FlamingLily - Human Lore Deputy Application

[FlamingLily]

Ckey/BYOND Username: FlamingLily (Also my Discord Username)

Been around for: Like, four years? Since just before we switched maps to the Horizon. Not quite there for KOTW, joined in 2021 I believe.
Position Being Applied For: (Wiki Maintainer, Lore Developer, Deputy Lore developer): Human Lore Deputy
Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? Yes
Past Experiences/Knowledge:

Much of my writing experience is tied down in either short-form, character based writings such as relay dorm posts or private works I haven't published. However, I have made a few LCAs in my time here and additionally DM a D&D campaign in a custom setting which I'm pretty proud of.
Examples of Past Work:

This one's unfinished but I do plan to return to it (unless I get deputy, at which point ??? i guess we'll see), as Dominia is one of the areas I'd like to work on.

And, something I only now thought of doing as I type this: My worldbuilding notes for my DND campaign:

https://github.com/FlamingLily/Orbiset

This is extracted straight from my obsidian vault (and omits some notes/art I have in there that my players have made and that I haven't gotten their permission to share), but if you do check it out, I encourage checking out the timeline page and "Magic in Orbiset" page in the Codex/History. I'm most proud of those two.

 

Anyhow, onto the questions.

Why are you applying for the position of human lore deputy writer? Why do you think that you would be good in the position?

To put it bluntly, I'm applying for human lore because I love it. I'll go into it more in the next question, but I truly love the breadth and creativity that human lore empowers players to engage with. I'm also applying because I love this server, and want to be a part in shaping its future. Aurora means a hell of a lot to me, has allowed me to explore the depths of my creative potential and fostered some extremely powerful and important relationships in my life, and if I can repay even a tiny bit of that to this community through its lore, I would love to.

As for why I think I'd fit the position? I believe I'm a rather details-minded person, and for a setting like Aurora, where everything is grounded and built out of logically connected cause and effect, I feel like that's a good trait to have. I could go into immense details about, for instance, why my characters do every individual action that they do, down to individual psychological or social foundations. I also, naturally, believe I'm quite creative, and have a good vision for the kind of things I'd like to see in the lore, which should by extension also bring in what others may like to see.

What is your favourite part of Human Lore and why? If you submitted something for canonisation that was indeed canonised you may not select that as the answer to this question.

Generally, my favourite part of the lore (at a broader scale) would certainly have to be just how broad it is, and how many different stories you're empowered to tell. My main character right now is a Martian. A story of the physical and emotional scars that an unthinkable disaster on the scale of Violet Dawn could be. But this is only one story to tell. Within Sol alone, there are stories upon stories, from rich nepotism to corrupt authority to grungy labourer stories to stories of complete corporate dominance of ones home. That's not even mentioning the Coalition, or Elyra, or Biesel, or Goddess forgive, Dominia.

I don't think I can narrow it down to one specific origin, so I won't. I'll list a bunch. Dominia is easily up there- despite my current ideals of a few reworks and changes to how it's currently written, I do believe it is an utterly fascinating setting that has so much intrigue to it, from the internal politics to the external perceptions of it, to the faith and beyond. Mars, obviously, is up there- the origin of my main character would have to have some sticking power with me, would you believe it. I'm honestly extremely fond of New Hai Phong. I think it's unfortunately a little underrated for something I find really compelling- blending the gritty, labourer story with one of rampant corporate corruption plays well with me in a way that I'm sad it's not a more utilised origin. Himeo is also very interesting to me as it's effectively the opposite - what happens when those gritty labourers beat that corporate dominance.

What do you believe are ways that the Human Lore Team could best implement the phoron scarcity to our various factions and locations throughout the setting that would reflect the gravity of the in-character situation without grossly compromising the out-of-character things that make each faction and location unique and compelling?

First of all, the baseline is that every origin/faction/location/whatever needs some impact. No origin can avoid it, no origin can get away scott free, even the ones that have in-built safeguards against it. They can be affected less, sure. They can be on an unsteady peace in the calm before the storm, but they have to have some impact.

I think it'd be prudent to divide each setting into 3 areas that should be addressed, sequentially, as they'll each flow into one another.

Immediate Circumstances - How does the scarcity immediately impact this origin at the current point in time? What does their immediate amount of access to phoron look like, and how has their current economic foundation shifted in this changing environment? Eg, for a manufacturing heavy setting, let's say Himeo, perhaps their manufacturing is struggling as they lose access to independent (not-corporate controlled) phoron sources. Or maybe it's a trade based economy, like Valkyrie, who might be struggling to fuel and supply long-haul cargo ships on account of the lack of phoron? Maybe the phoron isn't the problem, but maybe the nation (Elyra)'s isolationist economy is causing stagnation in other areas, and maybe there's growing internal pressures to take advantage of the scarcity while they can for economic growth?

Corporate Influence (Or otherwise, corporate-free solutions) - Accounting for these immediate circumstances, how do the megacorps get involved? Assuming that the megacorps are the primary way any of these settings could get phoron (or, perhaps, the best phoron-free alternatives, if they're desperate), how does this influence the faction's decision making? Does Himeo make an uneasy alliance with, say, Zavodskoi, to bolster its manufacturing, even despite internal pressures to be rid of corporations? Does Valkyrie further tie down with the corporations? They'd probably be getting bailouts from the SCC to keep running, considering how essential they are, but if Valkyrie is stretched that thin, do they have the resources to police themselves? Ensure the well-being of their people? Or is everything being pushed into the corporate transaction? Does Elyra open its boarders and start trading with the corporations? (This one might be a bigger question for Trio and the lore admin on account of the direct impact it has on phoron's scarcity, but I'm just using it as an example). While the corporations would be the default "solution" many factions have, there's also the option of outright refusing corporate help and trying to go it alone. That option should be used with careful consideration so as not to just. Cut out a large part of the setting from the origin, but it should still be considered. An example might be Himeo choosing to refuse corporate assistance, and attempt to maintain production without the help of phoron.

Aftermath - Once the faction has decided how it's going to respond to the crisis, we examine the implications of what that means. Does Zavodskoi attempt to worm it's way into Himeo's daily life like it has in Dominia? Or, if Himeo refused, how do the working conditions fare? Do they start crunching desperately for more production? Do they become notoriously unsafe in working conditions? Does the economy tank and people suffer as a result? I covered a bit of this idea above, but this stage is really where we should consider the long term impact of the faction's attempt to address the scarcity, such as Valkyrie's internal resource situation, or any corporate influence that might be exerted on a less isolationist Elyra.

What do you believe are the current strengths and weaknesses of human lore? Why? What would you do to improve upon the weaknesses? Please do not mention offworlders in your answer to this question. We know that they are a weak spot and that they require action and would prefer to hear perspectives that do not highlight this area of human lore.

I could go here and mention specific origins. I have ideas about Dominia, Elyra, areas in the Coalition such as Assunzione, and more. But, chances are, you've all heard them before. You know about offworlders, for a start, I can't imagine Elyra has escaped your view as something in need of a look at.

Instead, I want to tackle this from a greater perspective. Ironically, I think one of Human Lore's greatest strengths - its broadness and expansive and diverse nature - is also one of its greatest weaknesses. Let me explain.

Human Lore consists of five nations, each with sub-locations that make up its origins, These are Dominia, Elyra, Sol (I'm including Eridani in here), Biesel, and the Coalition.

But classifying Human Lore this way is a little reductive, as "Sol" and "The Coalition", and to a lesser degree, "Biesel" are all terms that kind of impose a super-culture to the exclusion of more niche subcultures.

Meanwhile, "Dominia" and "Elyra" do the same, except for one key difference. In these two settings, the super-culture actually exists to a significant degree. Yes, Dominia has a large number of detailed and interesting nicher subcultures, from Caria to Sun Reach to the Lyod to Fisanduh, but all of them directly draw from the super-culture of the theocratic, imperialistic Empire of Dominia. The same can be said for Elyra, and although I think it has its issues in the greater picture, I actually think it does this element of being a setting quite well. Despite being all blatantly Elyran, Damascus, Perspolis, Medina, New Suez all feel like distinct, unique subcultures.

On the contrary, Sol, Biesel, and the Coalition sort of struggle with this in my eyes. For the Coalition it's not a huge problem - by nature of being less of a nation than the other two, and inherently so expansive, it doesn't have a super-culture, and that in and of itself can make for an interesting pseudo-culture. How do we all get along when Burszia and Himeo are meant to be buddy buddy with each other? Biesel does have a bit of it, though I may think it's a little weak, I think it does have a solid foundation of being the multicultural, melting pot, breadbasket of the spur. If it can lean into that- really dig into the vibes of being The Place You Want To Be that's Better Than Elsewhere (or so they claim)- I think it could really go somewhere.

And so that leaves us with Sol. Sol, I think is the worst at this at present. And ultimately, I think it's kind of inevitable that it is. For AAAGES, Sol's prevailing Super-Culture was uh. Kind of just being awful fascist xenophobes and imperialists and bad guy sol marine larp gimmicks. Then they blew up, and that kind of just slightly prevents a solid super-culture from forming. So, what now? Well, I think the recent path of reconstruction Sol has been on is where our solution lies. Sol should really lean into being the Home of Humanity (not in an ugly xenophobic way, of course, but almost the way Nralakk does it, like caretakers). They should lean into their survival as proof of humanity's drive and determination, and build a super-culture in that way- where Biesel can be the exceptional nation where anyone, even the poorest of non-humans, can make their footing, Sol can be the place where humanity is cared for and empowered, and nurtured into greatness. (but again, really want to stress here. Shouldn't make the mistakes of the past and make them awful xenophobes.) It's definitely trickier to form a super-culture like this, as Sol has a much larger and more diverse set of sub-locations, but I think it'd work.

What are three projects (medium-to-large size additions, arcs, or reworks) that you would like to complete during your tenure as a Human Lore Deputy writer? Please do not mention new locations or factions in this answer.

I've mentioned it a few times through this, but I would really like to put some work into Dominia. I think Dominia does a lot of things well, but one thing I've always found lacking is depth for the average Ma'azal. Nobility and Secondaries tend to have a lot of focus, and I want to see the life of a Ma'azal get a bit of a boost in focus too. I know Dominia is the war machine that crushes Ma'azal's underfoot in the eternal march of conquest, but I want to see it and read it and know exactly why a Ma'azal might stay or go. A big part of this is my half-complete Tribunalism LCA which, if I'm accepted, I want to work closely with the lore team to expand upon and really develop in depth exactly just how the Tribunal gets you slavishly devoted to the Empire in the way that it does.

A second project I'd like to do, and one which would most likely be best as an arc is de-isonaltionising Elyra. This is a big task and I don't expect to be able to do it in a single story arc, but I would at least like to set the foundation and the wheels in motion, perhaps by running an election campaign arc or something similar. There is material to work with, on account of the major opposition party's de-isolantionist perspective, but it does remain a bit of a complex ask. This one might need some detailed discussions before kicking it off.

Thirdly, I think I'd like to give Assunzione a bit of a poke and prod at. What we've got is definitely good, but I think it's missing that little bit of kick to really make it shine. Perhaps a little bit of something lying under the surface- everywhere has an underbelly, and I'd love to figure out what Assunzione's is. There's a little bit there with the expeditionary corps and their predatory contracts and NDAs, and I want to really break that down and expand upon how that looks elsewhere on the planet. Also, I really want to look into the ties between the Luceist church and the purportedly secular government. It's known that members of the planet's government are most often highly religious, but is that just convention or is the church playing a role in keeping it that way? 

What is an idea for a future arc that you would like to have a part in writing and organising in the future? If you provided an arc(s) as part of your answer for question 3, you may expand on the ideas for that arc(s) here, or you may provide another idea.

I mentioned running an Elyran election arc, and if I did do so, I think I'd want to do it a little differently from the recent Solarian election arc (not that that arc was bad, but I have an idea that might keep things fresh). Ultimately, I'd want it to be one of those elections that boils down to a single issue, that being how Elyra approaches the phoron scarcity and which way it does. The incumbent RRS would maintain their position, remaining isolationist and disapproval of foreign interference, while the opposition LUR would be proposing much less isolationism and expanding the field to some megacorporate influence. In my vision, it would involve a lot of campaigning and probably more than a little heated protests on account of existing tensions between the corporations, between the rest of the spur's actors especially Sol and the Vaurca in Biesel and elsewhere- though I doubt they'd get violent, these protests. In this arc I'd like to really hammer home the Elyran spirit and their exceptionalism from the rest of the spur- especially Sol.

Have you ever been subject to any warnings, strikes, or bans from the Aurora moderation team? If so, how long ago were you and for what actions did you receive moderation action for? Answers for this question should include actions taken on the game server, discord servers, and forums.

Nothing permanent. I've been spoken to a few times eaaaaarly in my time here, about tone and adopting to the setting, but I don't believe that anything was made official as a warning or strike (my memory sucks ass though, so forgive me if I'm wrong.) No bans.

OPTIONAL: Do you have any miscellaneous comments or remarks for the Human Lore Team or the community?

After seeing who else has applied for this position, and knowing this community, I'm extremely confident that no matter who gets the spot, good things will come of it. I wanted to wish everyone that applies good luck.

[Caelphon]

I’ve always enjoyed our lore discussions, and your nuances on certain takes with the Peacekeeper Mandate way back when. I have no doubt you’d be able to positively contribute in any capacity as a member of staff. Goodluck. 

[The7thLain]

Hi! Thank you for your application. Please pardon my delay in posting these questions, it's been Thanksgiving week and I've had little time to get to responding to you and the other candidates. I've read it over and I have a few questions for you to answer at your earliest convenience, but preferably by the end of this weekend if you can manage it. If you do not answer by then, I will move forward with making a decision on your application without the information sought by the questions below.
1. I am intrigued by your assertions on the ideas of the Solarian and Coalition Super Cultures in comparison to the Elyran and Dominian ones. Given Sol's current state, how would you try to highlight this super culture more beyond the general rhetoric that the Sol Alliance might say about itself? How would you square this strengthened super culture with the diversity of Sol's various worlds?
2. Elyra is a topic that many applicants have brought up as "something in need of a look at." Due to the popularity of this topic, I would be bereft if I didn't ask you about your thoughts for the what the future of the faction might hold from the OOC standpoint of a human writer. What are your goals for the faction and what do you want it to look like once you have achieved them?
3. The phoron scarcity is likely going to last until the soft-reboot/NBT2-ening that is being worked on at the moment by the devs and the lore team. The "aftermath" of the scarcity is likely going to be a team-wide decision and has yet to be determined. Since you cannot write about the aftermath, I would like to hear a little more about your thoughts for just what the corporate-unrelated (since the Human Lore Team doesn't have direct purview over what corporations do or how they act most of the time) impacts of the scarcity might be on a general scale or location-specific scale, specifically impacts that escalate as time goes on.

[FlamingLily]

Hey! Don't worry about the delay, I get it.

2 hours ago, The7thLain said:

1. I am intrigued by your assertions on the ideas of the Solarian and Coalition Super Cultures in comparison to the Elyran and Dominian ones. Given Sol's current state, how would you try to highlight this super culture more beyond the general rhetoric that the Sol Alliance might say about itself? How would you square this strengthened super culture with the diversity of Sol's various worlds?

Honestly? I think the Alliance (and, ironically, the recent actions by the coalition and Elyra) are kind of leaning towards where Sol should be going. Less blatant warmongering and being bullish against neighbours, while posturing itself as getting upset by the perceived breaches of human dignity/aggression from its neighbours. Where this current arc is going I'm not sure, but what I think Sol should do outside of just posturing is to actually follow up on what it claims to be. Tangible progress towards reconstruction, continuing to open ties with its neighbours (but only to the extent that they work to benefit Solarian/Former citizens or the Alliance as a whole.

As to how to build this on an individual planet level, I think the idea of introducing diaspora of various places could be interesting. Obviously, there's already a few of those throughout, but I think it could be interesting to actually have those diaspora origins lean into the whole "we've found a new home here for us" aspect (or a "we're still home that cares for us" for certain former sol origins). To really build on this as Sol opening its doors as the home of all humanity. It might also be worth considering reducing visa/citizenship requirements (for humans) for this purpose.

Anti-corporate sentiment should probably be maintained but I think it can easily build on this too. Corporations aren't humans, after all.

2 hours ago, The7thLain said:

2. Elyra is a topic that many applicants have brought up as "something in need of a look at." Due to the popularity of this topic, I would be bereft if I didn't ask you about your thoughts for the what the future of the faction might hold from the OOC standpoint of a human writer. What are your goals for the faction and what do you want it to look like once you have achieved them?

The first baseline rule I'd put in is No more isolationism.

Elyra needs to be opened up to the greater spur in terms of politics and interactions. I'm sure everyone else would concur on this point, but it's very needed. With this isolationism comes a bit of a debt in terms of tone of the setting. Recent arcs have been highlighting the tension between NCPs and the regular citizenry and I think this is going in a good direction, but (at least personally) with how little there has been in the past it does feel a BIT like it's coming out of nowhere. The solution for that is just to do more, though.

Elyra needs to change fundamentally. It's not just isolationist, but it's very strongly built around that. It has an economy that is more or less self sufficient, a social divide which is more or less self sufficient (kind of unclear exactly WHERE NCPs are meant to come from, imo) and even a superculture that kind of anchors itself on being self sufficient and isolated. Key thing is to change all of that.

First thing, economically. It's kind of really hard to work around the Phoron that Elyra has, but an idea I have as to getting around it is to have Elyra start to pick up the idea of Elyra aiming to become the economic lynchpin by starting to export some of its phoron. This allows us to easily reframe the culture of Elyra from being this self-sufficient idea of being superior and going it alone to something more along the lines of "We're living in an age of prosperity and wealth, we should secure our superiority by using this wealth throughout the greater spur. This then neatly wraps around into the situation with the NCPs, who would no doubt get further upset by this further ignoring of their circumstance and therefore would have materials to further the tension between the NCPs and the government.

2 hours ago, The7thLain said:

3. The phoron scarcity is likely going to last until the soft-reboot/NBT2-ening that is being worked on at the moment by the devs and the lore team. The "aftermath" of the scarcity is likely going to be a team-wide decision and has yet to be determined. Since you cannot write about the aftermath, I would like to hear a little more about your thoughts for just what the corporate-unrelated (since the Human Lore Team doesn't have direct purview over what corporations do or how they act most of the time) impacts of the scarcity might be on a general scale or location-specific scale, specifically impacts that escalate as time goes on.

It's kind of difficult for me to answer, honestly, because my philosophy inherently involves the corporations at every decision, but I don't think that involvement is to a degree where it'd be deciding on what the corporations do or how they act, but simply just how these other factions alter or increase the way they interact with corporations. Eg: for Elyra, it wouldn't be a matter of changing how the corporations interact with them necessarily, just that Elyra would start selling and offering phoron out to the corps.

Regardless, though, some locales it would make sense to avoid corporate involvement, and that'd lead to unique effects on those locales specifically. Himeo is a big example, as it's both a corporate-distant locale and one without much in the way of a greater national backing (the COC is after all more of a military alliance than anything). This kind of puts them in the situation of having to stick out the scarcity and go it alone. And that means we can determine what effect it'll specifically have on a place like Himeo. Himeo is a manufacturing hub, and that's kind of their whole thing. Phoron is essential to that manufacturing, so the scarcity presents two options. Either scale down manufacturing (bad.), or find a way to preserve the status quo despite limited manufacturing throughput without phoron.

To me, because it's the most interesting yet simple way to go about it, is to have Himeo attempt to increase their output and counteract the scarcity bottleneck by reducing safety protocols and such similar. This isn't necessarily a conscious decision, or a blatantly communicated one. It'd be one built up through smaller decisions and corner-cutting, building up until eventually work safety has dramatically reduced on Himeo just to catch up with the status quo and keep outputting as much as they once did. It wouldn't be an instant change, it'd be built up as the scarcity worsens. A tangible reduction in overall quality of life without any one clear factor to point to other than the scarcity.

Another locale where it wouldn't make much sense for the corporate involvement to change as a result of the scarcity is Venus, specifically Cytheria. The reason being that they're already fairly corporate involved. There's not much more they COULD do to get the conglomerate helping them out for their scarcity troubles, and so at this point all they can really hope for is to have things not quite hit as hard. Phoron is a key component of making some medications, and while the signature of cytheria doesn't need any, the place is also known for making advanced anti-overdose medications, which presumably would be crippled without a healthy supply of phoron to make them. This is where Cytheria's economy is hit by the scarcity, notably in the form of shortages for anti-overdose medications, which can easily and dramatically spiral into a full blown crisis across the Planet Known For Drug Use. Honestly? This one would occur quicker. The direct impact would be shorter, and sharper. It would be the aftermath of this mini-scarcity that would be longer term. Strained, choked medical services, high prices for medication, etc. The true aftermath would be examining how the Venusian not-at-all-totally-corrupt government seeks to handle an actual, acute crisis.

[The7thLain]

Hi again. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your weekend to answer the follow-up questions I posed to you, I sincerely appreciate it. I think you have some wonderful ideas for what human lore might have been under your direction, but I have decided to pick another candidate. This wasn't an easy decision for me as all of our candidates showed a lot of promise and made this race a very competitive one. However, I want to thank you for applying and showing a commitment and passion for human lore. I sincerely appreciate your effort here and I think you should be proud of what you've written and submitted.

Thank you so much for applying.