Running For the Council - Skrell Lore Writer App

[Stripes]

Ckey/BYOND Username: TheStripes

Position Being Applied For: Lore Developer, Skrell

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page?: Yes.

Past Experiences/Knowledge: Currently non-public writing for Aurora, planet page rewrites for the Nralakk Federation, Shiptest's Kepori species development, and miscellaneous additions to Shiptest's lore.

Examples of Past Work: A large portion of the Skrell + Nralakk Federation writing for the current projects (not currently public), the rewrites for the planets.

 

1. What do you think are the primary themes of skrell lore? If you got this position, how would you develop them?

The current primary themes of skrell lore are heavily tied to their relationship with their current and sole nation, the Nralakk Federation, and how it has developed after the Glorsh-Omega period. Post-Glorsh Federation exists in a contradictory state of both yearning for the luxury and power they had during their synthetic age, while just equally admonishing the conditions and actions that brought it into being due to the endpoint of those interests creating the same thing that destroyed it. 

Nostalgia and fear created the current state of the Federation being purposefully unequal and stratified, creating an underclass and adopting diona and vaurca to commit towards the menial labor that synthetics once did in the name of returning to the days where skrell almost destroyed all hardship and could pursue their own desires freely. Existing outside of these systems is viewed as misguided at best, and betrayal of their fellow skrell and endangering the species at worst. 

I’d like to develop more on the trajectory of the Nralakk Federation as it attempts to course correct and compromise, with its precarity and all of the external pressures from allowing corporations and its involvement in Spur politics. What awaits it is something I want to expand on, just as much as I’d like to explore where skrell communities outside of the Federation have for their own divergent futures outside of its culture and reach.

 

2. What do you think is the strongest part of skrell lore currently and why?

Skrell lore is at its strongest when it involves itself with the species’ culture. So much of the written pages for skrell culture fleshes them out, from how their relationships and social structures function, to how it has evolved since the Nralakk Federation and the Commonwealth of Three began enforcing social standardization. Modern skrell culture slowly developing newer, less conforming art as they are exposed to more of the Spur’s cultures and the rising counterculture against the enforced mainstream only adds to the species feeling “alive” in the setting. Their culture won’t be able to exist in stasis, whether they are willing to embrace that fact or otherwise.

 

3. What do you think is the weakest part of skrell lore currently and why?

The weakest part of skrell lore is the Nralakk Federation’s total control over the species’ direction exists in a dual state of both doing what most see as essentially a present in-name-only within the setting, while also being one of the Orion Spur’s largest global powers as a nation. Most everything that has defined the Nralakk Federation’s actions are hamstrung by its importance and inability to directly involve itself due to its size and strength, instead being relegated as an entity that only exists as an implied concern. Its own nature of originally being much more isolationist relegated it further into the background noise of the setting, though this is being alleviated as time goes on and the story continues, but it still remains distant and almost unnoticeable with the story beyond being a point of origin for most skrell characters.

 

4. What do you think are your strongest and weakest attributes in terms of working on a team, and why?

In terms of working on a team, I consider myself at my best when given a set direction with a clear set of requirements. I can really put my head down and work on something, and I like to believe I can also be concise and direct with what I’d like when I’m setting it for others. Inversely, I do tend to flounder when I’m given something looser or not really told something directly, and relying on a gut reflex usually ends up to the detriment of it. Communication is also something I have difficulty with, as I have a hard time reading others.

 

5. Skrell have “symbiotic” relationships with both the C’thur Vaurca and Dionae. How do you plan to continue this relationship and further develop it?

Both C’thur vaurca and dionae currently exist in the Federation with varying levels of ingratiating themselves towards it, which ultimately isn’t a relationship that will last forever. Vaurca are indebted through the life support given to their queen, but Diulszi remains a point of contention through it being stuck between the C’thur hive’s new home and being a natural reserve by the Federation. Their integration, and the integration of their more controversial forms like the Cephalons in lieu of truly synthetic AI, are points of interest that I’d want to expand upon.

Dionae, in comparison, exist as equally treated well and being deeply limited by the Federation. Xrim’s troubled state and the advent of Hieraethorea’s involvement with the Golden Deep invites a growing rift in the Federation’s otherwise tightly knit relationship with the species, particularly as skrell in Hieraethorea come to terms with potentially being made to interact with the synthetic nation.

 

6. The skrell lore writer is a position that comes with two deputy writers under them on the team. It is the writer's job to manage their team, in addition to their duties of moderating the WL. Given that, what skills do you have that you think will assist you in this? On the opposite end, what do you believe is your weakest link regarding management and moderation?

Delegation with the two potential deputies is something I’d consider myself the most capable of doing, as clear communication is something I personally value the most. Moderating the whitelist as a skrell deputy is an expectation I’m more than willing to meet, as applications exist primarily to gauge and aid how people understand and extrapolate on the lore of the species. My weakest skill would have to be indecision on just how to gauge what is feasible and what interests the audience I’d be writing for, as being a lore maintainer can be freeform enough that I might get lost in just what to do next.

 

7. What are you thoughts on the Nralakk Federation's current geopolitical situation - eg. Federation isolationism, the Traverse?

The Nralakk Federation currently exists in a way that isn’t sustainable, both in-universe and as a part of the literary setting as a whole. Getting the Federation out of its shell and isolationist practices has already been in motion to have it to involve itself in the Orion Spur, and the effects of that on both parties would be more compelling to explore. What currently exists with the Federation’s involvement with other nations, the Izweski Hegemony and Solarian Alliance being immediate examples, should be the starting point of greater change. With the Traverse, the aftermath of the Independent Traverser Movement and its growing freedoms (particularly with the formation of the Qehalak) puts it in an opportune place for conflict in deciding its own future.