Carver - Vaurca Lore Deputy Application

[Carver]

Ckey/BYOND Username: GMR25

Position Being Applied For: Deputy Vaurca Lore Developer

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes, as proof/humour, retcon is misspelled in 'How To Recton News Articles'

Past Experiences/Knowledge: I am afraid that I haven't worked with any form of collaborative writing team prior to now, at the most I've assisted the Vaurca Lore Team with a few sprites and a slight handful of the descriptive text to accompany their associated items. I'll readily admit that I'm no expert when it comes to writing or spriting, often needing to work through bad habits with my occasionally stilted vocabulary, but I'm more than willing to improve wherever I can.

Examples of Past Work: 
Primarily extremely minor projects such as spriting and describing the Hive/Sedantis flagpatches, spriting the (embarrassingly simple) Phalanx Receiver, fixing a few pre-existing Phalanx undersuit sprites + producing new variants.

Spriting Credits
https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/18776
https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/18771

As writing goes, I've mainly produced the following lore application: 
https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/20681-shades-of-the-vekatak/

Additional Comments: 
I had been meaning to further write multiple lore applications over the past year, but I couldn't find the time between the relatively slow response to my initial one plus a lengthy sabbatical from Aurora over the past nine months to wean off of a medication that had been rather harmful to my mind and memory. I try to make sure that I finish any project before beginning another, and I'm more than willing to adapt to a team environment without any of the prior abrasive or overtly blunt behaviour common to my past self. Furthermore, I would also make a point of pursuing Skrell and Unathi whitelists in order to be able to further understand the necessary crossover lore of each in respect to their relationships with the C'thur and K'lax.

Questions:

1. Choose any Vaurca background and write one or two paragraphs of lore that you believe would expand upon it in interesting or meaningful ways.

Let's take a very small look at Shapers, and their potential direction (solely within the Republic of Biesel to keep the scope reasonable):

To a Shaper, Biesel is fertile ground for the Preimminence. A melting pot of untold numbers of pieces of the greater whole, the many lost beings within Mendell City would be seen as ideal converts. Outwardly, the Shaper itself is an unknown, a Vaurca that seeks to help anyone find their purpose? Surely these robed preachers can mean nothing well. To the well-to-do Bieselite, the corporate higher-ups and even wealthy tourists these 'Shapers' within the streets of Mendell would be seen as no more than charlatans, exploiting the vulnerable for what must undoubtedly be some greater scheme of the Hives. But to those with nowhere else to go, the indebted, the directionless and those wholly alone; the words of a Shaper provide a meaning in what had once been nothing to them.

As Biesel's wealthiest estrange more and more of society's lowest with every passing day, the followers of the Preimminence grow in number as the Shapers seek to guide the forlorn. It is said that in the lands of the lost, more than anywhere else, the Shapers truly fit into their place.

2. What is your opinion on the current status regarding the Vaurca Hives in relation to their host nations? K'lax with the Hegemony for example. How do you view it developing? Is there anything you would change? Why or why not?

Oh how things change in so short a time. Let's go against alphabetical order and begin with the Zo'ra; Prior to the election and the accompanying news/article-based arcs, I had thought that they were on a wonderful path of what had seemed to be a cordial and mutualistic relationship. Since then, a great degree of uncertainty has developed that - whilst an upset - has done remarkably well to re-establish their place as 'second class' within the Republic of Tau Ceti. More than the others, I feel that the Zo'ra have the most potential to retain their uniquely Vaurcaesian identity due to these conflicts. Whilst I wouldn't change anything, they're the Hive I would most look forward to writing for.

The K'lax are a case where, prior to the 'War in Heaven' arc, I didn't have an immense interest in either them or the Izweski Hegemony. Much of the tandem work between the Unathi and Vaurca writing teams since then has captured my heart, and with it I've come to see the K'lax as more of partners to the Hegemony than merely an expedient vassal. For the time being I feel that the K'lax are in a great place compared to where they had been in prior years (where I often had expressed a desire to see them go their own way), and I have no immediate interest in changing anything without seeing where the arc ultimately takes them. Even if they're merely second-most to me in interest, they're the Hive that I feel has the most potential for the short-term beginnings of cultural hybridisation with their host.

Onto the last, but certainly not the least. To be blunt, I've never been happy with the current state of High Queen C'thur, feeling that her health has been yet another neglected card-up-the-sleeve for a future major arc involving her death in some form. To remedy/retcon these health issues entirely would pose a significant shift in the amount of leverage held over her Hive by the Federation, yet to kill her would require one to have both the ability and confidence that they could write both the future of the C'thur and the accompanying arc alongside the Skrell team to a frighteningly exemplary degree of quality. I want to see a future for the C'thur and Federation that doesn't revolve around a royal hostage, but it's a puzzle that I'm not sure how one would best solve.

Perhaps most of all, I would like to expand upon the 'daily lives' of Hive Vaurcae living amongst their host species, particularly how they've managed (or failed) to adapt to the variety of alien cultures and environments. I see these otherwise mundane background elements to be a valuable guide to ease the hurdle of applicants and fresh whitelistees writing their Unbound characters, and moreso I would hope that it could also be an aid to anyone who wishes to write a C'thur or K'lax character without having significant initial experience with their respective host species. The latter of which had been something that I've had prior difficulty with myself.

3. Is there an area of Vaurca lore you want to expand on that isn't directly related to the Host nations? 

Mythology, to put it most plainly. Whilst unfortunately of (potentially?) little value to the game itself, I am thoroughly enamoured with the possibilities of the ancient histories and beliefs of the pre-VR Vaurcae as well as the untold Hives assimilated by the victors of long-forgotten wars. I would like to potentially see some of these loosely tie in to the present belief systems and faiths of the modern Hives and perhaps even some of the Queenless, as the most fun to me in both fiction and history is being able to draw a line from antiquity to the present.

Secondarily, I'd also like to expand upon the commercialisation of the Hives. Tourism, art, literature, food, clothing (both for aliens and Vaurca) and all manner of merchandising and similar. Athvur's Brood is a wonderful vehicle to introduce more of these elements into Tau Ceti (and by extension the kitchen/loadout/etc.), and it would be an excellent opportunity for me to work on my spriting abilities at the same time.

4. What do you think of the current Queenless Vaurca groups? Do you think they're underutilised, fine as is, or overrepresented compared to the main Hives?

As much as I loathe seeming indecisive, all of the above? I tend toward the belief that the Queenless and adjacent concepts present something of a writing obstacle to the rest of the species. In many regards, they occupy a thematic space that could be explored by more individualistic elements of the greater Hives themselves, yet simultaneously they currently hold the risk of leaning too far into the distinctly familiar. Delving ever-slightly into the next question, I feel that in the long-term one must assess where each and every one of these estranged groups ends up. Assimilated back into their main Hives? Withering away to nothingness without the Court's support?

For better or for worse it would be difficult to truly change them in any satisfying way, given that they're a key ingredient toward maintaining a solid foundation of anti-Vaurca sentiment amongst the various aliens. I see no reason to neglect them, but I don't believe that they should be a primary focus, as I'd personally equate them to the pre-contact nobility of the Tajara - an immensely valuable component in the overall story thus far, but one that is bound to become no more than a historical note in the decades to come.

5. Where do you see the Vaurca going long-term?

Whether or not the question is in relation to any form of 'timeskip', I'm deeply interested in further exploring the relationships between the Hives and their hosts. I personally adore the concept of (attempted) true integration over a period of decades, often imagining the myriad of experimental bioforms that may be created by the Hives. Of course, I wouldn't wish to see the addition of any more standard playable/mainline bioforms at the risk of muddying the overall identities of the existing ones, but it would be fascinating to introduce the unknown and unexpected as elements in various event arcs. Overall, there is no species more capable of adaptation to the challenges posed by the Spur.

More relevant to the game itself in both present and future, I would also like to work on a variety of 'hybrid cultures' that mix elements between the traditional Hive cultures and those of their various Biesel, Hegemony and Federation hosts - whilst retaining the distinctly inhuman nature of the former where possible. Outside of any unexpected upsets such as a Hive's departure from their current servitude (to which I'm a bit dumbfounded to imagine the immediate implications of), the likely way forward would be each Hive further developing a unique and varied approach to integration depending upon how their individual relationships with their hosts evolve.

6. What other skills related to lore development do you have, if any?

Per my above statements on past knowledge/work, a middling knowledge of spriting and the will to further improve where needed. There are a myriad of minor projects I'd wanted to work upon in order to refine my spriting skills, with the hope of eventually both taking up some larger projects in the future and working to improve or fill in a few existing gaps. I would invariably have to learn PRs as well in order to not rely upon others for implementing said projects, but that shouldn't be an immense hurdle.

If you consider it a skill of any sort, I also heavily value (perhaps overly) open communication and seeking critical feedback from others within a workspace. Whilst I can get somewhat frustrated if I feel that I'm being stonewalled for an extended period (weeks+) without explanation, that is because I try to make sure that everything is 'just right' before a project of mine is finalised rather than trying to rush it out the door.