Fyni - Loremaster

[Fyni]

Ckey / Discord Username: Fyni / Fyni

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

Past Experiences and Knowledge

I’m a long-time creator of worlds and games master outside of Aurora. Ever since I was a child, I’d create and imagine things for the games with friends, weaving the narrative around it. Obviously as I grew older, this expanded, became more refined.

In the modern day, this translates to several settings for ttrpgs created wholesale, or “mini settings” within pre-existing ones. The position of Loremaster is somewhat halfway between these.

Finally, relevant to Aurora, I have worked with many members of the lore team in the past. Both in creating my one arc so far, but also aiding with their own projects. Proof reading, giving feedback, co-ordinating devs and artists to bring their vision to life and making suggestions which often shine in the final product. My fingerprint in this regard is everywhere, from my first bit of ingame spriting for the Golden Deep a few years ago to recent aid with Caria.

Examples of Past Work, if any

My work on A Dream for Tomorrow includes working with Naut on the Lemurian Sea page, alongside updates to the Light’s Edge and a new Outer Eyes page which are yet to release.

 

---

 

1) Describe your thoughts about the Anabasis project as a whole, whether they be negative or positive.

Massively positive. Coming from a non-lore perspective, everything Anabasis is offering, primarily with the contracts game mode and persistence is exactly what we need going forward. Away missions prove eternally popular, and persistence gives a reason to play even in low pop, knowing you are making a difference to the overall health of the ship. The lore changes been fundamental to setting these up is as much an opportunity as a task too.

 

2) What is your plan regarding Anabasis as a Lore Master? What sort of focus would you bring to the table?

The lore needs to support the gameplay, and this seems to be doubly so the case for Anabasis. A focus must be put on the “actors” of the lore – the things which directly impact the ship and its crew – over the “background” of the lore – the things which determine a character’s backstory but lack day to day importance.

Been able to determine what the actors are – be it freelance companies, pirate fleets, trade networks – and to expand on it as a focus to enable the gameplay desired in Anabasis. While the background is extremely important, a focus should be on these actors and I’d hope I could get each lore team to put at least one on the table – maybe more and hopefully linked ones.

 

3) What do you think the current setting lacks? What are its biggest flaws?

I think our main lack is “small lore”. This can be anything from tiny news stories to chat over IC, to smaller powers who ply their way through the Spur. This is a stance I’ve long held, and I thing with the coming of Anabasis this is more important then ever. We need something greater than the independent spacer, but smaller than state backed fleets and militaries. The largely uncontested control by states over their territory leaves very little wiggle room at the moment for decisions contrary to them, doubly so right now with the SCC hovering over everything. The sinta pirate fleets are a great example of what could be made, and I’d love to see more in that vein.

Our biggest flaws are perhaps meta issues. First, it’s the absolute cliff wall a new player may face. We need more tools to enable new players to get immersed in the lore, while also enabling new players who are maybe seeking a HRP environment without an urgent need to learn lore. This is something best resolved through a wiki rework and repolicy, combined with better in game representation of said lore right from the start. And I’d like to make one thing clear on this: it is not my intent to reduce the lore, but rather to provide a better pathway for new (and returning) players.

 

4) Do you lean towards a space opera writing style regarding the events and the setting, or towards a hard-scifi style? Why?

I personally prefer a harder sci fi background, however this is something which is difficult to represent in the context of the game, most of all in ship combat and overmap traversal. Fundamentally, there will always be a gameplay to hard sci fi logic disconnect, but by that same logic we cannot follow the flexible logic of a space opera within the context of the server. I believe having the hard sci fi background grounds things and makes decisions and knowledge IC much more important and impactful – and is something which will fit the Anabasis mission goals excellently. A base line of narrative rules could link style deeper into Anabasis, and would be best implemented early on.

 

 

5) What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to being in a management position?

My main strength I’ve found is my ability to engage team members and direct them towards a mutually desired outcome. In the context of Aurora lore, this would be enabling wide lore team participation in Dream, but also the reignition of various team’s desire to run events and arcs within the game itself. I believe I can drop enough breadcrumbs to inspire people to work, and in a direction I desire.

My weakness is often personal deadlines – which can extend to larger projects, though this is something I am seeking to improve via keeping accountable via the help of third parties.

[Shimmer]

Fyni is a wonderful person to work with when it comes to events. Passionate, enthusiastic, and driven, a fantastic coordinator and manager by all accounts, and a pleasure to interact with. I wish you the best of luck in this application and I am excited to see what direction lore takes with you at the helm.

 

I do have a few questions though, in me tradition!

 

On 04/08/2026 at 22:02, Fyni said:

Massively positive. Coming from a non-lore perspective, everything Anabasis is offering, primarily with the contracts game mode and persistence is exactly what we need going forward. Away missions prove eternally popular, and persistence gives a reason to play even in low pop, knowing you are making a difference to the overall health of the ship. The lore changes been fundamental to setting these up is as much an opportunity as a task too.

You've said that you view the entirety of Anabasis as positive. Are you talking in a general sense, or do you find yourself in agreement with the entire thing? Is there anything you intend to change or nudge with the project?

Asking this within reason of course, I'm not probing for answers that aren't meant to be given yet. But I am curious to see if there is anything at all about Anabasis you would prefer to change.

 

On 04/08/2026 at 22:02, Fyni said:

Been able to determine what the actors are – be it freelance companies, pirate fleets, trade networks – and to expand on it as a focus to enable the gameplay desired in Anabasis. While the background is extremely important, a focus should be on these actors and I’d hope I could get each lore team to put at least one on the table – maybe more and hopefully linked ones.

Could you provide a few examples? How do you envision this looking? How do you intend to make lore focus more on gameplay and enable the interaction of lore with the ship's setting?

 

On 04/08/2026 at 22:02, Fyni said:

I think our main lack is “small lore”. This can be anything from tiny news stories to chat over IC, to smaller powers who ply their way through the Spur. This is a stance I’ve long held, and I thing with the coming of Anabasis this is more important then ever.

How will it differ from the ongoing news articles that exist within the forums? What do you want to see that is different from them, and importantly, how do you seek to make them a common topic of discussion between the crew?

Is it simply a focus away from news about the various nation-states present in the setting and towards other, still notable organisations? Or is there a more expansive plan at play here? How will it relate back to the Horizon and its successor, if at all?

 

On 04/08/2026 at 22:02, Fyni said:

And I’d like to make one thing clear on this: it is not my intent to reduce the lore, but rather to provide a better pathway for new (and returning) players.

Could you elaborate on what your plans are? Will they be more condensed versions of the existing lore articles, or is it a general overview of the setting's lore in an easily digestible package? Do you have any plans to make that integration into the game itself, rather than directing players to an outside source such as Aurora's wiki?

 

And finally, a question unrelated to your answers here but one I am still curious to hear your thoughts on. In my mind, currently, there is a severe imbalance within the various lore teams when it comes to their degree of influence, workload, and significance to the setting, with a very heavy presence of human factions, human corporations, and human politics at play. Is this something you also see as an issue? If so, what are your plans on resolving or easing this imbalance?

[Pope Dave The 3th]

Fyni's an absolute goat and is without doubt an excellent fit for the position, no notes.

[Fyni]

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

You've said that you view the entirety of Anabasis as positive. Are you talking in a general sense, or do you find yourself in agreement with the entire thing? Is there anything you intend to change or nudge with the project?

Asking this within reason of course, I'm not probing for answers that aren't meant to be given yet. But I am curious to see if there is anything at all about Anabasis you would prefer to change.

I will say outright that my knowledge of Anabasis is actually only a little more then the regular well informed player. I have kept upto date with the diaries, chatted to some lore teams about their plans, but I have not actually read the big plans and I am currently not involved - so my original post and this answer are from that perspective.

This may be a lore role, but the lore must always be in support of the regular gameplay on the server. Anabasis is designed to fix our greatest problem: a reliance on antags. From an admin's point of view, I have seen us have this trouble constantly. Anabasis needs to happen to resolve this, and I think the approach and plan from that angle is excellent.

The massive lore changes and time skip are in support of this. I may be bias because of my admin's perspective to server health and population based on antags, but I truly believe the time skip is something that has been needed to be done for a long time even without a "new big thing" to prompt it. We need a shake up of the status quo, a lot of the lore writers want a shake up, all the cakes which have been in the oven for years to finally cook. I know a lot of people were and still are concerned about losing what we have now, but sadly what we have now is slowly declining. We still have decent pop, but viable hours to play are down, pushing Europe and Oceania players out unless they wish to be awake and gaming at silly hours.

So, in short? I think Anabasis solves these issues. Both the matter of server health while also allowing lore teams to explore new ground they would never be able to without it and make changes they've been wanting for years. It's worth all the work and the risk and I truly believe that.

 

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

Could you provide a few examples? How do you envision this looking? How do you intend to make lore focus more on gameplay and enable the interaction of lore with the ship's setting?

I like to think Dream has been a micro example of this. Create a few small groups who can happily get involved with the Horizon, make deals back and forth, laugh, shoot. The whole gamut. The issue we have right now is the Spur is far too organised. You could never reasonably expect, say, the Horizon to decide to canonically hoodwink a Solarian ship to get some advantage, or to decide to fire upon a Dominian ship because they've been paid to. These sorts of decisions are beyond the Horizon - both because the SCC would not allow it but also because the "actors" (the solarians, the dominians) are too great a power that the players could never hope to actually make an impact outside of events set up for such.

Dreams featured ARCO (who I did not flesh out as well as I could after the casino incident - but that is another story) and Meropis, two smaller groups, tiny enough that they could be bullied by the Horizon, suffer reasonable consequences going both ways, plot and scheme and all sorts. I strongly believe we need more of these small groups to truly enable canon rounds to shine - and I believe every lore team has the ability to make them.

 

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

How will it differ from the ongoing news articles that exist within the forums? What do you want to see that is different from them, and importantly, how do you seek to make them a common topic of discussion between the crew?

Is it simply a focus away from news about the various nation-states present in the setting and towards other, still notable organisations? Or is there a more expansive plan at play here? How will it relate back to the Horizon and its successor, if at all?

Part of small lore is like I said above - small factions who can be directly interacted with and influenced for good or ill.

But on the news articles point, it needs to be represented in round. We need micro changes on the ship, in how people play. The obvious first step is fixing the newscasters to show it in game, but the second is truly where a loremaster could shine - focussing the various lore teams on creating relevant articles relevant to the current state of the server. The big news arcs continue, sure, but the small news tells a story around where you are. What you're doing.

 

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

Could you elaborate on what your plans are? Will they be more condensed versions of the existing lore articles, or is it a general overview of the setting's lore in an easily digestible package? Do you have any plans to make that integration into the game itself, rather than directing players to an outside source such as Aurora's wiki?

The wiki needs work. Trio always wanted to make a new player lore guide, but I believed what we have now is literally throwing players in the deep end. We need top focus on what is important to new players to know. I love how much lore we have, how many little details you can find, but at the same time a new player does not need it all. Adding new infoboxes to nations was one example of me pushing for this last year - until they were added, asking a new player to find the name of the leader of their home planet was a joke.

I'd love to have that in game, but that is a dev task as much as a lore one.

 

2 hours ago, Shimmer said:

And finally, a question unrelated to your answers here but one I am still curious to hear your thoughts on. In my mind, currently, there is a severe imbalance within the various lore teams when it comes to their degree of influence, workload, and significance to the setting, with a very heavy presence of human factions, human corporations, and human politics at play. Is this something you also see as an issue? If so, what are your plans on resolving or easing this imbalance?

First, each lore team works at a different pace. I personally, if I were LM, would do my best to support and enable each team to the greatest extent they were willing to deliver, from small to large, but also provide motivators for that work. During Dreams, I reached out to the whole lore team to see who would like to contribute, and offered to help run unrelated events too. I think offering the opportunities for the teams to make an impact even without a huge arc is a great motivator. It seemed to reignite the desire for the teams to run their own arcs and come up with their own events, something I wish to see way more of.

[hazelmouse]

On 04/08/2026 at 20:02, Fyni said:

2) What is your plan regarding Anabasis as a Lore Master? What sort of focus would you bring to the table?

The lore needs to support the gameplay, and this seems to be doubly so the case for Anabasis. A focus must be put on the “actors” of the lore – the things which directly impact the ship and its crew – over the “background” of the lore – the things which determine a character’s backstory but lack day to day importance.

Been able to determine what the actors are – be it freelance companies, pirate fleets, trade networks – and to expand on it as a focus to enable the gameplay desired in Anabasis. While the background is extremely important, a focus should be on these actors and I’d hope I could get each lore team to put at least one on the table – maybe more and hopefully linked ones.

Roughly how many of these actors do you believe should be established at maximum, and what approach do you feel would be best to make them feel like an immanent presence on-ship?

On 04/08/2026 at 20:02, Fyni said:

4) Do you lean towards a space opera writing style regarding the events and the setting, or towards a hard-scifi style? Why?

I personally prefer a harder sci fi background, however this is something which is difficult to represent in the context of the game, most of all in ship combat and overmap traversal. Fundamentally, there will always be a gameplay to hard sci fi logic disconnect, but by that same logic we cannot follow the flexible logic of a space opera within the context of the server. I believe having the hard sci fi background grounds things and makes decisions and knowledge IC much more important and impactful – and is something which will fit the Anabasis mission goals excellently. A base line of narrative rules could link style deeper into Anabasis, and would be best implemented early on.

Would you say there should be limits to how fantastical the setting should be portrayed, and if so, around where would you draw that line? There is support in our lore for a breadth of fantastical or reality-breaking nonsense, owed largely to bluespace, but it hasn't really been majorly utilised except as an excuse for funny science mechanics - should we lean into or away from this?

On 04/08/2026 at 20:02, Fyni said:

3) What do you think the current setting lacks? What are its biggest flaws?

I think our main lack is “small lore”. This can be anything from tiny news stories to chat over IC, to smaller powers who ply their way through the Spur. This is a stance I’ve long held, and I thing with the coming of Anabasis this is more important then ever. We need something greater than the independent spacer, but smaller than state backed fleets and militaries. The largely uncontested control by states over their territory leaves very little wiggle room at the moment for decisions contrary to them, doubly so right now with the SCC hovering over everything. The sinta pirate fleets are a great example of what could be made, and I’d love to see more in that vein.

Our biggest flaws are perhaps meta issues. First, it’s the absolute cliff wall a new player may face. We need more tools to enable new players to get immersed in the lore, while also enabling new players who are maybe seeking a HRP environment without an urgent need to learn lore. This is something best resolved through a wiki rework and repolicy, combined with better in game representation of said lore right from the start. And I’d like to make one thing clear on this: it is not my intent to reduce the lore, but rather to provide a better pathway for new (and returning) players.

Can you elaborate on how you would rework our wiki presence? Do you believe any lore should be cut out to make our wiki more digestible, and if so, which lore should that be?

On 08/08/2026 at 00:54, Fyni said:

The wiki needs work. Trio always wanted to make a new player lore guide, but I believed what we have now is literally throwing players in the deep end. We need top focus on what is important to new players to know. I love how much lore we have, how many little details you can find, but at the same time a new player does not need it all. Adding new infoboxes to nations was one example of me pushing for this last year - until they were added, asking a new player to find the name of the leader of their home planet was a joke.

I'd love to have that in game, but that is a dev task as much as a lore one.

Around what length would you say is advisable for the page of a single origin? Are there any ways in which the lore team should adjust its writing style to be more accessible to new players?

Edited August 11 by hazelmouse

[Fyni]

53 minutes ago, hazelmouse said:

Roughly how many of these actors do you believe should be established at maximum, and what approach do you feel would be best to make them feel like an immanent presence on-ship?

One or two per lore team would be ideal - making for roughly ten, though more can always be established.

I distinguish actors from background for one key reason: background is stuff we hardly see in game in a big way beyond antag gimmicks (see: solarian marines) whereas actors will be designed to directly effect the ship and the gameplay, bringing the lore directly into more then just ones backstory. These actors need to be at the front constantly, as targets of contracts, rivals or even giving said contracts. They need an established identity and personality, ideas of strength and consequences which helps players make more well informed decisions. These can be backed up my in game items - uniforms, gear, guns - which will encourage none canon usage too. See how arcs inspire antags.

 

53 minutes ago, hazelmouse said:

Would you say there should be limits to how fantastical the setting should be portrayed, and if so, around where would you draw that line? There is support in our lore for a breadth of fantastical or reality-breaking nonsense, owed largely to bluespace, but it hasn't really been majorly utilised except as an excuse for funny science mechanics - should we lean into or away from this?

I personally shy away from bluespace. It's exsistance is pretty much required to enable a lot of gameplay things, but we should seek to use it as little as possible. I believe there is a lot of interesting things that can be done within the boundaries of "hard" sci fi, and that in this case limitation is merely the vehicle for further creativity.

 

53 minutes ago, hazelmouse said:

Can you elaborate on how you would rework our wiki presence? Do you believe any lore should be cut out to make our wiki more digestible, and if so, which lore should that be?

My major concern is a combination of how overbloated some pages are, our hatred of making more pages, and the complete failure of some summaries to really summarise. It leaves new players looking at the page for, say, Xanu which is longer then wikipedia's page for most countries and is jampacked with expandable boxes which makes one glaze over. Until my rework of the nations boxes, you couldn't find the name of the planet's leader in a decent amount of time. You still can't find that it's people are often a french or indian origin. Instead, the summary is vague and unhelpful. This is not a knock on whomever wrote it - as a real wiki page, it reads great - but as a helpful entry point to a new player, not so much.

And I will say this outright: I don't think any lore what so ever should be cut (at least for the wiki's sake.) It just needs to be reformatted and presented better.

 

53 minutes ago, hazelmouse said:

Around what length would you say is advisable for the page of a single origin? Are there any ways in which the lore team should adjust its writing style to be more accessible to new players?

I see no issue with having *many* pages. We should not be afraid of short pages - it merely makes the wiki more searchable. Some pages should be naturally longer, but when something would make sense for it's own page, it should be on it's own page (to use the Xanu example - the Xanu corporations and the Xanu military details). Some pages read like a google doc, not a wiki page where we can easily link at any time to another page.

I didn't want my application to become a cry for wiki changes, but I believe we have a major hurdle to new players and our lore in it - and this wiki reform will be something I will still champion should this be unsuccessful.

[MattAtlas]

On 04/08/2026 at 21:02, Fyni said:

I’m a long-time creator of worlds and games master outside of Aurora. Ever since I was a child, I’d create and imagine things for the games with friends, weaving the narrative around it. Obviously as I grew older, this expanded, became more refined.

In the modern day, this translates to several settings for ttrpgs created wholesale, or “mini settings” within pre-existing ones. The position of Loremaster is somewhat halfway between these.

Finally, relevant to Aurora, I have worked with many members of the lore team in the past. Both in creating my one arc so far, but also aiding with their own projects. Proof reading, giving feedback, co-ordinating devs and artists to bring their vision to life and making suggestions which often shine in the final product. My fingerprint in this regard is everywhere, from my first bit of ingame spriting for the Golden Deep a few years ago to recent aid with Caria.

Let me begin by saying that your work on the current arc is one of the main reasons why the server still holds pop today. So for that, you only have my compliments and nothing else. It takes a lot to create something from nothing in this case, and I think you overall did good work on the arc, even if I could criticise parts of it; it ended up working out. On this side, no complaints.

However, I think your application is weakest exactly here. Do you not think that the lack of any actual long-form writing on Aurora is a problem for your application? I understand that you've written part of the Lemurian Sea page, but I'm mostly looking for things like writing planets, origins, because this is what gives you experience on understanding what people like to play. Lore Masters are expected to review pages upon pages of documents of lore, but to do this effectively you need to have written for Aurora before, is my initial position. This is because you need to understand what should be written and what should not be written. Too much fluff and too little fluff, for example, are both big problems. You need to strike the goldilocks zone, or you end up with situations like Xanu's wiki page (too much fluff), or something like Port Antilla (none and uninteresting).

On 04/08/2026 at 21:02, Fyni said:

Been able to determine what the actors are – be it freelance companies,

What should Anabasis' freelance companies look like, in your opinion? This is a free question, no holds barred, answer as if you had complete creative direction. Keep in mind that we are talking about companies that we would meet as enemies, the company we could work for, and other freelancer companies that could reasonably pop up on the ship as playable characters.

On 04/08/2026 at 21:02, Fyni said:

I think our main lack is “small lore”. This can be anything from tiny news stories to chat over IC, to smaller powers who ply their way through the Spur. This is a stance I’ve long held, and I thing with the coming of Anabasis this is more important then ever.

You say this, but you don't elaborate on why. Why is this important? Why is the current state of this bad? What does it bring to the game? Are we talking about mostly off-server work (wiki, lore, articles) or in-game work?

On 04/08/2026 at 21:02, Fyni said:

Our biggest flaws are perhaps meta issues. First, it’s the absolute cliff wall a new player may face. We need more tools to enable new players to get immersed in the lore, while also enabling new players who are maybe seeking a HRP environment without an urgent need to learn lore. This is something best resolved through a wiki rework and repolicy, combined with better in game representation of said lore right from the start. And I’d like to make one thing clear on this: it is not my intent to reduce the lore, but rather to provide a better pathway for new (and returning) players.

Good answer.

On 04/08/2026 at 21:02, Fyni said:

I personally prefer a harder sci fi background, however this is something which is difficult to represent in the context of the game, most of all in ship combat and overmap traversal. Fundamentally, there will always be a gameplay to hard sci fi logic disconnect, but by that same logic we cannot follow the flexible logic of a space opera within the context of the server. I believe having the hard sci fi background grounds things and makes decisions and knowledge IC much more important and impactful – and is something which will fit the Anabasis mission goals excellently. A base line of narrative rules could link style deeper into Anabasis, and would be best implemented early on.

What do envision when you say a harder sci-fi background? I will use an example of a recent talk we've had in lore channels. I brought up the fact that I would like to add fantasy-like minerals to Aurora, also some unique to species, to add gameplay diversity/more depth to certain gameplay loops such as miners and in preparation for Fabrication. The gameplay reasoning is simple; it's boring to always mine the same stuff as a miner, and having more minerals leads to us being able to have different alloys easier which leads to more ideas for gameplay and so on and so forth.

This is something we all ended up disagreeing on somewhat also because of reasons related to hard-scifi (mainly, requirements for realistic metals, alloys, etc... that expanding the periodic table isn't really possible, so on and so forth) which I tend to personally disagree with. What is your opinion on this?

[Fyni]

2 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

However, I think your application is weakest exactly here. Do you not think that the lack of any actual long-form writing on Aurora is a problem for your application? I understand that you've written part of the Lemurian Sea page, but I'm mostly looking for things like writing planets, origins, because this is what gives you experience on understanding what people like to play. Lore Masters are expected to review pages upon pages of documents of lore, but to do this effectively you need to have written for Aurora before, is my initial position. This is because you need to understand what should be written and what should not be written. Too much fluff and too little fluff, for example, are both big problems. You need to strike the goldilocks zone, or you end up with situations like Xanu's wiki page (too much fluff), or something like Port Antilla (none and uninteresting).

I very much admit I've contributed very little in terms of long form writing - and this is indeed a weakness. However, on the same token I believe been the outsider candidate here has it's own strengths. I have a very keen awareness of how the lore impacts the players it is been made for. I know what is needed from that perceptive, what is excessive. Why? Because I have been a long time lore consumer, and I have seen some thing flounder and other succeed.

However, you can ask the lore writers I've talked to, who have approached me with things from basic ideas to near complete lore docs - how I have reviewed and made recommendations - which I hope shows a solid foundation which can be improved upon.

 

2 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

What should Anabasis' freelance companies look like, in your opinion? This is a free question, no holds barred, answer as if you had complete creative direction. Keep in mind that we are talking about companies that we would meet as enemies, the company we could work for, and other freelancer companies that could reasonably pop up on the ship as playable characters.

Beyond the company which owns the ship itself which will require a lot of special considerations, I'd categorise them into two groups: the hands off and hands on. While all the freelancer ships will have their own command, some companies would demand certain standards of their ships, leading to them been more homogenised as the player ship encounters them. This will provide a short hand for ghost roles, antags and lore writers to add these ships in where required to make an impact. On the other side, more varied companies, with a strong thematic core will provide creative freedom while fitting into already established lore.

As for exactly what these companies would look like is something I have only put surface level thought into at this moment. However, I fully believe the companies need to have strong archetypes, much like our current megacorp roster, so they can be understood simply and easily, with more depth under that surface.

 

2 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

You say this, but you don't elaborate on why. Why is this important? Why is the current state of this bad? What does it bring to the game? Are we talking about mostly off-server work (wiki, lore, articles) or in-game work?

Ironically, I find a lot of big lore movements which happen in arcs have very little impact in the game itself. People will mention it and it may crop up as an antag gimmick or two, but then it's forgotten. The reason why small lore I believe can be more impactful is because it can be delivered in a more direct and impactful way. We need to focus on what is happening in the game server and deliver to that as much as we do longer term goals. Why? Because people will get more involved and interested naturally if current lore news is extremely relevant to their current in game situation - even if the scale of said news is smaller. And this becomes more important in Anabasis because I foresee players will be making decisions based on this more impactful small lore then something on a much grander scale, very far away.

For example, imagine our Anabasis ship is off near whatever Himeo becomes in NBT2. Lore of whatever massive poltiical shakedown which may be going on on Qerrbelek isn't going to really matter in the round to round, whereas "Skrell ships attempting to force trade with group near Himeo" will have a much larger impact.

We need to focus on what is going to be important, geographically and thematically, even if just through the delivery of smaller snippets and this is something a loremaster could direct.

 

2 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

What do envision when you say a harder sci-fi background? I will use an example of a recent talk we've had in lore channels. I brought up the fact that I would like to add fantasy-like minerals to Aurora, also some unique to species, to add gameplay diversity/more depth to certain gameplay loops such as miners and in preparation for Fabrication. The gameplay reasoning is simple; it's boring to always mine the same stuff as a miner, and having more minerals leads to us being able to have different alloys easier which leads to more ideas for gameplay and so on and so forth.

This is something we all ended up disagreeing on somewhat also because of reasons related to hard-scifi (mainly, requirements for realistic metals, alloys, etc... that expanding the periodic table isn't really possible, so on and so forth) which I tend to personally disagree with. What is your opinion on this?

I've had time to consider my answer, and I'd say my vision of aurora is on a "slightly hard of centre" if sci-fi hardness were to be a spectrum (it is.). We clearly disregard a lot of universal laws in favour of our narrative (faster then light working like it does, time in general) but in other places we are a bit tighter. For me, the key importance of keeping it "slightly hard" is been consistent and believable in how we approach things.

We need to avoid completely disregarding our own established rules and numbers in favour of narrative - something we already do for the most part - but this still leaves room for adding new things.

I think my app and questions have made clear my main goal if I was LM would be to further integrate the lore and the gameplay beyond what we have right now, and sometimes we need to make new things to enable this gameplay. With the given example, I believe fantasy like minerals could be integrated, but must fit within rules. Link them in ways to phoron or bluespace, the "big two" breaks we have from "realistic sci-fi" and it's the duty of the lore team to, when able, to find a compromise which allows these elements to fit. I think a push for a true hard sci-fi disregards completely what we already have in game, something which I think happens a lot. We just need to find the right balance.