towards competitive sports. There are various human teams participating in galactic leagues of various sports. They have also introduced several competitive sports to the galactic community. Popular human sports include North American Union Rules Football (Gridiron in short), Association Football (Soccer in short), Basketball and Mixed Martial Arts. All of these sports have now made their place in the galactic stadiums.

Human gridiron is played in krogan and turian worlds; the very best of them are recruited into the NFL. In the recent series', most of the NFL players are tending to be non-human.

Basketball, very similar to turian clawball, is immensely popular amongst turians. Both the games are essentially the same – only the turians can gnaw the ball with their talons. Many turian clawball players have shifted to basketball, using their height and reach to become more and more effective than humans. The first NBL-Clawball Galactic Championship was held on 2230, it is now one of the most popular events in galactic entertainment. The game rules are an amalgamation of both games, and sees players from both species as well as batarians, drell and even vorcha.

Soccer also sees a similar scenario – species with extreme dexterity, such as salarians and drell are playing professional soccer on Earth and doing very good at it. The Galactic League features teams from human, salarian and turian worlds, and from Kahje and Rakhana. It is turning into the most popular sport in the galaxy, as it neither requires claws nor biotics to play.

The human sport of mixed martial arts is also very popular amongst galactic denizens, especially krogan, batarians, drell and turians. There are nine weight classes, separate weight classes of Ultra-Heavyweight and Megaweight have been created for krogan competitors. Turians and drell tend to give serious competition to humans nowadays – five out of nine weight class titles except UHW and MW are held by turians and drell.

Humans participate in various pre-established galactic sports. Pildavi, or biotiball, is one of the more popular games in human worlds, as well as elsewhere in the galaxy. Although at first humans were seriously outmatched by the asari, nowadays teams like the Seattle Sorcerers give serious competition to the Thessian or Illian teams.

Humans are surprisingly good at two galactic sports – combat simulations and motorsports. The Evali Motodrome Championships and Intersolar Motorsports Series drew immense attraction from humans as soon as they were integrated into the galactic community. Fifty years later, the motorsports teams from Scuderia Nezo-Ferrari Transportation, Petronus-McLaren, and ExSolar-Porsche are leading franchises in the IMS. Ariake-Honda, Guanghui-Renault and Hoshichiri-Subaru are formidable competitors in the various obstacle rallies on the Evali Motodromes. The first human championship on IMS came via Petronus-McLaren in 2238. Currently, the IMS series has two circuits on Earth – the legendary Monte Carlo circuit in EU, and the Dragon Arena in Beijing, CPF. In 2228, the EMC included the Le Mans track on Earth in its racing series. These sporting events have created a surge in the purchase of ground vehicles as opposed to flyers in human worlds.

Since the advent of augmented reality, it has become every teenager's dream to one day fight for the Rhode Islands Knights or the Edmonton Blood Dragons. Earth's Urban Combat Championship is very similar to the galactic league, holding solo, three-person and six-person games. Devlon Industries combat simulators are spread all across Earth and colonies, hosting casual player-vs-VI matches. Competitive matches of UCC are held in arenas, and are live telecasted. Franchises from UCC participate in the galactic urban combat league, too. The Rhode Island Knights are two-time champions in GUCL, their signature Reckoner-Knight armor has achieved some breakthroughs that have been adopted by several militaries as well.