CULTURE
Although there is no such thing as a "Kentyan" culture, as the various nation-states and the people within them retain a lot of ideas and culture and practices that are not planetwide, it can be said that certain elements of culture are similar throughout Kent. The diet of Kentyans is heavy with vegetables and plant matter, and meat is seen as "the food of last resort." The hunt was almost always the sign of the lazy rather than the ingenious. Vegetables are primarily tubers and roots, and a large variety of such vegetables are grown by farmers. In some areas, it is still considered desirable to collect these tubers in the wild, since they can be very extensive. Cultivated crops generally are grains and some types of fruits (on Kent, of course, the fruits are really spore packages that when they ripen, split open and spread the spores through the wind, or allow small animals to run over them to collect the spores, which are then spread to nearby fruits). Traditionally, Kentyans never raised farm animals, except as beasts of burden, and would only hunt for meat. Fishing is common in some areas, and in many regions, the varieties of worms are considered delicacies. Meat, when eaten, is rarely cooked and eaten as is, but is frequently ground up, cooked and mixed with pasta-like products and various sauces. Kentyan cooking is often defined by the various sauces that are used, and which add a lot of the taste to the food. In more recent times, Kentyan tastes have been altered by imported food and replicated food, especially cheeses. There is no such thing as native Kentyan cheese, but a whole industry has appeared around replicated cheese, which tastes like varieties of human cheeses, but with food molecules and nutrients that are truly Kentyan. To eat cheese, they have to eat the Kentyan stuff. Human cheese makes them sick. In fact, most alien food makes Kentyans sick, which made their presence on multiracial ships before widespread replicator use very rare. It also lessens their ability to found colonies and exist in non-Kentyan colonies.
The most common type of alcohol found on Kent is a variation on beer. Wine does not exist because grapes and similar fruits do not, and spirits are very rare. Instead, Kentyans drink beer, and lots of it. They have developed a wide variety of beer, and enjoy beer made from alien plants replicated to Kentyan biology. True Kentyan beer is drinkable by most alcohol-tolerant species, and is considered to be very good, although very intoxicating (most beer has between eight to twelve percent alcohol). It is popular on Earth and throughout the Federation. For non-alcoholic drinks, Kentyans tend to favour mineral water and water flavoured through many different agents. Carbonated beverages are not known because they have a tendency to make Kentyans sick-but strangely, flat and warm Coca-Cola has a following among Kentyans! They do like sweet things. The sweet taste is rare among Kentyan foodstuffs, and non-Kentyan sweets are very popular, at least when eaten in moderation. To the Kentyan, chocolate is something that you "enjoy now and pay for later."
Unlike most other cultures, there is little distinction in the styles of clothing worn by men and women. Pants are common, and form-fitting leggings tend to be worn by those living in warmer climates. Upper garments are generally pullover-style tunics, and rarely shirts. Garments like shirts or jackets are almost always worn with something underneath. Clothing colours do differ by sex, however. Women would never wear black or blue or gray, and the men would never wear red, orange or white. For some reason, Kentyans do not like greens in their clothing. Regardless, clothing is not seen as something that is stylish or fashionable, and the idea that clothing can improve the appearance of a person simply does not click with Kentyans. Clothing also varies by region and race. Polar Kentyans tend to wear heavier clothing, even in hot whether, while equatorial Kentyans tend to wear less clothing. They are the only cultural groups to favour shoelessness and shorts. Most other Kentyans consider knees too ugly to look at. Jewellery is rare, and the most common jewellery worn is a pendant that indicates a particular Kentyan is married. Rings are unknown, but bracelets of various designs can be worn by members of both sexes. Most Kentyans have something against altering their appearance through elaborate hairstyles and cosmetics, but they do sometimes really make themselves look different through various techniques for festival celebrations.
Historically, marriages on Kent have been arranged between the families of the man and woman getting married. Polygamy is not allowed, and divorce is frowned upon, although strangely, divorce is easier to get, and even encouraged, when a couple has been married for ten years and has not had any children. Traditionally, marriage has been viewed as a means for procreation, and if a couple has not had a baby after ten years, that is a sign that they are incapable of having children, at least with each other, and they are free to seek out other partners. Once a couple has a child, they are expected to stay together. In more modern times, "free" marriages (arranged by the couple without interference from the parents, and presumably based on love) have become increasingly common. Free marriages were once seen as a means by which a rebellious individual could both spurn their parents, and also regain some measure of respect within society. Most Kentyans marry by the time they are twenty-eight, and unlike some other cultures, it is equally common for a man to marry an older woman as it is for a woman to marry an older man. Kentyan women generally remain fertile into their mid-sixties, while the men can produce sperm for perhaps twenty more years after that. Nevertheless, most children are born before their parents are fourty. The average family is between two and three children. More than five children is very rare. Most births are single births, with twins and other multiple births very rare. Children in general receive six years of primary schooling and six more years of specialized schooling (in which they begin to concentrate on subjects that they are good at or want to be good at). After that, they can go to university or other training programs to get a career. Kent, unlike Earth and other planets, does not have a highly replicated industrial system, and so the employment rate tends to be somewhat lower than on most other Federation worlds. There are always jobs to do, either traditional or modern ones. Unlike other planets, again like Earth, the economy does not make things too easy. Although cheap and abundant energy is available, cheap enough that it can be virtually given away, this is not done on Kent. A monetary economy still exists there, and if a person wants to buy something, he has to earn the money to pay for it. Other planets have energy resources so abundant that a person can get energy or energy credits for next to nothing.
Kent also has a system of physical currency, instead of a completely cash-free monetary system as exists on most other Federation worlds. This is a hold-over from an earlier time when the currency system was one of the first global structures on Kent. With over five hundred nation states, all of roughly equal size and economic strength, a bewildering array of currencies would have evolved, but from an early era, the Kentyans developed a currency system ultimately based on precious metals and minted coins. Instead of individual currencies, a planetary currency based on standardized weights of the coins developed (which in turn fostered the spreading of the weights and measures system this was based on, the primary Kentyan alphabet and number symbols and ultimately, the Standard Kentyan language). Electronic monetary systems do exist on Kent, but the currency system is used mostly for small day-to-day transactions. There are two parts to the currency. The first is the metal itself, usually made in small rectangular pieces, with each denomination made of a particular precious metal. Each piece has encoded within it a unique identification number, with the numbers assigned through a complex algorithm that is the closely-guarded secret of the Planetary Financial Authority. Each time a piece is used, it is scanned and the number entered into a database. This allows the central authority to track each piece of currency, to see if a second piece with the same code number appears, or if a piece with an unassigned number appears. In the era of replicators, it would be easy to create counterfeit currency, so everybody that handles the stuff would want to use the readers and make sure that their currency is genuine. Nevertheless, counterfeiting schemes do appear once in awhile.
Another aspect of Kentyan culture is that one cannot avoid responsibilities for their actions. This is seen in the legal system. If a Kentyan accused of a crime meets with a lawyer and asks that lawyer to get him off, that lawyer is morally and legally bound to admit to the court that the accused has in fact admitted guilt to him. For this reason, lawyers are not really divided into "defense lawyers" and "prosecutors." Instead, they take cases for either side, depending on their individual feelings in these matters. The whole point of the justice system is to bring the guilty in for justice and let the innocent go free. It is considered unethical to attempt to "beat the system." Another area of personal responsibility is in terms of finances. A person is expected to honour his debts, and not attempt to deceive his way out of them by declaring bankruptcy. Afterall, for every unpaid debt, there is someone else who is out of the money despite providing a good or service, and in the Kentyan mindset, that is simply not fair. A person has to pay off his debts, and if he cannot, then those debts pass down the family line (just as the person receiving the payment of the debt can pass it on as well). In most cases, debts are paid off in a generation or two, but there are examples of debts increasing and passing through many generations, because of the way that debts can be passed on. About the only way such a debt could ever end would be if the person with it simply has nobody left to pass it on to. Somewhat more rarely, the creditor might not have somebody to pass the account to.
Family connections in Kentyan society are very important. A person is considered to have lesser status in society if he is unmarried. Such a person is seen as unreliable and unconventional. The pressure to marry and produce children can be intense, from a person's family, his co-workers and associates and friends. A person does not complete his role in Kentyan society without getting married. Sometimes the pressure to confirm is large enough that unmarried Kentyans-or those unmarriable because of debt and other problems-leave the planet. Another aspect of family ties is that property is passed along in a certain predefined way, and using wills to override this is also considered to be in extremely poor taste. The most important relative to a person is his or her spouse, and then second most important are the children. After that come the parents and other siblings. Wealth and obligations are passed along in this order. If a person dies, the first person to get these would be the spouse. If the spouse is dead, then the next in line is the children. The oldest child would get whatever could not be split, but otherwise, the estate is split evenly. If the person has no spouse or children, or outlived them all, then the next in line would be the parents. If there are no parents, then the siblings, starting with the oldest, would get the estate and the obligations. At this point, the inheritance patterns sever. If the sibling, for example, has children but the sibling himself or herself has died, then the inheritance cannot skip the gap, unless the deceased has prepared a will allowing this (and in such a will, he would never pass on a debt, but in the cases of a debt, all proceeds from the estate go to satisfying the debt first, and whatever is left, if anything, goes to the beneficiaries). Similarly, if the person has grandchildren but the children are dead, or grandparents but the parents are dead, then the estate does not automatically pass in that direction. Without a will, therefore, the estate passes back to the "granter." In Kentyan society, actual land is the basis of property, and title to land is granted by a governing authority, often the state but sometimes one of the feudal lords that are still around. These grants are given "in continuity," and cannot be revoked. They can be sold, or they can be passed on, either automatically or through a will. If they cannot or were not passed on, then the grants returns to the granting authority. In essence, the state takes over the estate of the person. It also takes over the debts too, but has a nifty method for cancelling them-it simply puts a hundred percent tax on the proceeds, pays off the debt, collects the tax and leaves the creditors fuming. But that is the way it is on Kent. Like most planets, Kent is a mixture of the practical and of the things that could only develop because of the planet's long history and its particular situation. Sometimes, Kentyans can be so like humans, and at other times, it is clear that they are an alien race.
The Kentyans are one of the five founding races of the United Federation of Planets (Earth, Andor, Vulcan and Tellar are the others), and so enjoy special rights and privileges such as a permanent seat on the Federation Security Council and an important role in Starfleet Command. Even without their own space fleet, the Kentyans have made themselves important, if somewhat invisible, members of the Federation.
