Lore Voicechat Notes

[Rias]

We had a very successful Lore Voicechat the other day that actually managed to mostly stay on-topic. Here's some of the stuff we talked about, so people who weren't there can partake of the lore-y goodness.

Some of the things talked about in the Lore Voicechat:

Elemancers - Why do they seem to have such a small influence in-game? A: There just aren't many of them. Not many people can actually mentally achieve elemancy. It requires an almost savant-like ability to mentally picture, alter, and manipulate elemantic patterns required to perform elemancy. Anyone who joins the University is assumed to have a special knack for it - it's not just anyone who can come up to the University and say "Teach me elemancy." They have to have an existing aptitude for it.

Faewyr women - Females are very strong in Faewyr society. They're by no means happy to let the men to the dirty or exciting work while they stick to domesticated tasks. Many revered warriors, leaders, hunters, etc. of Faewyr legend are female. They tend to get particularly uppity when faced with other cultures' ideas that women are frail and delicate.

Faewyr - Regarding their being in touch with nature, are they more "just live responsiby off the land", or are they more "spiritual connection with nature"? Druidism has a very strong influence in Faewyr culture, so they definitely culturally have a strong spiritual connection with nature. This doesn't necessarily mean they all prance about with woodland creatures and hug trees, though. They just believe nature is a powerful force that should be respected and, in cases, revered. (Dunwyr were brought up in the conversastion - the Dunwyr, at least based on the common knowledge and rumors about them, are extremists even by Faewyr standards.)

Parrens - While they have a cultural affinity for seafaring as island-dwellers, they're not necessarily peerless seafarers or traders. They're a very relaxed and laid-back society, and really they just got extremely lucky with the area they ended up in - the Parr Isles are at a central location between four major continents, and due to the fact that few are willing to land on the nearby quarantined mainland, Parr has naturally become a hub of trade and brought wealth and success to the Parrens despite their not really doing much to earn it other than being in the right place at the right time.

Parrens - Are there a whole bunch of Parren pirates out there? Not really. There are likely a lot of questionable-values Parren seafarers out there, but they're more like adventurers and thrill-seekers who just want to do whatever they please, and they find the open sea particularly conducive to their desired freedom. They're not particularly into looting, plundering, and so forth (though some certainly do those things at times, I imagine). Of course, there are sure to be a few nasty Parren pirates who are more into those things, but most Parrens don't really take themselves or life seriously enough to put dedicated, continuous effort into things like killing and raiding in order to build up particular wealth and/or power. Why bother? Getting by with such a free and simple lifestyle is happiness for most Parrens. As one person commented, "Parrens are slackers!" And they're loving life because of it.

Many comments about Parr being thought of as the equivalent of the Southern California. Comment by Rias that he grew up in Southern California (fairly close to the beach), and that probably influenced him to make Parr an idealized version of how he viewed life while living there.

Grummers - Are they an industrial culture? Yes, though they don't necessarily have a brazen disregard for their impact on their environment. Most of them likely view their work with an innocent, excited wonder and while they may be prone to ignore or disregard the side-effects of their industrialism because of this, I think they'd have genuine concern for any harmful effects of their industrial advances and procedures if they were brought up tactfully and convincingly. So no, they're not soulless, careless destroyers of the natural world in the name of industrialization.

Grummers - Bit of trivia: The name "Grum" for the nation and "Grummers" as a term for its people were placeholder names that weren't intended to be taken seriously, and would change to something else at a later date. I'm pretty sure it subconsciously came from a Dr. Seuss book that my wife was often reading to my daughter at the time. Many playtesters played Grummers and seemed to like the name, though, so it stuck.