Greetings

[Anonymous]

I've been itching to write some science fiction in my spare time, and this place looks ideal. I have a few characters in mind, but I'm going to start with something small to get a feel for the setting before I bust out the good ones. See you in the stories!

Cheers,

-Pan

[Anonymous]

Hey, welcome to RotE.  It is quite the setting, but don't be afraid to ask questions while you sort your characters--we're always willing to help out.

-Sam

[Anonymous]

It's so true, we're willing to help :3
Welcome to SciFi ^_^

[Anonymous]

Welcome! I'll keep an eye out for you.

[Anonymous]

Ok, here's my idea:

viewtopic.php?f=85&t=2772

This character is moving to Haviah to take a job as a journalist. Because his dad is a high-ranking military officer Michael is in the upper caste, but he's grown up outside of the capital city in a less segregated environment (my thought is this would give him a more unique perspective for his writing). His journalist job will give him an access pass to military areas so that he can follow along with what the military is doing, how the war is going, and potentially with various missions, and write about them for a newspaper. This will also allow me to obtain a feel for the site and the plot and start thinking up ideas for other characters.

I think it's overall pretty simple and feasible... what do you guys think - does this sound ok?

Thanks for offering to help, it's appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I'd check with Rhi first on the knowing about military missions just in case but really I don't see an issues with the idea. I think it's pretty damn neat to be honest, as far as I know we don't have any actual journalists types, I could be wrong...but in any case it's a cool idea indeed.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I figured the mission idea would work on a per-mission basis; he'd obviously have to have clearance in order to go along on a mission (and I'm sure that wouldn't be given in every situation). No worries there!

Thanks! I'll start writing an introductory topic soon.

[Anonymous]

Aedolis is pretty heavy on the propaganda--it's unlikely he'd be a reporter unaffiliated with... let's see, I think we're calling it AID?  Aedolian Information Dissemination.  In short, he'd have to make the military look really good.  Oh, and I have an NPC with AID, if you'd like some interaction that way.

Thus far I'd say the closest thing we've got to official news is Alesku's blog, The Citizen (in my sig, and yeah, it's mine--but hey).  It's not exactly news--more a commentary on Aedolian issues than anything else.  We've also got someone in PR, ZombieCzarina's character Taras; her job is to make the Pilots look good, you might want to take a look at her profile.  

Let's see... The Sylph Report is an excellent underground source, and there's a subversive radio show out there, too, but we definitely need more mainstream news!  The played propaganda machine is woefully small, as is.  

I'm quite interested in that sort of thing, and I like to use it to generate a little plot now and again.  Chat me up if you'd like to discuss anything.  I'm pretty excited we've got a bona fide journalist.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to ruffle feathers -- it would be much more fun, and it would create some interesting tension. I've been pondering a situation where the military is under pressure to allow journalists to cover their activities, even though what the journalists write may not be what the military wants the public to read. I reason that in a military dictatorship, allowing freedom of the press might assuage the public. Thus, even though the material that's being published isn't painting the military's actions and people in a glowing spotlight, it's keeping the civilian population happy because they feel they're hearing the truth (obviously as long as things aren't taken too far). Also, if these stories are popular, it might be difficult to disallow them once they have an audience of avid readers.

[Anonymous]

Aedolis isn't big on truth to the people, but you might be able to work something out. It sort of just depends on how you approach it, because most things that go anti government in almost anyway are just squished if they are aware of them and how to do it.

[Anonymous]

In that case, I'd like to come up with a solid justification for this that people will accept before I start. If it's not feasible I'd rather go another route or come up with a different idea altogether than start something I won't be able to develop.

When you say it "depends how I approach it", would general public dissatisfaction with the military and/or a demand for knowledge of its missions/agendas allow for a selection of journalists to observe certain maneuvers/meetings/missions/training (etc) and write a more truthful version of what's going on? Or, perhaps a legal settlement could have arranged it? Blackmail?

Also, the character doesn't necessarily have to be working for the most influential news network in Haviah; it could be a much smaller one, and initial concern over the popularity of the articles may be low especially if the military controls the larger publications. Later that concern might increase, but if they've grown popular it may be politically difficult to stop the program at this point?

I'm just throwing out ideas - do any of these thoughts sound feasible?

[Anonymous]

An incendiary journalist might work better on Edanith than in Haviah; Edanith does have freedom of the press.  It's a pretty important setting concept that Aedolis is... really controlling and really, really big on censorship.  They simply do not have a free press.  They'd quickly jail anyone who openly wrote subversive material, and because they watch their populace so carefully (surveillance cameras all over, credit chip records), they could do that pretty easily.  You'd have to go really underground in order to write anything actively anti-regime (and some do, but it requires extreme secrecy and a lot of physical precautions).  For example, the punishment for possession of a banned book is something like thirty years in a containment facility.

You could do him as a totally underground journalist--there's a burgeoning resistance movement in the Lower City, and we've already got some programs that're outright subversive.  It'd require writing under a false identity, though, and probably be a little edgier than you'd like; on the upside, he could help out the resistance movement going on among some of the citizens (see Sylph's post in Current Events).

But the thing about news is, it is publicly disseminated.  I can't see a 'subversive' news channel or publication that's run without secrecy not reaching someone in charge and getting shut down fast.  :/  

Correct me if I'm wrong, Rhi/Tal/whoever!  I'm just putting it out there as I see it based on how we've been playing the setting.  Maybe I'm not seeing how this could work.  It sounds like you could do a great job with a journalist, Pandion... I'm just not seeing how he'd fit into Aedolis...

[Anonymous]

They sound very feasible, I don't know exactly how the whole public image thing works for Aedolis and if they'd even notice a small publication right off, so that would probably work. I would just PM Rhi to check the particulars, she's the one who will really know, or Taly. Draco too =)

EDIT because of Sam's post: Yeah, she has it figured better than I do. I'm not sure how it would work. PMing Rhi like I said and she said would probably be best, she can give you an actual straight answer. =)

[Anonymous]

Well, the idea behind the character was to be able to play him as an observer in an active area of the board so that I can get a feel for the site. Haviah would be preferable to Edanith because it's a more active area of the board, and because it seems very central to the plot.

The suggestion of writing covertly is appealing, except that I can't possibly conceive how I would do it without him getting caught - at least in the setting you describe. Isn't it a bit ridiculous that with an enormous population living under a suppressive government there is absolutely no voice or publication that questions the government's decisions? I don't think that people are this accepting; it would be easier for the government to allow it and discredit it legitimately than to prevent it altogether.

I'll have to think some more... this isn't quite as straightforward as I'd thought.

[Anonymous]

PM Rhi and/or Tal about it, that's my suggestion.  And take a look at the Sylph Report in Character Blogs, which talks about legal and illegal broadcasts.  It's a good resource, kind of the original underground news.

[Anonymous]

I've unfortunately been having trouble getting one of the staff to answer my PMs. I really want to start writing now - my muse has been screaming at me all week - so I think I am going to go somewhere else for awhile where I can get this out of my system. I will try back again sometime though, hopefully when things are less busy? I like this board a lot.

Sorry, I really don't mean to sound like a jerk, I'm just dying to start writing. Hopefully I'll talk to you again soon.

[Anonymous]

Well you could start off writing and get a hold of one of them later of course. Just don't go too far into it perhaps? Just do some starting posts?

But I understand trying to find a place to get the muse out. I hope you do come back. You have some really neat ideas.