unathi Geeves' Unathi Deputy Application

[geeves]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Geeves
Position Being Applied For: Unathi Deputy
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: ye
Past Experiences/Knowledge: My Previous Tenure as an Unathi Deputy
Examples of Past Work: The Wasteland

Write a wiki page addition: Alright so bear with me, I had this idea rattling around my head for about three years now, so here's the deal:

THE FLOATING CITY

The floating city predates both the Second- and the Third Hegemony, having been commissioned by the First Hegemony, before the Unathi's focus on aquaculture was shifted to goods and services.

To sustain their growing empire and feed their War Rider shock troops, the Kres'ha'nor Hegemony commissioned the construction of a simple floating village near the coast on the Moghresian Sea. A majority of the inhabitants were young and skilled fishermen who seeked adventure or an easy means to provide income for their clan. The rest were essential workers, such as tailors, carpenters, healers, and a few guards to maintain order.

The city's main exports were, of course, salted fish, which would be distributed across the land- critical in feeding villages that weren't near the shore and didn't have easy access to meat.

After the fall of the First Hegemony, the city would become its own independent city-state, having a large amount of political power over other larger territories due to being one of the largest suppliers of preserved meat. This streak would continue, as the city would continue to survive the fall of the Second- and the rise of the Third Hegemony. By nature of being on the water, it managed to evade the devastation of the nuclear Contact War as well, though many of the young men decided to join the levies on the side of the Traditionalists to put an end to the war as soon as possible.

The city's culture is primarily dominated by the old ideals of honor and Th'akhism, with the Akhanzi order setting up a temple haphazardly attached near the edge of the city, accessible via rickety planks for those wishing to make an offering to their ancestors. This temple, small as it may be, is one of the last remaining Akhanzi strongholds- the Iron Masks too fearful to launch an assault, at risk of losing their supply of fish.

The people have adapted to an aquatic lifestyle, as they're more prone to acquiring frills on the sides of their heads, and with a vastly expanded lung capacity, capable of diving deep underwater with little more than a wetsuit and a snorkel, to retrieve goods from the war, or clams for a snack. The main vehicle of choice for the youth are jetskis, capable of outrunning any water-borne predator, while the older folks prefer gondolas operated by a skilled rower.

Throughout the centuries, many upgrades have been made to the city. One of the biggest being the addition of enormous sails dotted across the rooftops, capable of moving the entire city to find a fresh place to find fish- even whales. Others include: Docks bolted to the side of the city, capable of creating and repairing large exploration vessels. A massive diving bell capable of taking up to eight Sinta to the ocean floor. A large arena for Zandiziite fights that have little to no risk of the combatants falling into the ocean below.

Alright that's about all I can think of right now, but this is just a basic summary that can be filled out with more culture stuff, trading stuff, etc. in a full page. It'd also be possible to bring this culture to the game by adding a new citizenship, origin, accent, and by adding the preserved fish in the vendors of the horizon (to showcase just how much fish these fellas catch).

As for why I want to add it, reason number 1 is: It's cool. reason 2 is: it fleshes out the Moghresian Sea, which hasn't had a lot of love since the inception of Unathi lore. My main goal in my previous deputy career was fleshing out the wasteland, so i think my next one should be fleshing out the sea.

Why it's important and why it can further the lore is: it adds another faction that isn't just the hegemony or the entire traditionalist block. It also grants players a way to play a character from old Moghes with old ideals mostly untouched by the progression brought forward by the Izweski clan, and the destruction of major cities in the Contact War. Additionally, it gives players a way to interact with the Akhanzi order in a new way, and perhaps give underground Iron Mask elements a target, as they haven't finished the job just yet.......


What piece of Unathi lore do you like the least? Why? Should you get the position of deputy, would you work to change it? How?: The wildlife lore, to be honest. There isn't much to it, and there aren't any pictures on the wiki either. Flora and fauna brings a lot of life to a planet, be that Moghes or Ouerea. As a deputy, I'd like to flesh this bit out. How I'd do it: I'd probably host a community thing where members of the Unathi whitelist can suggest animals, and then I steal their ideas and put it on the wiki under my own name so I can put it in the "Examples of Past Work" section of my next application.

Have you ever disagreed with a decision made by the Unathi Team in the past year? If so, what was the decision? Why did you disagree? How do you think we could have done better?: I'm going to copy-paste Rusting's answer here (honor applies to unathi not their writers) and say no, nothing really. Not in the past year, everything's seemingly been pretty smooth? I guess the lack of the Spymaster / Not'zar arc could be one thing, but that's just me.

Give a rough outline for a Unathi-centric event arc to be run on the Horizon that pushes forward an aspect of Unathi lore: After the success of the Tajara lore arc, I can only say that I'd LOVE to run an arc where the crew touch down in one of the Hegemony cities, and then accompany a Reclaimer Landcrawler as it hits various cities and points in the Wasteland in search of some McGuffin we'll figure out seconds before we announce the arc.

If it's strictly on the Horizon, I'd love to do a series of mini-events where an Unathi faction such as the Kataphracts come onto the ship and hang out, talk about their lives and what being a Sinta Warrior is all about- and maybe it can be capped off the the Kataphracts going "oh cool we found a phoron asteroid wanna come get it?", and then there being a big (small) bad there that the two have to defeat (perhaps not militarily? ooooooooh) together.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are you doing anything for the K'lax/Hegemony relationship: Nope, I have no plans for it, but I'd happily work with the Vaurca team to get something figured out if they do.
The Tajara team is singlehandedly upholding Gakal'zaal, will you lend aid?: I honestly forgot Gakal'zaal existed until literally right now. The best I can think of is to have an article or two posted about what the Hegemony is doing to support their foreign citizens, as well as describing how supposedly honorable warriors are conducting guerilla (gorilla) warfare to planet for the Hegemony. Perhaps there could be peace-talks and the Unathi and Tajara lore can have a common factor- or there could be a war that ends in the total destruction of the Unathi enclaves. Honestly, you'd have to brainstorm this with the entirety of both teams to have a satisfying conclusion to the status-quo, as it could go a lot of ways. I've worked with various members of the Tajara team in the past, so I have no doubts in my mind we'll have fun working together again.
OUEREA?!: I have no real intention of working on Ouerea as a deputy, I'll help if it's something being worked on, but I'm happy to let it vibe as it is.
DOMINIAN UNATHI?: Nope, no interest either. As usual, if someone comes to me about it, I'll engage wholeheartedly, but it's nothing something I'll go out of my way to write for.
WHY DID YOU RETIRE??: I ran out of creative juice and things to add, so I stepped down and let someone else who actually has things to write about take my place. I have no interest in hogging a spot I can do nothing for.
WHY ARE YOU REJOINING?: I have to beat Rusting in a fistfight. That is my only motivation. (I have stuff I want to add, like the above-mentioned city and wildlife expansions)
WILL YOU BE HERE FOREVER?: Absolutely not. Once I have the things above implemented, as well as things I may think of during my tenure added, I'll maybe stick around for two more weeks to see if I can think of something to add, if I don't, I'll step down and let someone else have the spot, just like last time. As for how long it'll last, who knows? Probably more than a month or two, at minimum.
ARE YOU SINGLE?: Yes.

[SilverSZ]

Geeves is my friend, as much as the fact he doesn't care about my precious beloved Dominia (Goddess Bless the Empire) wounds me it's something I can get over to say I would be pretty happy to see him get the position of Unathi deputy and his previous tenure is something I see a positive. Especially considering the wasteland is my favourite aspect of Unathi lore as it stands right now.

However, I do have some questions.

1: If Dominian Unathi, Ouerea or more Gakal'zaal lore ended up being what you were told to write, would you be okay with that? You mention that you don't particular have much interests for the former two and the latter is something that seems to have slipped under your radar. Are you fine with working on these, or would it be something that would sap your creativity and desire to work on lore if that was the case?

2: Do you have any thoughts on interspecies Unathi lore outside of the scope of the three big ones, being the K'lax, Tajara of Gakal'zaal and humans of Dominia. Unathi are presents on various other planets with Mictlan being a primary example and I know recently you've added stuff regarding the Au'takh communes of Eridani. Are there any other interspecies avenues you would like to explore or expand upon during your tenure?

3: What are your thoughts on the current major players of Unathi lore as a whole, primarily looking at your thoughts on the Hegemony here but feel free to touch on any others as well. Do you think they're in a good spot? Interesting? Boring? Underdeveloped? Would you want to change anything significant during your tenure.

4:

2 hours ago, geeves said:

I guess the lack of the Spymaster / Not'zar arc could be one thing, but that's just me.

Please elaborate on how we get our first canon romance arc.

Edited March 15, 2023 by SilverSZ
Swapped one funny for another funny

[geeves]

20 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

1: If Dominian Unathi, Ouerea or more Gakal'zaal lore ended up being what you were told to write, would you be okay with that? You mention that you don't particular have much interests for the former two and the latter is something that seems to have slipped under your radar. Are you fine with working on these, or would it be something that would sap your creativity and desire to work on lore if that was the case?

Oh yeah no, I'd be absolutely fine with it. My style of writing is less so burdening myself with the full responsibility and more setting up a word document, pulling a bunch of people in for a brainstorming session, and then handling the clean-up afterwards. It's just not something I'd champion myself, but I'm not afraid of some homework.

 

21 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

2: Do you have any thoughts on interspecies Unathi lore outside of the scope of the three big ones, being the K'lax, Tajara of Gakal'zaal and humans of Dominia. Unathi are presents on various other planets with Mictlan being a primary example and I know recently you've added stuff regarding the Au'takh communes of Eridani. Are there any other interspecies avenues you would like to explore or expand upon during your tenure?

Admittedly, I'm not very well-versed on Mictlan lore, or any of the new planets. It's likely that the human-sinta relationship on Mictlan is very similar to that on Ouerea though. The main problem with it is that you need a good hook to convince people to play someone from that planet. In the case of Gakal'zaal, you could play a Unathi guerilla warrior who fled battle and somehow managed up on the Horizon, or you could play a Tajara veteran who drove the Unathi out of the city and claimed it for their nation. Those are REALLY good hooks.

If ever I write about interspecies lore for anything other than the big three, I'd seek out a good hook to make it worthwhile. Currently, Unathi are in a lot of places though, so I don't think it'll be necessary to write another place they're in. Maybe once Gakal'zaal's fleshed out we can turn our gaze somewhere else.

As for the Aut'akh, I really like the state they're in now lorewise, I just want to get them interesting mechanically with the augment tweaks and origin things I've been PRing. If anyone has a suggestions, and I do get chosen as Deputy, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I'm sure Rusting or whoever else ends up applying would also be glad to hear your thoughts.

P.S.: Having just re-read this section, I don't mean to imply that me making Aut'akh more mechanically interesting will be tied to my position as a deputy, consider my coding ability to be irrelevant for this position.
 

21 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

3: What are your thoughts on the current major players of Unathi lore as a whole, primarily looking at your thoughts on the Hegemony here but feel free to touch on any others as well. Do you think they're in a good spot? Interesting? Boring? Underdeveloped? Would you want to change anything significant during your tenure.

Currently we don't really know what the Hegemony is up to, and this segues very nicely into point four, but I'd love to have an article from them at least once a month, maybe once every two months, which is basically just a status update. A good first candidate would be the Hegemony finally announcing plans to support the remaining Unathi on Gakal'zaal with food, water, weapons, etc.

The main concern is having the biggest faction in the lore just sitting there while the rest of the galaxy moves on with other things.

As for the big players in the lore, you of course have the Admirals of the fleet, Not'zar, the spymaster, the rest of the Izweski clan (I don't think there's that much written on them? Could be nice to flesh out.) It'd be fun if there was an update detailing what all these funky fellas are up to currently.

And then naturally you'd have the K'lax, who are also doing Bug Things around town. But you're never quite sure what they're doing. It'd be nice if that could be fleshed out as well, maybe we could get an update on Tret's Neutron Forge, as it seems the K'lax are playing a tall Stellaris nation and tech-rushing. Maybe we could get some high-tech kataphracts out of this, after Not'zar strikes a deal with the K'lax- maybe even using unsavoury fleets in the area to handle the acquisition of resources. There's a lot you can play with here.

 

21 hours ago, SilverSZ said:

4: Please elaborate on how we get our first canon romance arc.

After I canonize Housewives of Moghes via a new tabloid, we can have paparazzi battling with town guards to get pictures of Not'zar and Hizoni backstage discussing the speech he's about to do, with the tabloid blowing it massively out of proportion. From there? That's a secret...

[Triogenix]

Hi! And Thanks for applying. I have a bunch of questions I want to ask.

1) How patient would you say you are when waiting on other people? Specifically, waiting on other people to finish their responsibilities/writing in a project?

2) How well do you take criticism? Do you struggle with anything specific when it comes to your work being criticized?

3) As a Lore Writer, even a deputy, you'll be expected to contribute to team projects as well, so writing for corporations, biesel, etc. Do you feel comfortable doing this?

4) Lastly, when it comes to writing, how do you fair about writing things you don't enjoy in the moment?

[geeves]

20 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1) How patient would you say you are when waiting on other people? Specifically, waiting on other people to finish their responsibilities/writing in a project?

I really don't have a problem with waiting, I've done multiple projects in the past that needed input from multiple parties before it could continue. In the case where it's urgent and needs action now, and the other person isn't explicitly required, I may shoulder the burden myself to get the job done, but as an example, I did this Written Languages PR that needed input from every single species, and that was something I couldn't just do alone. All I did was given reminders every couple days and wait.

 

20 hours ago, Triogenix said:

2) How well do you take criticism? Do you struggle with anything specific when it comes to your work being criticized?

I was a CM dev during my absence from the server. Nothing anyone can say can hurt me anymore. I have no issue taking complaints, making them into something workable, and implementing or tweaking something. I for one love it when people hate my work, that means they care.

 

20 hours ago, Triogenix said:

3) As a Lore Writer, even a deputy, you'll be expected to contribute to team projects as well, so writing for corporations, biesel, etc. Do you feel comfortable doing this?

As long as we're doing it together, I have no issue with it.

 

20 hours ago, Triogenix said:

4) Lastly, when it comes to writing, how do you fair about writing things you don't enjoy in the moment?

My job has me writing technical articles at the moment, that I hate doing, but it needs to get done. The only drawback when I do something I don't like but that I have to, is that it gets done slower.

[Triogenix]

After thinking about this for the past week, I've decided to go with another applicant for the deputy position. That said though, I hope you will take some of your ideas and make them into lore canonization applications.