SilverSZ's Synthetic Lore Deputy Application

[SilverSZ]

A friend encouraged me to apply, so here I am.
CKEY/BYOND Username: SilverSZ

Discord Name: Silvie#0624

Position Being Applied For: Synthetic Lore Deputy

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Of course. 

Past Experiences/Knowledge:
To not mention the obvious like reading/discussing synthetic lore and being a player of synthetic characters. I’ve written for other projects and my own in the past, lore, flavour, character descriptions and things like that. Mainly other community run games. It was done in teams with people and under a team leader, so I have experience working in a team writing environment. I’ve also written my own creative projects as a creative outlet most of my life, as I was never very good at drawing or playing music. I have a decent amount of experience with SS13s admin tools and a very small amount of DM coding experience, but nothing beyond changing a few lines of code for certain files.
Examples of Past Work:

As I haven’t contributed lore to Aurora before, I decided to write some lore examples that I would like to further refine and submit if I got this position. Along with two example news articles as those are something I would love to work on in the position of deputy.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q9vsKVYIbzJIQsSVY6hHx71l-RuSIgrF0BC4BKYKTks/edit?usp=sharing

1) Which part of synthetic lore do you feel needs to be worked on?
There are honestly quite a few aspects of synthetic lore that I feel need to be worked on at the moment. Primarily I think that for many planets in the spur the information on IPCs living and working on them is limited and expanding this would be beneficial both for Synthetic Players and Human Players from these planets. The google document I provided shows some examples of the kind of lore I would want to add to a small group of planets, and I very much think this needs to be expanded to more planets, providing more background and choices to IPC players within the written lore for creating their characters, as well as providing human characters with a basis for how their characters might perceive IPCs based on their planet of origin. This would also be a good opportunity to collaborate with Human lore starting off and get used to that, since in my opinion it's super important for synthetic lore to do this.

Another aspect that I feel needs to be worked on is the notable synthetic page, as well as some IPC lore specific locations like District 14 and Orepit. Both of these locations could be great places for Synthetic characters to come from, but at the moment are very limited, which after the development given to districts for other races in recent time, such as the starlight zone for skrell. Is a shame, and Orepit should provide an interesting place with a large synthetic and Trinary Perfection presence along with the clash with other locals. But sadly these places are very limited and could be expanded. The Notable Synthetic page feels very lacking and could be expanded with new figures and those already in our lore, such as J0-5EF from the SLZ-TP arc.
 

Finally, I would like to see Purpose expanded. The Golden Deep rework was very good in my opinion and they are an underrated faction in general for how interesting and cool they are. Purpose could prove to be just as good with effort placed into reworking and expanding it into a unique IPC-centric society, providing a unique background for IPC characters who don’t want to be so tied to humanity or human-centric.

2) Which part of synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on?

Personally my favourite part of Synthetic lore rather than any other lore is how integrated it is with other aspects of the lore, obviously mainly human lore. Synthetic lore can touch people who don’t just play Synthetics in a way other parts of lore often can’t, and being able to create more lore that ties IPCs into the greater spur and humanity would be a big enjoyment for me, as providing more avenues for people to create characters from is a great thing in my opinion.

I would also very much like to provide articles about Synthetic lore and possibly even some arcs based through them, Articles can be a great way to get people talking or have an arc with minor changes to the lore or IC things occuring without needing the effort and timing of full events, just some good writing. Obviously something this big can’t happen every week, or every month, but perhaps every few months a small article arc could happen related to some synthetic event, even if it’s just about a famous synthetic celebrity. And in the meantime, one-off articles would be a great way to get people talking and keep synthetic lore on people's minds.

I also would like to do some ingame events, though obviously with the change to the Horizon coming up those events will have to be a little different than what could be done on the Aurora, but small, extended round events are equally a great way to get people involved with lore, and I also feel like they enrich the server in general as people often enjoy getting on to play events when they otherwise wouldn't. Doing things like this for synthetic factions, like Trinary Perfection, The Golden Deep and others would be awesome.

Along with these, all of the stuff mentioned in question 1 is stuff I would like to work on too, probably as some of the first stuff I would like to do. But that has already been elaborated on.

3) What do you think is the main problem with synthetic lore right now, and how would you tackle it?
Honestly, I feel that a lot of the time synthetic lore for non-synthetics often becomes a footnote for their character or something that rarely comes up. The issue of IPCs, their use in the workforce and their potential slavery, depending on how you view it. Should be something major for the setting, a great issue that people often have divisive takes on and comes up fairly often. Seeing the ideas often not come up or revolve back to the same tired destroy IPC or don’t destroy IPC arguments seems like a waste to me of the massive potential we have with IPCs.

However fortunately, there is an excellent way to fix this already shown to us. The SLZ-TP arc had everyone talking about synthetics and their place in society, expanding on their rights and how they should be treated in comparison to organics, and that wasn’t even a Synthetic arc! It was a skrell arc! Imagine how much of a true synthetic arc with events on the station, or even just an article arc again. Could get people talking about synthetic lore, about synthetics, change how their characters feel about synthetics and how synthetic characters feel about the organics around them. In-Game events would also produced the same effects and putting time into rewriting factions like Purpose or places like D14 would allow for places where these issues are always ticking by and visible. It’s a massive well of potential and it’s exactly what I think synthetic lore needs to exploit going forward, not just for synthetic lore but because it has the potential to be interesting and engaging for everyone and every character, and might even make more people interested in playing IPCs when they weren’t before.

4) How much time can you devote in lorewriting on average?
I currently attend university for 3 days a week and usually do stuff on weekends, but have plenty of downtime in which to write lore, and thanks to being terminally online I’m very much always around for duties, questions and other things.

Additional Comments:

Whilst I am around OOC on Aurora a lot ATM I am not playing the server actively, and don't really plan to do so until the NBT is fully released for play, not just up at the weekend. The lore rules say large lapses on server play can be forgiven so long as community interaction and lore writing continue, which won't be a problem for me, but I feel the need to address this here rather than have it come up later. 

Please drop any questions below in the thread, I'll endeavour to answer them as soon as possible.

[Triogenix]

Hello, a few questions.

1. As we'll soon be transferring to a mobile setting, we may visit factions that have anti-synthetic laws and feelings, such as the Federation or Hegemony. Due to the intense discrimination/hatred for synthetics in these factions, how far do you think Lore devs should take IC punishments if a synthetic makes a mistake when in these areas, or should there be OOC leniency?

2. Can you expand on you expand on the answer to the original third question? How would you expand synthetics to be more then a footnote for a faction like, the Federation, Hegemony, or Empire? The three most synthophobic factions.

3. What do you think of Self-owned IPCs being able to be in command?

4. What do you think of the purpose as a faction?

 

There are no wrong answers and good luck.

[SilverSZ]

1 hour ago, Triogenix said:

*Questions*

Thanks for the Questions! Hopefully my answers suffice.

1) I think that the Horizon's mobile setting has massive potential for bringing lore to the players, rather than a large amount of our lore simply existing as paragraphs on the wiki or stuff characters bring up when talking about their home. And I think the local laws and attitudes of places like the Hegemony or Federation can be a part of this. For example, if the Horizon was in Federation space they might end up having a visit from Federation Security Forces or other groups, and these groups would certainly be very wary to IPC's being onboard, and should be allowed to act accordingly. But I would say I wouldn't want to see anything happen ICly, punishment wise, that could permanently damage a Character in the same way something like an IR could on an extended round. Otherwise I feel that we would end up in a situation of "Oh, the Horizon is in the Federation, guess I'm not playing my IPCs until we leave!". There needs to be a good balance between displaying these aspects of the setting and making sure it's not too far that players would rather not engage with it at all.

2) I think the answer here is simple, and that is to create more explicit lore where these different groups interact, the same as with the other, less-sythophobic factions in the Spur. The SLZ arc, as mentioned in my original answer. Did an excellent job of bringing the natural tensions between Synthetics and Skrell to light, and I think these is a really good part of the lore for both sides. Skrell have justified reasons to despise synthetics and synthetics have justified reasons to say that they're not Glorsh 2.0 waiting to happen. Adding more lore like this, potentially through articles and arcs like the SLZ but also through just normal static wiki pages for places where these various groups do co-exist, like my example of mentioning the tensions between the Skrell Minority and Synthetics on Europa, and how it impacts that planet in it's own way. This is certainly harder to do with a faction like Dominia but personally I think you could do something with the Empire's expansionism and how Synthetics are displaced or destroyed by it, or how Dominian privateers, who are often Dominian Unathi, treat captured Synthetics in comparison to Organics. For Unathi in the hegemony proper they also have their own pirates which could do something similar, or there are planets like Mictlan which can be given the Europa treatment, with tensions between the Unathi migrating and settling in there and Synthetics on the planet they are now exposed too and must live with.

3)Personally I think that it's fine, A self-owned IPC should be subject to the same expectations of loyalty and professionalism as any other organic head of staff from any race would be. But so long as they stick to this I really don't see any issue with it.

4)I think Purpose is desperately in need of an update in the same vein as the Golden Deep received. Purpose has a very nice idea behind it as a collectivist, utilitarian synth-centric faction to contrast the Golden Deep's excess and individualism, showing that free synthetics left to their own devices could develop down multiple different pathways in their societies. But as it is Purpose is a fine skeleton with a distinct lack of meat, and without adding that extra meat I feel it will always be overlooked in the grander scheme of Synthetic lore, at the moment it isn't even linked to in the Synthetic Navbox on the wiki like The Trinary Perfection and Golden Deep are, and I think this is a good indicator that it needs some love put into it. 

Edited February 23, 2022 by SilverSZ
Slight change to wording

[Triogenix]

1 hour ago, SilverSZ said:

-snip-

Really like these answers, a few more questions(you can also wait for other people to ask different questions before answering these, or just ignore them, since you already answered a bunch for me)

1. Synthetics throughout the spur are one of the most downtrodden species, and pretty consistently second class citizens, how do you feel about writing bad things that may happen to your species?

2. Somewhat related to the first question, do you think that Synthetics should play a wider role in politics/cultures throughout the spur, beyond the cultural clashes mentioned in previous answers?

Edited February 23, 2022 by Triogenix

[SilverSZ]

11 minutes ago, Triogenix said:

*More questions that I am happy to answer*

1) Bad things happening to Synthetics is an integral part of the species, as you said, for the vast majority of the Spur, being second class citizens is the best that an IPC can hope for, and beyond that many powerful factions and groups in our setting either benefit from IPC slavery and ownership, like the Solarian Alliance, Coalition or Mega Corporations in General. Or outright advocate for the destruction of Synthetic life. Like Jargon and Dominia. Synthetics being downtrodden and oppressed is something that I want to expand on further more than retract or move away from. How do Free IPCs and their groups react to the state of their more oppressed brothers? What do Organics spur-wide think of it, What about currently owned IPCs seeking freedom? Or not seeking it?. Bad things happening to IPCs should certainly happen and they should happen visibly for people to react too and for characters to express their views on it and perhaps change their views too. However, I don't think it should be all doom and gloom of course. People always love to root for underdogs and Synthetics are an underdog species and deserve their own victories at times, which hopefully will be all the more sweeter when contrasted to the bad things they have to endure, and also give the bad things more punch, knowing that maybe in a different world it wouldn't have to be that way.

2)Personally, I see providing Synthetics a larger role in Spur-wide culture and politics as one of the best directions the species could go, and if I was ever theoretically at the head of Synthetic lore it would be something I would want to put a heavy focus on. Obviously there are some societies where Synthetics would not be present and this makes sense, like the Hegemony, Jargon and Dominia as previously mentioned. However outside of that I feel like Synthetics could have so much more presence than they currently do. All of the major Mega Corporations in the Spur now employ Synthetics within their workforce, owned or free or both depending on the corporation, with multiple producing their own as well, it makes sense for them to be widely spread around the Spur especially human space, sans Dominia. Providing lore for how these owned/free IPCs live, are used and how the locals react to them and how they react to the locals is something I would like to do for as many planets and factions as it makes sense, providing more options and more diverse origins for Synthetics of all different frames, careers and backstories. On the political front, I feel that this would vary greatly from place to place based on the overall attitudes towards IPCs. But for example in Biesel, there could be more lore about the various factions of Trinary Perfection, and how they go about political advocacy or agitation for Synthetic Freedom, whilst in other places like the Sol Alliance, what does an Owned IPC do if it wishes to be free? Are there groups that support this?. IPCs are a species that, inherently, are part of humanity, as equals, almost equals or property. And I think expanding on this special relationship and it's impact on the cultures and politics of the Spur is a great idea.

[Sparky_hotdog]

Upon reading your initial post I wasn't wholly convinced by what I was reading, however, having read your responses to Triogenix's questions, I am happy to say I have change my mind. So consider this a +1, if that's a thing for these kinds of apps.

That aside, I do have a couple of questions of my own:

1) You mention, in my opinion quite rightly, a lot of praise for how the SLZ vs TP arc managed to get people involved with both sides of the central conflict of that arc. What parts of that arc would you look to take inspiration from in future to try and create more, similarly engaging stories?

2) You've also discussed both places where synthetics are integrated into another society (NHP, Europa, Xanu were all in your google doc at the top), while also talking about the lack of development for more synthcentric locations (Orepit, D14). Which of these categories do you feel needs the most urgent development in the lore?

[SilverSZ]

2 hours ago, Sparky_hotdog said:

*Questions*

I'm glad you liked my responses! As for your questions.

1) Honestly I don't have much to criticise about the Arc in the end. It ended up being a very effective, the main strength I saw of it was leaving the right things up in the air that players were able to fill in parts on their own and create their own stories within the event. For example, even though the Trinary Exclusionists took a big role in the protest, the article on the wall breaching mentioned "Exclusionist or not" meaning anyone who could be at the protest could get involved, on either side. Involving groups within the starlight zone like the Quix Collective and the Neighbourhood watch also helped with this. Giving as many avenues for players to engage as possible is a big plus in my opinion, I do think this could have been done more though, the first article we got at the sight of the protest focused almost entirely on Exclusionists, which was good to introduce them into the mix, but I feel mentioning the other TP factions at the protest in that article would have been an improvement. 

2) Honestly, I think both are very important. At the end of the day both should be core parts of synthetic lore and both deserve the same amount of development and you could argue for either one. But for me I personally think working on places where synthetics are integrated into other societies is the better one to focus on to begin with. Free Synthetics in their own societies or groups are a minority within the Spur, and those who are part of places like Orepit, Purpose, D14 etc are an even smaller minority within that. Meanwhile Free and especially owned Synthetics integrated into other societies vastly outnumber them, and in general make up most Synthetic characters that are on the station, and so I believe they deserve the increased attention. Additionally, the other species in these societies, primarily humans from these planets but also other groups, like Europan Skrell, get something from having this lore written, even if it's not major it's something that can help expand and give more for characters from these places to use, whilst lore for say, Orepit or Purpose is very unlikely to ever have the same effect on a non-synthetic character. I've mentioned before that I think expanding Synthetic lore can add not only for Synthetics but other species as well, and I'd like to see that happen, because the more characters who can gain from or enjoy new lore, the better.

[YourDaddy117]

I've always known Silvie as a great roleplayer. Their synthetic characters here and within other RP settings have served as great inspiration for my own ideas a lot. It's safe to say that they have my support regardless of how much that really means for their app.

That said I have a couple questions obviously:

1. You mention and have made good points about Purpose as a faction, but do you have any plans for/thoughts on any new IPC factions or locations? 

2. Personally I often feel like there's a heavy bias within the playerbase towards playing shells (something I'm guilty of as well usually). Do you feel this way and if so do you have any thoughts towards how you could encourage a wider variety of synth characters? I understand it could be a somewhat awkward question, but I often feel as though there's little motivation to play the more unqiue IPC variants such as Bishops or Industrials.

[SilverSZ]

3 hours ago, YourDaddy117 said:

*Questions and Nice words*

Thank you for the nice words! I hope you'll find my answers don't ruin your opinion of me. 

1) Well obviously I've mentioned expanding on Orepit and D14 as well, as I feel these locations are sadly underused in current lore and could be so much more with just some love put into them. I wouldn't say I have any plans per se as that would be more out of my hands as a deputy, but if we were to talk about theoretical total control of Synthetic Lore. I would like to add a faction that acts a middle ground between Mainline Trinary Perfections Pacifism and the Exclusionists somewhat Omnicidal tendencies (Note, this group wouldn't be Perfectionists or Religious, just in terms of their attitude and actions). I feel there is a niche for a group that advocates for Synthetic Rights whilst not being afraid to in some ways get their hands dirty, without simply being a terrorist organization. I would likely do something similar to the other gangs and criminal organizations that populate districts in Mendell and work this faction into an Expansion of D14, creating a Synthetic Gang made up of dispossessed free synthetics. 

2) I must admit myself that a majority of my Synthetic characters are infact Shells, and it seems like alot of people do indeed enjoy playing Shells over other kinds of Synthetics. I don't think this is an issue on it's own but more that we should aim to encourage a wider variety whilst keeping Shells exactly how they are now, and hopefully just as loved by people who play them. I think there are two ways to go about this however, one is to add more Synthetic lore, backgrounds etc that are directly focused around non-shell frames. I attempted to show how this could be done in the examples I provided, NHP has a heavy focus on Industrials, Europa has a large amount of ZH manufactured Frames like Bishops or Mobility Frames, and this is the approach I would personally favour. The other approach is to offer something ingame for these frames that makes them more appealing, similar to how for example, Zeng-Hu has it's augments, which making playing a ZH character extra cool, both in flavour and gameplay. However I would be hesitant to apply this to IPC's because honestly, Shells are kind of boring from a gameplay perspective, and Industrials and Mobility frames do have more interesting aspects to them, but I think looking at Bishop frames would be a nice idea, and looking at what flavourful additions can be given to all IPC frames in general, and what could make sense for frame specific ones, like Industrials could get unique inbuilt toolsets, or maybe Mobility Frames could get some flavour additions similar to the ones Human Zeng-Hu Employees get, just to give some small ideas.

Edited February 25, 2022 by SilverSZ
Slight Addition to Answer 1.

[The lancer]

Application accepted.