Sue's Tajara Deputy Application

[Susan]

Ckey/BYOND Username: SueTheCake
Discord Name: Sue#5478
Position Being Applied For: Tajara Deputy
Past Experiences/Knowledge: I created the basis for the current iteration of Tajaran lore, and thus was in charge of whitelists and news articles and so on back in the day.
Examples of Past Work:

Tajara, Circa 2015

Adhomai, Circa 2015

Additional Comments:

Having wrote a very rough draft of Tajaran lore that has been molded throughout the years amuses me greatly; I am very pleased to have been a part of something and contributed a small portion of a community project that went places I couldn't have imagined nearly five years ago. After a long hiatus from Space Station 13 and a lot of time spent working and doing boring adult things, I am eager to return and potentially contribute again. With nothing but a few paragraphs to go on, the dedicated lore developers and contributors have expanded Tajaran far beyond what I had ever initially imagined. That being said, there are areas that could do with some more attention, and this is the sort of lore I would like to touch on.

Much focus has been placed on the Tajaran factions and militaries and all of the available pages greatly reflect this. Additional information regarding flora and fauna, and places of education is all well and good but I feel as though the other parts of Tajaran culture could do with some love. Things that do not have to do with the war. Music, art, literature - and not just these concepts, but notable Tajaran who are not war heroes, generals, or party officials. There is a great lack of them on the associated page; a single artist and a single band stand out among a majority war-focused assortment of characters. Facets of Tajaran life that do not involve constant warfare could very much do with expansion, giving Tajaran on the station greater understanding of their cultural heritage beyond bombs, bullets, and pseudocommunism. While the War differentiates Tajaran from many other species in the galaxy due to their still ongoing navigation of self-determination, I feel as if most Tajaran have been reduced to an embodiment of the conflict; probing questions from other species about Adhomai's conflicts can create great roleplay but if you ask a Tajaran about their life outside of the war, there is not much left to be equally interesting.

The history of Tajaran education and technology is also equally important. Each collegiate and university has a small little blurb but given the state of Tajaran development prior to first contact and the influx of new, alien technology, there is plenty of room for expansion on existing concepts. How the Tajaran adapt to imports, how they have incorporated it into their daily lives. A prime example of this would be how the holonet and television granted the government(s) both better control over what their population sees, how they disseminate propaganda, and how it put the primary method of communication (that being radio) before it on the decline. Radio drama stars reduced to penniless beggers thanks to the monopoly of prime time television,  how rural Tajaran struggle with disparate technology levels compared to large cities... inventions that the Tajaran themselves might be able to contribute. Tajaran academics, scientists, civilian contributors both as a result of the war and independent of it.

In short, my goal is to expand Tajaran beyond an all-consuming identity of war and funny Rolf memes. I want Tajaran players to be able to appropriately envision Tajaran society, whether that be on the battlefield or in the gulag, standing in line to get your rations or far back from the front line where you can sit in the comfort of your home with your brand new automobile in the driveway, relax on the sofa and turn on the television so you can watch your daytime soap. Or even offworld, in the streets of Little Adhomai, where cultures have mixed in the melting pot.

Now consider me or suffer the almighty three shoe beating.

[Guest Menown]

There's a whole lot I can say here that I really don't want to. I have serious concerns but none of them can be addressed because it'll probably only start a fight.

[Bear]

Yes hello the good Commissars who are in no way holding me at threat of bodily harm, have asked me to endorse this application.

I am further more obligated to ask: What of the nomads and other lesser developed people across Adhomai? Will you dive more into them? I for one would love to see more involving them maybe with like their folk-lore like that seen in the Ma'ta'ke section.

+1

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

You have repeatedly made some worrying comments when talking about Tajara lore in certain chats. I am no longer in these chats because I chose to distance myself from them.

Your goals and stated goals here are very different from how you've talked about Tajara in the tajara discord groups.

This worries me, because it is consistent with your history of how you talk about Tajara for quite some time.

-1

[Scheveningen]

Pasting from the Coalf thread, as I'm interested in hearing takes on two specific subjects.

 

Quote

1. What is your OOC opinion about the rather prevalent homophobia in the Tajara lore, and do you think it needs changing? To my understanding, the PRA jails and labels homosexuals (or, so I'm told, those who openly associate with them) as sex offenders if they ever catch them. The DPRA and the NKA just kill them, and the PRA is somehow considered the more progressive faction. Which technically isn't even wrong. Surely, there are plenty of IC explanations for why the homophobia exists, I've heard them all and I'm sure nobody's interested in discussing it - is the open discrimination against homosexuals (if not openly killing) really important to the Tajaran narrative, though?
2. What are some resolutions you have to make Tajarans easier to gravitate to? I found that because of the above reason and a few other aspects, particularly that PRA/DPRA/NKA loyalist characters are incredibly rare nowadays - very few people feel particularly inspired to play their Tajaran characters themselves due to the incredible, awkward baggage involved. I often see PRA consulars board and get barraged with "PRA man bad because his government discriminates against homosexuals", which leads to few people associating with the consul than what could've happened naturally had the aforementioned issue not been a factor. There are also some permeating aspects of each faction with different cultural opinions that would be considered a 'bad take' if you openly expressed it in a coffee shop.

 

[Coalf]

I've talked with Sue from time to time but not in any, large part thus I won't be judging character or anything but I can say that for the most part whenever I discussed something we were able to have a civil discussion.

What I mean to ask is that while your takes are very interesting and that yes, the idea of adding so many war pages when it was supposed to end was maybe a bit, dumb, in the long run. The Tajara as a species have I beieve a whooping 25 pages of lore.
Aren't you worried all of these addittions you plan are going to by-in-large bloat this even further?
Would you propose a solution to this or do you think the amount of pages is perfectly servicable?

[Susan]

7 hours ago, Scheveningen said:

Pasting from the Coalf thread, as I'm interested in hearing takes on two specific subjects.

Initially when I wrote Tajaran lore, they were designed to look unfavorably upon homosexuals, yes. After my departure and the promotion of Hivefleet to lore master, however, it went a little bit beyond what I originally intended. The gays weren't really meant to go to the gulag, it was something you kept to yourself so your neighbors didn't ostracize you from the community. We're not talking about Chechnya here. Since their inception, the Tajara were designed to be a majority conservative species, and this means a different outlook on issues like homosexuality. Since 2015, actually. I don't know why it has blown up now all of a sudden, but I think it is unfair to reduce their identity simply to this one belief. 

I find the work camps and murder just a little too extreme. This was not my intention and could probably do with some toning down. However, at the time of their inception, Tajara were the only conservative species. Prior to 2016 and humanity's weird shift to totalitarianism, I wanted to write a species that would contrast with a more advanced, liberal-minded galaxy. Even the lizards had discovered space flight and had colonies. Their identity as a struggling, pre-space flight species is important but 'gay man bad' is not all there is to it.

It is my hope that by expanding on life outside of war that a lot of this baggage will be lessened. Daily life in PRA cities not on the front lines, for example, is actually not horrible. The Cat NKVD does not come busting down doors on a whim, people aren't choking on bread and water as their sole meal. People commute to work, they stop at coffee shops and electro swing clubs. There is a semblance of normalcy. By providing a human side (hah) to the factions and what life is like living under them far from the front lines of war I hope to make it more interesting to play a Tajaran from Adhomai and not Biesel. Being a Tajaran invites tough questions about their society, yes, but there should be a counterbalance of not-war-crime-having-coffee-with-the-neighbor to prevent it from being all they are.

 

2 hours ago, Coalf said:

What I mean to ask is that while your takes are very interesting and that yes, the idea of adding so many war pages when it was supposed to end was maybe a bit, dumb, in the long run. The Tajara as a species have I beieve a whooping 25 pages of lore.
Aren't you worried all of these addittions you plan are going to by-in-large bloat this even further?
Would you propose a solution to this or do you think the amount of pages is perfectly servicable?

Some condensing might be in order, but most of my planned changes I want to add to already existing articles. In this case, the Notable Tajara article could be expanded with more individuals. I was spitballing the idea of separating Tajaran culture into it's own page to allow more space to describe things like music and the arts, but to compensate pages like the Military Structures, PRA Fleet Structure and People's Intelligence Service really should be combined into one.

I had considered the idea of 'further reading', or keeping the important, basic pages on the wiki and transferring the more in depth lore to a category that people could read if interest and thus prevent bloat of the important, necessary information for those who want to apply for a whitelist or gain a simple understanding of the species. While I was scouring for the original revisions I did for Tajara back in the day I did notice most other species have much less pages than the Tajara, and I understand that that amount of information will likely be imposing to new players and old alike. The concept of a drop-down menu hiding further reading pages that people can peruse at their own leisure may do well to combat the immediate bloat visible.

 

13 hours ago, Bear said:

I am further more obligated to ask: What of the nomads and other lesser developed people across Adhomai? Will you dive more into them? I for one would love to see more involving them maybe with like their folk-lore like that seen in the Ma'ta'ke section.

I intend to give attention to nomads, tribals and rural farmers as well. I want to showcase the discrepancy of technology and quality of living between the big cities and those who still observe traditional methods of living. The wiki briefly touches on the Rock Nomads, for example, but a more concise and pointed description of the daily life of your average dirt farmer or mountain nomad would help to give these groups more substance.

[Guest Menown]

53 minutes ago, Susan said:

Since their inception, the Tajara were designed to be a majority conservative species, and this means a different outlook on issues like homosexuality. Since 2015, actually. I don't know why it has blown up now all of a sudden, but I think it is unfair to reduce their identity simply to this one belief. 

I find the work camps and murder just a little too extreme. This was not my intention and could probably do with some toning down. However, at the time of their inception, Tajara were the only conservative species. Prior to 2016 and humanity's weird shift to totalitarianism, I wanted to write a species that would contrast with a more advanced, liberal-minded galaxy.

I find your creation of a Tajara that pretty much subverts everything you wanted for Tajara purely out of "leaving Adhomai at a young age" to be incredibly disingenuous. You lay out rules and expectations for the species that you yourself don't abide by, and thus aren't restricted to the same rules the rest of us are simply because you felt justified through established history.

I can't take anything you wish to establish, do, or say regarding Tajara seriously because as far as I can see, we play by a different set of rules than you do. I've already went through this once when you and Hivefleet both worked together to install the new (at the time) rules regarding homosexuality, and then later Hive's installation of the labor camp system to curb furries from the species, all while having a character married to yours and (without going into details) living an effectively degenerate life with her because as I'm sure, there's no way he was completely in the dark about everything.

If you're accepted as a lore deputy, how do you expect to handle the people that willingly disregard, break, or subvert lore in ways that aren't entirely acceptable. Are you going to be making allowances for them, ignoring them, or enforcing the thin line we've drawn through threats of whitelist stripping or IC punishments such as the labor camps that have been used in the past.

[Alberyk]

This was not an easy decision, but to help me in the future of the tajaran lore, I have decided to select the most experienced tajaran writers for it. Sue did a great work by creating the tajaran lore that we expanded a lot in the past years, and I trust her skills as a writer. Application accepted.