Skrell Deputy - Stripes

[Stripes]

Ckey/BYOND Username: TheStripes
Position Being Applied For: Deputy Lore Developer, Skrell
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: I have, yes.
Past Experiences/Knowledge: Most recent experience was working with Shiptest in a lore writer position for a few months.
Examples of Past Work: Most public facing example is the wikipages and writing for the species Kepori, which I was primarily tasked with writing to extrapolate faithfully off of the original writer's notes to make cohesive pages and lore docs for. Other examples are primarily rewrite PRs on GitHub, all of which can be provided on request.

Lore Proposal: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCdcUJ3nZnMLNuyhdd0qi8KADdD8uj72WKxpkXt6t28/edit?usp=sharing

Why join the team?: Honestly, I just really enjoyed my time reading through the setting when I first considered joining Aurora, and I want to help contribute to it now that there's a need for more volunteers. Skrell lore is what I've read the most and enjoyed the most of, which influenced by decision to try and pitch in.

Thoughts on lore?: Skrell lore has a wonderful amount of details on more mundane and domestic aspects that made me fall in love with the setting -- they're endearing and alien. If I had to decide on one area of the lore needing improvement, it's that the Nralakk Federation as an entity could use maybe a little more of its active hand displayed. The Golden Deep's interactions with Hieroaetheria could provoke some reaction from them, news on the front regarding potentially utilizing C'thur's Cephalons (and maybe something on the front of their progress on cracking their VR?), as well as more mundane interactions with its citizenry.

Useful skills: Base level of familiarity with VSC and SDMM from past work on other servers, but I wouldn't call myself a coder or mapper without more experience. Some work on wiki page editing and creation.

[kermit]

hi, Stripes. thank you for applying!

Meep and I really like the lore proposal. In-lore literature and other art expansions will always be appreciated by me.

I've put together a fair few questions to ask you:

1. On the Skrell team, you'll occasionally work closely with the Vaurca and Diona teams. How familiar are you with the lore of those two species?
2. What are your thoughts on the Nralakk Federation's internal politics; is there anything you'd like to see?
3. There are some large projects slated for all species teams currently. Are you able to contribute to large projects and receive criticism from multiple other writers?
4. How would you feel planning, organising, and running an event arc (of any size or impact)?
5. What's one thing you really dislike and one thing you really like about skrell lore?

Feel free to request clarifications on any of them. Look forward to your answers <3

[Stripes]

12 hours ago, kermit said:

On the Skrell team, you'll occasionally work closely with the Vaurca and Diona teams. How familiar are you with the lore of those two species?

 

I have read both Vaurca and Diona lore in the past, and I'll follow through with rereading their respective pages on the wiki to familiarize myself with both of them again.

12 hours ago, kermit said:

What are your thoughts on the Nralakk Federation's internal politics; is there anything you'd like to see?

The Nralakk Federation as it exists right now (though reasonable in the way that Skrell are long-lived and patient) acts slowly in relative terms to the other political organizations of the Spur. Most major political actions would take years or longer due to its size and time needed to develop momentum, and this does have the side effect of them becoming a quieter facet for most characters and story occurrences, beyond when it is explicitly called upon for the arcs. As it stands right now, the Federation does have noted topics of debate and issues that could be opened up -- examples being the use of the C'thur Cephalons, Golden Deep's interactions with Hieroaetheria, and the Federation's hidden reliance on remaining Lu'piq technology for infrastructure.

12 hours ago, kermit said:

There are some large projects slated for all species teams currently. Are you able to contribute to large projects and receive criticism from multiple other writers?

I am open to helping contribute for large projects and working in a group environment, as well as taking criticism for the sake of them. I've done similar things before on past projects.

12 hours ago, kermit said:

How would you feel planning, organising, and running an event arc (of any size or impact)?

Helping to plan, organize, and/or run an event arc are things I'm willing to do. Spearheading them is something I'd like to develop confidence in before being able to lead the events, but I'll at least help!

 

12 hours ago, kermit said:

What's one thing you really dislike and one thing you really like about skrell lore?

I have an unabashed fondness for all of the care given to Skrell lore regarding the species as a people, from the relationship page to the details on their arts and culture. It fleshes them out as individuals and a society, and it's what started my interest in them that led me to want to apply for the position. It would have been very easy to flatten them due to being primarily under one nation and psionically connected, and I think they avoided it entirely.

Something I dislike in Skrell lore is the Starlight Zone, whose existence on Biesel feels out of place in how it's insular to the point of being essentially segregated (references to a border wall?) with Severson and Lekan. While it is the receiving area of post-election refugees, the implications of either settlement being walled off with checkpoints conflicts with Biesel's cosmopolitan culture and other alien-majority districts.