Staff:Primer

Introduction
If you're reading this you've been brought on to the Khaltotuin project to help me both stay motivated and help flesh things out. I just want to welcome you and thank you so much for being willing to help out. I should note that this guide is for staff only, and only those who will be actively writing and adjusting canon.

This primer should tell you roughly everything you need to know to get started and will hopefully answer as many questions as possible. If there is anything it doesn't address, feel free to contact me.

Why Are You Here?
There are a number of reasons I've decided to start bringing people in on the project. The main one is working alone for me is very difficult. I need constant feedback and discussion and interaction to stay motivated and keep working. Secondly, this is a huge undertaking as I want to develop this setting pretty much as far as it will go, which is asking a bit much for one man.

Finally, I have a belief that if only one mind creates something, whatever that something may be, it feels less real. The more minds working on something, the more differing ideas, philosophies, experiences, and knowledge, the more deep and intricate it becomes. So that's why you're here.

Khaltotuin
What is Khaltotuin? Khaltotuin refers to the entire setting when speaking not in-character, and the planet of the same name when speaking in-character. For our purposes, it's a sci-fi/fantasy fusion setting (currently leaning a little more towards the fantasy side of things).

Eventually, once it is much more further developed, I plan to have most of my writing (be it novels, short stories, etc.) take place in this setting, but for now it is just a world under construction.

How This Is Going To Work
Basically, at least starting out here, is I'll be assigning you an article or a subject or something, it might even be a half-finished or roughly outlined article. If need be I'll give you a little direction to start with but mainly it's your show. There's no deadlines or anything and you're free to ask me any questions you may have. Make sure to add it to any appropriate categories and once you're done, report back to me. It's that simple!

Writing Guidelines
Khaltotuin began with a simple premise: make everything as exotic, foreign, and especially alien as possible. Take everything we know and turn it on its head. Take something that we take for granted and get rid of it, or at least change it drastically. Or do the inverse, invent something we don't have and make it a central part of the setting. That's how it all began and that is still the core theme.

However, there's a bit of a paradox here, and you have to walk a fine line for one reason: it still needs to be at least somewhat accessible to readers utterly unfamiliar with the setting. It can't be too extreme or it will put people off.

Another core theme for writing Khaltotuin is that self-indulgence is a-okay. Draw on what inspires you, write the things you like, make your dreams of seeing something in sci-fi or fantasy a reality. It's perfectly fine.

Finally, have both the unimaginable and the real. Build towers out of coral and create heroes who changed the face of the world, but don't forget those living in mud huts by the river, or the corruption of the local arbiters, or the pollution in the air.