Kermit's Biesel/Megacorp Lore Writer Application

[kermit]

Ckey/BYOND Username: sadkermit
Position Being Applied For: Biesel/Megacorporations Lore Writer

Have you read the Lore Team Rules and Regulations wiki page? yes
Past Experiences/Knowledge: deputy lore master Oct 2024—Nov 2025. diona deputy writer for 9 months before that
Examples of Past Work:

• Bits and pieces and a lot of editing for the Phoron Rework (eg. Interstellar Travel page rework, Technology page)
• SCCV Horizon page glam-up
• Megacorporations landing page
• Biesel/Megacorp side of the Pale Blue Dots (Nralakk megacorp expansion initiatives) and Pharsalia (Sol consulars lead-up) article arcs
• Crescent Expanse mini-arc
• Bits and pieces of the 2024 diona revamps (eg. Narrows rework, Titan’s Rapture/Hieroaetheria system/environment.

What do you think you can bring to the setting as the megacorporation lore writer?

Something fun, hopefully. This project is for a game and so everything I write I try to ensure can be threaded into gameplay or is accessible to include in character creation. As such, a lot of material I contribute probably includes something gimmicky — it’s there to stand-out on a wiki page to catch an eye when someone is thinking of character creation ideas.

A double-edged sword, but more authentic sci-fi writing. Aurora is a hodge-podge of sci-fi–flavoured fantasy, soft–sci-fi, hard sci-fi, non–sci-fi, and anything other varieties of sci-fi, so committing either way is a bullet to the foot, but I tend to lean towards harder sci-fi, insofar as it contributes something useable and isn’t completely at odds with existing lore. The Warp Travel section (particularly dangers of) is probably the best place to illustrate what I mean, with warp travel having a few sprinkles of real science splashed in to contrast it against bullshit travel. It can be fun and sometimes interesting and is just a different flavour of lore.

Familiarity, prior experience. Unless NBT2 plans have significantly changed, I am already aware of and geeenerally aligned with overall plans/heading and it won't be hard onboarding me. I presume a general direction for Biesel is already there and just needs discussion by this new Biesel/Megacorps team, revision and writing.

What are megacorporations and Biesel lore lacking the most in your opinion? Do you have any ideas on how to rectify such?

An actual presence. The LTA have been occupied with other projects that have seen megacorporation and Biesel lore severely lag behind other lore teams. I presume this is half the reason why Biesel/Megacorporation lore is being split from the LTA to be its own team (and so you have more peons to do your writing for you lol). Something I said I wanted to do in my DLM app then never did (because I was wound up with DLM-specific tasks and hadn’t the energy to pursue this) was use the Relay more for slice-of-life megacorp/Biesel posts. I had begun to do this shortly before I left with the introduction of Spurley, but I resigned before I could get that ball rolling. Mini-events are another way to do this, and I do intend to pick up where I left off with frequent events, granted with less independence I had when both DLM+admin but I’m quite okay nagging at those I will need to rely upon (hi, Fyni).

A lot of megacorporation lore is alluded to but not written. A defining trait of megacorporatiosn is being equivalent in power/influence to a state, and while it is mentioned that NanoTrasen has a navy and that Hephaestus has sovereign territory, this can be hard to find. It wouldn't be too hard to expand some of the megacorporation pages to emphasise just how mega they are. Stuff like this will be necessary to show the decline of the megacorporations come NBT2 as they start to lose these bits and pieces.

Biesel continues to be a flavourless area, and its recent characterisation is one I am not fond of. It has slowly turned into a Sol Alliance copycat with its jingoism and imperialism, which has only solidified it as being the Space USA and also ruined its themes of being an underdog, champion of freedom, etc. Torvald is a nothingburger who says whatever is most convenient for the article/lore team at the time, which means his true direction is invisible. Biesel has grown out of being the 'default' player origin, but still has the bland 'default' origin flavour. I think this can be remedied without conflicting with the NBT2 vision, so I have a couple of plans:

1. Introduce a unique flavour to Biesel so it stands out as its own origin, which I am gonna temporarily dub ‘phoronpunk’. The Phoron Rework already started this and I know the NBT2 intends to have mechanics surrounding phoron-tech, and so this kind of sets up where phoron tech will be visually distinct, instead of just Normal Looking Equipment with Hidden Phoron Inside. Biesel is described as one of the most technologically advanced states, so this intends to have that be apparent, instead of an unsubstantiated factoid. Cultural revisions will also have to be made to go with this.
2. It’s probably far too late idc, as it's something I absolutely want to do, which is trying to rein in the jingoism and USAisms. I haven’t decided the specifics on this yet and it will be something I’d want to discuss with deputies. Biesel needs a political re-themeing that isn’t just 1:1 taken from the Alliance’s homework. Pre-Collapse, it was an underdog that relied on being a genuine beacon of liberty to attract support, even where this came at great cost (eg. the sky-rocketting crime and societal decay in parts of Mendell), so that would be my start to see if these themes can be salvaged. The beacon of liberty part is forever tarnished by its CRZ conquests and would need lore developments to repair, and the underdog theme isn’t too far gone (especially if Biesel’s CRZ conquests were to fall into total megacorporate control as part of corporate-political manoeuvring [surprisingly, for megacorporations, they hold very little independent land, save for a couple of exceptions]). I don't think changing any of this will be detrimental to NBT2 plans and the way I intend to do it has the NBT2 setting in mind but, frankly, if the current characterisation of Biesel is locked-in then this application does die here. 

On the other hand, what do you think is the strongest point of our megacorporation lore?

Lots of room for darker themes and social commentary. The tendrils of megacorporations run deep with a Spur-wide effect and affecting all characters in the current setting. This isn’t novel and exists IRL, so yeah.

Based on what has been revealed so far about Anabasis, what are your thoughts on the corporations' place in the new setting and what ideas do you have about them, if any?

I was privy to and contributed a lot of stuff that I still think is unannounced, so sorry-not-sorry about the lack of specifisc, I'm just avoiding leaking stuff. You can find some of my comments/edits/notes in the earlier NBT2 docs for such.

A lot of the megacorporations simply do not belong in the new setting and can be cut loose. Only the interesting ones with a role to play need to stay.

The megacorporations that do remain will be forever changed — for 400 years they have essentially had dominion over humanity’s expansion and settlement into the stars. Their influence is going to significantly dwindle, and go from tugging at the strings of states to having to rebuild their spiderweb, which is a whole other game to what they have been playing in previous centuries. I think that’s quite interesting and will be fun to characterise. One megacorporation may continue to hold actual land with a claim on a small region of space; a megacorporation elsewhere might be entirely in the shadows, subtly influencing states here and there. Each megacorporation should have a distinct role in the new setting.

Additional Comments: weh

Edited yesterday at 18:18 by kermit

[GeneralCamo]

Kermit has shown an excellent hand for leadership in the past. There is nothing but praise for the Crescent Expanse arc for a very good reason. When it comes to leading a new team, hiring deputies, outlining responsibilities and lanes, and working with other teams, there are very few people in the position I could see as being better than Kermit.  

As a bonus, they have directly hosted events relating to minor megacorp things during their tenure as deputy lore master, such as conventions. They have already shown they can integrate the megacorporate feel into the server.

+1

[Kintsugi]

3 hours ago, kermit said:

It’s probably far too late idc, as it's something I absolutely want to do, which is trying to rein in the jingoism and USAisms. I haven’t decided the specifics on this yet and it will be something I’d want to discuss with deputies. Biesel needs a political re-themeing that isn’t just 1:1 taken from the Alliance’s homework. Pre-Collapse, it was an underdog that relied on being a genuine beacon of liberty to attract support, even where this came at great cost (eg. the sky-rocketting crime and societal decay in parts of Mendell), so that would be my start to see if these themes can be salvaged. The beacon of liberty part is forever tarnished by its CRZ conquests and would need lore developments to repair, and the underdog theme isn’t too far gone (especially if Biesel’s CRZ conquests were to fall into total megacorporate control as part of corporate-political manoeuvring [surprisingly, for megacorporations, they hold very little independent land, save for a couple of exceptions]). I don't think changing any of this will be detrimental to NBT2 plans and the way I intend to do it has the NBT2 setting in mind but, frankly, if the current characterisation of Biesel is locked-in then this application does die here. 

I hope this doesn’t come off the wrong way, but I feel like you misinterpreted Biesel’s lore if you ever read it as being a “genuine beacon of liberty”. For the duration of at least my time on this server, Biesel has always been a carefully tended asset for the megacorporations, and the facade of being a beacon of liberty is a key component of that artificially constructed state - sure, some characters in the lore have been true believers in Biesel and it’s not so cut-and-dry as “Biesel is solely a corporate puppet state” by any means, but the fundamental nature of the state is that it is a corporate cash-cow dressed up as a liberal democracy.

 

Likewise, I’m concerned about how you framed the dynamic powering Biesel as a dichotomy of either being like Sol to being like a sort of True Free Biesel. Similarities have more to do with the nature of imperialism as opposed to the characteristics possessed by either state, and furthermore I can’t help but point out that I think the way that you describe Sol itself as being out of alignment with the actual lore of the state. Your desire to “De-Sol” Biesel begs the question of how you intend to do so, and if you’re framing the “Sol-like” traits as the evil parts of Biesel, don’t you run the risk of turning IW2 into a conflict between a “good” side and a “bad” side? Maybe I’m not communicating my feelings well, but in general the way you’ve framed this answer has me concerned about your goals with the position - whitewashing Biesel would be massively detrimental to the server, in my opinion, and I hope that’s not what you intend to do.

 

To close off, the final sentence there almost reads as an ultimatum that you want to take Biesel in a specific direction and you will not pursue this application further if you’re not able to do so. It was part of the job description that megacorp writers are going to have to deal with deferring to other teams and the loremasters more commonly than the species teams would have to, and I don’t think this attitude meshes well with that need. I hope you can clear up these concerns for me; thank you!

[kermit]

1 hour ago, Kintsugi said:

the above comment

'appearing to be a genuine beacon of liberty' would probably be the better phrasing. an effort to appear as such was made, otherwise various alien freedoms would just not be where they are. of course the reasoning behind this is incredibly malicious and its largely bc the corporations want a larger workforce, but the facade was a more convincing one imo.

It all boils down to me believing the 2 centre states in our lore (Sol and Biesel) being very similar politically (at least in recent characterisation): they both have a strong streak of nationalism and they both have a streak of imperialism. the Sol Marine's 'oorah' is mirrored 1:1 by the Legionnaire's 'for the republic'. ofc there are differences, but I don't think they'll be very significant come talk of war and I think its the imperialism/nationalist that is going to pop out come pre-NBT2. So, I think the 2 centrepiece states need to be differentiated. The Alliance has always been the nationalistic/imperialistic one of the two, with Biesel going that route later on, so that's why I'm specifically saying Biesel should find its own path.

Good vs. Evil is a boring theme in war stories, so I hadn't thought of or intend to white-wash Biesel. I think Biesel is too far gone for that and it's been rotted too deep by the megacorporations, of which the megacorporations are the arch-evil of the greater setting. This should not be a concern and Biesel will have its fair share of being evil. I just don't want it to be an overtly imperalistic or nationalistic flavour of evil, because that domain is what Sol is or has just shed out of. 

As for the ultimatum, I respect and don't want to waste the LTAs time and I think they can handle the bluntness. I don't like the characterisation of Biesel in years past much, I think it can be improved with the NBT2 in mind and result in an overall better outcome without departing too far from current direction (afaik). If this is one of the 'fixed' things or if my plans do significantly depart from current direction, then the LTA needs to know that in my application now and not in a few weeks. This is me letting the LTA know what strings I would like to play with, so that if this particular string is inflexible they can shoot me down and give another candidate a go.

[Kintsugi]

5 minutes ago, kermit said:

'appearing to be a genuine beacon of liberty' would probably be the better phrasing. an effort to appear as such was made, otherwise various alien freedoms would just not be where they are. of course the reasoning behind this is incredibly malicious and its largely bc the corporations want a larger workforce, but the facade was a more convincing one imo.

It all boils down to me believing the 2 centre states in our lore (Sol and Biesel) being very similar politically (at least in recent characterisation): they both have a strong streak of nationalism and they both have a streak of imperialism. the Sol Marine's 'oorah' is mirrored 1:1 by the Legionnaire's 'for the republic'. ofc there are differences, but I don't think they'll be very significant come talk of war and I think its the imperialism/nationalist that is going to pop out come pre-NBT2. So, I think the 2 centrepiece states need to be differentiated. The Alliance has always been the nationalistic/imperialistic one of the two, with Biesel going that route later on, so that's why I'm specifically saying Biesel should find its own path.

Good vs. Evil is a boring theme in war stories, so I hadn't thought of or intend to white-wash Biesel. I think Biesel is too far gone for that and it's been rotted too deep by the megacorporations, of which the megacorporations are the arch-evil of the greater setting. This should not be a concern and Biesel will have its fair share of being evil. I just don't want it to be an overtly imperalistic or nationalistic flavour of evil, because that domain is what Sol is or has just shed out of. 

As for the ultimatum, I respect and don't want to waste the LTAs time and I think they can handle the bluntness. I don't like the characterisation of Biesel in years past much, I think it can be improved with the NBT2 in mind and result in an overall better outcome without departing too far from current direction (afaik). If this is one of the 'fixed' things or if my plans do significantly depart from current direction, then the LTA needs to know that in my application now and not in a few weeks. This is me letting the LTA know what strings I would like to play with, so that if this particular string is inflexible they can shoot me down and give another candidate a go.

I think that clears up my concerns, thank you.

[Caelphon]

I believe that Kermit has shown astronomical abilities during their tenure as a Lorewriter previously. 

I have no doubt they will be able to give the megacorps/biesel some much-needed development. 

Goodluck.