#If Zim was interested in romance he would use a mix of Human and Vortian courting methods

[random-iz-stuff]

hey irken culture headcanon person here again. for the specificity i just kinda really want a master doc of headcanons on iz although mainly i’d also like to know ur headcanons on like ethnicities of irkens, if you get what i’m saying. like one of my headcanons for irkens is that they’re bug-based. so different types will classify as different races, like a roach-based irken would be a different race than a moth-based irken and then the species of said bug would count as ethnicity cause a bunch of different irkens probably live on a bunch or different planets cuz invading and all that and im turning off anon cause i need to write abt this on my tumblr and just like share it with the world cause im actually getting somewhere in this au okay IM DONE TALKING

My version of irkens are rather different compared to that.

Because my versions of Irkens don’t have differing types and don’t really HAVE different ethnicities in their culture, at least not anymore. They’ve all been either merged into one singular “Irken” ethnicity or destroyed, both accidentally and on purpose.

I say accidentally because the Irken race has a LOT of destructive wars and culture destroying moments in its past, especially one known as The Unity War, which was a massive nuclear war that almost wiped out the entire Irken race as a whole and ended with all of Irk uniting under a single government that would quickly become the Irken Empire we know today, and on purpose because the Empire went out of its way to destroy, assimilate and merge as many ethnic groups and cultures as possible into one singular ethnic group for control reasons. It’s easier to control a population if said population is made up of one singular group of people instead of many.

Combine that with the fact that all planets with smeeteries on them (Irk may be the Empire’s capital and the planet that makes the MOST smeets, but it’s not the only planet where Irkens are born) are located deep within Irken territory and rather close together on a cosmic scale and you don’t have many (or any) purely Irken ethnicities apart from the basic Irken one.

However, there are many differing sub-cultures within the Empire. They all connect back to the Irken Empire and it’s one ethnicity and culture and share those core values of the Empire with the Empire always coming first, making them sub-cultures of the main Empire culture instead of real cultures of their own, but they do exist and they can be found all through the Empire.

Many things can affect the sub-culture of an area. What other races exist nearby, the general use of that area to the Empire, the presence of other sub-cultures, etc.

Starting with that first thing, “What other races exist nearby”. I can’t find the exact post, but I mentioned in a different ask about Irken romance and courting stuff that Irkens don’t have actual courting rituals or traditions of their own because their own culture related to love and romance has been completely obliterated over time, so they tend to borrow the traditions of other races they encounter and use those instead. It’s the same thing for Irken sub-cultures, but on a larger scale. They have no purely Irken cultures besides the singular one, so many Irken systems located near the systems of other races will borrow some of the the cultures and beliefs of that other race and incorporate it into their own sub-culture.

Due to Irkens and Vortians being really friendly with one another until rather recently with Miyuki’s death and Spork blaming said death on the Vortians because she died in a Vortian Scientific Station, Vortians had a rather large influence on many Irken sub-cultures, with Vortian elements being present in many of them. But it’s not just Vortians that have their cultures borrowed from and incorporated into an Irken sub-culture of some kind. Basically any race besides the Meekrob can and have had elements of their cultures borrowed by Irkens.

This also affects religion. Surprisingly enough, the Irken Empire doesn’t really have many rules against religions. As long as the Irken puts their loyalty to the Tallest and the Empire as a whole first and doesn’t let their beliefs get in the way of efficiency (and the religion in question doesn’t go against the cultural rules and traditions revolving around Irken hands because that will ALWAYS go first), the Irken is free to worship whoever or whatever they want. The Empire CAN get involved if they deem it necessary, but they rarely if ever do.

The closest thing the Irken Empire has to an official religion is worshiping the Tallest themselves, and that doesn’t often get in the way of other religions that worship actual deities. If anything, it helps the Tallest remain popular because religions Irkens will often find ways to fit the Tallest into the religion they worship by themselves like believing that the Tallest are appointed or chosen by the top god of that religion or something like that.

Invaders and other Irken jobs that involve a lot of travelling also help in this regard, as they go all over the galaxy and experience a lot of different cultures and often intentionally or not bring elements of those cultures back with them when they go back to Irken territory.

Secondly, what the area is used for. A system populated by a lot of scientists and scientific stations will have a very different look and feel compared to a system filled with military stuff. And that affects the local sub-culture by quite a lot. A military-heavy area is more likely to borrow and copy the cultures and beliefs of a more militaristic and strength based culture, a science-heavy area would naturally gravitate towards more science based cultures and be more interested in those beliefs, etc.

Thirdly, interactions with other sub-cultures. Sub-cultures, like regular cultures, change over time, borrowing and incorporating new elements, dropping older things that no longer work, merging with other, similar sub-cultures, new sub-cultures splitting off from older ones, the like.

The Empire itself also keeps a close eye on all of its many sub-cultures, getting involved whenever it believes that one of them is getting too far away from the Empire’s core values. It’s very rare that this happens, but whenever the Empire decides to crack down on a particular sub-culture for whatever reason, that sub-culture and everything similar to it is doomed, often being completely destroyed or at least reduced to just a few members in a matter of weeks.