The Borderlands Culture is an emerging cultural, linguistic and ethnic group that resides roughly along the borders between the French and Drodoian Quadrant colonies. This group of people emerged from the close diplomatic ties shared between the Drodo Empire and the Sixth Republic (and after Jivirik came to power to the less formal but just as friendly ties maintained by the two colonies), which facilitated open borders and marriage between Drodo and Human French families.
Over the last decade the still-forming group have rapidly developed their own traditions, customs, dialects, and community. With the emergence of all of this, it has caused its members, especially the young second generation, to be in the midst of an identity crisis, as they are not quite Drodo, and not quite French. The young culture's potentially-catastrophic identity crisis is an issue that the proceeding generations will be instrumental in solving, however they choose to do so.
History[]
Origins[]
After the brief Franco-Drodo Colonial War, the two colonies would soon open diplomatic relations, and it would not be long after this that, along the border especially, Drodo and French culture began to merge and intermarriage began. Because of the considerable size and organization of Drodo families, marriages tended to be rather awkward affairs with the much smaller and less organized French families. This difficulty was fixed in two ways, with the first method being for a smaller french family to merge with a larger Drodo one, the two families marrying off all of their unmarried members to one another and to then merge under a Drodo-style clan.
The second solution (that came later) was for French families to take in considerable cultural influences from the Drodo and switch from a small nuclear family, to a large, Drodo-style clan, with the entire extended family living in one area.
This state of affairs continued, as a loose sort of protoculture began to form. Though little was made of it at the time, it would not take long for this new group of people to find their first struggles, and to get their first sense of community.
The Jivirik Administration, 2802-[]
With the election of Archduke Jivirik III in 2802, and the rapid wave of anti-French sentiment and breaking of formal ties that followed, this new group of people found themselves under threat. With borders closed shut, and the possibility of persecution existing, these mixed families soon found that they had only eachother for support, and thus the first sense of community among these families emerged in the face of hardship.
The "Borderlands" culture (as it came to be called by outsiders) rapidly grew and developed in the following years, soon having its own early customs and even dialect of French. Despite closed borders, these early Borderlanders soon became expert smugglers, and were greatly successful in exchanging family members, items, letters, and other information across the border right under the noses of both Colonial administrations. This allowed both the French and Drodo side to unify into and share a near-identical culture, and for their people to grow fairly wealthy from smuggling less savory cargo on behalf of other organizations.
Species Makeup[]
The Borderlander Culture is unique in that it is not only shared but was founded by two separate species: The Drodo, and Humans. Depending on region, there is a slight majority of one species over another, but on average there is a 50/50 split between the two.
Most humans and Drodo from the culture are recent immigrants from the mainland who are settled near the border, meaning that they are often separate from other colonial cultural influences. Non-human and non-Drodo members of the culture are almost non-existant, and there is a small though rising population of genetic human-Drodo hybrids. The stability and fertility of these hybrids is still in doubt .
Languages[]
The majority language within the culture is a unique dialect of French. The form of French used has origins in "standard" Mainlander French, but has been significantly influenced by the introduction of Aratacian and Bellowese loanwords/syntax and smuggler shorthand. Specifics of the dialect are notoriously hard to record, as like the culture that is host to it is young and rapidly-developing; gaining, losing, and regaining massive numbers of words and phrases every day. Borderlander French is, in many cases, unintelligible to the average standard French speaker, but is linguistically still clearly French.
Cultural Attitudes[]
Due to their turbulent history and recent emergence, the Borderlanders often see themselves as rugged, independent, and defiant. Borderlanders flaunt proudly their signature disregard for the law and their beliefs and values are influenced greatly by the many smugglers who hail from such families, to the point where such smugglers are often regarded as folk heroes. Borderlander culture can be summed up as being strongly libertarian, egalitarian, and with a materialistic and sometimes-warlike bent.