Lorilili - Dionae Deputy Application

[limette]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Lorilili (tesseractpirouette on Discord)
Position Being Applied For: Dionae Deputy Lore Developer
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes. No Dionae genital lore
Past Experiences/Knowledge: No real relevant experience, frankly.
Examples of Past Work: Oops! None!

1. What would you change about Dionae if you could unilaterally do so?

Frankly? I'd remove a lot, which isn't the most popular answer but it's the best I have. Dionae are extremely bloated for what lore they have, with origins for Eridani backgrounds, minor religions on EUM, and so on that add a lot of options with the depth of a puddle, no offense to whomever added them - they just don't and probably won't ever hold up to the standards of other origins, and in my opinion the amount of things you'd have to expand upon to keep all these with substance equal to recent things like The Eternal and Xrim reworks would outstrip the current capabilities of the Dionae team.

Other than removing things, I would probably want to make at least one branch of The Eternal mandatory for every origin rather than having Th'akh, Qeblak, and so on, as part of a move to centralize Dionae around a coherent point of interest that unites them across origins - something they're sorely lacking, with nearly every origin having their own separate gimmicks that don't generally align. As part of this, I'd want to focus on giving origins special spins on their interpretation of these branches of The Eternal, perhaps with some syncreticism, much like Xrim now has implemented.

2. What do you find is an important theme for the species, or if you believe it lacks one what would you do to remedy it?

I think the main theme for Dionae would be - and you're going to see a theme here, as I openly think this religion is the strongest part of Dionae lore at present - those enshrined in the Eternal. Namely the collection of knowledge being the most key theme to all of Dionae to me. In my eyes, almost the entirety of Diona lore is centered around this. There's first of all the different methods of collecting and retaining knowledge, embodied by the separate branches of the Eternal and the different interpretations thereof. Almost everything good in Dionae lore springs from it, such as the Mindtypes (one of the best additions in recent years in my eyes, allowing for a lot of diverse and unique interpretations of Dionae) which include things like Bloodless Bands to Scholarly Songs to Voided Vocals, which are openly shaped by this theme.

I think the primary things that Dionae players should be angling at when they apply for or play one are how your gestalt obtains knowledge in general - as embodied by the branches of The Eternal you can select from - but also how that has impacted them, whether from inheriting certain memories through blood or from their experiences in the scholarly arts, and especially the mindtype they've ended up selecting. Right now I've noticed a lot of applications start as "This gestalt was grown on the ship, it had an experience that gave it this long name, and eventually got a job." More of a simple, reasonable sequence of events than anything very thematic. Shoutouts to @dessysalta's application for being incredibly good in particular and touching upon exactly what I'd want to see in one, for a positive example of what I'd like. You can look at my own for a negative example of what I'm describing, ironically.

There's also aesthetic themes like those in the song-oriented accents and the long poetic names, but I have a feeling that the question is much more about the general points the lore lingers and/or should linger on. So, I suppose my ultimate answer is that I think that the themes of The Eternal and the pursuit of knowledge are the most key themes, but they are oft-neglected or able to be opted out of in the current state of things.

3. Where would you like to take Dionae Lore?

I think I've already made clear what direction I would like for them in general, that being a much-increased stress on The Eternal in general. I've a few ideas that I'd like to propose and discuss regarding the Ichor Eternal and The Narrows, or the Orthodox Eternal's diverged takes in the Eternal Gardens versus CT-EUM, but those are more pinpoint than a general direction to take things. Overall? I'm happy with the direction Caelphon has, as bootlicking an answer that is, and that's a lot of why I thought I'd go ahead and apply this time. I'd probably want to focus personally on refining the different branches and subbranches of the Eternal that different origins have, but in general other things like the grey goo idea interest me as well.

Additional Comments: Whilst I currently have plenty of free time, and that's unlikely to change in the immediate future, I have admitted and will continue to admit my general weakness in long-form writing. I'm hoping that this experience may help me in changing that, as well as hoping the amount of time I can theoretically dedicate may help to make up for it, allowing me to take time to work on and refine any project. I suck at spriting and code as well since that was mentioned in the application window.

[Flpfs]

If you could, would you rework any aspect of Dionae biology? Such as, their life span, thought process, evolutionary timeline, etc. Would you alter major parts of it, or just small changes?

Edited October 27, 2023 by Flpfs
clarified my question

[Caelphon]

Hi there, thanks for your application!

Just a few more questions:

Spoiler

1. You mention EUM. Do you mind expanding on your view as to where to take EUM in bullet-point style draft?

2. How do you feel about Dionae in the Hegemony and the Federation? Do you feel they need expansion to flesh them out more thoroughly?

3. If you could, what in-character arc would you like to explore for Dionae? 

There are no wrong answers, goodluck. 

 

[limette]

Hi! I'd like to take this application back after more consideration. My quality of writing is not up to my own personal standards for a position like this at this time, after having tried to write out some proposals tentatively.

Edited October 29, 2023 by limette
[UNREDACTED]