[Accepted] AndurilFlame's Human Lore Deputy App

Ckey/BYOND Username: AndurilFlame

Position Being Applied For (coder, mapper, spriter): Human Lore Deputy

Past Experiences/Knowledge: Past work includes work on various personal projects ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to fiction and other such works, especially historical ones.

Examples of Past Work: I worked on the rewrite of Dominian history, as well as contributing on the Dominian great houses, military, and other parts of Empire lore.

Preferred Mode of Communication (Skype, Steam, etc.): Discord, Pegasus#4965

Additional Comments: I think human lore, out of all the parts of the Aurora lore, has the most potential to be the shining gem of quality and opportunity. None of the other species can ever quite match up to the pure variety of being a human, and the lore should always reflect that. While there's plenty of different human factions and backgrounds to choose from, many of them could use more love and care - not just Tau Ceti and things closer to the station. If accepted, I would attempt to flesh out nations such as the Frontier Alliance, the Empire, Elyra, and Eridani further with lore that anyone making a character from there could use.

Not much feedback, so I'll start.

I for one know that Anduril or Pegasus or whatever has put a considerable amount of work into Dominia and the sprites.

Say what you want about Dominia but the work he has put in has not only been surprisingly good but aesthetically and thematically CONSISTENT. Meaning that he just doesn't take any idea that strikes him on the nose as cool and shove it into his favorite factions like some others do.

But it wouldn't be me without some questions:

One, would you consider yourself more of a builder or a reformer? By that I mean, do you plan on possibly demolishing or trying to demolish whatever the people before you set up as "that faction" to make your own version or do you plan to rather work on already established concepts even thought it may be a detriment to you and your ideas?

Do you think it's better to have more or less people in a lore department?

Do you plan on making sprites for every human faction or are you just going to stay spriting for dominia?

Say that zundy one day decides to just outright remove a faction, not due to lore or any other IC reason he is simply bored of it and wants it instantly deleted without any ceremonies or mentions so he can clear up some space. Would you support this? Do you think an IC removal would be better? Would you oppose this decision?

As Coalf has said, he's extremely dedicated and consistent with his work he's put into Dominia (even the spritework, that's fucking neato), and has done a lot to make the faction seem more... presentable.

Hey, Coalf, thanks for the feedback. To answer your questions:

On building v. reforming: I think I am more of a reformer. I do not have issues with the human factions or their themes, I think the most important thing for them is for all of them to stay consistent, and each have a minimum amount of lore across the board. You can easily see that some human factions have gotten more attention then others, and while I think that may be inevitable, standards are very important. If you compare the amount of lore available for someone from the Frontier Alliance, they don't even have any named people as far as I am aware. Compare that to Elyra, where there is some information on current events, politics, culture, etc. While there is a reason for this, that the Frontier Alliance is meant to be very open ended, it should not be so open-ended it falls apart. A standard amount of thematically consistent lore should be expected for all factions.

On the amount of people in the lore department: It depends, obviously. Some of it is down to the taste of the Loredev as to how he wants to handle things. Overall, however, I think it's a good thing to have more voices in the lore. If you look at humanity, for example - they are easily the most diverse, with the most factions and the most opportunities for change. Having multiple people working with it ensures that there is a healthy amount of unique thought coming in to the discussion, and ensures that they don't all blend together.

On spriting: I freely admit, all of the sprites that I've created and were implemented are entirely for Dominia. I have made a smaller amount of sprites for the other human factions, though these haven't been implemented in any form as of yet. I am more then willing to sprite for any of the factions. Dominia has gotten the most love from me in this regard as they had... well, none, and they were easily the most inspiring to do at that time. However, spriting for all the human factions ties into my goals for consistent standards of a minimum amount being available. I intend to create a set amount of sprites available for each of them as Zundy has directed in the past.

On faction removal: Zundy and the other loremasters are in their position for a reason. While I may not fully agree with such a move, and would probably push for a more IC removal, it's up to him. I can offer feedback, as can any other contributor, but in the end it's his and Jackboot's decision. Lore deputies aren't exactly here to make sweeping changes, we're just here to support what the species Lore dev wants done. If he thinks full-on removal of a faction is what's best, then all I can do is try to ensure that it has the best possible outcome. Sometimes, sweeping outright changes have happened in Aurora lore - be it with humanity, the Vaurca, or other parts of it. It might be inevitable, so all we can do is make the best of it and hope it turns out far better then whatever came before.

It's amazing that so many talented people are applying for human lore deputy. I have no doubt you, or any of the others will have an issue. Your work with Dominia has been interesting, and you show a general knowledge of most of the lore whenever we talk. +1

Everything that needs to be said has been said by my colleagues. Application accepted. Perms will be sorted soon but in the mean time please hop into the human lore discord so we can begin work. https://discord.gg/4FSfuyn (everyone else feel free to join as well. You can talk about human lore stuff).