Glory to mankind - Ricky's Human deputy App

[Ricky_the_banshee]

-STANDARD TEMPLATE-

Ckey/BYOND Username: Rickymadenson
Position Being Applied For: Lore deputy
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?:  Yes. I've read through the page and I'm aware of the responsibilities that come with this position, along with any consequences that might come as a result of misconduct or abuse of this position.
Past Experiences/Knowledge: My experience is quite limited. I used to do text RPs and would occassionaly write sci-fantasy lore for it, but unfortunately those pages were lost along with my continuous swapping between laptops and PCs. One metagoal of mine is to obtain more experience through this role.
Examples of Past Work (Please provide in a Google Doc or other easily accessible external link for sake of space): 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16xVyypJ8Udpm0i0BbRs-tyE02TZSRJr-ujph-Ciabz4/edit?usp=sharing    It is a WIP project I've been working on. It's entirely unrelated to Aurora, but it should provide an insight in what I can do.

-HUMAN LORE DEPUTY QUESTIONS-

1). Why do you want this position? Why do you believe that you could be a better deputy than others? 

a. The reason why I want this position is because I like Aurora. It's a server I've been a part of for over five years and counting. I had the pleasure of working together with a great administration team, met countable people I ended up befriending, and I felt it was only appropriate I'd give back to this fantastic community in another way. Lore is a brilliant way to expand character backgrounds, provide topics for people to discuss in their rounds, perhaps use as catalysts for their characters' personal arcs or perhaps overarching stories through events! I am currently undergoign my first year as a History minor student in University, and wish to use my knowledge of the way historians write their works and research sources to help touch on the history of the Human race. I don't intend to make repetitions of history resurge into our lore, but I am a firm believer that History tends to have a habit of "rhyming" rather than "repeating", so with my growing knowledge I hope to nourish our lore with some tidbits along the way and of course, ensure people remain faithful to what is already established.
 

2). What are three things you enjoy about human lore? Why do you enjoy these things most? These should be ranked from one to three in descending order of favouritism.

a.
1. Humanity's relatability. At the end of the day, we are all Human beings behind the PC. It makes it easier for us as people to connect to these characters in such a wide and contiuously expanding setting that allows for our characters to react towards. That goes to say that I'm not necessarily implying self-insertion here, but the ability to simply connect to a unique individual that we create to follow their journey with through this Universe. We are given just a treat of the character examples that we could base our next creations off, and I think with some additions to lore, we could expand this even more.
2. Humanity's diversity. By diversity, I mean their thoughts, ideologies, religions. Humanity is the most devisive species in our lore, with multiple space nations existing besides or opposed to each other. These nations all share their own goals, ambitions and futures for the Orion Spur. Furthermore, we even have separate thoughts, concepts and ideas within these very nations themselves, with different parites opposing each other, moderates, conservatism and progessivism taking their stands in the instellar podium of each respective nation (Biesel being a good example).
3. Humanity's dominance. Humanity, lorewise, makes up the most dominant species in the galaxy. You will find them almost anywhere, whether its travel by spacecraft, within the vast streets of Mendell City or some TV commercial model striking out the most corporate-friendly smile to sell you that animal tested shampoo with. In this almost dystopian future, Humanity remains at large and continuous to grow in its political strength. We can hardly even point at a single alien species and claim "They have the ability to overthrow them", because there isn't.

3). What is an area of currently extant lore that you'd like to improve or see improvements made upon? Why do you believe this area should see improvement?

a. The most important aspect I'm looking into are primarily cultural, linguistic and perhaps the atmosphere on our lore.

As I had mentioned in my second questoin, I adore the diverse nations and states that have sprout into the galaxy and how they reflect Humanity's tenacity to group together as likeminded people in likeminded states. However, I do get the impression that on the linguistic department, we're severily lacking. Elyra is a good example of this. A nation which has found its roots in Middle Eastern colonization efforts nowadays speaks a "remastered Esperanto", aka Tau Ceti Basic? 
Then we have culture. Sol Alliance, according ot the timeline of Humanity, is the result of the UN's desperate attempt to unite Humanity under a single banner and make the progression towards space smoothly.

One of its largest members at the time was, in fact, China. China in our lore, has taken a much more liberal approach in politics, as they turned out to become the USA's biggest ally. This resulted in the USSR becoming more isolationist and steadfast in holding its power than.) We see tidbits coming back of China's influence in Earth's culture and how this eventually expanded along with Humanity to space. Monkey King is the most popular movie franchise produced by a Venusia film director, the Human wikia page depicts the female character dressed in a cheongsam, a dress belonging to the Chinese Manchu subculture which has been widely popular in its country of origins. By expressing these cultures or at least giving proper descriptions of them, I believe players could find it easier to write characters belonging to certain worlds, pick up the nuances and add them to sugar up their characters' traits. 

I find the atmosphere that our lore creates detremintal to how people feel when their characters engage within this world. The Orion Spur in 2463 is a corporate-controlled dystopian future where the Big Five holds political sway in a majority of Human nations, makes up the largest share in each system's economy and could easily cripple an entire planet by transfering its operations elsewhere if it deems them "unnecessary". Sometimes, characters seem to act far too nonchalant about this timeline. Yes, not everybody will believe that the Republic of Biesel is primarily a political entity working for Nanotrasen's interests, but surely most people would be wary of the power their employers hold within the vastness of space. People need to be somewhat remembered of this, whether its true newspapers, policies or lore fluff I'd love to see that at

4). Assuming you are given the position, which area or project would you like to work on first? Why?

a. I'd like to help out with the effort to give Sol a bit more meat to stand on first. Perhaps I'd like to take a look into its military as well with some help, but my priority would be in assisting the lorewriter with expanding the Alliance's backstory in a single, clearcut wikia page rather than spread around into an incohesive mess that happens to be nowadays unfortunately. (That's to say I do not blame the present Human lore team for this. It has been a problem for much longer than that in fact.) Another important area I'd like to play on is Humanity's dominance on the Spur. I feel that people often times forget or take for granted how domineering Humans are supposed to be in this setting. The Big Five are all corporations which roots can be found back to Earth, aka Humanity. The most powerful military entities in the 25th century are all owned by Human empires, aka the Sol Alliance and arguably the CoC (from a defensive standpoint). The economic powerhouses are Human empires. Technological innovations, while still dominated by the Skrell, were pioneered by Humans.

5). How effectively do you work in a team environment? Remember that you will be both working in the human lore team and the greater lore team. Your responsibilities are not just writing lore, but being a small part in something larger.

a. I would have to ask the teams I've worked with througout my life XD. But no, I would say I'm a fair teamplayer. I am open to ideas, and sitting around the table to discuss and possibly find a common ground. Comprimising is an important part of teamwork, because sometimes what is best for the team may not always be what your perfect envisioning of the outcome could have been. I am open to accepting feedback from my fellow lore deputies and lorewriters alike, but I'd also accept community feedback on particulair changes or improvements they would like to see. Hopefully a middle ground can be settled for during meetings, as that is my priority when it comes to undertaking major additions to oure lore.

6.) What is your disciplinary history on the Aurora, if any? (Bans, Warnings, Whitelist Strips) Why did you receive these?

a. So far in my Aurora life I've only been warned once and that was during my first year on the server because of stealthcult. After that, it was me who handed out disciplinary consequences out to people. ;^)

[SilverSZ]

I've known Ricky since I started playing on Aurora pretty much I would say. I can clearly remember interacting and mostly importantly enjoying interacting with their characters back then and in all my experiences with them OOC they've been a very cool person all around and very easy to talk too. I've seen that they obviously has a solid passion for human lore and I must admit I really like some of the suggestions for the way they would want to take human lore to focus more on Humanities dominance in the spur and the dominance of the Big Five. As well as finally sorting out the Alliance's backstory and expanding languages for humans would be awesome. I've always wanted to see Elyra get something other than TCB.

Overall I think they'd make a pretty good choice for a Lore Deputy. So I'd give this a +1. I'd like to ask however, what do you think of the recent developments involving human lore such as the shattering of the Sol Alliance and the birth of the SCC? Do you think it's been a positive development for human lore overall and is there any direction you would want to see these events go if you had any influence over them?

[Ricky_the_banshee]

29 minutes ago, SilverSZ said:

Overall I think they'd make a pretty good choice for a Lore Deputy. So I'd give this a +1. I'd like to ask however, what do you think of the recent developments involving human lore such as the shattering of the Sol Alliance and the birth of the SCC? Do you think it's been a positive development for human lore overall and is there any direction you would want to see these events go if you had any influence over them?

 

Thanks for the endoresment!

First, I'd like to go in on the recent developments with the Alliance's fragmentation into smaller states/zones. I think the birth of these new lesser states could (and should) have a huge impact on how Solarians look back at their country, what new bloc they feel the most familiar with, how they look at the station's contribution to this etc. However, I will say that I do hope to give the Alliance their opportunity to "rise from the ashes" so to speak. I cannot imagine a timeline where the true SA would not at least attempt to reclaim their control over tehese loosely-affiliated "micro-states". Our lore has been quite adement on the Alliance believing its borders to be the bastion of mankind, and I anticipate that they will do whatever it takes to reclaim that prized title. Perhaps news articles on political reforms within the alliance, or news outlets that speak of talks between these states could be a nice hint at a potential renaissance. After all, the Sun never sets on the Sol Alliance.

Then finally, we have the SCC. I believe the SCC is the next phase of the corporate dystopia that our lore is based upon. It is the widespread, galactic message from Big Five to everybody else that they are taking a political, almost militaristic stance as we have seen in the recent major arc. The corporations have send a clearcut message that they have the means to stand their ground in the face of a military power by deploying their trump card at the decisive battle above Biesel. 
Futhermore, they will be the face of the NBT arc that our server will phase into, so I imagine their influence and the interactions between the five megacorps will be much more prominent than ever before. Their separate goals and aims will understandably come into conflict with each other, so only time will tell us how this will unfold.

[Desven]

Big +1, Ricky and I share the same views in many of these topics and find the same parts lacking and I think he would be fantastic to enrich them. He's a great roleplayer, and has a lot of experience on the server.

My question: what would you like to be done in regards to languages? The same goes for culture.

[Ricky_the_banshee]

2 hours ago, Desven said:

Big +1, Ricky and I share the same views in many of these topics and find the same parts lacking and I think he would be fantastic to enrich them. He's a great roleplayer, and has a lot of experience on the server.

My question: what would you like to be done in regards to languages? The same goes for culture.

Thank you for the endorsement, again!

Well first of all, in regards to languages, I envision they would be somewhat reflections of their ancestors colonization efforts. Language is the number one gateway to immersing yourself into another culture, understanding it and adopting it. It will not make you a specialists in a thousand different (sub)cultures across the globe, but it makes a significant difference when you speak, for example, bahasa indonesia, when you move to Indonesia vs. when you don't. You miss out on emotional nuisances, gestures and customs. Language is a carrier of both the culture's history and its traditions, so I find it an important element to include (though given the work required, compromises can always be made to make it somewhat limited of course.)

 I used Elyra as an example, so let me expand on that. According to the wikia, Elyra is supposed to be a colonization effort orchestrated by Middle Eastern/Northern African countries, and as a result this cultural roots are supposedly traceable to this regions. All these regions deploy the Arabic Script as their writing system, which obviously is a long way from our Latin script. It affects the alphabets of these regions, their shared phonemes, their writings and grammar. It's quite hard to conceive how these colonists, or their descendants, would be perfectly OK with switching from this familiar system to one so distinctly unique from their own. It would be a loss of much of their language's intrinsique value, and understandably woudl make a hassle to adopt in a modern-futuristic setting where individuals are more open to criticism. 

Perhaps adopting bay's language system would be a step into the right direction, but naturally that would require feedback from other (species) lore departments as well before such a drastic switch would be undertaken.  As for culture, I believe those careful nuances could be reflected into holidays. Perhaps the CoC has an "independance day" that could be celebrated, which would naturally upset Solarians. Otherwise, maybe Biesel should have a remembrance day for their first occupation (or the recent one given time). Little details like that could be impactful for rounds, from people arguing, to celebration among crew. Chefs preparing banquets, national anthems being sung aloud etc.

1 hour ago, Lmwevil said:

Okay so totally peanut posting here (as dionae not human lore) buuuuuuuuuut

 

that google doc example strikes me as uh - well it fits a particular stereotype of giant women that could be perceived as fetishistic. NOT that I'm saying it is but uh, where did you write that for exactly? 

 

listen I totally could be wrong here, don't mean to offend. 

I will get straight to the point and admit the original document was used for a server which was a bit more spicy (I'll leave the imagination of its origins open), so your assumptions were NOT wrong. Apologies in advance if it got you, or anyone else, through a bit of a shock there.  The document was NOT meant to be my excuse or the skeleton key for a floodgate of content many would consider risqué.

It was meant to be an illustration of my potential as a writer, a preview of what I can do or possibly could help expand upon, not to be my preemptive strike at an addition to our lore. We'll leave that stuff out of here.

 

EDIT: I was made aware that one of my replies got removed, though the exact reasoning behind it remains unknown to me. I'll keep my reply to this response in tact, unless staff advices me otherwise.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Ricky_the_banshee
Edited because of another edit

[Ricky_the_banshee]

Bump?

Edited May 18, 2021 by Ricky_the_banshee