Biotopia Culture

Language

The spoken word is primarily based on an amalgamation of the languages of the lower floodplain regions. There is also an underlaying infusion from the island-north-east dialect and small groupings of nouns and verbs based on the peripheral language groups such as the north-west, central mountains and peninsular languages. Celdonian was a common intermediary language and is taught and used throughout Biotopia. Celdonian words have been abrogated from the official Biotopian language. Biotopian is given primary preference as the language of governance and instruction and is encouraged mostly through the restriction of the use of Celdonian. At times these policies have been perceived as antagonistic towards Celdonian culture and harking of a parochial attitude towards external influences and foreign cultures. See Biotopian

Alphabet

Biotopian is written in the Celdonian alphabet after the Cyanic alphabet was dropped because of its complexity and difficulty in transcribing new elements of the Biotopian language. The letters C, F, Q, Y and Z/X are absent and substituted by the combinations of K, Ph, Wh, Vh and Zh respectively. The old alphabet was dropped from official use eight years after federation although the current Celdonian influenced model was in use beforehand. Biotopian is also used in all national publications and broadcasters but limited Celdonian language publications are available as well as sub-titling and dubbing into Celdonian. Biotopian sign language is based on the Biotopian alphabet not the Celdonian.

Literature

All Biotopian classics have been converted into contemporary Biotopian and Celdonian. There are also numerous books which have been published both in Biotopian, Celdonian and even regional dialects. Bio-Celdonian fusions have been a periodic fad and produced an entire sub-genre. The written word plays an important part in Biotopian culture to the discrimination of other artistic expressions such as cinematography, theatre and painting.

Top Five Books in 2024

• The Compendium
• Yumakkattakaa
• Jell-Tratta-Mota
• Dark Wood
• Raise the Red Flag

Colloquialisms

Biotopia sponsors a rich vocabulary including numerous colloquialisms and proverbs. Some of these colloquialisms have roots in antiquity while other are more contemporary in nature.

Anarchist slanderous term typically employed against someone who is perceived as acting in a treacherous or underhanded way.

Dove-Eyed to describe an insightful thought or idea.

Group Rounder a friendly person who works well with others in a group.

Sixth Guard a person or group that offers support at the last moment.

Wooden Toothed used to describe a person that frequently lies.

Media

Television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet are all popular consumption outlets for Biotopian mass-media. Newspapers continue to be highly popular as they have traditionally been the most independent news source and three of the top five selling papers have been established for over 100 years. The government funds the Global Broadcasting Agency and Biotopian Broadcasting Commission which oversees the funding of operations to the subsidiary bodies of the BBC including its radio and internet services. Biotopia One and all government radio agencies are unable to accept funding for airing advertisements. There are numerous independent television and radio networks across Biotopia. Regular television broadcasts end daily from 11pm-5am and only run limited programs over the weekend.

Newspapers

Top Five National Newspapers in 2024

• The Republican
• The Biotopian
• Citizen!
• The Green Star
• National-Herald

Radio

Top Five National Stations in 2024

• 80.6FM National Biotopia Radio (NBR)
• 100.1FM World Radio Network (WRN)
• 94.1FM 2K Youth Station (2K)
• 72AM Biotopia National Network (BNN)
• 70.8AM Celdonian Radio International (CRI)

Television

Top Five National Broadcasters in 2024

• Biotopia One (B1)
• National News Network (NNN)
• Citizen Broadcasting Agency (CBA)
• Global Broadcasting Agency (GBA)
• Biotopian Television Syndicate (BTS)

Music & Preforming Arts

Despite a cultural preference for the written word music, theatre an dance have grown increasingly popular. Choreographed dance performances were once highly popular and although they have declined there has been an internal diversification of the types of performances conducted in the annual Mass Games. Theatre has also been a less culturally acclaimed art form centred on the genres of comedy/musicals. Sometimes derided as pandering to popular appeal rather than seriousness a new generation of writers and directors have produced several sober and even dark stage performances in the last decade harking back to the early republican era of High Opera without the melodrama or nationalist jingoism.

Top Five ‘High’ Operas

• Republic
• The Hammer
• Raise the Red Flag
• Through the Western Forest
• May City

Top Five ‘Low’ Operas

• Ten to Midnight
• Silver Screen Dreams
• Red Noon
• Citizen Arkaas
• Two Steps Forward (One Step Backwards)

Religion

Biotopia is dominated by two major religions; the Universal Cathedral and Mother Church which are both indigenous belief systems and are adhered to by around a third of the population each. The third largest indigenous religion is Gnangara which applies to only 6.5% of the total population. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism are the largest mainstream non-indigenous religions respectively. 16% of the population identify themselves as atheists.

Biotopians strongly separate affairs of the state from affairs of religion and is treated as a highly personal affair. It is considered offensive to enter into religious discussions in most contexts. Ghettoising of ethnic and religious communities from mainstream society is highly undesirable to most Biotopians. There are no specifically religious public holidays in the republic although some dates coincide with religious dates of importance. The violence between the two competing religious orders resulted in the Biotopian Republic strongly separating the powers of church and state as well as maintaining a secularised public service.

The Universal Cathedral and Mother Church tend to be evenly distributed with a minor preference towards the Mother Church in Vellnain Island and north-east and the Universal Cathedral is more concentrated in the southern and north-west provinces. Gnangara is most disproportionately represented in the national capital Zhaire because of its religious and cultural importance. Although individuals religions were not directly attacked religious organisation are taxed liked any commercial enterprise and prohibited from accumulating capital assets.

Landmarks

Political

Illujanket Road sometimes called Embassy Parade is a famous road in the capital city Zhaire because it is where most foreign embassies are located. Illujanket Road runs between the Forghestok and Agrebodt districts, intersecting the Plaza of White Pines near the northern shore line and boxing in the waterfront business area from the historical interior of the city. The embassies number from 150 through to 450 with addresses traditionally appointed according to diplomatic sentiment of the issuing government. The tradition is not a strict one and is constrained b the availability of properties but in general it hold that embassies in the Agrebodt District are considered unfriendly states and those in Forghestok belong to allies and friendly-states. Ironically those in Agrebodt are furthermost from Parliament.

For example the Celdonian embassy is located at number 450 in the Agrebodt District and is considered a close ally of the people and government of Biotopia. In contrast the embassy of Knootoss is addressed at 150 on the Forghestok side of the divide because when the Knootian embassy was allocated the relationship was very distant and cold between the two states. Aside from the political intrigue of changing embassy addresses according to the nature of government Illujanket Road is very popular amongst tourists who enjoy the variety of architectural styles, conducting embassy-spotting patrols and dining in the numerous cafes and bars that house informal diplomatic negations and shift the balance of power between meals.

Cultural

Saint Kordaam is an important historical and cultural city in Biotopia. While Zhaire may be the political centre of the nation St Kordaam is definitely the cultural hub. In part this is supported by the cosmopolitan nature of the maritime harbour city and the strength of its financial institutions as a means to fund artistic creativity and experimentation. The National Opera and Performing Arts Academy refuse to give up their grandiose Imperial head quarters and take residence in the ultra-modern facility located on the shores of the capital. The city attracts an estimated 2,000,000 visitors to its cultural and exhibition centres every year.

This is supported by the diversity of artistic avenues ranging from dishevelled grottos for late-night jazz and book stores squeezed into back-alleys to the extravagant Imperial Exhibition Hall which houses over 16,000 individual display items. The inner-city is well known for its quiet tree-lined avenues and standard five-story white marble apartments which lived in contrast to the seedy and sometime dangerous neighbourhoods adjoining the harbour known collectively as The Canals. A program of urban renewal has transformed these scruffy communities into a vibrant and integrated district better incorporating the harbour into the city and making use of the canals and waterfront.

Technological

The Saint Ghort Integrated Municipality Centre (I.M.C) popularly known as the silver city or the beehive is an unmistakable feature on the otherwise homogenous landscape of the eastern interior. Located in the heartland of the Red Arid-lands the IMC is a tribute to pioneering architecture and social experiment. Inspired by the mega-arcology of SeOCC and Orgybot the IMC is a more feasible indigenous attempt at arcological engineering and design. The purpose of the IMC was to build an ultra-modern metropolis in the heartland of a harsh and difficult environment in an environmentally and socially sustainable way.

The success of the project has been mixed; the city has the most efficient water management system in the nation as well as a high standard of public transport quality and it supports the third highest settlement density. It has however failed to deal comprehensively with long-term ecological self-containment, urban air pollution and resource depletion. Saint Ghort is the only major urban settlement not to be supplied by Wikipedia:fossil fuels:fossil fuels and hydroelectricity, instead it sources power from solar power, geothermal power and aeropower. The project however remains an inspiration to town-planers and sociologists alike.

Natural

The Great Amanzee is the largest river in country by volume and only second in size to the Ogattophee running on the eastern side of the White Range. The Great Amanzee is the literally the economic and cultural lifeblood of the nation and the axis of antiquarian Biotopian civilisation. Unlike most major tributaries, especially those that support major population centres and used in economic transport the Great Amanzee is comparatively less polluted and healthier. The water is even safe enough to bathe in as it exits into The Ghand. Starting in the Red and White ranges (sometimes called the pink watershed) the Great Amanzee passes through a broad spectrum of ecologies and touches some of the most important cities and agricultural districts.

It has been a key objective of successive government to restore the vitality of the Great Amanzee. Sections of shoreline and floodplain environments have been converted into pre-development ecosystems along the entire breadth of the river and its tributaries. The Great Amanzee is navigational for over a thousand kilometres. The Great Amanzee drains water from over a third of the contiguous provinces of Biotopia and is a potent environmental, economic, social and cultural icon that has carved the landscape for thousands of years.