Cultural Centers

## Cultural Centers: Overview

Each Town can develop their own culture, which provides all sorts of unique characteristic to the table. A town's culture is defined through the cultural centers within the town. The more developed these centers are, the more advanced the culture is and the traits within the town. Like Basic Structures, Cultural Centers must get approved by staff in order to take effect. In this article, we will be looking into each type of cultural center, its perks, and what is required to build them.

Keep in mind each center requires a specific Cultural Roles to create them.

### Great Library

The Great Library contains all the lore of your culture. Your culture's origins, economic focuses, cultural beliefs, etc. are defined here. Great Libraries are the core component of cultures because they define the very traits the culture inherits. Writing down books, making statues, collecting artifacts, and hosting rituals are all excellent ways to display your culture in your town's Great Library. In order for a Great Library to be identified as such, the following requirements must be fulfilled:

* Includes detailed origins of the town/culture that matches with the basic lore of Islands. Islands lore can be found here.
* A Librarian to develop and preserve the town's lore, customs, religion, etc.
* A creative and unique quality defined for your your town/culture. Real-life cultures won't be approved. Traits/ideologies from the real world are fine, but don't remake the USSR on Islands.
* Room for the library's expansion. Some libraries may get quite large over time as the town grows and thrives.
* The building must be easily accessible for all players. Although books may be tricky to display to outsiders, artifacts, statues, and other physical objects used in the Great Library should be visible for outsiders to see.
* The building must follow your culture's build style.
* At least **three** active players in the Great Library's town.
* The Great Library MUST look like one. The build alone should be able to convince the staff member that it is a Great Library capable of fully functioning as one. Low build quality may also disqualify a build, so please use the best building skills you can.
* In addition, the town must have a Wiki article describing these details outside of the game as well.

Any form of literature or physical object used to describe the culture all together must answer the following questions:

* Where does your town/culture originate from?
* What sort of economic and political doctrine does it have?
* Any religions? If so, what customs, rituals, and beliefs are there in this religion?
* Any holidays?
* What are common traits in its citizens? Is this a war-mongering nation or is it a peaceful, neutral one?
* How has your island's environment played a role in the traits of your culture?
* What is your culture's architecture like?

Sometimes a town may want to inherit cultural traits of its nation and/or another town. In this case, they may build a regular Library. Although both must contain artifacts and information essential to the specific town, it's a branch of additional information from the original culture's Great Library and may contain less information. Information on their origins is still expected since something must've happened for this branch off from the original. If a town goes down this route, their Library should contain everything that makes them unique.

### Monument

Monuments are impressive structures built by a town to display their town's might and reflect the cultural identity of the town. These towns serve the role of displaying the condition of the culture as growing and thriving and are necessary in order to identify non-Great Library builds as Cultural Centers. The requirements to build Monuments are:

* Structurally impressive and/or intriguing
* Displays the culture excellently and/or fits with its lore
* Displays clear dedication and enthusiasm with the build and culture
* Required a good sum of time to properly complete
* Built by the town's Architect(s).
* The total amount of monuments a town can have cannot surpass the town's current population

### Homeland Trade Centers

Homeland Trade Centers are optional buildings that allow its town to trade with its homeland via an NPC. This NPC will sell resources/items originating from your homeland defined by your Great Library. This NPC cannot purchase materials, but does sell blocks usually difficult (if not impossible) to obtain in Island's world generation. The Trace Center NPC is highly customized to each culture, meaning it must be highly developed before it can be obtained. Some requirements for this building to be recognized are:

* A highly developed culture
* A chest shop of every crate sold at your region. It MUST be stocked regularly.
* An extension to your Island's harbor which can house the NPC. This location must highly follow your culture's build theme and must be easily accessible by all players.
* At least one monument for this build. Each monument for this build provides 6 items/slots per.
* A pre-determined list of materials/blocks sold from the NPC.
* Built by the town's Architect(s).

### Central Dockyards

Any town with a regular Dockyard would notice that their Shipwright has the same ships available as other Shipwrights. Outside of the occasional exception, the ships provided in the basic Dockyards are excellent as multi-purpose ships. These ships can do a wide-variety of roles such as combat or trade yet lack the mastery of a specific use. With the advancement of their culture, however, a town is able to obtain specialized ships suited to their culture. Like other cultural centers, the Central Dockyard has specific requirements in order for a second Shipwright to move in:

* A highly developed culture with detail on their usage of ships. If it's a mercantile culture their ships would be excellent for trade and vice versa for war-mongering nations. The town's Naval Planner should design their Naval Doctrine around this.
* To compliment their culture's ship-usage, they need an approval Naval Doctrine made by their Naval Planner.
* The town should be at least classified as a regional power, meaning it is capable of asserting its influence over neighboring towns.
* An extension of your regular Dockyard or a new one which is set up with details unique to your culture. As an example, a war-mongering town would have a ship armory with it. Make sure it also follows your culture's build theme.
* At least one monument for this build. Each monument for this build provides 1 new ship with your second Shipwright NPC.
* A pre-determined specialization for your ships. This should be clearly laid out with your Great Library describing your culture.
* This Dockyard should be easily accessible by all players. The Shipwright for this Dockyard must also be reachable by outsiders.
* The Central Dockyard MUST look like one. The build alone should be able to convince the staff member that it is a Central Dockyard capable of fully functioning as one. Low build quality may also disqualify a build, so please use the best building skills you can.