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EVE Fiction

 
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The EVE Canon: priority ranking?

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Makoto Priano
Kirkinen-Arataka Transhuman Zenith Consulting Ltd.
Arataka Research Consortium
#1 - 2014-03-05 23:00:06 UTC
Hey folks!

We've got a bunch of stuff coming out, from EVE: True Stories to Source to the usual slow trickle of Chronicles.

The question: how do we address the canonicity of these texts when they conflict?

Presumably EVE Source is intended to be the new, definitive source of history; where this conflicts with older materials like decade-old chronicles, the TonyG novels, or old in-game text, I can only assume we go to the Source.

What about True Stories, though? Per TonyG, the old idea was that the Broker was the singular user of massed jump clones for infiltration-- but it's clear that alts are now part of the canon via True Stories, at least at some level. Do we assume that while play-wise this is common, for RPers there's a choice as to whether an alt is a transplanted capsuleer or a separate person? Or is CCP playing it that alts, for lore purposes, aren't the standard?

Anywho-- inquiring minds!

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CCP Falcon
#2 - 2014-03-06 08:43:32 UTC
EVE: Source is intended to be the basic "bible" for prime fiction going forward.

There's a lot of new stuff in there, a few minor changes and some clarification. However in most cases things are left a little open ended so that our writers can expand further if they want to. As far as I'm aware EVE: Source is considered the be all and end all in terms of being canon, moving forward.

With regards to the true stories stuff. I don't think there's an internal precedent set for it in terms of whether it's considered "canon". Personally I feel it's more like an embellishment of the truth and a dramatization of actual events, sort of like a story handed from person to person that becomes a little twisted and exaggerated as it's passed on, rather than a hard representation of fact.

CCP Falcon || EVE Universe Community Manager || @CCP_Falcon

Happy Birthday To FAWLTY7! <3
CCP Delegate Zero
C C P
C C P Alliance
#3 - 2014-03-06 10:32:15 UTC
Indeed. EVE: Source is the definitive starting place for prime fiction.

As for True Stories, it's an interpretation and dramatization.

After all, the 'canon' when it comes to the stories of players is what actually happened in all particulars and details in the game. This seems to me to be an absolutely essential aspect of EVE.

To answer the alts question - I don't see a change from the basic position: it's up to you guys to decide who and what your alternative characters are or represent.

CCP Delegate Zero | Content Designer - Writer | @CCPDelegateZero
Makoto Priano
Kirkinen-Arataka Transhuman Zenith Consulting Ltd.
Arataka Research Consortium
#4 - 2014-03-06 18:34:21 UTC
Thanks Falcon, Delegate Zero!

So. As anticipated, Source = authoritative prime fiction.
True Stories = not canon, but based on canon.

I'd completely spaced the term prime fiction when writing the OP; clearly, I need more sleep. :x

A quote from Katrina Oniseki on Backstage discussing True Stories:

Katrina Oniseki wrote:
The comics can be considered IC as exactly what they are OOC. They are fanciful retellings of a major part of New Eden's history. Just like in reality, stories as they are told and told again and told again take on a life of their own, adding and removing details (sometimes important parts) for artistic value, to make the story interesting. These comic retellings of the stories are just that. Artistic versions of something that actually happened.

In short, the best way to consider the comics as a source of canon is by realizing they are not historical textbooks, or chat logs, or accurate at all. They are just one of the many versions of a wildly popular tale of exploits done by capsuleers.

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