This is a random generator to help the world-builder generate a rich cultural profile using random outputs based on a few preferences. 

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Time Period

The Ancient time period includes prehistory from the last glacial maximum up through about 2,500 years ago (sometimes called 500 BCE).  However, this could also represent other cultures who continued to operate with Stone Age technologies up to this present day. 

The Classical time period spans a thousand years, and includes the rise and fall of city-states into empires and back into ruin—Persian, Greek and Roman, African, Chinese, Mayan and Incan.  Rather than a specific time period, each relative Classical era saw the rise of more complex organization and government, world religions, cities, writing, metalworking, astronomy, simple machinery, and, perhaps of most impact, agriculture and animal domestication. 

The Medieval time period saw new players take the stage from the Classical ones, from the Arab conquests and Norse invasions to the feudal kingdoms of Europe.  Chinese dynasties encountered Mongol hordes and the rise of Japanese and Korean cultures. 

The Enlightenment time period represents a time when the culture shifts towards science and fact, becoming independent of religion.  Exploration brings new discoveries.  And while new discoveries fortify science and emphasize human rights over divine right, colonization, exploitation and the first mechanization lead to a clash of world cultures.  Clockpunk and steampunk subgenres could take place here. 

The Industrial time period represents the first industrial revolutions in the world, where machines and factories begin to be used on a large industrial scale.  Nationalism rises on the backs of workers as the new natural resource becomes labor.  The foundations of banks, industry, corporations, and modern governments take shape.  This could span or overlap steampunk or even early dieselpunk genres. 

The Modern time period attempts to cover the second industrial revolution, and could be represented by the dieselpunk genre in which petroleum, plastic, chemicals, and metallurgy begin to shape society, now centered in cities.  The new economies of consumerism and materialsism replaces the old manufacturing economy.  Religion is replaced by secular ideology.  From Worldwide Wars up to the atomic age, this is the time of the "punk" genres like atompunk/raypunk, cassette futurism, and even the first elements of cyberpunk. 

The Near Future is divided into three possible time periods:
Post-apocalyptic in which the world succumbs to the rampant proliferation and use of atomic, biologic, or chemical weaponry.  Or, perhaps, of a society that could not overcome societal tension. 
Cyberpunk is another alternative in which corporations, computers, electronics and robotics have come to dominate society, turning it into a nameless, faceless, dreary mass of overpopulation and climate devastation.  Science serves the corporate state.
Solarpunk is a generally much more positive outlook, where science serves humanity—solar panels and gleaming white buildings sparkle in clean air, scarcity and poverty are erradicated, and multiculturalism is truly celebrated with pure equality (or addressed genetically).  And those that can't or don't conform are offered a wide array of pharmaceuticals, like good old Soma™.  Spaceships explore brave new worlds and new civilizations where no one has gone before.  Other possible subgenres are nanopunk or biopunk. 

The Far Future is a time period at the edge of imagination, where humanity has populated galaxies, or time is no longer a one-way street.  But don't let the name fool you.  This could easily be a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away...

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Liability

None of the results of this random generator are intentionally meant to comment or portray any real culture.  Any resemblance to any real cultural system is coincidental. 

I also recognize that the models used to build this random generator are woefully Euro-centric.  I welcome input on how to make it better and more inclusive. 

Thank you for coming here. 
— Shaudawn

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