faye - synthetic lore deputy

[Faye <3]

Ckey/BYOND Username: PersephoneQ
Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): IPC Deputy
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes
Past Experiences/Knowledge: I’ve been writing, roleplaying and doing character design for well over a decade. I've been apart of one writing community or another since middle school, and it's been my main hobby for as long as I can remember. 

Examples of Past Work: I have multiple accepted lore applications on the forums, and a whole hell of a lot of drafts, snippets and cuttings.

New Gibson soft-rework (approved, on wiki)

Medinan Lore Expansion (approved, on wiki)

Dominion Dueling and Cultural Expansion (co-wrote, approved, on wiki)

Prosthetic and technology overhaul (approved, on wiki)

Synthetics in the Solarian Wildlands (proof of concept, unused)

I also maintained a relay IPC-centric newspaper. I lost most of it, but I found a few drafts here.

1. What aspect of synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on?

 My favorite aspect of synthetic lore is freedom. The synthetic whitelist offers a degree of creative liberty surpassing even human lore, where outside of a few restrictions, you’re only limited by your own imagination and how far you can push a given concept. I’ve always admired the synthetic lore-team’s willingness to help whitelistees workshop unorthodox or strange ideas into something playable and lore-abiding, and my absolute favorite thing to do is help IPC players with their character ideas, backstories, gimmicks, etc. Anyone who is close to me has endured my regular daily barrage of IPC ideas, I really do just love thinking about them. As Deputy, I would want to help ensure this freedom is maintained.

In terms of lore, I find the synthetic criminal underbelly of Konyang to be a wealth of untapped potential. Konyang’s corruption is referenced multiple times on it’s page, and I would absolutely adore a noir-style article series (or maybe events!) based around some shadowy goings-on. I was excited at the Kaneyama power plant mini-arc because it showcased some of the contract corruption and organized gangs, and I’d really like to see it expanded or a new arc began. Maybe an expose from a hidden camera? A power imbalance with the gangs? Stories from anonymous cops about the regular corruption and double-dealing? Maybe I’ve watched too much of the Wire and played too much Yakuza, but I think there’s a wealth of content there. Especially if you tied in the Golden Deep’s Zaibatsu! The Golden Deep’s shadiness I would love to see expanded, and I think tying their Zaibatsu in with Konyang’s gangs is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. 

However, I do believe the community’s eye is on the Trinary Church at the moment, and I’m perfectly content with that as well. I learned to write through medieval fantasy RP, so the Church’s esoteric ways and archaic manner is something that’s intimately familiar to me. If I were to work on the Church, I think synthetic lore has done an excellent job of making the Church much more of a greyzone for IPC characters. How will non-prototypicalist denominations survive as the Church consolidates more and more of its power around a central ideology? Could there be a schism? What will happen to Flock? Are we headed towards a Trinary Church Protestant Reformation? How will the Spur respond to an increasingly wealthy, influential, and armed synthetic advocacy group? Orepit’s struggle for survival is an excellent story, and I would love to contribute to it. My interest in the Church is primarily how the world responds to it, as IPC personhood and self-determination becomes more and more of a hot-button issue.

And don’t even get me started on synthetics in the Wildlands. As you can see, there are a ton of concepts I’d love to try tackling. At the end of the day, I’m not applying with a specific agenda I want to push through. I want to be in the room where it happens, so to speak. I want to contribute to my favorite species on the server, whose lore I like and care for very much. I want to see how the pudding is made, and be a part of that process.  I have many, many ideas, and it just depends on what my betters in the team would want.

2. Do you work well in a team environment?

I’ve been in moderation for a while with success, and I’m going to school for a degree (nursing) that demands a good work ethic and cooperation with my peers. I know in times past I was something of a hot-head which I do not deny, but I think that I’m in a better headspace overall nowadays now that my IRL life has settled a lot. I’m not proud of that behavior, and I hope my more recent behavior has shown that I’ve improved. Being told no doesn’t bother me, and I’m not so partial to my ideas that I’d be upset that some were thrown out or set aside in favor of better ones.

3. How active do you think you will be when it comes to writing lore?

I have time for a hobby, if that’s what you’re asking. I work a monotonous job while I go to school that allows me a few hours of brainstorming a day, and I often come home with little ideas jotted down on a notepad, some good and some bad. I don’t see a lack of time being an issue. By my own admission, I've been eyeing this deputy slot for a while. It isn't an impulsive decision.

4. Present a written work about anything related to synthetic lore so we can see your writing style, around 300 words minimum.

 I think that frankly, I’ve written enough formal wiki-style posts. My skill and capability shouldn’t be in question, at least in that particular area. Therefore, I’ve decided to write something that shows my aesthetic and stylistic tastes instead. I’ve written and designed what a Trinary-produced newspaper could look like. Here you go.

[FearTheBlackout]

I think Faye is very passionate about any part of lore she sets her mind to, and that would go double as a synthetic lore deputy. The creativity and unique style she puts into her works are always eye-catching, and for good reason. Therefore, I support this app. +1!

[Roostercat]

I've known Faye for a long while, at this point years, and I can say without a doubt she is one of the most passionate players on the server when it comes to the lore, with her Gibson rework and her synthetic characters being pretty good examples of that. Her attitude has also gotten endlessly better as well, so I think she'd be perfect for the position. +1

[DeadLantern]

Faye has been a long-time lore contributor and her lore is consistently unique yet grounded in our setting, which I appreciate. She is also good at creating opportunities to show off intangible aspects of lore by the players--an example of that is New Gibson. The superficial (but still important) aspects of a culture/group such as their cuisine, fashion, slang, etc is something that is included in Faye's work, but with New Gibson especially, I can get the vibe of a New Gibsonite extremely well. In short, her lore is dripping with character, and I find it very easy to imagine how the average New Gibsonite (both above and below ground) thinks, acts, wants, etc.. That is the most apparent and awesome part of Faye's writing. For this reason, I support this application.

I also mentioned that Faye's writing is grounded, and that reflects in what lore she desires to expand upon. I have also found myself wondering what the Konyanger underbelly is like, an an event arc when we are near Konyang sounds awesome (even if it's on text). The expansion of synthetics in the Wildlands and the trinary church is obvious and, I think, warranted. I do have a question though: what are your thoughts on expanding more of the weird and highly experimental parts of synthetic lore, such as the Golden Deep? I think Synthlore can grow in terms of independent synthetic communities, and as you point out in your application, creativities can run free with some of the high-concept organizations one can create when dealing with synthetic-only independent groups. I know you speak of expanding more on the Golden Deep (which is awesome), but what are your thoughts on potentially having more groups like the Golden Deep (basically, very strange and very cool synthetic communities relatively cut off from a piece of human lore)? What are your thoughts of making the Trinary church more weird in the vein of Golden Deep lore?

Edit for more questions:

Do you have a horse in the Bioshell race? How would you see them implemented, if you do want them?

Are there any parts of synthetic lore you dislike/warrant a rework or expansion? You talked about expanding Konyang, Trinary, etc., but it seems like you have a positive opinion on those parts of lore.

What do you think about the lore relating to Synthetics in a Dominian context? Do you think there could be more clash between certain Synthetic organizations and Dominia? Or is the status-quo fine (synths don't touch dominia in any fashion and vice-versa)?

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by DeadLantern

[Faye <3]

thanks for your reply ^^. 

46 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

what are your thoughts on expanding more of the weird and highly experimental parts of synthetic lore, such as the Golden Deep?

 

46 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

but what are your thoughts on potentially having more groups like the Golden Deep (basically, very strange and very cool synthetic communities relatively cut off from a piece of human lore)? What are your thoughts of making the Trinary church more weird in the vein of Golden Deep lore?

i would really like to explore more with the aforementioned group's otherness. the Church currently has Liturgical EAL which is a restricted language only senior members of the clergy have. i think the mystery of this is super cool, and i'd like to develop some more oddities for the trinary church to set them apart. my main inspiration for this has been esoteric Christianity and gnosticism in the few times i've thought about it. if i had it my way, we'd emphasize the divide between the senior members of the church and the laity, i'd enjoy some rituals, people slaving attempting to decipher liturgical EAL, etc. the risk with attempting to contribute more experimental and conceptual ideas is that you risk alienating your playerbase, and i think the Golden Deep is a safer spot to do this with than the Church. in the past, the synthetic playerbase was quite cross when the church became more forceful as the church consolidated, so it'd have to be done a bit slowly and with that in mind. 

 

46 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

Do you have a horse in the Bioshell race? How would you see them implemented, if you do want them?

i would like bioshells like most other people, but if i'm honest, i can't implement that. if lancer came and told us "okay faye and other deputy, we're gonna implement Ash from Alien" ofc I'd be delighted, but speaking in a totally honest and free way I don't consider it overly likely. you'd need a shitload of competent code likely from a commissioned artist, our coders would have to learn to support that code, and we'd have to all agree on how it would work. if i could you know, lay down however much money it'd take to introduce bioshells, i would simply want a huge bloody retcon if I'm honest. I don't think that mechanical shells and bioshells can co-exist, b/c it'd be a huge mess. we'd either need a big retcon IC, or we'd need to give a reason in-game for as to why everyone's shell is being upgraded to this new chassis. 

46 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

Are there any parts of synthetic lore you dislike/warrant a rework or expansion? You talked about expanding Konyang, Trinary, etc., but it seems like you have a positive opinion on those parts of lore.

i'd like to expand on Deluge a lot. i believe his status as a shadowy killbot-esque figure is a bit disappointing, and I'd like to understand more about him. this may be a strange faye tangent, but i've always interpreted Deluge as a trauma victim. I'd want to characterize him as a deeply cerebral and intelligent philosopher-esque figure who can rival ARM1-DRIL in terms of oratory and scholarly skill, and who cares deeply and profoundly for the plight of machines. you can view their motivations in a few ways: their sorrow has to hatred, and that hatred has consumed them. or, a simple and very machine 'humans have harmed robots enough for humans and robots to be incompatible.' self-preservation thing. my strongest writing skill IMO is my ability to develop interesting and complex characters, and i'd want to give him a facelift! aurora in general has an issue w/making unknowable and mysterious villains, and i think that sucks. people love a good and compelling villain.

 

46 minutes ago, DeadLantern said:

 

What do you think about the lore relating to Synthetics in a Dominian context? Do you think there could be more clash between certain Synthetic organizations and Dominia? Or is the status-quo fine (synths don't touch dominia in any fashion and vice-versa)?

uhm honestly, the issue w/dominian synthetic conflict is the same issue you have with J-Fed - Synthetic conflicts. the power disparity is simply too extreme - any form of conflict is so insanely weighed in one side's favor it wouldn't be interesting. i'd love to write lore about the ramifications of synthetics existing in a galaxy with said factions, though. For example, what happens to the synthetics on a world Dominia has marked for annexation?

[Flpfs]

I always enjoy talking to Faye about lore, she shows great dedication in all the lore pieces she has wrote and submitted. There's many interesting projects to be done with Synthetic lore and I believe that her creativity would be perfect for the various ideas that future writing could cover. +1

[ImmortalRedshirt]

Very good application, and interesting newspaper draft I give it my +1. I have one question, if you don't mind answering.

What is your opinion on the state of cyborg/shipbound lore?

[Faye <3]

40 minutes ago, ImmortalRedshirt said:

What is your opinion on the state of cyborg/shipbound lore?

thanks for your reply. i think I have a more conservative opinion on cyborgs/shipbounds, in particular bounds. in my opinion, a bound is not a substitute for a whitelisted IPC character. a bound is a ship-locked, relatively rudimentary (when compared to IPCs) machine that maintains its vessel and assists its crew. to me, they serve a very clear OOC, mechanical purpose of plugging gaps in the manifest. however, i do acknowledge some people enjoy playing them, so i wouldn't advocate for their wholesale removal (but i would be fine with that.) that said, i do not believe they should form complex relationships or personalities. we have a whole whitelist if you want to play a synthetic being that may or may not be a person, and ship-bounds who try to be 'real' characters regularly cause problems from a moderation point of view. i would prefer cyborgification to be retired from lore, but IMO that genie is out of the lamp already. 

[Fluffy]

3 hours ago, Faye &lt;3 said:

i would prefer cyborgification to be retired from lore

Can you elaborate on the reasons of this?

3 hours ago, Faye &lt;3 said:

[...] ship-locked, relatively rudimentary (when compared to IPCs) machine that maintains its vessel and assists its crew. to me, they serve a very clear OOC, mechanical purpose of plugging gaps in the manifest

What changes would you make to them, lore and mechanical-wise, assuming you had complete freedom? I do not know if the synthetic team covers the AI role too, but if it does, what would you change about it (the AI)?

[Triogenix]

A few questions that I wanted to ask before thinking more on this application:

1) While you have been a boon to the mod team, I am curious as to how you think you'll handle taking creative direction from someone else(in this case, lancer). You seem very passionate about lore, and write a lot about things that interest you, but I'm unsure how you'd react to having your ideas shut down, dismissed, or massively tweaked by the species maintainer above you, and I think it's an important part of being on the team.

2) What are your thoughts on cooperating with other teams, even in a case where synthlore may not even be involved?

3) Piggybacking off the last question, where do you see the boundaries of "that's another team/maintainers responsibility" starting, and if so how would you respect said boundaries?

 

Feel free to reach out to me for any clarification, I just nearly a full 13 hours of driving so I might not be making the most sense, and good luck on your application.

[Faye <3]

4 hours ago, Fluffy said:

Can you elaborate on the reasons of this?

I think it’s silly, and unnecessarily dark. 

4 hours ago, Fluffy said:

What changes would you make to them, lore and mechanical-wise, assuming you had complete freedom? I do not know if the synthetic team covers the AI role too, but if it does, what would you change about it (the AI)?

Mechanic wise no change, but I would moderate bounds more strictly and have them restricted from making consistent round to round relationships. You’ll often see people complain that some ipcs are too human, but IMO it’s the bounds who most often have this flaw. As for AI, I am much more sympathetic towards them because they’re super computers and you can do a lot with the concept imo. They’re fine as is. 

thanks for your reply!

 

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1) While you have been

thanks for your reply. as a lore contributor, why would I write about things that do not interest me, you know? but as a lore deputy, you do loose that privilege. I think i’m passionate enough about synthlore that working on something I don’t personally care for wouldn’t be the end of the world to me, it’d just be work. as for having my ideas tweaked, my dominian dueling submission was heavily edited and some of the stuff i really liked was removed. that sucked, yeah, but i never had a meltdown in schwann’s DMs over it lololol. i don’t see it being an issue, i like writing just to write.

and as i said before, my interest in applying isn’t based in some specific agenda. there are things i’d enjoy working on and things i wouldn’t, but i primarily just want to be where it all happens.

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

2) What are your thoughts on cooperating with other teams, even in a case where synthlore may not even be involved?

that’s fine, i’m interested in plenty of other areas that aren’t ipc lore. i applied to work on ipc lore but if for some reason someone else on the team wants my help i don’t see it being an issue.

 

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

3) Piggybacking off the last question, where do you see the boundaries of "that's another team/maintainers responsibility" starting, and if so how would you respect said boundaries?

Well if i’m honest I don’t think that a new deputy should be trying to make the boundaries up. My boundaries would frankly be whatever Lancer says they are. If there’s something I wanted to work on the that falls outside of those boundaries, I’d ask whoever was in charge of it if I could pitch in. 

[The Stryker]

Just some questions to start,

Could you expand on potential lore you might write for synthetics in the Wildlands?

Additionally, what did you have in mind for expanding Golden Deep's accessibility to synthetic players?

[Faye <3]

7 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Additionally, what did you have in mind for expanding Golden Deep's accessibility to synthetic players?

i think that the golden deep suffers from three main issues that prevent it from becoming more popular an origin.

1) the nature of the Deep as-is encourages a relatively narrow character type: the Deep is known for it's flashy, showy, in-your-face eccentrics who are often wealthy and powerful.

2) that narrow character type is very hard to play: Anyone who has roleplayed with me knows I love to make weird and often out-of-the-box IPCs, so let me be the first to say that playing a weird character is very difficult. it's easy to play a nonsense, outrageous character, but very hard to play a consistently odd IPC who is weird in the same ways time and time again. the Deep's unfettered capitalism, worship of material wealth and power has resulted in an almost orange-blue morality system, and a culture that is very alien to our own. this goes for all alien species: the more divorced from human culture a group is, the harder it is for us (humans) to write and understand effectively. In other words, if I am a new synthetic whitelistee, am I going to play the relatively easy-to-understand ZIs, IRUs and ZH units, or am I going to try to play the extremely odd and demanding Golden Deep IPCs? Do not misunderstand me here though, I love this about them, I love their bizarreness, and I wouldn't change them. that said, it's undeniable that it's a barrier to play. We should create lore supporting more grounded characters in the Golden Deep, while also allowing the quirky and intense IPCs the group is known for.

3) they have almost no good narrative hooks for other factions. if memory serves, they have a short blurb about being allied with NanoTrasen and that’s about it. I think this is a huge mistake. Let’s say you’re willing to commit to making a Deep IPC despite the relatively high entry barrier, so you have your Ayn Rand robot…then what? The Deep sorely needs more of a presence in the Spur. They could be friends with Idris and maybe hire their IRUs and ISUs for the security of Deep vessels. Maybe Idris even wants to open a Golden Deep branch? the Deep is surely too large and too luxurious of a merchant fleet for Idris to ignore. You could give Idris players the opportunity to write things like “oh, i was loaned to the deep for security” or “i was a chef on Pactolus making IPC food” etc etc. We have Zeng-Hu Jargonfed items, why not Idris - Golden Deep items? People love loadout stuff. There could easily be a plot hook with the Trinary Church and Konyang as well. The Deep could be a “deal with the devil” style corruption source within the Church, and as for Konyang they could easily be tied into the gangs and corruption there.

In short, to get more people playing the golden deep, we need to give more opportunities to play normal people while also allowing for the low concept eccentric ipcs the faction is known for, and we need to add more plot hooks for the Deep around the spur.

7 hours ago, The Stryker said:

Could you expand on potential lore you might write for synthetics in the Wildlands?

 had a few ideas - a write up and an arc example. enjoy

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12bqcV_0H8jYf5Ls7Oj6utp29-5NVFm_oKhkwk0fQfDQ/edit?usp=sharing - Synthettics in Solarian Wildlands 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bUbfFAtUvoXPi_RJvWg4p2cI0JmDCUNI-BSqorCTekw/edit?usp=sharing - Trinary d14 Powerplay. this isn't exactly how i'd do it if i was on the team, it's just to show the concept. if i was on synthlore, there'd be a lot of build up. a proper arc.

[Melteshonok]

If that's a person responsible for even a part of that large variety of how IPCs are represented - I vote with my both hands, no doubt. Keep up the great work and thank you!

Quote

+1

 

[Spider]

I think that Faye's responses wholeheartedly prove that she would be a valuable and committed member to the lore team. I like how she explore the more niche aspects of the lore, at least from what I've learnt from talking with her. She really takes her time to understand different ideas and generally comes off to me as a very open-minded person. She really brings forth a lot of interesting ideas and I know that she would be able to work in tandem with other members of the lore team as evidenced by their time as a moderator.

Big supporter of this application. Best of luck.

[Fluffy]

The choice between the two current candidates was pretty hard to make, but I have in the end decided to support this application over the other, so you have my +1 too, and good luck!

[Zelmana]

On 27/05/2023 at 02:43, Faye &lt;3 said:

Mechanic wise no change, but I would moderate bounds more strictly and have them restricted from making consistent round to round relationships. You’ll often see people complain that some ipcs are too human, but IMO it’s the bounds who most often have this flaw. As for AI, I am much more sympathetic towards them because they’re super computers and you can do a lot with the concept imo. They’re fine as is. 

Faye, I enjoyed reading a lot of this post series as I enjoy the topic of Synthlore. While I take preference to another applicant, I would regret not understanding your perspective here. I do not intend for this to be a means of challenging your overall application, but this specific lines and topic of stationbound is concerning, with regards to the thematic understanding of Synthetic.

A dialogue that I reference in the other applicants remark, is Asimovian theory. This story theme, and essence, are vital to Synthetic lore. Asimov's works, as well as others such as Phillip K. Dick, are drawn from heavily in our setting and understanding of positronics. The root of these stories is plain; Are Synthetically created life sympathetic, (to human desires and emotions), and if they are, do they thereby have a soul or "being"? A majority of theming in Synthlore is directed back to these foundations.

Now that the philosophical point has been made, my query-
Why would IPCs, or stationbound for that matter, acting slightly human, be a negative roleplay trait?
Would limiting consistent round to round "relationships" for stationbound further roleplay ability, story, and prose, or limit it?

[Faye <3]

I’ve never had an issue with IPCs acting human-esque. Most of my IPCs do. I do have issue with personable borgs because to be frank, I do not view them as characters. Their existence is rooted in a mechanical fix for a lack of staffing on the manifest. They’re just barely complex enough to get the job done and very likely wiped regularly, and that’s all they will ever be IMO unless a whitelist is added for them. When we’ve had borgs in the past form relationships and friendships, it inevitably becomes a moderation issue when said borg becomes “my friend with all access.” IMO if you want to explore the concepts that synthlore is built around i.e. personhood, self-determination you should get the IPC whitelist. If the community wants borgs as actual characters, then we need a whitelist for them as well. 

1 hour ago, Zelmana said:

Faye, I enjoyed reading a lot of this post series as I enjoy the topic of Synthlore. While I take preference to another applicant, I would regret not understanding your perspective here. I do not intend for this to be a means of challenging your overall application, but this specific lines and topic of stationbound is concerning, with regards to the thematic understanding of Synthetic.

A dialogue that I reference in the other applicants remark, is Asimovian theory. This story theme, and essence, are vital to Synthetic lore. Asimov's works, as well as others such as Phillip K. Dick, are drawn from heavily in our setting and understanding of positronics. The root of these stories is plain; Are Synthetically created life sympathetic, (to human desires and emotions), and if they are, do they thereby have a soul or "being"? A majority of theming in Synthlore is directed back to these foundations.

Now that the philosophical point has been made, my query-
Why would IPCs, or stationbound for that matter, acting slightly human, be a negative roleplay trait?
Would limiting consistent round to round "relationships" for stationbound further roleplay ability, story, and prose, or limit it?

 

[Zelmana]

Thanks for clarifying. I agree somewhat with your sentiment about some stationbounds. Drones specifically are even instructed to not interact with crew to be emotionless repair bots, yet are seemingly always wearing quirky hats and running around the main conflict areas/scenes.

[Kintsugi]

I am pretty late to the party here, but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and say that I think Faye's the candidate I think is best suited for the synthetic deputy slot at present. They have the tools for the job and the passion to match. My only real reservation is that I think the Trinary Perfection doesn't really need much attention right now, and in fact I'm not too hot on how it is written fundamentally at present - but ultimately that's a personal preference, and doesn't reflect negatively on Faye as a candidate. I am hopeful that Faye ends up being picked for the slot.

[The lancer]

Thank you for applying. It was very close, but we have ultimately chosen to go with the other applicant.