[Accepted] Imogen's Book of Guilty Men

[The_Ill_Fated]

BYOND Key: The_Ill_Fated

Discord Username:  The_Ill_Fated

Character Name: Imogen Janse

Item Name: Guilty Men 

Item Function(s):  Functions like the Gadpathurian Morale Manual.  Clicking it makes you flip to a random page which produces a short excerpt.  

Item Description:

A Leather bound book bearing a burning Coalition of Colonies flag. ‘Guilty Men’ and ‘How the Coalition of Colonies and its leaders failed the Frontier’ are engraved on golden plaques on either side of the flag.    A controversial book published several years ago, ‘Guilty Men’ is acclaimed by some as a scathing rebuke of failed Coalition policies, and their intolerable results, and condemned by others as a radical break from traditional Coalition attitudes and values.  This example is worn, with its pages dog-eared and torn in numerous places, while the leather binding has begun to crack and discolor under frequent handling. 

Why is your character bringing this item to work?:  

Imogen’s ideological foundations, while rooted within the confines, and context of the Coalition of Colonies, are fairly radical in comparison to some of her peers within the Foreign Office of the All-Xanu Republic, and the other Coalition member-states.  These radical beliefs, though independently evolving, are fundamentally rooted within ‘Guilty Men’.   She frequently re-reads small paragraphs, whole pages, and the entire book when time allows, as they remind her what she’s struggling to achieve, and change when the realities of life onboard the SCCV Horizon in her position make her doubt herself.  

How did your character obtain this item?:

Imogen’s father, a man holding deeply nurtured radical beliefs oft-times at odds with mainstream Xanan politics gave Imogen her copy of ‘Guilty Men’ just prior to his death in 2463.  She has kept it with her ever since, as it’s both an underpinning factor in her political beliefs, as well as the last gift her father ever gave her.  

What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?:

‘Guilty Men’ is the fundamental underpinning of Imogen’s political beliefs.  When the framework she’d established for her life collapsed in the aftermath of her injuries during her service in the All-Xanan Grand Army, Imogen obviously felt that something was wrong within her life, within Xanu, within the Coalition, and within the Spur,  and ‘Guilty Men’ answered for her what it was that had gone wrong.

It enriches the story adding further detail to Imogen of how and why she became as politically entrenched, involved, and radical as she currently is, and provides a physical anchor for that belief, which she holds to fiercely.  

Sprites:  https://i.imgur.com/A7CC12F.png

Additional Comments:  Sprite is by NobleRow. He's the best

Edited March 18 by The_Ill_Fated
Credit for Sprite

[Comet Blaze]

I think this is a cool idea for a custom item, I enjoy the provided backstory and think it makes sense for the character to have it.

Also "Guilty Men" is just a really cool title.

+1

[Jasorn]

A neat item that adds to the character and fits in the lore I think. It would allow for good RP discussions when shown to another person and I can't see a reason why this would be a bad thing.

Also Ill_Fated is a good role player, they know how to operate.

+1

[Roostercat]

Hi. I'm on the custom item app team. My main question is why is a consular for Xanu carrying around a book that effectively trashtalks the CoC's government? It makes sense for radical ideals to be present to an extent, but I'm not sure it makes much sense for someone representating a nation to be permitted to carry around a book that shit-talks the government.

[The_Ill_Fated]

1 hour ago, Roostercat said:

Hi. I'm on the custom item app team. My main question is why is a consular for Xanu carrying around a book that effectively trashtalks the CoC's government? It makes sense for radical ideals to be present to an extent, but I'm not sure it makes much sense for someone representating a nation to be permitted to carry around a book that shit-talks the government.

 

Because Xanu is a democratic state with a diverse set of ideological beliefs prominent across it's population.  Hell there's a canonical political faction that's sole purpose is abandoning the CoC.  It's possible that I didn't convey it very well in the application, but the book shouldn't be looked as a 'Fuck Xanu' or 'Fuck the CoC', it's an examination of the policies of Xanu, and the Coalition of colonies in the past, an analysis of their failures, and the consequences therein, a theoretical examination of what the author(s) think could be done to correct these 'failures', and an outline of which policies, were the fault of specific figures. 

 

But again, even were this explicitly a 'Fuck the CoC' book, in-so-far as I've read into Xanu, and the CoC's lore that would be acceptable, the CoC does have critics that argue it's existence, or at least Xanu's membership is unjustified, I don't find any flaw in thinking that people in-universe within the government could be critical of specific government policies, while employed by that government.  It happens all the time irl, and there's no IC justification to believing that Xanu would forbid any of its government officials from having a book critical of specific policies.  

[Roostercat]

I completely forgot to actually respond to this again, but your reasoning for having the book satisfies me, more or less. Accepted.