kermit

The First Words of a Giant: Spur’s youngest Cetus created by the nations of Hieroaetheria to serve the Commonwealth’s Grand Assembly. The Sedulous Scribe [32 - 99%]? • posted 2466-06-26 from In Orbit of Hieroaetheria What are these numbers? This is a journalist’s post score and their sitewide objectivity rating. Remember to score an article below! This here day marks the firstmost transmission of The Sacred Echoes of a Titan's Bonded Progeny into the Voidic Rootsong Network, a day to surely remember as our great Commonwealth outstretches its tendrils wide to the Spur beyond Titan’s Rapture. Beneath is faithfully transcribed the first words of our Cetus, for the many dionae not in the void or within its reach to hearken: “Dionae of the Orion Spur beyond, we greet you as The Sacred Echoes of a Titan's Bonded Progeny. Expect to continue to hear our words as we speak to you the news of our homeland, Hieroaetheria. On the planet below us and the colonies not so distant, our serving split gestalts collate news, decisions of the Grand Assembly of the Commonwealth, and unique Hieroaetherian experiences for us to share with you. After our first cohort of gestalts return with their stories, we shall begin broadcasting regularly. We serve and thank the Commonwealth for this unique opportunity.” Our Cetus, Bonded Progeny, was assembled by the Grandest Assembly as part of a most ambitious initiative to create a Cetus that acts as a node within the Voidic Rootsong Network, capable of broadcasting Rootsong at immense scale. Designed with neutrality in mind, our Cetus is a conglomerate of nymphs from the many noble nations of the Commonwealth of Hieroaetheria, aiming to adequately represent each of the Consortium, Ekane, Gla'orr and minor nations. The first cohort of gestalts, our fond split-partners and ourself too, spake of by our Cetus were released the week last ahead of our Cetus’ first transmission. Many of us were tasked with the humble sourcing of news material for us to return to our Cetus with and share on our reabsorption. Many of us, our sedulous gestalt too, have been dispersed throughout the Hieroaetherian community to dutifully transcribe the Voidic Rootsong transmissions otherwise inaccessible to those obscured by an atmosphere or too distant to heed. Our gestalt brings this news to you itself and endeavours to continue to accurately transcribe our Cetus’ transmissions for those planet-side or not of dionakind to attend. Translated from Rootsong Assign a rating: View Comments (1,629) 💬 Share 📲 Donate Explore News For You: NEWS - Cloudgrazer Birthday Party!: oldest domesticated cloudgrazer on Hieroaetheria reaches 183, birthday party visited by guild of traditional cloudgrazer riders WEATHER - Oil storms predicted around Gla’orr as deadly acid rain and sandstorms coincide NON-DIONAE - Stay Radiation Safe: new over-the-counter anti-radiation medication for periods of extended residence

i've unbanned you. hit me with a message if you're unable to reconnect or have any questions. i'll keep this open for a day or two as well.

this was applied on my behalf during my trial. i've just unbanned you, so definitely give the rules a good skim before joining your first round back. i'll leave this open for a day or two in case a ban reapplies itself

Hey, glad you applied in the end. Repeating much of what I said last Comet applied, I think Comet has a pretty deep and nuanced understanding of synthlore and all of the underlying themes which really comes across in the synthetic characters I've seen him play. There are definitely shortcomings in lore that Comet's mentioned that are similar to ones I've noticed from playing synth characters myself, namely the difference between organic and synthetic life/society on a smaller level and in pre-existing synthlore, that I've not seen mentioned or worked on by other writers/applicants and have essentially been relegated to impromptu headcanoning, so I'm happy to see these ideas and do hope the opportunity is given for them to be worked on. Visions aside, Comet is a very active player of synthetic characters, with CHESED standing out of course, which I feel is a must for a lore position with the insight into the played experience it provides. +1 from me, all the best

Personally, I'd like to see Pactolus and Midaion fleshed out as their own planets. They'd be the only planets nearly exclusively inhabited by IPCs and it would be very interesting to see how a synthetic society would develop removed from human influence; there's a lot of humanisation of synthetics in-lore, but very little 'We want to walk our own path separate from humans' besides the Exclusionists perhaps. Not every IPC on Pactolus or Midaion would have to be a merchant of the GD either I'd imagine, so it'd help with character creation opportunities as you could make an IPC from the Golden Deep planet without being tangled in the merchant and business side of the Golden Deep, only influenced by the resulting society cultivated by them. I'd see the Golden Deep as a sort of Venusian Stars Institute equivalent for Pactolus/Midaion as the VSI is Venus; an exclusive club that the planet is known for, but a facade obscuring the lived experience of everyone on the planet, damning towards anyone who may not excel as a merchant Golden Deep member.

Just something that's been on my mind lately. I think off-worlder heads of security would be fun to play, they'd bring their own kind of expertise to security aboard a spaceship that's away from port for extended periods of time, especially when it comes to Scarab Heads of Security. The current reason listed as to why off-worlders can't be Heads of Security is due to physical limitations, however off-worlders are allowed in all other Security roles. IMO, Head of Security is less physically demanding than Officer as ideally you delegate all the physical labour away from yourself. It just forces HoS characters who are offworlders to take a backlining method to Head of Securitying, which is fine.

Pocheto and her characters are great, every significant interaction I've had with her on any of my characters has always been memorable. I'd love to see what she can get up to with an IPC whitelist, especially her Cytherean-Golden Deep shell idea which makes use of both of my favourite parts of IPC lore. Easy +1.

The modmin team already act as mentors to a large degree and there is presumably an expectation that those who apply are familiar with game mechanics, given the question on it in the app format. Can't speak for every modmin, but I know there has been that sense of 'I've got to figure out this department's mechanics so, when an ahelp comes up on it, I can provide a thorough answer.' among myself and a couple others. Part of telling some people off is then being able to lecture them on how they could have better accomplished what they were aiming for – mentoring is part and parcel of moderation. It's also not really that heavy of a role to tack onto the fairly short list of things mods do anyway, I don't think anyone on the modmin team is unhappy that their position isn't just whacking people with sticks for usually very small mistakes lol. So yeah, don't think a whole new branch of staff is necessary personally. As for people knowing that ahelp can be used for things beyond calling out trouble makers, most new players, in my experience, quickly find out that ahelping can be used for 'I'm stuck, what do I do???' questions, whether they've approach us first or we have.

I like the ideas you've presented so far and would be happy to see what you come up with as a deputy. A fully-fledged IPC society that is largely uninfluenced by their human roots is something I feel is missing – Purpose, whether entirely re-done or expanded on it's current state, could be a good candidate for an uninfluenced IPC society with a very alien but logical structure. The Golden Deep comes close though remains pretty human-like in their greed, it's also a fairly awkward origin to weave into most jobs aboard the Horizon. Your plan to expand upon society on Pactolus and Midaion could aim to flesh it out with more potential routes to explore a Golden Deep character. Besides proposed ideas, I think you have a solid grasp on existing lore having interacted and had a lot of IC discussions about shell and synthetic nature with CHESED. +1 from me, good luck.

I really like everything about the remap, lots to like with the Atrium alone being great even on it's own but, as I've played this week, a few things have stood out and I've got to agree with Butter in that more work could be done for the Captain's Office. All of the tables are very cluttered, there isn't one table that's just empty, all of them have buttons of some kind on them. The room's very w i d e and, what nags me, is that it's uncentred. I'd quite like it if the captain's share of the room was increased, just to make it more spatious as, like Butter's said, it's rare to have visitors in the captain's office when the conference room is better suited, and it'd allow more space/tables/shelves to disperse the clutter and item placement so it's not so crowded. It's also allow things like item cases to be behind the captain's desk too. I'd also like it if the whole room was rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise so that you can actually see your character when sat down in the meetings that do happen – staring at the back of your character's head is kinda lame. The other thing I'm not so sure about is the gradual increase in the Bridge's weapon armaments. We've gone from a single, tucked away cabinet containing 3 carbines to a whole mini-armoury with 3 stunbatons, 3 carbines and 3 .45 pistols with lethal ammo. I might be wrong, but I don't think the cabinet is even ID locked to Command anymore and can be opened by the BCs themself, which makes it a bit baity for newer players in the Bridge Crew role – might just not have been paying attention that round I noticed this. I don't think a whole Weapons Room was needed either and a single cabinet tucked away worked for what the Bridge is. I imagine this part won't be changed though, so I'm just airing my dislike. A larger ballache for antagonists than the 3 carbines already sometimes was.

I've liked my interactions with your captain on my RD; you do a good job of involving people or having other command member's input heard. You handled a pretty rough nukies round well as well, from what I saw, and were on top of announcements and engaging with one of the antagonists in particular. I've noticed the usual trial hiccups - sometimes being overwhelmed, not figured out a mechanic yet - but that's to be expected. Good luck in future captain rounds.

I slept on it a couple nights more and have decided to U-turn. I'm sure you know if anything in a similar vein happens again, the permaban will be reinstated. Locking as said.

There were two characters this was an issue on, your librarian and your psychologist, of whom the psychologist had zero prior interaction with the subjects of the in-game harassment. That makes it OOC harassment too. You also had a third character, your chaplain, who was seemingly built around the premise of singling out and harassing Europan characters – no issues that I remember arose of this by the time you received your ban – however having three characters involved in some form of harassment, both IC and OOC, isn't looking good. I don't plan on unbanning you, as I have no tolerance for targetting a handful of players OOCly to harass them ICly, as well as you seemingly basing your character creation around harassing characters ICly. The reflection on how this may have impacted other peoples' games should have been done when you were creating these characters, not after receiving a ban. You will need to make a staff complaint if you disagree with this outcome; I will be locking this thread after 24 hours.

I think skrell-dionaea relations are in a good place. When asked the same question on my skrell deputy app a little ago, I didn't really have a great answer as there weren't any immediate additions I'd make and I like much of what's down on the wiki. With the Traverse States being given an amount of autonomy, it would be interesting to see what differences arise between dionaea who are raised within Core and Waves of the Nralakk Federation and those raised in the Traverse States. Could there be a cell of the Lyukal that features dionaea to a large extent? Would the Traverse States reject dionaea entirely due to their link to Glorsh, pushing them back to the Core systems or out of skrell space entirely, or would the Traverse States welcome dionaea who were failed by the Federation's socialisation and adoption system? My thoughts are much the same for Dionae-Unathi lore too; overall, I like where Dionae-Unathi lore is. As mentioned in my application, the effect of dionaea on ecosystems is something I don't think has been given much attention. Moghes could be a good spot to explore some of this as the Hegemony and Hephaestus attempts to revitalise the planet, though also dealing with the strain of a large number of dionaea that some of the populace has begun to see through a spiritual lens and which initially were seen as a way to help restore irradiated land. As radiation begins to dwindle in the Wasteland and with most biomass already depleted due to said radiation, some dionaea could become a burden on fringe agriculture/aquaculture industries on outskirts of still-green areas of Moghes, is one thought. I mentioned negative technologies resulting from dionaea; I think the Tarwa Conglomerate could be a really good starting point for that. Something that would explain their secretive nature, perhaps an extreme form of symbiosis among some ranks of the Tarwa – perhaps rank could be based on the degree of symbiosis between the unathi and dionaea. Lots of potential. As the Horizon is currently in the Coaliation, I think an in-character arc involving the Narrows would be interesting. An arc I had in mind involves the Horizon passing through the Orezela system where they make contact with the Narrows. The Narrows sends a group of dionaea, including an Overseer who has been assigned as a liaison to engage with the Horizon, to strike an agreement with Command where they agree to go on a few mining gigs together in surrounding asteroid belts. The Horizon will have the opportunity to visit and tour the Narrows vessel, with the Horizon's mining crew getting their much deserved love and admiration from the Narrow's crew – Hephaestus values on display. If we were to go for something higher intensity, which I think would be a nice change for a dionaea event, then during a joint-expedition, the crew of the Horizon and Narrows would then be faced with a Scarlet Score threat. The preceeding events would then involve the clean-up of this expedition involving Medical and Science, with a number of benefits or consequences depending on some conditions that are reflected through high-profile visits or new articles during the wind-down and close of the arc. I drafted a semi-detailed breakdown of a potential Narrows-involving arc, including some consequences and boons post-arc. I'll probably give to the dionaea team as an event suggestion when I've refined it. To be honest, I haven't got any strong opinions on the EUM, despite it being one of the largest dionae factions. I'm also already aware of your proposal to take the EUM in a for-all-dionaea direction, and I don't want any bullet-pointed draft to be against or a parody of what I've presumed you've already got planned lol. What I have done is create a bullet-pointed draft (EUM Media Draft) that should fit with the above, as it is a direction I'm interested in nonetheless. I think the EUM, for the only true dionaea planet, really doesn't have much outreach – in-character to dionaea, but also out-of-character to the players – so what I've done is create a, hopefully, interesting, dionaea-based take on media that increases their reach in-character to non-EUM dionaea throughout the Spur, but also allows the creation of a News Database article to reflect EUM views. I've left everything somewhat unnamed so the specifics can be come up with by the dionaea team as a whole. Not really sure this answers the question or is the draft you were looking for.

Moved this to Suggestions & Ideas per the author's request; the post was being treated as such anyway.

Ckey/BYOND Username: Sadkermit Position Being Applied For: Dionae Lore Deputy Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yeah. Past Experiences/Knowledge: I can bring some amateur programming experience to the table and have worked on small/medium-small PRs before. Examples of Past Work: Just a bit of skrell lore for a previous deputy application here. What would you change about Dionae if you could unilaterally do so? Honestly, I would probably remove genetic memory/blood learning as a thing and instead further emphasise mimicry as a method of learning. I used to like the idea of genetic memory and blood learning, but it’s not something I’ve been fond of lately; I feel genetic memory detracts from dionaea being experts of mimicry, and I think skills/traits being passed through blood has iffy connotations – it's also kind of silly how accurate it is too, but not everything can and will be so shrug. A more malignant form of mimicry at every step in a dionaea’s learning would be my preference if I was starting from scratch. This would have a large, briefly brainstormed impact on Dionaea lore, on things like Mourning Masses and the Blood Market. I doubt this is something the current dionaea lore team and player base would like, as blood learning is one of the more well-known facets of dionaea – even to non-whitelistees – so I've not taken this anywhere besides initial brainstorming. What do you find is an important theme for the species, or if you believe it lacks one what would you do to remedy it? Time and aging has always been the big theme I play with when playing dionaea. How does my dionaea perceive time, how does this affect their interaction with humans, how does this affect their decisions – these have always been important to me and I think they’re fun to play with. The recent addition of Voidic Proto-Culture was one I’ve really enjoyed playing with and consolidates much of what I had already been drawing on when playing dionaea; the apathy, besides odd curiosity, towards Spur society and customs as the Voidics are aware it is just another fleeting expression of the universe that won’t last in the grand scheme of things. Consumption is another important theme that I’ve enjoyed working into my characters, with the sects of the Eternal representing how a dionae conducts their consumption of biomass and whether they prefer to learn from blood or conventional means. I was always drawn to the Blood Eternal and the Viscera Belt cluster while they existed and while I did like playing with the idea of learning from genetic memory. A dionaea’s consumption of radiation and light has been a recent favourite of mine, with my aforementioned, recurring ghostrole dionaea character being a Nocturne Notes mindtype who is obsessed with hoarding batteries and radioactive materials, preparing for the universe’s heat death or some other freak event while they are still a Geras that is capable of manouevering through space. I think the burden of Dionaea on terrestrial ecosystems and habited environments isn’t something that has been explored yet and is something I’d enjoy working on. It’s the more naturalistic themes that I tend to gravitate towards, the more alien of the already alien. I think it would be interesting if some kind of conflict was created between Voidics and those who have adopted or been integrated into a more human-like–form of society. Where would you like to take Dionae Lore? The dionae lore team recently announced their intention to move dionaea from plant-based organisms to fungus-based organisms. Personally, I have always equated dionaea to something other than plantlife, and so this is a welcome step in the right direction to me, and was the final push to me deciding to put forward a lore deputy application. I mentioned on the recent feedback thread that, though I think fungal dionaea is a good move, I would probably have tried to avoid tying dionaea to terrestrial kingdoms of life as a more liberating option, however I am still eager to work on just steering dionaea away from plant-life. I recognise that having something with more solid themes and is more immediately recognisable – so, fungi – is easier. Having a more active role in shaping some of dionaea culture and behaviour during and following this change is something I’d like. I’d also like to outline how other factions in the Spur may exploit dionaea. We have examples of harmony between a species and dionaea – skrell and dionaea, how dionaea are integrated and socialised in the Nralakk Federation; unathi and dionaea, with the dionaea honour code variants and how certain Wasteland clans integrated dionaea – but there aren’t many examples of, for an easily dehumanisable-able alien species, where they are exploited. The Alliance forced dionaea into hard labour following the Rueltab incident, but that’s about it for explicitly written stuff afaik. Some negative technologies born of dionaea could be conceived, tied into the theme of consumption and the dionaea’s effect on terrestrial ecosystems. One idea I had was the potential for dionaea to have a parasitic form of birth; if the original ‘seed’ for the dionaea rooted itself within a host, the host would find themself gradually replaced from inside out – makes for an interesting weaponisation/exploitation of dionaea, ties into dionaea limbs, and is another form of origin for dionaea characters. I’ve mostly mentioned stuff that’s related to the more wild, naturalistic side of dionaea, as opposed to the civilised and spiritual side they have on terrestrial planets. The more natural, biological side of dionaea - in contrast to the otherwise very civilised species - is definitely where my fondness towards dionaea comes from, it is what I’d like to see emphasised, and is what I will prefer working on. I am still happy working on the more integrated side of dionaea though; groups of dionaea akin to the Narrows, where their society is a mimicry of their origin yet slightly reshaped, is something I really like. Additional Comments: None.

I like most of these – the Airlock one, ATM Malfunction and Bluespace Tunnel especially. None of those are too disruptive when compared to radiation/hivebots/similar, and instead have the potential to add to roleplay instead of detract, which is a problem with a lot of our random events right now imo. A little bit iffy on the Bluespace Bear one, just because the Bluespace Bears were a little silly anyway and the potential for someone to take it as a pet is a bit goofy – funny, though.

It's said in the doc that fungi do note rely on photosynthesis/light; the new fungus dionaea will instead rely on radiation and the absorption of nutrients. They shift from a species born of light. Will this not require a fair degree of change to the Eternal and similar Dionae beliefs, where Dionaea are seen as celestial entities, with the Eternal propping up the existence of a primordial entity that exists within light? dionaea being born of light and guardians of celestial bodies does not seem compatible with fungi, which typically represent darkness and decay – not to say that all fungi are light-avoidant. The document mentions cultural changes as a footnote, with everything else being largely biological. The cultural changes to me are more important than the biological side of things, so it's hard to support a change from plant-based to fungi-based right now. Are there any cultural changes the lore team already have in-mind that they're free to mention? Drawing on what Ping said, many of the proposed ideas are not unique to fungus and can be done just as well with plants. For example, mycorrhizal networks are not something fungi do independently and relies on plants, which ties into what Wezzy said above about a fungus-plant symbiotic relationship. Spur-wide mycelium/mycorrhizal networks which traverse a void also don't seem like much of an improvement on what we already have, which is a high-frequency song that only dionaea hear – unless I've conflated headcanon for realcanon. The high-frequency song explanation at least fit the dionaea theme of music and song. Given I don't like dionaea being plant-based, fungus dionaea are automatically a step in the right direction for me. I do think fungus dionaea will run into their own limitations though and I think it's a shame that, despite being one of the more alien organisms in our lore, we're still boxing them into the well-known, terrestrial plant, animal or fungus kingdoms. Why not go for a more alien, amoeba/mold-like protist, where there are no biological rules or thematic constraints? Protists can create mycellium-like structures; protists can be aggregate organisms which share knowledge when joining; protists, being the catch-all, can be whatever the dionae lore team wants. It seems like the lore team is escaping from one set of constraints from having a plant-based organism, only to jump to fungi which offer another set of constraints and themes – could a lore team down the line, wanting another set of themes, make another jump to another type of life? Dionaea, being the only truly spaceborne species with no known terrestrial origin, could/should be separate from the plant, animal and fungus kingdoms, in my opinion. Turning this into a question, was the idea of making dionae more alien, protists considered; was there any pull to fungal life over protist life that I'm missing?

Lore Impact: Medium-Small Species: Skrell Short Description: Overhauls Kir'gul, as seen in my deputy app the week gone. I pinky promised Meep I'd have this up sooner rather than later ❤️ How will this be reflected on-ship?: Kir'gul will become a more unified philosophy instead of one left fully to interpretation, making it easier for players in-game to discuss Kir'gul themes. It also expands on Kir'gul's place in Nralakk society, opening some lanes for character backgrounds featuring Kir'gul. Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Kir'gul is a pre-existing thing, so this just expands on what's already in-lore. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yeah. Long Description: The proposal has the following aims: to make Kir’gul more uniform such that all Kir’gul skrell have a similar vision in mind, they can then play with this ICly with other Kir’gul skrell without there being vastly different interpretations with different cherry-picked elements. to allude to a more defined role that can be played as a counsellor/chaplain, to elaborate on individuality and self-expression as well as the journey that comes with this – it provides something solid Kir’gul skrell can discuss among one another, instead of just having vague concepts to work with, to isolate Kir’gul from other faiths which really don’t meld well with it, despite it previously saying it works in harmony with other belief systems. Kir’gul already preaches non-violence, yet it’s allowed to coexist with Suur’ka – a bit weird. to create conflict between Kir’gul skrell and those subscribing to more mainstream beliefs – Kir’gul skrell avoid dreaming and psionically communicating with those who they are not really close with. to add a belief system that has Srom more in mind than others. Srom is a vivid, lucid dream that can be explored alone or with others – tack on some Jungian ideas and it’s set up for some really cool ingame discussions. there aren’t many ascetic belief systems in lore that I know of – Si’akh is the only one that comes to mind. While it’s not going to be forced with Kir’gul, it’s there as an option for the incredibly devout Kir’gul skrell. Psionic monks are always pretty cool and a trope I imagine people’ll enjoy playing with – an easier, alternative means for people to get into Kir’gul than with a character who’s an artist/writer/similar which may not grip as many people. Link: Kir'gul Expansion

To help out though, and as a little known fact, you can Ctrl+F the old names when browsing the Chemistry Guide and it'll take you to the current name - Burrito's idea. Try Ctrl+F'ing 'Imidazoline'.

Yeah, definitely, this is how I see it too. I think it would be interesting if this was explored a bit more then, as while it's mentioned on the Beliefs page, there is no clear distinction as to who follows it. To me, right now, it seems like an optional belief system you adopt for goodie points with the Federation. I think, if I find out it's not already been done after thoroughly going through the wiki, I might take a page from your Weishi proposal – which I quite like – explaining how different groups within the Federation see Qeblak: scientifically-inclined skrell may simply adopt it to get a boost to their SCS for that high-end lab position; government and religious officials may not even follow it, knowing that it's just a tool, but say they follow it, etc.. Nothing to say this can't already be assumed, but making it explicit may do some good and introduce a bit of nuance. An idea I just had would be a potential article mini-arc where a high-level Starchanter is found out not to even be a devout Qeblak follower, only to gain the full ire of the Federation and disappeared – perhaps to the Lyukal's delight, as they'd spin it as the weakening of an institution core to the Federation. Not necessarily a power as they're introduced now, but something I like the idea of is a selectable skrell disability where, at a random but infrequent interval, you are prompted to enter your current thought that is then leaked to everyone around you. I noticed one skrell player already do this using Commune, then going 'Whoops, didn't mean to broadcast that.' Not even being able to control your own thoughts and who hears them is an interesting concept I like. I mentioned culture-based psionics in my application too. Origin-based psionics would be a very cool thing I'd add if I had the know-how. Aweiijans, the ability to invigourate plants to have a larger yield and to detect mineral deposits like an orescanner; Qerr'Malic skrell, a stronger form of Suggestion; Europan skrell, the ability to befriend and command a whitelist of simplemobs; Tattutig skrell, the ability to do some kind of combat focus where their firerate and accuracy with guns increases for a few seconds for those Spaghetti Western shootouts. I think stuff like that would be cool. At some point, I may take a look into actually doing something like this, but I think tying it into Origins might be quite difficult, as they're isolated systems. Nothing serious immediately springs to mind, to be honest. If I think of something, I'll edit it into this post. For now, I will just say that I don't like how slimes are connected to Glorsh, and we'd be better of just removing slime lore and slimes in-game, but that's neither very significant nor an unpopular opinion, I don't think. It would be difficult to remove the lore for them though without finding an in-game replacement for xenobiology to work with, but PRs which rework parts of science are oh-so-rare. I'd rather see xenobiology create super wacky hybrid simplemobs, Rimworld genetic engineering style.

The drug names bone apple tea PR wasn't really about semantics and was done for a real purpose. The biggest draw for the PR which garnered both dev. and playerbase support in the feedback thread was that the bone apple tea'd names allowed for more dev./contributor freedom when creating or altering the drugs, as there was no need to stick to real life drug conventions or do any research into how a drug ought to best be implemented. A more obvious example of medical realism getting in the way of devs./contributors is defibrillators, up until Matt added them, with the whole VFib. vs. Asystole argument. Avoiding IRL drugs and having bone apple tea'd/fantasy ones avoids this. I was against the initial PR at first, but when working on Chemistry PRs in the past, bone apple tea'd variants allowed more freedom and creativity, so yeah, I'd rather keep them than go back. From my rough gauge of our Medical playerbase these days, a lot of them have only ever known the current naming version of chemicals, so I think – for something that will have a significant impact as it won't just be slight name changes (eg. Mortaphenyl to Tramadol, very different; Asinodryl to Ondansetron, very different) – it's a little unfair to go back to the old names just for personal preference/convenience.

Honestly surprised and a little flattered you still remember it, thank you <3 I really like how dionaea have been integrated into the Federation, from the socialisation of Federation values into adopted nymphs to the effect that has on dionae mindtypes, to how Xrim struggles with both Glorsh and Nralakk influences. The one thing missing that springs to mind is how the Federation may exploit dionae biology to create new technology. Rubbish examples as I've not put too much thought into yet, but something like a dionae-based weapon. Writing this, I just had some wacky thought about a Qukala naval ship deploying a Dionae Kraken during the ongoing Traverse conflict, and I'm just gonna stick with that. I do like the more untamed and monstrous side of dionaea – the recent Voidic Proto-Culture page was a welcome addition for me, and I've always had a sweet spot for the Viscerabelt. Hopefully, I'll think of something more workable on the theme of Nralakk-dionae tech. innovations down the line. I can't think of anything I'd change about dioane-skrell lore if I had Unlimited Power, so I'll offer something on only-diona lore. I haven't glossed over dionae religion for a while, so I may get some stuff wrong, but dionae, which learn through consumption, suddenly developed a fancy for the Eternal somewhere – this isn't isolated to human society—integrated dionaea, it's something which affected isolated clusters too, like the viscerabelt. I think the Eternal even developed with the Blossoms cluster as a starting point, and the Blossoms aren't even from the Spur – though maybe this is an allusion to an extra-Spur state which planted the seeds of religion into the Blossoms, then the Choir, and so on? Therefore, if I could change something, and this is in-line with how I like to see dionaea as inovationless and instead great at mimicry and plagiarism, it would be to emphasise how dionae religion is a result of genetic-learning from the other races which already had developed religion. Again, not done too much reading into Dionae religion recently at all due to my favour towards wild dionaea, so maybe this is something already emphasised and I just glossed over it – the Blossoms and what I see as an allusion to an extra-Spur state may be enough too. Not at all, I welcome the opportunity to work cross-team, if only with a little bit of hesitancy due to my lack of experience.