Eridani I Planet Page Discussion Thread

[The7thLain]

Hi everyone. This thread has been paired with an Eridani lore update and announcement, the details of which can be found here: https://discord.com/channels/724651070017765459/724653105983258655/1004605109159866518

This is a discussion thread for us in the Human Lore team to get a read on some ideas that those in the community would like to see added to Eridani I when it gets its own planet page. We make no guarantees that we will use all the ideas and suggestions posted to this thread, however we wanted to give the community a way to clearly and concisely voice their thoughts on what they would like to see in a new Eridani I. We know that community engagement is important and meaningful, especially with something that has invoked as much discussion as Eridani after it's recent rework, so we wanted to take a large step in including the players in the lore-creation process outside of asking for individual canonization applications. Retiring all the planet pages at once was a misstep on our part and we are looking to correct this with community input. We want to involve the community as we know that many of you felt left out or were upset by the recent Eridani changes. You do not need to play an Eridanian character to contribute to this discussion and anyone can voice their thoughts, however we would prefer that if you comment, you are also a semi-consistently active player or community contributor to the server's lore or codebase.

First, some ground rules for a discussion:

• The name is not up for discussion at this time. While we may change the planet's name upon the creation of the new planet page, currently, Eridani I is still Eridani I.
• The environment of the planet. Eridani I has been terraformed to resemble a temperate, Earth-like planet with temperature extremes at its poles, but no exotic biomes or anything like that. This is not currently up for discussion.
• Things mentioned in the planet's blurb on the broader Eridani Corporate Federation page such as The Cube, New Kivu, and the Diakite Gardens will remain in the new version of the planet unless the Human Lore team decides to remove them. Eridani I will also still be the commercial centre of the Eridani Corporate Federation and where most megacorps have their Eridani HQ's.
• Broader things which impact the ECF as a whole like laws/in-game ramifications of citizenship, non-citizenship, reinstatement, and greater Eridanian culture are not up for discussion in this thread.
• We will not be reverting to or bringing back parts of the old lore for Oran unless it receives a significant change.
• This thread is for serious discussion and not for memeing, shitposting, or off-topic arguments. Please keep things civil and on-topic. This thread will be moderated by lore staff as well as admins.

Aside from those things, we would like to hear whatever the community has to say on what they would like to see for a new Eridani I. This planet is the most important in the Federation by many measures, and given the initial response to the first iteration of our Eridani update, we would like to include the community in the idea-crafting for this new planet so that we can deliver something which is not only popular in the playerbase, but also a well-written and meaningful piece of location lore which meshes with the extant setting well, represents Eridani in a way true to its themes and lore, and gives players unique opportunities in character creation.

You do not need to submit a document or largely written out set of ideas or goals like you would in a canonization application. This is a discussion thread where multiple people in the playerbase can contribute their thoughts and discuss their ideas. This thread will be rolling and currently has no set date for it to close, however, after we believe we have enough ideas, we will close it and hopefully finish the writing of a new planet page for Eridani I soon after. 

Good luck, and we look forwards to seeing what you come up with!

Edited August 4, 2022 by TheBurninSherman

[Montyfatcat]

Some emphasis on famous slums, famous for whatever reason, would be nice. Maybe something to do with extremely violent ones, as well as ones with a unique gimmick like a well known music scene.

[Desven]

I don't think lore has ever been able to capture how miserable the life of Dregs must be. It's always appeared to me as romanticized, which I find it hard if they're basically left for dead on a contaminated planet. I second the idea of slums, though I can understand it may be challenging to accurately portray them, or even too dark for the setting.

[Caelphon]

I, for one, would like to see some representation of the cultures present within West Sub-Saharan Africa. I believe this can be done tactfully and without impeding on the existing cultural elements present within the Eridani Corporate Federation. 

Quote

Proposed Cultural Integration: 

1. Introduction of cultural foods from the regions of which it was colonised. 

2. West African clothing styles. There is LOADS so I really think this would help. Their clothing could have been impacted by the consumerism which took hold across West Africa / Eridani. 

3. Sports & Recreation that has become integrated into the culture that exists across Eridani currently, that has roots in its West African colonial roots. 

4. Music is a big one, and there is tonnes of genres, but I think would be a cool cultural element to include. 

5. Architecture that has now merged with the unrestricted consumerism that has taken hold of Eridani. 

 

[Boggle08]

I reviewed the material upon the creation of this thread, and felt like I didn't have anything to add. There's material for an Eridanian offworlders in here, and the backstory of element of Amon's dreg abducting labs still exists on one of the planets. Those were the two things I wanted to still see around after the update, and there was nothing that struck out as egregious in the material. It's all solid.

Upon further reflection, I think I've only ever met one sympathetic Suit, and they're always outnumbered by Dregs. Eridanian lore has always coasted on a bed of thematically accessible and easy to understand cyberpunk tropes, but it's always hurt suits because it churns out extremely restrained, unsympathetic, and antisocial corporate characters. I can see there's an effort to expand upon suits on the page, but I feel like if anything needs more attention, it would be about their social life, culture, and how suits can express themselves on the ship. I adore my dystopias, but not if they come at the expense of characterization.

I feel like the hyper-materialistic, cutthroat, and judgmental environment the suits occupy leaves very little imagination when it comes to designing a motivation for a character. We have to consider what would motivate a suit to support and participate in their environment, besides trying to make ends meet, or hedonistic self-enfranchisement. It could come from a place of ideology or principle, but it looks like it could also come from a robust social life heavily sponsored by corporate connections. A Dominian primary, secondary, and tertiary can sit down with you at the kitchen and walk you through their world view, justifying how their society works and how it all fits in together. Speaking anecdotally, a typical suit in my mind would shut down at the topic.

I like what you guys have written for the suits already, and I hope you can eventually expand on it.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Boggle08

[Desven]

9 hours ago, Caelphon said:

I, for one, would like to see some representation of the cultures present within West Sub-Saharan Africa. I believe this can be done tactfully and without impeding on the existing cultural elements present within the Eridani Corporate Federation. 

 

I once suggested an idea for a money religion, which was originally suggested by @WickedCybs I believe? My idea followed some of the African religions principles and Africanfuturism. I can understand wanting to keep Eridani sterile, but in my opinion, having it as bland as white bread is also hurtful for how to accurately portray the characters. I think Boggle nailed it when he said Suits have little going on. In my opinion, Dregs do too, it's only that players of sci fi games are more familiar with cyberpunk tropes to pull them off (and even then, full punk Dregs working on a corporate ship feels a bit odd).

Even if the human lore team chooses to keep Eridani as a group that has erased its own roots, I think there has to be something for them to have them replaced with. Eridani can often feel as a caricature planet because of the simplistic opposition between Dregs (benevolent punks) and Suits (corporate-speak white collars). Hell, I think even Suits could benefit from some Yuppie lifestyle, though I would definitely prefer to touch on African roots.

At the end of the day, I think we do a great disservice to such a vast cultural group by having them be ethnically Sub-Saharan but nowhere near their customs, traditions, beliefs, or anything else than resembles them, other than their skin color and names. This is probably not brought up often because I doubt we have many (if any) Sub-Saharan African players here, but I would feel a bit cheated if Mictlan, for example, only had Hispanic names and everything else had little flavor going on.

[Diggey]

I feel like the fact that it was specified that the elements that were most heatedly discussed by the community were not up for discussion is a huge reason why the discurse over these changes has died

On 04/08/2022 at 06:21, TheBurninSherman said:

First, some ground rules for a discussion:

• The name is not up for discussion at this time. While we may change the planet's name upon the creation of the new planet page, currently, Eridani I is still Eridani I.
• The environment of the planet. Eridani I has been terraformed to resemble a temperate, Earth-like planet with temperature extremes at its poles, but no exotic biomes or anything like that. This is not currently up for discussion.
• Things mentioned in the planet's blurb on the broader Eridani Corporate Federation page such as The Cube, New Kivu, and the Diakite Gardens will remain in the new version of the planet unless the Human Lore team decides to remove them. Eridani I will also still be the commercial centre of the Eridani Corporate Federation and where most megacorps have their Eridani HQ's.
• Broader things which impact the ECF as a whole like laws/in-game ramifications of citizenship, non-citizenship, reinstatement, and greater Eridanian culture are not up for discussion in this thread.
• We will not be reverting to or bringing back parts of the old lore for Oran unless it receives a significant change.
• This thread is for serious discussion and not for memeing, shitposting, or off-topic arguments. Please keep things civil and on-topic. This thread will be moderated by lore staff as well as admins.

I know multiple people who have resigned themselves to these changes and are retiring characters as a result.

This was before the most recent changes to clarify and backpedal but the damage has been done - People have retired Dregs as a result of how citizenship was rewritten

 

This is not to say that change is bad, just that the reason there is no more discourse is because the playerbase feels that speaking up is pointless and doing so results in nothing except attracting the ire of the writing staff.

Also people really do not enjoy going to the forums - especially people with busy shedules or a lower commitment to the Server in general

[Haydizzle]

With some reflection, I agree with Diggey's post. The fact the thread has not received much attention is because the human team out the gate has stated they are unwilling to negotiate the terms on the parts that were the most contentious. Whether that is for better or for worse is something the future will determine I suppose.

I will say that a full cultural overhaul would detract from Eridani's themes; otherwise the proposal Cael made would be wildly exciting to see implemented elsewhere if possible, or in small amounts for Eridani with something like African-futurism.

[Boggle08]

4 hours ago, Haydizzle said:

I will say that a full cultural overhaul would detract from Eridani's themes; otherwise the proposal Cael made would be wildly exciting to see implemented elsewhere if possible, or in small amounts for Eridani with something like African-futurism.

The best way to approach any incorporation of proto-Eridani culture is to present it as something that the corporations of the system have gutted, commoditized, and restructured into an entity that controls the population. Something that wasn't forcefully torn away from the population, but subverted to the point where it's about as cynical as being a member of an expensive fandom, or gatekeeping identity with a hefty price-tag. We can have these things without having to compromise Eridani's themes.