Xanan Life, Culture, and Society

Overview

Xanan Culture and Xanan Society are very rich and detailed topics which have a variety of facets and great depth. Xanan culture takes cues from the most prominent of its founding cultures and has a society that places great emphasis on the family unit as the building block of society. Xanan culture is collective, in the sense that people are encouraged to watch out for one another, and the general cultural mindset is to see oneself as a meaningful member of their community. Xanan society is very diverse and multicultural and the planet has numerous immigrant communities that help make-up the planet’s dynamic socio-cultural ecosystem. Xanu Prime hosts a variety of different religions as well, the most prominent being Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. Its society is not perfect however and has its issues, chief among them being a growing income inequality, anti-immigrant sentiments, and tension over the planet’s place in the Coalition of Colonies. Xanan art and entertainment produced by Xanan companies is some of the most popular in human space, with Xanan films, Holovision programs, consumed throughout the Coalition of Colonies and human frontier. Xanan cuisine is something that the planet is famous for across the Orion Spur and some of its dishes are staples of fine dining. Xanan architecture and fashion too are distinctive to the planet and have their own stories. Sports are very popular on the planet as well, the most played and watched being football in the All-Xanu Ultraleague, and Class A Cricket in the Alphaleague.

Standard of Living and Civil Liberties

A life on Xanu Prime is by and large a comfortable, though not exceedingly luxurious one. While not uniform across the various peoples and classes of the planet, the average Xanan isn’t bothered with extreme poverty, hunger, or lingering threats of conflict, nor do they live in cities adapted to suit hazardous environments. The average Xanan sits as a member of the middle class and the government has taken measures to try and ensure that the largest number of Xanans can live comfortably on the planet as is possible. Healthcare works in a hybrid system, with some facilities being private and others being public, though the government will still partially fund the expenses of patients that go to private clinics or hospitals. Xanan healthcare quality is some of the best in the Orion Spur, only rivaled by that found on Biesel or in the Solarian Core, and millions come from across the Coalition annually to receive treatment from Xanan doctors.

Higher education at government-operated universities and colleges is free to those who can obtain a qualifying score on the Uniform Higher Education Assessment test or UHEA, while private universities on the planet usually have their own specific entrance exams.

Governance on Xanu Prime is democratic and many on the planet are invested in local-level politics. Despite political contrasts among the Xanan population, they generally place unity in forms such as nationality or city of origin before political beliefs, and as such political polarization and division is not as pronounced on Xanu Prime as it may be elsewhere in the Spur.

Xanu Prime has very liberal speech laws as well, with almost any kind of speech allowed by the planet’s government. Notable exceptions include; any rhetoric that targets another individual or group of individuals on the basis of race or religion, any rhetoric that styles itself as genuine when it is knowingly false, and any rhetoric that is knowingly false while intending to harm another person’s reputation or well-being. News media outlets have wide-ranging freedoms to publish what they like, though their content is regulated by the All-Xanu Media Ethics Commission, an independent government agency which has the power to censor and fine publications with content it has deemed to promote fake news or be so biased that it burgeons on fake news.

Most Xanans are religious or spiritual to at least some degree, though atheism isn’t unheard of nor officially disparaged on the planet, but some in the planet’s society may privately look down upon atheists. Religious extremism is rare, but does occasionally occur in the most conservative of Xanu Prime’s various congregations and sects. Firearm possession on Xanu Prime is legal, though heavily regulated. A thorough background checks and a firearm license obtained after a six-month training course and six-month waiting period are mandatory for any Xanan hoping to own their own gun. Civilians may only own ballistic firearms with magazine capacities of twenty rounds or less and special permits, famous for their long wait times, are required for the ownership of handguns and automatic weapons while less complicated weapons like bolt-action rifles and shotguns require less paperwork.

Same-sex relationships and gender nonconforming individuals are accepted as a part of Xanan society and do not experience any legal or widespread societal discrimination, though they only make up a small minority of Xanan relationships and people. There is no form of legal recognition of polyamorous relationships on Xanu Prime.

Despite the comfort and quality of life that the majority of Xanu Prime’s people enjoy, the planet is not without its problems. Xanu Prime’s economy saw an economic hiccup in 2458 following the invasion of the Republic of Biesel led by Solarian Admiral Michael Frost. The disruption in trade saw the planet’s economy and its people suffer a small downturn that was corrected by the next year, but the phoron scarcity in late 2462 tossed the Xanan economy and the living situation for many of its people into question. The situation has been stabilized by now, some three years later, and while Xanu itself fared through the economic troubles much better than many other areas in the Spur, there have been some lasting consequences. The most noticeable of these has been a widening income inequality that, while modest, is still concerning. Wages for the majority of the planet’s population have not kept up with the inflation that resulted from the phoron scarcity, and while efforts are being made by the government to reduce inflation and buoy wages or substitute incomes through the provision of more services through the state welfare system, the problem still seems to be growing slowly, yet steadily. It is not yet a crisis, though many on Xanu Prime are keen to see that it never becomes one.

Societal Issues and Political Discourse

One of the biggest contemporary issues that is often at the forefront of Xanan political and societal discourse is how Xanu Prime and its government should meet the growing numbers of immigrants and refugees from the war-torn territories of the Sol Alliance and the largest wave of Vysokan immigrants the planet has yet seen. Views on these new arrivals have been mixed. Some on the planet have welcomed them, pointing to the fact that Xanu Prime is already an incredibly diverse place while highlighting the fact that the planet and its economy need laborers to fuel continued economic growth coming out of the turmoil of the phoron scarcity. Others have been less welcoming, stating that Xanu’s government and corporations should instead invest more into places like Vysoka and the frontiers of the Coalition to improve the living situations for the people living there, lowering the desire for immigration, often pointing to the already-strained Xanan welfare system needing to take care of more people, most of which aren’t even Xanan citizens. Others still have instead encouraged the Xanan government to pressure other economically developed planets in the Coalition such as Himeo and Konyang to take on more of these immigrants and refugees; a way of “doing their part” as Coalition members. Now that the conflicts in the Solarian Wildlands come to a close, it is predicted that refugees will stop trying to reach Xanu, though immigration from Vysoka and the Coalition’s frontiers does not seem to be stemming any time soon.

A larger, more historical point of contention in Xanan society and politics is just what role the planet should play in the Coalition of Colonies. Xanu Prime’s unique position of having both the Coalition’s largest economy and strongest military have long given it a considerable, unbalanced level of influence over CoC affairs, and as such, its people hold differing opinions on just how the planet should carry itself. Broadly, Xanan citizens fall into two camps on the issue: increased autonomy from the CoC, or broader integration with the CoC, with nuanced views within each of these positions. Some who wish for more integration with the Coalition desire for the planet’s government to capitalize on the great amount of influence it has within the multi-planet government to create better economic situations on Xanu Prime, while others say that the planet should use its influence to instead help the developing members of the Coalition to grow and provide more for the CoC as a whole, even if Xanu itself may not see as large of returns in the short term. Others from the autonomy camp are opposed to further Xanan economic aid to Coalition members, decrying the aid as harmful to the planet when the money and resources given to or loaned out to other CoC members could be better spent on Xanu helping Xanans during the aftermath of the Phoron scarcity. Encompassing members from that same autonomy camp, there are those who believe that the Coalition itself should remain little more than a mutual defense pact, where members only come to each other's aid in times of war, instead of the semi-formal nation state it is today. Within these nuanced views from both sides, there are extremes in the debate for Xanu’s Coalition position, with small minorities of the population wishing for Xanu Prime to leave the Coalition entirely while others in equally small numbers are in favor of the Coalition federalising like the Sol Alliance and having Xanu Prime’s government be dissolved and the planet ruled from a central Coalition authority.

Speaking of defense, it is another topic that Xanan-Coalition discourse often revolves around. The All-Xanu Armed Forces are the largest and most capable fighting force that the Coalition has for both offensive and defensive interstellar warfare operations, and while this is a comforting fact for many Xanans and the Coalition as a whole, it is not without its controversy. Some on Xanu Prime, mostly of the autonomy camp, think that other Coalition members should spend more on defense than they currently do, to avoid a “free ride” on Xanu’s military might, citing increased military spending among members as both good for Xanu Prime and good for the Coalition as a whole if Xanu’s military resources do not need to be stretched so thin, providing for much of the Coalition on its own. Those of the integration camp however have pointed to Xanu Prime’s historical status as the defender of the Coalition and that it is the Xanan responsibility to provide for the Coalition’s defense, even to an unbalanced amount because other planets of the Coalition simply do not have the economies to afford their own militaries beyond those that patrol their home systems. The common refrain among those in the latter camp is “If not us, then who?”

Besides the differing political opinions on Xanu’s place with other planets of the coalition, which could be considered internal matters, there are differing opinions on external matters, namely its place with megacorporations. Xanu’s position on megacorporations has long been a topic of debate, but its presence in everyday Xanan life has dramatically increased after the 2462 phoron scarcity and Solarian Collapse. While many megacorporations, both Einstein Engines and the SCC alike, have operated on Xanu Prime as a springboard to the rest of the coalition, often having the planet be the location of their regional headquarters, their presence hasn’t always come without concern or conflict. Some on the planet see further megacorporations as the next step in Xanu Prime’s economic growth and advocate for a lessening of restrictions upon them so that they can help the planet emerge into a post-phoron scarcity spur. The majority on the planet however caution megacorporate cooperation and see the Republic of Biesel as a cautionary tale of sorts as to what can happen to a country that does not strike the right amount of balance and regulation of megacorporations. Most Xanans believe that megacorporations need some level of government oversight and regulation, but they fail to agree on just what form that should take, with different political parties holding different positions.

A growing issue that has become more pronounced in recent years is Xanu Prime’s fight with illegal drug trafficking and other forms of illegal smuggling. Xanu’s status as the heart of the Coalition and as one of the largest ports in the Orion Spur has made it a hotspot for all kinds of illegal trafficking; any smuggled drug, weapon, or person going into, out of, or on a long distance trip through the coalition likely will pass through Xanu Prime on its way from point A to point B. This reality ensures that All-Xanu Public Security Office is always busy, on the hunt for contraband moving through the planet’s ports and channels of commerce. Drug trafficking is not the only issue with illicit substances on the planet, in the last decade and a half illegal drug usage has nearly tripled from where it was in 2455 and the cause is debated among Xanans. Some say it is because of the economic troubles that Xanu and the rest of the spur at large have had in recent years, driving people to use illicit substances to cope, while others state that the cause can be pinned on the recent uptick of refugees and immigrants, specifically Vysokan ones, that have flowed to the planet looking for work or sanctuary from conflict. Others still have blamed the decay of Xanan family bonds under the strain of increasing economic hardship as a cause of the crisis. Whatever the cause, in 2461 Prime Minister Fabian Chatterjee declared the rising usage of drugs a public health emergency and called upon the Public Safety Office, the Health Office, and corporations operating on Xanu Prime to commit more resources to stopping its spread. Support for cracking down on illegal drug trafficking and increasing funding to programs and facilities focusing on sobriety and addiction treatment has seen support across Xanu’s political parties and drug usage rates have slowed in their rise since the emergency was declared, though it is unclear if these measures will be effective in the long term.

Xanan Cultural Customs, Values, and Communication Habits

The Xanan culture is a collectivist one with some caveats. Societally, Xanans see individuals as important pieces to a greater whole, but place importance more on what is good for society rather than what empowers the individual. This is not so say that Xanans see individuality as moot, in fact many Xanans are perhaps some of the strongest advocates for individual rights and protections from the government and society within the Coalition, but this is all done with the caveat that individual freedoms should never disproportionately harm or disadvantage society and that an individual should be obligated to sacrifice what they may want or what may be important to them if it is seen as essential to promoting a greater good. This rationale is a growth from Xanan family culture, one which places a great deal of importance on respect, cohesion, and hierarchy.

Xanan Family Culture

The family is perhaps one of if not the most dominant cultural institution over any given Xanan’s life. The traditional Xanan family places a great amount of importance on how one fits into the family and expects children to respect their parents and elders and obey them on familial and some personal matters, even after childhood due to the idea of age equating to wisdom. In return for the obedience of their children, parents and elders in the Xanan family are expected to be able to explain to younger family members why they’ve made the decisions they have, so that the juniors of the family do not feel as if they are being taken advantage of. Gender roles are flexible in Xanan families, however women typically maintain the household and work part-time while men work full-time jobs, though this is by no means universal. The elderly are extremely important in the Xanan family, with elderly individuals being seen as sources of knowledge and inspiration who should be consulted by younger members of the family for advice during troubled times or when making big life decisions. Elders are also expected to handle the early childcare and religious education of their family’s children, however the former of these responsibilities is not as essential as it once was due to the Xanan government’s implementation of free childcare for children under the age of five. It is for an elderly person’s children or grandchildren to take care of them and allow them to live with them from after their retirement until they die, and refusing to do this is seen as a great betrayal and is heavily frowned upon in Xanan society. A negative effect of having such large families however is that inheritances, especially those of wealthier relatives, often can result in disappointment and messy intrafamily legal battles over securing a relative’s estate and assets.

Individuals are celebrated within the Xanan family structure, but individuality as a concept is not encouraged, and family bonds are often seen as a key component to the personal identity of any Xanan. This can occasionally result in more independently-minded members of families being ostracized by their kin, however, Xanan family culture usually supports that a family should welcome back those who become estranged from the family and work to make them feel a part of the unit once again and not hold grudges. Whether this is always adhered to though, is often up to the individual families themselves. It is not uncommon for multiple generations of families to live under the same roof, or even multiple extensions of a family to do the same. Any given Xanan household may have children, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, grandaunts, or granduncles residing in the same household. This mindset extends to individual living situations as well. Children often do not move out of their parent’s households unless for university or work until they are in their mid-to-late twenties or even thirties; there’s no expectation for Xanan children to move out at any age so long as they still contribute to the household. However, many young Xanans do move out and live apart from their families if they are committing to a serious romantic relationship with someone or if a job opportunity arises. Family culture dictates that geographical distance from the family be a consideration in if a person accepts a job, however most families are generally encouraging of their members seeking out lucrative job opportunities because it is viewed as something that will be a net positive to the family as a whole. Related to this, Xanans working abroad often maintain very close relationships to their families, even across generations.

An individual’s choices are supposed to be embraced and supported by their family members unless the family believes the decisions to be truly destructive to the family or individual; they cannot be discouraging simply because they personally disagree with the choices because doing so would place a personal opinion or prejudice above what may be best for the family. Families are expected to be strong support systems for their members and it is common for large families to offer housing, financial assistance, and emotional support to their members in times of need. Some families have embraced this bond and applied it to business, with some of the largest companies on Xanu Prime being family-run as a result. Xanu’s richest and most powerful families are referred to as “Forvamshons” and they are typically large players in the planet’s politics and business spheres. This attitude has occasionally led to corruption scandals, but generally it is seen that enriching one’s family by hurting the rest of society is unfair, dishonorable and cause for great shame. Some Forvamshons are very elusive and shy away from the public eye, while others are very public and have celebrity statuses. The foremost of these families often have private security details provided by the PMCG, Idris Incorporated, or Chevauchée Asset Protection and live in luxurious high-security compounds which house the entire family.

Marriages are seen as not just a special bond between two people but a union between two families and a commitment between them to work together. Because of this collective view on familial culture, arranged marriages are not uncommon on Xanu Prime though they have slowly become less prevalent since the 2430’s. Same-sex marriages are not frowned upon in Xanan culture however same-sex couples are expected to adopt children to continue the family lineage, much like how heterosexual couples are expected to have children. Polygamy is illegal on Xanu Prime and polyamorous relationships do not have any form of legal recognition. Though not illegal, Xenophilia is societally frowned upon on Xanu Prime because of long held beliefs that the family structures of other species are incompatible with human ones making relationships between Humans and Aliens fruitless and selfish, therefore hurting one’s family.

Death and customs around it are tied deeply to Xanan family culture, as the death of a person is not just seen as the death of an individual but a loss of a member of an entire family. Burial and cremation are both common during Xanan funerals with customs varying some between the planet’s various religions. Common between all of them though, families will either have their bodies buried in adjacent plots to one another or will keep the ashes of deceased family members in a single, large urn holding the ashes of most if not all of the family’s deceased relatives. During burials, it is a common practice for the deceased’s family to throw dirt, flowers, and lit incense onto the casket as it is lowered into the ground. Another custom stemming from this is that when a person speaks of a deceased friend or relative, it is seen as respectful to make a small tossing motion with their hand or arm. During cremations, the deceased are often cremated alongside incense. Another common custom around death on Xanu Prime regardless of religion is that most Xanan homes will have a large logbook wrapped in black and white cloth called an “Afterlife Journal” in the home’s living room or other public area where family members are able to write down memories, sentiments, thoughts, or prayers about their deceased relatives and friends. Many see the theme of memorialisation that is very present in Xanan culture having stemmed from both the strong family ties Xanans have built along with the collective impact of the Interstellar War even some two-centuries later. Dinnertime is perhaps the most important time of the day for any Xanan family, as it is when everyone in the household gets together. Rarely do families eat apart from one another unless their work schedules dictate they do so. Meals are shared around a large central table in the household and weekend dinners can last hours. Not only is food shared but music is played and games are enjoyed, usually board games like Checkers and Chess, or card games like Alutte or French Tarot. Meals are a happy time and it is considered to be an honor to be invited over to share a meal with a Xanan and their family. It is customary for a Xanan family grieving the loss of a loved one to leave a chair at the table empty for the spirit of the deceased for anywhere from two weeks to two months after their passing and provide them food and drink as if they were still living as an act of remembrance and appreciation for their family member. This same gesture is also done two weeks to two months before the birth of a child if a family is expecting and it is instead seen as a show of excitement and optimism for new life. Many suspect the focus on meals in Xanan family culture to be the catalyst which has pushed Xanan cuisine to the upper echelons of high-class dining throughout the Orion Spur.

Xanan Work Culture

Xanan work culture is formalistic and hierarchical, tied into the planet’s strong sense of family, and can sometimes come off as hard to break into for outsiders. A traditional Xanan greeting for coworkers is a handshake accompanied by a light bow. Titles, rather than names, should be used with all coworkers, superior, equal-level, or inferior alike, unless the two coworkers are close friends. Small talk is appreciated, and asking after the family of a business partner is usually how most business meetings start. Xanans pride themselves on professionalism and often view their companies as a stand-in for the family outside of their real families, meaning they want to represent them well through professionalism and a strong public image while not bringing shame to them through misconduct or crassness. Superiors are expected to be respectful and formal, but friendly with those under them and coworkers are expected to execute the orders of their superiors without question and then raise grievances with their overseers when the act is done unless they believe the situation is truly disastrous. Businesswear is formal, usually consisting of a suit and tie or cravat for men and a dress or blouse and skirt for women or a uniform for either. Casual dress while on the job is not welcomed in Xanan society and is seen as immature and juvenile, likewise excessive make-up or jewelry in a work setting is seen as distracting and putting more of a focus on one’s personal appearance than the business matter itself, regardless of the person’s gender. However, dyed hair, and minimal tattoos, especially those that are covered by standard work clothing are accepted. Xanan business meetings are multifaceted, with meetings between managers and higher-up officials in companies usually being very logical, low-key, and methodical with great emphasis placed on the abilities of either side to debate one another. This has led to the term “debate” becoming synonymous with “business meeting” on Xanu Prime. If associates know each other well though, meetings can be very emotionally charged and spritied for better or worse, filled with either happiness and achievement, or anger and sadness.

Trust built through continuous face-to-face interaction are essential in Xanan business; Xanans will base their decisions on trust and intuition as much as if not more than data and statistics. It is not uncommon for a Xanan to request a meeting in person rather than communicating through holocall, telephone, messengers, or holomail, as personal relationships and connections drive much of Xanan business culture. and because these relationships take time to cultivate and are placed on the same level of importance as close, platonic friendships, it can sometimes be a culture shock for foreigners doing business with Xanans even if the Xanans themselves are quite happy to do business with foreigners. It is considered insulting to discuss business over meals and alcohol is usually not served during Xanan business functions or consumed while on the clock. Hard work is admired, but Xanans generally view workaholism as a selfish trait that makes a person disrespectful to their family by cutting into family time. It is considered poor form to schedule an important meeting in the month of August in the northern hemisphere or the month of February in the southern hemisphere, as these are the respective months usually reserved for summer vacation. This has led to the emergence of the sarcastic phrases, "I'll get to it in August," and "I'll get to it in February," both meaning that a person doesn't care about doing something. As a continuation of this, holidays and vacation days are strictly forbidden for business contacts to speak with one another unless the topic of conversation is not work-related and evenings are similarly off-limits as they are often reserved for family time. Coworkers should bring gifts or cards to one another when they return from business trips or holidays and doing so is considered a gesture of appreciation and goodwill towards one's peers as well as a sign of continued commitment to their workplace even after a vacation. Snacks and sweets, knick-knacks, cookware, and hand-written poems are gifts that would not seem out of place in a Xanan office after vacation season.

Xanan Communication Habits and Social Norms

Generally speaking, Xanans are friendly, yet polite to strangers and are typically not confrontational with people they do not have a prior relationship with such as friendship, family, or a long business partnership. This has led to foreigners often noticing an indirect style of communication among Xanans, as being very direct about certain matters to strangers is considered rude. It is for this reason that Xanans will often say “Maybe,” or “Perhaps,” as an indirect response in place of “No,” because they do not wish to directly disappoint, and thereby offend a stranger if something is asked of them, though a far more direct style of communication is used in some parts of Xanan society, namely by those in the military, police, or security industries. Good manners are a staple in Xanan communication and are usually only eschewed between close friends or family members. It is considered proper for a person in a higher position of power or standing in a company or family to give unsolicited advice to those beneath them, but rude for advice to be given the other way around unless asked for. Politics are expected to not be talked about in casual conversation unless they are related to the subject matter at hand or between friends. Social norms dictate that a Xanan generally should not want to impose their beliefs upon others, especially strangers, unless something someone else says contradicts something said Xanan believes, in which case a civil, if spirited political discussion may ensue. Xanan society is one that eschews the use of violence to solve disputes, and holds a pacifistic ethos that cements that one should only use force in the defense of oneself and others, however naturally, not all on Xanu Prime abide by these morals. Moreover, there is an expectation in Xanan society that people can, should, and will compromise with one another for the sake of preserving societal unity, order, and peace, with stubbornness in working out an agreement with one another being seen as a selfish trait. Finally, Xanans value the collective. Whether that is a family, company, crew of a ship, social circle, country, or other unit, Xanan social norms dictate that a good Xanan is one who will act in the best interests of something “bigger than themselves,” while using his or her unique individual qualities to best help themselves and the people around them who they care about.

Religion

Xanu Prime has no official religion, and in an effort to prevent conflict over religion or accusations of government favoritism, the government has a series of official secularism laws. They vary in specificity, but broadly they prohibit any person working for or affiliated with the state including anyone from politicians to police officers to public school teachers from displaying any religious iconography, dress, or artifacts on their person or in their workplace while they are on the job. This has drawn criticism from some elements of Xanan society which see these rules as an infringement upon religious liberty, especially from those who take religious dressage as an integral part to their faith, but the government has remained firm in their beliefs that the state will not expose or impose anyone to any one religion over another. Despite these laws, the Xanan government is not opposed to working with religiously-affiliated organizations like charities due to the laws prohibiting only the state itself from representing a religion, not engaging with it. Xanan people as a whole vary in religiosity with both very progressive and orthodox interpretations of the various faiths found on the planet being practiced. The diverse backgrounds of the planet’s original colonists and immigrants since its colonization mean that nearly any religion can be found here. The largest however, in order of practitioners are, Christianity, Hinduism, and Sunni Islam. Smaller faiths like Luceism, Stolitism, Jainism, Sikhism, and even Moroz Holy Tribunalism can be found here, the latter of which is practiced almost exclusively by the Fisanduhian immigrant community. A significant portion of Xanan society is irreligious as well. Xanu Prime is well known across the Orion Spur for some of its examples of religious architecture, the most outstanding examples of which being the Our Lady of Sorrows Cathedral, the Patali-Ram temple, and the Crystal Lights mosque.

Food and Drink

Food

Xanan cuisine has garnered a carefully cultivated reputation around the Orion Spur as perhaps some of the finest in human space. It is in a sense, a fusion between the cuisines of its most prominent colonizing cultures, French, Indian, Pakistani, and those of the BeNeLux. While certainly diverse, it is known most for being both simultaneously spicy, but not hot, with different spices adding highlights and emphasis to whatever notes in the palette the chef so chooses, and savory with a mouth-watering richness that lasts long after the first bite of whatever the food might be. This reputation precedes it, and expert Xanan chefs and cooks are some of the most revered in the culinary industry for their mastery of their crafts.

Arguably the most famous human celebrity chefs alive, Cléophe & Lonnie D’Cruz, a married power-couple in the Xanan food world, were both born and raised on Xanu Prime. Their combined adventurousness in the culinary industry with endeavors both inside and outside their chain of fine restaurants has garnered both them and Xanan cuisine a spotlight few planets’ food cultures can match. The couple met while attending a small culinary school in the city of Foy-Nijlen, fell in love, and then combined their skills to open what would be their first restaurant in their well-known fine-dining chain, Solstice Xanan Bistro. Marriage followed shortly after, and the two have been together at the forefront of the Xanan food world ever since. While they are married to one another, the duo’s personalities are distinctly different, something often accentuated for the camera. Cléophe is known for their generally supportive and encouraging personality who wishes to simply share the joy of cooking with the world and has written dozens of best-selling cookbooks to that end. They are also well-known for their appearances on Holovision shows and Holonet videos giving tutorials on how to make some of the D’Cruz’s most well-known recipes in a basic kitchen; it wouldn’t be unfair to say that an entire generation of Xanan home-cooks were taught by Cléophe D’Cruz. Lonnie, however is far more of a chef’s chef who adheres to very strict professional and artistic standards, something he extols through his appearances on cooking competition shows, often played up to be a very cold and perfectionistic critic. Despite this reputation, he much like his spouse, is also committed to educating people on Xanan culinary arts and to that end is the President and, along with Cléophe, co-owner of the D’Cruz Culinary Academy, a culinary school which while only ten years old, has quickly risen to be one of the most competitive on the planet.

While Xanan cuisine is diverse and constantly reinventing itself, the dishes characteristically include some kind of meat, most often chicken, beef, or shellfish, paired with greens like beans, asparagus, or broccoli, or a starch like potatoes and something characteristic of almost all Xanu dishes, long-grain aromatic basmati rice, typically grown on the hilly territory surrounding the upper Naya Khyber river. Spices like cumin, black pepper, coriander, cloves, cardamom, and garam masala are ubiquitous throughout Xanan cooking, and often find themselves as part of exceptionally rich and creamy white sauces made from milk, butter, salt, and eggs. Pork is not as popular as a meat on Xanu Prime as others are, given the prohibition on eating it from Xanu’s original Muslim colonists and its perceived uncleanliness that Xanu’s original Hindu colonists held as well. Some Hindus also choose to not eat beef, and as such, many of Xanu’s restaurants have an option to serve synthmeat or a vegan meat substitute instead of actual beef in their beef-dishes. The most consumed alcohol on Xanu Prime by far is beer, often made in the Belgian tradition brought to the planet by some of its original colonists. Brandy comes in second and third, and wine is also popular too, but is more associated with fine dining than it is with a drinking experience alone. Xanan cognac and armagnac brandies have drawn the ire of some in the European Union on Earth because it uses the labels of “cognac” and “armagnac" despite not being produced in the Charente, Charente-Maritime, or Armagnac regions of France, though Xanan producers have paid these complaints no heed.

Some notable Xanan dishes include:

Steak Xanu

As the name implies, Steak Xanu is a steak, and is typically pan-fried rather than grilled. Usually it is strip steak as opposed to coming from any other part of the cow, but any cut of beef can be made in the Xanan style. The secret comes in what the beef is cooked with. Before the strip goes into the pan it is left to marinate in a warm broth traditionally made from chicken stock, cardamom, and garlic for flavor and is then lathered all over with a light coating of ghee right before it meets the pan in order to give its outside a crunchy, slightly singed crust. The steak is cooked to medium rare as it is basted in its own juices along with butter, rosemary, and a very light touch of cayenne powder. After it is cooked to a medium rare, it is taken out of the pan and left to rest for a few minutes before being dashed with a cooked sour, cream sauce, often simply called “beef sauce” made from heavy cream, olive oil, whisked egg yolks, and citrus or mango powder. Black pepper is cracked over the top, and the dish is served. Some of Xanu Prime’s Hindu population refuses to eat this dish, however chicken can be cooked in a very similar way and is typically referred to as “Bird Steak” by the Xanan culinary community. It is the official dish of the city of Nouvelle-Rochelle, Xanu’s Capital.

Pataliputra Curried Rice

An mainstay dish and one sure to be found on almost any Xanan dinner table, Pataliputra Curried Rice, often just called Xanu Curry by foreigners, is a twist on the typical curry recipe that originated in the port city of Pataliputra. It is a yellow curry that uses peanuts as one of its main ingredients, giving it a signature nuttiness that mixes quite well with the dish's spices. Where it differs from a traditional curry though, is that its sauce is made from two parts, one of which is a buttermilk-garlic-onion powder base that is very thick and holds in the flavor of the spices and vegetables put into the sauce, while the other is a very light, chicken-based velouté sauce made from combining chicken bone broth with a light, typically but not always, salted blond roux to give the sauce some substance. When the two sauces combine, they make for an exceptionally savory base upon which spices like ginger, garam masala, coriander, fenugreek, and thyme can be added. Meats like chicken or shell-fish are often added to the sauce along with things like beans or potatoes. Rice used in this recipe is traditionally Xanan basmati rice. Every person and every city on Xanu Prime has their own slight variation on how they make this dish, but what is listed above is generally what could be expected when ordering it. It is the official dish of the city of Pataliputra.

Naya Khyber Crozets

Naya Khyber Crozets, or more informally River Crozets, is a dish that originated from the city of Foy-Nijlen and is one that makes use of the various animals caught off the city’s nearby ocean coast and also those found in the Naya Khyber river which runs through the city. The base of this pasta dish is a spicy tomato-basil-cayenne sauce with melted and dissolved Naya Khyber river penguin blubber mixed into the sauce in place of a more traditional fat like butter, ghee, or olive oil. The pasta itself, the Crozets, are small rectangles which resemble something more akin to breakfast cereal in size and shape rather than a more noodly kind of pasta. The crozets are made from buckwheat, eggs, and flour, and are usually cooked al dente so as to retain a bit of firmness. Along with the pieces of pasta, river boiled lobster, fish, crab, or even river penguin meat is pan-fried with butter, rosemary, cardamom, coriander, and cloves before being put into the pasta usually in small bite-sized pieces. Black pepper is cracked over the dish and cumin is dashed over the meat and the dish is served in a heated stoneware bowl. It is the official dish of the city of Foy-Nijlen.

Bunker Buster Sandwich

The Bunker Buster Sandwich is perhaps the most famous example of Xanan street food. At its core, the dish can be used to refer to almost any toasted open-faced sandwich served on naan bread with over-easy eggs, fried vegetables, shredded cheese, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, and garam masala. In practice however, the six ingredients mentioned above are only the beginning of what a bunker buster might be, as really anything from meats to veggies to mushrooms can be put on the sandwich so long as it tastes good. It’s incredibly easy to make and traces its roots back to the reconstruction of the city of Kshatragarh shortly after the Interstellar War, starting as a quick and easy meal for construction workers to make as a lunch. Many of these workers lived in the city’s underground bunker complexes while above-ground housing was being rebuilt, leading to the sandwich’s name. It has since spread all over Xanu Prime, and a visitor to any given Xanan city is likely to find dozens of variations on this simple, long-time favorite food. It is the official dish of the city of Kshatragarh.

Paaskraan Vindaloo

Paaskraan Vindaloo is a dish originating in the city of Paastad, but can be found across the entire continent of Paasland. It is made from the meat of the large waterfowl, the Paaskraan, and is similar to the traditional preparation of vindaloo with one major exception: the meat is not cooked with the vindaloo paste and is only added at the end. Instead, the meat of the Paaskraan is pan-fried until fully cooked and is usually then seared in a sweet vanilla sauce to give it a crunchy, caramelized outer shell. After this process, it is added to the cooked vindaloo paste (cloves, cinnamon, cariander, cardamom, cumin, red peppers, ginger, mustard seeds, black pepper) and served over rice, as a crunchy and spicy meal. It is the official dish of the city of Paastad.

North 60 Sea Platter

The North 60 Sea Platter is less a single coherent dish and more an entire subsection of dishes based around the theme of seafood caught north of 60 degrees latitude. Himavatian sea salmon or arctic tuna, usually pan-fried in olive oil or smoked and served with lemon and black pepper, commonly forms the center of the dish with arctic crab legs or lobster tail sold off to the side paired with a creamy garlic sauce. Other components could include fried octopus and squid or freshly caught steamed shrimp. What makes the dish more than just a typical seafood platter is a special malt vinegar made specifically from ale brewed in the Xanan tradition with added apple and lemon juice. More budget friendly variations of this dish exist as well, such as ones that swap the pan-fried salmon or tuna for smaller, less expensive, deep-fried fish, the lobster and crab for shrimp, and are commonly found in Himavat City bars as a cheap, delicious option for a lunch or dinner. The food arrangement originated in the city and is its official dish.

Not all food on Xanu Prime is within the realm of “fine dining” however. When not at the table for a full meal, the average Xanan can reach for any number of snack foods produced by Xanan companies. Many of these have become not just popular on Xanu Prime, but throughout the entire Coalition and beyond thanks to the aggressive marketing and economic dominance of Xanan shipping and food conglomerates.

Drink

Along with its food culture, Xanu Prime is renowned for some of the alcohol the planet produces as well. The planet’s main claim to fame in this area are in the spheres of beer, wine, and brandy. The planet has brewed beer since its founding, with the Xanan style of beer crafting having its roots in the Belgian-style brought to the planet by colonists from the BeNeLux itself. The most popular brand of beer on Xanu Prime is Prince Pallav Blonde Ale, a golden concoction brewed in Foy-Niljen that has held dominance over the Xanu Beer market for the last two decades. This robustness in the brewing has brought the planet into a rivalry with the nearby planet of Himeo, the two of them both having proud beer-making heritages that often brings them to test this with each other. For the last decade and a half, brewers from the two planets have engaged in a festival called Hoptoberfest, a week-long celebration of the craft of brewing beer held every October complete with live music, authentic Xanan and Himean cuisine, and crucially for the craft brewers of both planets, competitions determining which beer is the best for that year. The festival changes venues from Paastad, Xanu Prime and Inverkeithing, Himeo every other year. In addition to beer, Xanu Prime imported a strong wine culture from its original colonists, namely the French ones. Vineyards dot the Xanan countryside on every continent, with a few even on the southernmost peninsulas of Himavatia. The planet makes a wide variety of wine, though it is most notable for its own variety of Malbec grown in the mountains of Naya Khyber and Nouvelle-Occitanie called Khyberian Malbec. Where Xanu Prime’s wine truly shines though is not in the wine itself but in its use in fortified wine products like brandy and cognac. The unique climatological conditions of Foy-Niljen brandy country have led to the grapes grown there to be perfectly suited to making fortified wines and distilled wines, leading to their flavors to be pronounced but not overbearing up front with subtle, complex notes coming to the surface the more the drinker savors the beverage. The most noteworthy and popular drinks of this category are the mid-range priced 2275, a mainstay brandy of Xanan bars and kitchen cabinets alike, and Saint-James Black Label, the gold standard of Xanan luxury cognac. The national cocktail of the All-Xanu Republic is the Stag Hunt, so named for its popularity on hunting trips and other outdoor activities during the summer. It is a simple drink made by mixing three parts brandy, typically 2275, one part lemon juice, and two parts chilled tea usually served over ice in a highball glass. Chai is the most consumed tea variety on Xanu Prime and the soft drink Xanu Rush is also very popular on the planet.

Arts and Entertainment

Visual Art

Xanan visual arts are vast and have an uncountable number of movements and subgenres. Generally, though, Xanan artworks are reflective pieces and try to examine the human condition rather than focus on the form by which the artwork expresses itself. Xanan visual arts have been heavily influenced by the original Western European cultures which settled the planet and as such, drawing and painting are the most prevalent forms of Xanan art. Sculpture that has been inspired by South Asian cultures of the Indian Subcontinent are also prevalent, however. The most famous and well-known movement of Xanan art is often called the Atman Movement and it lasted from the 2340’s until the 2390’s. Most art scholars consider it an offshoot of Symbolism and Neoclassicism but with noticeable existential elements. Pieces of the movement hold an almost ethereal aesthetic, and usually feature elements like fanciful Greco-Roman or Indian ruins, ruins that aren’t even found on Xanu Prime, bright, vibrant colors contrasted by dark backdrops, and esoteric spiritual imagery sourced from Xanu Prime’s three largest religions. The goal of all of this, in the words of the Xanan master painter Arnold Vasudevan, a key figure in the movement, is, “To imagine Humanity and the human condition as if we could breach the barrier between this world and the next with our own hearts and achieve revelation and clarity through the beauty within and without our souls and the world around us.” An offshoot of this movement referred to as Wartime Atman replaces the ruins of classical civilisations with scenes of wartime destruction found on Xanu Prime during the days of the Interstellar War and is meant to make the viewer reflect on things like conflict and mortality. The most famous piece of visual artwork of the Atman Movement and arguably of all Xanan visual art is called “The Truce" by Harini Martin. It is a colossal mural of a painting that is four meters tall and ten meters wide which depicts the ghosts of dozens of fallen Xanan and Solarian soldiers enjoying leisure time and doing activities like enjoying meals with one another, idly talking, showing each other photographs, and playing games and sports with one another over the backdrop of a desolate Interstellar War era battlefield in what used to be a Xanan city. The sky around the edges is a dark color, however in the center of the painting’s sky is a brilliant white, alabaster, pink, and red halo that shines light on the entire painting. It was unveiled to the public at the All-Xanu Eloise Brel Art Gallery, Xanu Prime’s national art gallery, in 2387 as part of a ceremony to commemorate one-hundred years of peace with the Solarian Alliance and has remained a permanent fixture in the museum since. Notable Xanan sculptures include Our Lady of Sorrows, a giant statue of the Virgin Mary included in the Our Lady of Sorrows Cathedral, and Skyward Unity, a large sculpture commemorating the elevation of Paastad.

Architecture and Cityscapes

The traditional Xanan style of architecture can be described as a hybridization of various styles of design from the Indian subcontinent and Western Europe, much like the origins of the planet’s original colonists. Xanan buildings usually have some form of artistic design on their exteriors, even if it’s as simple as a basic tile weave around entrances or semi-ornate molding around windows. Many have lines drawn on the outside in paint or sculpted on, and Xanan buildings are usually painted with bright, if mellow, colors if they are painted at all. Most Xanan buildings are taller than they are wide and long, courtesy of the planet’s re-urbanisation plans after the Interstellar War and because buildings in most urban areas are taxed based on how much land they take up. Most Xanan buildings have some form of accoutrement around their roofs, usually being a modest carving or bust of a family’s ancestor if it’s a house or a historical or religious figure, representing the theme of memorialisation found elsewhere in Xanan culture. The roofs themselves of most Xanan buildings are usually vaulted or occasionally are domed or flat. Larger, more modern buildings like skyscrapers on Xanu Prime have a distinctive half-sloping-roof look pioneered during the beginning of Xanu’s economic resurgence during the mid 2330s. Originally implemented as a cost-saving measure to make a building that still looked tall but didn’t need to have as much office space, the half-sloped roof or “Xanan Roof” style of skyscraper has part of the building’s roof flat and level with the ground while another portion of it slopes downwards. This style of design has become emblematic of Xanu Prime and even the newest skyscrapers on the planet are built with this design in mind, despite its economical origins. Xanan buildings are made from a variety of materials, with the few-surviving pre-war structures being made from wood, brick, and steel while commercial and industrial buildings built after the Interstellar War are made from concrete, steel, and glass with plaster or clay facades. Individual houses are still mostly made from wood or brick, however. Sizes and shapes of Xanan residences vary, with some being modest single-family homes typical of other places within the spur. Multi-story townhouse complexes surrounding a single communal courtyard are common in urban areas and are often inhabited by entire extended families. In more densely populated areas, large communal apartments built for extended families are common, though some wealthier families have pursued a policy of “Co-flooring,” a type of retail arrangement where an entire extended family will rent out an entire floor of traditional single-family apartments from a property agency. Some buildings on Xanu Prime play very heavily into inspiration from the planet’s original cultures and would not look out of place in South Asia or Western Europe, though buildings built like those are in the minority of Xanu Prime’s structures.

The last notable architectural feature found in many Xanan cities are residual walls and gun emplacements left over from the Xanan Civil War. Of Xanu’s six major cities, only three, Nouvelle Rochelle, Pataliputra, and Foy-Niljen have them still, with Kshatrigarh’s being destroyed beyond repair during the Interstellar War and Paastad’s torn down during the city’s elevation, lest they sink into the swamp. Himavat City never had walls, as it was too small of a community to have built them during the Xanan Civil War. The walls proved useful during both of the planet’s most devastating conflicts, acting as barriers to outsiders and platforms for return fire, but due to the gargantuan cost of operation and maintenance, the walls and their gun emplacements were decommissioned in the 2310s as a part of the Sneijders Government’s economic recovery plans. Today, the walls stand as partially restored massive memorial complexes dedicated to those who fought and died during both the Xanan Civil War and Interstellar War, with some cities having sections of wall filled with the names of those who died during the conflicts from those respective cities.

Xanan cities are generally filled with greenery as both a measure to keep temperatures down during the summer and simply provide Xanans with natural beauty even in the most urban of places. Large public transit networks consisting mostly of subway systems and tramways are found in almost every Xanan city and most of those who live in the urban cores of Xanan cities do not own automobiles, while Xanans who live in the country, suburbs, and smaller cities have a higher percentage of car ownership. The most common way to get around on Xanu Prime however is by bike or motorbike; Xanu Prime has the most bikes per capita of any planet in the Orion Spur, even beating out the Solarian population hubs of Callisto and New Hai Phong. Generally speaking, Xanan cities are walkable and do not require an automobile to move around efficiently, and some Xanan cities have banned the construction of freeways and overpasses entirely in order to preserve their cities’ “authentic landscapes.”

Literature

Xanan literature has cemented itself around the institution of “The Great Novel,” something often defined in Xanan culture as a work of literary art that has captured the essence or soul of the Xanan struggle and of the planet’s people through the usage of compelling stories and multifaceted characters. Novels written in the Xanan style usually have psychological and spiritual themes and use supernatural or otherwise fantastical elements to explore Xanan the human condition, usually in surreal or otherwise unorthodox methods. Xanan novels are typically not adapted into films as is seen elsewhere in the Orion Spur due to Xanan movie-going audiences preferring musicals and epics instead, but they have become popular as holovision shows, stageplays, and miniseries.

Some notable works of Xanan Literature are:

Gloam in Gold

It is hard to understate the importance and influence of Foy-Niljen writer Arif Hugo’s 2345 masterpiece Gloam in Gold in the Xanan literary canon. The text, while short for a novel, is considered to be not just a seminal work of Xanan writing but also quite possibly the greatest novel ever written in the Freespeak language, despite its unorthodox, almost anthological structure. It is set in 2296 during the initial reconstruction of the city of Kshatrigarh and focuses on the character Madhar Emond, a Kshatrapur native and veteran of the Interstellar War now working to rebuild the battered city during the aftermath of the terrible conflict. His life isn’t a glamorous one and he spends most of his days doing hard, construction labor, digging paving roads, working on buildings, and the like. One day on his way home from work, he stops by one of the city’s many large cemeteries to rest and watch the sunset, however shortly after his arrival he lays down in the grass and begins to hear voices around him. He’s alerted by these and denounces them as hallucinations at first as he sees no one around who could be speaking to him, yet as the sun sets further below the horizon, he realizes that there is some coherence through the voices and that they are in fact, the voices of the dead, fully aware of their condition yet unable to move on to the afterlife.

Madhar listens in to their conversations for a moment and is eventually confronted by the voice of one of the deceased, one Missus Pandit, an elderly woman who died of old age before the city was besieged. She acts as a sort of a guide who explains the dispositions of each of the ghosts present, and each part of the novel tells a story of a different spirit inhabiting the cemetery proceeding in the order of Missus Pandit herself, and then to Mister Quint and Miss Jessup, a young Himean immigrant couple who perished together from starvation during the siege and seem to be resigned to their fates, and recount their lives from Himeo and their immigration to Xanu before the war broke out, their desperation during the siege, and now their dead, yet still loving existence of being with each other even in death. Madhar’s conversation with the couple is interrupted by the voice of Marcus Thevar, a rich and vulgar middle-aged businessman.

Marcus refuses to reveal how he died and seems to be entirely preoccupied with finding a drink and scoring some action from the cemetery’s various young female ghosts, one “Miss Periwinkle” foremost among them. Miss Periwinkle’s gravestone has been defaced, though she looks to be buried in the plot next to Thevar, much to her dismay. She’s the spirit of a young, pious woman with a noticeable Lunan accent who claims to have died from tuberculosis during the siege. She refuses to say her real name and repeatedly breaks from talking to Madhar to fend off verbal advances from Thevar, before quietly lamenting to Madhar that her days of being confined to the mortal plane despite being dead and needing to routinely reject the, “slovenly attempts at romance,” by her neighbor is God’s unique choice of purgatory for herself. Despite this, even in this “purgatory” she finds some joy in acting as an almost motherly figure to Patrice, the ghost of a five-year old child who doesn’t know how he died but according to Miss Periwinkle, seems to have abruptly perished in the aftermath of the siege after naively playing with unexploded ordnance he found a local park’s sandbox. Miss Periwinkle parts with Madhar after claiming she needs to tend to the child, and her voice fades away.

After this, the story shifts to that of Private Hendriks, a solemn Xanan infantryman who was killed during the battle and laments that he will never be able to return home to his mother and Lieutenant Ma, a Solarian bomber pilot who was shot down over the city during a night raid and is a conflicted character. She is racked by the guilt of possibly killing innocent civilians yet reminisces on what a still-united Sol Alliance might have looked like without the carnage and in his words, “tragedy” of the Interstellar War. Hendriks and Ma seem to spend most of their days now arguing with each other, the conflict lingering on past their deaths, much to the annoyance of the cemetary’s other inhabitants.

Lastly, Madhar is spoken to by the voice of a young woman, a teenager named Penelope, who brokenly and through a voice characterized by sounding as if she’s on the verge of tears, tells Madhar that her body is in fact, not even buried within the cemetery at all, but that her body instead lies buried beneath a new road built on the graveyard’s northern edge and sulks to him that nobody will ever remember her or who she was since there’s nothing to mark her grave. Madhar, heartbroken in this discovery, realizes that he was part of the crew that paved that very road and profusely apologizes to Penelope for spoiling any chance she might have ever had with a proper burial and claims that it was done in the name of progress for the city and for Xanu Prime. Penelope’s voice rejects this and breaks into tears, repeating the fact that nobody will remember her or who she was, but eventually she is soothed by Madhar’s assurances that he will remember her and that he’ll never forget that she lived and died in the city. Seemingly consoled, Penelope thanks Madhar before her voice too fades away and leaves him in silence, the sky now dark. He makes his way home in solemn, quiet contemplation, thinking about the various spirits he’s heard over the last few hours and once again questions if it was even real. When he gets home to a modest, quickly built apartment, he resolves to himself that whether what he heard was real or not, he cannot forget the past even in pursuit of the future.

The Screen Behind the Mirror

The Screen Behind the Mirror, written in 2419 by the second-generation Fisanduhian Xanan writer Elanea Chatfield, is another one of Xanu Prime’s great novels. It’s a semi-autobiographical story, taking some elements from Chatfield’s own life and putting them into the events of the plot. It is also is a very spiritual text, having references, symbols of, and allusions to the Bible’s Book of Revelation, Tribunalist Scripture, and Luceian holy texts throughout to help convey its themes of residual trauma, destruction and rebirth, and enlightenment.

This semi-autobiographical story follows the experience of a young accountant named Demitra during a camping trip out to the remote New Pacific Scarlands for some time away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The story’s structure is unorthodox and the chapters bounce between describing her current experience in the scarlands, and recounting flashbacks to her childhood growing up as a Fisanduhian refugee in a diverse community of Xanan and Assunzionii-Xanans on Xanu Prime. The story in the present is a tale of survival that begins after Elanea’s camping group has a car crash on a back-country road with her being the only surviving member. Much of her food and shelter perished in the blaze and she’s left to fend for herself in the forest and crater lake-filled wilderness around her. She manages to build herself some crude shelter, but during her first night in the wilderness, she’s awoken by a bright ray of light reflecting off of what she can only describe as a large phantasmagorical mirror levitating just outside the border of her crude encampment. In the mirror she sees her own reflection, but not as she is now, but rather how she was as a child at ten years old.

The book then cuts to her life as a ten year old, going over Demitra’s seemingly mundane memories of living in a low-income, almost ramshackled home with her Fisanduhian refugee family in Nouvelle Rochelle, setting the scene for the reader and introducing them to the characters of Demitra’s concerned, yet judgemental mother, silent and stoic father, whiny younger brother, and somewhat detached and aloof older sister over a standard family dinner. This scene ends and we are brought back into the present, the next morning, where upon waking, Demitra discovers that the mirror still resides outside of her camp. When she leaves to forage for food and tries to hunt something with a hatchet she was able to retrieve from the car crash, the mirror silently follows her, always levitating behind her just out of reach. Throughout the novel, the plot switches between this story of survival, following Demitra’s struggles to build a fire, fish, and hunt, and her childhood memories, with the line between the two becoming increasingly blurred as her situation becomes more and more desperate. She sees apparitions of her childhood friends and her deceased father walking around as if it was the most normal thing in the world, calling out to her yet never responding to her words. The memories become less and less pleasant as time goes on, with the phantom mirror showing her family fights, tough times in school with childhood bullies, and the deaths of family members all while her situation in reality, struggling in the wilderness becomes more and more dire.

The story climaxes with Demitra screaming her frustrations at the mirror in the wee hours of the morning, venting her frustrations to it and breaking down into tears while explaining her feeling on herself in detail to the mirror, stating that she knows she’s at her core a broken person but that despite all that the mirror has shown her she is only motivated to survive in the remote wilderness of the scarlands. Her flaws and trauma have only informed her more of her humanity, and she finishes this monologue with the line, “I’ve survived fucking everything else so far, I am not dying alone out here no matter how hard you try to make me want to!” Ever silent, the mirror remains but grows blindingly bright, so much so that the forest itself begins to smolder and catch fire from the phantasmagorical brilliance it emits. Struggling to cover herself from the light, Demitra covers her eyes but is directed by some voice, “Come and see, and behold, She who is all that is, ever was, and will be.” As she feels her very skin begin to burn and peel away from the mirror’s light, Demitra takes a metaphorical leap of faith and opens her eyes, no longer seeing the mirror but an eye made from flames staring right at her, blacking out and collapsing soon afterwards. In perhaps the most notable section of the novel, the page after Demitra’s collapse is entirely blank except for one sentence placed in the middle of the page: “And when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, silence covered the sky.”

The plot picks up on the next page there with a jump to Demitra regaining consciousness in the back of a rescue VTOL-craft, surrounded by paramedics on a steady flight to a hospital. Demitra asks the medics on the craft with her how they found her and they confusedly reply that a signal mirror was flashing an S.O.S signal at a passing shuttle and it was reported to them, and remark they thought it was Demitra herself who’d sent the signal. She makes it safely to a hospital in a small country town and the story ends with her looking out onto the reflection of a moonlit lake, contemplating what she saw and asking herself how she possibly could still be alive.

The Screen Behind the Mirror has stood the test of time as a venerable pillar of Xanan literature since its publication nearly fifty years ago. The book saw some controversy upon its initial release however, with some more conservative voices in Xanu Prime’s various religious organizations calling it a sacreligious text with some even calling for the book to be burned en masse. The Morozian Holy Tribunal in the Empire of Dominia has banned the sale of the book within Dominian space, a fact that its author Elena Chatfield wears with pride and its publishing company has used to boost sales of the book within the Coalition and Republic of Elyra. This controversy has been eclipsed in the Xanan public eye by its literary brilliance however and it remains popular today among all demographics on the planet. It has been famously hard to adapt to a holovision show however, with all four attempts never getting past the preproduction stage or falling apart during production and has been referred to as a "cursed" story by those in the entertainment industry for that reason.

MMCDXLII

A fine example of the recently popular Xanan science fiction tradition, MMCDXLII (pronounced as 2442) by Kshatrigarh writer Jakob Rajeev is an alternate history science fiction novel published in 2442 set in a alternate timeline where Xanu Prime was blasted from orbit by Solarian forces during the Interstellar War and sent into a perpetual nuclear winter similar to how Gadpathur was in reality. The setting of the story is the city of Khairabad, or at least what is left of it. Before the bombardment of the planet took place, roughly 10,000 of the city’s inhabitants retreated underground into the vast bunker complexes residing below. Believing that they are the only people still left on Xanu Prime, the people of Khairabad have been steadily working towards the goal of reestablishing contact with the rest of the outside world. The plot follows Hridith, one of the few people in the ruins of Khairabad entrusted with the dangerous duty of venturing to the surface in order to scavenge the ruins of the dead city for supplies and clues which might help the people of Khairabad and by extension Xanu Prime as a whole, re-establish contact with the rest of the world. One day while scavenging above, he comes across an old military base which miraculously still has much of its telecommunications equipment in order, including an interstellar radio transmitter. Retreating back to the underground with his news, Hridith’s discovery kicks off a power-struggle and internal civil war within the bunkers of Khairabad as the various factions of the city vie over who should be the ones to contact the outside and by extension reap whatever benefits it may bring. Hridith falls into the game of politics and violence as members of the underground try to influence him for their own selfish aims all while he confronts his own guilt for having sparked this conflict in the first place with his discovery. Eventually, he resolves to destroy the array to stop those around him from killing each other in what he sees as a senseless war.

The book climaxes in a last stand between the soldiers of a local warlord and Hridith supported by his friends on the surface at the array where the story’s plot was put into motion. Just as Hridith is about to destroy the transmitter once and for all, he has a change of heart and, unbeknownst to any other Xanans, sends his own message out into the universe a phrase that has been immortalized in Xanan literary history: “SLEEPLESS ANGELS HAVE BLESSED US. XANU PREVAILS.” After this transmission, Hridith detonates the bombs on the transmitter and is killed in the subsequent explosion along with all of his friends, the warlord, and all of the warlord’s soldiers. The story ends on a vague note in a room tucked away in a Himean communication station with a prompt on a console reading, “TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.” MMCDXLII has been lauded as a cornerstone of the Xanan science fiction genre since its publication in 2442, with many critics seeing it as a parallel tale of sorts to the reality of the Xanan Civil War. The author, Jakob Rajeev, has gone on to write other novels since, but has moved away from the post-apocalyptic setting and advanced into writing sci-fi horror novels and space operas, marking MMCDXLII as a truly unique title in his portfolio. It has seen a successful, chart-topping holovision adaptation and a prequel series set in the world of MMCDXLII's post-apocalyptic Khariabad is currently in pre-production.

Film

Xanu Prime is the entertainment capital of the Coalition and perhaps the largest contributor to this status is the Xanan film industry. Films made by Xanan studios have long proliferated across the Coalition since the end of the Interstellar War and are essential in any serious discussion about Xanan art and culture. While Xanu Prime’s directors have made films under almost every genre since the industry started to take off in the 2310’s, Xanan audiences have taken particularly well to dramas, musicals, and a genre of Xanan invention, the Interfilm. The Xanan film industry has an ongoing rivalry with its Solarian counterpart, especially that centered on Venus. Xanan productions typically do not have as big of budgets as their Venusian counterparts and are usually outclassed in terms of visual effects and and as such are sometimes limited in the kinds of stories and scenarios they can portray. Xanan films make-up for these deficiencies by instead focusing on things like writing and storytelling. The winner of this rivalry is up in the air, and different critics will give different answers, though it is almost always guaranteed that entries from Xanu Prime and Venus will compete against each other in the Spur’s biggest film festivals and awards ceremonies. The three largest genres of Xanan film are dramas, musicals, and an indigenous kind of war film created on Xanu Prime called Interfilm.

Dramas - The Love Melancholic

Xanan dramas are often very introspective and personal pieces which focus on realistic problems often with relationships or with the world at large and typically involve the main protagonist or protagonists of the films confronting some kind of tragedy or trauma. A large portion of Xanan dramas are produced by independent filmmakers, something that Xanu Prime has become a hotspot for in the last half-century.

The most well known Xanan dramas is The Love Melancholic, a 2424 four-hour long dramatic period-piece epic directed by Savitri de Graaf, a woman hailed as one of the best ever directors in Xanan film whose work has stood the test of time despite its age. The plot follows the life of a young woman, Roxanne, moving to Nouvelle-Rochelle during the reconstruction of Xanu Prime during the Second Astonishment looking to start a life for herself. While there, she’s met with the challenge of an accidental pregnancy and conflicting emotions over whether to abort the fetus or bring it to term, and eventually decides to have the child. The film then follows Roxanne's life through the next decade and a half as a working mother who finds success in her career but is lonesome aside from the company of her daughter, until she meets a newly-arrived Himean immigrant, Markus, on the train home from work and the two slowly begin to fall in love, though complications and difficulties in personality and circumstances plague their efforts to see the best in each other. The film ends not with a happily ever after ending, but with a tentatively optimistic, bittersweet scene of Markus and Roxanne, now both nearing middle age by this point in the film, agreeing to try and make their relationship work while acknowledging the flaws in one another. The film is a classic among Xanan and Himean audiences and won record-breaking numbers of awards and accolades when released. It has even seen popularity in some circles in the Solarian Alliance, Republic of Biesel, and Republic of Elyra. Many film critics consider it to be a cornerstone of Human cinematic history and the best Xanan film ever made, though this position is disputed by others.

Musicals - North 60

While Xanan-made dramas may be the most well-received critically of most Xanan films, by far the most popular among the Xanan filmgoing audience for the last few decades are musicals. Musicals made in the Xanan style are often high-budget, over-the-top, and exceptionally grand, showy affairs. They are famous for elements like their large choreographic sequences which can involve dozens of dancers, massive and brightly coloured sets, often romance-centered plots with comedic elements, and musical style which often takes musical instruments from Xanu Prime’s colonizing cultures and puts a pop musical spin on them. When one speaks of "Pataliwood," musicals are what come to mind first. Most Xanans do not put musicals on the same level as other films and see them as something to watch for pulpy entertainment and spectacle rather than for their serious artistic value, though they will obsess over them and their stories all the same. Xanan house parties typically involve the screening of a musical in the living room and songs from some of the genre’s classics have cemented themselves into the Xanan cultural canon.

A recent notable example of a musical made in the Xanan style is North 60, a 2461 film directed by Sabine Venturino, that centers on a young man from Nouvelle-Rochelle named Peter who inherits a fortune from a long-lost deceased uncle who made it big in the record industry. Overjoyed, Peter claims the fortune but learns that he can only receive his riches on the condition that he moves to his dead uncle’s dilapidated estate on the outskirts of Himavat City and lives there for one year. Peter moves but upon arrival hates his arrangements; he cannot stand the cold, remote nature of the city, but soon finds joy in its culture and music scene. He also develops a romance with the daughter of a record executive, a girl named Priti. Unbeknownst to Peter though, Priti’s father Jeroen is Peter’s uncle’s former business partner and wants to get Peter to leave Himavat City so he can claim the young man’s fortune for himself, as per the uncle’s will. Hilarity and antics ensue. The film ends with Peter deciding to forgo his fortune and instead running away from Himavat City with his love Priti and starting a new life together in Foy-Nijlen. The film is the highest-ever grossing Xanan musical and won a series of awards as well, though it saw only limited popularity outside of the Xanan market. This is a theme among Xanan musicals: massive domestic success but only limited success abroad, the reasons for which are routinely debated by many within the Xanan film community.

Interfilms - Count the Days

The last of Xanu Prime’s most popular movie genres is one of Xanan invention: the Interfilm. Interfilms are very long, often multipart war epics set during the Interstellar War, a conflict from which the genre gets its name. They often have ensemble casts and focus on a variety of viewpoints rather than a single protagonist. These films often showcase themes of tragedy associated with the Interstellar War and ennoble the sacrifice of the Xanan nation and individuals during the war. These films are very serious and are seen as a direct contrast to the Xanan Musical genre in tone and content.

A keystone of the Interfilm genre is the series Count the Days, a pentalogy directed by Xanan journeyman director Pierre Duchesne totalling over sixteen hours in length, with its installments releasing in 2447, 2449, 2450, 2552, and 2454 respectively. The story at first follows an officer in the Xanan Army, Captain Paul Ibrahim, stationed around Pataliputra. He leads his company through a very bloody battle in which the majority of his men are killed, by the end of the battle, his unit is more or less completely wiped out and he’s reassigned to command a new company, one unlike any he’s seen before. He’s given command of Company Y, an all-female volunteer unit that hasn’t ever seen combat before and is dumbfounded at first due to his belief that a female unit wouldn’t fight as well as a male one. He however is told by his superiors that he risks demotion of he doesn’t take on the unit, so he begrudgingly agrees. The first movie follows Ibrahim’s efforts to help train and ready his new unit for combat while he and the audience get to know the women of Company Y. Throughout the film, his outlook on his troops begins to change, and he connects with them more as people, though he still does not think they have the mettle to withstand warfare. The film ends with the Company seeing its first taste of combat during the opening stages of the Siege of Khairabad and Company Y sustaining horrendous losses and being cut off from the rest of the Xanan army in Khairabad.

The second film takes place during the Siege of Khairabad proper, and is a tale of the fight for not just victory but survival as the remnants of Company Y fight their way through parts of the occupied city to link up with the rest of the Xanan forces trying to hold their ground against the encroaching Solarian forces. Throughout this struggle, the Company comes across enemies but also Xanan partisan fighters who link up with the Company and join them on their journey to reconnect with their lines. During this film, Captain Ibrahim has his opinion changed on the women he commands, and he comes to see them as strong soldiers regardless of their gender. The movie ends with the Company and their new partisan compatriots reconnecting with the rest of the Xanan force defending Khairabad.

The third installment of the series is not so action packed in comparison to the second one and is mostly centered on the members of Company Y recovering from the events of the first two films and grieving their fallen comrades while integrating the partisans from the second film formally into their ranks and is the only film in the series that does not have an action sequence. It ends with the company being resupplied and ready to once again take the fight to the enemy.

The fourth part of the series is often seen as the black sheep of the series and departs from the story of Company Y to instead focus on 6th Company, a Solarian unit from Mars participating on the other side of the Siege of Khairabad. 6th Company is led by Captain Emily Mikkelsen, an embittered veteran of the Interstellar War until this point who is concerned only with ensuring that the troops under her command stay alive and sees victory in the siege as a means to that end. Part 4 shows events from the parts 1 and 2 through the eyes of the Solarians, and goes to great ends in order to humanize them, with members of 6th Company being portrayed as people who believe in the ideal of a united humanity under the Sol Alliance but also as people who don’t see the war as theirs and who want to return home to their lives and families most of all. The film ends with 6th Company preparing to launch an assault against Xanan positions in the ruins of Khairabad.

The fifth and final installment of the Count the Days series begins with a dramatic battle sequence between Xanan and Solarian forces, with the attention split equally between Company Y and 6th Company during the fighting. During the carnage however, multiple members of Company Y and 6th Company become separated from their units and run into each other on the battlefield, with many dying to one another in heart-wrenching sequences that brought tears to many a Xanan filmgoers’ eyes. The two captains, Ibrahim and Mikkelsen, also encounter one another, but both having been wounded and exhausted by the fighting decide to sit inside of a bombed out building and try to recover their strength together. The two have a long conversation about their lives before the war and the people under their command, avoiding any conversation about either’s actual thoughts on the conflict and instead just treating each other as people rather than enemies. After further rumination and conversation, Ibrahim comes to the realization that his wounds are mortal and that he will likely die from them if he doesn’t receive medical attention and asks Mikkelsen to kill him so that he might die with honor. Mikkelsen protests at first, finding some difficulty in pulling the trigger on a man she’d just spent the better part of a half-an-hour getting to know, but eventually concedes and agrees, seeing it not as an act of anger, but of mercy for Ibrahim. She shoots him and then begins her trek out of the bombed out building, with the shot lingering on Ibrahim’s corpse for a good long few seconds, only for a team of Xanan medics to enter the building and find Captain Ibrahim’s body, just minutes after his death. The medics transport his corpse back to the Xanan lines where the rest of Company Y has regrouped, and they mourn the loss of their officer and friend in a dramatic, heart-crushing scene. The series ends with Captain Mikkelsen and 6th Company in their camp that night, staring forlornly at a campfire, exhausted from the day’s fighting and failed assault before receiving orders to fall back to the rear of the Solarian force to recover their strength. As they leave, Captain Mikkelsen looks to the Xanan lines and begins to sob as the screen then pans up and fades to black on the smoke-filled night sky.

The Count the Days pentalogy is widely regarded as one of the best of the Interfilm genre and is to date the highest-grossing and most-awarded film series in Coalition history and has spawned a die-hard fanbase of supporters. It received a widespread release across the Coalition and Biesel and even saw limited screenings in the Solarian Alliance. The series is regarded by many to be a masterwork of Xanan cinema and a quintessential look into how Xanu Prime views its relationship with the Interstellar War.

Holovision

The world of Xanan holovision is the most diverse in the entire Coalition of Colonies. Almost anything can be found on Xanan HV, live sports, dramas, talk shows, news, infomercials, and shows on a wide variety of premises. The quality of Xanan holovision is similarly varied, with some shows having hundreds of millions of credits in budgets while others are very obviously cheap and made to be aired or streamed as quickly as possible. Whatever the case, Xanan holovision programming and shows can be found across the Coalition and Human Frontier and generally has a positive reputation among foreign watchers. By and large, the most popular genres of holovision programming on Xanu Prime are dramas and sitcoms.

The most-watched Xanan Holovision program of all is a long-running late-night variety program called Teddy, hosted by comedian and media personality Theodore Llewellyn. The show has been on-air and on popular Xanan and CoC streaming services for nearly twenty years at this point with its first episode having aired in 2447. Theodore Llewellyn is described by many in the Xanan media as “The Lord of Late Night,” due to his dominance over the late-night talk show genre paired with his polite, yet witty interview and conversational style. His show often showcases new musical acts, up-and-coming comedians, and routinely interviews the most talked about figures and celebrities in the Xanan entertainment industry and society at large. He also has been known to host games for his guests and for airing live or pre-recorded comedy sketches for his audience, usually involving himself or his guests as characters. Teddy is not just popular among Xanan audiences though and is watched by fans across the Coalition, both in Xanan Freespeak and in translated dubs of the Coalition’s various languages. He is also a prominent cultural ambassador for Xanu Prime to Himeo and has used his fame to advocate for closer cooperation and harmony between the two planets when off the air. Occasionally, the show will even film episodes on-location on various planets throughout the Coalition for promotional purposes, most often Himeo due to Llewellyn’s Himean heritage, being the child of two Himean immigrants to Xanu Prime. Llewellyn has joked at times about running for President under the Good Neighbor Party, though these jests haven't manifested in any political campaigns quite yet.

For information on Xanan Holovision dramas and sitcoms please read the two entries below.

Xanan HV Dramas

Much like on film, Xanans have a penchant for HV dramas, however these diverge significantly from the seriousness of their film counterparts. Xanan Holovision Dramas are very popular on the planet and can be separated into two categories: 5-Dramas and 2-Dramas.

5-Dramas are aired every day during the week on Xanu’s HV channels during the daytime, and are notorious for their low-production values, often odd, pulpy, and convoluted plots focused around absurd twists, romantic scandals and intrigue, as well as their inexhaustible lifespans, with the most popular of them having gone on for decades. The longest running and most popular of all Xanan 5-Dramas is A Time to Be Alive, a series that has been running for 47 years at this point and has followed the lives and hardships of the fictional Khanna family, a massive upper-middle class extended family from Foy-Niljen. The series has uncountable plotlines and has been criticized for its convoluted and melodramatic writing style by many critics, but audiences still tune in every day of the week across Xanu Prime and the Coalition as a whole to get the newest scoop on what’s been going on with the Khannas and the people around them.

2-Dramas in contrast to 5-Dramas however are aired on weekends only during prime-time and are generally seen by critics and audiences alike as the best that Xanan holovision has to offer. 2-Dramas typically have very high production values and rely heavily on the strength of their writing, directing, cinematography, and character acting to succeed. They’re often focused on crime-related or similarly intense, dramatic premises and are usually rather serious in tone, in contrast to the soapy, scandalous mood of most 5-Dramas. Xanan 2-Dramas are considered to be some of the finest programming on Holovision anywhere in the Orion Spur in terms of their writing and acting quality, but they are not for everyone and have drawn criticism from some for being too humorless and inaccessible for those not wanting to become engrossed in painful, often traumatic storylines. One of the most well-known of Xanan 2-Dramas is Suntoucher, a show which focuses on a journalist named Marielle Hollen as she investigates a series of missing persons reports from a town in the Naya Khyber delta called Dharbourg. Her efforts slowly unveil a sickening human-trafficking operation that seeks to abduct and torture its victims in the name of a twisted, hellish cult led by a madman who claims to be both the second coming of Jesus Christ and the next avatar of Vishnu all in one. While investigating as well, Marielle comes into contact with the criminal elements of Dharbourg and becomes their sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy as she works both with and against them during the course of her investigation. As the cult learns of Marielle’s investigation though, it no longer becomes a mission to expose them for Marielle and the locals working with her, but a fight for their very lives as secret, underground war breaks out between the cult and the largest gang in Dharbourg with Marielle and those working with her caught in the middle. The series ends with Marielle’s investigation materials being delivered to the offices of the Xanan News Service after her death at the hands of the cult after killing its leader, and alludes to the publication of the story by the media giant and subsequent destruction of the cult and imprisoning of Dharbourg’s criminals. The series has six seasons in total and had an original run from 2455 to 2461 and has spawned an obsessive, devoted fanbase in recent years. Rumours are abound of a spin-off show focusing on any number of the series’s well-liked supporting characters being in the works, but there has been no confirmation of this yet.

Xanan HV Sitcoms

The last major genre of Xanan television is the sitcom, a genre that is usually recorded in front of a live studio audience and relies on whacky or zaney premises mixed with witty writing. Xanan sitcoms also a vehicle by which certain societal issues are explored or made light of in the public mind, and tend to rely a bit more on satire and dark humour than sitcoms from other planets around the spur. While not the most popular of Xanan sitcoms in the present day, the show Fated has a strong cult following and has left a bit of an impact on Xanan pop culture. The show follows Gerard Sodhi, a man in his mid-thirties trying to make a living in Nouvelle Rochelle’s stand-up comedy scene while dealing with the pressures of his life and large extended family. On his way home from a show, he and three of his friends, Esha, Georges, and Krasnin, are cursed with bad luck by a homeless woman in a back alley after refusing to give her any money when she asked for some. After suffering from their curse through minor inconveniences and unfortunate, socially awkward situations over the next few days, the four return to where they first encountered the woman only to find her dead, unable to remove the curse. The show then goes on, focusing on the lives of Martin, his friends, and the awkward, absurd situations they then find themselves in. Fated spawned many catch phrases and words used in Xanan pop-culture some examples being: “flarge,” a descriptor used for something both flat and large, “plimpkin,” a word used to describe a person who is short, fat, and annoying, “squickimsh,” a term used in reference to something that is both gross and very sticky in texture like a piece of gum, and “fwoonj,” a noise a person makes when trying to awkwardly avoid saying name of someone whose name they’ve forgotten. The series ran for nine seasons from 2449 to 2458 and is seen as a show emblematic of the Xanan 2450’s.

Music

Xanan music is exceptionally diverse and Xanan musicians are known throughout the Coalition and beyond for being some of the most prolific and distinctive in their respective genres. Xanan music usually takes instruments and structure from its Western European and South Asian colonising cultures and puts a modern, stylistic spin on them to best suit whatever genre the musician is aiming for. The most notable genres of Xanan Music are:

Xanupop/X-Pop

The most popular form of music on Xanu Prime, is predictably, pop music. The Xanan style of pop music, often called Xanupop or simply X-Pop, is similar to pop music in general, however it tends to eschew EDM-like synth riffs and instead prefers acoustic instrumentals to make the backing track. The genre has its roots in the ballads which emerged during and after the Interstellar War, mostly about home and family. Most modern-day Xanan pop songs focus on the topic of love, whether falling into it, breaking up a relationship because of the loss of it, reminiscing about times when the singer had it, or any other variety of situations about love, Xanu’s pop music has a listener spoiled for choice. While not specifically pop music, songs from Xanu Prime’s largest musical films are often played on pop radio, even if they are not strictly in the pop style. The most popular pop artist in Xanan history is Foy-Niljen native Robert Khatri, a man whose crooning ballads and work with string and brass ensembles cemented him as the definitive voice of the Xanan Renaissance. While subsequent artists have out-sold him since his death in 2387, Khatri’s songs have gone on to be standards within Xanan musical canon and his songs still are known by Xanans far and wide even more than a century since their releases. The most popular active Xanan pop artist is Grace Rose, though less commonly known by her real name Lavani Grace, a woman from Nouvelle Rochelle who has dominated the Xanan pop charts for the last decade and a half with her unique and beautiful vocal style with a signature high belting range perfectly suited for Xanan pop ballads.

Xanurock/X-Rock

Rock music is the second most popular form of music on Xanu Prime and is renowned across the Coalition for its funky instrumentals that focus on rhythm primarily rather than melody and unique vocal style that typically moves between being spoken and being sung multiple times throughout each song. Rock songs made in the Xanan style, often called X-Rock or Xanurock, also are often about love, much like their pop counterparts, but it is far from the only thing that Xanan rockers sing about. Common lyrical themes in Xanan rock music focus on personal independence, inner turmoil and depression, social issues, or more poignantly, lost love and ones that got away. A popular band in the X-Rock scene is Weatherland, a group from Himavat City that is renowned for their creative instrumental style that often incorporates unorthodox chord progressions and jazz-like solos from the band's various members. Another group that has risen in popularity since their founding in the early 2450’s is the band Anti-Gone, a band from Nouvelle-Rochelle that has gained notoriety for their more groovy, riff-driven, gritty, and raw hard-rock production style with songs that focus on personal struggle and often talk about deep, uncomfortable subjects like addiction and abuse. They have beome very popular with Xanan young adults though older rock fans have not been as receptive to their material.

Logmu

Folk music, specifically the Logmu style of folk music, has always been very popular on Xanu Prime and does not seem to be going anywhere soon. Logmu, the word being combination of the Hindi word “log” meaning “people” and the French work “musique” meaning “music,” is a genre of music that originally came about during the early stages of Xanu Prime’s colonization as a result of individual, often amateur musicians, from Xanu Prime’s different colonizing countries forming bands with one another and adjusting their styles to fit each band member’s diverse musical preferences. The genre has remained popular through two catastrophic wars, economic depression, along with many other hurdles and looks as if it will keep its popularity far into the future. Logmu ensembles are typically six people large and play music using a vast variety of instruments which date back to the colonization of the planet. For example, a standard six-piece Logmu band will typically have a fiddle, an alto saxophone or nadaswaram, a tabla, a guitar or sarod, an accordion, and a sitar, with at least one of the musicians singing as well, usually the guitar or sarod player. Logmu songs are usually musical stories or poems that follow a protagonist or recount the life experiences of the singer, often in character. They are self-contained dramas or comedies in their own right and have allowed the genre to remain popular for as long as it has because of the simultaneous relatability and dramatism of the plots of the songs. A subset of the Along with being a genre of music in its own right, Logmu also has a distinctive subculture focused on passing the craft down to younger generations, with many musicians in the genre seeing it as their duty to teach their children or other students how to play a Logmu instrument at some point in their lives. A subgenre of Logmu is, Sologmu, a play on words of “Solo” and “Logmu” and is defined by its nature of usually being performed by a single musician who both sings and plays an instrument of their choice, usually a guitar, sarod, accordion, or sitar.

The most influential Logmu band of all time is the Kshatrigarh-based band The Air Raid Six, a group of six musicians who had the shared childhood experience of living through the Siege of Khairabad. Once they became adults they saw great success in the fledgling All-Xanu Republic’s music scene singing songs about the Interstellar War and retelling or making up humorous or dramatic stories that occurred during the conflict. During this they pioneered the current six-piece format standard synonymous with modern Logmu music and their songs are still widely performed today. The most popular Logmu band presently is Paastad-based group Six of Hearts which gained popularity during the mid 2450’s and has yet to relinquish it since. The band’s musical style stays relatively close to tradition in the structure of the songs and focus on their stories, but diverges some in terms of the instrumentals used, replacing the normal guitar or sarod with an electric guitar and even playing solos with it, something often not seen in Logmu music. Current popular names in the Sologmu scene include Chloe Sinclair, a young woman from Himavat City that has brought a moodier, more downbeat brand of singing and guitar playing to the genre; and Turakina Khadagova, a Vysokan Xanan who has created a niche in the genre for herself by singing in the Xanan style with her broad vocal range and accompanying it with poignant instrumentals played by herself on a morin khuur.

Himavat Midnight

Breaking from tradition is the genre of Himavat Midnight, so called because the underground music shows in Himavat City which saw the genre come into being often didn’t start until midnight. It is the newest genre of music on Xanu Prime to have seen at least some popularity, breaking out of the local Himavat City rock scene in the mid 2450’s. Himavat Midnight is notable for its spacey, monotone vocal style usually accompanied by little more than a bass guitar, an electric guitar, a synthesizer, and a drum machine. Himavat Midnight songs usually are built around a simple bass or guitar riff and typically are simple yet satisfying in their construction. Most songs have either a bridge or an outro where one instrument performs a solo, though these are usually more toned down and not like the more technical skill-showcasing solos found in X-Rock. Lyrically, the songs are moody and often sad, talking about loneliness, lost love, boredom, and other saddening yet seemingly mundane feelings. Some in the Xanan music scene have welcomed the genre as a new form of music that is more emotional and thoughtful than some other songs, while others have dismissed it as "sad music for sad people." While the genre is still relatively very new relative to all other popular genres of music on Xanu Prime, Himavat Midnight does have a few notable bands. We Are They, a three-piece Himavat City band, is the most popular group of the genre and is the one credited for breaking the genre out of its local confines with their 2457 song, Snowflakes in her Hair. For now the band is the standard-setter for what Himavat Midnight should sound like.

Pataliputra Big House

Another genre of music that is notably unique to Xanu Prime is a genre of electronic music that emerged from Pataliputran nightclubs in the 2420’s called Pataliputra Big House. During the Doldrums nightclub owners were having trouble getting patrons to come out and give business to their clubs because of the economic stagnation characteristic of the time period. To solve this, many night clubs began to push their DJs to get creative and blend different musical styles into something new and exciting in order to attract more patrons and thus, Pataliputra Big House was born. The genre was the product of Pataliputran DJ’s mashing together elements from dance-pop and more traditional house music, vocals from R&B, and instrumentals leaning on the more soulful and jazzy sides of Logmu. Songs in this genre incorporate beats which usually are medium tempo, heavy on bass, and have a central riff played on a synthesizer or saxophone which drives the entire song. Vocals are treated like an instrument in themselves in Pataliputra Big House songs and usually have a bevy of effects on them to achieve different listening experiences. The most well-known producer in the Pataliputra Big House scene is Bobby Baas, real name Robert Satti, a Pataliputran native equally famous for his colorful, often patterned suits as he is for his music. He has routinely sold out electronic music festivals across the Coalition for the last decade after achieving local fame in the Pataliputran local scene during the early 2440’s. He is also unique for being one of the only artists from the Coalition of Colonies to have performed in the Sol Alliance, performing a series of sold-out shows called the “Sunrise Tour” in 2456 across the Solarian core. An up-and-comer in the Big House scene however is DJ SinTheTik, real name Sarah Tussaud-Tipnis, a young woman who became a holonet sensation in the early 2460’s for her unique style meshing instruments from classical, symphonic music with the usual sounds of Big House.

X-Hop

As often happens with strong electronic scenes, a hip-hop movement emerged around the 2430’s shortly after the popularization of Pataliputran Big House. Nearly every major city of Xanu Prime has its own hip hop scene and they all have friendly, if competitive, rivalries with another. While each major city’s scene has its own unique flair and sound, there are some commonalities to Xanan hip hop or X-Hop. Generally, Xanan hip-hop places a great amount of importance on the beat of the song, and as such these beats are typically more complicated and have more elements to them than hip-hop from other places. The rap verses themselves are usually fast and articulate with a lower, almost gravelly vocal tone being definitive for male rappers and a clear, bold tone that can carry over a nightclub crowd holding the same preference among female rappers. Nouvelle Rochelle rapper Abhang van Agteren, stage name AvAtar, is considered by many to be the "King of Xanan hop-hop" and is famous for his smooth lyrical style and frequent collaborations with some of Xanu Prime’s largest producers, most notably Bobby Baas, with a catalogue of hit songs dating back to the 2440’s. His music is a common feature on playlists all around the Coalition and he has been a staple of Xanan popular music for decades, with no sign of his career waning any time soon. The most famous Xanan rap group is the all-female project Girl’s Night, a four-member pop-rap group from Himavat City that first gained notoriety in the mid-2450’s for their lyrical prowess, broad appeal which crossed pop and hip-hop demographics, and anonymous nature. It is unknown what the true identities of Girl’s Night are since the group’s members are never seen in public or on stage without three-faced masks made in the style of hindu deities. The individual names they have given to the public are the letters, R, Y, V, and K.

Fashion

Xanan fashion and dress is not characterized by any culturally specific garments or articles of clothing that are uniquely specific to Xanu Prime, but rather by how they style clothes that are seen as generally ubiquitous across human space. That is to say, color and the interplay within a palette in one look are king in Xanan Fashion. Xanans themselves often describe shopping and dressing as a whole as somewhat of a game, in making outfits for themselves which both are colorful, but also not outlandishly so and still manage to look sharp despite their chromatic nature. If a look clashes too much, it looks bad, simply put. Garishness is something that must be avoided in Xanan fashion and many of the planet’s top designers have emphasized that Xanan fashion is a game of balance. As to what colours are used though, there are no official rules or cultural norms, other than outfits which are heavy in their usage of black and white are reserved for funerals or other somber occasions, and similarly, looks with a lot of white or red in their composition should only be worn during weddings, baby showers, or other joyful events. The diversity of Xanu Prime as a planet in both climate and geography however has led to a variety of different fashions popping up across the planet and often fashion choices are left to the individual rather than governed by some collective norm. An exception tho this, however, is that outfits consisting solely of only one color, such as a suit with the same-coloured slacks and jacket or a dress made of only one color of fabric, are seen by many as overly formalistic and are typically only reserved for appearances in court for legal or financial matters. As such, monochrome outfits without much variation in colour are associated with the legal and banking professions. Colors aside, materials are also seen as an important part of Xanan fashion, and many mundane looking pieces of Xanan clothing may be worth thousands due to the craftsmanship and quality of the materials used in their manufacture. Intricate patterns are not uncommon in Xanan looks either, though they are usually associated with festive occasions and places. Accessories are seen as important in Xanan fashion, with neckties and cravats being popular among men and hairpins or bows finding favour among women. Jewlery is common for both men and women, but large pieces should not be worn in a workplace environment and instead should be saved for personal outings or family time.

Sport

Professional and amateur sports are both quite popular on Xanu Prime. Cricket and football are tied in popularity, with other sports like basketball, ice hockey, and rugby having some notoriety on the planet as well. Xanan children are encouraged from a young age to participate in team sports which many carry on into their teenage years and adulthoods through amateur club teams. As such, no Xanan town is complete without a cricket oval or football field. Xanu’s sports fans are known the Orion Spur-over for being some of the most passionate and obsessive in Human-inhabited space, with their chants, costumes, and fervent insults being both hated and envied by the planet’s sports rivals. Xanans are exceptionally loyal to their teams, be they national or local, and fights or even riots breaking out after upsets in football or cricket aren’t unheard of in the major cities.

The Xausii national teams in both football, commonly referred to as "C.F.X.P" taken from their original French name Club de Foot de Xanu Premier, and cricket, often called the "Crimson Cats" courtesy of their mascot being a crimson-masked polecat, wear colors of green and orange with red accents. When either of the teams win a game, especially if during a high-stakes tournament, the entire planet often turns out to celebrate, clogging streets, overpacking bars, and pressing the Xanu’s police forces to their limits. Famously, when Xanu Prime won the 2454 Orion Cup in a surprise upset 2-1 victory over their longtime rival, the Callistean national team, Hastings Park, C.F.X.P’s home stadium, was deemed to be “The Loudest Place in the Known Universe” by a Martian sports writer. Similarly the stadium was said to have “Rung like bell,” when the Crimson Cats defeated the Port Antillean national team in 2458 to win the T20 Orion Cricket Championship. Individual cities also have their own football and cricket teams which play in a number of professional and semi-professional leagues. The highest level of these are The All-Xanu Ultraleague for football and the Alpha League for Class A cricket.

The planet has strong sports rivalries with many others, both within the coalition and without. They have a long-standing football rivalry with Callisto, jokingly called “The Second Interstellar War,” which has had its ups and downs throughout history, with both teams serving each other their most grievous defeats. Highlights include when Xanu defeated Callisto on its own home turf in 2448 to win the Orion Cup, or when the Callistean team duffed out their rivals only four years later in a hotly-contested group-stage match and stopped C.F.X.P from having a chance at defending its title. Xanu also has a hot cricket rivalry with Port Antilia, and the two planets are generally considered to be the best at the sport in the Orion Spur. Recent tension over the Solarian Collapse and Port Antillia’s annexation into the Biesellite CRZ has meant that the two teams haven’t met on an oval in over two years, leading many to believe that their next meeting will be the game of the century for Cricket. Xanu Prime also has a more friendly and lighthearted football rivalry with Himeo that has for most of recent memory been one-sided in favor of Xanu, but the two teams are still nevertheless very competitive and their fans very passionate over the rivalry.

Immigrant and Expat Communities

Xanu Prime is host to a number of large immigrant, expat, and diasporic communities, the largest of which can be read about in the entries below. A member of any immigrant or diasporic group who was born on Xanu Prime will select the Xanu Prime origin and accent in character creation.

Himean Xanans

The largest diasporic community on Xanu Prime, the Himean Xanan community has been on Xanu Prime for nearly as long as the Republic itself has existed. Himeans first came to Xanu Prime in the millions during the aftermath of the Interstellar War, often as workers and supporting staff helping to rebuild Xanu’s many broken and battered cities. A significant number of these Himeans remained on Xanu afterwards, established their own families and communities, and joined Xanan society. Most of the Himeans that came to Xanu during what is called the “First Wave of Himean Immigration” (2288-2310) dropped Himean customs and traditions in favor of broader assimilation into what many of them saw as a prosperous, growing, free Xanu Prime where their children could grow. A significant minority of Xanu’s population can trace at least part of their ancestry back to this first wave of immigrants from Himeo, and it’s quite common for the average Xanusan to have at least one or two Himean ancestors that came to Xanu during this period even if the person themselves doesn’t look Himean or have a Himean sounding name.

While immigration from Himeo continued in low levels throughout the 24th century, there was a great uptick from 2367 to 2390, a period called “The Second Wave of Himean Immigration” and less commonly, “The Paasstad Exodus.” Much like earlier Himean immigrants, those in the Second Wave came to the planet for work, but instead instead of reconstruction, they were taking part in the Paasstad Megaproject, an ambitious engineering initiative with the goal of raising the entire Xanan city of Paasstad above the marshy ground upon which it sat. The project was long and intensive, but was complete by 2389 and the numbers of Himeans immigrating to Xanu decreased shortly after the project was complete. In contrast to the First Wave, Himeans coming to the planet during the Second Wave mostly just immigrated to the city of Paasstad, and as such, their community became very unified and tightly knit. A district of the city, often just called Little Himeo, is where the present-day Himean Xanan community has its symbolic heart. Many Himean customs and traditions are still practiced here, Himean Common is spoken throughout the district, though with a noticeable Xanan Accent, and one can find many Himean products and authentic Himean food here. While there has not been an influx of Himean immigrants since the Second Wave, many Himeans looking to move their lives and to Xanu Prime find themselves in Little Himeo or one of the smaller Xanan Himean communities in other cities. Himean communities are very diverse politically, given that many Himean Xanans have assimilated into Xanu’s society and taken on new beliefs, however the Good Neighbor Party is particularly popular in Little Himeo and it often markets itself as the party for Himean Xanans. A majority of Himean Xanans are not first-generation immigrants, but were born on the planet as third or fourth generation Himeans.

Himean Xanans, whether their ancestors were part of the first or second waves, have broadly flourished on Xanu Prime and can be found in all walks of Xanan society. Notable Himean Xanans include Aukusti Staudenmaier, member of the National Parliament and leader of the Good Neighbor Party, Lennox Sibelius, Minister of the Economy and Finance under the Mukhopadhyay Government and man responsible for the implementation of the Mukhopadhyay Plan, Sara Knox, current CEO of d.N.A. Defense and Aerospace, and Theodore Llewellyn, host of the popular Xanan late night holovision talk program, Teddy.

Vysokan Xanans

The Vysokan Xanan community is Xanu Prime’s second largest and fastest growing immigrant and diasporic demographic; many see the planet as coming off of the first large wave of Vysokan immigrants it has ever experienced. Many Vysokans immigrated to Xanu starting in the 2440’s after the Mukhophadhay Plan began revitalizing the Xanan economy. In response, many Vysokans looking to better their lives and provide a stable income for their families traveled to Xanu Prime looking for work or simply looking to start new lives. This wave of immigration abruptly stopped in 2462 when the Orion Spur was gripped by phoron scarcity causing space flight costs to soar, but even now after that, some Vysokans still find their way to Xanu Prime.

Culture shock has been something consistent throughout the Vysokan Xanan community: Societally, Xanu Prime is to many Vysokan immigrants, especially those who grew up in the rural regions of Vysoka, a night and day difference. Because of this, along with the differing norms between Xanan and Vysokan cultures, many Vysokan immigrants have been slow to integrate and assimilate into Xanu Prime’s society and most live in close proximity to one another in majority-Vysokan neighborhoods and districts. Many in the Vysokan Xanan community are not wealthy, with most being in the working lower-middle class. Because of their recent increase in population, their unfamiliarity with Xanan systems and the fact that they are often poorer than the average Xanan, Vysokan Xanan communities often have difficult times accessing social services for healthcare or financial assistance, are less policed, and have higher than average rates of crime. Many Vysokan Xanans have found employment in Xanu’s agricultural and heavy industry sectors with their skills from home translating very well to those lines of work. Additionally, many have found themselves in the All-Xanu Armed Forces in hopes of learning skills there which they can then carry over into a civilian job after being discharged. The largest Vysokan Xanan community on Xanu Prime is the Little Vysoka district of Nouvelle-Rochelle.

Vysokan Xanan communities often try to recreate things from Vysoka itself, the most common of these being Stolitist spirit houses and shrines. Vysokan Xanans are majority-Stolitist in their religious practices, and many Vysokan Xanan communities celebrate Stolitist religious festivals. Vysokan Xanan practices are not identical to their Vysokan counterparts however. Many in Vysokan Xanan communities have eschewed travelling, nomadic shamans in favour of more congregationally-styled practices, with houses of worship and assembly taking influence from Christian churches and Muslim mosques in layout often being built to surround Stolitist shrines and spirit houses. These “Stolitchurches” are a uniquely Vysokan Xanan creation and often function as the cultural, spiritual, and symbolic centers of Vysokan Xanan communities. Other aspects of Vysokan culture which have in some way translated to Xanu Prime is the Vysokan penchant for athleticism; since the immigration, many young Vysokans have made a name for themselves and their community as professional athletes. Many even make the annual trip back to Vysoka for the Velhalktai. Host culture has not made the jump and the hosts in general is something that is begrudgingly dismissed by many Vysokan Xanans because they believe that Host culture affirms a stereotype among Xanussians that Vysokans are criminals. Politically, opinions are diverse for Vysokan Xanans, but many have voted for the Free Falcon Party in recent years due to the party’s Vysokan Xanan origin and stance on many immigrant issues.

Notable Vysokan Xanans include Aynan Zhergotov, professional footballer and captain of the Nouvelle-Rochelle football club A.S. Olympique-Saraswati; Doctor Kaarchaana Tuskullanova, member of the National Parliament, leader of the Free Falcon Party, and formerly practicing medical doctor; Yekheren Bolkhadarov, goalkeeper for the All-Xanu National Football Team; and Turakina Khadagova, a second-generation Vysokan Xanan singer who has seen recent popularity in Xanu’s Logmu music scene by combining Xanan-styled singing with Vysokan-inspired instrumentals.

Assunzionii Xanans

The Assunzionii Xanan community is the third largest diaspora on Xanu Prime and is one that has managed to strike a strong balance between preserving their own original culture and embracing Xanu’s own. Most of Xanu Prime’s Assunzionii population moved to Xanu Prime during the 2370’s and 2380’s in response to Xanu’s burgeoning economy, with a smaller wave coming in the 2450’s. As such a majority of the Assunzionii Xanan population are third or fourth generation immigrants, with the new arrivals in 2450 being first-generation. Most Assunzionii Xanans live in the middle class, with some having advanced into the upper classes through employment or their businesses. Throughout Xanu Prime, many Assunzionii people have found themselves in two primary industries: entertainment and engineering. The former came about when many Assunzionii immigrants were hired on by nightclubs and other entertainment venues for their expertise in electrical lighting systems. As they were employed more, some of these immigrants figured that they would instead start their own clubs which they could run and style as they pleased. Gaining traction for their exceptional light shows and very exotic atmospheres, Assunzionii Xanan-owned and staffed clubs, bars, theaters, and even film studios became very successful across Xanu prime in the 2400’s and have remained that way since, with some of the largest and most exclusive entertainment establishments on the planet being owned by Assunzionii Xanusians. Some of these immigrants also found themselves in engineering and went on to work in Xanu’s shipbuilding and logistics sector; their skills being perfect for designing and servicing electrical systems on ships. Many of their descendants still work in these fields today

Culturally, there are some distinct differences between Assunzionii Xanans and people from Assunzionne proper. Exposure to outside cultures and removal from the Luceism-centered domes of light has made many Assunzionii Xanusians less religious than their Assunzionii counterparts. Most still identify as Luceist and do practice, but the faith on Xanu Prime has become more casual and cultural to the local community rather than something more dogmatic and omnipresent. Simply put, Luceism isn’t as important to multi-generational Assunzionii Xanusians as it is to those back home on Assunzione or those who have just arrived from the planet, even if it is present in their lives. Despite this more lax attitude, there are large cathedrals of light in many Assunzionii Xanan communities, the largest being in the Little Assunzione district of Nouvelle-Rochelle, and they see frequent attendance. Most Assunzionii Xanusians are Structuralist Luceists and their churches function as large community centers and meeting places along with being used as houses of worship. Other aspects of Assunzionii culture have stuck around in the community as well, such as illumination. Assunzionii Xanan neighborhoods are very well lit, with more street lamps than average and more lights on houses as well, and this, along with the communal and tight-knit nature of many Assunzionii Xanan families, make their neighborhoods some of the safest on Xanu Prime.

Notable Assunzionii Xanusians include Sabine Venturino, a third-generation Assunzionii Xanusian and one of the largest directorial names in Xanan film industry; Suleiman Kateb, a second-generation Assunzionii Xanusian and current Minister of Energy for the Afzal government; and Hristos Santolaria, a first-generation Assunzionii Xanan and current Chief Operations Officer for Markhor Interstellar Logistics Group.

Fisanduhian Xanans

The Fisanduhian story on Xanu Prime is a strange one that started in 2386. In that year, the Xanan government agreed to host the remnants of the Fisanduh Freedom Front (3F) as a gesture of solidarity between two countries against tyranny. This arrangement created the modern Fisanduhian government-in-exile as it exists today with its seat in the Greentree neighbourhood of Nouvelle Rochelle. Of those few countries that recognise the existence of an independent Fisanduh, those being the Republic of Elyra and a vast majority of Coalition of Colonies members, see the Fisanduhian government-in-exile, also commonly called the “Greentree Government,” as the legitimate government of Fisanduh. The Empire of Dominia sees the Greentree Government as the political arm of the 3F, a rebel militia to some and a terrorist group to others, and therefore considers Xanu Prime and by extension the Coalition of Colonies to be a state sponsor of terrorism for giving the government sanctuary. The Sol Alliance and Republic of Biesel do not recognise the Fisanduhian government-in-exile as the legitimate government of Fisanduh and have no relations with it.

Xanu Prime’s long-standing positive relationship with the Fisanduhian government has made it a very popular destination for Fisanduhian refugees, though its geographic distance from Moroz often makes traveling to the planet difficult for some. Fisanduhian refugees typically do not come in waves like other immigrant demographics, but arrive sporadically and often in small cohorts that were trafficked out of Fisanduh at the same time. This distance and trouble with travel cuts both ways: it isn’t just difficult for Fisanduhians to arrive on Xanu but much of the Fisanduhian Xanan community (aside from the aforementioned refugees) have never even been to Fisanduh, with their only ties to the Morozian region being ethnic and cultural. Religion is also something that sets Fisanduhian Xanans apart from other Xanans, with most being adherents to some strain of Reformed Morozian Tribunalism which rejects the authority of the Morozian Clergy and the Dominian Emperor as the divinely ordained head of the “Goddess’s Tribunal,” a term that the Goddess’s Holy Diocese of Xanu Prime uses to describe their religion over using “Morozian Holy Tribunal.” Some however have given up this faith and have either become irreligious or have taken on one of Xanu Prime’s dominant religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam) as their own. Despite this, it is common for many Fisanduhian Xanans to celebrate Tribunalist religious holidays even if they themselves are not adherent to the faith since many see these days as part of their own distinctive culture. All Tribunalist churches on Xanu Prime have eschewed the use of traditional Morozian Holy Tribunal uniforms and religious symbols connected with the Dominian Emperor, viewing them as unnecessarily dogmatic and relics of an oppressive, Dominian, past.

Economically, most Fisanduhian Xanans are poorer than the average Xanan, with almost all being either refugees who arrived on the planet with nothing or their descendants. They lack the generational wealth of other demographics in Xanan society, and most are not educated to the standards demanded by the Xanan economy. As such, most can usually be found in industrial and service jobs, the All-Xanu Armed Forces or other working-class positions. Because of this disadvantageous economic position, many of the better-off Fisanduhian Xanans have been known to host refugee families and provide them with housing and food until they find employment and can secure housing of their own.

Despite the hardship the demographic has found, the Fisanduhian Xanan community has found a home for itself in Xanan society. Most Fisanduhian Xanans have assimilated and integrated themselves into broader Xanan society and adopted their norms and culture, but generally live in areas with other Fisanduhian Xanans. Some subsets of the group take this to the extreme, maintaining their own communities and living together in nearly all-Fisanduhian neighborhoods which preserve the native Fisanduhian culture and social systems. These communities are usually suspicious of outsiders and such attitudes have occasionally led negative attention from the media for allegations of xenophobia and exclusionism. There is a stereotype among Xanans that Fisanduhian Xanans are all rabidly politically active and pursue jobs in politics and government especially in order to aid the Fisanduhian Government-in-Exile, and while most Fisanduhian Xanans very supportive of the Greentree government, their involvement is often falsely overstated. In reality, Fisanduhian Xanans hold a variety of political views about Xanu Prime and the 3F government, with most being split into two camps: the Irredentists and the Second Homelanders. Simply put, the Irredentists and Second Homelanders diverge on their priorities relating to the Fisanduhian Insurgency. The Irredentist camp of the Fisanduhian Xanan population places the government-in-exile’s backing of the 3F and other resistance groups in Fisanduh through sending them aid, equipment, and money above all else, in hopes of one day returning to an independent Fisanduh. The Second Homelanders instead want the government-in-exile to create a “second homeland" for the Fisanduhian people on Xanu Prime in cooperation with the Xanan government and often push for the government-in-exile to leverage its official and unofficial influence in Xanan society to provide better resources for the Fisanduhian Xanan community. The two groups, while different in their priorities, are not enemies to one another and often work together in both the Fisanduhian government-in-exile and the unofficial representative of that government in Xanan Politics, the Universal Liberty Party. Historically, the Irredentist camp has been a majority in the Fisanduhian Xanan population, but as Fisanduhian Xanans have adjusted more to Xanan society and their needs have become more pronounced, the Second Homeland movement has grown considerably, especially among the demographic’s younger generations who see themselves as more Xanan than Fisanduhian. As the older generations of Fisanduhian Xanans die, it is predicted that the Second Homeland movement will soon hold a majority over Fisanduhian Xanan political discourse unless a serious shift occurs in the currently-stalemated Fisanduhian Insurgency.

Morozian Fisanduhians have mixed opinions of Fisanduhian Xanans. On one hand the sentiments of support and occasional aid shipment that make it to the region past the Dominian blockades are often appreciated, but on the other, most see the Fisanduhian Xanan population as too far away to make a difference in anything actually happening in Fisanduh besides giving a place for more refugees to flee to. Because of this, most Morozian Fisanduhians treat their Xanan cousins as people who are all talk and no action in regards to actually winning the insurgency.

Notable Fisanduhian Xanans include Erick Alexis, current Vice-President of the All-Xanu Republic; Aaron Izmirlian, Prime Minister of the Fisanduhian Government-in-Exile; Ekaitz Azarola, leader of the Universal Liberty Party and member of the National Parliament; and Elaena Chatfield, a prolific if aging novelist often considered to be one of the greatest writers Xanu Prime has ever produced.

Gadpathurian Exiles

Xanan Gadpathurian Exiles and their community are a small but notable immigrant demographic on Xanu Prime. They are almost exclusively concentrated in Pataliputra, it being the spot where most of them arrive on the planet after being ejected from their home world. Gadpathurian Exiles are known to be highly assimilationist and often make no effort to show that they are even in fact Gadpathurian at all, many too ashamed by their exile status to try and make others know of it. Some however have taken the identity and embraced it as part of who they are in Xanan society. Gadpathurian Exiles who do make a point of their heritage do not have their own distinctive architecture or cuisine, but instead hold much of their culture in their community structures and businesses. Gadpathurian Exile-owned businesses which embrace the identity are known to be pseudo-support groups for Gadpathurian Exiles themselves and often provide employment, housing, and other necessities to newly arrived fellow-exiles to ensure that they do not become homeless or starve. Xanan Gadpathurian Exile families similarly have been known to welcome fellow exiles into their houses to take care of them in a similar way to how Fisanduhian Xanans do, however Gadpathurian Exiles take this a step further and have been known to formally adopt entirely unrelated people into their families permanently. This has led to some Gadpathurian Exile families on Xanu Prime to become comically large, with the largest on record, the Mokammel family, having over 1,400 current members. The Mokammels mostly live in the Kuenoi neighborhood of Pataliputra, though this area has come to be known coloquially as “Mokammelbad” in popular parlance. Most Gadpathurian Exiles on Xanu Prime are irreligious or have converted to one of the planet’s three major religions, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam.

Gadpathurian Exiles often have an advantage over other immigrants not in terms of their wealth, as most arrive to the planet positively destitute, but in terms of their educations. Most Gadpathurians were taught skills during their military service on Gadpathur, and even if they’ve now been exiled from their homeworlds, many retain their skills and have found lucrative work as tradespeople (plumbers, electricians, HVAC specialists, and welders to name a few). Of course, many have also joined the All-Xanu Armed Forces and usually find success there too, either as soldiers, specialists, or occasionally even officers, though this is somewhat rare as the Gadpathurian leadership style is usually inconsistent with Xanan doctrine and practices. It is seen as shameful in Exile society to take aid from the government, and there is a societal norm of redemption through achievement as a way to prove the decision to exile the person in question as wrong. As such, Gadpathurian Exiles on Xanu Prime emphasize values of individual responsibility and cooperation with others trying to achieve. Politically, Gadpathurian Exiles on Xanu Prime typically vote either for the Free Falcon Party of All-Xanu Freedom League.

Notable Gadpathurian Exiles Xanans include Chandi Mokammel, a first-generation Gadpathurian Exile, head of the massive Gadpathurian Exile family the Mokammels and celebrity within the Gadpathurian Exile community, and Sri Afzal, a second-generation Gadpathuri Exile, formerly a professor of law at Saraswati College, and wife to the current All-Xanu President Jacques Afzal.

Holidays

Xanu Prime has many holidays much like almost anywhere else in the Spur, however the foremost of these are as follows:

• January 1st - New Year’s Day - A celebration of the ushering in of a new year. This holiday is marked by fireworks, loud music, and the mass consumption of alcohol. It is officially recognised as a holiday.

• January 2nd - Founding Day - This is the day where Xanans celebrate the original colonization of their world by the Solarian Alliance. People get the day off work and festivities are held in communities across the planet to celebrate Xanu. Many consider this to be a toned down version of Xanan Independence Day, or simply a day to recoup and recover from the partying and subsequent hangovers brought on by New Year’s. Alternatively, some simply use the day to have a two-day long New Year’s celebration.

• March 28th - All-Xanu Peace Day - This is a holiday that commemorates the anniversary of the end of the Xanan Civil war. It is a rather low-key holiday where people are encouraged to reflect on the peace that they enjoy and spend it with their families. Xanan citizens get the day off of work, though because the war is such a distant memory, many just use this as a convenient day off of work or three-day weekend rather than a time to celebrate its original intended purpose.

• July 1st - Election Day - This day is less of a holiday and more a bureaucratic necessity. On June 1st, all Xanans vote in elections, local, province-wide, or national. Everyone gets the day off work so they can vote if they so choose. The holiday still applies to jurisdictions where no elections are taking place that year, so many often take it as a free day off of work.

• August 13th - Xanan Independence Day - This day celebrates the secession of Xanu Prime and the Coalition of Colonies from the Solarian Alliance and is the largest holiday of the year. Parades, fireworks, cookouts, sporting events, and musical performances often occur on this day. The entire planet parties hard on this holiday and it is observed by Xanan expats living elsewhere in the Orion Spur as well. Xanans get the day off of work on August 13th.

• October 1st - Victory Day - Victory Day, as it may be implied, is the day where Xanans celebrate the victory of their country over the Solarian Alliance in the Interstellar War. It is marked by parades, and other celebrations that honor the sacrifice of the soldiers and civilians who died in the conflict and the freedoms that they died for. It has a more solemn and reverent atmosphere than other Xanan national holidays. Xanans get the day off work on Victory Day.

• November 18th - Kulkarni Day - Kulkarni Day, also called Diversity Day (no relation to the Eridanian Holiday), is a holiday where Xanans celebrate their diversity and ethic of unity, coming together to unite as one strong and diverse society. It is held on the birthday of once planetary governor Gaspard Kulkarni to honor his vision for what a united yet diverse Xanan society could be. The day is celebrated widely across the planet and is a day where the various communities of Xanu prime go out of their way to share their cultures with those of different cultures and celebrate how they find strength in diversity. It is an official holiday and Xanan citizens get the day off of work on Diversity Day.

• December 25th - Christmas - A Christian religious holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Despite its religious origins, it has long been a festivity that has spread across cultures and demographics regardless of religious affiliation, and as such it is an official holiday on Xanu Prime. It was brought to Xanu Prime by the Christian colonists from France and the BeNeLux countries.

• Varying Dates - Easter - A Christian religious holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was brought to Xanu Prime by the Christian colonists from France and the BeNeLux countries. This holiday follows the lunar cycle and therefore is held on different days annually, though it is always on a Sunday, typically in April or March. It is not officially a holiday recognised by the Xanan State, but many observant Christians celebrate it.

• Varying Dates - Ramadan - A Muslim religious holiday that is observed for nearly a month by Xanu Prime’s muslim population. It includes the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, on which was recognised as an official Xanan holiday in 2334 after the festivities of feasting, partying, and parades became so widespread across Xanu Prime’s population that it could no longer be interpreted as a strictly religious celebration. The holiday abides by the Muslim lunar calendar and therefore is observed on different dates every year. This holiday was brought to Xanu Prime by its original Pakistani and Indian Muslim colonists.

• Varying Dates - Eid al-Adha - A Muslim religious holiday which that honors the willingness of the prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as Allah commanded of him. It is not an official Xanan holiday, but many observant muslims take the day off from work and celebrate. The holiday abides by the Muslim lunar calendar and therefore is observed on different dates every year. This holiday was brought to Xanu Prime by its original Pakistani and Indian Muslim colonists.

• Varying Dates - Diwali - A Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh, religious holiday which lasts for five days and celebrates the triumph of good over evil, originally brought to Xanu Prime by Hindu and Sikh colonists from India. It is typically marked by fireworks, the lighting of lamps, brightly vibrant lights, and other festivities which embody light triumphing over the dark. The third day of the holiday, Lakshmi Puja, is the most colorful of the holiday, and Xanans who observe it usually take the day off work, though it is not an official holiday. While not Hindus, the local Assunzionii expat population also has begun to celebrate this holiday recently as well, tying it into their own beliefs of light triumphing over the darkness. Diwali is determined by the Hindu lunar-solar calendar, and therefore falls on different dates annually.