[Accepted]Melariara for Doona Deputy

[Melariara]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Melariara

Position Being Applied For: (Species Maintainer, Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Deputy Lore developer

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes. (Also the how to events forum page is broken?)

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I do not have any prior writing experience for diona, but I love the concept behind them.

Examples of Past Work: I have not written anything for lore, so I decided to write up something small instead:

Every ten years, an urge comes across every diona. An urge to share, to grow, to become more. Any way they can, they attempt to travel back to their cluster of birth. The smaller ride on the shoulders of those that are bigger, if needed. All support others in returning, regardless of what they believe.

At the allotted time, in the allotted place, diona of all forms congregate, from nymph to argus, with the rare colossus floating nearby. Then, they sing. They sing of their experiences in the universe out there. They sing of what they hope to achieve. They could sing for hours, days, weeks. Months. As they sing, they absorb the light and radiation, feeding passively on biomass, radiation, and the song of knowledge.

At the end of the song, any nymphs that do not have a gestalt merge with those whose songs resonate strongly within them - joining their own song of hope of discovery with the others, which then shifts to a song of joy and hope to those listening.

They continue singing until all nymphs are merged as they please, the tune then slowly fading out into nothingness.

Bonus question stage

How do you feel about the changes to Dionae lore over the past year?

I feel my opinion on Diona lore over the past year is uh, pretty nil, considering I've been here for a year and a half, and I hadn't really read much of the Diona lore up until four months ago, if I'm being completely honest.

Is there anything you would like to change or specifically work on?

I would love to see more forms available to be playable, obviously with severe restrictions in place. Cerberus, would definitely love to see as a thing, perhaps with the cuteness of a nymph mixed with the rugged weirdness of a gestalt.

Different variations as well would be great to see, based from different plants like mushrooms, glowing spores from a long forgotten place, seaweed, so on and so on, would be really great to see because it would add a variety of forms. Maybe even matching nymphs? An amalgamation of the two, much like matching IPC parts, from nymphs from different places coming together.

What is your vision of what Dionae should be?

I would love to see diona with more personalities, different forms of differing types, as stated above. I would love to see a speed boost for diona, as I feel like that would help more people applying to play them. I would like to see them more popular, as I feel at the moment many people in the community dislike them, which is a shame.

 

Additional Comments: *mchirp

[Lmwevil]

Fantastic work Mel! Glad you finally came out of your tomb to make this instead of fretting over it. 

I'd say this application is a little short but that's fine we can hash this out over replies - what do you think of Dionae as conditional pacifists currently? Do you think it needs to changed, clarified or kept the same and why? 

Where do you think Dionae lore is currently weakest, and what would you do to improve it? 

[Melariara]

3 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

What do you think of Dionae as conditional pacifists currently? Do you think it needs to changed, clarified or kept the same and why? 

I feel that if they were to change to complete pacifists, we would probably need to remove the whole sucking DNA from blood, as that is considered a somewhat violent act, considering it does do damage. While the bite does also give mortaphenyl, it would still initially cause pain on whoever they are biting, willing or unwilling. I feel it would also require a lot of backtracking on lore as well, if they've always been it and its being retconned, or its a new thing for all dionae, which would raise the question on who decides that for them?

3 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

Where do you think Dionae lore is currently weakest, and what would you do to improve it? 

I feel that all Dionae lack something in their personality. Adding more cultures, more things each specific cluster would pick up from where they live, who they live with and who they share memories with/from should have a larger aspects, maybe some suggestions on the Wiki pages about it. Spirits of the Oasis, as an example, could have more diona gardening, sharing tips to families that they may have learned fifty years back or whatever. Tattoos noting their place within a cluster/clan/whatever as well could have a huge impact.

Different variations as well. I know I keep hitting on that, but Humans have Offworlder humans, Tajarans have four different variants. Plants are unique and differing all across the world, there is so much that could be done with dionae also in this regard.

[Lmwevil]

3 minutes ago, Melariara said:

I feel that if they were to change to complete pacifists, we would probably need to remove the whole sucking DNA from blood, as that is considered a somewhat violent act, considering it does do damage. While the bite does also give mortaphenyl, it would still initially cause pain on whoever they are biting, willing or unwilling. I feel it would also require a lot of backtracking on lore as well, if they've always been it and its being retconned, or its a new thing for all dionae, which would raise the question on who decides that for them?

3 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

Lotta waffling and no actual answer to my original question. All excellent points and if the choice were to be made there'd be a lot to talk about around that. I was asking specifically "Do you think it needs to changed, clarified or kept the same and why?" Otherwise your points are all right, and the mortaphenyl is a complicated topic that can't be summed up easily here. 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Melariara said:

I feel that all Dionae lack something in their personality. Adding more cultures, more things each specific cluster would pick up from where they live, who they live with and who they share memories with/from should have a larger aspects, maybe some suggestions on the Wiki pages about it. Spirits of the Oasis, as an example, could have more diona gardening, sharing tips to families that they may have learned fifty years back or whatever. Tattoos noting their place within a cluster/clan/whatever as well could have a huge impact.

Different variations as well. I know I keep hitting on that, but Humans have Offworlder humans, Tajarans have four different variants. Plants are unique and differing all across the world, there is so much that could be done with dionae also in this regard.

I totally dig these right here, more things culturally are a big deal and I think will add a lot. We have stuff on the way that'll lead to some nice times hopefully in improvement regarding Dionae as well. 

What do you feel is strongest about Dionae? Do you think we need to explore it more? 

[Caelphon]

I think you're one of the few players that dedicate their time to playing as a Dionae; essentially being their mascot. This is good, and on that alone you have my support.

 

I do have questions in regards to your application, however. 

1. Dionae continue to maintain this reputation of all-seeing pacifistic creatures who have no will to involve themselves in galactic politics (which I don't believe is right, but let's not argue that) what do you think could occur that will involve the Dionae within the galactic situation? What would make them more influential across the Orion Spur? 

 

2. What types of variations are you thinking of? 

 

Goodluck! 

 

[Melariara]

19 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

Do you think it needs to changed, clarified or kept the same and why?

I will say it should remain the same, for the reasons I outlined in the previous post.

 

19 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

What do you feel is strongest about Dionae? Do you think we need to explore it more? 

Honestly, I have a lot of answers to this. Mostly, their personality can and should be flexible. The DNA absorption could lead to some interesting scenarios within the game and within the lore and personality. There is, in theory, no limit to what could be done with the DNA absorption.

 

12 hours ago, Caelphon said:

1. Dionae continue to maintain this reputation of all-seeing pacifistic creatures who have no will to involve themselves in galactic politics (which I don't believe is right, but let's not argue that) what do you think could occur that will involve the Dionae within the galactic situation? What would make them more influential across the Orion Spur? 

Seeing them getting respected by the rest of the galactic community would be a nice start. Leadership positions within their various communities would certainly help. Also, some stuff that I know of will definitely help, I feel.

12 hours ago, Caelphon said:

2. What types of variations are you thinking of? 

Coral ones, seaweed, from a planet that we've yet to come across yet. Their songs last forever, because it has to go through water. I've also got an image in my head of a subterranean variant that lives in a somewhat dark environment with glowing mushrooms on their backs. Possibly they come from a very, very unstable planet, with storms ravaging the surface, too much for any dionae to withstand, but there is intense radiation underground. Their songs are small and quiet, due to the intense echoing.

[Lmwevil]

Alright here comes the proper right hard questions mate, okay? 

You're quite interested in ingame features but how will you get them actually implemented? The dev team  quite realistically has ZERO interest in doing anything for Dionae, most things we get done are by virtue of Yon doing simple code tweaks. Would you be able to invest money, do you have development skills etc? Without you being able to spearhead in some way you'll find these projects being helplessly lost to the void

[niennab]

I believe the above question touches on some topics that shouldn't be a point of conversation in these applications. Lore maintainers are not expected to take on developer tasks nor use real world money on what is an incredibly niche game. Ones willingness to spend money on the game should not be deciding factor.

Nevertheless. Mel is easy to talk to, receptive and kind. I think she'd do fantastic work on the team. +1

I don't have any questions about the lore however do you believe you can balance both moderator and lore responsibilities?

[Lmwevil]

2 hours ago, niennab said:

I believe the above question touches on some topics that shouldn't be a point of conversation in these applications. Lore maintainers are not expected to take on developer tasks nor use real world money on what is an incredibly niche game. Ones willingness to spend money on the game should not be deciding factor.

Unfortunately when some of your main application focuses are adding more dionae forms with functionalities into the game this is an uncomfortable truth that has to be brought up, as to how it will actually be completed. Additionally developers are unwilling to touch or add or balance dionae in any fashion, thus we have to do it ourselves or make it happen(see: dionae insulation, most changes to dionae by Geeves I've personally paid him for, etc). This is the unfortunate reality of our species currently, while it may not be that way for your species it sure as hell is for ours. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Lmwevil
a word

[niennab]

It is the case for every species. If the stars align, a developer might decide to take a look at your species but more often than not they can't, and that's okay. We're all volunteers.

I do not believe the question of financial contribution should be answered. Otherwise it sets an expectation that you need to invest in order to contribute.

[Caelphon]

I like your responses to my questions. I agree with Nienna, you are easy to get along with and you communicate well. This application has my support. 

[kyres1]

19 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

Would you be able to invest money

This is a non-factor and shouldn't be considered for a number of reasons. While I won't weigh in on this application just yet (at least, not publicly seeing as I should defer to Mofo first) I will say that we cherish teamwork above all. Development skills are an extreme plus as well. But, we're a niche community who should not be resorting to ideas such as, "Can you pay off a dev to muster the mental willpower to deal with our species."

With this said, mechanical requests are fit to be declined by development staff regardless of whatever species it is. It is my personal opinion that, it happens that Dionae have banked very hard in the direction of "hoping mechanics will change their situation" rather than attempting to solve the problem with outright lore development. This has made them a very mechanically oriented species inadvertently, which may or may not be their death sentence seeing as developers really have no reason to develop for a dead/dying feature, especially one as large/complex as Dionae. While this seems hopeless, it is a situation that can't be confronted by just telling developers to develop more, or even taking matters into your own hands (seeing as it can be rightfully denied, still by the same people).

[Melariara]

13 hours ago, niennab said:

Do you believe you can balance both moderator and lore responsibilities?

I believe I can, yes.

 

 

[Lmwevil]

Alright to put us back on track, what would be your immediate first project if you got the position? 

If there was one thing about our lore you could snap your fingers and remove, what would it be and why? If nothing, also why? 

[Melariara]

On 19/02/2021 at 11:24, Lmwevil said:

Alright to put us back on track, what would be your immediate first project if you got the position? 

Work with the current lore team on figuring out what is most needed desperately, and try to work with the other lore teams on this, as a lot of diona lore involves the people their clusters live around; how they live and possible leadership dionae/dionae of note and so on.

 

On 19/02/2021 at 11:24, Lmwevil said:

If there was one thing about our lore you could snap your fingers and remove, what would it be and why? If nothing, also why? 

Honestly, the Emperor of Dominia growing and eating dionae. It seems rather not cool and a little crass? I understand the image, but... doesn't sit right, but that's just me! But I feel like that's more of a human/dionae thing as well.

[Yonnimer]

Application accepted welcome to the team ?