[Dionae] Yonni's Tree Dep App

[Yonnimer]

Ckey/BYOND Username: Yonnimer

Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Dionae Dep

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

Past Experiences/Knowledge: Previous Dionae loredev for way too long.

Examples of Past Work: Narrows, Voidtamers,  and around half of the original EUM rework were probably my biggest projects.

1) This is going to have a bunch of overlap with the other questions. The biggest thing I wish to see with the species is an expansion of "aesthetic" or soul to the species itself and many of its factions. A large part of this is their loadout on the server, which, while there (I know because I added it lol), is some, it's primarily just Unathi and Skrell gear those origins for Dionae can take. It's something I had planned on and worked a bit on before my previous retirement, but I would like to add a bunch of various faction gear, especially hie and narrows, as well as gear that is more generalized for the species itself. This is admittedly something I'd like to workshop heavily with the team and player base to see what would be favored, but I would like to set a "Leitmotif" or style that the species leans on even across factions, this could be completely unified or something more split across cultures, like the voidborn or Hie factions having more distinctive aesthetics. If I were to pick something myself, It might be some kind of mixture of alienism, a “sailor”/sea aesthetic for lack of a better word, and maybe some mythicism to help tie them together. 

Another big part of this is the culture of each faction and what stands out with them. For past examples, this would be something like the Ekane leaning on the sea and bots, the nature-worshiping religion/culture of another, etc. I think this is one of the largest aspects missing from most Dionae factions at this point; that is to say, their cultural aesthetic and hook that people get drawn to.

The last thing i'd like to focus on initially are Dionae ghostroles. I do think, especially since the NBT launch, a massive draw of attracting people to a species and keeping people interested in it is through ghost roles, I can say personally I've seen many people show interest in other species as we've had more and more of their away ships added, as well as my own initial draw with the species being me playing Dionae as the ghost role nymph, it was fun and got me interested enough to look into the species as a whole and eventually apply for my own whitelist. I'd like to put some focus on this for Dionae in either the addition of events or on-horizon ghost roles like a randomly spawning nymph rather than the pure reliance on someone growing it, as well as adding some new unwhitelisted awayships. 

2) Only including stuff since I've retired, honestly my favorite thing to see has been the little IPC-Dionae arc, it was something I wanted to do for quite some time but never had the time to.

3) I will be completely open with this, I do not like the recent EUM/Hie rework that took place not too long ago. While it adds a lot more lore to the faction, as well as managed to cut down on the number of EUM factions present to make it more understandable, something I maybe should have done myself, I just do not find it interesting or engaging, part of my answer to question 1 is directed at this, I think it lost its soul. If it were completely up to me, I would honestly revert it back if it isn't seen as an unpopular opinion and use that as a base instead with some changes or cutbacks to what I should've initially done. I don't disagree that there were problems even back then, it should've been more focused and immediate attention put on putting more content into it, maybe starting it with some loadout options on release instead of waiting to add some more hooks, cutting back on factions like the Gleaners and Celestial station especially, however as it stands I frankly dislike the current iteration and feel it's just too uninteresting right now.

4) I think Dionae are in a fine place but still needs work. I'll be the first to admit some of my own mistakes are still showing across the species, stuff got rushed and spread too thin instead of focused on and made interesting, but in many ways, it has improved. I do think the culture and aesthetic of many factions and the species as a whole need massive work still, which would be my chief focus if given the chance. There is more I'd like to explore as well, like the conflict between the eternal and Dionae who don't follow it, something that'd likely go with any EUM changes I'd try to work on initially.

5) I can in theory sprite and map, but both need some work and refinement, so I'd still likely need some help with it. I have a few ideas and a few half-finished sprites I still want to add some time, clothes, and a few fluff items for the eternal especially,

Additional Comments: Since retiring i've had some time for self-reflection when it comes to my writing and tried to improve on it, I tended to hard-focus on one thing without attending to other smaller things, which became a problem with things like EUMs release where it got caught up in delays due to having to wait for weeks-to-months for LMs to approve it, during that time I let myself get too burnt out instead of trying to find smaller things to focus on, something I'd like to avoid.

[Caelphon]

Hi there!

Do you mind perhaps showing something - like an extract (lore) or a sprite or a map - that you would like to see added? It does not need to be polished, a WIP will be perfectly fine! If you’re going to do the writing selection, just make sure it has at least two paragraphs. Thanks!

[Yonnimer]

These are some redone and fixed-up sprites that ended up getting scrapped when I initially retired, regardless of how the app goes I plan on finishing them fully.

From the top left, there's a jacket initially made for the mada with a little tunic underneath it -> Without the tunic -> Majorly fixed-up eternal robes, will be made greyscale ideally, -> Nebula Lanterns, something meant to be used for the Eternal but might be repurposed, I might make this one of my first mini projects just to get back into the groove of things (Also animated but idk how to make a gif)-> The gleaners tunic, will be made greyscale instead of brown with potentially an optional accessory to break it up -> Four variations of the same outfit originally meant for the ekane + a jacket on the far-right one, also to be made greyscale.

These are still in progress and need some touchups and fixing, there are a few rogue pixels and the ekane clothes might be shifted up a bit to account for dionae shoulders.

For an idea for an EUM ship, this was originally going to be a Mada collection ship scouting around for fauna to take back or potentially trade with. This is old enough and unfinished to the point it'd just be completely redone from the ground up, but i'd still like to do something like this sometime, especially making it more condensed where it can be after so many issues with the previous voidtamer ships, which may also be redone sometime. I think something like this would be a good excuse to have EUM/Hie factions outside their home system while still making sense.

[Caelphon]

This is accepted.