Lavillastrangiato Deputy Loremaster Application

[La Villa Strangiato]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Lavillastrangiato
Position Being Applied For: Deputy Loremaster
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes!
Past Experiences/Knowledge: I have been writing fiction and fan-fiction for eight years now, and I've been roleplaying for (checks) twelve years. Over the years I've been honing my craft to the point where I'm very proud of my ability as not just a writer of fiction, but also as a writer of convincing essays and analysis. I've been a game master in TTRPGs and played more TTRPGs than I can count, and I'm currently working on developing a few stories and constructed worlds of my own (which, yes, are forever in development hell).
Examples of Past Work:

I previously had an application for Mictlan fluff accepted and placed on the wiki page (the existence of the maton, and cultural foods for Mictlan), but I cannot find it in the archives.

A CEO expansion

Mukun-Yaba, home of the Kohlanari: A few scraps of lore that I wrote for an alien species I played in a Stars Without Number game. Much of it is unfinished; all text in Courier New is my work, while the text in Arial is the work of a friend who also played the species.

Primitivism, Modernism, and Abstraction / Who Tells the Story?: Nonfiction example; two essays I wrote for my art history class in which we were asked to answer specific questions. Both of these essays centre primarily on Canadian Indigenous artwork, both contemporary and historical.

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 have informal experience with managing a team. When I manage people and give them specific tasks, it's usually in the context of personal familiarity. I am good at being a go-betweener for people and otherwise getting them to get along; as well, I think communication is an effective part of being a project manager, and I have always considered myself a very strong communicator.

In a brief summary, explain the direction you'd wish to see the Lore Team take in regards to Aurora Lore: Personally, I want to see Aurora lore focus less on geopolitics, and more on the corporations of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. I have always felt that the corporate, dystopian future of 2465 feels somewhat underemphasized, especially in Tau Ceti, and I would love to see and create more lore that centers around the shadowy machinations of capitalist bickering.

This is not to say I would like geopolitics lore DELETED 5EVER, as I do find it makes the setting feel more active and higher-stakes. However, I would enjoy bringing more relationships between the SCC to the forefront.

If you were selected, what do you believe should be changed about how the Lore Team operates?: I have the same concerns that everyone else seems to have, that being scheduling arc timing more appropriately and encouraging activity (but we're all adults with real lives so this is whatever unless it becomes egregious). Ultimately I do not know a ton about how the lore team operates, but I believe in the power of collaborative idea-lobbing so I would probably stick with things largely how they are.

Additional Comments: Even though I am very handsome and incredible, I too have flaws. One of my bigger drawbacks as a writer is a struggle to fill in the middle bits, namely creating a storyline with a rise, a climax, and a fall. The middle part, or how one gets to a climax and an ending, are a real PITA for me to plot.

Secondly, I am a student with executive dysfunction, and during my school months my activity may be a little all over the place. I would try to maintain communique as much as possible, but such is the concern with having a real life. As a deputy LM, I would largely just be managing, so I do not forsee it being too crippling. I am pretty good at getting along with people, but I can definitely be abrasive or say impulsive things whether I mean it or not.

Edited August 5, 2023 by La Villa Strangiato
added bold lol

[RustingWithYou]

I've known you for a while now and I think you're a genuinely talented writer and a good friend, who'd be a great addition to the lore team in any capacity. That said, I do have some questions about the kind of direction you'd want to see the lore and setting of Aurorastation move in, and the way you'd work as deputy LM. 

 

1. The same question I gave everyone, Biesel! It exists and falls under the purview of the LM. Is there any particular direction you'd like to move in with everyone's favorite scoop of vanilla ice cream?

2. You've talked about how you want to bring corporate lore and interactions to the forefront, and that you prefer that over the geopolitical side of Aurora lore. That being said, what do you think the ideal kind of balance between corporate and political stuff is in our setting? How would you like to see corporations and nations interact? 

3. What do you feel have been the high and low points of Aurora lore in your time playing here? What makes a lore development, whether just through changes to the wiki or IC arcs, work or not work for you?

 

Thanks for applying, and whether or not you get this position I hope to see you on the lore team in some capacity.

[Caelphon]

As a non-Lore Writer, what is your perspective of the Libération, Révolution et Évolution Arc so far? 

[La Villa Strangiato]

12 hours ago, RustingWithYou said:

1. The same question I gave everyone, Biesel! It exists and falls under the purview of the LM. Is there any particular direction you'd like to move in with everyone's favorite scoop of vanilla ice cream?

I think I'd really like to explore more outside of Mendell City with Biesel. Cape City is mentioned as being a major entertainment city in the production of holovids, but also that aliens are heavily discriminated against and dropped from contracts with little to no warning. How does that affect the Republic's reputation as a "light of liberty"? What about the alien population of other cities on the planet? Athvur is mentioned as presiding over a small population of Vaurca in Belle Cote and Phoenixport-- how does a smaller city far away from Mendell feel about a sudden influx of alien buge on their streets?

To summarise, and also answer @Caelphon's question; I like the direction Biesel lore is currently moving in, slowly moving into "five corporations in a nation-shaped trenchcoat". Everything we've seen in lore so far indicates that NanoTrasen's grip around the Republic is tightening, and though the surface may be shiny and optimistic, beneath is a working class being steadily crushed by distant, oligarchic interests. I would not change this direction, but I would like to focus on the little people caught up in the tide, and maybe move the camera away to look at the parts of the Republic of Biesel that don't get as much attention.

12 hours ago, RustingWithYou said:

2. You've talked about how you want to bring corporate lore and interactions to the forefront, and that you prefer that over the geopolitical side of Aurora lore. That being said, what do you think the ideal kind of balance between corporate and political stuff is in our setting? How would you like to see corporations and nations interact? 

That's a tough question. I feel like the most interesting way of having corporations and nation-states interact in our lore is a constant, shadowy struggle for power over each other; Sol constantly struggling to keep the megacorporate influence at bay after the Collapse, Biesel gradually becoming NanoTrasen's puppet, Dominia and the Hegemony's deepening relations with Zavodskoi and Hephaestus. For example, even given the seemingly good relationship with Not'zar Izweski that Titanius Aeson has, Aeson's interests are ultimately destructive to Moghes and Ouerea. What will Not'zar have to sacrifice, depending on how he approaches his relationships with the megacorp? These are the kinds of questions I want to explore in terms of the expanding corporate influence across Spur; what happens if they get everything they want, and what happens if they're rebuffed?

12 hours ago, RustingWithYou said:

3. What do you feel have been the high and low points of Aurora lore in your time playing here? What makes a lore development, whether just through changes to the wiki or IC arcs, work or not work for you?

You personally already know the answer. I felt Dreary Futures and Amor Patriae really dragged on, and continued to linger on Sol's death-throes during the Collapse in a way that I didn't find particularly engaging. If the goal was to move away from Sol during the collapse, those arcs didn't really change a lot about the overall "vibe" of the setting, and I also felt that Amor Patriae turned into arc fatigue very quickly. This isn't to say "hurr too many articles", but rather I would have preferred that a development like "the SRF and the League invade San Colette, can they hold fight win their way outta this one?" happen, and then there are periods of time where we let this arc breathe, and then you have occasional updates on big battles, human-interest stories, and periods where "the on-going invasion of San Colette" can be referenced in a different article. Essentially, I would have preferred the same thing with less updates, over a longer period of time.

Instead of being a negative Nancy this whole poast, let's talk about high points! While I have issues with some aspects of Cold Dawn, I thought that arc had a beautiful buildup to the climax, and I really appreciated the opportunity to poke around in Crevus, talk with the citizens, and be a tourist. It was cozy and wholesome, and the entire spectacle of the Cold Dawn finale, from the claustrophobic delve into the caves from the chases with geists and the angry mob (of which I was a part of hehe) coming to storm the shuttle. It was a great conclusion to an enjoyable time on Adhomai, even if I had my reservations.

And here's my biased answer: I LOVED Not'zar marriage arc it was my favourite. I loved reading about the suitors (even if Hizoni is love and life) and the article about the wedding made me smile, especially at the vows.

It's hard to really elucidate what makes loredev work for me. I think at the end of the day lore should be able to draw a player in and give them something to talk about. Which is funny, because even if I didn't like Amor Patriae, it seemed really cathartic and fun for a lot of people. When you're a DM in a tabletop RPG, to put it lightly, you have to make your players vacillate between "we're so back" and "it's so over". You give them moments of catharsis and triumph, but also tense moments and fear of losing, and it's moments like those that can make a setting feel alive and fun to be in.

I also think that little details that might seem otherwise "bloating" or "meaningless" can add to how lived-in a setting feels. Details like what the weather is like, what people enjoy eating, and what little events occur in the city can do a lot for character development, and they can all contribute to how big, galactic events influence the population of a nation.

[Caelphon]

What is your opinion on the following?

[La Villa Strangiato]

10 hours ago, Caelphon said:

What is your opinion on the following?

I'm not opposed. It feels like a very innocent concept that allows crew to ICly test out not just ship combat, but also emergency procedures. I could see these being very helpful for teaching medical interns and engineering apprentices how to work in high-stress, high-injury situations, with less of the OOC stress that comes from crazy rounds being "real" ICly.

If there were different ships involved in the various events, we could encourage noob mappers to try their hand at making different ships for different factions (CoC, Hegemony, Elyra, etc.)

[Lucaken]

I like how unique and new a lot of your thoughts are, as well as the frankness you have when describing things you don’t like. I also like fresh blood in the team.

I just think you need to prepare yourself for being pushed back on your new ideas. You are one half of the highest authority on the team. Be assertive, otherwise your ideas will not go far.

[La Villa Strangiato]

On 29/07/2023 at 02:31, Lucaken said:

I like how unique and new a lot of your thoughts are, as well as the frankness you have when describing things you don’t like. I also like fresh blood in the team.

I just think you need to prepare yourself for being pushed back on your new ideas. You are one half of the highest authority on the team. Be assertive, otherwise your ideas will not go far.

I appreciate you.

[Triogenix]

I had a few questions I wanted to ask you.

1) If you could retcon any arc ever run in Aurora Lore, which arc would you retcon and why? If you would not retcon any, why?

2) In your eyes, what is currently the weakest part of Aurora lore?

3) What are your thoughts on the IAC?

4) What are your thoughts on adding a term, so to speak, for administration positions within the lore team? As in, a loremaster may only be in the position for 2 years before resigning, or something similar?

[La Villa Strangiato]

3 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1) If you could retcon any arc ever run in Aurora Lore, which arc would you retcon and why? If you would not retcon any, why?

Yet another tough question. I find it difficult to present one arc that I would definitively, completely retcon, and I also haven't been present for many of said lore arcs.

When I think about the common aspects of certain arcs that I would retcon, a lot of them centre around the Skrell. It isn't that I dislike Skrell lore (quite the opposite, in fact), but it's been discussed to death that Skrell have been treated like the instant-win option. Warbling: The Musical seems to be the platonic ideal of this to the playerbase, as much of it was spent on the wrong end of particle blasters, and also;

Ergo, given what I know and what I've seen, I would definitely want to retcon and minimize a lot of the "Skrell can duke it out with ANY species in combat ALL the time and they can do ANYTHING THEY WANT" energy. It's fine if the Republic of Biesel wants to start registering synthetics to keep good relations with Nralakk; it's less fine if the sole reason they do it is because "we will get so owned by the Skrell and they will own all of our allies".

3 hours ago, Triogenix said:

2) In your eyes, what is currently the weakest part of Aurora lore?

1. Dionae. Conceptually interesting, and integrating in an intriguing way with Skrell and Unathi, I find that much of their lore does not lend them to be exciting or relatable characters. There are definitely diona characters that I love dearly (Hope and Freedom of Self spring to mind), but it seems like the species in general is stuck in a bit of a rut in terms of exciting progression or arcs that can strongly invest a playerbase into their future. Sorry, Yonnimer and GMC.
2. This isn't quite a weakness, but I still feel like bringing it up anyway; I think the only place that the consequences of the Interstellar War are particularly dwelt upon is Gadpathur. While we are in the Weeping Stars at the moment, and there are definitely away sites where that can be felt to a degree, I think the horror of a literally galactic-scale, inescapable war and how even the most warmongering of politicians want to avoid it should be emphasized slightly more. However, this is obviously downplayed because the Interstellar War was literally 120-ish years ago.

3 hours ago, Triogenix said:

3) What are your thoughts on the IAC?

They exist, which is to say...

[goes and reads IAC page]

...that they are conceptually strong but feel like more of a footnote in the lore. I found a lot of their blurbs about their relations with the nation-states of the Spur, particularly Elyra, to be interesting, but I don't have a lot to say about them because it's not something that's super relevant to the Horizon or story progression, unless a gigahellchungus round happens and a distress signal is sent out.

Admittedly this is fine; not every detail has to be Chekov's gun, and in the case of a collaborative roleplay setting, can sometimes just be there because they're there and it makes sense. Were I to receive deputy loremaster, I wouldn't feel inclined to do anything dramatic with them apart from maybe resprite their godawful uniforms.

3 hours ago, Triogenix said:

4) What are your thoughts on adding a term, so to speak, for administration positions within the lore team? As in, a loremaster may only be in the position for 2 years before resigning, or something similar?

Depends on the situation but isn't a bad idea. Having been on roleplaying games where the setting stagnates due to moderation that clings very strongly to the status quo, I can safely say that collaborative storytelling often requires fresh eyes and rotations of responsibilities. As a [pretentious voice] creative, I find that taking a break, or even being forced to take a break, contributes positively to both your mental health and the end result of your creation. Of course, I don't think anyone would oppose allowing previous loremasters to come back after a certain amount of time is up, but the principle of the idea I feel is sound.

To wit: the more you stare at something, the worse it gets.

[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? 

[La Villa Strangiato]

8 hours ago, GeneralCamo said:

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? 

I don't think it's an issue. The "Skrell not getting Sol Common" debacle was blocked by a specific person, I believe, though I'm not sure of the finer details as to why they do not want Skrell to be able to access it. I know at the very least that Matt is comfortable with Skrell getting Sol Common, so it's definitely not a monolith of "devs versus loreists".

I don't really think that it's that difficult to bridge any perceived gap between coders and lore people, either. Several of our contributors and developers are in lore positions currently or formerly, and a few of our non-loreist developers have applied before for positions on the team. Considering the way our staff is structured, it's pretty simple to DM somebody on Discord and ask "hey, I'm thinking of a lore thing, can you develop something for it?". The manpower, obviously, and the scale of the project is an issue, but such is the nature of being a volunteer.

[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?

[La Villa Strangiato]

11 hours ago, Fluffy said:

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?

I am not interested in expanding on the SRF or ATLAS. ATLAS is defunct, and the SRF are rapidly going the same route after their L in San Colette. They have played their part in the story.

As for the Lii'dra, I would like to work with the Vaurca team to retouch a lot of their invasion arc. The Lii'dra, being a very Borg-like threat, rapidly makes the setting get very serious, and I would have to think long and hard about whether or not I wanted them to come to the forefront again. Naturally, this involves more work with the Vaurca team, and I am not sure if they are interested in involving the Lii'dra in an arc again as of yet.

[niennab]

I think that having new faces and fresh perspectives working on the server's lore is nothing but a net positive for the community. Especially so when these individuals have proven their skill and ability to collaborate and work as a team. Lavillastrangiato has shown precisely that and I am eager to see what they can accomplish should they be accepted.

Although I have no questions, I wanted to toss a +1 on your application.

[Fluffy]

On 02/08/2023 at 09:34, La Villa Strangiato said:

I am not interested in expanding on the SRF or ATLAS. ATLAS is defunct, and the SRF are rapidly going the same route after their L in San Colette. They have played their part in the story.

They were examples to indicate what I was talking about, not specifiers, the question was more on the likes of "what plan/direction/opinions do you have on the front of factions on the more "evil" end of the spectrum?", current or new, not about those examples in particular (?)

[La Villa Strangiato]

8 hours ago, Fluffy said:

They were examples to indicate what I was talking about, not specifiers, the question was more on the likes of "what plan/direction/opinions do you have on the front of factions on the more "evil" end of the spectrum?", current or new, not about those examples in particular (?)

Point taken! But you got me on a tangent...

All factions are pretty evil. Biesel is a corporate oligarchy practising neo-colonialism in the CRZ, Sol is a dying, authoritarian empire desperately trying to reach for its glory days, I don't know in what world the Big Five corps are good, Nralakk is Literally 1894, the Hegemony is a feudal government rapidly becoming a corporate playground, the DPRA is the least awful Tajaran government and they're a xenophobic military junta, and the Coalition of Colonies has Gadpathur in it. Let's not even get started on Dominia.

My opinion about the setting as a whole is that we are, in fact, the baddies. With that in mind, I don't think we really need that many factions that are along the lines of a space nazi empire, or a hive mind of alien monstrosities. It is much more interesting, in my opinion, to have conflict between varying shades of Not Good, and sometimes, conflict between good and an evil that has good publicity.

[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?

[La Villa Strangiato]

10 hours 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?

Yeah, absolutely. On whitewolftamer's Vaurca deputy app I asked them if he was ready to "kill [his] darlings"-- it's a writing term that means no matter how much you might like something you wrote or developed, no matter how much effort you put in, sometimes it needs to be edited out to better serve the flow of your story. Species lore is no different; I've already talked about Lii'dra invasion reworks and retcons, along with making Skrell less of teh epic deus ex machina.

That being said, there is one, extremely petty thing that I would want to change a bit; Tajaran name lore. As I understand it a lot of the very long Tajaran names originated in the SS13 engine's random name generator which is literally ancient, and in-story Tajarans take names in human space which are Slavic or Arabic-inspired in order to be more pronounceable to other species. I've always found this a little immersion-breaking, especially when Tajara as a whole take obvious inspiration from real-life human history, so if I were able to change it I would cut out the long-name lore as much as is practical and keep existing names which are Slavic/Arabic-inspired but still "alien".

10 hours ago, canon35 said:

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?

The obvious caveat here is has the lore writer in question approved the project beforehand? In a perfect world, a lore writer would float their idea for a project to the rest of the team + the loremasters so it could be decided whether or not said project is even worth the time of working on. If a writer floats me a project that they really want canonized, and that I completely disagree with, there are other issues at play regarding communication on the team.

If this did happen, I think I generally would be able to stand my ground, depending on the strength of my feelings on the matter. It takes me a bit of time to come to decisions that are absolute, so if I decided I didn't want a single remnant of a writer's project in the lore, I would be pretty straightforward and unmoving on the matter.

10 hours ago, canon35 said:

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?

I would want them to approach their team and the loremasters with not only how this would affect the species lore as a whole, but the scale of the project, a plan for how to execute the project, and if they've anticipated player reaction and how difficult this will be to unshake from the public consciousness. Whether or not it's retconned, some shit just sticks in people's memory, and it can be difficult to uncouple that from how they portray their character. Who among us doesn't remember gay concentration camps in Tajara lore? Essentially, if a writer comes to me with plans to do big retcons, I want them to be sure they know what they're doing.

10 hours ago, canon35 said:

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?

We are absolutely nowhere near that point for pretty much any species that isn't humans (and even then we're really fucking far from it with humanlore), given the developments that are still happening in our setting and how geopolitics affect the landscape of where people live in general. I opine that it is very difficult to truly be finished with developing a setting, though to me, a day when we are able to focus on event arcs to best develop our little constructed world will be a good day. It means that the little project that a lot of people have sunk a lot of hours into has settled into a comfortable, stable state that we can definitively show off as being a culmination of the best of our abilities. Worst comes to absolute worst, if we find that our setting has become too stable, it's within our power to simply wipe the slate and reboot our lore, though I don't hold any illusions that will happen in my time as a player.

11 hours ago, canon35 said:

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

I don't think the lore that a player needs to know in order to create a well-rounded character is particularly complex, and a lot of any questions that someone has can be answered by asking in OOC, reading about it on the wiki page, or asking in the lore Discord.

I do think that our lore primer could stand to be reworked to be more succinct and explanatory. Beyond that, however, the first couple months of their playtime a player is just going to be a human going around doing human things, learning about other human factions on their own. If they want a whitelist, they have to actively pursue the species lore page. Given the population that we have, I would say that our lore is generally pretty accessible to learn about and dive deep into. It needs a few tweaks here and there as to how it's presented (a lot of wiki pages could use a bit of clean-up), but overall I think we're on the right track.

11 hours ago, canon35 said:

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

I don't have any strong feelings on anything that needs to stop, no.

11 hours ago, canon35 said:

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?

Funny to reflect on, unnecessary to bring back. Obviously groups that are antagonistic to the ship's goals exist, and those are fine to expand on, but SS13 remnants like canon changelings or vampires doesn't need any more lingering on it.

11 hours ago, canon35 said:

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

Here's a secret; I've never played a Dominian and I probably never will but I love the aesthetic. Some Victorian Downtown Abbey The Favourite-type nation state that's the only significant human faction doing an honest-to-god divine right monarchy. The Tribunal as a religion and its matriarchal leanings are a very fascinating take on a faith, particularly their doctrines, prayers, and clothing. And the capes are cool.

I like Unathi as a whole, but I like the Hegemony for the similar feudal, apocalypse-punk mouthfeel, especially when combined with K'lax and their bizarre alien worldview. I think you could write entire stories out of Moghes on its own, just for the value that Unathi themes (tradition versus rapid progress, a sense of "what happened to the post-war dream", the fears of nuclear annihilation) have and how they've been incorporating themselves into the Spur, plus the kind of conflict that starts.

[NewOriginalSchwann]

LVS has interesting characters and I have spoken with them before on lore-related topics. They're not the applicant I'm most familiar with, but I do not doubt they would be a good fit for the position if hired. With that said, onto questions.

1). Human lore recently ran a major article-based arc which you touched on briefly. Overall, it acquired mostly positive feedback. Unathi lore has run a similar, but shorter, arc also based around articles. Do you believe these 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?

[Sycmos]

Lavilla has answered more than enough questions on their application thus far that I feel that any concerns that I may have had would be assuaged should they be chosen as Deputy Loremaster. Judging by their excellent responses and my own personal interactions with them in the community I feel that they would be a suitable fit for the position, and a pleasant and effective member of the lore team.

+1

 

[La Villa Strangiato]

11 hours ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

1). Human lore recently ran a major article-based arc which you touched on briefly. Overall, it acquired mostly positive feedback. Unathi lore has run a similar, but shorter, arc also based around articles. Do you believe these 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?

I think these article arcs are good (even if you already know my opinion on Amor Patriae) and add some nice background noise to the setting, because as much as the Horizon was developed to walk right into lore developments we can't have a setting where it's the centre of the universe. I think it's good if characters have background stuff to talk about, and I think it can develop characters in surprising ways; I have a character who is very directly affected by Libération, Révolution et Évolution, for example.

One thing I think that should be changed up a bit about article arcs, however, is their pacing. While it's obviously pure practicality that we get an update on certain arcs every week and a matter of keeping player engagement, I do think with the way we announce articles (posting them in lore channels and whatnot) allows us a fair amount of freedom in how we pace things. Depending on the arc, we could do them every month, every week, etc.

11 hours ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

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?

That depends entirely on the arc. If I feel like an arc is starting to lose direction in favour of a lot of wordy updates, or it becomes too convoluted, I'd prefer to step in and tell the writers that they need to trim it down a bit. I am a strong proponent of the KISS rule; keep it simple, stupid.

11 hours ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

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

I like it! But I would prefer to focus on the "paragraph planets" we already have in the lore, like Sankt Frederick and Novo Igman, before we add anything completely new. I also have Plans That I Cannot Share Or Else The Haters Will Sabotage Me for a certain paragraph planet, which is in a pretty lore-important location.

12 hours ago, NewOriginalSchwann said:

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

That's a really hard question. I like arcs where species lore converges, where you can read about a myriad of different aliens trying to build a community in Biesel, I like arcs that talk about the hardship of the average working person in a war-torn landscape, I like arcs where the looming hand of capitalism exerts its grip over yet another nation-state. I guess you could say I prefer lore that talks about average people and their average lives in the Orion Spur, and that includes an average (but obviously, still player-character-standout) person working on the Horizon. I think these add a lot of personalizing flavour to our setting, and while if I were to get the position I would obviously want to let people have their own style of arcs where exciting things and big personalities clash (because those are cathartic, and fun), I prefer smaller-scale stuff like that.

[Caelphon]

Thank you for your application.

It's been a while since I've seen so many applicants for any particular position, and I'm glad you threw your hat in the ring. I like your ideas, and your ability to give critical (but helpful) feedback towards members of the team. Though I have chosen another applicant to fill this position, nevertheless I encourage you to apply for a position on the Lore Team as you'd be a valuable asset.