: 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

@Steve161

Vote Up Vote Down

@Amadeus mentions duels. A crucial fact to the understanding of duelling, mostly ignored in the modern media: it was the seconds' task to attempt reconciliation. So, in fact, asking someone to a duel was a form of ritualised threat, its intent generally to ideally not have to back it up with actual action; but it was ritual with the knowledge that one may need to back it up with actual action.

Since what you're trying to describe very much existed as part of human culture for a considerable length of time, I would present your culture the same way one wrote about duels at the time when they were still being fought. Show the ritual and the limits it sets on behaviour. Show public disapproval when one doesn't act according to expectations, either by not making a threat when they should, or by turning violent without going through the ritual paces first. As other say, show characters respond to behaviour that's normal for your setting as one responds to normative behaviour.

There's a good example in Alexandre Dumas's La Dame de Monsoreau: the Main Character, de Bussy, arrives at the court of Henri III as an ambassador from François d'Anjou. He's repeatedly insulted by Henri's minions, but cannot respond because of his ambassadorial status. Once he leaves, he is free to ask a friend to deliver the challenge. The scene exemplifies the limits ritual sets on one's behaviour: the character cannot issue a challenge in one situation, but must issue it in another.

French language had a word: bretteur. It's a disparaging term for a person who fights many sword duels, not to protect his honour, but for the love of fighting, often using the least excuse to issue a challenge and refusing reconciliation without a fight. This is how musketeers, for example, are portrayed in modern media. It was, however, very much not a positive trait. A similar term could exist in your setting to denote someone who does not act the way society expect, setting the limit on what's "acceptable" in the culture you write about.

(0)

Login to post a comment!