Roadmap for Lore Development

Roadmap Purpose

In the interest of increasing Lore contributions, and ensuring that the unified vision established by the Lore Team is executed even in their absence, I am publishing all of our collected meeting notes (edited for ease of use). It is my hope that this will help provide a general understanding of the fundamentals driving our canon. In the interests of divorcing ourselves from the Vore canon and creating our own setting, a considerable amount of reworking still needs to be done. As the past year has shown, leaving the entire effort up to the lore team alone is unrealistic. This is not just a writing/wiki concern. A large portion of our codebase still contains references to Vore lore, including concepts like SolGov. That means that reconciling the code with the lore map below is vital.

What We Have

For several months the Lore Team met weekly to discuss what elements of the old lore would be left canon and what would need to be reworked entirely. I will provide those condensed notes here. I will not be including facets of the lore that are already published on the Wiki in the “What We Have” segment. Extant lore may be located on the Wiki via the “Category: Lore” directory.

Overall Tone for Lore

• Morally ambiguous/Grey. Hard dystopia settings are cliche and utopia lacks conflict. Comedic elements are acceptable, as are more Fantastic influences like magic.

Skrell

• Amphibian people
• First race of the current cycle to “discover” FTL.
• Skrell have formed a federation of species filling broad strokes roles: Skrell (Science), Akula (Military), Teshari (Exploration), Vulpkanin (Engineering).
• Skrell and Teshari evolved alongside each other and formed the proto-federation. Both decided to uplift Akula. Going into space, the Federation encountered Vox and Vulps. Vox reception is hostile. Vulps are incorporated into the federation. Skrell will later go on to be Humanity’s First Contact.

Unathi

• Heavy cultural emphasis on conflict.
• Monarchist.
• Divided into Kingdoms/Clans.
• Imperial ambitions.
• Pragmatic thinking.
• Three distinct subraces: Sinta, Yeosa, Vhetriss.

Precursors

• There are several misconceptions around precursor races. To avoid confusion, the actual precursor race is referred to as The First.
• The First are the original civilization that existed in the Milky Way galaxy. In the early days of the galaxy’s formation they built a vast Empire utilizing their incomparable psionic/paranatural abilities and technological advancement.
• The First constructed a network of Subspace communications relays, first to amplify their basic comms, and then to help channel their psionic messages. These relays exist today and are so complex and vital to intergalactic FTL messaging that coalitions of the major Galactic governments maintain and protect them.
• The First discovered Bluespace, but found it to be inhospitable. They also discovered Redspace, a dimension inhabited by another developed race known as The Oldest. The First and The Oldest were unable to establish diplomatic channels, as The Oldest claimed to be gods and demanded worship. The First attempted to colonize and convert Redspace into a new transit system, and learned how to draw on its energies to vastly enhance their psionic abilities.
• Unable to enter Realspace unless the stars were right, The Oldest learned how to subvert the minds of the First to gain worshippers, and how to channel their energies into occult statues.
• This eventually culminated in the construction of a Clockwork Army, powered by incomprehensible technology and psionics, that was sent to war with The Oldest. Even as the war began, The Oldest had dispatched its own army to subjugate The First.
• This war raged for centuries, until The First were eradicated, and The Oldest were pushed to near extinction and fully retreated to Redspace. Until recently, the only remaining member of The Oldest was thought to be Nar’Sie, the Geometer of Blood.
• Numerous cargo cults have since sprung up around the last remaining Clockwork Warrior crafted by The First - Ratvar. Cults and religions believe him to be an ancient rival of Nar’Sie and ascribe him divinity that is both misplaced, and functionally accurate.
• Nearly all records of the above have been lost to time or mistranslated over the epochs. For a long time, it was believed that the Geishani, Shadekin, and Skrell were the original galactic hegemon. In reality they are simply the most recent.
• Another common misconception is that The Greys or “Abductors” are Precursors, due to their advanced technology. They aren’t.
• Evidence of The First and The Oldest’s conflict exists still in The Exclusion Zone, an area of space so poisoned by the war that it has remained uninhabitable since. No expeditions which have entered past the vague borders of the zone have ever returned.

Unpublished Timeline Lore

• 37,000 BCE
  • Skrell, Shadekin, and Geishani are all spacefaring.
• 23,000BCE - 17,000 BCE
  • The Precursor Wars begin. The Skrell and the Geishani are the aggressors. The conflict comes to an end due to the Vikaran Pox. The Vikaran Pox is the result of Skrell-made bioweapons unintentionally infecting their own species as well as the Geishani. The resolution of the conflict leads to the surviving Skrell becoming pacifistic and non-confrontational.
• 16,000 BCE - ~700 CE
  • The Age of Silence. The Geishani culture collapses and the species goes extinct. The Skrell who survive become isolationist and lose 95% of their galactic holdings and technology. Other species start to explore and colonize space. Vox also come to the galactic fore, roaming the galaxy in their Arkships. Near the end of this Age, fresh generations of Skrell and their newly acquired Teshari and Akula allies leave their "home" system and explore anew.

Unpublished/Deprioritized Notes on Virgo System

• Virgo system ownership: Owned by Skrell Federation, but NT has rights to 3b, with bounties/ travel visas.

Unpublished Sol Notes

• Rome is the Capital of Earth/Terra.
• Orion Confederation capital is a space station in black space between Earth and Mars.
• History: Old Nations are gone but their cultures remain, both due to the Human pre-war Diaspora and those inhabitants on Earth who survived the Final War.
• Vat-grown cultures are very utilitarian and based around Engineering.

Unrelated Notes

• "Clown Planet" and "Mime Planet" are both actual places. They are, in fact, the same place. There is a planet known to possess the two best “Ivy League” colleges for Clowns and Mimes. The Clown and Mime Wars are a chain of ever-going conflicts between the two colleges which have lead to the abandonment of the colonized planet by all other parties. Apparently the education is still really good, considering people are always applying to join one side or the other.

Disclaimer

This covers everything we currently have notes on that isn’t written down on the Wiki already. There are most likely elements that slipped through the cracks. For those instances, feel free to contact either me or a Lore Maintainer directly to see if we know the answer.

What We Need

The following list outlines all of our known "needs", in terms of lore development. If there is an item on this list that you are interested in writing for, please contact either myself or one of the active Lore Maintainers. Further instructions will be included at the bottom of this list. Sometimes, a "Known X Lore" footnote will be appended to something below. This is usually because what we "know" was too small for me to give it its own bullet above.

Races

Be advised: Someone ported pages of lore directly from Virgo to our Wiki. This was not authorized. You can essentially tell which races on the Wiki are currently of a questionable canonicity due to the lack of the 'Race:' identifier at the start of the page. Instead of just blanking the pages, I've left them up for reference. The existence of these pages does not change the need to either fully rewrite them, or heavily edit them to bring them into line with our canon. Any races currently missing lore, but not listed below, are currently in the process of receiving a submission.

Species Requiring Full Submissions

• Akula
• Alraune
  • We have a Lore Maintainer considered the "authority" on this race. If you are interested in contributing to Alraune lore, please contact the Lore Team before you begin your work.
• Dionea
  • Known Dionea Lore: Once a Dionea has accumulated enough knowlege, it will return to a "Hedge" and integrate itself in. The largest of these resemble Dyson Spheres in size and complexity, and are the equivalent of biological supercomputers on a galactic scale.
• Phoronids
• Prometheans
• Proteans
• Silicons
  • The Lore Team recognizes that a "silicon" race is very ambiguous. In reality, what we "need" for this species is more of a general overview of different styles of robotic life across the galaxy, how they're handled and viewed by various cultures, etc.
  • The "Road to Citizenship" for Silicons and Synths in NanoTrasen's corporate structure.
    • The above is an established but unwritten system by which a Synth or AI can apply to work for NanoTrasen. These contracts typically include accepting Lawset Parameters while "on the clock", NDAs, memory sequestering, etc. In return the Synths are typically offered more processing space, access to maintenance and repairs, etc.
  • The Lore Team agreed to deprioritize Nevreans and Sergals, seeing as both are fully ripped from another IP without much of an attempt to disguise it (see: Teshari). As such, we're in the market for another 'dog' species that could eventually replace Sergals. This would replace the Sergal language as well.
• Xenochimera
  • After extensive polling, the Xenochimera lore currently published on the Wiki runs counter to the wishes of most Xenochimera players. As such, I've mandated that someone revert the lore to bring it more in line with Virgo's flavor of Xenochimera, which appears to be the player favorite.
• Zaddat
• Zorren

Races With Partial Submissions/In Need of Expanded Pages

There are no current species lore pages requiring additional information. If a race listed above receives partial submissions, it will be moved to this section.

Corporations

Corporate Lore is currently being overseen by me, so feel free to approach me with any questions or interest regarding the following. As with Races, any missing lore entries not listed here are currently WIP.

Corporations Requiring Full Submissions

We are currently interested in new corporations, either Galactic or Local, that can cater to the following markets:

• Mass Transportation
• Xenos-Owned Corporations

Corporations With Partial Submissions/In Need of Expanded Pages

Please refer to the Lore: Corporations to find the partially published lore for the companies listed below.

• Aether Atmospherics and Recycling
• Blackstar Legion
• Centauri Provisions
• Glithari Exports
• Hephaestus Industries
• Oculum News Network
• Vey-Med
• Ward-Takahashi GMB
• Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals

How to Contribute

The Process

1. Contact a Lore Maintainer to let them know you're planning on contributing to the lore. Ask if they have any notes or input before you begin.
2. Review the Wiki page Lore Submission Templates to see if there is a published outline you can use. If you need a template but it does not exist, ask a Lore Maintainer if it can be created!
3. Write your lore and submit it to the via the Forums, as described below.
4. Make sure you ping a Maintainer once you've published your Forum post via Discord, as described below.
5. Wait for input. If a Maintainer has notes or revisions, they will bring these to your attention.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until your submission is approved or rejected.
7. If the submission is approved, the Lore Maintainer will publish it to the Wiki.

Contacting Lore Maintainers/Posting Submissions:

Via Discord:

The members of the Lore Team all have the "RP Lore Maintainer" role on the Citadel Discord. You may ping them via @lore or @RP Lore Maintainer, or post your ideas in the #lore-discussion channel.

• Since submissions are quickly lost here due to the nature of Discord chatting, it is recommended that you use these pings to get a Maintainer's attention so you can provide them with a link to the Forum, rather than using it to try and submit a file directly.
• Lore Maintainers may be contacted via these pings or the #lore-discussion channel (preferably both together), to answer general questions regarding the lore as well.

Via Forum:

The RP subform "Lore Submissions" has been created specifically to allow you the space and resources needed to write up your lore proposals and drafts for Lore Maintainers to review. A Sticky Thread on the Forum itself outlines how to submit Lore to the Forum for review. The link to the Lore Submission Forum may be found here[1].

Lore
Corporations	NanoTrasen, Frontier Megacorporations, Minor Corporations, The Syndicate
NanoTrasen Specific	NDV Marksman, Paracausal Monitoring Division
Other Organizations	ITV Talon, System Defense Force, The Orion Confederation
Worldbuilding	Extradimensional Mechanics, FTL Travel, Galactic Landmarks, Legends, Mysteries, and Rumors, Metaphysics and Paracausality, Technology of the 2500's, The Timeline
Contribution Data	Lore Submission Templates, Roadmap for Lore Development