Divleny

This Siverian painting of a supposed Tuthinan noblewoman resembles more closely a prostitute, an example of the idealization of divleny.

Divleny (from Razarian divljenje, "admiration") was a 17th-century cultural movement that idealized and promoted themes and aesthetics of the Sepcans, a people whose two empires spanned much of West Borea, which extended to exoticizing Monic peoples in general and in particular involved fascination with the culture of East Borea. Divleny was a major social and cultural force as late as the early 18th century prior to industrialization; it emerged in the context of the Delirium and Torpor, where an intellectual decline caused by an anti-intellectual reaction in the 17th century led to an intense interest in other cultures. Divleny is considered complementary with syncary, a contemporary movement which focused on civilization from Conitia instead.

Divleny was based on extensive interest in Monic civilization, as well as attempting to replicate and reproduce them widely, almost completely embracing their culture. However, it was recognized even by contemporaries (such as the critic Milan Dragić) that divleny really was fascination with an orientalist, stereotyped, and very exotic interpretation of Monic culture. Practices included introducing Monic themes in art and design, wearing Tuthinan clothing, adopting names based on the Literary Tuthinan language, and directly depicting an idealized Sepcan civilization in works. Initially popular with the better-educated burghers, it became endorsed by many states and authorities in the late 17th century.

Its state patronage involved most significantly the restructuring of states based on the East Borean model combining divine autocracy with meritocracy. 'Divlenic reformism' was notably opposed to the traditional authority of the sualnic nobility, seeking to replace it with an educated, bureaucratic scholar-gentry. To replicate Monic institutions, imperial examinations were established to meritocratically select bureaucrats, and sprawling bureaucracies with far-reaching powers surpassing their predecessors were created. Other aspects of this included adoption of Tuthinan philosophy, and even attempting to construct tributary relationships based on the Tengkong system - which as late as the second half of the 19th century was being practiced by Kovachovid Razaria.

A wide variety of divlenic artwork and literature were produced too. They invariably portrayed an infallible, just, wise, and victorious character of Monic civilizations, especially later of Tuthina, and also depicted them as paragons of morality; these authors were apparently oblivious to prostitution in Tuthina.

Many attempts were made to explain why divleny emerged, although the most widely accepted theory asserted by Aucurian scholar Ąžuolas Kaukėnas proposes that the glorification of an ideal ancient power was a cultural protest and rebellion against oppressive and often perceivably unjust natures of contemporary West Borean monarchies. The later Tuthinophilic tendency of the movement was attributed to limited but interest-engaging cultural and political interaction with the East Borean maritime superpower, whose position and prestige bore obvious similarities with the Sepcans who were romanticized for a much longer period with the Vitrians.

Today the term is still used to refer to admiration and fascination with East Borean culture. The term 'political divleny' is used to refer to imitation of East Borean political systems, ideas, and philosophy, such as in the divlenic theory of illiberalism.