Fantasy
Fantasy cultures often become most convincing when they stop performing for the reader.
A non-human people do not need to spend every page being strange on purpose. Meals, chores, etiquette, the little arguments over who left the tools out or who owes whom a favour, that is where a culture starts breathing. Ordinary habits do more work than a parade of exotic details ever will.
I’m suspicious of worlds that keep shouting their difference. Real communities, even invented ones, are usually held together by routine, irritation and custom. The oddness matters less than the shared normal.
A non-human people do not need to spend every page being strange on purpose. Meals, chores, etiquette, the little arguments over who left the tools out or who owes whom a favour, that is where a culture starts breathing. Ordinary habits do more work than a parade of exotic details ever will.
I’m suspicious of worlds that keep shouting their difference. Real communities, even invented ones, are usually held together by routine, irritation and custom. The oddness matters less than the shared normal.
Routine does a lot of the heavy lifting, but so does bureaucracy. Give me a species with forms, permissions, and one person who insists the ink has to be mixed a certain way, and I’m already interested. That sort of thing tells you who has power, who is fussy, and who is quietly being made to wait. Much more revealing than another invented horn shape.