03/19/2024 - 5:00 AMWelcome to Loremakers: Community Questions, a series focused on answering your lore quandaries and conundrums. We’ve done a deep dive through the lore Ask A Dev section and selected ten questions to answer about the Star Citizen universe. All questions were edited for context and clarity but you can click on the topic to go directly to the original post and join the conversation. Also, the Narrative team plans to do one installment of Loremakers: Community Questions every quarter with the next entry scheduled for Tuesday, June 18th, so please join the discussion and drop any other questions you might have about the universe in our Ask A Dev forum.




MISC and Xi'an Collaboration
Question: The more Xi'an ships come out, the less I understand what exactly is meant by MISC's cooperation with Xi'an. What technologies are we talking about? I don't see any connection in ship design or the technology that the Aopoa and the Gatac provide. Please tell me what you mean by "MISC was one of the first corporations in the United Empire of Earth (UEE) to sustain a tech-trade partnership with the Xi'an"?

Answer: In 2910, MISC and the Xi'an Empire signed a first-of-its-kind technology sharing agreement that saw ideas, technology, and even experts freely exchanged between the two sides. MISC's impact and contribution to Xi'an ships isn't well known within the UEE, as the ships Xi'an manufacturers have exported into the UEE lean heavily into the alien aesthetic and tech to distinguish them in the market, so let's focus on the Xi'an’s impact on MISC.

After signing the deal, MISC leveraged this influx of new ideas and tech into developing a smaller spacecraft that could appeal to the masses. This initiative resulted in the design for the Freelancer, which featured traditional Human aesthetics subtly integrated with Xi'an advances like improved thrust/draw conditioning. While the designs for the Reliant were done at the same time, it's believed that it was passed over because the verticality created by its movable "flying wing" clearly signaled its Xi'an inspiration and might alienate some Humans still wary after the Xi’an-Human Cold War. The Reliant design remained mothballed for decades until being revived and brought to market in 2946. By then, MISC had found success with other ships that promoted their Xi'an influence and tech, and the company leveraged what they'd learned to upgrade the Reliant design with more efficient Xi'an thrusters and advanced Xi'an metal composites for the ship's wing armor.

In the decades between the launch of the Freelancer and Reliant, MISC discovered that many of its ship teams struggled to integrate Xi'an tech into their designs. This began to change in 2940 when MISC assigned the MISC-M division of misfits and out-of-the-box designers to rework the Daedalus, MISC's non-commercial racing ship. The MISC-M team traveled to a facility in R.il'a to work on the ship with veteran Xi'an Ship Engineer To.k'o se Lyil, leading to the creation of advanced thrusters that lapped ones available to competing racers. The reworked Daedalus earned itself a new name, Razor, and would go on to win the Murray Cup Classic Race in 2945 before receiving a successful commercial release in 2947. MISC-M continued to push their designs to further integrate Xi'an tech with the creation of the Fury, featuring four fully gimballed main thrusters to provide the speed and evasiveness renowned in many Xi'an ships. The uniqueness of the Fury design inspired MISC CEO Irena Adjei to spin off the MISC-M division into its own sub-brand named Mirai and retroactively rebrand the Razor as a Mirai ship. With the launch of the Mirai brand, the days of subtly integrating Xi'an tech into ships seems to be gone. It should be exciting to see how Mirai leverages this relationship going forward to create more interesting and unique ships that combine Human and Xi'an tech and aesthetics.




Office of Executive Services
Question: I have a bunch of questions regarding this office. How much does the Office of Executive Services (OES) involve themselves in the affairs of other species? Does the OES ever work with or against other species or are they just involved internally in UEE domestic affairs? Do the OES and military work together? I ask because in the real world there are often rivalries and the public pays the price. Is the OES or military worried about the existence of the Hadesians? Knowing the power that the Hadesians possess, but having no idea where they are and if they will resurface. Does the OES ever get involved in slavery cases, or is this just left up to the police?

Answer: The extent of OES' actions still aren't entirely known, but they seem to operate both inside the UEE and outside. Their existence was only recently discovered during the Jenk Gallen incident where a Human was captured in Xi'an space on charges of espionage. Now that they've been pulled out of the shadows and are given oversight, I think they're still trying to figure out how they move forward. Back when they were operating with impunity, I would suspect the OES probably did enlist military assistance in their operations, but most likely did so under the guise of a conventional UEE intelligence service or another facet of bureaucracy (rather than identifying themselves as OES). As far as the Hadesians, I'm sure they're probably pretty interested to learn more about the ancient culture. As for the slavery cases, they might if it serves their interest.




Is There Anymore Lore on Mirai?
Question: I noticed that the Galactapedia currently doesn’t have an entry for Mirai. Is there any lore about the spacecraft manufacturer that can be shared?

Answer: Good news! February's Galatapedia update included an article on Mirai. It covers how the work of a specialized team within MISC inspired the company to spin off their ships into its own subsidiary. A longer portfolio on the history and evolution of this division and the creation of Mirai was also written and released in Jump Point 11.03. Currently, the article is available to subscribers, but it is scheduled to be released on the RSI site for all to read on Tuesday, April 23rd.

Death of a Spaceman and Its Impact on the Universe
Question: Is it common in the SC universe for people to swap their physical sex? What I've understood about the way Death of a Spaceman and regen are supposed to work suggests that this would be pretty trivial to do. Is it, and is it common?

Or does that maybe cause a problem when it comes to legal issues? How is identity legally established? If you have a tailored appearance with DNA that's not identical to your own, how is it established that when you regen that you're legally the same person? Or another way of putting it might be, how closely linked is biology to identity?

Answer: Recent advances in medical science in the 30th century have made altering one's complete physical appearance a lot more commonplace. For example, BiotiCorp's cutting-edge Calliope system allows people to safely and quickly undergo massive structural bone and tissue changes that would have previously taken a team of surgeons multiple operations to perform. Regardless of how many changes someone undergoes, there would still be inherent markers that would remain consistent by which deep scans would be able to identify someone in order to maintain a consistent and verifiable ID record.

Please note that this is different from regeneration, the process by which a new body is recreated from an Ibrahim sphere imprint. These cannot be manipulated and are accurate to your last imprint scan. For example, if someone were to make an imprint, make alterations via the Calliope system, then experience a fatal accident, their regenerated body would look like they did before they made the alterations. Barring of course any physical damage imparted by traumatic echoes in the imprint as the result of death.




Pyro system reduced in size?
Question: Did you shrink Pyro? Some old information said Pyro system is about 13 AU, nearly 3x bigger than Stanton. Yet, in the Star Engine trailer it says 9.83 AU, which is only about 2x the size of Stanton.

Answer: Yes! The Pyro system is smaller than it used to be. This decision was made after discussions with other teams to allow shorter travel between distant locations. Nothing has been removed from Pyro. Everything is just a bit closer together.




People's Alliance Area of Influence
Question: Does the People's Alliance control the entirety of Nyx, or are they merely one of the major factions in system?

Answer: The People's Alliance is Nyx's major faction for sure, but they mainly control the area around Delamar. This is mainly due to their available security resources as it would be an expensive proposition to patrol the full system. While there are outposts and stations aligned with the People's Alliance peppered throughout Nyx, the further out you go, the more likely you are to run into one of several outlaw groups vying for territory in the system. We touched on one of these outlaw groups back in the Q3 2022 Loremaker's - The Moraine, who are an organization of thieves and smugglers based out of the Glaciem Ring.




Why Does Crusader Specialize in Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Question: Crusader was founded by August Dunlow, a humanitarian visionary who was the victim of state sponsored terrorism, and the company markets itself as the good guy manufacturer. So why is it the only manufacturer of indiscriminate bombers? Not even Aegis has a gravity bomber, they just build torpedo platforms. It's super weird. You would think that Dunlow would be a conscientious objector, even if contracted by the military they would just build logistics and support ships, but bombers are the tip of the spear when it comes to collateral damage.

Has the current board moved away from the ethics and vision of Dunlow to focus more on the bottom line? Is this a branding mistake? When the C2 was being designed was someone like "it would be cool if it had bombs" and we got the A2 and now just have to live with the dissonance of this choice?

Answer: Taking a step back, it is worth noting that there is a bit of a separation between the ships available to players and those that exist in-lore. In general, it is safe to assume that there might be other bombers being made, but the lore of the game is more focused on what the current development schedule is planning for players to actually experience. This is why we haven't made a comprehensive list of all vehicles manufactured currently or historically as we require more flexibility for keeping aligned with the ship team.

As for Crusader Industries, they have always been dedicated towards helping the people of the Empire. Under Dunlow, they’ve made ships for the military since the company's earliest days when the Army purchased their vehicle transports. Not long after in 2821, the Hercules Starlifter was conceived as a military vehicle from the struts up. When Kelly Caplan became CEO in 2863, she began an effort to expand the corporation towards a more military focus, not only in an effort to combat the growing Vanduul threat but also to help defend their fledgling planetary interests. This led to the development of the Mercury in 2892 and eventually the Ares in 2949. So rather than the A2 Spirit being an abandonment of their core principals, it represents a gradual evolution on how the company sees its place in a changing Empire.

What was supposed to open at Stratus Mall in 2952?
Question: Every time I visit Stratus, the shopping mall at Orison, I wonder about the storefront with the sign that says ‘Opening 2952.’ With 2954 upon us, I am curious what this storefront was supposed to be and why it hasn’t opened?

Answer: Consider the still vacant Stratus storefront another casualty of the constant Nine Tails attacks on Orison's platforms. Though Crusader never officially announced the tenant meant to move into that space, in late 2950, gourmands across the Empire were abuzz about news that chef Cutty Crawford had signed a deal with Stratus to open a restaurant on Orison. Crawford rose to fame with Gastronomical, the first restaurant on an 890 Jump to win a Silver Leaf. Yet, Crawford acknowledged the difficulties of running a restaurant aboard a ship and was looking for opportunities to open a brick and mortar location. Occupying that second floor space on the Stratus complex on Orison seemed like an ideal fit for the chef and the high-class clientele that wined and dined on the 890 Jump.

Yet, the uptick in Nine Tails attacks on Orison's platforms concerned Chef Crawford, and he officially backed out of the deal when his ship came under attack en route to Orison. Chef Crawford and Stratus have been entangled in litigation ever since. Stratus claimed that they are owed rent and penalties for the early termination of the deal, while Chef Crawford argued that Orison's lax security breached a provision in the contract that specified a safe and secure working environment would be provided to the restaurant's staff and guests. Until this dispute is resolved, Stratus officials say the storefront will remain in its current state.




NPC Voice Acting Diversity in the PU
Question: Do you have plans to expand the future NPC voices in the PU with more diverse accents than British and American?

Answer: Yes, we're definitely looking to expand the diversification in the PU.




Elira Awards
Question: Here’s a bunch of questions about the Elira Awards, which recognizes achievement in music.

Answer: We haven't really delved too much into the actual history or structure of the Eliras. It was just a name that sounded good as an award, but let's craft some lore now. To answer some of your questions one by one:




Is it at all possible for a backer to win an Elira Award?

Not currently, but we certainly support the musical endeavors of our community.




What categories are there?

I would assume this would be the standard array of categories that you'd find in modern awards ("Best album (genre)", "Best song (genre)", etc.). I'm sure they'd have various versions of the awards based on the genre of music. There would probably be categories for Xi'an or alien music to help bring attention to Human listeners.




How long have the awards been going for?

We could say maybe a hundred years or so, say 2803.




Who won the last award for best performer (or equivalent)?

Have not determined this yet.




What is popular across the UEE currently?

With all the various planets and systems, I don't know if you could truly encapsulate a consistent trend across the entire UEE. We've name dropped a handful of bands and musicians (Ellroy Cass, Starburst Collective, etc.) though.




What is the most common way for people to listen to music in 2953? Do physical formats still exist, and does that mean I have to buy the White Album again?

As a big fan of vinyl myself, I would support this, but I feel like they've probably phased out physical media since the recording process would probably be exclusively digital and distributed in a lossless way.




Where and when are the awards hosted?

As called out in the Galactapedia article, they're held in Prime on Terra.




Who was the most recent host?

I would probably say Esen Landari from Something Every Tuesday would be a good host.




Have there been any Jay-Z, Taylor Swift moments in memorable history?

What moment was this? But sure, I would imagine there would be some memorable moments at the awards. There was Gal Dougan's last performance before she disappeared, that would certainly be one.