Lore:Vox

SPECIES

Vox	Denonyms: Vox Related Lore: Lore:Nova, Lore:Space Languages: Vox StandardA form of hybrid encoded language employed by the biomechanical Vox species, characterized by sounding extremely annoying and irritating to those who don't recognize it. It usually requires an implant to be spoken in its entirety.

This Species

Vox, one of the least understood species in the Nova Sector, appear to come in some form of organic-technology mech suit, piloted by an organically-grown brain they call a "stack." One will find Vox aboard Arkships, each dedicated to researching some perceived exploit in reality. Plasma duplication, xenobiology, farming, bluespace... you name it, there's an Arkship studying it.

To what end is such a commonplace fact known by every Vox, that no Vox will dare translate the Navigator's mission into a lesser tongue, lest the translation collapse an infomatic quantum noospheric state and render the past centuries of research retrocasually inert. No, nobody in Nanotrasen knows what that means, and no, no Vox will elaborate further.

Regardless, Vox can be found anywhere civilization is, following the compulsions of their Arkship of origin. If their actions seem unscientific to you, you simply lack the neural pathways to conceive of the true hypothesis being tested.

"Vox" and "Vox Primalis" are the exact same species, differentiated because of coding concerns. Lorewise, they are the same.

Simple Skye says: "Vox are strange. They have skin and bone but also metal? They ask a lot of questions and do a lot of learning. We don't know why! They can be found almost anywhere and their home is a moving group of big ships. If, in this page, you need something said simpler, look for me!"

Analysis: Biological

Physiology, Origins

From the desk of the Historical Derevisionism Fact Checking Team<-- Calculated Deceit Team <-- External Publications <-- Zeitgeistbusters <-- Cultural Perception <-- Diplomacy Team:

Cross-reference: Early parables, Speculative Evolution research, Bluespace Retroobservatory 7's findings on the Vox Origins.

Conclusions, disputed:

• Early Vox were avian in nature, the result of several bird-like species analogous to Sol's Corvids evolving towards first intelligence, and then fine manipulation.
• Early Vox were reptilian, ground-based feathered or unfeathered quadrupeds who evolved bipedalism along traditional evolutionary pathways. Tailed initially, possibly lost during upright walking, reintroduced for productivity upon fleshsculpters' discovery of deprecated neural pathways. Research tends to agree subconclusively on this evolutionary track.
• Early Vox were paradoxically modern Vox, cast back through future work from the Transtemporal Team, which eventually will always have been the strongest path to the Vision.

Analysis: The mythological plausibilities of multiple competing origins serve the Vision greater than firmly cementing a single pathway into mundane fact.

Relatable Sol Meme, for optimal cognitive connections: "If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice."

Physiology, Modern

Sol Federation's Threat Analysis BureauThe composition of the Sol Federation's bureaucracy remains a subject of intense study across numerous fields. It is presently unknown to whom this Bureau answers to. has this to say:

The average Vox is a digitigrade, reptilian biped with stiff, semi-rigid keratin quills on their head, a long prehensile tail, and a teethed and bilaterally-split jaw. They have a flexible and lightweight skeleton and a two-channel redundant nervous system. They generally stand anywhere from 1.3 to 2 meters tall, averaging at 1.5 for most Vox, with a primarily green and brown coloration, but can have different colored quills and body markings. Their bodies are scaled with rigid, nonconducting plates in overlapping rows, which can be bristled or flattened at will to optimize cooling or form interior seals as to retain heat. Their aforementioned quills act as a supplementary cooling system, with tiny capillaries allowing bloodflow into the hollow recesses inside of the quills, which they may often violently shake to produce a cooling effect with the air; this also functions as a threat display, as many Vox will attempt to cool themselves down before engaging in a fight as to regulate their body-temperature though exertion. They do not respirate as humans do, but they do require a nitrogen-rich atmosphere to 'breathe', and suffer badly in the presence of oxygen. Their musculature is geared towards sudden bursts of rapid movement, with a vulnerability to lactic acid buildup as a result.

Biopsies of discarded voxform have confirmed analogous brain features to most biological life, though the outstretched nerves are coated in a more active protein, more easily damaged than the standard myelin sheath, but organically repaired through their dual-focus immune system. From that, what were previously seen as mismatched colorations on the voxform scales have been postulated to instead be their equivalent of a scar: discarded tissue repurposed elsewhere in the body by their immunorepair system. Blood clotting in particular seems to be mismatched tissue organically welded into place, in contrast to a dedicated platelet structure. As a net result, the common voxform does not replenish its supply of repair tissue, relying on external supplements and an inefficient conversion of amino acids. Voxform thus seem to be intentionally designed to age and degrade; interrogations have yielded conflicting theories, including references to a "Mortality Appreciation inquest," a means to enforce returning to the Arkship for debriefing and updates, and a retrocausal conspiracy that implies that future voxform actively steal components from present voxform. They have remained uniformly silent about a suspicious cavity near the brain stem found in all known autopsies.

To future medical teams, while the first Vox we have found were weird inside, more recently, Voxform have been coming as more analogous to human-standard surgical diagrams. Between your standard training with Genemodders and other xenobiological surgery, you should be able to repair a damaged Vox without significantly esoteric experience.

Each Voxform has been found with artificial markings upon their body, in seemingly no uniform pattern or symmetry. We've ruled out biological lineage and social caste; several genetically identical Voxform have been found with wildly different markings, and one set was found to be multi-layered, stacking six layers of conflicting symbology atop each other. We lack a statisticically significant sample size of complaint individuals with which to draw further conclusions. In short: fuck if we know. Additional funding is required to resolve these mysteries.

Simple Skye says: "Sol Federation found a lot of Vox bodies to study. They are as tall as people, have quills, two legs, three or four eyes, and while their body is different, a doctor can give them the same help that they give to a human. They also have body writing that we don't understand. Watch out! They breathe Nitrogen and not normal air."

Vox-Secrets: Body Markings

The Vox markings culturally exist to identify a Vox's topic of research, their present skillsets, their past accomplishments, and active experiments. Of particular note are the Voxform's position in the Tree, and any possible Publications they have notably Contributed to. Alas, there is no standardized format or verification of these markings, as the Individuality Team found greater detriment to mass standardization than the Qualiolinguistics Transferrence Team found benefit.

Vox-Secrets: Cortical Stack

Each Vox is the mind, memories, and skills encapsulated in a comparatively small biomechanical organ, the Cortical Stack. The Cortical Stack is transplanted between different Voxforms as death or need of differing Voxforms occur. The Cortical Stack holds the Resonance of the Vox, as well as critical memories crucial to that Vox's sense of self and ability to contribute. The Voxform's brain holds the specific motor skills unique to that Voxform, as well as basic cultural knowledge and task analysis. As a result, modern Vox may literally have more progressive views than Vox remaining in older Voxforms. The Cortical Stack was intentionally designed to internally cannibalize a Voxform upon the body's death, sustaining the core Vox self through intensely dire situations and over extended durations, similar to how a human's gut biome will digest itself posthumously.

Auralis Krikrikon says: "Remember, only followers of the Vox's grand Vision can know the Vox's secret biology."

Analysis: Cultural

Culture, Origins

All Vox culture is derived from a single tenet, the Grand Vision. Loosely translated into Sol CommonAnd when contact was established, the Admiral waved at the screen and said, "Mi parolas la lingvon de la Homines!" - I speak the language of Mankind. A simplified mix of Esperanto and Modern Latin, and the only recognized official language of the Sol Federation. This peculiar constructed language became popular during SolFed's earliest days, and was almost entirely overtaken by other popular tongues - it became widespread through heavy-handed political maneuvering with the help of corporate bureaucrats and other undesirables. Nowadays, it's a near-universal tongue and a must-know for any sentient being that plans to leap forward into space.:

Vox will achieve the End of ScienceThe Cross-Cultural Communication Team has attempted numerous times over the years to convey the platonic urge across various levels of formality, finality, and generality. Previously accepted phrasings include, "Vox will win Science," "Voxkind will be responsible for the culmination of all knowledge," "get that science victory bro," and "The Grand Tech Tree, as evidenced by the cultural zeitgeist of resource management simulators, is a real, observable phenomenon which Voxkind will dedicate their efforts and culture towards completing."
The CCCT settled on the current translation for the mysterious finality of "End", the unity of specifically referring to "Vox", and the effort conveyed through "achieve." Studies continue for better generalized phrasings of the Grand Vision but have been deemed non-urgent..

From this axiom comes the rest of their civilization.

Culture, Present Organization

Teams

Vox have twelve words for these research groups, discerning size, intent, likelihood of being on the critical path to the end of Science, and notoriety, but the Universal Linguistics Information Redundancy Team strongly suggests that each research group be referred to in other languages strictly as a Team. More prominent teams include the Diplomacy Team, Violence Team, Productivity Team (mockingly known as the Team Team), Materials Team (notably split along the Organics, Inorganics, and Applied Materials Teams), and Immaterials Team. Almost every lesser Team can trace their way up the TreeThe data structure. to one of these teams, almost as much a historical record as an organizational chartTree is a anachronistic term, as many Teams are derived from close collaboration between two distinct teams. For formality, each Vox still can trace their way to a single top-level Arkship, often reflecting their individual interest's route to their current Team as opposed to the Team itself having a path. When referring to the Team as a whole's place in the tree, the Team's Pilot's position is used.. An individual Vox belongs to only one team at any given moment in their life, though are often commissioned by other teams to conduct parallel research as they pursue their main vision. Example: the Carp Killing TeamCarp Killing <-- Applied <-- Nuisance <-- Subsapient <-- Methodology <-- Violence is often responsible for great strides with the Carp Scale Collection TeamMaterials --> Organics --> Harvestable --> Fauna --> Skin and Related Surfaces --> Carp Scale.

Arkships

Vox are organized into Arkships, massive interstellar vessels dedicated to a research topic, with the largest supposedly dwarfing most planetsThe mythological gravitas of this statement exceeds its absolute truth. Several Arkships have been attempted at that scale, but due to the square-cubed law have been increasingly unviable, often splitting due to mechanical stress or interpersonal bickering. With the advent of Bluespace compression technology, new plans have been drafted for a more stable polycule-structured Monolithic Arkship but have failed to impress any Auralis into approving a prototype.. A mixture of inorganic and organic technologies, these ships grow with effort and necessity, absorbing flesh and metal in equal measures into their superstructures. Each Arkship's research topic, or Vision, tends to be as broad as the ship is large, with obvious exceptions for research into size-related matters. The Diplomacy Team serves aboard the largest known Arkship, whose name is incomprehensibly longTongue of the Vision, Host of the Greatest Minds and Silverest Barbs, Manufactory of Wit and Wager, The First Line of Defense, The Writer's Room, The Podium, The Stage, The Talent, KorkorMargor, oft shortened to "The Tongue". When one Vox refers to the Arkships, they typically mean the most prominent ones, though any vessel which hosts Vox and a focused mission qualifies. Arkships are known to host specific inquiries and research fields as subsets of the primary Vision. This Arkship organization is a result of early Productivity Team inquests with the Immaterials' Data Transfer and Storage research, finding an optimum between research mobility, data locality, and cross-research applications. Modern Productivity Team findings, especially in a post-Bluespace era, would not reach the same conclusions, but the Cultural Monolith Team and Repurposement Initiative separately concluded that disassembling the Arkships for decentralized research stations would be both cruel, inefficient, and culturally suppressiveAs well as ontologically impossible. Subdividing an Arkship into two important vessels would render both as an Arkship; there is no intrinsic level at which splitting an Arkship would render one unimportant. That is, an Arkship is an Arkship. It cannot be said that it is only a half..

Ships and vessels not directly serving a Vision are known as Skipjacks. These are much more disposable, often sourced directly from other cultures through "transactions" with the Diplomacy or Violence teams.

Simple Skye says: "Vox work in thinking teams to ask questions and get answers. Some of these teams are big enough to need an entire space ship, called an Arkship."

Naming Conventions

Vox names serve strictly as unique identifiers, secondary to their present Team and list of publications. As Vox have not genetically descended from specific individuals in well over a millennium, there is no specific lineage to trace besides the Team and Publications.

Vox names are the transliteration of random Vox Pidgin syllables. Human fictive authors describe this as "taking random bird noises, writing out an onomanopea, while repeating hard consonants. Soft, flowing sounds tend to be seen as unrealistic, despite their rare occurrence in Vox names."

Publications

Vox have two forms of publication. The Advancement, which details a successful product, ranging from an improved sorting algorithm to a universal bluespace drive. Advancements that progress Voxkind to their ultimate goal are the most desired, but SuccessologistsAntiquated term for the Intrinsic Motivation Team. Research into redefining the Core Tenet of the Grand Vision. As this is has been a settled goal for millenia, these silly Vox get a silly title and are often subject to newspaper-based percussive corrections. bicker about what that specifically means. While these concrete advancements and proofs of successful research are the most prestigious conclusions a research inquiry can come to, even tales of failure have their part in the grand plan.

On the other side of the coin, there are the documentations of experiments, methodologies, intents and approaches. The Parable. Salvaged into a cohesive narrative, these parables instead teach a lesson. The more widely applicable the lesson, the greater the parable, but even lessons as narrow as "don't press two elevator buttons at once on the X5 Turbolift on Skipjack C-137" are published to some honor. The most universal Parables are sometimes distilled to just their conclusions and referred to as Heuristics. Even the most universal heuristics are still to be questioned and applied situationally, in service of the grand Vision.

The Extrinsic Motivation team birthed the Crypt team through the developed urge to be recognized as having contributed to the greater Vision.

If a research paper has a related works section, so too an Arkship has a mausoleum. When the Arkship succeeds, and reality belongs to the Vox, so too will they be vindicated.

Simple Skye says: "Vox like to write stories about what they have done, and what they can make. Stories about how to make things are "Advancements," and stories about what not to do are "Parables." Vox like to help each other write these."

Notable Heuristics

From the desk of the Linear Time ConservationImmaterials --> Dimension --> Time --> Preservation team:

The Heuristic of Deference

Observation: Linear time is a non-fungible resource. Decisions require time. Explanations require time.

Result: There may not be time to explain why what must be done, must be done.

Proposal:

Invocation: The Heuristic Of Deference.

Procedure: Briefly analyze the relevant experience of the speaker. Common signs include job title, age, renown, attachment to relevant publications. Summary: Are they credible?

Procedure: Briefly analyze the implied concern. Is time a limited concern? Common signs include vocal inflection, visible environmental concerns (fire, air, medical state), phrases akin to "There's no time to explain!"

Analysis: If the request is found to be suitably urgent, and the requestor speaks with the authority of one who Knows Better than you, comply.

Post-procedure: Correctly log the resulting actions as Deferred actions. Your personal credibility will be adjusted solely on your analysis of the credibility and urgency, and your performance of the deferred action; the physical actions and results reflect upon the speaker's reputation. You have a right to a mention in the Deferred Actors sub-appendix of any resulting publication.

Cross-Cultural Communication Optimization Team says: "The Heuristic of Deference is how a Vox decides when to question an order, and when to obey it. This may be a subconscious reflex in your personal culture. You may find parallels with 'lawful orders', 'leadership', and 'panic reflex'."

Heuristic of Perspective

Observation: Perception is a localized phenomena, on both all three space axes and time, with additional constraints resulting from the perceiver's observation organs.

Self-Proof: Attempt to perceive tomorrow. Attempt to perceive a room on the other side of a wall. Attempt to use sense (taste) to perceive sensation (blue)Footnote: Human culture has successfully assigned a flavor to the color Blue, prescribed "Blue Raspberry". If you are familiar with this taste-color pairing, disregard this particular self-proof example..

Publication: Unobserved Phenomena: They Happen, Sometimes.2350, Quantum Entangled Happenstance team <-- Indirect Observation <-- Perception <-- Materials Team.
Summary: Quantum effects, among other effects, are often affected by the perception of an observer. Some require a fully conscious being, and others a simple mathematical gate to be considered "observed."

Summary: In the absence of observation, some phenomena are known to continue to occur. Other phenomena are known to halt, pause, or act in a more simplified manner. Corollary : Observing phenomena is how they are entered into the noospheric knowledge base.

Conclusion: Multiple perspectives acquire more knowledge than individual perspectives.

Invocation: Heuristic of Perspective

Procedure: Analyze the alleged second perspective. Are they a conscious being capable of perception? Capable of deceit? Are they committed to the Vision? Retain any notions of non-credibility but continue.

Procedure: Analyze the narrative they propose. Is it wildly against your own perceptions? Do you Know Better?

Analysis: Factoring in credibility, note the narrative presented as fact and adjust expectations accordingly. Even non-credible information should be noted, as even in a lie there is truth.

Hypothetical: A human approaches and tells you that your destination is through the next left. His unusual armaments, suspicious demeanor, and pile of brigands detected around the left corner betray his dishonesty, but his statement has revealed several truths: Humanity is capable of discerning horizontal directions, knowing "left" from "right". This human is unafraid of the brigands, and cross-referencing your knowledge that brigands are unlikely to settle for remaining neutral with any particular individualThis is not to be confused with the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, in which the Brigands do not believe they can win a fight against you without significant loss. This is not neutrality, but hostility temporarily restrained by reason and circumstances., is likely affiliated with them. This human perceives you as a conscious being, capable of accepting directions, and holds an expectation that you would be inclined to trust a stranger.

Cross-Cultural Communication Optimization Team says: "The Heuristic of Perspective encourages Vox to consider other life, and other Vox, as valued resources as opposed to strictly obstacles. So long as you can be trusted to not significantly act against the Vox in a way that would not provide useful data, you are considered worth more alive than dead."

Heuristic of Compassion

Corollary of the Heuristic of Perspective.

Conclusion, Heuristic of Perspective: Multiple credible perspectives are preferential to a solitary perspective.

Expansion: Multiple credible Visions are preferential to a solitary Vision.

Procedure: Compassion

Observe: Vox: injured, dead, or otherwise operating outside their proposed experiment.

Recall: They possess a unique, credible perspective. A Very Good Idea: Assist the Vox. See, assisting the Vox gives you a whole new perspective and you will be able to see knowledge you couldn't have seen before.

Procedure: Commit enough personal resources in order to preserve their perspectives. Depending on urgency and resource scarcity, this may be as contrite as preserving their Cortical Stacks, or as extensive as surgically treating each Vox and issuing new Voxform as needed.

Continue: Harvest their perspective. Learn what they have learned. Learn what brought them to this state. Learn what they were intending to do. Adjust your own Vision accordinglySee: Parable of the Meat Grinder, as told by 6 speculative perspectives and 1 distant witness..

Analysis: Personal resource stock levels. Are you able to spare enough to return their team to continuing their experiment? If no, enough to return their team to their, or the nearest, Arkship to repursue resources? If no, enough to temporarily integrate them into your team until your resource situation improves? If no, consider yourself equally in distress.

Conclusion: Carry a surplus of resources, by standard, 20%.

Addendum: Extrinsic Motivation Team recommends crediting your rescuers on any publications made possible by the relief effort.

Addendum: Non-vox life forms should also be rescued and repaired, resource permitting. While their perspectives do not directly serve the greater Vision, in a cross-study between Immaterials and Diplomacy Teams2390: "Good Sum, or A Ton? The Value Of Good Will", "good will" has been found to be a quantifiable resource. Rescue them and report the rescue to your superior, that this news may be leveraged for the Vision later. There is an ongoing Parable in the Heroism Team's halls where you should expect a footnote detailing your rescue and the tangible benefits it brought.

Cross-Cultural Communication Optimization Team says: "The Heuristic of Compassion implies that not only are you worth keeping alive, you are worth helping, even if you are incapable of paying fairly for services rendered."

Simple Skye says: "In short, these three say that Vox will act fast if they need to, but will ask questions if they do not need to act fast. They will keep you alive so they can learn from you, and they will give you help if you need help. ... Unless it really makes more sense for them to not, of course."

Titles

While every Vox has a Team, a Vision they serve, and a biological form, the Lossy Information Compression Team has correlated Vox into generic groups, or 'castes', based on their immediate function to their surroundings. The titles alone do not confer any social standing, only knowledge and credibility do, and a Vox may find themselves changing castes routinely as their research takes them to different environments and their skillsets evolve.

• Apex: In charge of, or the most knowledgeable about large research topics. These rare few Vox have transcended the limitations of the standard Voxform biomechanistry, oft sacrificing their resleevability to achieve greater cognitive expansion to track and process further research. Easily confusable with an organic supercomputer.
• Auralis: Knowledgeable about a numberNon-zero. of research topics, often the generally-smartest Vox in a room. These Vox are either not yet learned enough to ascend to Apexhood, or believe they still require typical voxform to best serve the Vision. The Cultural Mythos Team projects the Auralis as taller than other Vox, identifiable from across the room, and often twice as loud. Productivity Team prescribes that an Auralis be capable of managing no less than ten visions, at minimum, and have served sufficient time as a Juror or Cynic, though recognizes that cultural influences including Hype and Rule of Cool may permit an otherwise unqualified Vox to be assigned as an Auralis.
• Drone: The Engineers, technicians, and builders of Vox society, focused on Inorganic interactions. Their voxform are adapted to apply physical alterations to their surroundings, with varying degrees of dexterity and raw strength. A Drone tends to become specialized for their local environment or task.
• Servitor: Drones with a specialty in Organic affairs. Duties often overlap with common Drones, given the biomechanical nature of their technology. Also likely to specialize for their environment or task, a Servitor may equally be found restocking cabinets, preparing meals, or surgically exploring a corpse.
• Raiders: Vox designed to be highly reactive to uncertain circumstances. Historically, this caste has been strictly combat-oriented, but as more sapient life is discovered and the Diplomacy Team becomes a greater need for the Vision, this has grown to include most outward-facing Vox positions. A conversation is just as fast-paced and nuanced as a firefight, after all. Due to the Cultural Stigma Team's findings, some Vox who may technically fulfill the role of a Raider may instead be referred to by a less stigmatized caste, often Drone or Servitor.
• Scavengers: Vox designed to reduce and repurpose uncertain circumstances into known quantities and usable materials. Historically, this has been limited to deconstructing wreckage and corpse alike, working in the aftermath of a Raider imposition, but now the caste reflects any uncertain resource gathering role. Traders, gossipers, spies, station freelancer, trophy spouses.
• Jurors: Philosopher, not strictly confined to a voxform. Rather than take direct actions, these Vox correlate and analyze existing data, extracting broad truths from the findings of numerous teams. Additionally, they curate and distribute the Publications in various targeted Journals, directing them to appropriate audiences. The librarians and pedants of the Arkship.
• Cynics: Philosopher, in contrast to the Jurors. Identifies weaknesses in existing data, from unexplored avenues of research, to old data whose premises may no longer hold true and thus must be replicated. Likely to have a personal parable detailing various other Publications they've doubted, tested, and confirmed. The review boards and pedants of the Arkship.
• Larva: 'Larva' are not Vox children, as they'd be less than a few months old at youngest, but a denigrating term for Vox that either have not yet been assigned a duty, or those currently in-between them. While these Vox are often pushed by their peers to 'hurry up already,' it is the wide consensus of Vox that 'A lone Apex is worse than a larva, for while even a larva has a future, all the Apex has is obsolete grudges.' Vox are, at their heart, a biological construct in Euclidean space, thus Vox may find themselves separated from their Arkship for an extended duration with minimal contact, during which their Team may have disbanded, have successfully published and moved on, or even been forgotten. While they may not be actively serving an active Vision, this Vox remains important to the grand Vision and is still collecting information and resources through their unique perspective. While it is important to assist these Vox in returning to their prescribed Vision or becoming assigned to a new task, these Vox are not intrinsically worthless and their present work, while unguided, still expands the knowledge base.

In addition to the castes, a Vox may also be referred to as a Pilot. Rather than steering a physical ship, a Pilot is simply the leader of a specific research inquiry. Apex and Auralis are Pilots of grand inquests, but even a Drone in a mine may be piloting a small-scale geological survey. The Pilot is the first name on a research publication, and the one who ultimately carries that research's Vision through to the end.

Simple Skye says: "Vox have a lot of job names that kind of say what they do right now. These change often and do not mean that one Vox is better than another."

Playing a Vox

First, see the section on naming conventions to pick a name. The in-game random name generator is appropriately configured for Vox names.

Second, consider what you want to learn or do with this character:

Research Topic

《 Choosing your Research Team 》
What mysteries keep you up at night? Where do your skills lie? Is there an intersection of the two? Choosing your research team is an important, though technically optional, stage in your Vox development. Consider what tasks you perform, and what they might teach you. Are your primary tasks also your hobby? They do not need to be. Your primary research topic should reflect more of your hobbies than your physical tasks; it is not uncommon for a researcher in theoretical sciences to self-supply material through a service job, after all. It should also somewhat reflect why your Vox is on the Nova Station presently, though your current job may just be a temporary pit-stop on your life path. Remember that these research tasks change quite often, as things conclude or other visions seem more interesting.
Common Genres
Social: You are here to interact with other sapient life. This reflex does not come naturally, but from careful study. You likely research several layers deep under the Diplomacy Team, and are exploring some avenue of social interaction. You might be researching jokes, pick-up lines, slang, idioms, rhyme schemes, the magic of Friendship, the sinister weaves of deceit that plague every friend group, or even are attempting to force a meme and make "Fetch" happen. The gift of gab is a horse whose mouth needs to be looked into, and you are the metaphorical horse dentist in this simile.
Material Science: You exist to study physical interactions. The mundane work of building silver toilets and scanning them is somehow appealing to you. You plausibly work under the Materials Team, either under study or applications therein. Food is a very broad, very researchable material, as are plants, human robots, art, Supermatters, High Frequency ReactorsInvestigating a strong correlation between HFR use and employee discontinuation, in particular?, and even Glass WallsApplying glass to a girder. Distinct from a Window. Has strong psychological concerns among a wide variety of witnesses.. Your study is the most practical.
Violence: There is so much violence to be done, and so few willing Vox to commit it. You might be studying the limits of excessive force in a social situation, which would likely place you on a station's Security team, or the absolute limits of wanton destruction, likely banishing you to the station's mining outpost to slaughter your way through local fauna. Equally, you might be studying previously-applied violence, as a Detective, Coroner, or Doctor. Even varying the threshold of permissible violence can prove a fruitful study in this field.
Material Acquisition: Get that money, full stop. Your research is getting fat stacks, and how to do so better. You might find yourself glued to the Bounty Pad, or charting an optimal route through the Bar's drink dispensers to touristmax your throughput, or shaving seconds off your Bitrunning speedruns. The lazier Vox might be experimenting with the minimum effort required to earn a steady paycheck in a particular role, and is well-suited to Captaincy.
I don't know right now: That's fine, it can be a lot to think about. Just do what comes naturally, play some jobs, take the time to think about what's fun for you and your Vox. At the bare minimum, you can always claim you're researching "doing whatever job you're doing right now" and attempting to replicate prior findings. "I wanted to verify that working as a Cargo Tech gets you a steady salary," and whatnot.

Once you have an idea of the kind of research topic your Vox is pursuing, make up relevant technobabble and call it a Team. Does "Qualiolinguistics Transferrence Team" sound like something a Human would come up with? Optionally, connect this team to one of the main 5 teams through increasingly broad intermediate teams, e.g. the Linear Time ConservationImmaterials --> Dimension --> Time --> Preservation team. You have the option to disregard this and consider yourself as a Larva, and simply describe your topic plainly, expecting other Vox to "suggest" Teams you may have been a part of or should transfer to.

Why Nova?

There's an entire galaxy of research opportunities and materials to gather, and by virtue of you being a player character on this server, your Vox has settled in to the Nova Sector for at least a few shifts. Why?

《 Nova: A Lovely Place 》
Nova Station. One of the most paradoxical locations in space. With a significantly higher rate of spontaneous anomalies, overwhelming amount of bluespace interference, and even some form of planet-infesting god, the Nova Sector is a hotbed for research prospects and material acquisitions alike. Layered on top of that, Nanotrasen's unique position in the area with SolFed puts them as a dominant local power, capable of far more than a typical corporate station in a typical solar system. What makes the Nova Sector unique is not any one particular facet, but the juxtaposition of all of these anomalies in one central area of space. That, and the Tendril those Ashwalkers worship. Odd, eldritch faux-gods exist elsewhere, but this one is novel.
But why you, why here?
Local maxima of profit to effort: In short, Nanotrasen offers easy jobs (when accounting for your skillset) for comparatively high pay. A Nova-based Engineer and an Epsilon-based Engineer may have the same welding credentials, but one spends six months scraping off mundane rust for a pile of ration chits, and one spends three hours scraping off sinister rust for actual moneyAn offshoot of the Immaterials -> Social Value -> Currency team decries the Credit, and the Solari, as valueless tokens meant to ensnare workers in a vicious cycle of consumerism and wage control. This is not a popular line of accusation with little supporting data, but has given birth to the correct retort, "go funge yourself.". Additionally, the bounty system provides an even easier "side gig" for an equal amount of profit. This is not fully understood.
Hotbed for Experiments: It is no secret that the typical Nanotrasen shift job occupies only a fraction of the shift, leaving the rest of the time for research. The Nova Station culture offers a wide array of potential research explorations, ranging from exploring the diverse social climate, to exploring the diverse ballistic climate. There are almost too many phenomena to observe aboard the Nova Station, each incurring valuable insight into the nature of reality.
Local maxima of Sapience and Phenomena: In common parlance, "This is where it's happening." In line with the findings of Unobserved Phenomena: They Happen, Sometimes.2350, Quantum Entangled Happenstance team <-- Indirect Observation <-- Perception <-- Materials Team. Summary: Quantum effects, among other effects, are often affected by the perception of an observer. Some require a fully conscious being, and others a simple mathematical gate to be considered "observed." and the Heuristic of Perspective, the most valuable observations come from the closest concentrations of sapient observers. ResearchersImmaterials --> Transitional --> Influence --> Quantum --> Observational --> Clustering --> Sheeple posit that the quality of the observer matters more than the physical concentration, and that the Nova stations possess a more diverse set of sapient observers than densely-packed megacitiesObserved: In dense clusters, cliques form from smaller cliques, restricting individuality for the social impetuous to 'fit in.' Nova, as a township of outcasts and other social deviants, subverts this impetus sufficiently.. "This is the cool kids' table."
Health Care: The medical staff in the Nova Sector are reliable, well-equipped, and bored. A novel problem in the Nova Sector is akin to vinegar to flies: it will be consumed, processed, and made right in a hurry. Similar levels of medical care exist closer to conventional civilization, but are woven into a tapestry of bureaucracy and red tape that often limits an individual's capacity to receive relevant help.
Specific Research: Nova Sector is one of the top places to research Bluespace mining, Tendril-themed deities, unmoderated radio networks, Supermatter irritation-based power generation, corporate impetuses. Nova is also full of absurd mysteries awaiting a scientific answer: Do chasms have a bottom? What value is there in observing a quantity of uranium toilets? What sense is there in shipping reflector frames when they are easily constructed on-site? How is the Supermatter stable at room temperature until it is disturbed? If you observe these absurdities long enough, either enlightenment or madness will set in.
Crime: In gutterspeak, "casing the joint." Nova stations are an incredible bounty of material and immaterial goods waiting to be extracted for valued research. There is almost certainly a Supermatter research team desperate to study a sliver of the yellow antirock, a Mutually Assured Destruction inquest into the nature of a self destruct core, a Color Theory conundrum discerning the appropriate shade of blue for a "blue" print, a Financial Survey census needing a random sample of the contents of in-use wallets and bank accounts, an impatient Coroner seeking to alter the quantity of life and observe the social changes. All of which would be considered a "crime" to achieve, and are thus waiting for an appropriately criminal Vox to facilitate. Be you a career criminal, looking to facilitate all the research, or a mild-mannered Vox who simply witnessed an opportunity too valued to be refused, crime has a home in the Nova sector.
Temporary Work: Perhaps you do not know your current life path. Nova finds itself host to a wide array of wanderers, and you would be no exception. Just do what comes naturally, take some jobs, take the time to think about what's fun for you and your Vox. At the bare minimum, you can always claim you're researching "doing whatever job you're doing right now" and attempting to replicate prior findings. "I wanted to verify that working as a Cargo Tech gets you a steady salary," and whatnot.

Caste

Do you want to know what kind of caste you are? Do be strongly aware that this does not matter and does not affect your gameplay or character development.

《 What Is My Function? 》
In the grand scheme of things, the idea of a Vox Caste exists solely to categorize large numbers of Vox at a scale well beyond the scope of the Nova Station, to bluntly summarize the basest summary of your job tasks for a period of time. Castes are descriptive, not prescriptive, and "Castes" change almost as often as as research topics. That said, take this short personality quiz, or arrive at your own conclusions:
Do I Do Tasks?
I do Repetitive Tasks:	I work with Organic Materials: Servitor.
	I work with Inorganic Materials: Drone.
I do Novel, Unpredictable Tasks:	I work with Fast-Paced Situations: Raider, though you can go by any title that seems socially appropriate.
	I work with Slow but Unpredictable Affairs: Scavenger.
I don't really do tasks:	I think about things we already know: Juror
	I think about things we don't yet know, or questioning things we know: Cynic
	I don't know what I am doing: Congratulations, Larva. You may or may not be displaced from what you thought you were doing, or are currently too indecisive to choose.
I have done too many tasks, but am also too important to appear as a player's character.	I am literally fused to my seat: Apex.
	I walk around and consider myself a God: Auralis.
	Oh god, I'm a spaceship. People live inside me: Arkship. Your thoughts are too distributed to interact meaningfully on the scale of a living being, but rest assured your veins and your body serve Vox well. This is what you chose to become, after all.

Mechanics

Remember that the Vox StandardA form of hybrid encoded language employed by the biomechanical Vox species, characterized by sounding extremely annoying and irritating to those who don't recognize it. It usually requires an implant to be spoken in its entirety. is ,V with a capital V, and to use the emote *quill.

Nitrogen Breathing

You, by default, breathe Nitrogen and are allergic to Oxygen. You will spawn with a breath mask on your face and a small red nitrogen tank in your pocket, already connected as your internals. With about 700kPa of pure Nitrogen in this small tank, you will be able to survive for about an hour. This is not enough Nitrogen for a full-shift. If you are lucky, Engineering will have already set out a Nitrogen canister for you to insert your tank into and overpressurize it. A fully pressurized nitrogen tank should last for the entire shift. If Engineering is not so kind, you may need to order a Nitrogen canister from Cargo yourself. If you have the ability to use an Rapid Piping Device, you might find yourself syphoning nitrogen from the air into a spare canister or Air Pump to plug your portable tank into, but you're likely already an Engineer with access to to a Nitrogen canister at that point. In an emergency, you can occupy one of Medbay's important Stasis Beds to avoid breathing until someone gets annoyed enough at you taking up precious space to buy the nitrogen canister themselves.

This may be patched out later, but taking the Nitrogen Breather quirk provides you with a second nitrogen tank and breath mask, while making you no more addicted to Nitrogen.

The red tanks are set to dispense 16kPa of Nitrogen, but you can survive on 10kPa, extending your two tanks for over three hours.

Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. Do not take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.

Nova Sector Lore
	Common Species	Humans, Tiziran, Unathi, Moths, Ethereals, Azulae, Slime Hybrids, Teshari, Synthetic Humanoids (and assorted robots), Pod Persons
	Other Species	Genemodders (Felinids, Ice Walkers, Dwarf), Ashwalkers, Hemophages, Snailpersons, Ordoht (Formerly Skrell), Plasmamen, Flypeople, Vox (Primalis et al), Tajaran, Vulpkanin, Xenomorphic Hybrid, Rouges (Abductorkin), Miscellaneous Species
	Nanotrasen	Nanotrasen, Central Command, Emergency Response Corps
	External Groups	The Syndicate, Interdyne Pharmaceutics, DS-2, Cargo, The Spider Clan
	Nova	The Nova Sector, Indecipheres, Freyja
	Concepts	Bluespace, Plasma, Faster Than Light Travel, Resonance ("Souls"), Death
	SolFed	SolFed, Earth in 2565, The SolFed Armed Forces, The SolFed International Capital District