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[Closed] Contest | The History of Altera

NIAH

The Lurker
Retired Staff
Finished

Hello lovelies.

I come to you with the announcement of a CONTEST. Everyone loves contests, the chance to win radiants, and the chance for your work to get published in Altera's official lore section. Right now, the Lore Council is trying to make sure the current lore is as up to date as possible, as highlighted by the new Core Race pages. With everything going on, we thought who better to ask about Alteran history than the players that have experienced it firsthand? If an experienced player wanted to try and write up their version of history, it could become immortalized forever.

Overview

We are looking for a single post to summarize recent Alteran History. There is a history post written by Legion summarizing Alteran history up through the Fifth Era. This contest is intended to pick up where that left off.


The Requirements

- 4,000 words max
- Undeniably accurate and lore friendly
- Must focus on global history, not a group's history
- Must cover recent history and not focus on what's already been listed in Legion's post.
- Entries must be sent to the Lore Council in a convo: solus Niah blargtheawesome Ced Lannis
- Deadline is February 15


The Reward

First Place - 15,000k and your historical recount put into the Official Lore section
Runners Up (x2) - Both runners up will get 5k.
 
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Cap

Lord of Altera
Legend
having one person write the server's history seems like a bad idea when everyone here is biased towards their personal clique (before you respond, that includes me)
 

Rygan

Deathblade
Evil
Rygan_Deathblade
Rygan_Deathblade
Evil
i'm unsure of the ability to confirm that anything is 'undeniably accurate'
 

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
Entry #1 + Questions/Followup.

Guaranteed accurate to the history of our server. I promise.

"
Our story so far:


In the beginning, the Universe was created.

This made a lot of people very angry, and been widely regarded as a bad move.
"

Questions/Actual Followup:

I can't give you all of your requirements.

- 4,000 words max
- Undeniably accurate and lore friendly
- Must focus on global history, not a group's history

Pick two - I can give you unbiased accounting of multiple people's actions from the point it stops onwards, but it goes over 4000 words.

I can give you a generalization of things that happen, but it's going to gloss over a lot and make whoever I decide to abridge unhappy.

Alternatively, and I mean this fully - I have my records and memory, and at least once before someone from lore mentioned they'd like to pick my brains, but it never happened. If you'd prefer I could maybe co-ordinate making a big book of history?
 

Charybdis

Screaming Cat
Pronouns
They/Them
#But How Can Lore Be Real If Staff Isnt Real?
#DeepThoughts
"It's Your Birthday" Mateo Said. I Didn't Respond. "Are You Not Excited To Be 15" He Asked. Reading My Book I Uttered "I Turned 15 Long Ago"
 

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
Stay on topic, folks.

having one person write the server's history seems like a bad idea when everyone here is biased towards their personal clique (before you respond, that includes me)
I'm sure someone can write a general, non-biased as possible few paragraphs for Alteran History. If need be- you guys can make it a collaborative effort.

Entry #1 + Questions/Followup.

Guaranteed accurate to the history of our server. I promise.

"
Our story so far:

In the beginning, the Universe was created.

This made a lot of people very angry, and been widely regarded as a bad move.
"

Questions/Actual Followup:

I can't give you all of your requirements.

- 4,000 words max
- Undeniably accurate and lore friendly
- Must focus on global history, not a group's history

Pick two - I can give you unbiased accounting of multiple people's actions from the point it stops onwards, but it goes over 4000 words.

I can give you a generalization of things that happen, but it's going to gloss over a lot and make whoever I decide to abridge unhappy.

Alternatively, and I mean this fully - I have my records and memory, and at least once before someone from lore mentioned they'd like to pick my brains, but it never happened. If you'd prefer I could maybe co-ordinate making a big book of history?
Entry #1's pretty to the point.
We'll let you pick two- you can decide which requirements you'd like to fill the most. We're aware not all our entries will be as to the point as the requirements, but some effort is appreciated. We are essentially looking for something that new and current players can easily read and grasp for now. If you want to write a longer version, then a shorter version, this is fine.
 

Archbishop

Faith prevail
Retired Staff
Archbishop
Archbishop
I think what people would want would be a vetting process to minimize bias. Perhaps something more collaborative?
But then again, from what school of history would we choose? Empirical? Marxist? The first focuses on dates and places but only gives a cursory glance, without any tangible depth as to the reasoning behind action. Marxist thought focuses on class struggles which undeniably underline some of the history of Altera, but which becomes too obsessed in the economics of the group. Historiography is an immense field of study. Perhaps narrative history then? But that presents bias skewing perspective.

Apparently I'm putting too much thought into it. But writing history is much different than writing lore.
 

Archbishop

Faith prevail
Retired Staff
Archbishop
Archbishop
Btw, in case people are questioning what the hell im talking about: Here.

Personal favorite choice is Big History.
 

NIAH

The Lurker
Retired Staff
Certainly not the reaction I expected. To shed a little light on this, the intention is to give the community a chance to write a blurb about the events of the last couple years. Emergence and exalts. Bastions and undead. Demons and the like. Rise and fall of major kingdoms so long as it's not the history of just one kingsom. Gods and monsters. Whatever feels fitting. Something for new players to read in the history section and say, "Oh, so this is what my character would know about the world he lives in." That's why the limit is set to 4k words, because that's how long Legion's was. Not meant to be a novel.

It's something I could have done myself and put it up for the rest of the lore department for look at, do a vote, then post it. But the idea of a contest was supposed to be something fun for the community to write, and then the Lore Department would choose the best entry.

Writing topics which may be commissioned by the Lore Department:
*Deadline submissions or competition entries may be sought for these topics as, when, and if required by the Lore Department.


+ Official historical recounts [Currently OPEN]
+ Playable races [Currently closed]
+ Racial languages [Currently closed]
+ Regional/faction languages [Currently closed]
+ Pandemic/life-threatening illnesses [Currently closed]

Note that any submissions made for these topics when they are not being sought will be automatically ignored. To avoid missing writing opportunities in these areas, keep up to date with forum announcements from the Lore Department.
I am not sure where or why this took the turn that it did, but hopefully it's insight as to why the lore council is opening this contest/commission for a historical recount.
 

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
That's why the limit is set to 4k words, because that's how long Legion's was. Not meant to be a novel.
Just as a historical aside, there used to be a lot more in that post. People have edited it and removed or altered a non-trivial amount of it over the years.
 

Spear

The Undying Scholar.
Retired Staff
Assuming it's cool with the staff we'll match the prizes to double the prize pool cause we're digging this idea in Hawklight skype chat. Niah
More history and lore content is always better =P
 

NIAH

The Lurker
Retired Staff

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
Guess my book can't be accepted because it's a tad too opinionated? :p

http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/hi...itten-by-albareth-destrius.39335/#post-667681

(removing the preface it has just under 4000 words though)
Frankly I think it's fine to canonize opinion pieces (As "This character wrote this as their take on things") as long as one doesn't make them out as one's official 'this is what happened' - in fact, lots of opinion pieces put together make an interesting take on history, when you get to compare and contrast. I think I might chip in on some sub-prizes for good writing even if they don't fit the sortof "Objective short summary" goal that seems to be looked for. (Regardless of wordcount.)

@Polo - If you happen to see me on again (Which I can't necessarily promise) remind me to send you a tip in the 1000s range for decent IC opinion-piece writing.
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
Frankly I think it's fine to canonize opinion pieces (As "This character wrote this as their take on things") as long as one doesn't make them out as one's official 'this is what happened' - in fact, lots of opinion pieces put together make an interesting take on history, when you get to compare and contrast. I think I might chip in on some sub-prizes for good writing even if they don't fit the sortof "Objective short summary" goal that seems to be looked for. (Regardless of wordcount.)

@Polo - If you happen to see me on again (Which I can't necessarily promise) remind me to send you a tip in the 1000s range for decent IC opinion-piece writing.
I'm perfectly fine on money. I wrote it opinionated entirely as an exercise in primary sources. Thanks though :p
 

Ddaug

Lord of Altera
Should make a "biased history" thread for players to write first hand history. Keep this contest what it was meant for
 

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
Patron
Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
Patron
This is too big of a task for me on my own, but if anyone is busy writing up the history and notices he/she misses a part about the "end of days" exodus events in history, here is Rahm's take on it, the royal scribe of queen Leminth:

http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/the-last-exodus-the-full-story.25280/

EDIT: I might give it a go to get as close as possible, if I have free time. I'm sure I will not be able to include everything, cause I simply don't know that much. But I think it'd be incredibly fun to browse the forums to create some form of timeline :)
 
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Immerael

The Shadow Admín
Retired Staff
Unfortunately I can't participate as I don't know the history of the Emergence Campaign, birth of Visage, or anything before it. I do look forward to seeing who wins though.
 
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