Medieval & Fantasy Minecraft Roleplaying

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How far is "Eastern"?

Naelwyn

Non sum qualis eram
nah. it's just if you want it to be sort of an "official" thing like the norvagen are an official culture someone write up that folk can get in on and have their own sections and track their own shit. if you want to be lowkey spanish no one is saying you can't be lowkey spanish
^
 

Cap

Lord of Altera
Legend
in semi related news the anhald lore sub has been sitting unfinished in my google drive for months
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
I'm going to use Mount & Blade as an example here, keeping in mind that I've only mostly played older builds.

You can arrive in Zendar as some kind of foreigner, no problem, but if you want to make some kind of official "On the map somewhere" culture, IE, Say, Swadia, you need to write it up.

With enough people doing writeups you then have several 'cultural' centres people can say their new character is from, vs kinda needing to make something up about their homeland from whole cloth.
Because everyone applying for whitelist wants to look through the different cultures available on the server (which you yourself said have to be pedantically detailed) to see which culture would suit their character best without even knowing if they'd be allowed on the server.
 

blargtheawesome

... is very scientifical.
Events Staff
Lore Staff
Staff
Because everyone applying for whitelist wants to look through the different cultures available on the server (which you yourself said have to be pedantically detailed) to see which culture would suit their character best without even knowing if they'd be allowed on the server.
as far as i know, no one has ever been declined or straight up told "no" (without a "pls edit this") unless they're literally weaboos
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
Yes I know, that's a valid point, but they shouldn't be told to adjust their whitelist app if they're inspired by these cultures either.
 

blargtheawesome

... is very scientifical.
Events Staff
Lore Staff
Staff
Yes I know, that's a valid point, but they shouldn't be told to adjust their whitelist app if they're inspired by these cultures either.
i've, furthermore, never heard of someone being declined on the grounds of taking inspiration from one of these cultures; while a valid concern, i don't think it's one that exists
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
i've, furthermore, never heard of someone being declined on the grounds of taking inspiration from one of these cultures; while a valid concern, i don't think it's one that exists
http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/whitelist-application-declined-cukie1.37489/#post-632978 (This would be the primary example)
http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/samcraftia500s-application-declined-cukie1.37963/#post-641997 (No actual clue where the Eastern influence is in this one to be honest, but one of the stated reasons for the decline is eastern influences.)
 

Cukie1

Essentially a Chihuahua
Aware Single
Legend
Pronouns
She/Her
Cukie1
Cukie1
Single
http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/whitelist-application-declined-cukie1.37489/#post-632978 (This would be the primary example)
http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/samcraftia500s-application-declined-cukie1.37963/#post-641997 (No actual clue where the Eastern influence is in this one to be honest, but one of the stated reasons for the decline is eastern influences.)
The second one was edited after being denied, but quite literally involved katanas, ninjas and samurai, and I wish I was kidding.
The first, again, applications in groups with one culture just being smacked into the game wouldn't really make a cohesive story, and thus has to be introduced in game, or through Faelin
 

MRPolo13

The Arbiter of the Gods
The second one was edited after being denied, but quite literally involved katanas, ninjas and samurai, and I wish I was kidding.
The first, again, applications in groups with one culture just being smacked into the game wouldn't really make a cohesive story, and thus has to be introduced in game, or through Faelin
Fair enough on the second one then. But the first one I already refuted that point by saying that whitelist applicants shouldn't have to write an entire lore piece, or be forced to read through the very extensive culture lore without knowing if they'll even be allowed on the server. Especially considering how hard it is to access that lore for people who are using the forums for the first time.
 

NIAH

The Lurker
Retired Staff
Fair enough on the second one then. But the first one I already refuted that point by saying that whitelist applicants shouldn't have to write an entire lore piece, or be forced to read through the very extensive culture lore without knowing if they'll even be allowed on the server. Especially considering how hard it is to access that lore for people who are using the forums for the first time.
I don't think that lore is very hard, since it's linked to them on the whitelist application and the cultures are in the same place as the races they pick from.
 

Cukie1

Essentially a Chihuahua
Aware Single
Legend
Pronouns
She/Her
Cukie1
Cukie1
Single
Fair enough on the second one then. But the first one I already refuted that point by saying that whitelist applicants shouldn't have to write an entire lore piece, or be forced to read through the very extensive culture lore without knowing if they'll even be allowed on the server. Especially considering how hard it is to access that lore for people who are using the forums for the first time.
Alright, I still stand by having to write lore and culture, as I myself had to go through Cherry to get my culture down, which might not even be used in the New World, as Solus and I have chosen to be faithful to Moor Lore. Here were the concerns:
-Bringing in Languages that we don't have here, nor were developed on the server.
-Bringing in events from other servers as stories for these characters, where, logically, they would not have happened here. (Wars, hierarchy, Kingdoms as a whole)
-Bringing in traditions and such that just don't fit.

The server focuses on making things in game, not through backstory. If we didn't start with it, we just don't have it as a default, that doesn't mean you can't use it as a base for inspiration to create your own thing. I did mention in the whitelists, "Real world influences do not necessarily mean they'll be applied in game." Lore is easily accessible, it has it's own tab and a surplus of information and areas to choose from, as do the settlements each have their own quirk they can choose from to establish themselves in or be from. All you have to do is click 'Forums' and find the 'Official Lore' tab, it isn't hard, at all.
 

Solus

object oriented
Staff member
Admin
Retired Owner
Truthfully, I've skimmed as much as I could given short time on my end and work, and someone may have already posted the link, but this derailed into whitelist apps that I was asked about late at night and responded to guide Cukie with. Naelwyn and Niek already quoted from the Lore thread, but I'll post here, too:

http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/lore-submissions.34085/

We do allow players to be creative, imaginative and do their own things when making characters, but we do have rules. And we have some guidelines on what we deem as European or too far into other cultures that shouldn't come from nowhere. We're essentially a roleplay server with established Lore behind it. What's great about it is that there's room for growth. What can't occur is implementing new Lore randomly of cultures and races and wedging it into the established timelines and Lore, unless the Lore Master approves the writing that says it was established. What /can/ occur is growth in roleplaying out new cultures and making it established and known.

Writing topics which require Lore Approval via a Lore Submission*:
*Any lore written within these topics must first be sent as a submission to ensure they are suitable to be approved as official lore – more details on why/how below.
+ Race-specific cultures (e.g Moor Elves)
+ Multispecies cultures (e.g Soolera)
+ Subcultures (e.g Rooted Soolera, best submitted as part of the umbrella culture)
+ Obsolete cultural languages (must stay obsolete)
+ Illnesses that are not necessarily life-threatening (best requested as part of a small event)

In the wise words of Naelwyn: “If someone gets a group of players together and they're all playing desert-dwelling humans who have a preference for clean red linens and always wear a Fez, all the power to them. They get no special abilities or anything but are totally free to define things like their cultural morality and taboos, diet, clothes, architectural style, etc.”

Newly emerging cultures can be created without official approval provided they don’t cross any lines with the setting, but once they’ve established a bit of history in-game, if you want them to be included on the main lore forum, a lore submission will need to be sent.

(Please note we will not allow Asiatic-inspired cultures either officially or not, on the grounds that they do not fit with a setting that is primarily drawn from Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean.)
The limit on Europe and Mediterranean is due to a lot of opening potential floodgates in Lore and Tech. We have Soolerans that tend to be mostly nomads that players who want a bit of middle-eastern flavor tend to lean towards. My contribution to the thread to add is that appearances seem to be fine- but culture, tech and anything already established not in the world of Altera can't come out of nowhere due to our already set Lore.

(Faelin can come down and dragon breath this with her own words)
 

Immerael

The Shadow Admín
Retired Staff
Also I thought we were all encouraged to join existing factions when new instead of start your own. Cultures tend to mean factions or the two are at least kissing cousins.

I'm all for folks being excited to add more things to our server but I want to make sure they have a feel for our server before they go trying to shoehorn things in. A good idea can be ruined by poor implementation, and likewise a weak or even a bad idea can be made tolerable by good implantation.
 

Baron

Sovereign
Retired Staff
Cultures in play should either be wholly fictional or based in Europe during the middle ages. We draw a strict line when it comes to highly discrete groups like China, Japan, and so forth because players overwhelmingly associate them with katanas and ninjas in a stereotype singularity rivaled only by orphan assassins.
 

Auriel

Lord of Altera
Lover
Auriel_
Auriel_
Lover
Cultures in play should either be wholly fictional or based in Europe during the middle ages. We draw a strict line when it comes to highly discrete groups like China, Japan, and so forth because players overwhelmingly associate them with katanas and ninjas in a stereotype singularity rivaled only by orphan assassins.
Its been a long time since the "Dont make orphan assassin characters" rule has been actively enforced even when Ive seen it run heavily rampant, forgive me but placing a culture block because a rule isnt enforced properly sounds heavily incorrect and not researched.

With that being said (also, for a reference I heavily agree wirh people saying cultures shouls be written up. With that though) I don't believe (to my knowledge) that the server/community as a whole has ever been able to work with high-level eastern influences.

And of course, a side note: Legacy-Gunpowder.
 

Jak

Magus of Nothing
Legend
Cultures in play should either be wholly fictional or based in Europe during the middle ages.
And this I agree with, mostly - but how do we define "Europe"?

Especially because we have this huge desert, which is not at all European.

I simply think there's no harm in opening up the cultures of North Africa and Arabia; there's no katanas or such there; scimitars, sure, but that's not exactly an exotic weapon.

Coming back to my first question, I think if we're going to use terms such as "Eastern influences" we need to literally draw a line somewhere.
 
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