Early 2021 Lore Rework/writing Planning

A lot of this stuff was re-scoped after original announcement in 2020 summer, and covid didn't exactly make things easier on us. A lot of stuff got done, but we have a lot more stuff to do. This is a "general gist" rework planning, informing players of what we roughly plan to do over the next few months, without going too deep into details, so that players can take our plans into consideration for when creating/changing new characters.

Races

• Ailor: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Sihai: A rewrite for the Sihai is underway that shrinks irrelevant information by crunching their history, while expanding more on culture and theme. Their main changes should be related to their racial identity, adding new creatures to shift into, while also making the whole process more streamlined so that anthros have more fun with the race, but non-anthros can also tolerate the race more.
• Dwarf: The rewrite is in the final stages of release.
• Qadir: The race is in a good place identity and theme wise, but will see a few cultural expansions to give them more meat. Expect cultural and historical expansions and more clear information on the Sariyd Empire.
• Songaskia: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Altalar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Avanthar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Cielothar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Sihndar: This race is being removed as a race soon, in favor of folding the Northern Taint into Afflictions. This doesn't change anything on the surface level, all Sihndar history and racial traits and such remain, but the Northern Taint is being expanded and reworked for a bunch of other races. We don't expect Characters to have to change anything except change their race from Sihndar to Altalar on their apps. Again, it will not change characters, just streamline them away from the race listing.
• Isldar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Kathar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Yanar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Maraya: Some reshuffling will occur. Haat-Maraya are, much like Sihndar, being folded into an Affliction instead of an actual race. Ka-Maraya and El-Maraya are also being merged into a single unified Maraya race to break down some of the stratified aesthetic qualities of the race. Aside from this the race is pretty stable. A minor rework of their racial abilities is planned at some point.
• Allar: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Slizzar: No revisions planned. That being said, Nest and Sole Slizzar is not a suitable long-term solution, as it causes too many issues still. Expect some changes concerning Nest/Sole Slizzar distinctions as soon as we have new inspiration for it.
• Varran: This Race will experience a pretty radical update. Instead of a solely cat-like race, the Varran are expected to be updated to become a more general beast-race race, with both canine and feline elements. As of right now, Sihai is the only venue for canine anthromorphic characters, and so to expand the availability, they are being added to the Varran. Their subraces are also going to be crunched together: Warran, Yarran and Sarran are being merged, Fenrran and Tasrran become part of the canine grouping, Mairran are being removed, Koorran are also being removed, while Ovirran and Rakrran are still up for discussion. Racial Abilities are being updated, history is being expanded by revealing more information of the old Varran Empire, and expanding their culture as well to give them more of a unique identity. This is probably one of the more major projects of early 2021 because the whole Varran Race is being re-thought out from the ground up.
• Orc: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
  
• Url: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Half Races: Few aesthetic changes here and there. Nothing else.
• New Automaton/Golem Race
• New Gloop/Slimepeople Race

Afflictions:

• The Mivver and Shilot Bloodlines: are being merged into the Milot Bloodline and updated to the modern standard. This one is about 50% done.
• The Doughall and Barghest Bloodlines: are being merged into a yet unnamed Bloodline and updated to the modern standard. When this one is updated, Vampirism as a whole will have been updated.
• Crimson Witches: A second glance will be given to Crimson Witches. There is a rough plan to offload them from the Vampire Page and make them a stand-alone Affliction instead.
• Manathar is intended to have some sort of update at some point to re-fixate their identity among the Altalar species. There are some vague ideas about removing the recent-ness of the Manathar, and giving them some more historical relevancy but how this is going to be done is TBD.
• Werebeast: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Carpadeim: A second glance will be given to their Affliction, but it's mostly set in stone.
• Dragon Warriors: Major revision pending. Ability rework, as well as mechanical rework for ranking up. Expect a major theme change for them also.
• Archblood: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Ordial Content: Pending at some point in 2021.

Proficiency

• Melee Combat: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Ranged Combat: Archery rolls meant to return at some point. Puretek complete revision also planned.
• Special Combat: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.
• Science Skill:
  • Finecraft Science is split up into many different sub categories.
  • Firstly, the "fine metal shaping" aspect is moved to Metallurgy as a whole.
  • Finecraft Science itself will then be renamed to Clocktek Science and Software/Hardware will be given a general expansion in-line to act like Abilities unlockeable at certain levels of investment.
  • Steamtek Science will be a new Proficiency that does the same as the above, but creates its own tech-based Proficiency with its own mechanics and abilities from Dwarven Tech.
  • Crystaltek Science will be a new Proficiency that does the same as the above, but creates its own crystal based Proficiency from Maraya Tech.
• All Talent Group Proficiencies: Mostly fine, but we will need to re-examine Progression related Proficiencies. The Progression system is undergoing major changes, and as such some of the Talent Proficiencies become worth less.
• All Hobby Proficiencies: No revisions planned. They are "set in stone" for now.'

Magic

• Mostly some theory updates, expand how and why lore on Magic and creating a clearer path for Magic changes in the lifetime of Magic Characters.

Cultures

• An Ailor Armenian/Cicillian/Syrian and a Polish-like culture are planned, both from the Etosian sphere of lore. We're also planning to tie existing cultures more strongly to pre-Empire tribes, as Velheim lore saw a major expansion to uncivilized tribes in the Regalian Archipelago. This should come in line with full expansion on "how the Empire expanded" at some point.

Geography

• Major Map revision is planned, which will feature dozens of new nations, both inside and outside of the Regalian Empire to balance the Human population around the world a bit more so that there's also Ailor who were distinctly born outside of the Empire, and giving the Ailor race overall more Empires to contend with, including for example another Theocratic Ailor Empire, several major Kingdoms, and a few republics that are all independent from the Regalian Empire. This also sets the stage for future story progressions more related to the major politics of big nations in the world.

Materials

• A Wood material Table is expected at some point, similar to the Metals Table.

Mythics, Artifacts

• Some rule changes are expected. It is still too easy currently to hide ownership of Mythics and Artifacts, and as such, we expect some rules to follow that makes auto-looting on k-o possible for these items. Mythics and Artifacts are designed to drive roleplay through conflict by changing hands. Artifacts that do not change hands or get used frequently obviously don't actively contribute to roleplay.