Monad has 5 playable cultures. Each culture offers unique military ships and land units, different starting conditions, and a few unique technologies.
In order to understand what a Culture is, in the context of Monad and the Monad Universe, one needs to know a few things. After the eradication of most civilization on Earth, Year 0, strong nations formed, and these nations formed regional cultures. The cultures that are playable in Monad build on the legacy of the old nations: Templecast, Krow, Elfen, Ominiya, and Valhalla. Nations are still around, in many cases, but their importance has been marginalized - at best. Left are mega corporations, reigning the everyday lives of people. Many of these mega corporations share the same culture, making them traditional allies - or direct rivals.
Templecast
Playstyle: Playing as Templecast has a low entry bar, seeing as they are flexible and rather straight-forward. You see what you get. The Templecast favor terran planets, which don't require any special terraforming or compensation for environmental factors. They start out with an average amount of credits and population.
Appearance: The Templecast hail from the windy, rainy islands of Ur. They are a traditionalist culture that favors religion and tested ways of doing things: thick armors and simplistic weapons. As a result of their religious inclinations, they cherish piety and in ways, a surrendering of the physical realm in favor of the divine. A common expression of this is to wear simple, practical clothes.
Templecast were fast to colonize new worlds, and assimilated anyone who would cross their paths.
Biome Preference: Terran - to their disadvantage, they only do really well on normal, terran worlds.
Background
The Templecast are Urians, by blood. The Urian capital, Partholon, is one of the continent’s largest metropolitan areas, and most Urians were raised in a religious family, both parents working for one of the local mega corporations, regularly visiting the local church.
Templecast is a location upon a mountain, a popular pilgrimage destination for people throughout the world. It is the de facto center of Adon worship and the church’s matriarchs and patriarchs wield significant power in both corporate and civil discourse.
The religion of Adon stems from the Old World. Many scholars maintain that "the Adon idea" is an amalgamation of various, expired deity concepts. The Living Dust, or black iron as most would refer to it by, changed the plasticity of the physical realm in relation to the metaphysical. It granted a stronger voice to religious leaders: not only could they appeal to a person’s blind belief in the supernatural, but also showcase illusions of the mysterious. Due to this near-magical ability of the church, followers of Adon, often represented with an upwards facing arrow ᛏ in combination with a horse’s head, grew in numbers quickly. They took the arrow to symbolize the divinely decreed rebirth of the world (or just birth, they would insist), and the majestic horse as a symbol of hard work - for the people, as for Adon in his holistic, overworthly leadership.
In the Templecast culture, people have always preferred the tested ways of doing things. In warfare, they have preferred thick armors and simplistic weapons. In culture, they have cherished tradition. In art, they have sought metaphysical symbolism. Largely, their kind has valued piety and in ways, a surrendering of the physical realm in favor of the divine. Wearing dark, simple, practical clothes is a common expression of this narrative.
Pioneers of Templecast have been fast to colonize new worlds and assimilated anyone who would cross their paths, regardless of cultural origin, skin color, or gender - as long as they would accept Adon in their hearts.
There are only two prominent mega-corporations of Templecast, if Ur as a whole is excluded: Divinium (originally a rockets manufacturer) and Ascetic Enterprises (a consumer goods manufacturer).
Military
The most common Templecast military designs are provided by Divinium, while many hand weapons and personal safety details are manufactured by Ascetic Enterprises.
Divinium borrowed an aesthetic from the great oceanic ships of the Old World and the early days of Dyne, something that certainly won the favor of the local Urians.
Logos Class - a dreadnought designed for up to a thousand crew members. Very slow-moving. Extremely well-armored. A lot of sensors, both short and long-range.
Armor and infantry equipment borrow aesthetics from the Old World British, bringing them into the 4th Dynian century through functional modernization and upgrades. Flat helmets, often with the Adon insignia, are common in the various equipment packs available, as are scientifically evolved versions of weapons used during World War II, including the Garand, Bren and Sten guns.
All in all, it is easy to recognize the brutalist ambition in Templecast infantry. The true and tested plate armor is preferred over more flexible material, and soldiers will often carry protective textile over their base gear to add an additional layer of shielding from weather and wind.
The Crusader, for example, is a Templecast heavy infantry armed with a Bren MK VI light machine gun, wearing heavy plate armor and an augmented vision headset. Over their armor, their cloak is supposed to offer superficial protection for the metallic parts, and a sense of symbolic security through its embrace.
