MattAtlas

Cooperating with the synthetic team is a nobrainer, really. Humans and synthetics are intertwined so deeply that they are inseparable. As far as I'm concerned the two teams should work together on most things, since for example a new human planet directly needs synthetic lore added to it as well. I think, relevant to this application, we could expand on synthetics on Venus especially -- in the entertainment industry and as actors notably, as synthetics have a considerable edge over humans (they can be manufactured to be perfect whereas humans have to undergo extensive plastic surgery or genetic engineering). I think we could, for example, build a certain rivalry between synthetic and organic actors in that regard. Some other interesting ideas are bound to pop up there. Two other things are Venusian Stars Institute owned synthetics (as rejecting actors for not meeting beauty standards is an ugly job, it can often be offloaded to particularly selfish synthetics) and VPPF synthetics, which in my mind would often be assigned to Jintarian patrols more. Intentionally so. Either way, I would like to make Venusian synthetics stand out from the rest and be a fairly interesting and well thought out origin for synthetic players. I think synthetics are in a good place for the rest of human lore, really. I have nothing I would particularly change regarding them, but I would be more than open on cooperating with the synth team for new additions.

I'm going to divide my answer into the theoretical and practical perspective. Theoretically speaking, how is the ongoing server narrative impacted? This is an interesting question to ask because if you want players to talk about a specific background event, or focus on it for more than a few days, you need staying power. A good example of staying power is King of the World. People were consistently and constantly focused on the IC events because they were reminded of them through both OOC means (articles!) and IC means (ghost roles, inability to leave the station). Our setting has since then evolved a lot and allows us a lot more freedom in how we bring staying power to the players -- we can use planets, ruins, ghost roles, and so on. Why is this relevant to the question? Sol has had a lot of staying power historically because our setting is Sol-centric (Biesel was for most of its history basically encircled by Sol and thus could not interact with any other factions IC), most characters are Solarian and thus people are going to be reminded of Sol more often, which inherently leads to people mentioning Solarian events more than anything else. However, now that our setting can actually move, we can get away from this situation. How do we make our setting not Sol centric? Moving to the Badlands is a great start. It puts us in an area where we can see things that aren't Solarian, mainly having to do with Elyra. In order to fix our Sol centricity, I'm going to take the Coalition as an example. We would come up with some sort of arc that the Horizon is involved in, one way or the other, and this arc should ideally be about an issue that the Horizon can resolve one way or the other. Offships would then be implemented that specifically relate to the arc in progress in some manner -- not in a way where they can directly alter the outcome of said arc, but more so to show off the ongoing issues presented by the arc. I don't believe being Sol-centric is a good thing and it's what King of the World is meant to remedy. I would say that the warlords being tied up are the last real Sol focus for the time being. I think space definitely needs to be given to IC development for the Coalition and other factions, in short.

I think I can ease your fears in some way by pointing at the fact that I've presented my viewpoints many, many times in the staff lore channels before and I don't think I've ever come off as abrasive. Nobody can really give a 100% guarantee of "I'll never be abrasive" as that's just unrealistic really since nobody has a perfect zen state, but I'd like to say that the vast, vast majority of the time I try to not be a prick. This is bound to happen, really, and it's a valid thing to believe or be concerned about. There's nothing I can really say about it other than hoping that my status doesn't factor too much into the application process. Of course it will always influence it a bit, but I don't think I'm ever going to win just by sheer status and I think I have the writing ability to back it up. I think the strongest part of my writing is that I can come up with good ideas pretty quickly and put them to paper at lightning speed. The Venus rework I put out was written in around an hour and a half -- granted, I already had a good idea of what I wanted to write as I spitballed with Schwann and some others a few months ago about reworking Venus -- but I can come up with things and put them in prose fairly quickly and in an engaging way, as I think my narration is pretty good and entertaining to read. The worst part for me is that I have to backspace a lot of sentences because they get too long and windy, and even then I still miss quite a few. You can see some of these in that Venus document and it's a habit I'm trying to get rid of, although it's a habit that every Romance first language and ESL/EFL speaker has. I don't think the boat should be rocked much in terms of the Scarab ship cultures. The current segmentation of the fleets is fine, I think, and variety is definitely always a massive plus. Being able to make a character that has various beliefs from their culture, a different name or way of speaking -- that's part of what makes human lore good, the diversity we have. I wouldn't want to deprive Scarab players of that, and thus I think each fleet should have its own culture and its own political stances. The latter here is kind of necessary as I want to turn Scarabs into a proper quasi-federation with a lot of internal politicking between the fleets. Finishing the old lore cleanup is the first and foremost priority -- so, in my opinion, Off-worlders and Scarabs are the first thing to tackle. After that, perhaps Venus if it is considered old lore by the LTA and Lain, and following all of this the warlords would take direct priority as the big human lore arc. I actually had an Ouerean character once, so I'm glad you asked this question! I found him pretty hard to play because Ouerea is very, very barebones. I think Ouerea should remain a mixed Unathi/Human planet and I actually have some ideas I'd like to propose with it, mainly adding a far more developed history section with a slight rework to how humans got there (my thoughts are that Ouerea was involved in some sort of Hephaestus development programme and contracted workers ended up becoming permanent after a while, thus leading to a few permanent settlements). The other main problem is that the cultures of Ouerea don't really blend, thus you have no real reason or flair that incite you to make an Ouerean character or stick to playing one. This is a bit of a paradox because at the same time Humans and Unathi haven't really been there long enough to justify the creation of a separate Ouerean culture for Humans. It's a situation that needs addressing (albeit low priority for the Human team, in my opinion -- perhaps to be addressed after the old lore cleanup and during the writing of the warlord arc) and any further comments on this would need the Unathi team's input, as it's their territory rather than the Human team's.

It depends on how it's done, and I put it that way because the human lore team as it is right now clearly intends to show the effects of an actual corporate dystopia and keeping Eridani disconnected from its Earth roots. If that's the way they wish Eridani to go, then having remnants of an old Earth culture is a bit dissonant -- they'd be the first things that a state like Eridani would stamp out. I can see them maybe surviving in dregs in one way or the other, but for suits it's a bit of a more complex argument, because they'd be the ones directly affected by Eridani's stamping out of old culture. I think it's possible, thinking about it, but I think it's important to keep in mind that it'd still be a 'synthetic' part of the culture: the state basically surgically removing the parts that might interfere with Eridanian culture and sponsoring the harmless parts, for example. A more definite and clearer answer would require research into West African culture that I haven't done (because it's a fuckload of research to do, and I don't want to start talking about people's culture without having done said research), but on a theoretical level these are my feelings on the matter. On the point of tourism, it's true that culture is a driving force behind it, but that's not really all there is to vacations, especially in the 2400s. I think Eridani could easily offer appealing things to tourists from abroad -- think expensive technology and all sorts of facilities/complexes for example -- to overcome this disadvantage.

It's possible but the issue is that they are all vying to take up the mantle of being the rightful Solarian government one way or the other, bar the ones that are just holding out for Sol intervention (MSRP, for example), and one of them is basically a genocidal hell state (SRF). I think it's more likely to see the big governments of the Spur back one of the warlords, but I wouldn't doubt the possibility of diplomacy. It depends highly on human lore's plans, really.

I have some ideas that mainly have to do with resolving Dominia's existing political isolation (I'd rather not go into details to not spoil anything, but I have spoken to Schwann before about this). More than that, I'd like to write some kind of arc about a centralization-or-decentralization struggle for the CoC as that is an interesting facet of Coalition politics that is mostly unexplored on the server. My hope is to have characters discuss the merits and flaws of centralization and maybe set the CoC on a certain course depending on how the arc goes. This could be an interesting one to tie into the scarcity -- e.g pro centralization sides claiming that the ongoing scarcity won't be addressed if the CoC stays as a fractured entity. You are right however that warlords are the non-negotiable priority. There can be some politics written there (I want to run an arc on the Xanusii News Service investigating conditions in the northern warlord state(s) actually) but it will eventually come down to a fight, obviously.

@Caelphon Here is my writing submission. You will find my notes at the top and the wiki prose at the bottom. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14mRMwPrE1kV7EL-Y99Ae7IsOT7BM9_fQb1jgWKWsAsQ/edit?usp=sharing This submission is entirely new and establishes Venus' history. This is a vital part of my Venus rework and I have written it in about 2 hours. I included my own flair (as can be gleamed by the narration) and a good amount of culture details. I'd like to add that it is not entirely complete and omits some societal ideas I have (expanding on the VSI, the formation of the VPPF, the Alliance's exemptions for Venus, more Jintarian details) as 1) they are a bit out of scope and 2) I would need to speak to the human lore team to add them. I believe this shows my creative capacity nonetheless.

If you mean factions in a macro-scale (so, Coalition, Dominia, Sol, ...) I think our amount is just right. I would not add any more than we have, as that gets very precarious. We don't really have much space in the Spur for it, and every faction we have is more active development required in terms of arcs/maintenance/etc. What we have now is enough for a lot of variety and just about manageable with a 3 person team.

Would a history section for New Venus work?

Interspecies coordination is pretty crucial to make sure that the lore 'comes together', so to speak. Ideally the Spur should be interconnected and intertwined, with various areas of space that blend humans and aliens together, although it has to be done intelligently -- it's a bit of a waste to have a setting full of species and then never explore the idea of them being around in the same planet. I feel like there's a lot that could be done to improve that and I'm open to it: an example could be Skrell on Venus and how Cytherea could be a getaway location for failed Skrell idols or scientists who just want a break from it all. What exactly are you looking for, and how long do you want it to be? I don't feel like I have much to go off of if you just say "a piece of content". I can try to write a pre-alpha Venus rewrite, but I'd need to know how long you want a showcase to be, because I don't intend to put all the apples in my basket in public right now. I don't really think so as the two spheres are fairly separate, except if a lore writer lashes out in the chat and I have to handle their conduct I guess? Alberyk was in this exact situation as a lore deputy before and there weren't really any issues. The only issue there is right now is that I can read the channels and give my input, but I can't really officially write, and administrators contributing to discussions has always been a bit of a grey area. That would be resolved if I were to be accepted.

Not against this, honestly. Put up a PR and I can testmerge it.

What does "K6" mean exactly? You write that it is a "reminder of where he started in the company", but I'm not sure how that ties into the acronym.

Ckey/BYOND Username: MattAtlas Position Being Applied For: Human Deputy Lore Developer Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes. How long have you been part of the community for? Since August 2017. Past Experiences/Knowledge: Examples of Past Work: See above. Why are you applying for this position and why do you believe you would make a good Human Lore Deputy? What is your favourite part of Human Lore and why? What is your least favourite? What are three projects (medium to large sized additions, reworks, or arcs) you would like to do or help organize if made Human Lore deputy? What do you believe are the current strengths and weaknesses of human lore? Why? What would you do to improve upon the weaknesses? Recently there has been discussion in the community and among the lore teams about Offworlder Humans. If made deputy, what is something you would want to do with Offworlder Humans as a whole and/or their various factions? There is a current open thread on community suggestions for a planet page for Eridani I. If you are accepted as a human lore deputy, you along with the rest of the Human Lore Team, would work on this planet. What are some things that you would like to implement on Eridani I's new planet page if given the opportunity? Have you ever be subject to any strikes or bans of any kind from Aurora's moderators or admins? If so, how long ago were these actions and what were they for? One strike in 2018 for posting a copypasta in the discord general chat. One warning on my server account for 'rude behaviour in a staff complaint' from 2020.

We did not.

Not sure what you are talking about here. Security had none of their weapons removed.

Accepted on trial.

This is accepted.

Accepted.

If you are going to drop your opinion on a topic, repeat it several times and (by your own admission, also not give any argumentation) later give a sarcastic reply to someone telling you that you aren't really giving any constructive ideas or feedback to the matter at hand (which is clearly an implicit way of asking you for elaboration), then that is bad faith arguing and it is as clear cut as it can get. I am not changing my resolution on this complaint.

So I looked into the logs. Most of the conversation is okay, until you get to this part. Not really sure how else to call this other than bad faith arguing. If you were trying to be serious as you said then you would not have said "yes, and?" to someone asking you to elaborate on your arguments, and it is absolutely within a discord moderator's power to warn someone for shitposting/bad faith arguing during an actual discussion. This complaint will be closed in 24 hours.

I disagree. I think if you are playing part of a faction that is at the bottom of the barrel as far as you can possibly get (you are playing an underclass already as a dreg, and on top of that you add another layer of being stateless), the least you could do is roleplay the struggles of such a situation properly: you are intentionally picking the worst situation possible for your character, after all. If it's not wanted, that's fine - the stateless element can just be removed, as it should be in my opinion. But I think that romanticizing statelessness to this level does not do justice to the situation present in real life. As for if it can be changed, sure it can, but it is currently not possible and anyone doing this right now is breaking the lore. The Origins system is an OOC guide - you can't go outside of what's mechanically possible there. If you don't have a No Citizenship option, then you can't say that your character has no citizenship.

Additionally, here is a source to back up my claim about informal education: https://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/44600408.pdf And here is a relevant snippet:

I do not appreciate the passive aggressive tone you used here. An informal education system is not recognized by a state by virtue of being informal. Your education obtained in Eridani as a dreg would mean absolutely nothing in Biesel. You'd have to take standardized testing or accelerated classes, or even worse -- you'd likely have to re-do several levels of education, because education would actually in fact be that bad. As for rigid immigration and citizenship systems, I think you'll find that you should not group Europe together in one giant list. Nonetheless, I am not here to discuss politics. Let's look at the Biesel citizenship page: You cannot easily obtain a Biesellite citizenship as a dreg. You'd need to be in Biesel for two years, which is not a slim amount of time! And while we are on that topic, why would stateless dregs be able to be on the SCCV Horizon, a flagship vessel? It is very dissonant, to me. In short, what you said in your second point is completely wrong. Biesel does have a strict citizenship requirement, in that you need to live there for at least two years. Additionally, you are lying about Brazilian citizenship: Four years of permanent residency are required (bar certain reductions due to specific factors - which require marriage to a diplomat/national/special work) to obtain a Brazilian citizenship, unlike what you stated -- which is "you get citizenship just from entering the nation", and this is completely false. I believe your third point is the most offensive one. Not only have you used an actual slur, you also stated something completely wrong. Roma people are European citizens. Since you believe I did not do my research, here are my sources: https://www.unicef.org/thailand/livesuntold https://www.unicef.org/eca/media/8086/file https://www.unhcr.org/protection/statelessness/546217229/special-report-ending-statelessness-10-years.html I believe you could also link your own sources, factually wrong as they are.

The situation of stateless dregs in this document is heavily romanticized in respect to what the actual situation of a stateless person in real life is. The only things mentioned in this document are basically the SCC treating you like every other dreg (dregs cannot be heads of staff, so there are really no promotions to hold someone against, unless it's an intern position but restricting people to internship positions is extremely bad). To be clear, stateless people often cannot access any medical services, go to school, get hired at all (because you are a gigantic liability) and often have troubles with freedom of movement. If stateless dregs get re-added, their condition should be miserable if anything, and you are also going to risk overlap with normal dregs anyway - as they are also considered non-citizens by the Eridanian state. Do remember that it is currently not mechanically possible for dregs to have no citizenship in game, so if anyone has been doing that on the ship, they are intentionally and willingly playing an archetype that is not possible and is not approved by lore. For all intents and purposes, I think dreg citizenships should not be removed by the Eridanian state, they should just go "Yeah that person does not actually exist" or "We don't care", even if they have one. I'm not sure how I feel about the "work hard play hard" part for suits, mainly because I feel like it overlaps with Cytherea quite a lot to a degree I would not personally really risk. I get that it may not be the intention, but that's probably how it will be interpreted, in my view. I think the rest is fine, content-wise.

Because it's not just about the questions but also the competence and decision making you can show in game. Sure, questions paint a picture, but not the whole story. If you get your trial period you're basically most of the way there, you just need to not fuck up colossally. AI whitelists are not command whitelists and they are handled by different people with different standards. Comparing the two does not make sense and should be avoided. Of course, if staff know that a player is well established and have seen them on the server plenty, they can accept them regardless. You can see that this happened in the past to people who you could not really call "old/established players". And considering the volume of Command whitelist applications we get (which is pretty significant, honestly, and most of the people that apply have played for maybe 1-2 months at most) I don't really buy that the situation is as dire as you make it out to be. We could discuss adding a minimum playtime required (three weeks?) and specifying that one-two posts of positive feedback are required for an application to go through, bar whitelist handler endorsement, but like Garn said it's a bit problematic to measure playtime. I can say that you need to play "three weeks", but the way the server measures playtime is "days since first login", not "time played", which makes the addition of any real hard requirement kind of bullshit, since we can't measure how much someone has actually played. Hence the requirement for feedback.