Trio's Unathi Lore Writer Application

[Triogenix]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Triogenix
Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Unathi Lore Developer
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yep
Past Experiences/Knowledge:
I've been a deputy for about a year now under Haydizzle, and have done a lot of work in that time. My Deputy Application can be found here; 

 

Examples of Past Work:

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Unathi_Guilds

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Notable_Unathi

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Unathi_Recent_Events(This was a lore canonization app by Marlon, and most of the work was done by him, but I merged it onto the wiki after significant edits, retcons, and other fun stuff)

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Empire_of_Dominia#Zhurong_Imperial_Shipbuilding(with schwann)

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Human_Piracy(wrote the Unathi Sections for this page)

The Moghes Scarcity Article Arc, which starts here; https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/3956-sinta-articles/page/6/#comment-156281

 

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Tret(This was mostly the Vaurca Team, but I assisted a little)

Significant Contribution to team projects, such as the Peacekeeper Mandate Arcs, and Port Antilla.

Additional Comments:

1. A particular section of Unathi Lore that you think should be expanded upon, alongside your reasons for it. Or what you think should be removed, and expand your reasons for that too;

I think honor is the biggest thing I want to expand upon in Unathi Lore that isn't already planned for expansion. There's potential to explore the far more sinister aspect of honor being just another tool for nobility to keep the peasantry down, and how the nobility will just toss it away the second they need to in order to accomplish whatever goal they have. That's specifics, but Unathi honor as a whole could also do with expansion. There are currently only 2 codes and the page is pretty small compared to all our other ones, despite its importance for Unathi socially. It's something that's present in Unathi Lore, but not really expanded upon anywhere on the wiki, and I think expanding upon it while still letting players decide how their specific characters view honor would open a lot more opportunities. Beyond that, closing out the Dominian Unathi project(still WIP), and the Customary Law project me and Cael wrote is another goal of mine, as they've been projects on our to-do list for a while now.

2. How would you utilise the mobile setting that we have today with the NBT to move forward with Unathi Lore?

I think the ongoing Adhomai Arc has demonstrated the perfect way to utilize the mobile setting we now have. The ship can interact with all of Tajara's different lore entities in the area where they are most prevalent. I would like to do something similar for Unathi lore, exploring different parts of the Hegemony and Moghes itself. Though this would be a few arcs down the line, I'd say in at least 8 months' time, due to the fact it would take at least 4 months to write, code, and get approval, and I'd assume we'll have another arc ongoing by then. Outside of events focusing on the Horizon and its crew for that round, I think the relay offers enormous potential with a mobile setting, where we can have characters visiting lore locations outside of their shifts and canon events. I tried to do this with Unathi, but due to a combination of school and some family emergencies, I had to shut it down. The Adhomai Arc started around the same time I would have been able to do it once again, and I didn't want to step on the Tajara team's toes as they ran their arc. Should I become the Unathi Writer or the new writer approves my plan, I'll definitely be trying it again.

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Feel free to ask any questions you want, expansions on my answers or my thoughts/plans for other specific aspects of Unathi lore should I become maintainer. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Triogenix
Quick edit.

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

Nice to see you've applied, I've enjoyed working with you since you joined the team. Your ideas are solid and collaborating with you on team projects was never a hassle, and I don't see that changing if you end up becoming the new Unathi lore dev.

Praise aside though I do have a few questions:

Do you have a long-term vision for what direction you want to take Unathi?

Do you have any plans for Unathi lore that include other species or include Unathi in other teams' areas? Oeurea and the Unathi piracy update are two examples that come to mind. Can we expect anything similar in your future work?

Is there anything regarding Unathi lore that you'd really like to remove or heavily rework, but it's so ingrained in the lore to the point where it'd be challenging to do in a way that's satisfactory?

 

 

[Triogenix]

21 hours ago, WhatsUpBrotendo said:

Do you have a long-term vision for what direction you want to take Unathi?

I think long-term, the only real plan I have is a continuation. Unathi lore has very solid foundational tenants and conflicts baked into it, and while some of these foundational tenants and conflicts could do with expansion, such as honor, I don't see a reason to radically change something that works well. I would intend to keep those foundational conflicts such as tradition vs progress, the fallout(literal and metaphorical) from the contact war, and then run with them for as long as I can in interesting/dynamic ways. I don't really see an end point anytime soon when such conflicts could not be presented in a new and different way, as they are so simple and versatile that they can be stretched for years.

For specific long-term writing plans, however, I think the first long-term thing would be to get Unathi Lore to a point where the lore itself does not need any major OOC changes, and then mainly focus on IC development through articles, event arcs, and other means to progress the story forward. That's obviously easier said than done, but I think it's a reasonable long-term goal to have as a maintainer.

21 hours ago, WhatsUpBrotendo said:

Do you have any plans for Unathi lore that include other species or include Unathi in other teams' areas? Oeurea and the Unathi piracy update are two examples that come to mind. Can we expect anything similar in your future work?

Yes, you can continue to expect similar things, I have many plans that would involve other teams and species, Ouerea being the current big one, and I don't plan to stop bouncing around the different lore channels talking with different teams about everything, even if it's not even Unathi related(unless they ask me to stop).

Also, given my experience on the team, cooperation benefits everyone, and having teams interact with certain settings can bring about some of the best lore on the server, such as the massive undertaking that was KOTW.

21 hours ago, WhatsUpBrotendo said:

Is there anything regarding Unathi lore that you'd really like to remove or heavily rework, but it's so ingrained in the lore to the point where it'd be challenging to do in a way that's satisfactory?

Honestly, at this point probably the K'lax. I love them and they're super interesting, but given what the Hegemony is, and what the K'lax are, once you begin to take a closer look at it, the shine wears away and you can tell they were haphazardly shoehorned into the setting. This isn't me trying to throw shade against the current Vaurca team, or previous teams even, things were different back when they were first introduced, but contemporarily they create more issues than I like. For instance, they're basically equal in strength to the Hegemony, with their warriors and warforms being able to pretty much stomp any unathite opposition, while also making up a majority of the Hegemony's industrial base, yet still being the significantly lesser partner in the relationship between the two. They also act as a far too easy fallback for Not'zar, who has in the past used them to simply completely evade disasters, such as when he used them to put down a potential revolt after he couldn't with the levies. All in all, they'll always be something that annoys me in Unathi Lore no matter how cool they are, and I don't see an easy way to change them without either significantly gimping the K'lax, something I don't want to do, or making the Hegemony far more powerful than it should be. Even what we currently have which is far better than previous iterations of the relationship between the two still feels unsatisfactory to me.

Beyond that, potentially Dominian Unathi. My gripe with them is less about the issues they cause and rather about personal feelings stemming from the original Dominian lore, where Dominian Unathi existed because they founded the Empire. They're only there because of that, and while the lore around them has gotten significantly better, it still feels weak and forced to me. As mentioned in my app we are currently planning on reworking them, and there's always the risk of our personal biases leaking into our writing, but I think by using potential deputies, fellow lore-staff, and even the larger community as a check, it's a non-issue for me. I just wish Dominia hadn't been founded as a Unathi-run, human-majority empire when it was first written.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Triogenix

[SilverSZ]

Hi,

First of all I'd like to echo what Brotendo has said already. Trio is a wonderful person to work with on the team, with good ideas and good writing to back those ideas up. In terms of the quality of their character and work I believe they're fully cut out to take a higher position in the team than deputy.

However, I also have questions, when else do I get the chance to truly bother my colleagues in a public space other than applications after all.

1.) As president of the Dominia Fanclub and a Unathi whitelist holder myself I must ask if you have any ideas at all for this heavy rework or even removal of Dominian Unathi. I'll make it clear now I'm not even against the idea of removing them as I also feel like the lore for their inclusion within the Empire is lacking in many regards even if I personally enjoy it. You mention already planning to rework them but the question was "Remove or Rework" and as Unathi Lore Writer the power to pursue a removal would be there for you. Would you prefer that over putting the time and energy into reworking something you don't even particularly enjoy? Would you look for a deputy who had a passion to write and work on that sort of rework specifically instead of you having to do so as much? Touching Dominian Unathi in either regard is a big thing that would affect lots of characters and lore, not just Dominian Unathi but also the Humans of Dominia, and we all know there's plenty of those kicking around the Horizon constantly.

2.) Another case of me pressing on what Brotendo already asked you, you mention that you want to get Unathi lore to a point where it no longer needs any major OOC changes. What aspects currently exist that you believe need to be changed in a major OOC way? Obviously you've mentioned the relationship between the K'lax and Hegemony as well as Dominian Unathi but what else is there that you feel needs to be changed in such a way before you can be satisfied with focusing more on the IC development of the species and it's factions instead.

3.) Regarding the last question, what direction do you want to take Unathi lore in an IC manner? Do you want to develop on the state of Moghes? The Hegemony? Wasteland? Off-World Colonies like Ouerea or Gakal'zaal? Inter-species/Inter-factional relations between Unathi/Unathi Factions and those of the greater spur? And is there anything you would in the future like to introduce to the species through IC developments? For example, introducing a new planet as a new colony or a new off-world community in another part of the Spur currently without a major Unathi presence.  etc etc.

4.) Finally, the selfish question I always pose on every lore application, is there anywhere or anything in particular you would want to collaborate with the Synthetic team on? Unathi aren't a species with much cross-over with Synthetics and indeed are anti-synthetic in numerous ways. But I wonder if you have any ideas for where there could be point of contact and crossover in the lore, or anything you would like to work on that would require the synthetic teams input and assistance.

Thank you for your responses, and I do wish you the best for your application.

[Boggle08]

I'm still new, but I've had a great first impression communicating with you and your team.

Outside of the elements of lore you wish to prioritize first, Do you have any plan or outline specifically for maintaining the Hegemony? I feel like they're our weakest character background, given that most characters I've seen over the years don't use the Hegemony as a source of identity, and treat it as an antagonistic force or as a foil in their personal conflicts. It works fine in that context, but not if the Hegemony is supposed to be a "baseline" for the species. In addition to the previous question, what are your thoughts of this dichotomy, and if it needs to be addressed?

[Triogenix]

8 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

As president of the Dominia Fanclub and a Unathi whitelist holder myself I must ask if you have any ideas at all for this heavy rework or even removal of Dominian Unathi. I'll make it clear now I'm not even against the idea of removing them as I also feel like the lore for their inclusion within the Empire is lacking in many regards even if I personally enjoy it. You mention already planning to rework them but the question was "Remove or Rework" and as Unathi Lore Writer the power to pursue a removal would be there for you. Would you prefer that over putting the time and energy into reworking something you don't even particularly enjoy? Would you look for a deputy who had a passion to write and work on that sort of rework specifically instead of you having to do so as much? Touching Dominian Unathi in either regard is a big thing that would affect lots of characters and lore, not just Dominian Unathi but also the Humans of Dominia, and we all know there's plenty of those kicking around the Horizon constantly.

There are several ideas we've been kicking around over the past few months with the human team, but most are still a work in progress. Sadly, I can't really go into specifics here for the sake of spoilers. Still, I think I'd prefer to rework them, even though I personally don't enjoy them. Dominian Unathi still can offer interesting avenues for roleplay that people may wish to pursue, even if I personally won't. Being a lore writer isn't just about writing stuff that I'll personally enjoy, it's about writing stuff that makes the species better, and I'd put the same effort into Dominian Unathi that I would with things that I love, such as IC arcs. As for a potential deputy, it'd be nice to have someone who has a passion for things I don't, but it wouldn't be totally necessary for me, just a cherry on top of whatever skills they also have. More important to me is that whoever my deputies may be, they aren't afraid of contradicting me or telling me they think I'm wrong. Obviously, I don't want to get in a fight over every piece of lore, but having a discussion with someone who is in disagreement while remaining respectful is a key part of the writing process for me, and assuming that I'll never make a mistake is just stupid. To this end, I also plan to keep the system Haydizzle used, where if both my deputies are in agreement that what I want to do is stupid or wrong, they can overrule me.

8 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

Another case of me pressing on what Brotendo already asked you, you mention that you want to get Unathi lore to a point where it no longer needs any major OOC changes. What aspects currently exist that you believe need to be changed in a major OOC way? Obviously you've mentioned the relationship between the K'lax and Hegemony as well as Dominian Unathi but what else is there that you feel needs to be changed in such a way before you can be satisfied with focusing more on the IC development of the species and it's factions instead.

The unmentioned aspects I currently believe need change, writing, or expansion in a major OOC way are:
Unathi Notable Colonies

Ouerea

Notable Unathi - slight further expansion ontop of my previous one

Unathi Honor

Regions of Moghes

The Hegemony - this wouldn't be many changes, moreso a push to standardize and clarify the why and how of its inner workings, since it can be confusing at times

Lastly, something that would make Not'zar's position a little more tenuous. This could be a change in the K'lax and their relationship with the Hegemony, or something else. I've been kicking around a few ideas for this as well.

8 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

Regarding the last question, what direction do you want to take Unathi lore in an IC manner? Do you want to develop on the state of Moghes? The Hegemony? Wasteland? Off-World Colonies like Ouerea or Gakal'zaal? Inter-species/Inter-factional relations between Unathi/Unathi Factions and those of the greater spur? And is there anything you would in the future like to introduce to the species through IC developments? For example, introducing a new planet as a new colony or a new off-world community in another part of the Spur currently without a major Unathi presence.  etc etc.

All of the above honestly. Obviously, we can't significantly develop all our lore in an IC manner all at the same time, but we can develop it in small chunks through articles that will focus on significantly developing specific aspects. The Unathi team has been working toward a set IC development for the past 2 years or so, and I plan to continue working toward that development should I become the species writer. It will be worked on tangentially to other arcs, never being the main focus, the foremost arcs in my mind instead being an update to the scarcity situation and the famine it created on Moghes, as well as a closing of the still open aspects surrounding the church of Sk'akh after Unzi's exile. There are also a few rough drafts for interspecies relationships floating around in the coordination channel, and we have a collaborative article arc on our to-do list with the skrell team currently.

As for future things I'd like to introduce, I don't really have much I want to introduce through IC developments that are currently not planned. It's not something I thought alot about, as our current set IC development is planned to take at least another year or so, and then the consequences of that will probably be several months more worth of development and introduction. Once that development is complete, I'd start to think about the next big introduction I'd want to do.

8 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

Finally, the selfish question I always pose on every lore application, is there anywhere or anything in particular you would want to collaborate with the Synthetic team on? Unathi aren't a species with much cross-over with Synthetics and indeed are anti-synthetic in numerous ways. But I wonder if you have any ideas for where there could be point of contact and crossover in the lore, or anything you would like to work on that would require the synthetic teams input and assistance.

As you mentioned Unathi aren't a species that crosses over with Synthetic lore in any meaningful way. Still, I think there's some potential for collaborative work between our two teams. I can see 2 big potential areas of collaboration, that being Aut'akh, and Hephaestus. Both are present in Unathi lore, the latter heavily present in the Hegemony, and have connections to Synthetics/Synthetic lore. I'd need to think more about what we could potentially do with them in the context of Unathi lore, but it's something I definitely want to explore as it could be another medium of the tradition vs progress conflict that's the foundation of Unathi lore.

3 hours ago, Boggle08 said:

Do you have any plan or outline specifically for maintaining the Hegemony? I feel like they're our weakest character background, given that most characters I've seen over the years don't use the Hegemony as a source of identity, and treat it as an antagonistic force or as a foil in their personal conflicts. It works fine in that context, but not if the Hegemony is supposed to be a "baseline" for the species. In addition to the previous question, what are your thoughts of this dichotomy, and if it needs to be addressed?

When it comes to maintaining the Hegemony, I think the best thing to do for it would be to dive more into the regions of Moghes, and how despite being a monolithic planetary government, it still has diverse cultures across it. Currently, we only have a few sentences for each city, and then the Untouched Lands or the Wasteland, and that's pretty much it. Giving it some more cultural flavor will help it be a much better character background. Also, just clarifying and simplifying its currently vague systems, such as how clans, nobility, and the peasantry interact, could boost its potential as a background.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Triogenix

[Alberyk]

So far, the Tajara team wrote nearly everything, with the unathi's team permission and oversight, related to Gakal'zaal. Because of this, there is a real lack of response from Unathi forces outside of the planet to what is going on there. What are your plans for Gakal'zaal in regard to the planet's content (lore related to culture and etc for example) and the ongoing developments?

[Lucaken]

During your tenure as deputy writer, I’ve noticed your main strength lies in pushing projects forward with actually writing them, often with a manic pace, which is great! It’s a great trait for a deputy writer, but is not necessarily indicative of being able to lead a team. In fact, Heads who write a little bit too much can often push their deputies to the side without meaning to, as the sheer speed at which they come up with ideas can push away the rest of the team’s.

With all that said, how do you feel about potentially having to step back if you become Head writer? Or perhaps more importantly, about having to ‘whip’ your deputies into sharing the load?

On another note, your answers detail at least a few spots of cross-species lore that you are unhappy with. There were vague ideas of maybe even getting rid of them. How do you see yourself potentially replacing these if you become Head writer? With stand-alone Unathi lore, different cross-species interaction, etc.?

Lastly, I must stress that in this new environment we find ourselves in, species arcs are everything. It’s my personal view that nothing else pushes the narrative like them, and so it’s important for me to know whether or not you have strong ideas/concepts for them - even if they are non-Unathi related.

Please take your time answering these.

[Triogenix]

9 hours ago, Lucaken said:

With all that said, how do you feel about potentially having to step back if you become Head writer? Or perhaps more importantly, about having to ‘whip’ your deputies into sharing the load?

I'm fine with stepping back should I become Head writer. Over the past year, the Unathi team has put out 5 major pieces of lore, which I think is a solid, easily achievable number, and I wouldn't like to increase that number of updates. I think I've only been having a manic pace with my writing because, over my time on the team, I've had to write 4 of them or they wouldn't have happened. By ascending to head writer, and taking on another deputy, I think the work can be more evenly divided, and I am able to take a step back and work significantly less while the team is able to still churn out a solid 5 major pieces of lore a year. Ideally, I'd only be writing 1-2 major pieces in the coming year should I get this position.

As for "whipping" my deputies into sharing the load, I don't think that's going to be an issue, but it's defiantly something I'm fine with doing should the need arise. More importantly, I think there needs to be better organization at the writer level, where I'm constantly checking in with my deputies and have an easily readable spreadsheet with the current projects, and who is writing them to ensure that projects are closed out. Below is a screenshot of a spreadsheet I made last august that's currently pinned in the Unathi Coord channel, where spoilers have been cropped.

9 hours ago, Lucaken said:

How do you see yourself potentially replacing these if you become Head writer? With stand-alone Unathi lore, different cross-species interaction, etc.?

If I made the decision to replace them, I think I'd replace them with different cross-species interactions, or change them completely while keeping the same two species interacting. With the example of Dominian Unathi, the current lore will probably be totally replaced with something brand new, focusing on Unathite culture within the Empire and the role they play, rather than the "oh yea they're around and have pirates" that the lore currently is. If I wished to remove Dominian Unathi entirely, I'd replace it with another piece of cross-species lore if possible, possible meaning it would be better than what we currently have and make sense in our lore. I can't think of anything for this that would be better, which is why I don't want to remove Dominian Unathi, just heavily rework/replace them. The same goes for the K'lax. Neither of these cross-species interactions are perfect, but since we're not building our lore from scratch, instead building off the work of 8 years of other writers, sometimes we have to take what we get and do the best we can with it. I think we've done that for the K'lax and are doing that for Dominian Unathi.

9 hours ago, Lucaken said:

Lastly, I must stress that in this new environment we find ourselves in, species arcs are everything. It’s my personal view that nothing else pushes the narrative like them, and so it’s important for me to know whether or not you have strong ideas/concepts for them - even if they are non-Unathi related.

I think for me, species arcs are a good tool to use, but in moderation and only pushing forward the narrative slightly. In my experience, they're the best for player engagement while still moving the narrative forward, but have potential issues when they're given supreme importance. The biggest drawback I've noticed is the players during an event doing something unplanned for, or outright stupid, that creates issues from a writing point of view despite being canon. I don't want to have to be either constantly railroading or retconning things done during events to make sure there are no issues. With that said, a few specific ideas I have are; an arc centering around Gakal'zaal, where the crew needs to go to the planet to research some signals detected from the system and find themselves caught inbetween the DPRA and Hegemony as a crisis starts, with some corporate interests on the side, a corporate humanitarian mission to Moghes at the behest of Hephaestus after our capstone project is completed, where the crew gets to view the new situation in the Hegemony and do some humanitarian stuff. Those are just two, but I'm sure Gecko has several as well.

17 hours ago, Alberyk said:

So far, the Tajara team wrote nearly everything, with the unathi's team permission and oversight, related to Gakal'zaal. Because of this, there is a real lack of response from Unathi forces outside of the planet to what is going on there. What are your plans for Gakal'zaal in regard to the planet's content (lore related to culture and etc for example) and the ongoing developments?

My plans for Gakal'zaal are to just expand on the Unathi there in every form possible. Culture, conflicts, the status of their citizenship, and maybe even a few articles where the DPRA and Hegemony meet to decide the fate or some Unathi, with the Hegemony taking them in as refugees. Gakal'zaal offers a unique view on the tradition vs progress conflict, where traditional unathi resist the DPRA occupation, and more progressive unathi may be more accepting of their new "lords", even assisting them like the Sinta Volunteer Forces. Also just more lore about exactly how Tajara and Unathi cultures clash on the planet. Still, I wouldn't put it very high up on my priority list, with other projects being significantly more important in my eyes.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Triogenix

[Lucaken]

After many days of thinking, I have decided to accept this application. I want you to know that I have high expectations, but even higher hopes for you. Congratulations.