Desven's Vaurca Lore Writer App

[Desven]

Ckey: Desven

Position Being Applied For: Vaurca Lore Writer

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes

Past Experiences/Knowledge: Vaurca Deputy for almost a year now I think.

Examples of Past Work: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/Desven

Worked on most Vaurca pages, added a new Vaurca-centric newspaper, a new Vaurca Queen and many misc Vaurca lore.

 

Additional questions:

1. What part of Vaurca lore do you enjoy the most?: Probably the idea of different, delimited broods, even if I often come to trouble with them. I like them a lot; I think they can make for very unique character concepts with a millenary tradition. I've also come to enjoy their unique quirks and personalities.

2. What part of Vaurca lore do you enjoy the least? How do you plan to remedy this?: Probably just how disconnected it still feels when it comes to other species. I don't blame the players that think Vaurca as a whole is 'useless' because of that. I would like to have more inter-species interactions, K'lax-Unathi is a great starter.

3. Do you have any plans for any retcons to occur? Do you believe they’ll be kept minor or perhaps major retcons may be needed?: There is an infamous document I have on the Vaurca lore channel where I would like to retcon the Tau Ceti invasion. I'm not too adamant about it and I understand if it's not possible, but I think it is largely useless to the current setting. Additionally, I would like to expand on the Elyra invasion. I don't know how major or minor this would be, I would probably consider it 'medium sized'. It definitely would affect other species, but I don't think many people are too fond of these events in their current state to have any sort of backlash.

4. If you were able to change anything about lore, without any hinderance, what would it be?: Outside of Vaurca lore, I would probably remove a lot of (mostly forgotten) old lore. Again, I'm not that pushy when it comes to that -- we've had our discussions about it in lorecord and I've voiced my opinion before. Overall I think lore is moving forward smoothly, but I do fear that sometimes we have to come to compromises when working with older storylines that don't exactly fit the current vision.

 

Additional comments:

I was literally about to close my eyes and go to bed when I got the notification and I just felt the urge to apply. I would like to go in much more depth, but I guess if you have any more questions I'm happy to respond. So I encourage you to just ask me anything here.

[Gem]

desven is cool and has written interesting lore about vaurcae. i like the answers they wrote to the questions and think it would be interesting to see them implemented, where applicable.
since he's already a vaurca deputy i think he would do great as a vaurca lore writer.
+1

Edited July 2, 2022 by Gem

[Marlon P.]

Good application and plans of action. I would love seeing more klax and unathi developments especially. +1

[Faye <3]

What are your ideas for expanding the Vaurca - Elyra invasion?

[Desven]

3 minutes ago, Faye &lt;3 said:

What are your ideas for expanding the Vaurca - Elyra invasion?

Thanks for asking. I'm mainly concerned at the moment in many of the finer details (which are now mostly hidden, only mentioned in the old Elyran newspaper), but also the impact of the invasion as a whole.

In short:

—Proper motive. It's hard to justify why Bursa was attacked. It's an insular planet that's militarized. Even if the Lii'dra originally won, there's a planet literally glowing purple not too far away from there.

I don't oppose Lii'dra being evil, just outright mindless. I like the idea of a force that everybody opposes, but Lii'dra as they currently stand are not engaging and they're an easy excuse to make an LRP gimmicks.

For example, the Star Trek Borg are similar to the Lii'dra. While later in the franchise they've been shown somewhat more evil just for the sake of it, Lii'dra appear cartoonish next to the Borg. I've done a great effort on the Vaurca history pages to explain what could have caused a force like the Lii'dra to rise —I don't think there's a proper single answer, but there are more motives.

While I'm happier with how the Lii'dra were in Sedantis, their presence in the Orion Spur is flimsy and poorly written. The best example is the Tau Ceti invasion, which is something I'm not happy with and would rather scrap.

 

—The events: Now, the Lii'dra invasion timeline is also flimsy, with various attack waves that are often mixed together. Additionally, I've seen details of the TC invasion be instead placed on the Elyra happening. I think we could take the best of both, polish, and make an engaging story: not only for the Vaurca lore, but for human war veterans.

I'm not too keen on the presence of the Tups as a deus ex machina that saved the invasion, only for the Lii'dra to return months later with black k'ois. Then there's a Lii'dra queen that was left to chill inside a cave, unprotected, and got blasted by soldiers. It may work on a sci-fi movie from the Alien franchise, but it makes the Lii'dra seem as a disorganized, brute force. I like the idea of an animalistic, amoral Lii'dra, but it should not equate with incompetence, especially when they're meant to be a Hivemind.

 

—The outcome: For long, the Lii'dra invasion outcome has been mostly relevant only to Elyran players, partly because before the rewrite, the faction had not much else to reference.

I like the idea and I would like to expand in this. Mainly, I would make the Lii'dra disappear from the radar afterward. But I would also like to see the lingering effects in the galaxy and the hardships the Hives have faced since then.

Number statics are mostly empty; we know it had a large death toll but this is meaningless if there are no real consequences that showcase just how much it damaged Bursa. A smarter, more organized invasion would also showcase the Lii'dra as a better threat, so if they were to come back (I want to make clear this is NOT in my roadmap at the moment and I don't really think it would be in the foreseeable future) then lore writers would have a richer story to use.

[Faye <3]

4 hours ago, Desven said:

I'm not too keen on the presence of the Tups as a deus ex machina that saved the invasion,

I agree with this especially. Are you thinking of a like,- 'heroic suicide mission' kind of thing by Elyra to drive off the Lii'dra, or?

[Desven]

50 minutes ago, Faye <3 said:

I agree with this especially. Are you thinking of a like,- 'heroic suicide mission' kind of thing by Elyra to drive off the Lii'dra, or?

If I recall correctly, the Elyran army did have a suicide mission that failed. There was also a suicide mission in the TC invasion, and that one was successful.

I would rather have only one, by the Elyran army, that had a mostly positive outcome, even if it didn't win the war.

This is part of “merging” both invasions, something I referred in my OP. Nevertheless, I 100% understand if it isn't possible. I just think the Lii'dra would benefit from one single invasion.

Even if I couldn't fulfill my plan, I would like to clear some details when it comes to Elyra and the Lii'dra. Mostly their purpose, just so it isn't a mindless attack.

[wowzewow]

Desven is a reliable person and is easy to work with. I agree with making them more prominent and being more linked up with the other species in the lore. Vaurca are such a unique and interesting species and I'd hate for them to go to waste, and I think they'll be a good fit.

+1

[DeadLantern]

I have no doubts that Desven will be an excellent loremaster for the Vaurca. I have a question just for my own curiosity.

What do you plan to expand/do to flesh out K'lax-Hegemony relations? You identify it as a relationship that, frankly, needs some more meat on its bones, and I agree completely. What are your plans to expand their relations? A wiki page? Events/arcs? The possibilities are kind of endless, so I'm interested to hear your specific ideas on what needs to be done to provide a cool relationship between the two powers.

The same question goes for the C'thur and the Federation, as well, though that is going to be different than the K'lax and the Hegemony.

[Desven]

7 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

I have no doubts that Desven will be an excellent loremaster for the Vaurca. I have a question just for my own curiosity.

What do you plan to expand/do to flesh out K'lax-Hegemony relations? You identify it as a relationship that, frankly, needs some more meat on its bones, and I agree completely. What are your plans to expand their relations? A wiki page? Events/arcs? The possibilities are kind of endless, so I'm interested to hear your specific ideas on what needs to be done to provide a cool relationship between the two powers.

The same question goes for the C'thur and the Federation, as well, though that is going to be different than the K'lax and the Hegemony.

One of the main reasons I created a new K'lax Queen (Tupii) was to expand on the relationships between the Hegemony and the Hive. In my opinion, none of the other Queens had really much going on which could make them closer to the Unathi. At the end of the day, Vedhra is written as a weirdo that becomes isolated because of her love of augmentation, and Zkaii is just... Zkaii.

Not that I wanted to make a completely loyal Queen, either. Tupii is written as cunning, which makes her more willing to take advantage of the situation. Other K'lax Queens are more wildcards, but still have had little reasons to interact with the Hegemony government. I think Tupii provides an interesting scenario where relationships between the Hegemony and the K'lax are more dynamic.

I've also been planning to expand Tret a lot, and in general just add more information regarding what services they provide to Izweski. So far, K'lax has only really been seen as merchants or Warriors. However, they're supposed to be an industrial Hive, so why not make Tret an important industrial center for the Hegemony? It also helps because they can keep blasting Tret without harming Moghes.

That being said, I think at the end all Queens need to really get the ball going, as they've been stagnant for long.

And as for C'thur, my mind has not been on them for a while, because of all we added in these past months. I think they're in a much more developed position currently than the other two Hives. This doesn't mean I plan on expanding them, however, but I would like to do some K'lax and Zo'ra shenanigans first. I didn't like the ending of the Bulwark arc that much, but it allowed for the C'thur to take a breath and regroup. The consequences of loosing their special relationship with Zeng-Hu has also meant the Hive depends much more on the Federation than before. I think that's a good symbiotic relationship.

[Roostercat]

Over my time as Bug Maintainer, Desven was a huge help and quite honestly, probably did more lore than I did overall. He was invaluable in making the Bulwark come to life through sprites and helping with the arc that introduced them, and I'd be happy to see him take my place, as it were. Any questions I'd have for him have basically been asked already, so I feel comfortable leaving it at that. Big +1

[Caelphon]

Congrats on your promotion to Vaurca Lore Writer.