FlamingLily Posted September 29 Posted September 29 Lore Impact: Medium Species: Dominia (Human, with a hint of Unathi) Short Description: This update goes over the entire Moroz Holy Tribunal page with a fine toothed comb, adding a major new element to the lore as well as a lot of minor ancillary lore elements, tweaks, and changes to bring it inline with the new change. The major change is Righteousness, the key Tribunalist doctrine that all Tribunalists aspire to live as. It takes the form of a model individual, and is the main mechanism a faithful individual can be judged as worthy by the Goddess to see their way into the Kingdom of Moroz. The key difference between Righteousness and the Edicts is that the Edicts are law, while Righteousness is simply a private affair between you and the Goddess; Though there is a large amount of overlap. Principles of Honesty, Respect, Loyalty - for instance - can be seen throughout the Edicts. Ancillary changes include: Expansion on the nature of souls and Goddess' role as the judge of souls Expansion on the distaste for synthetics, cybernetics, and cyborgification Minor changes to Universalism to bring it in line with this Expansion on the creationist myth, the holy symbols, burial rights and conversion to and from the Tribunal. Removal of the lore surrounding the Hour of Return Yes. I know this one might be controversial, and I don't mind at all if this specific change is denied, but to me, this was always one of the most confusing parts of the Tribunal. To sum up my thoughts, I don't really see what exactly the Hour of Return actually does? It almost runs a bit anti-thetical to the basis of the Tribunal, which is "act good in life and you will be rewarded after death in My Kingdom" (especially now, after I lean heavily towards that with my changes.) It seems like an odd addition which kind of undermines that whole concept imho. I can see its use as "Why does the Empire seek to improve itself," but that can just as easily be achieved through my proposal here, and imho having two separate schemes for running that feels off. Also, the whole discussion about the Goddess replacing the royal family feels a bit clumsy. Quote The returned Goddess is sometimes referred to as the Empress of Moroz, a title which has attracted some controversy with the possibility of the Crown Princess potentially ascending to the throne as Empress in the future. Tribunalist scholars, however, have been quick to point out there is no theological issue present as the Emperor of Dominia is simply referred to as the King of Moroz, rather than the Emperor. This is simply not true, if you look at the other pages. Also, plenty of minor grammar changes and touchups. There's a more in-depth change log in the google doc attached. How will this be reflected on-station?: Ideally, through every Dominian character. This is a hook that I would hope every Tribunalist can find some way to play around- beyond the core three of "Love the Goddess. Love the Empire. Hate robots." Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Reading Tribunalist lore always had me thinking one question. "Why does anyone believe this?" Not in a snarky way, but in a "What is the hook that captures the mindset of the faithful? How is this religion finding its way into the core identity of people, the way religions do? Why- other than "the government told me to"- do people find faith in the Goddess?" After discussing this with a few people, including the idea that Dominia must be sending missionaries to neighbouring planets ("Why would they be converted?"), I finally came to the conclusion that there wasn't really one written down. That was, until, I found the in-game, mechanical version of the Tribunalist Codex. (here) After reading this, I finally understood. I saw the answer to my question. This proposal is my attempt to give that answer wording and formality on the wiki. This is a way, in my eyes, that someone can play a Dominian and a Tribunalist, and have a hook to engage with the religion beyond the surface level of "We hate synthetics." And, don't get me wrong, Tribunalism has a number of very important identifying factors, most which in the Edicts which I would boil down to Immense faith to the Empire of Dominia Your standard faith and loyalty to the deity, The Goddess Immense distrust for synthetics and cybernetics And on a much lighter note: the Sixth and Seventh edicts (Lying and Animals) And as good as that is, alone those 4 factors are kind of lacking. Loyalty to the nation is any autocracy, loyalty to the deity is any faith, and while the distrust for cybernetics and synthetics is absolutely a strong point, when it's the only one, it easily causes an external perception of that being all there is to the setting and feeds an attitude of Dominians often being one-note characters. As it stands now, I don't really think the Sixth and Seventh are powerful enough to do all that much with. So, in summary, I believe that my proposal here gives Tribunalists a little more material to engage with the faith through without needing to go all in on the "I hate robots" side of the lore- not diminishing that part of the lore, but giving a bit more material to flesh things out and to build from to make a more rounded character. Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team? Of course. Especially so for my removal of the Hour of Return lore. Long Description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LHUoSAejAH-MZY277t7MbE6_uYOx4aGOSsTW6Qnv0f0/edit?usp=sharing 4
FlamingLily Posted October 4 Author Posted October 4 I've thought a bit and I think I'm going to take a full 100% reversal on my position on the Hour of Return. As much as I do think my proposal here gives a lot of grounds to work with engaging with faith in a way in a more deep and nuanced way, I think I've inadvertently cut back a liiiiittle too much . See: Dominia is still an autocratic, militaristic invasion-based nation, and the Tribunal is still the state-designed justification for the actions of the Empire. I've done a lot of solid work on justifying why **individuals** would be loyal to the faith and by proxy to the Empire, but.... what is the nexus that connects the Empire's activities and conquest-based economy with said faith, therefore making the faith inherent to loyalty towards the Empire? Well. I kind of removed it. Whoops. So, I'm putting this one back in the oven for a little bit longer, looking towards the return and integrating it far more closely with the rest of tribunal lore- bringing it up to a key point of the faith as opposed to a semi-sidelined piece. For now, I'm withdrawing this LCA. But, much like Her, it will return, and the promised Hour will be upon us.
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