Cultural Direction & Education Center

The Cultural Direction & Education Center is the official department in Praetoria for education and culture.

Located in the northern part of Imperial City across from the Total Praetoria Network campus, the CDEC is in charge of providing all education and "positive information" for the citizens of Praetoria, especially for the children.

The stated goal of the CDEC is to "Provide the proper tools for the loyal citizens of Praetoria to aid in unlocking their hidden potentials and developing their talents so they may best serve the community."

Its location and proximetry to the TPN campus is not a coincidence as many of the TPN "consultants" are from the CDEC and provide "positive information" on anything involving Praetoria and the Praetors.

Divisions

Education

Primary Education

The CDEC is in charge of all primary education for the children of Praetoria. Students are taught from day one to be obedient and compliant to authority figures. Following this, their skills are assessed and evaluated for specialized training. Potential Seers are sent to Praetor Tilman for further training. Potential applicants for the Powers Division are sent to Praetor White.

Specialized Education

Once students pass basic education, they are given specialized education for their specific talents. This includes technical services, financial services, medical services, legal affairs, infrastructure, and "social affairs". The latter has resulted in some rather "salicious" rumors that were quickly squashed when that division was put under the supervision of Praetor Tilman.

Culture

In addition to ensuring education, the CDEC is also charged with overseeing the cultural awareness of the populace. Artists are commissioned to provide sculptures and paintings to spread "positive information". Writers are hired to "review" the history books and ensure that it "properly reflects" the world not only before Praetoria, but especially after its creation. Actors are contracted to "reenact" scenes of Praetorian history which are then displayed through TPN.

Religion

A relatively recent addition to the CDEC's core objectives has been to foster a pseudo-religious environment to help ensure conformity.

Traditional religious institutions were extremely hostile to Emperor Cole's efforts to stop the Hamidon in those early years and millions of people paid the price for that. Some even believed that the Hamidon and the Devouring Earth were "divine punishment" for the masses supporting a "pagan hero". Quite often those that espoused such a belief found themselves left behind when the great evacuations began. Still, they fared better than the witch covens, whose members were ordered by Cole to be shot on sight for not aiding against the Hamidon.

One of the things that Emperor Cole did was to outlaw all religious institutions and observations, which included outlawing traditional celebrations like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. The people found ways to get around that, though, such as having "Saturnalia" celebrations instead of Christmas.

CDEC discovered that some people still needed something more to cling to besides faith in heroes, especially when things seem bleak. When it was discovered that non-denominational religious groups were still meeting in First Ward, CDEC officials came to the realization that religious structure could help bring conformity and stability to those that still needed something more than what the science of Praetoria could provide.

Starting with "The Book of the Praetor", the CDEC began casting Emperor Cole and his Praetors as more than just heroes. Cole began to be referred to in the media as "The Man Made God." People were encouraged to end all conversations with "Praise be to Emperor Cole". While there are no plans on creating churches, other religious elements are planned to be incorporated into society.

The transition towards this pseudo-religion has met with surprisingly positive results.

Related Information

(Please see the CDEC's Paragon Wiki entry for more information.)

The CDEC was seen in Issue #2 of "Tales from Paragon City" as one of the facilities visited by Midnight Paladin.