Son_of_Crom

More evidence that New Gibson was meant to be originally colonized by existing Tau Ceti inhabitants, this time taken from in-game text. I'm guessing that this retcon is simply going to stick, and that the various inconsistencies it has caused are just gonna be. I don't understand the point of having established lore if the lore team is going to just ignore it. I hope it's okay for me to simply change the planet of origin of my existing character after months of play, because I feel like there's no other choice. I can't retcon her to be swedish and/or filipino. And I'm not sure what it adds to force anyone to. I really believe this is the worst of both worlds -- a major retcon with little to no added value over what was there before. Also, for the record, I believe in being constructive and trying to be helpful, so I'd be willing to offer to edit a version of the article which includes the new elements that were added but is also faithful to established lore/in game text and doesn't leave a bunch of inconsistencies such as place names that don't match the language or culture of the planet's inhabitants, etc. Use it if you want? Otherwise not really sure what to do here except pick a different planet.

There's nothing wrong with the fact that there are place names from a variety of cultures, except in the context of the new lore. I'm bringing up the mixture of place names as evidence that I believe New Gibson was originally intended (in the original writing) to be a melting pot of different ethnicities and cultures. I believe that the rewrite, in effect, has retconned that and replaced it with a largely culturally homogeneous population that doesn't really make sense in the context of the bits of the old lore that still remain. In my ideal scenario the section on the founding would be rewritten to be consistent with the introduction, with New Gibson being initially colonized by Biesel. In their effort to attract a workforce and turn it into the industrial powerhouse that it is today, Biesel offers financial incentives to working class people across the galaxy to come settle there. You end up with something akin to the California gold rush, with successive waves of working class immigrant populations from literally everywhere relocating to New Gibson in order to found their own colonies and make their fortunes. You could then have sections on various arcologies founded by different cultural and ethnic groups, their beliefs, traditions, etc. This could include Swedish and Filipino arcologies, but also others drawn from both in-lore cultures and real-world cultures. This would also mean that people would have the freedom to make their own arcology/backstory/culture without contradicting the lore. The majority of New Gibson lore, in my opinion, should be a section on emergent syncretic beliefs and culture arising from these disparate groups coming into increased contact as transportation networks are built between arcologies.

Gonna be honest. Picked New Gibson for my latest character concept largely because it had room for improvisation. Seemed like an industrial working class melting pot, which is what I was looking for, where I would be free to define my character's ethnic/cultural background how I wanted -- something akin to the Belters from the expanse. Different ethnic groups forced into an inhospitable melting pot, with each arcology having its own ethnic/cultural background that turns into a cultural slurry as travel from dome to dome, arcology to arcology, gets easier. I didn't want to get shoehorned into a particular cultural background as so many other planets are in lore. Since the population of New Gibson lives in disconnected hermetically sealed domes separated by miles of untraversable ice sheets, it does not make sense for them to be culturally and ethnically homogeneous as they have now been rewritten to be. This isn't anyone's fault, but I'm a little miffed because my concept has been retconned for me and now I'm in the position of either trashing the character and/or doing a severe retcon to make them come from a different planet. In short, pretty disappointed with the changes. I feel like nuance could have been added to the existing lore without retconning pretty much the entire cultural and historical landscape of the planet. Regardless of all that, the lore as it is now written has issues. Before it was a bit sparse, but internally consistent. Now we now have an almost entirely Scandinavian/Swedish/Filipino planet which has an inexplicably English name, and its capital city has an inexplicably Chinese name. The information in the introductory paragraph clashes with the information added under the "Founding" section. The introductory paragraph seems to clearly suggest that the effort to colonize New Gibson was lead by Biesel who made it a colony, in order to consolidate economic and industrial power within the Tau Ceti system. If that's true, how is it that refugee populations from Earth ended up being the ones to settle it as per the stuff that was added? That doesn't make sense. The new stuff is not logically consistent with the old stuff. So, all in all, I think it made it messier than it was before and I feel like the Scandinavian/Swedish/Filipino stuff seems shoehorned in when compared to the stuff that was already there. I think you really have three options: Retcon basically all the earlier lore (capital city, the first speaker's name, Biesel being the one to colonize it, etc etc). Make it actually fit the cultural background that was recently shoehorned in. New Gibson can become New Gothenburg. Speaker Xin Hengsha can become Speaker Bjørn Bjørnson. For the record, I think this is the least interesting option. Stapling a real-world ethnicity onto the planet doesn't really make it more interesting. Make it the melting pot that, in my opinion, it should have been -- with different ethnic/cultural groups immigrating at different points in its history after Biesel settled it and founding their own domes/arcologies. Then the planet starts to become a cultural melting pot as a subterranean rail system is constructed to connect all of these previously disconnected, culturally distinct populations. Kind of like a galapagos islands of human cultures... in space. Leave the stuff you added, but walk it back a bit. Keep Scandinavian/Swedish/Filipino refugee arrival as a historical event that raised the planet's population, but make it less central to the planet's founding, which, after all, the introductory paragraph very clearly suggests was initiated by existing populations in the Tau Ceti system. I really hope something is done to bring the new stuff into alignment with the old stuff, because as-is this is less canon and more confetti canon.