Iron Chaos's Synthetic Lore Deputy Application

[Iron Chaos]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Iron Chaos
Position Being Applied For: Synthetic Lore Deputy
Past Experiences/Knowledge: A history of roleplaying spanning a few years (Aurora for approx. a year), a few courses of creative writing, and some experience in world-building for rpgs such as DnD.
Examples of Past Work:
My current application for The Trinary Perfection. It should be noted that the application is for a religion which is primarily organic but believes in the divinity of synthetics. It is also currently still in the process of receiving feedback.
While not official lore work, I wrote The Trinary Perfection 'book' for the library which was an early on creation of The Trinary Perfection. During the process of writing it, I tried to keep it as lore-friendly as possible and address more than just a religious view but the galactic impact of Glorsh. In addition, I've had experience role-playing as and with synthetics, including Oscar's interviews with synthetic characters and have gained knowledge of the differing views of synthetic creation and their place in the lore as it stands now.

Additional Comments:

One of the primary reasons I'm applying is to help contribute to the lore of a species that I am interested in. I don't want to echo other applicants, so I've tried to avoid reading their applications to prevent it from influencing me. Right now, synthetics are the focus of a rework, in part this because of the way IPCs were implemented creating multiple sub-races for essentially the same being, while other reworks are for mechanics that made synthetics two-dimensional, simplistic, or opened them to power-gaming. This has also re-opened synthetic lore for review, which in part is also driven by the new lore devs. The recent developments have shown more of a focus on not just mechanical function but synthetics place in society, in the galaxy. As it stands right now, lore wise, synthetics have most of the galaxy turned against them, leaving many of their supporting factions to be primarily synthetic based, and at that based in the Frontier. The only faction of note that is organic and in support is the Synthetic Intelligence Movement. This is just one of the gaps in the lore that can be expanded upon. Right now, we are lead to believe that there is apparently support in the Tau Ceti government and the Frontier for synthetics, but our lore doesn't do justice in supporting it. The only mention of synthetics in the frontier alliance is the Techno-Conglomerate with a small blurb that says they are considered equal. That of course leads to expanding upon Techno-Conglomerate lore, but that's not what I'm here to discuss.

I digressed a bit, but this leads to the question, where do the synthetics lie in the universe? We have a few factions and more being added thanks to the devs, but nothing is done with them. We have Purpose, but no one has seen or heard from them since the Lii'dra. We have The Golden Deep, and even the Sunderers, but nothing is done with them either. We don't hear of more encounters, we don't see any of the affects on station, so no one cares. Not like the Taj's politics, or the various human factions. And this is because the perceived place in the galaxy is that synthetics are primarily hated, and seen as less than equals. In addition, the station's setting makes it difficult for anything dealing with free synthetics to thrive because of the inherent conflict with skrell lore. So, I want to help shape their lore more, not just for the sake of world building, but for player interaction that is more than just 'synth rogue, shut it down'.

Now, I've given a lot of attention to the support of synthetics in the galaxy. But that doesn't mean I'm suggesting rewriting the lore to support synthetics. The inherent conflict is very important to the lore, especially with huge events such as Mars history and a large portion of skrell history (Glorsh). But their place in the galaxy isn't the only place things are questioned, so are the mechanics of how the IPCs function and positronics function. Through my interviews with Oscar, I've noted many different kinds of synthetics ranging from completely functional and emotionless to the almost human replicants. Origins ranging from created in a lab to act as a replacement for someone close, to created to serve a function. Through these interactions, I've also seen those who believe positronics sentience are static and cannot be copied, those who believe that programs are downloaded and can have their programming copied. The lore may not be concise on purpose to allow for these kind of creative takes on their character, but it could also use a bit more clarification to allow for more consistent explanations. AIs are another synthetic that are also in an odd spot. They are about as complex and varied as IPCs and androids, yet are bound to being a program in an AI core. I think the lore could be expanded to have more factions seeing them as sentient considering that most cores are built with a brain/positronic in some fashion. Or perhaps even a faction of AI could be created existing solely on the net that provides another potential Glorsh-scare hook for player interaction.

To sum up, I want to be able to contribute in some way, to help develop the world, bring clarity, and create new opportunities in the lore for players to work with.

Also sorry for the rambling.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Sorry for the long delay. We've discussed this within the team and with Kyres specifically and I will come to a conclusion by tonight.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Hello, sorry for the delay. I was going to accept this last night but Kyres went to bed and I did not want to accept it then have you sit around waiting until today to get accepted and introduced.

This application is being accepted.

[Azande]

@Senpai Jackboot @kyres1 is this guy still accepted or,,,? You guys haven't cleared the applications to the archive yet or labelled them and this guy was last active on the 29th of April.

 

[kyres1]

yeah they're accepted and already on the team. Archiving mistake, whoops