Kermit's Dionae Lore Deputy Application

[kermit]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Sadkermit

Position Being Applied For: Dionae Lore Deputy

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yeah.

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I can bring some amateur programming experience to the table and have worked on small/medium-small PRs before.

Examples of Past Work:

Just a bit of skrell lore for a previous deputy application here. 

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

Honestly, I would probably remove genetic memory/blood learning as a thing and instead further emphasise mimicry as a method of learning. I used to like the idea of genetic memory and blood learning, but it’s not something I’ve been fond of lately; I feel genetic memory detracts from dionaea being experts of mimicry, and I think skills/traits being passed through blood has iffy connotations – it's also kind of silly how accurate it is too, but not everything can and will be so shrug.

A more malignant form of mimicry at every step in a dionaea’s learning would be my preference if I was starting from scratch. This would have a large, briefly brainstormed impact on Dionaea lore, on things like Mourning Masses and the Blood Market.

I doubt this is something the current dionaea lore team and player base would like, as blood learning is one of the more well-known facets of dionaea – even to non-whitelistees – so I've not taken this anywhere besides initial brainstorming.

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?

Time and aging has always been the big theme I play with when playing dionaea. How does my dionaea perceive time, how does this affect their interaction with humans, how does this affect their decisions – these have always been important to me and I think they’re fun to play with. The recent addition of Voidic Proto-Culture was one I’ve really enjoyed playing with and consolidates much of what I had already been drawing on when playing dionaea; the apathy, besides odd curiosity, towards Spur society and customs as the Voidics are aware it is just another fleeting expression of the universe that won’t last in the grand scheme of things.

Consumption is another important theme that I’ve enjoyed working into my characters, with the sects of the Eternal representing how a dionae conducts their consumption of biomass and whether they prefer to learn from blood or conventional means. I was always drawn to the Blood Eternal and the Viscera Belt cluster while they existed and while I did like playing with the idea of learning from genetic memory. A dionaea’s consumption of radiation and light has been a recent favourite of mine, with my aforementioned, recurring ghostrole dionaea character being a Nocturne Notes mindtype who is obsessed with hoarding batteries and radioactive materials, preparing for the universe’s heat death or some other freak event while they are still a Geras that is capable of manouevering through space. I think the burden of Dionaea on terrestrial ecosystems and habited environments isn’t something that has been explored yet and is something I’d enjoy working on. 

It’s the more naturalistic themes that I tend to gravitate towards, the more alien of the already alien. I think it would be interesting if some kind of conflict was created between Voidics and those who have adopted or been integrated into a more human-like–form of society.

Where would you like to take Dionae Lore?

The dionae lore team recently announced their intention to move dionaea from plant-based organisms to fungus-based organisms. Personally, I have always equated dionaea to something other than plantlife, and so this is a welcome step in the right direction to me, and was the final push to me deciding to put forward a lore deputy application. I mentioned on the recent feedback thread that, though I think fungal dionaea is a good move, I would probably have tried to avoid tying dionaea to terrestrial kingdoms of life as a more liberating option, however I am still eager to work on just steering dionaea away from plant-life. I recognise that having something with more solid themes and is more immediately recognisable – so, fungi – is easier. Having a more active role in shaping some of dionaea culture and behaviour during and following this change is something I’d like.

I’d also like to outline how other factions in the Spur may exploit dionaea. We have examples of harmony between a species and dionaea – skrell and dionaea, how dionaea are integrated and socialised in the Nralakk Federation; unathi and dionaea, with the dionaea honour code variants and how certain Wasteland clans integrated dionaea – but there aren’t many examples of, for an easily dehumanisable-able alien species, where they are exploited. The Alliance forced dionaea into hard labour following the Rueltab incident, but that’s about it for explicitly written stuff afaik.

Some negative technologies born of dionaea could be conceived, tied into the theme of consumption and the dionaea’s effect on terrestrial ecosystems. One idea I had was the potential for dionaea to have a parasitic form of birth; if the original ‘seed’ for the dionaea rooted itself within a host,  the host would find themself gradually replaced from inside out – makes for an interesting weaponisation/exploitation of dionaea, ties into dionaea limbs, and is another form of origin for dionaea characters.

I’ve mostly mentioned stuff that’s related to the more wild, naturalistic side of dionaea, as opposed to the civilised and spiritual side they have on terrestrial planets. The more natural, biological side of dionaea - in contrast to the otherwise very civilised species - is definitely where my fondness towards dionaea comes from, it is what I’d like to see emphasised, and is what I will prefer working on. I am still happy working on the more integrated side of dionaea though; groups of dionaea akin to the Narrows, where their society is a mimicry of their origin yet slightly reshaped, is something I really like.

Additional Comments:

None.

[Caelphon]

Hi there!

Spoiler

1. How do you view 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.

[kermit]

On 16/11/2023 at 09:30, Caelphon said:

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?

I think skrell-dionaea relations are in a good place. When asked the same question on my skrell deputy app a little ago, I didn't really have a great answer as there weren't any immediate additions I'd make and I like much of what's down on the wiki. With the Traverse States being given an amount of autonomy, it would be interesting to see what differences arise between dionaea who are raised within Core and Waves of the Nralakk Federation and those raised in the Traverse States. Could there be a cell of the Lyukal that features dionaea to a large extent? Would the Traverse States reject dionaea entirely due to their link to Glorsh, pushing them back to the Core systems or out of skrell space entirely, or would the Traverse States welcome dionaea who were failed by the Federation's socialisation and adoption system? 

My thoughts are much the same for Dionae-Unathi lore too; overall, I like where Dionae-Unathi lore is. As mentioned in my application, the effect of dionaea on ecosystems is something I don't think has been given much attention. Moghes could be a good spot to explore some of this as the Hegemony and Hephaestus attempts to revitalise the planet, though also dealing with the strain of a large number of dionaea that some of the populace has begun to see through a spiritual lens and which initially were seen as a way to help restore irradiated land. As radiation begins to dwindle in the Wasteland and with most biomass already depleted due to said radiation, some dionaea could become a burden on fringe agriculture/aquaculture industries on outskirts of still-green areas of Moghes, is one thought.

I mentioned negative technologies resulting from dionaea; I think the Tarwa Conglomerate could be a really good starting point for that. Something that would explain their secretive nature, perhaps an extreme form of symbiosis among some ranks of the Tarwa – perhaps rank could be based on the degree of symbiosis between the unathi and dionaea. Lots of potential.

On 16/11/2023 at 09:30, Caelphon said:

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

As the Horizon is currently in the Coaliation, I think an in-character arc involving the Narrows would be interesting. An arc I had in mind involves the Horizon passing through the Orezela system where they make contact with the Narrows. The Narrows sends a group of dionaea, including an Overseer who has been assigned as a liaison to engage with the Horizon, to strike an agreement with Command where they agree to go on a few mining gigs together in surrounding asteroid belts. The Horizon will have the opportunity to visit and tour the Narrows vessel, with the Horizon's mining crew getting their much deserved love and admiration from the Narrow's crew – Hephaestus values on display.

If we were to go for something higher intensity, which I think would be a nice change for a dionaea event, then during a joint-expedition, the crew of the Horizon and Narrows would then be faced with a Scarlet Score threat. The preceeding events would then involve the clean-up of this expedition involving Medical and Science, with a number of benefits or consequences depending on some conditions that are reflected through high-profile visits or new articles during the wind-down and close of the arc.

I drafted a semi-detailed breakdown of a potential Narrows-involving arc, including some consequences and boons post-arc. I'll probably give to the dionaea team as an event suggestion when I've refined it.

On 16/11/2023 at 09:30, Caelphon said:

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

To be honest, I haven't got any strong opinions on the EUM, despite it being one of the largest dionae factions. I'm also already aware of your proposal to take the EUM in a for-all-dionaea direction, and I don't want any bullet-pointed draft to be against or a parody of what I've presumed you've already got planned lol.

What I have done is create a bullet-pointed draft (EUM Media Draft) that should fit with the above, as it is a direction I'm interested in nonetheless. I think the EUM, for the only true dionaea planet, really doesn't have much outreach – in-character to dionaea, but also out-of-character to the players – so what I've done is create a, hopefully, interesting, dionaea-based take on media that increases their reach in-character to non-EUM dionaea throughout the Spur, but also allows the creation of a News Database article to reflect EUM views. I've left everything somewhat unnamed so the specifics can be come up with by the dionaea team as a whole.

Not really sure this answers the question or is the draft you were looking for.

Edited November 19, 2023 by kermit
Undo of an Edit

[Caelphon]

This application has been accepted. Welcome to the Team!