: Re: How to present an alien culture with different morals, without it coming across as savage? For a fiction story of mine (probably fantasy, if I had to categorize it), I've set it in a world

@Mendez196

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Along with Cyn's suggestion, another tool to introduce a cultural element is to present a conflict about it; somebody complaining that a death threat is being misused.

Like being challenged to a duel, not because you insulted anybody or did anything wrong, but just because the more expert challenger feels like murdering you in a duel; say over a land dispute, or even because the challenger is being paid to do it, or has been lied to by somebody else.

When the cultural element is used improperly, that conflict gives you (the author) the ability to construct a scene, an argument, in which the proper usage is described and what is wrong with this challenge is detailed.

This would be a problem for any culture in which ritualized death threats that can be followed up by a ritualized to-the-death contest are allowed. The strong will rule the weak, and sooner or later somebody comes along that doesn't give a crap about the culture, they just want to exploit legalized murder for fun and profit.

Create that kind of scene, and you have conflict, and the reader caring how this issue turns out, because it matters to the protagonist. And you get to detail more than just one element of the culture, you also get to detail whatever processes are in place to deal with this kind of abuse of the system.

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