Naut - Loremaster Application

[naut]

Ckey / Discord Username: Nauticall (for both)

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

Past Experiences and Knowledge: Current deputy loremaster and acting loremaster for Aurora.

Examples of Past Work, if any: I've done several pieces of lore contributions to the setting and I plan to do more. My best (in my opinion) works so far would be the Mendell City rewrite as well as the Luceism rewrite and the lore on the Lemurian Sea, relevant today with Fyni's ongoing lore arc. I've also worked on the background science for the modern interpretation of phoron as a room-temperature superconductor, helping out Trio.

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

I have a generally positive opinion on the project. I still have certain reservations about more extreme ends of the events that catalyze the event to begin with (call me stubborn), but I'm willing to work within the bounds to see to it that we have a setting that's captivating. The soft-reset of lore allows us to clear a lot of baggage and established sediment with all the odd ends we've accrued over the years, as well as bring some more marginalized parts of the setting into the limelight some more. 

Gameplay wise I'm very excited for the contracts system and the setting revamp of the ship itself. Lately with recent lore arcs we've been struggling to justify why a corporate exploration flagship is going around running and gunning everywhere it goes, not to mention the "office job" standards make roleplaying fringe characters either very rigid or, if flexing the lines a little, a little unbelievable. Mercenary work for a mercenary company in a chaotic setting allows for a lot more freedom of expression, not to mention the excuse for the ship to do a lot more actively instead of simply exploration (and the occasional pirate outpost destruction).

 

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

I'm intent on, more than anything, fleshing out the "in-betweens" that govern lore, reinforcing internal consistencies, and answering the "whys" whenever possible. Why, for example, phoron behaves the way it behaves, why people did this during the war, why this political actor behaves the way it does.

As deputy loremaster now I've mostly been focused on maintenance of the setting above anything, but when pivoting to Anabasis I think that with a hand in shaping things from the ground up, I can take on a more proactive role, affect these parts of the setting a lot more, and make Anabasis believable, grounded, and logical.

 

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

It'd have to be cohesion, I think. The setting of Aurora, while all very in-depth and detailed, has a lot to desire in terms of overall painting a setting. As it stands right now much of Aurora lore is centered around human-centric states and organizations getting all the spotlight while the other aliens/races have felt like set dressing. While this has proven difficult to do anything about in the current setting, I believe that Anabasis's fresh start will allow for us to get some more cohesive setting-laying done, making peripheral elements more relevant and tying everything together in a neat little ribbon that it doesn't have the luxury of doing now.

 

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

I've personally developed a philosophy in my past writing for science fiction to have things done in a "firm" sci-fi way; that is, have sci-fi that is believable, internally consistent, and follows the established rules and norms of in-universe science, while allowing for creative freedoms and a fair bit of drama in the process, unbeholden to rigidly adhering to things like 21st century understandings of science.

In terms of set-dressing I've always been one for a grounded approach. The space opera stuff can be cool every now and then, but ultimately considering none of the player characters here are Luke Skywalker, having a setting that's more grounded, believable and gritty, rather than dramatic and theatrical, would make it a lot easier for characters to inhabit a world instead of simply reacting to it. I fear having things be too theatrical, to the point of sacrificing believability, makes people get psychological detachment from the weight of things happening, as modern lore has demonstrated in past events - nobody really understands the consequences of dramatic things besides "this was a big tragedy" or "this was a big win." I'm not saying we can't blow something big up every once in a while, but the stuff needs to be believable, inhabited, and fleshed out.

 

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

Regarding strengths I like to think I'm very good at managing team satisfaction, talking with members, creative direction, enacting policy (I've implemented several policies for the lore team already) and overall keeping the fire burning. As DLM, while I haven't been as active as I ought to have been in recent months, if stoked properly I can have things running smoothly.

Weakness-wise, I do need frequent prodding and poking to make sure I don't drift away, both due to IRL obligations and due to ADHD. I can be fairly heavily opinionated as well and have a tendency of playing the contrarian to stoke an "other-side" debate, though I am trying to find a balance between being assertive where it matters and being gentle as to not piss people off. I think I can improve on that skill with due time.