WhatsUpBrotendo Deputy Loremaster App

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

Ckey/BYOND Username: WhatsUpBrotendo
Position Being Applied For: Deputy Loremaster
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes
Past Experiences/Knowledge: Skrell Lore Deputy from 2021 to 2022. Currently the Skrell Lore Writer.
Examples of Past Work:

Most Skrell lore that's been added or updated since 2021 has had my contribution in some form. I've also recently contributed to the Skrell side of the Ouerea rewrite.

https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/WhatsUpBrotendo

1. Do you have any experience managing a Team? The duties of a Deputy Loremaster often revolve around being a Project Lead, not necessarily just writing. 

I manage the Skrell team currently. Outside of Aurora, I work with service users and colleagues as a team when working on projects, which sometimes includes taking on a leadership role.

2. In a brief summary, explain the direction you'd wish to see the Lore Team take in regards to AuroraLore. 

Continuing the development of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and its place in the setting. I'd like to see the nations of the Spur have more "teeth" as it were and be more of an obstacle than they already are that the SCC has to contend with. I wouldn't want to see an end to the Phoron scarcity and its impact on the setting anytime soon, but at some point I'd like to see more attempts at addressing the crisis as well as this part of the setting being continuously and actively developed.

3. If you were selected, what do you believe should be changed about how the Lore Team operates? 

For the most part I've enjoyed my time on the lore team. I'm not going to give a cop-out answer and say "nothing", but I think the team is doing what it can to address issues brought up the last time the deputy loremaster apps were opened. We haven't addressed those issues completely, so I do think that those points from last time are still valid. Personally, I think we should continue to prioritise teamwide projects (such as megacorporations or setting-wide lore additions like the technology or economics pages) and encourage everyone to contribute where they can. Making sure those projects are published in a reasonable timeframe is also something that should be worked on.

Additional Comments:

 

[Triogenix]

Let the worst man win.

I'm incredibly happy to see you have applied, as I've loved working with you on the team, whatever project it's been. I'd be more than willing to work under you should you get this position, and endorse this application.

That said, I have a few questions.

1) What do you believe are your biggest drawbacks, both as a writer and as an applicant for this position?

2) When it comes to the SCC, you mention wanting to see the nations of the spur have more "teeth", do you have any ideas or desire to run more corporate-centric arcs around internal conflict within the SCC?

3) Lastly, would you plan on retaining your position as Skrell Lore Writer, holding both DLM and SLM, or would you resign?

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

Don't you come to my app and try to steal my jokes.

Quote

1) What do you believe are your biggest drawbacks, both as a writer and as an applicant for this position?

2) When it comes to the SCC, you mention wanting to see the nations of the spur have more "teeth", do you have any ideas or desire to run more corporate-centric arcs around internal conflict within the SCC?

3) Lastly, would you plan on retaining your position as Skrell Lore Writer, holding both DLM and SLM, or would you resign?

1. My attitude can be abrasive if I get annoyed. I've gotten better since joining the team but I've even mentioned this to Cael in the past and it is something I'm aware of. My mental health isn't the best either but it's not been an issue while I've been on the team. It usually results in a few weeks of no productivity followed by a massive surge in productivity. The only time I can think of it negatively impacting my output in a major way would be last Christmas while I was trying to write the current Skrell article arc. Considering that it was the holidays though I doubt I would have gotten much more done.
2. Internal and external conflict are equally important here. I think we've discussed internal conflict between the different corporations a bit on discord already, and your own concern over the SCC being "NanoTrasen plus others" is one shared by everyone else. I don't want to ignore that aspect but I do think that making it more apparent that the SCC doesn't have control over the entire Spur is important. That said, yes, I'd like to run arcs related to internal conflict within the SCC if the opportunity comes up. Preferably events where the Horizon is used as a "battleground" for this internal strife.
3. I plan on keeping my position on the Skrell team. Not only do I enjoy working on Skrell lore, but considering the lack of interest for the writer position when Ryver stepped down and the deputy position when I got promoted, I'd be concerned about the team being short (pun not intended).

Edited July 27, 2023 by WhatsUpBrotendo
realised I didn't really answer question 2

[RustingWithYou]

I've worked with you pretty extensively on the Ouerea rewrite, and I've found you both a good writer and just a good guy to work with in general. I think you'd definitely do well in this position. Trio beat me to the questions in general, but I have a couple questions that are pretty much the same as the ones I gave him. 

 

1. Biesel, it exists and would fall under your purview as deputy LM. Is there anything in particular that you'd like to do with that as an element of our setting, given your desire for an increased focus on the nations of the Spur?

2. Same as with Trio, you've been on the team a while and I know that you're friends with a fair few of us. Do you think you have it in you to get on someone's ass when you need to, in regards to just getting projects moving in a timely fashion or if you have to straight up fire someone?

3. You've talked about your views on national versus corporate power, and they're generally ones I agree with - I guess I'm curious about how you see this developing in future more specifically, with regards to the relations between the SCC and some of the nations that fall on the wide spectrum between 'actively hostile to the SCC' and 'basically a corporate puppet state'. 

 

Regardless of whether you get this position or not, I've really enjoyed working with you on the lore team and I look forward to continuing to do so in the future.

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

Quote

 

1. Biesel, it exists and would fall under your purview as deputy LM. Is there anything in particular that you'd like to do with that as an element of our setting, given your desire for an increased focus on the nations of the Spur?

2. Same as with Trio, you've been on the team a while and I know that you're friends with a fair few of us. Do you think you have it in you to get on someone's ass when you need to, in regards to just getting projects moving in a timely fashion or if you have to straight up fire someone?

3. You've talked about your views on national versus corporate power, and they're generally ones I agree with - I guess I'm curious about how you see this developing in future more specifically, with regards to the relations between the SCC and some of the nations that fall on the wide spectrum between 'actively hostile to the SCC' and 'basically a corporate puppet state'. 

 

1. I like Biesel and I've got plans to include it in a future Skrell arc. Other than that though I don't have any real plans in place for Biesel in particular, but I do have some vague ideas that would build off of things that are still in development or are in progress right now. Emphasising the see-saw relationship between Biesel and the megacorporations that back it is something I'd like to see in particular.
2. I realise that for this it's a hobby for most people, so I'm probably more lenient than I should be. I do hound my deputies and other members of the team when I need their input on something, but I try my best to keep the fact that everyone's got their own lives in mind. The way I've done it has worked with the Skrell team so far but I think I'll probably have to take a stronger stance if I got the position. It's not something I'm looking forward to having to do but yes, I believe I've got the ability to be more strict when it comes to timeframes and project contributions. The same for firing someone.
3. I touched on this a bit in question 1, but I see Biesel as having more of a "see-saw" relationship with the SCC where it makes concessions to the megacorporations that have backed it since its founding, but still attempts to be a legitimate government. How Biesel balances being a government and having to give its backers what they want should be explored more in its lore. How megacorporations will interact with the Nralakk Federation is something that I've kept in mind for a while and the end of this current Skrell lore arc will hopefully give us opportunities to develop that relationship further. I like to keep my ideas broad until I know something is viable, and I'd need to talk to Cael and the rest of the lore team before anything is fleshed out for elsewhere in the setting, so I don't have anything specific in mind outside of general thoughts and questions about how the SCC would try and expand its reach. I think that generally speaking, megacorporations/the SCC should have massive influence in the setting, but they should by no means be monolithic or have the pull to create a corporate dystopia everywhere they operate. We have the Eridani Corporate Federation for that theme, which I think is enough. Outside of that it should range from "heavily influenced by the SCC through backing and investment" to "wholly opposed to the SCC operating within its borders", with the latter being rare since we play on a megacorporate vessel and we should be able to interact with at least a majority of the setting. I don't think "corporate puppet" is a particularly interesting theme outside of one or two instances, and we already have those examples in the ECF (corporate-controlled) and Republic of Biesel (corporate-backed).

Edited July 27, 2023 by WhatsUpBrotendo
man I can't proofread

[KingOfThePing]

Brotendo has my undivided support. I think he would be a good loremaster 👍.

I let others investigate if his lore knowledge is good enough.

[Caelphon]

What is your opinion on the following?

 

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

1 hour ago, Caelphon said:

What is your opinion on the following?

 

I already gave my input in the staffcord about this. It'll be worthwhile so that players can have some experience with ship-to-ship combat before any proper events that could have real consequences occur.

[Lucaken]

I feel as though you can be a bit scatter-brained as a writer, based purely on my experience during my tenure. You have many good ideas and can keep the pace going within a team, but the Deputy Loremaster is mostly a curator.

If you want to take this position, I think you need to be more assertive in picking positions and stances. There will be a lot of tough choices.

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

Discussed this a bit with Lucaken in DMs because some of the reasoning behind it is personal. Either way what's been said is something I agree with and I'll be keeping it in mind.

[GeneralCamo]

This is an important question in my mind that I will ask all deputies.

Lately, I have seen a disconnect between the desires of the development team, and the lore team. Examples include the attempt to give skrell Sol common which is blocked by maintainers, and an attempt to remove special glove types by maintainers which was rejected by lore. Do you feel that this is an issue at the moment? Do you have any ideas to potentially improve cross-team talks between lore, development, and moderation? 

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

7 hours ago, GeneralCamo said:

This is an important question in my mind that I will ask all deputies.

Lately, I have seen a disconnect between the desires of the development team, and the lore team. Examples include the attempt to give skrell Sol common which is blocked by maintainers, and an attempt to remove special glove types by maintainers which was rejected by lore. Do you feel that this is an issue at the moment? Do you have any ideas to potentially improve cross-team talks between lore, development, and moderation? 

As it stands I don't think it's a massive issue, and giving Skrell access to Sol Common is the only time I've witnessed it being an issue. If head devs/maintainers could shoot down anything related to their side of the server (say, adding new alien items to the loadout) then I'd be more invested in drafting policies, but in the end the Sol Common issue is related to languages which are head dev domain. That discussion is still ongoing as far as I'm aware, and I don't know about the special gloves issue so I can't comment on that one specifically.

We have a few channels in the staffcord dedicated to cross-team communication, and admins have access to all channels, so communication isn't really the problem. Devs, moderation, and the lore team all coordinate fairly well when we've had to. With languages specifically, it seems like the policy is old (and not really even enforced properly) so it should be looked at again with everyone's views and the current state of languages being taken into consideration.

[Fluffy]

What is your opinion on factions on the more "evil" side of the spectrum (eg. Lii'dra, SRF, ATLAS)? Any plan/direction on/for that front?

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

I believe the SRF and ATLAS are both defunct groups now. ATLAS hasn't been active for years and the SRF are gone with the latest human arc IIRC. That only really leaves us with the Lii'dra unless there's another group that'd fit the bill that I'm forgetting. I do think something needs to be done with them, but the Vaurca team has given their reasons for not touching them in the past and I can empathise with them. I believe the consensus is that a retcon needs to take place with the Lii'dra invasion before we continue with any new lore regarding the hive.

In general I'd say "evil" groups are fine, but aiming for something more morally grey is better. I'd personally rather have something like the Republic of Biesel's Mictlan/Samaritan arc than read about what the Solarian Restoration Front got up to.

[canon35]

1. Do you feel that in some cases, lore for a species needs to be curtailed or altered to better be consistent with a vision for aurora lore as a whole? If so, what's some lore from a species you feel needs to be changed?

2. Do you think you're able to stand your ground in the event that a lore writer takes massive issue against your rulings as lore master deputy, such as blocking a project they've been working on from being canonized?

3. Times change and so does lore, many species over the years have experienced retcons and rewrites. Some for the better, some for arguably the worse. While I do doubt that any large scale retcons or rewrites will happen again, how would you handle a species maintainer wanting to make major retcons for their species?

4. There's a sense that one day lore might be "done". No more planets to add, no more cities worth writing out, etc. Do you think we're anywhere near that for any species or factions? What's your feelings on the idea that more species may have to focus harder on event arcs or article arcs to really add anything?

5. How will you try to make lore more accessible for new players?

6. Are there any practices or ideas currently existing in lore or being done by the lorestaff you feel has to stop?

7. What are your thoughts on the idea of "antag lore", like the retconned Dominian vampire House Haradis or the Secret of Ouerea easter egg?

8. Just for fun, faction or culture has your favorite "feel" or aesthetic to it?

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

1 hour ago, canon35 said:

1. Do you feel that in some cases, lore for a species needs to be curtailed or altered to better be consistent with a vision for aurora lore as a whole? If so, what's some lore from a species you feel needs to be changed?

2. Do you think you're able to stand your ground in the event that a lore writer takes massive issue against your rulings as lore master deputy, such as blocking a project they've been working on from being canonized?

3. Times change and so does lore, many species over the years have experienced retcons and rewrites. Some for the better, some for arguably the worse. While I do doubt that any large scale retcons or rewrites will happen again, how would you handle a species maintainer wanting to make major retcons for their species?

4. There's a sense that one day lore might be "done". No more planets to add, no more cities worth writing out, etc. Do you think we're anywhere near that for any species or factions? What's your feelings on the idea that more species may have to focus harder on event arcs or article arcs to really add anything?

5. How will you try to make lore more accessible for new players?

6. Are there any practices or ideas currently existing in lore or being done by the lorestaff you feel has to stop?

7. What are your thoughts on the idea of "antag lore", like the retconned Dominian vampire House Haradis or the Secret of Ouerea easter egg?

8. Just for fun, faction or culture has your favorite "feel" or aesthetic to it?

1. Yes, species lore needs to be consistent with the setting as a whole. I don't really have any thoughts on lore that needs to be changed though. It's all more or less fairly consistent as far as I'm aware.
2. I'd hope that the writer in question would ping the loremasters before the project was even complete so we had an idea of what was going on and give our opinions beforehand. I think I'd be able to stand my ground if that didn't happen though, and I don't plan on rejecting any projects that were approved before I became DLM if I was given the role.
3. I'd evaluate the worth of the retcon/rewrite and determine if it's something that's actually needed. Sometimes old lore needs to be entirely removed or rewritten to be more consistent as our attitudes and standards for quality change, sometimes there's old lore that is just a footnote with no real development made and the latest species team has no ideas (or motivation) to develop it further. It's something that I'm against disallowing entirely, and I like our current process where major retcons/rewrites go on the forums before they're pushed through since the entire team is able to comment on it if they wish to.
4. Outside of Tajara lore I don't think we're near that point. That isn't to say that Tajara lore can't expand, but that side of the lore has been fairly consistently developed throughout the years and it's pretty much fleshed out in my opinion. If any other species ends up getting to the same level as Tajara lore I'd be very pleased. Arcs are part of our workload so I don't see the change in focus to developing lore organically through arcs as being a major issue, but it might be more of a challenge for some compared to writing a wiki page.
5. The concept of a "new player planet" was discussed on Trio's app and I've been thinking about it a little bit. Biesel is good as a new player origin, but having a planet/region that's specifically for new players to use as they get used to the server and its lore might be a good idea. I've been chipping away at a OOC information page for Skrell lore that I should probably finish at some point too. Diona lore and synth lore have similar pages, which basically explain from a OOC perspective how you should play that species as well as certain concepts. Making sure ghost roles for species ships have at least one non-whitelisted role as standard would also help give new players the opportunity to interact with lore outside of human lore too.
6. I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that's standard practice. I personally think that if your lore includes another species' lore or teamwide lore (megacorps, etc), no matter how small, it should be standard practice to make sure the relevant teams are aware of this. It's not something that's a constant or done consciously or out of malice (I hope), but I have noticed that some things slip through without the other team's approval.
7. I think antag lore needs to fit with the setting. Vampire lore is something that I'd be against, but I'm not against fleshing out lore for antagonistic factions (such as the Lii'dra), or introducing factions that could be linked to non-canon antags (as in, being used for gimmicks) while still fitting within the canon of the setting.
8.  This is difficult because I mostly play Skrell these days, and I wouldn't say they're my favourite. I like the anarchist views and communal culture of the Aut'akh personally, which along with their views on body modification create this weird faction that's almost completely antithetical to the rest of the species. 

[NewOriginalSchwann]

I will admit, I am not incredibly familiar with yourself as a person. Regardless, questions.

1). Do you believe article-based arcs, such as Amor Patriae for the human team and The Titan Rises for the unathi team, are a good addition to the lore? Should we pursue more of these?

2). How long is too long for an arc? Would you step in and tell people to hurry up, or to write less, if you saw one becoming too long?

3). What are your thoughts on new additions to the lore, such as expanding "paragraph" planets into full pages or adding entirely new locations?

4). What makes an arc personally appealing to you?

[WhatsUpBrotendo]

1 hour ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

I will admit, I am not incredibly familiar with yourself as a person. Regardless, questions.

1). Do you believe article-based arcs, such as Amor Patriae for the human team and The Titan Rises for the unathi team, are a good addition to the lore? Should we pursue more of these?

2). How long is too long for an arc? Would you step in and tell people to hurry up, or to write less, if you saw one becoming too long?

3). What are your thoughts on new additions to the lore, such as expanding "paragraph" planets into full pages or adding entirely new locations?

4). What makes an arc personally appealing to you?

1. Article arcs are good when used properly, like the two examples you gave. They can help develop a story where it doesn't make sense for the Horizon to be involved in any meaningful way. Now that we're on the Horizon I'd like to see a shift from article arcs to more in-game events considering the mobile setting, however, not every story requires the presence of the Horizon. 
2. It depends on what's being told and how much of an impact the overall story has on the rest of the setting. If I thought that an arc was holding up plans for the other teams I'd see what I could do on my end to solve the issue, but otherwise I don't really see long arcs being an issue.
3. I'm a fan of bloat to be honest. I'm willing to trim things down for the sake of quality and workload, but as long as the quality doesn't suffer I don't see an issue with adding to parts of the lore that would normally be overlooked due to lack of content.
4. An arc done through articles should have something that my characters can work with in-game as the bottom line. My character's home planet is now under the control of secessionists? Good, I can use that for character development and use that event in-game through my character's reactions. We found more phoron? Great! My character's feeling a little more secure about the future. Even things that don't directly impact my character can be used. As an actual example, the Wildlands now being consolidated and under restoration brings hope to my Fed Skrell that the Sol Alliance is back in business. An arc done through events should attempt to include everyone. Coming from a position of being a lore team member I know that this isn't always possible, but the attempt should still be made. As long as the intent to give everyone an opportunity to participate is there then I'm happy as a player.

[Caelphon]

Thank you for your application. 

You and I have many similar standings, and I do believe that you'd make an excellent Lore Master. I enjoy your lore, and I'm glad I get to work with you. The direction you are taking Skrell Lore in is something I've fought for many years to be able to take it in, and I'm glad that it has you at the helm pushing it forward. Thank you for throwing your hat into the ring, and I encourage you to apply for the position in the future, when I eventually retire from my tyrannical reign.