StellarMagic wrote...
Well... we have a couple references to the cultural effects. Linking of suit environments for example, but despite Tali being the quarian codex in ME1 we didn't get much more detail then that.
However, we can extrapolate from what is known and come to some conclusions.
1. Quarians are primarily monogamous (Humans aren't nearly as monogamous as we'd like to claim), likely one mate for life due to the difficulty of both adjusting to the bacteria present in other members of their own species (hence the linking of suit environments) and the dangers inherent in sexual contact due to their weaken immune system.
2. The inability to read expressions due to the visors has lead to Quarians be more emotive in both speech and body language.
3. The inability to kiss loved ones will result in a symbolic means to relay the same meaning despite the suit. Most FF writers go with visor touches as the most obvious means of relaying this.
4. Lack of access to clean rooms for sexual release and the dangers of sexual contact has led to the widespread use of nerve stimulation programs by both males and females. Even Tali uses one.
Some physiological results of long term suited life.
1. Significant increase in sensitivity to touch due to the deadening of such sensations through the suit. Like a blind man hearing better then normal their brain has conditioned itself to compensate for the suit. You can come up with your own ideas on how this affects Tali and Shepard's pre-Omega 4 time together...
2. Epidermal effects... Suffice to say having lived in a skin tight suit all your life is going to affect your skin... how exactly is something that can be debated round and round since we don't know Quarian biochemistry that well.
3. Photo-sensitivity... The visor is tinted and it's always on. This leads to sensitivity to light if removed, but this may actually have always been a physiological aspect of Quarian biology. Hence the glowing or eyeshine.
I think the underlined issue of the physiological alterations is a non-issue as the aformentioned nerve stimulation programs were origionally designed so that it wouldn't feel as if there was a suit there in the first place. However, the brain still knows that there is a barrier there which likely psychologically 'dampens' the sense of touch as it keeps thinking, conciously or subconciously, that there is a barrier there. So, in short, I partially agree with the outcome but due to different reasons.
But anyway, on to how I would project that suited life affects Quarians later down the line (Assuming they survive ME3 and get their homeworld back):
I think I will start out by drawing a few paralells to human history/culture. Japan, specifically. In old Japan, there was simply not much space. This was due to the very mountainous nature of the country leaving very few places that were geographically stable enough to actually build on. Now, while the numbers of population were small, and thus not exactly a problem with crowding, this caused each area that was both fertile for farming and level enough to live on to grow into it's own sort of city/nation-state ruled over by it's own warlord. Now, to abbreviate history a bit, city-states in close proximity to each other do not often get along when one sees the resources of the other. Thus, there were many-many-many border conflicts. At least until some got the idea that peaceful co-existance made for a more enjoyable life.... Of course, there were always those that really liked war and would go kicking around for trouble but there are those types everywhere. In any case, in order to help keep a level head about things, a sort of social code came into being. Now, I can't say exactly when or where it started but I can say that this code of interpersonal communication does have it's roots in China, which is where the Japanese people migrated from. Now, hop forward to current day Japan and we have a language which is heavily contextualized that has lots of tie-ins to body language and is almost excessively polite. There is also an interesting thing to note about personal space, being that the accepted 'personal space bubble' is one of the largest in the world (roughly 6 feet/2 meters which is large enough for two people to do a decent bow at the same time without knocking heads). While this may seem paradoxical considering that many cities are just about stuffed to the gills, it has it's roots in the old social code while also being a sort of 'reaction' to this crowding. That is to say, the old ways are kept alive out of social necessity. I am sure I missed something or got something wrong here but I belive I have communicated the gist of the matter.
Now, on to the Quarians.
Now, we know that space, both physical and personal, on the Migrant Fleet is a premium. However, the Quarian people have also been noted as being very social... Which brings up a sort of conflict if/when they return to their homeworld. By that, I mean to say that the reaction to suddenly having all the space one could want after living almost like sardines will be very enticing to just spread out over a large area but doing so would be straining on the social structure simply due to distance. It would also be a bad idea to do so, in my opinion, as that would make emergency situations that much harder to deal with. Ultimately, though, I think the social binding would win out over the urge to expand to result in... Well, a sort of Quarian Tokyo. Maybe not nearly as much high of a population density as the city but with a similar structure... Or perhaps there will be a 'just as high' if not larger population density but due to the more advanced building techniques avalible in the MEverse, it will not be a problem as one can build upwards for quite a bit more than here and now on Earth.
Now, something else to note is that there seems to be some mild factionalism between the ships of the Fleet if one speaks to the captain of the Rayya at different points during Tali's loyalty mission. This is not unexpected. In fact, it is entirely appropriate as each ship is more or less a city-state with all of them together forming a sort of nation. Also: An interesting article. Basically, the gist of the article is that one can only hold so many people in their brain and 'dehumanizes' others to catagories for basic interaction purposes. It is this same mechanism that allows the brain to anthropormise a group of people, or city, or country and feel pride or shame for it. Thus, it is not a far off idea to think that each Quarian has their own anthropormized verson of the Fleet in their heads as a "Them" catagory while the people they see and speak to every day as an "Us" catagory. I think this too will play into the rebuilding of Rannoch, turning each ship into it's own suburb or pseudocity... Actually, this combined with the whole 'building upwards' thing makes me think of dozens if not hudreds of towers of varying sizes with a network of bridges linking them all at various elevations. Personally, that sounds like a wicked cool city. The idea of such combines both the factionalistic and 'nationalistic' psychologies and holds true with the need for space and social networking.
A note on building the new city(s) though: I feel that this is the course that the Quarians will take rather than just go back into the buildings that have been possibly kept in repair by the geth for the reason that said things are history. To try and make that idea more clear, it would be like finding an ancient city and deciding to live in it as it meets the basic need of shelter. This is simply not done (at least on a large scale. Likely there will be a few who will). I think the predomenant idea among the Quarians would be to simply let the old structures be for a while before slowy re-intigrating them into cultural and social use as time goes by. There is likely a lot of history present in the old constructions and I think many would want to preserve that.
As a final note, I personally would bet money that, once the Quarians have gotten settled back into their homeworld, there will be a large scale cultural revolution. I don't have enough information to make many specific remarks but I'm also betting that the long-term use of the envirosuits will also affect things like fashion and technological philosophy as the idea for the Entire race for both is dedicated to function first. I would hazard a guess that both will be very minimal for quite some time. Of course, this can also likely be diluted somewhat by the effects of interacting with the galactic community again as I feel pretty sure that they will be somewhat less isolationist after a while out of necessity.
Anyway, that's the ramble. Pardon if it was a bit misleading due to the reference of 'suited life' but I think that is a good metaphor for how lack of space and resources will affect the direction of the culture in the future.
So, thoughts?
Modifié par Terumitsu, 28 juillet 2011 - 06:12 .
Retour en haut
