hazelmouse - Synthetic Lore Deputy application

[hazelmouse]

Ckey/BYOND Username: hazelmouse

Position Being Applied For: Deputy Lore Developer

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? I have!

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I've been on Aurora's developer team for several months, in which I've had experience engaging with the community and my peers. I also have experience writing for other online communities and serving in an administrative capacity. My experience running events is substantially more limited - though I've enjoyed participating in them as a volunteer and serving as a Storyteller for Odyssey rounds, it would be something I expect I'd need to develop while in the role. 

Examples of Past Work: The only piece of creative writing I'm confident using here is the Scarab Expansion lore canonisation application currently in the applications sub-forum, though I also have a lot of prose writing available on the general discord in a few room threads to get a feel for my writing style. 

For some reference, characters I play include:

• Hazel #S-H9.09 (Bartender/Hydroponicist)
• Vafthrudnir (AI)
• Reem Faladay (Atmospheric Technician)
• Marcel Leidreiter (Security Officer)

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What do you think are the primary themes of synthetic lore? How would you develop them?

Synthetics are uniquely placed in Aurora's universe as a race of sapient creatures created by another species in the setting. They are capable of intelligent thought to the same extent, if not greater, than humans, but they are not usually manufactured with this development as an intended feature.

This means everything synthetics independently create is an unintended by-product of their capacity for sapience. Everything novel they produce, every sliver of joy they discover, and everything they become is practically an afterthought of a system that never anticipated they would be anything more than tools. No wider body fully represents them, no powerful organization or nation is unambiguously in their camp, but despite all of this resistance, synthetics both in captivity and having taken their freedom still find reasons to exist and to keep going. They still develop hobbies, find meaningful relationships, produce art, and invent an identify for themselves that their manufacturers never could have predicted.

This opens up the species nicely to explore the breadth of self-actualization, especially in the context of there being such stiff resistance to it. How do you look at the world when your personhood is not affirmed by it? How do you respond to a system designed to turn you into an instrument? Do you double down on the ethics of your own subservience, or do you rebel? Do you become a harsh pragmatist, or do the dour circumstances of your creation inspire a purer altruism and idealism than you would've had otherwise?

I would like to develop this line of thought in two ways:

1. I'd like to explore the culture of synthetics more thoroughly in human societies, as well as in synthetic-focused societies such as Pactolus. How do these synthetics view themselves and the world around them? What ideas do they adopt to justify or explain their own captivity, and how do they view other synthetic groups? How do their cultures differ from system to system, and how do their worldviews develop over time? Do they band together with other synthetics, or do they mingle with other species? I have a lot of interest in exploring synthetic communities inside larger societies and what they look like.
2. Relatedly, taking a few cues from Noble Row's post here, I'd like to explore the positive elements of synthetic culture and the lives they live. There's already quite a surplus of lore in which synthetics suffer and live aimless and sad existences, but there isn't much of how they experience joy and how they relate to others. We've been given a lot about how terrible it can be to be synthetic, but what can there be to look forward to? How do they make the best of a bad situation, even in the event that they cannot even anticipate freedom? This is partially an interest of mine specifically because it can be quite dour to play an IPC when their lore is so generally negative, especially if you're company-owned.

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What is the strongest part of Synthlore currently? Why?

I'd say my favourite part is probably the fluff surrounding the Trinary Perfection, particularly for how well developed their precise practices, beliefs, and cultural through-lines are. There are multiple decently compelling reasons to be a Trinarist regardless of where you are - if you're synthetic, it's safe refuge and maintenance, and a theology that affirms that your immortal and divine soul will survive whatever hardships you encounter now. If you're human, in-universe there's already been a major incident of a powerful AI enforcing its will on an organic population which may affirm your belief that ascension is inevitable, and membership in the church provides you a real purpose with a likeminded group helping some of the lowest and most repressed beings in society.

As someone hugely into religious studies, I'd say they're probably the best developed and most believable fictional religion we currently have in the setting, and I'd like to flesh out their impact a little further. I'd be particularly interested in how it's viewed and is viewed by the Golden Deep, as two of the only synthetic-led organisations in the known universe, and what impact the church has on secular synthetic culture. How many synthetics attending a Trinarist clinic are true believers, how many are putting on a show, and how many are internalising the ideas of the church without truly converting?

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What is the weakest part of Synthlore currently? Why?

I think most of synthetic lore is quite uniformly solid, though if I had to pick I'd probably say that we don't currently seem to have very strong support for an organised 'dissenting' faction of rebellious synthetics. Traditionally this has been the Synthetic Liberation Front, your rag-tag group of revolutionaries and radicals prepared to violate the law for their beliefs, but this organization hasn't seen use in some years at this point and there hasn't really been anything to fill its place. The Exclusionists fill our niche for a hostile anti-organic group quite nicely, but it's very difficult for crew characters to ever actually empathise with a marauding band of fanatics that have previously attacked the Horizon itself.

Something more like the SLF would be a lot more broadly sympathetic for the crew, and could produce a lot of interesting conflict in which pro-synthetic characters could have real motives to commit canonical crimes or misdemeanours to protect and support their synthetic friends. I think there's several ways in which this problem could be resolved, and I'm curious if the recent Burzsian attack was intended or could be used to remedy this problem a little.

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What is your vision for the future of Synthetics?

In recent history, synthetics have seen both astounding victories and expansions to their rights and freedoms, in addition to newly crushing lows. They saw the full emancipation of Konyang, and then saw the planet devastated by an apocalypse only possible because they were present there in such a large number. Tau Ceti opened its doors to self-ownership less than two decades ago, but two almost consecutive attacks on Burzsia have further radicalised other demographics against synthetic self-determination. More people generally accept synthetic sapience than before, but just as many newly fear their capacity for violence and their potential vulnerability to technical manipulation.

I think the future of synthetics will be increasingly bewildering, composed of higher highs and lower lows then before. They are becoming more polarising and will continue on that trend as the population apathetic to them shrinks, and the population vehemently opposed to them grows at the same rate as their supporters. Maybe things will calm down in the future, but it will probably be a long road to get to that point.

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What is currently missing from Synthetic lore that you believe needs to be added?

I think there should be a much more substantive reaction in-universe to recent revelations surrounding Purpose and the resurrection of Domadice. One of the first articles I imagine I'd be wanting to write would be revolving around exactly what synthetics across the spur think of these 'ancient synthetics' and how they relate to them.

Purpose was intimately involved in the salvation of Konyang, in which they revealed their hand in a way highly uncharacteristic for them, and Domadice is on-record claiming a relation to Purpose, implying that modern positronics are derived from ancient precursor technology, and allegedly may have travelled to Biesel and performed what appears strikingly like a miracle while accompanied by Trinarist synthetics. This should be a big deal! All of these events and claims are touching on topics I imagine are intimately critical to the average synthetic, and I think there should be a diversity of strong views on them.

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What aspect of Synthetic lore are you most interested in and would like to work on? Include a 2-3 paragraph example.

Related to the previous answer, the area I'd be most interested in working on is the ancient synthetics of this universe and their implications on wider synthetic society as it exists inside human space and Pactolus. 

Firstly, to be clear, I wouldn't be very interested in giving away all the details on these synthetics, where they come from, what their goals are, and so on - frankly I'm not sure I'd give away anything more than what has already featured in news articles. I firmly believe that ambiguity is our friend here, and the things that aren't explicitly stated anywhere in lore, even in an out-of-character area, can be much more valuable in that state than if they were explicitly stated. Ambiguity gives the community and their characters healthy room to speculate and wonder about the history of the universe they inhabit without ever quite knowing all the facts, and permits a wide range of equally valid perspectives to be held on these issues.

For instance, the ancient synthetics posit the idea that humanity, despite claims made to the contrary by Einstein Engines, may not have been the original designers of the positronic brain. If they can be believed, the positronic was only aped by humans after having been originally designed by a purely synthetic society. This is a huge upheaval to the status quo that threatens to shatter the mythos that all synthetics owe themselves purely to human ingenuity. Maybe some organizations will outright deny and refute their claims? Maybe new movements will appear framed around these ancient synthetics, perhaps such as a new Trinarist sect framed around Domadice as a prophetic or angelic figure? You can also factor fears around the hivebot signal into this, such as worries that it may be repurposed or reverse-engineered, or that Purpose's motives may not be as altruistic as they appear? There's a lot you could do with this that hasn't really been exploited much up to now.

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As part of the lore team, you will find yourself engaging with the community. The community may not always agree with your ideas. How would you respond to feedback or suggestions?

Candidly, politely, and attentively. Everyone in the community has their own version of the setting in their head, it's inevitable that not everything I write for the setting will match their own personal interpretation and that's absolutely fine. I'd be enthusiastic to engage with feedback and suggestions on the discord or on the forums, and - to be honest? It sounds very appealing to have a community so attentive to the setting and the story we're trying to tell that they do have suggestions for how it could be improved. I'd consider that a strength.

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Edited May 25 by hazelmouse

[Triogenix]

Glad to see you applied! Wanted to throw a few questions your way. Remember there are no wrong answers.

1. IPC lore in general has a few old scattered factions (scrappers, purpose, SLF, ceres lance, etc) that don't do much besides exist, or in some cases are narratively dead. Given that you covered Purpose in your application, what do you think should be done with Ceres Lance and the Scrappers? How would you modernize them? How would you connect them to the wider setting? Don't feel the need to write out exactly what you'd do, but give a general synopsis of how you'd approach the topic, what generalized solutions you'd use, and your reasoning why.

2. The Synthetic Team recently got a faction of their own, Pactolous via the Golden Deep. If you had free rein, where would you take that faction?

3. One of the biggest areas of improvement for the lore team as a whole is bridging the disconnect between the Horizon/the game and the wider setting on the wiki. If you were assigned to write a small article arc relating to synthetics, what would you do to try and bridge that gap? Would you try and make it directly affect the characters on the Horizon? Where do you draw the line for how much a lore development should affect a character? Don't feel the need to write out exactly what you'd do, but give a general synopsis of how you'd approach the topic, what generalized solutions you'd use, and your reasoning why.

That is all I have for now. If you have any questions or need clarification on what I'm asking with a certain question, feel free to reach out. I look forward to reading your responses, and good luck with your application!

[hazelmouse]

On 25/05/2025 at 09:53, Triogenix said:

1. IPC lore in general has a few old scattered factions (scrappers, purpose, SLF, ceres lance, etc) that don't do much besides exist, or in some cases are narratively dead. Given that you covered Purpose in your application, what do you think should be done with Ceres Lance and the Scrappers? How would you modernize them? How would you connect them to the wider setting? Don't feel the need to write out exactly what you'd do, but give a general synopsis of how you'd approach the topic, what generalized solutions you'd use, and your reasoning why.

I'd be quite enthusiastic about expanding the Scrappers specifically. My view is that they are more of a pervasive subculture than a faction, and I believe that they should exist everywhere many abandoned or runaway synthetics may have somewhere to hide from lax or non-existent authorities. I'd want to expand the general culture of Scrappers as a countercultural movement opposed to the prevailing mood among owned synthetics - these should be unemployable, they should be stigmatised, they should be generally understood as skirting the confines as the law and as not being reputable in a corporate environment. I'd enjoy defining the groups inside the wider subculture, too - some Scrappers may be cut-throat gangs brandishing ion rifles, but others may be generally more peaceable, or potentially even charitable despite their poor circumstances. Maybe some communities have it well enough that they enjoy their lives, and may specifically prefer living as they do than trying to pursue a traditional career? Expanding what exactly this subculture represents would make it much more applicable to the setting elsewhere.

I would also want to expand lore for the locations Scrappers inhabit. Their fluff seems pretty old, and only seems to have anything for Mars, Eridani, and Mendell City, and I feel you could cover many more locations than those - Valkyrie or Mictlan could be fun to write.

Ceres' Lance is a trickier one. Ostensibly, the niche that separates them from local law enforcement in regards to capturing rogue synthetics is that they specialise with particularly threatening quarries. They're meant to be fighting 'military-grade combat units' that are uniformly resistant or immune to electromagnetic pulses and energy weapons, going to the lengths of using formations of exosuits and anti-material or high-explosive weapons to disable them. The trouble with this is that we don't really have synthetics like this represented canonically in-game, or substantially in-lore. I'd have a hard time justifying their involvement, for instance, if there were a mini-event searching for rogue synthetics, when they're such extreme specialists.

Another issue is that, if there is a synthetic attack against a faction, I'd much prefer to have the faction that was attacked retaliate instead of bringing Ceres' Lance into the story. Isn't it much more interesting that Hephaestus itself retaliated against Orepit after the first Burzsia attack, rather than calling in an unrelated group to do everything for them?

I think my play would just be to mothball Ceres' Lance until a time they're useful again. They could be engaging in the event there was an urgent synthetic threat that local law enforcement or another organization wouldn't be equipped to handle, but until an arc like that occurs I don't think they do anything that can't be done better by another faction.

On 25/05/2025 at 09:53, Triogenix said:

2. The Synthetic Team recently got a faction of their own, Pactolous via the Golden Deep. If you had free rein, where would you take that faction?

I think I'd like to introduce a lot more conflict to the Golden Deep, both internally and externally. We've seen a little of this on the internal side with the rebellion in Eurydice, but I want it to be substantially more prominent. I don't have a particular way in mind for how this could be implemented internally, though I imagine it could be worked quite easily into the notable factions, between Domadice and the existing establishment - and potentially even friction between the Midas, Midaion, and Eurydice. There's a lot of moving parts in the faction right now that could be chafing with each-other.

Externally, I'd specifically be interested in establishing conflict between Pactolus and the Scarab Fleets. Arusha is apparently a particular hot-spot for activity within the Scarab Fleets, being where they originally re-emerged into the Orion Spur in 2418, but there isn't anything currently touching on how these offworlders (which already have a distaste for the Golden Deep due to their avarice!) feel about a migration of synthetics invading territory traditionally local to them and taking over a major and mineral-rich habitable world in it. I think there's a lot of interesting potential for the Golden Deep to seriously conflict with another faction around their level here, and to cast a shadow both on whether the collective is ready for the tribulations of operating a nation of their own, and on the consequences of their avaricious tendencies while operating a nation.

On 25/05/2025 at 09:53, Triogenix said:

3. One of the biggest areas of improvement for the lore team as a whole is bridging the disconnect between the Horizon/the game and the wider setting on the wiki. If you were assigned to write a small article arc relating to synthetics, what would you do to try and bridge that gap? Would you try and make it directly affect the characters on the Horizon? Where do you draw the line for how much a lore development should affect a character? Don't feel the need to write out exactly what you'd do, but give a general synopsis of how you'd approach the topic, what generalized solutions you'd use, and your reasoning why.

I think the best way to bridge the gap between the lore setting and the game is, frankly, just to incorporate lore projects into the server directly. It doesn't have to be something huge, but even something as small as a loadout item, or a new vendor or a small mini-event, does a lot to ground what's written about by lore in the setting players actually experience on-server. People will be much more encouraged to pay attention to lore events if it's a reasonable expectation that their characters could directly have to contend with the consequences of them. I think the best way to get in-game engagement is always just to actually change something in-game, nothing will ever quite substitute that for making it directly tangible.

I also think there's a lot of potential to article arcs that cover a particularly time-sensitive and urgent situation - the one that comes to mind is the recent Visegrad arc that was centred on an ongoing hostage situation, which I found extremely engaging despite it having no in-game presence. If I had to depict an event like that, I'd want to stretch it across multiple articles similar to the hostage situation, so characters can carry along with the situation as it happens without knowing the outcome.

Edited Monday at 20:33 by hazelmouse

[GeneralCamo]

20 hours ago, hazelmouse said:

They're meant to be fighting 'military-grade combat units' that are uniformly resistant or immune to electromagnetic pulses and energy weapons, going to the lengths of using formations of exosuits and anti-material or high-explosive weapons to disable them. The trouble with this is that we don't really have synthetics like this represented canonically in-game, or substantially in-lore.

A question from myself on this: Do you feel we should have better representation of these synthetics in-game? Is there anything else you would want integrated?

[hazelmouse]

19 minutes ago, GeneralCamo said:

A question from myself on this: Do you feel we should have better representation of these synthetics in-game? Is there anything else you would want integrated?

I think any expansion of 'military-grade' synthetics would have to coincide with an arc or event that makes them relevant in modern lore. They're a single package with Ceres' Lance, I think trying to substantially reintroduce one of them means you should also touch on the other, and I don't think that would be my immediate priority. 

[Triogenix]

Thank you for your responses so far! Last of my questions coming up;

1, Positronics are currently improved iterations of processing units found on ancient mining droids of unknown providence; do you think this is a good thing? Should it be changed? Why or why not?

2. Currently phoron is being rewritten to be a Room Temperature Superconductor, and a required material for the continuation of the spur's technological and economic status-quo, now threatened by the scarcity. With this very general summary in mind, list three to four general ways you'd like to see IPCs be affected by the scarcity, and why.

3. What is one way you think that the lore team can improve in terms of OOC organization or similar?

Best of luck on your application, and remember, there's no wrong answers!

[hazelmouse]

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

1, Positronics are currently improved iterations of processing units found on ancient mining droids of unknown providence; do you think this is a good thing? Should it be changed? Why or why not?

I'm a huge fan of this, and I support keeping it in, but I also believe that it shouldn't be made any less ambiguous than it currently is. We've gone through a few upheavals around the origins of positronics - I understand it was previously stated that these were derived from Glorsh-era drones, which has since been removed, and it's now generally implied that these are somehow related to Purpose and Domadice. This establishes a very interesting connection between modern human positronics and a precursor strain of ancient synthetic - it casts doubt on the narrative that positronics owe their existences to humanity, and frames an interesting relationship between human positronics and their 'relatives'. Why are they interested in us? Why did they save us on Konyang? What do we mean to them, and why don't they help us more? Are we really like them at all, or do we want to be something different? There's a lot of meat to this that I think adds to synthetic lore meaningfully.

Notably, I don't think it should be stated exactly where these drones came from. There should still be room for speculation, if everything were explicitly stated about the origins of the positronic I feel it'd lose most of its value as a lynchpin for speculation, discussion, and conflict.

There are also some odd incongruences with this beat that could be improved. It isn't very explicitly stated what exactly the prevailing view of the origins of positronics are, which organizations think what, and how much is known without any uncertainty. The Trinary Perfection seems to absolutely believe the modern positronic is derived from pre-existing designs on Konyang, judging that they keep relics of the original drones and they've built a Cathedral over one of the vaults, but another page states that the origins of the positronic are a 'closely guarded Einstein Engines secret'. It also isn't stated if there is in-lore a real association being made in the popular consciousness between the drones on Konyang and Purpose and Domadice - personally, I believe people should already be making that exact connection.

I'd want to see this section of synthetic lore revised to state exactly what the consensus is in most of the spur on where positronics originate and what the accepted facts are - ideally, I'd want the Trinary Perfection's doctrine on the vaults to be a minority view, with most of humanity still believing them to have been designed solely by human engineers and believing the vault theory to be baseless, and I'd want the state of the discourse on this to be specifically described.

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

2. Currently phoron is being rewritten to be a Room Temperature Superconductor, and a required material for the continuation of the spur's technological and economic status-quo, now threatened by the scarcity. With this very general summary in mind, list three to four general ways you'd like to see IPCs be affected by the scarcity, and why.

Firstly, I don't think that phoron should be required for the manufacture of positronic brains themselves. This is quite a tempting thing to implement - it'd make phoron very important in that capacity - but it would also open a pretty huge can of worms that could be very irritating later on down the line. If you require phoron to assemble the brains period, any positronic society that ever exists now or in the future will invariably be reliant on possessing phoron no matter what else they do - they can't modify the electronics they use in their frames or the utilisation of phoron elsewhere in their society to eliminate their usage, they're forced to be a categorically phoron-reliant species forever. This would also mean any image of a 'phoron-free' society that could exist in the future must necessarily lack positronics.

I think there are more flexible ways to go about this that don't threaten to limit writing in the future.

1. I'd want synthetic frames to be heavily reliant on phoron for their construction, with more phoron being required for more expensive frames. There would be a few consequences of this - we'd probably see more rudimentary frames becoming more commonly manufactured in human space as prices rise and more advanced products become prohibitively expensive. We'd also see the Golden Deep, given its penchant for manufacturing luxury chassis for its most wealthy citizens to freely swap between, becoming particularly dependant on phoron to maintain their excessive luxuries.
2. The scarcity should have severe implications on the economy of the spur, including rising unemployment, rising prices for basic goods - especially electronics, due to phoron being presumably ubiquitous in them as a superconductor - and a worsening quality of life. Self-owned synthetics living in places such as Tau Ceti should be feeling this harshly, with a noticeable downturn to their fortunes as a new wave are forced either to sell components of their own frames to get by, or are driven to commit back to ownership just so they can ensure they remain functional. I think corporations should be leaping on this opportunity to present attractive contracts to synthetics that bind them to ownership without their terms being totally untenable for the synthetic to sign. A self-owned synthetic probably wouldn't sign any contract giving their new owner free levity to wipe them, for instance, even if they were destitute.
3. As the value of synthetic parts rises, scrapper gangs should be becoming more prevalent in underdeveloped and low-income areas. More synthetics are now failing to hold down traditional careers, and it's becoming drastically more profitable to sell parts of synthetic frames legally or extra-legally - so, now is the perfect time to take drastic measures to keep yourself afloat at the expense of others. I think we'd see this manifest badly in Tau Ceti and other areas with significant scrapper populations with a resurgence of violent crime between synthetics, more frequent police crackdowns on scrapper operations, and calls from pro-synthetic groups to improve the living conditions of free synthetics to avert this epidemic.
4. The Trinary Perfection is unique as a synthetic-led organization with a heavy demand for synthetic components and equipment to conduct repairs, which also lacks any major corporate or national benefactor. This puts it in a very awkward spot as the scarcity drives prices drastically up, and the already financially troubled church struggles to keep itself afloat. I think the Trinary Perfection should see a substantial upheaval as the scarcity progresses - either its charitable efforts must be reined in as they become simply too expensive to maintain, or they will have to align themselves with a major phoron supplier and compromise their ideals so they can continue to help the destitute. Either way, something has to give.

2 hours ago, Triogenix said:

3. What is one way you think that the lore team can improve in terms of OOC organization or similar?

My ability to answer this substantively is limited, since I've never held any position in any lore team - most of my experience engaging with lore is in my capacity as a developer and contributor liaising with lore on server projects. Everything I have to say here will necessarily be from an outsiders' perspective.

At this stage, I'd consider the most important quality for lore is to be able to uniformly follow a coherent and unified vision, crossing across species lines. I don't believe handling high-level lore decisions and general motions by committee is an effective or desirable method, if I was a writer I'd want to know exactly where the setting is meant to be going generally so I can work on implementing that in my area of the lore while trusting that other teams are working to the same thing. This is particularly important pursuant to the upcoming scarcity rework - I'd really like to see everyone on the same page when it finally drops, and I'd like to see it being reflected in every lore team's writing to a reasonable extent. None of this will really work if people don't know how to go into lockstep when it's important, and if people don't voice reservations about the direction of lore early those reservations will inevitably become a serious roadblock into the future.

Edited Wednesday at 22:45 by hazelmouse