Not content with being the official Alien Worlds Scribe, RED has been busy developing the Lore Portal, a dedicated terminal and hub for community-written lore.
A purpose-built platform where players, creators, and storytellers can explore and expand the game’s canon, the Lore Portal is a valuable resource RED hopes the community will build on.
Let’s dive in and find out more.
A Central Hub for Alien Worlds Lore
RED’s journey from ardent gamer to Alien Worlds Scribe is well documented, a voyage that included stints as a Syndicate Custodian on various planets. Most people, though, weren’t aware he was quietly tinkering on something much larger behind the scenes.
“With so many varied inputs, threads, paths, creations, projects and information, a lore hub was definitely needed,” he explains. “The main Alien Worlds interface serves as the ecosystem engagement hub, but loreworks.co.za aka the Lore Portal is conceived as the nucleus of the narrative aspects. All the interactions are geared towards the lore and narrative of the Alien Worlds IP and community-created content.”
Explorers landing on the Lore Portal will see ‘Archive Transmissions’, a grid-like display of lore snippets that can be expanded to read the full entry. On the right-hand side, there is also a list of Canon Contributors, as well as a button to access Scribe tools and submit lore proposals.
Overall, the Lore Portal is cleanly organized with an easily navigable interface that includes ‘Lore Atlas’, a section featuring expandable planetary icons that link to stories which reference the planet in question, be it Magor, Eyeke, Naron, Neri, Veles, or Kavian.
For those visiting Lore Portal for the first time, RED offers a poetic invitation: “Imagine you have just discovered an ancient alien terminal…”
The Scribe’s Perspective
RED’s role as Scribe gave him a unique understanding of what the community needed, as far as lore was concerned.
“Having spent the last couple of years actively engaged as Scribe, I’ve gained an intimate understanding of the lore, and the possible tools and activities that would expand it by community hands. To see who was interested in it and who would go as far as to contribute through current channels and shape the portal.
I was also able to identify the need for bridges, such as between the system and the community, between the players and creators.
When asked which features he is most proud of, RED answers with a laugh: “Because this is only the foundational release, the whole darn thing! I probably spent the most time on the parsing, tagging and indexing system, then the planetary ‘Atlas’. The feature I’m most proud of is probably the expandability of the platform.”
Noting that he is still contending with glitches, bugs, and features that are not yet fully functional, RED says the open-source tool has been built “to grow and expand with the community, the lore and canon, to adapt and evolve with the needs of both.”
With that in mind, the Scribe is currently working on one such expansion, an RPG-style character creator and GM (Game Master) Dashboard for setting up campaigns. He’s also developing an NPC creator for an open canon library “filled with characters that can be used in stories and games.
“The RPG expansion will open Alien Worlds to a whole new gaming dimension, which the Lore Portal would host and is the foundation of,” RED predicts. Future updates will also support comics, animations, video, and voiceover uploads, empowering the community to expand existing canon pieces in interesting ways.
Tools of Tokenized Lore
The new Lore Portal isn’t the only tool related to Tokenized Lore to launch. It follows Lynx, a Large Lore Model trained on approved canon that can be leveraged to spin up new stories, generate fresh ideas, or act as a well-informed cosmic companion. Which begs the question: which other tools are likely to spill off the production line?
Looking to the future, RED can’t hide his enthusiasm. “Now that Lore Portal is live and the foundation set, I’m excited to start collaborating with games and interweaving the various activities and narratives shaped by the community across the multitude of new community-built games and projects.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the gameplay options grow, and to seeing projects engage more deeply with the canon lore.”
Keen to make your mark in the metaverse? Access the Lore Portal here, add to the canon, apply for a GHubs grant, or run as a Custodian for one of the Planetary Syndicates.