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Separa'Shan update and improvements

Soban

Convention Veteran
Ok, so I really like playing Separa'Shan as I'm sure many of you like doing so as well. However, while we have a cool look and a cool backstory, there has been a void in what has been happening with Essia and our culture since YE 30 or so. There are fragments, like ordering some guns, there is a small military base, and that there is at least one transport company that serves Essia. However, they don't really have much meat to them.

Therefore, I would like to expand on what has already been written and add more depth and flavor to the Separa'Shan. In that, I want the rest of the community to help to ensure that the new pieces of lore to help make a fun and interesting culture to play with. As with many of the things on this site, I don't expect that fun and interesting are going to be the same as realistic. I also expect that there will be a lot of little things that we will leave unexplained as hooks for future characters and adventures.

One of the things that I think is interesting about the Separa'shan is the fact that they were roughly at 1600's-ish technology when they were contacted by Yamatai. At that point in time, Nagashun was active. This gives a very different character to the idea of religion for Separa'Shan as their God is actually a diety-tier AI (One of surprisingly many in the setting). It also means that what happens also in many ways depends on what Nagashun wants to do.

There are a few ways that Nagashun can go. Perhaps Nagashun really doesn't wake up that often much less show off its power. Perhaps Yamatai helped to fix or replace the power core. And now that power core only gets used when Nagashun really needs to put on a God level display of power with most of the time it not being used. Alternatively, Nagashun was on its last legs and now is well and truly gone, having already passed away or will fairly soon. Perhaps Yamatai accidentally revealed that Nagashun wasn't really a God. All of them could have a serious impact on religion.

Another interesting aspect of the Separa'shan is the impact of Yamatai on Essia. Yamatai presents a fairly typical example of an Outside Context Problem for a 1600's tech level race. It would seem to me that the most likely (and least interesting) case is that the more technological and powerful group more or less paves over the group with the less power.

It's my theory that Nagashun is active, mostly through her high priest and her goal is preserving Separa'Shan as a distinct culture. Doing this by making most of the interactions of Separa'shan with the larger galactic community as peers rather then as low technological people.

Nagashun for those who don't know the deeper bits of lore about the Separa'Shan is a probe from an ancient race who terraformed Essia for colonization. It is my theory that Essia and the binary system that it is in is very rich in resources in useful bite-sized chunks as the motion of the stars prevented most planets from forming. Essia was made to be a very lush jungle world with not only a lot of resources but also a lot of biological diversity. It doesn't have ice caps and instead, the poles are mostly jungle and there is a wide belt of dessert around the equator of the planet.

So, my question is what do you think?

TLDR; How do you think the lore for the Separa'Shan could be improved?

I'm also considering writing a 'Red Dawn in the Jungle with Snakepeople and Catgirls' arc for Essia.

 
As I think I told you in our discord chat, I'm happy to help write background articles to beef up lore but I think your suggestion of getting some RP in to cement it would be a really cool way to bring in some focused plots and story so I'm all for that idea too. I'll gladly participate in any historical rp for essia and if need be will run any rp for it, but it seems like you have some pretty big ideas from when I spoke to you so I vote Soban for GM ^^

I guess we should also tag @Wes to let him know the proposal and check if he has anything to add :]
 
As someone who has two snakes (both of which are from their own prospective clans), I think the best way isn't to try and do backroom/historically changing RP. Foundation building around it is fine, but going back and changing their foundation would detriment the species greatly. I'd intended to get their Templar stuff updated, but it's unrealistic with my focus on Nepleslia to really bring that out and to the front (I'm behind even on my SAW stuff).

Particularly, I think the lore around their faith can be expanded as a simple and safe starting ground if done cooperatively IC and OOCly. There's plenty of people with visions as to what the Separa should be and, as such, should be a good indication that it's not like the Delsaurians where there was one person driving to reinvigorate them. RP to facilitate is great, but if there's only the RP of the people who have the time RIGHT NOW, then I know it'd exclude someone like myself who doesn't have the time to join additional RPs.

All I know, though, is that there really should be a better indication of the cultural divide. There's now been a younger generation that has grown under Yamatai whilst there's some (like my snake, Nikanor) who grew up in the old regime and actually despises what Yamatai did to them as a culture (preservation versus exploration and continued growth, as there's basically been little to no support from SAoY or the government to promote Separa'Shan pride). Exploring the character and lifestyles of them is what will help step them up in a manner similar to the Delsaurians (which I think are far more playable now than they were before), which will help bring in more additional players than there's already been trickling into the species.
 
when I was mentioning RP i wasn't trying to say changing history more just filling in the lack of activity with something that could fit there without causing issues but I do see where you are coming from on that. And you make a good point of people being excluded so that's definitely something to look out for, but I'm sure we'll come up with something which could be RP and in the meantime perhaps work on expanding some of the already established aspects with some extra wiki pages?
 
Ok, so I'm working on the Physiology of Separa'Shan, It's also an issue that impacts us all. One of the things that I've done with Sacre is played her as cold-blooded. However, it's not actually stated that the Separa'Shan are cold-blooded on the wiki. The racial divide is also not touched on very well. With my update of the information that is there, I would like to change it.

What are some of the thoughts you have about the physiology of Spara that aren't listed on the wiki or things that are listed that you might want to change?
 
Ok, So I've gone ahead and submitted the physiology article.

The next thing I'm going to be working on expanding the Essia system and what is there. I'm thinking about adding notes about it having vast resources in the system and perhaps detailing some of the Separa'Shan mining efforts. What do you think the Essia system and Essia is like?

Also going to tag a Separa'Shan player who might be coming back, @BloodyScarlet
 
Yhea, I'm trying to work on and improve the Separa'Shan Articles, but I don't want this to be solely me rampaging through the wiki. I want the community to be a part of it, and at least have an idea of what I'm doing as it might impact their characters.
 
Ah that is some good work, I remember when I made mine, it was a bit hard to come up with an idea as the page wasn't fleshed out, I am all aboard having more fleshed help and am happy to help in any way I can @Soban. I am going to be working through a new species I haven't look at in ages so will be fun to get a fresh pair of eyes on it, but just message if you need me.
 
I did a major change with regards to the physiology article by adding a color chart. Please take a look at it.
 
Just one more thing, the title needs text after it that describes the article. Thanks, @Soban !!!
 
Anyone know why the Templar and EDF pages have WIP Tags? @Wes ? History and culture and such are pretty well intertwined.

I like the idea of having a small seperate EDF and the Templar. I think we should have an article for Nagashun. This bit is important, I think that Nagashun is a very powerful Quantum AI, similar in some ways to the AvaNet, but much less powerful. While there are broken and fragmented parts of her, her primary goal is to guide and care for the Separa'Shan. What are your thoughts?
 
Anyone know why the Templar and EDF pages have WIP Tags? @Wes ? History and culture and such are pretty well intertwined.

I like the idea of having a small seperate EDF and the Templar. I think we should have an article for Nagashun. This bit is important, I think that Nagashun is a very powerful Quantum AI, similar in some ways to the AvaNet, but much less powerful. While there are broken and fragmented parts of her, her primary goal is to guide and care for the Separa'Shan. What are your thoughts?
They'd never been finished. I have strong feelings on the Templars being a proud/strong group (see my character Nikanor), but I'm unsure if the Nagashun should be a quantum AI. I've never thought of Separa as an AI-favoring group even post Yamataian occupation. Drones and assistant bots maybe, but they're still a relatively relaxed species when it comes to advanced tech.

That's my thoughts on that tho
 
I don't really see them as being a particularly AI favoring group either. However, in the History, it's pretty clear that Nagashun is actually an ancient probe AI that terraformed the world.
 
Hmm you could always do it like what they say is a god or leader, the AI helped them advance a bit, and they believe that Nasashun is a God or superior leader.
 
How widely known do you think it is that Naga'shun is actually a terraforming probe? I think it's limited to an 'inducted' part of the priesthood who she directly communicates with and carries out her bidding.
 
How widely known do you think it is that Naga'shun is actually a terraforming probe? I think it's limited to an 'inducted' part of the priesthood who she directly communicates with and carries out her bidding.
I'd think that it'd be very minimal, but primarily because we don't want PCs being spawned that "know the originator". This is particularly why it's a good idea to stay away from "precursor" aliens within the setting as they become very problematic. It's a neat lore touch, but it wouldn't provide a healthy plot hook. Most likely, more access would mean more players would try to take and spin the Separa in the future versus develop them forward.

Basically, if we leave it wide: we get people who might want Separa to break away from Yamatai (which would be unhealthy) because they know the truth.

If we leave it into a small/miniscule/FM-approval level group: we have a cool lore point and allow the FM of Yamatai to maintain control over the faction until it either grows large enough or the playerbase/RP of the site supports it needing to move away.
 
It's useful to plant "powder kegs" and loose ends for future plots to use as RP fuel.
 
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