Bygonehero

What do you think is the best way to approach uniqueness in synthetics? Is there a dichotomy? A balance between making a synthetic character relatable , and thus more human, or defining them by their inherent inhuman traits, making them stand out more as a species? Should there be standards? If so what should they be so as to not stifle the player? If not, why not?

Drago hit the nail on the head on one of the major concerns currently with synthetics, and I believe they would be a wonderful person to have on the lore team. Saying this, Could you elaborate on the last few lore developments with synthetics, say in the last two months? What do you think those articles/events/arcs did wrong, or right?

Could you perhaps elaborate in a constructive fashion? Just because albreyk is headmin doesn't mean everything he puts out is accepted as how things are. As it is, its a excellently planned event map. in my opinion.

Political Deadlock, Nanotrasen Triumphant? The deadlock between Nanotrasen and the Zo'ra hive continues in Tau Ceti courts, the first and second circuit judges verdicts initially seem to be in Nanotrasens favor, with the Mega-corporation having already internally fined the hive. More worryingly, the blockade of Vaurca traffic continues, with the aliens remaining on Mars for the last few weeks finally running out of provisions that they have brought. Furthermore, it would seem a similar situation is playing out within the Empire of Dominia, with a contingent of Zo'ra trapped within their borders. Senator Thorne gave this briefing on the situation of the stranded Vaurca a recent public address. "My office has made every resource available to our visitors from Tau Ceti. We are in constant contact with officials of Zo'ra and Tau Ceti and are working to resolve the military and legal difficulties present in that system. In the meantime, it would seem that Nanotrasen has shown their hand again, blocking resupplies of the Vaurcan food, 'Kois' to our system, citing 'logistical' concerns for their reasoning. With no one else to turn to, my office has reached out to the people of the Jargon federation to supply us until the deadlock is resolved. For this reason, I want to introduce Jorgu Oori-Que, a representative of the Jargon Federation who has come here to help facilitate our needs. " Oori steps up at the introduction and replaces Thorne in front center. "The Jargon Federation, as of now, has reviewed the Martian’s [Senator Thorne’s], requests for dangerous xenobotanical supplies. Before proceeding, do understand that the Federation does view the dangerous subject of Kois just as seriously as those in Tau Ceti, and we will take every step required to ensure its safe delivery, storage, and rationed consumption. The urgency in this situation is that no one except the Federation can handle an outbreak of Kois, so I’ve sent the requests personally for arbitration within the Federation’s council, and will hear back soon." Insiders amongst Thornes staff clarified on a few issues that Oori touched on. They explain that smugglers may try to get kois into the system without the necessary precautions the Federation would take, possibly causing a quarantine that would not just freeze up Martian spacelanes with traffic, but a crucial trade route from Sol to Jargon as well. They conclude that the Vaurca upon Mars may have two or three weeks of supplies left before running out. Whether or not they can hold out is anyone’s guess, but the case between Zo’ra and Nanotrasen is expected to be appealed to the supreme court of Tau Ceti.

It isn't. At the end of the day our opinions are just that. Mofo and boots will ultimately decide. Even then, a willingness to write and a vision could make you a deputy if nothing else. Stay in the race and share your ideas. People will certainly read and be inspired by them.

You mention more of the mundane life of synthetics. I like that, but as always I will ask the same question and a personalized few. Can you walk me through a day in the life of a synthetic, 24 hours from start to finish? This is important, because barring big political/ideological and community groups, at the end of the day the average robot is what players will play and as a developer I feel it is our duty to paint a picture of the average [INSERT SPECIES HERE] detailed enough so that the players can finish it. If you can't imagine the process, then how can you expect players to? Personalized questions How do see synthetic narratives in our setting? Example: What do you think organizations like Purpose serve in the greater lore? What lore do you think the average player cares about when making a character?

Can you walk me through a day in the life of a synthetic, 24 hours from start to finish? This is important, because barring big political/ideological and community groups, at the end of the day the average robot is what players will play and as a developer I feel it is our duty to paint a picture of the average [INSERT SPECIES HERE] detailed enough so that the players can finish it. If you can't imagine the process, then how can you expect players to? Two personalized questions. You mention the distinction of hardware and software synthetics. Can you explain this? Perhaps by giving an example of a software synthetic, and a hardware synthetic? Personally, I am critical of adding yet more sub-factions and different sub-species to synthetics. What do you plan to do with currently known synthetic organizations and lore? More over, I did not enjoy the development time with Autakh, it was perhaps one of the most tenuous moments of my time here on staff. If we are to continue to work on projects together, how do you believe this working relationship will change with the lore staff?

Kyres's dedication to their work is something in of itself. They are a pleasure to work with, and have time and time again proven reliable. To me, this is merely the logical extension of their duties. That being said, I will ask the same thing I ask the other applicants. Can you walk me through a day in the life of a synthetic, 24 hours from start to finish? This is important, because barring big political/ideological and community groups, at the end of the day the average robot is what players will play and as a developer I feel it is our duty to paint a picture of the average [INSERT SPECIES HERE] detailed enough so that the players can finish it. If you can't imagine the process, then how can you expect players to? Now a personalized question. What are the strongest themes present in synthetics in your opinion? They are incredibly diverse, so there's not really a wrong answer here. One of the only criticisms I have is that you are all over the place sometimes. I see in your platform you address the need for focus, and I believe you could focus on aspects to distill for readers and players to enjoy.

District 14, Scrapheap Revealed! The second part of a 15 part series, excerpts are made available for our readers. By Alastair Lindin Situated in the middle of the stadium was an army of creatures and critters of every shape. Miniaturized and exaggerated their features were, with too sharp edges, too colorful hides, too perfect spacing between them the only thing belying their mechanical nature. The dead-eyed creatures animated themselves as Zapashy led me in, becoming a sea of whirring faux animals as they undulated, shouldering a burden into view. “From the Frozen Tundras of Das'narra, where even the fastest beast can freeze to a standstill... Watch and be amazed as these frozen beasts come alive! He brings to you the Terrific Technomancer..... Slava Kantemirov!" proclaimed Zapashy enthusiastically. The whirring hoard parted as a costumed tajaran emerged from its recesses. Her dark blue tech suit caught an iridescent firelight. Her thin spider fingers began to glow as she cracked her knuckles in an odd fashion. Suddenly the mass lifted her, interlocking themselves to create a high platform far above us as she languidly eased her body to the edge of the summit. With a short bow, she fell, twisting in the air between, igniting an iridescence in her suit and fingers that reflected off the exposed metal of the mechanical mass that roiled all around her. Her suit alighted between them, dancing as a candle flame in gale wind. The woman beneath the flame was gone, leaving an ember of light that masked the cold visage of the creatures, softening their edges with the heat of living.- Lindin, A Journey through the District's Our Van plowed through the inter-district highway away from District 15. We became enshrouded in a yellow-grey pall that hung low in the air like a noxious miasma, choking the daylight overhead. Air quality warning signs lined the road as we went, signaling us to affix breath masks. Ochre-56A, our camera operator panned wide shots Across the industrial expanse, ensuring to get close up shots of District 14’s infamous junk piles. Little comes in the form of local regulation in the interstices between district 15 and 14. Here, expanses of land collect the trash of Mendell’s 18 million residents. When the city was built, its original planners had this district at its outermost edges. Networks of automation funneled the cities waste and recycling efforts here to keep its interior environs clean. This process still hasn’t changed, as every hour on the hour, automated trucks dump tons of waste into disorganized piles for kilometers in every direction around us. We exit off of the highway and into the well-worn streets of outer district 14. Our camera operator had told us of a place in the deeper scrap that acts as a haven of a sort for the districts synthetic populace. As we moved through, mounds of intermixed garbage gave way to corroded metal, its organic constituents having rotted long ago. The air took on a coppery perfume as we reached the area of town known locally as 99EST. All about us, the scrap piles receded into organized structures of rusted, corrugated metal and plastic. Painted signs adorned some of the buildings with the entire area festooned in archaic contraptions and automata of every kind. Among the community, hard at work robots create electrical contacts that make the street stink with ozone as the midmorning air burnt in the light of their many welding torches. We traveled along the center of 99EST, and some of the locals explained that places in their community are ordered by the age in years of the surrounding metal.They went on to tell us we had entered from 23EST, the superhighway exit. At the prompting of Ochre-56A, a friendly synthetic local named EE-DV119 showed us to another area of town they called the Oxidized Fanes. The driving was tough, and I could tell our unathi companion was on edge as we followed in the van through automated traffic. About an hour later, we finally were able to exit onto an empty road and into our secluded destination. I can write to you with honesty, that the Oxidized Fanes are worth the trouble. They are, quite simply, beautiful. A hidden treasure that I would have not seen prior to this journey. Here, it seems that the synthetic community has gone to great lengths to re-create famous temples of countless faiths, all arranged in such a way that they all take up an equal amount of space. Emblematic of styles upon ancient Earth, Adhomai and Qerrbalak, these recreated buildings would give Phoenixport a run for its money were they not made of mostly scrap metal. Congregants of these temples came and went, with some of the more recognizable robots going to multiple places of worship. EE-DV119 explained that these places give newer and older robots hope and support. That, some of the devout among the fanes search for broken and thrown away synthetics, giving them a chance at living a new life and to find meaning in that life by using the wisdom of their creators. Eager to see more, we visited one of the newer market sections of the scrapheap,2EST. I personally expected odd market niches to spring up around robotic communities and I was not disappointed. Robotics reign king here, with their trades meaning in basic parlance separated into four different sub-groups within district 14. They are commonly known as, harddocs, softdocs, wetdocs and drydocs. As some of the locals put it, knowing which is which, and which one would just steal your steel is important. We spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the synthetic communities of district 14. I saw a few organics in that time, but we did find a disturbing amount of robots that, for some reason or another tried to sell themselves to our crew. Ochre-56A explained this phenomenon as ‘servile programming’, likening it to one of the worst problems facing free synthetics today. Another problem we witnessed just before leaving was several synthetic businesses refusing G2 robots. It was then that I realized that any time we saw a G2 they were either heavily damaged, alone or with a human. From what our guide was willing to tell us, generation 2 synthetics are heavily discriminated against in some peoples of the district 14. Discrimination or not, we didn’t let that stop us. I quickly paid our guide in batteries, eager to be going on our way past the Scrapheap and into 14’s large industrial park.This sector of the district actually comprised most of its actual landmass, with the area itself situated upon a high artificial plateau, buttressed by plasteel about its perimeter. As we crested the top of the concrete hill overlooking Scrapheap, we saw ahead of us a forest of enormous fume stacks belching their contents into the upper sky. Eddying swirls of burning gases capped their apexes, intermixing into a sickly pallor that was the sky of District 14. The smells of garbage faded, replacing themselves with the tang of acidic chemicals. Ground autos choked the highway we traveled, itself parting the sea of pipes and stacks like a great metal ocean or asphalt blood vein that fed into the heart of the city. We saw factories of every kind, producing every product, mineral, or animal. Still more factories for every corporation, every chemical process and refinement scheme. Countless sieves that render the natural world to the machinations of our civilization, all concentrated here so that the rest of the city can insulate themselves from their existence. Shockingly, I saw several non-human organic workers parade around these mega-factories, some without safety equipment or air devices, exposing themselves to the wasting air for the prospect of a wage. The stories that could be told here lay behind barbed fences and security checkpoints. The security guards themselves recite boilerplate responses to our inquires, catechisms fed into them by better paid corporate lackeys. Taking notes and pictures, we left the industrial parks, making our way beyond district 14 borders. Ahead, the economic sector of the city and the greater economic part of the Orion Spur awaits us, District 13. Continued excerpts of this article will be made available to our readers in our next issue

Almost forgot about that game mode

Vaurca Interplanétaire Delegates Stranded on Mars! Delegates from the Zo'ra Vaurca hive that has attended the first GFL summit met a revoked transit passage through the Nanotrasen owned and operated Sol-Tau Ceti gateway. Their shuttle, returning to dock within Olympia was locked into harbor pending word from Tau Ceti. Two hours later, It appears Nanotrasen has filed suit against the Zo’ra hive for breaching the contractual obligations of the hive and the civil regulations imposed by both the government and Nanotrasen five and a half years prior. As part of the alleged contractual breach, Tau Ceti invoked emergency authority to bar all Zo’ra transit to and out of Tau Ceti system for security concerns. After receiving news of these developments, Martian Interstellar Space Command- MISC has waylaid the Zo’ran shuttle, evicting the Zo’ra from the spaceport into government care. Lawyers from both Nanotrasen and Zo’ra hive have declined to comment on the matter. Sources within the Tau Ceti government claim that the alleged regulation broken concerned the wellbeing and welfare of citizens of the Orion Spur. Legal experts reviewing the document believe that security passage Y21K in the document is breach Nanotrasen is attempting to bring to court, the passage as written reads... “The communications sent and relayed by the Hive Relay must not originate from or be destined for any system or location not officially sanctioned by NanoTrasen and the Department of Vaurca Integration, currently only including Tau Ceti and Glorashi.” With further investigation, it appears that 160 Vaurca of the Zo’ra hive were invited but their transit records indicate that only 16 Vaurca were scheduled to visit the convention. Further, only 15 Vaurca were seen. Specialist in all things Vaurca, Dr. Elene Rodgers provides us with an answer. “It's simple. The invitations were for the Virtual beings as well as the physical ones, though if that many are here then its even more likely that they brought a Cephalon with them.” After staring somewhat blankly, Dr. Rodgers continues,” A cephalon Is kind of like a transmitter relay itself, though it's not meant to broadcast signals, not specifically like the relays within Tau Ceti. From how I understand them, they are quasi-mechanical organic supercomputers, housing many of the ‘dead’ Vaurca according to their belief system. We saw such a projection during the convention. I will bet that Nanotrasen was monitoring transmissions, and this cephalon is what tipped them off.” Finally, after some word with our branches within Tau Ceti itself, another delegation of Vaurca are known to be abroad within Dominia. It is unclear at this time how that group is fairing but for those stranded within Olympia, Senator Thorne has called Nanotrasen out publicly, claiming reprisal attacks for the formation of the GFL. He was quoted, “Megacorps of all flavors will go out of their way to stop peaceful resistance, organized or not. The Zo'ra are the first targets, but not the last, most likely.”

The Station is too large, its size is directly influencing roleplay, creating and promoting isolation, which is counter intuitive to what people actually want in a roleplay server. I am not saying the station can't be big, but I am saying that the space it does use should have little negative space. I would love to get feedback concerning this issue.

An Unexpected Dive into District 15 The first part of a 15 part series, excerpts are made available for our readers. By Alastair Lindin As the floor opened and lowered us down, the flamboyant and colorfully dressed orange tajaran led me across the outside perimeter of a misty ice-box half the length of the stadium. Wiping my hand across its glass surface to clear off the misty frost, I could see a roiling shape moving in the partially frozen water. Then, with a whistle and wink from Zapashy, the titan broke the surface and I stood in awe in the shadow of the arisen behemoth.- Lindin, A Journey through the Districts My review this week takes me to Zapashy’s Extra-Galactic Menagerie and Oddities, a Circus troupe originally from Adhomai. They are set to perform semi-regularly at the Trasen Memorial Stadium, a domed building right at the base of Nanotrasen Galactic Headquarters located in the heart of Mendel city itself. This review will be slightly different however, as it has come to our attention that many first time visitors to Mendell are often ignorant of the cities districts, domiciles, and drinking establishments. Eager to experience the city in this way on our way to the circus, my crew and I decide to use ground autos as opposed to hovercar. For our purposes, my producer had scheduled a ride to meet us at the Mendel-Phoenixport Ferryjet. This is our journey. Lifting off from the Ferryjet not 50 feet from us is a fleet of hovercars. Some collected their owners or passengers as still more lifted off, their ionized trails of charged air speeding behind them as those first few race off into the pre-dawn city skyline. We sat waiting for what seemed like hours as the dock slowly emptied with only dock staff and seagulls for company. By the time our ride did show up, the Ferryjet and its synthetic and vaurcan operators were already on their way back to Phoenixport. Most of the crew was furious, but that anger subsided when we saw what we would be riding into town. Rolling up to us and squeaking to a stop, a worn out matte white van drove by a young unathi named Siddhas Isatayk greeted us.The sides of the van were painted in bright red ceti basic and sinta'unathi, declaring, ISATAYK TRUTH ACTION NEWS. Interrupting the letters at regular intervals were also pox-like bullet holes, large enough to fit a finger into. Noticing us, Siddhas simply racked his knuckles across his auto as one would a faithful beast of burden, “Armored, itsssss no problem.” With this, and despite our previous frustrations, Siddhas' cheerful demeanor and apparent respect for our craft made us fast friends. As we started to chew the miles behind us it began to get brighter. The blue-blackness of Biesels night waning to herald the start of our adventure proper. Reviewing for the benefit of first-time readers or visitors to Mendel, we will be traveling through each and every district on our journey. Mendel is, unlike my Phoenixport, a city with a diverse economy, having 15 unique districts with extremely different communities and ways of life. The populations of each vary considerably as does the district's history. These articles should approximate an overview of each one for our readers, but as with all things, performing your own research is vital to discover what might interest you in Mendel, or any other city for that matter. Our first stop is District 15, or the ‘Jie District.’ Nestled at the outskirts of Mendel proper, the history of the Jie District is an interesting one. It started off in 2279 as a refugee encampment for fleeing humans of the First Interstellar War. Known as Suo District then, the district traces this name back to Sol Alliance admiral Wen Suo, who was said to have organized the displaced loyal Solarian colonists. It was renamed Jie District in 2402, after a Republic admiral who grew up in this district. Saying all that, our personal view of the district is about what you would expect. Mendel itself recognizes it as a humanly populated slum, and for what we could see in our travels through the district I can agree--partly. Despite being listed as a slum, there's a notable lack of advertisements and corporate branding light polluting the surrounding cityscape. Run down buildings do exist, and the narrow streets that churn through the district have local business signs that you would not see anywhere else in Mendel. Omnipresent throughout is the noise of hovercars overhead, drowned out only by the clamor of roadside businesses that pour out of the districts main street shabby facades. Speaking with the people of Jie district, it becomes apparent that enclaves of Alliance support abound here. All the local businesses use logos that are variations of Alliance imagery. Local radio and net signal the same, constantly providing updates on the status of the Alliance, as well as its political situation. The people also appear to harbor anti-corporate sentiments, as we were consistently asked by the people we spoke with if we were ‘corporate dogs’. After some searching and shopping, we were told by some friendly folks about the local dives, and so we found ourselves stopping at an Alliance themed bar named the ‘Seven-Suns.’ Despite the name and the current political situations in the Alliance, we were not otherwise bothered, and the atmosphere of the establishment, indeed the entire market row seemed homely. “It's easy to tell who lives here. The people that live inner city, they are too used to having their face crammed with so much excess, so much bullshit that they don’t see others around them.”, one individual, we spoke to said. Alliance aside, the drinks were good and the people were welcoming. On our way out of district we stopped by a local monument at the district center, a statue of Admiral Wen Suo in full regalia. The statue is clearly old and well maintained, acquiring a patina that only the most stridently cared for monuments hope to acquire across the centuries. The grounds around it also show care, and its with that that I reach my closing statements. The people of Jin district harbor a distrust of the increasingly globalized nature of our galaxy. Championed by megacorps, places like Jin District would become rarer and rarer as the march of time wears on, but in defiance of this, they value their history. Jin’s History as refugees, soldiers, even admirals is not forgotten. The people of Jin as a community harbor long memories, and to make yourself a part of the community here is to gain the trust of generations prior. We close out of the Jin prefecture by merging on the Inter-District Highway, the smell of oil in the air growing stronger as we neared District 14, the Scrapheap. Continued excerpts of this article will be made available to our readers in our next issue.

An excellent application and answers. I really loved your story about interaction with the human mining companies on Tret. Imagining the hijinks your character got into around those human outposts is particularly endearing. Application accepted!

I was not aware there was a procedure for announcing things, but it seemed at the time that no one had planned to announce it or it just occurred? I was told by skull later that he planned to announce it once he got home, similar to arrow.

Heres the newest part

Nope, thank you for addressing it.

Editors note: Translated to Basic by human Sinta'unathi linguist. K'lax to Darken Pid! Pid, the Hatchling star, or Wandering Shellcase may soon go dark. Pid has captured the imagination of ancient Unathi since time immemorial. Visible to the unaided eye from the night surface of Moghes, Trets only moon was instrumental in developing the heliocentric model of the solar system, a system developed before the first hegemony. All of this may soon change according to Tret's newest occupants, the K'laxan Vaurca. Yesterday, Overlord Ta'Akaix'Zkaii'xay'yil K'lax's representatives announced plans to ferry tons of non-reflective powder into strategic positions around Pid, to reduce its apparent brightness to zero, removing it from the night sky for decades to come. The reason, according to K'laxan astronomers, is Pid's bleak and empty atmosphere. It reflects significant amounts of light that throws off long-range spectrographs in search of phoron-rich systems. The proposal is scheduled to be heard by a special clan council later in the week. The Window was not invited to attend, and so instead took this opportunity to canvass nearby villages and to ask the often forgotten humans of Tret what they think of these recent developments. Tasz Eskani, a local businessman, on Moghes responds, "I don't think aliens should change anything let alone the night sky. I remember the stories told to me in my youth about the burning mother and her children. Pid was the name of the tricky child. Pid always followed his brother unless he was hiding somewhere for his brother to find him. I do not think its worth losing that for any advancements, phoron or no. They don't even know if there is anything else out there, for all we know this could be a big waste." As for the effects on humans, we were able to interview Mining Site 3 warren boss Amanda Caldine, who had this to say, " This affects our bottom line, and makes living on Tret that much harder. It gets dark earlier than Moghes on Tret, and what day-light we do get is used working. I don't know how we will make up the difference with fewer hours of production. Nanotrasen was already pushing for automation for these operations, and I can only see them pressuring further and firing our hard workers sooner if this deal goes through."

While I share some of Mofo's views, I believe Drago would be a great human lore developer. Their ideas are decidedly fresh in a already saturated human lore, and given how active they are with hosting and planning events, I have no doubt that they could write events for players to enjoy. Like mofo though, I share some of the concerns with the proposed race. The idea with the NBT and aliens that could be encountered is to make aliens that would never be able to interact majorly with the species of the Orion Spur. They are suppose to be mysterious, inexplicable in their biology, culture and ways of doing things. This means...you can get much much more crazy than what is presented here. We actually have some guidelines in place, which I will PM to you, perhaps you could rewrite them to better fit?

Yes.

It's good to see people making freshly out of VR Vaurca characters. To me, I think it has the most opportunities for interesting roleplay situations. Your characters hope and will to please their queen is also refreshing. Application accepted!

Small update adding a bit to the story, for those that just want the new parts- here

I would argue that memories and overall personality are more complicated than math equations. For math equations, we know what parts of the brain are used for this processing. But memories and personality? No one is really sure where it is as a biological process. Then there's some who believe that memory engrams simply don't exist. But, back to point. If dionae can absorb something as complex as memory then math equations would be child's play in comparison.

Ill be ruling on this tomorrow. In the meantime, try to advertise your app in game or on discord