DISCUSSION Cult of Ustream (Canon)

Since CoU is arguably the most well-documented roleplay, I think it's important that we collaborate on making the "big pages" for things directly relevant to the progression of the canon. Pages such as organizations (Organization G-X, The Sealbreakers, Station of Seotara) are pretty pertinent right now. Additionally, information that can help people get acquainted with the lore and mythos of CoU's timeline would be what I would say is high priority.

 

SoS: I have a subpage of my userpage for anyone to work on. Link for reminders: http://manaverse.zejroleplaying.org/index.php?title=User:Lord_X-Giga-X/Station_of_Seotara
The Sealbreakers: Pretty sure someone could set up a similar deal.
OGX: I'm currently working on this. I'll have something for it soon.

 

I feel like for both of those pages, we need to be heavily reliant upon people who have the proverbial cards in their hand. Those people who know of the purpose/goal and ideals of groups such as The Sealbreakers or the Station of Seotara need to lay those cards down and explain them so that others can pick it up and make the page; especially if they themselves won't do so.

So I guess I'm asking for people to explain to me the function of SoS, and the relevance of The Sealbreakers/what they are out to do, etc. so that (at the very least) a baseline page can be set up.

 

http://manaverse.zejroleplaying.org/index.php?title=Talk:Cult_of_Ustream_%28Canon%29

Thoughts?

 

I think that it would be wise to split them off into separate pages for now. Perhaps not Season Two quite yet (at least, not until it has significant progress of its own), but Prologue and Season One could probably stand to be on their own pages now. Perhaps consider creating formalized "titles" for the Seasons, as well?

Really the only barrier at this point is that someone would need to write up a brief summary to leave in place of the arc-by-arc breakdowns.

 

Guys, I think I figured out summaries for Prologue and Season One to replace their current content once it's pushed to their respective pages:

Code:

The Prologue of this canon focuses on events taking place during a period prior to Season One lasting several months. This section of the canon encompasses the first encounter between [[Jason Shaver]] and [[Lord X-Giga-X]], the formation of the [[Cult of Ustream (Group)|Cult of Ustream]], the Cult's encounters with the Shadow Drakes, both in Ustream and the Chasm of the Unknown, and the group's conflicts against the canon's first antagonists, the [[dracoimperist]] [[Drake Kuro]] and the dragons under his control. However, besides this and a handful of other events that had occured during this time, it's currently uncertain what exactly happened during this period.

Code:

Season One encompasses a period of approximately 4 and a half months following the defeat of Drake Kuro. During this point in time, the Cult gains several members, including [[Shadow Version 27]], [[Espira Xirro]], [[Valen Scarletburn]], and [[Darius]]. New conflicts begin to arise, including the supposed resolution of Jason's debt with Death and the [[Black Assassin]]'s hunt for [[CrazE]] and his blood relatives. However, a new major conflict arose as [[The Sealbreakers]] began to destroy the five seals scattered across Ustream, soon destroying three of them by the end of this timeframe. The [[Station of Seotara]], initially viewed as antagonistic following a scouting mission gone awry, became an invaluable ally. However, during this timeframe, tension between Jason and Lord X-Giga-X rose over the fate of Deathstorm, soon leading to the latter's defection and Organization G-X's split from the Cult. And within this chaos, their last conflict within this timeframe arose in the form of the deity [[Oikeus]].

Knowing me, there's probably several typos in these, but you get the idea. Fix some of these up, add a bit more info, and yeeeaaaah. Summaries ready for the wiki.

 

Can someone give me a brief summary/jot-noted timeline of events of the rest of Season One? It doesn't need to be suuuper in-depth, just enough that I can get a general sense of what went down after Kayera's pod was discovered. I think it's high time to finish off the rest of the page, and then maybe start detailing the events of S2. Although I actually don't know how far in you guys are now... kek

 

I do get the feeling that the CoU Season One page is very... The-Jason-and-Giga-Show-esque. I think it'd be good to decentralize the information - when does Ziolang depart from the Cult and why? What is going on in the Euthorica Islands sideplot from a major-events perspective? Why are characters like Kayera, Careodry, Darius, Sundavr, and Valerie relevant to the canon?

Also we need to break down further the information. Kuda did a great job of laying the framework, but she can't be the only one responsible for dispensing the information present on the page. If these pages are going to be someone's first foray into the Cult of Ustream canon, there needs to be a lot more explanatory sentences that tell what things are, or who people are in the context of the Cult/Station/canon-at-large, without having to open the individual pages. The specifics can come from the log, but since we are aiming to summarize, it needs to be mostly the major events. Sentences like "Two one-sided battles, the Cult's general protest, one kidnapping, and one escape later..." are decent (and that's being generous) for people who actually have foreknowledge of the events, but otherwise, it's fairly meaningless. Why is it relevant that the Cult was protesting? Who was engaging in combat? Who was trying to escape, and from what?

As another thing branching off of that last bit... I know that we split the page off from a page that gave better context to things, but Jason, Mimring, Dark, Jude, Jack, and other major Cultists are completely ignored for the first couple sections, and are never introduced. When I was editing, I had a physical copy of the page in front of me and had Krista read things over. She had to refer to me several times to explain who certain people were, which should probably be settled at some point.

(also why is "Team Peanuts" still a placeholder guize pls)

 

For the most part, I'll agree that a lot of sections on the page needs specification. I will, however, note that a few places on the page that you put as needing some kind of specification I don't really think do... Like the "of whom" for the investigation team. There's not much of a point in that when the roster is literally listed in the following paragraph and could just be c/p'd into that paragraph. Granted, I didn't do it, but the point still stands. Like I get that things need to be explained, but at the same time, there's not much reason in saying that something need to be explained when it's literally explained within the same section of it.

 

Yeah, I saw that specific instance as I kept reading. I guess I forgot to change it; must have been really late by that point. You're right though, I would just copy-paste the roster back into the first paragraph.

Thanks for being flexible and helping me by making the clarification edits, though, Giga. It's neat seeing the page come together.

 

Between the two of us, Shadow and I have decided that the "Overview" section should be like a 'summary of a summary,' or more akin to something you would read on the back of a book. A hook that answers the question of "Why should I bother to read this page" kind of thing. So if anyone would like to expand on what is currently there on the S1 or Prologue pages, that'd be fantastic.

Meanwhile, the "intro blurb" should be more of a meta-focused overview of each plot/season.

 

But like... if they're mentioned to someone who knows nothing about the canon, that's the core problem. If they don't have answers, it needs to be implicated that the Cult doesn't know what's going on. If it causes me (or anyone who has no knowledge of the canon) to ask "Okay, so who is that/why are they important/why are they mentioned in a summary?" then there is a fundamental problem in the presentation.

Either the information isn't important to the summary/canon's progression at large (and should thusly be removed from the summary, since it won't impact it if it is gone), or the Cult doesn't know why it is important, in which case the framing of the information should be different.

 

I've been alluding to this for quite a while, but I do feel like a sort of "interest check" or a "Previously On..." thread for Cult of Ustream as a canon would be ideal for us to have.

It is a pretty context-heavy roleplay, and it's insane to expect the average outsider to take on the task of digesting the burden of knowledge that the Cult of Ustream requires with the minimal guidance that we've put together. Expecting someone to sift through the trainwreck that is the current state of the canon's Wiki pages (or worse, the chatlogs) as an introduction is unfair, and probably would be flat-out uninteresting without any prior investment to the canon.

Some sort of gentle introduction seems like it'd be advantageous, like how @Shadow laid out the Organization Aurora "prologue thread". I point to this a lot when talking about it because I feel like it did a good job of getting the relevant information out there in an easily-digestible way for those who didn't participate in the chatplays prior to OA becoming a forum roleplay.

What is going to make CoU a much tougher project is that, obviously, it has been going on for a significant time longer. And as a consequence -- in part due to its nature as a "melting pot" of our canons -- we are left with a lot of information that needs to be known even before you begin to tackle reading through the Wiki pages / chatlogs.

I would like to work on something, but I definitely can't do it alone. I need help with figuring out what is important about the canon, and help with piecing together a brief introduction that delineates the important lore, the regularly-visited locations... what's important for a newcomer to understand about the roleplay when they're looking to know what the heck is going on in #Manaverse during a chatplay session.