Coloria 3.0 Info

The Coloria 3.0 Grand Opening was Monday March 13, 2023 and staff is now accepting applications from the public.

Staff
There is specific, dedicated Coloria Staff (that may or may not be members of CoC server staff). If you have any questions about Coloria please start a thread in #questions-staff-contact and ask the relevant staff member(s):

Application Review
matz; Grey, Rus

Lore Writer
Gyeoul; Rus; Lady Marigold

Illustrator
lovestruck

Wiki Admin
Grey, Onça

Lexicographer
matz; Lady Marigold

Game Master
Grey

Bot Builder
Rus

Map Master
matz; Gyeoul; Grey

Joining Coloria 3.0
All server members at Specialist rank or higher are eligible to apply. (Basically, if you can see the #coloria-3-info channel, you can join.) You must request a page on the wiki to join the Coloria project. You may join individually or as partners (two people creating one country).


 * Provide a country name, and a sketch of your intended claim borders. Try to make your borders realistic.  For example, more desirable climates with plenty of resources will usually host many smaller countries, and country borders tend to follow natural obstacles.  Don’t try to hog all the good land or resources!  There must be lore associated to justify large and giant countries.
 * Select which options best apply to your country describing type of government, military, population distribution, and economy. If your country has an internal currency, provide that information.
 * Specify a landmark. This can be any major feature of your country or culture that may affect or be affected by other countries or cultures.  Provide the name and type of the landmark, and if it is a physical landmark include its location on your sketch.
 * If your species is not 100% physiologically human (from earth or not), you will need to include a basic species description. All sapient species are allowed as citizens on Coloria, subject to staff approval.  Species are not required to be humanoid.  We will not accept “unreasonable” species, like overpowered superbeings, invisible people, talking computers, etc.
 * Magic is allowed, subject to staff approval. Perceived magic, like shamans, miracles, and hallucinogenic spirit quests, are automatically accepted.  If your culture has “real” magic, you will have to provide a description of your magic system explaining the limits, laws, and specific abilities, as well as who does and doesn't have magic.
 * You must provide a language outline which includes: phonology; word order (ie. subject-object-verb); basic word list.

Worldbuilding Wager
This is no longer just a game, it is also how all countries will send official communications, form trade agreements and alliances, and wage wars with each other! All official country activity can affect your Country Score.

The game is only accessible by Coloria Citizens, and an overview can be found here.

Country Score
The Country Score is a structured way of judging which countries are doing better than others, identifying superpowers, and providing checks and balances for country activity. It also adds some fun competition!

Each country's currency is also weighted against the Colo. The Colo is the standard international currency which operates on the gold standard, where 100 Colo is equivalent in value to 1 gram of pure gold. The currency rates should be taken into consideration and used in trades and other international relations. Currency values and conversion calculations are publicly accessible. (Countries are not required to have currency.)

Coloria Wiki
Each member will be responsible for keeping their own lore, building their country and culture as they see fit. You will be able to share about your country, language, culture, history, etc. We will also be adding general background lore about Coloria over time. Visit the Coloria main page for an overview and link map.

The required minimum to participate in Coloria is a country page (this should be your country’s main/landing page) and at least one landmark (capital city, major port, dominant religion, etc).

The average technology level on Coloria is similar to that of Earth during Medieval times. This is a guideline and not a strict definition. In general, architecture, metallurgy, mathematics, and warfare are beginning to advance towards modernity, literacy and urban populations are increasing. Some cultures will naturally be slightly ahead (ie. renaissance) or slightly behind (ie. iron age) this level of technological advancement, and some cultures will simply be completely different (ie. no tech).

Rules

 * If you engage in “unfair play” (like editing someone else’s lore without permission, or interfering with someone else’s gameplay, or trying to manipulate your game results), you will get ONE warning. If it happens a second time you will be removed from the project and never allowed to rejoin, no exceptions.
 * Each country must participate in the Worldbuilding Wager game, and within the game must Tempt Fate at least once per decade (irl month).
 * If staff notices you stopped participating, you will get two warnings. If you do not become more regularly active you may be removed from the project.
 * Participation is measured by the country, not by the member. If you are part of a team and your partner is not doing their share, you may request that they are removed without losing your country.
 * If a member is removed from the project, their country can go “up for grabs” and any other country may claim part or all of it. The annexation of new lands must be included in the claiming country’s wiki.

Landmarks
In order to increase collaboration, each country will now be required to establish landmarks. Landmarks can be major cities as well as historical, cultural, religious, or geographical features considered important by a country or culture.

You will be expected to “visit” foreign landmarks and incorporate this exploration into your own lore. This can be anything, from a tourist writing a letter home to a military attack on a port. Consider how real life landmarks, both natural (Niagra Falls, Mt Everest, etc) and manmade (Great Wall, Suez Canal), and international events (Olympics, World Wars) affect the world.

Landmarks may be physical locations (religious temple, waterfall, battlefield) or more abstract (religion, magical portal, international galas, popular exported product, pirates that roam international waters). All features shared between multiple countries must be official landmarks! These landmarks will be listed on the Coloria wiki main page and physical landmarks will be added as markers on the Coloria maps. (Adding additional landmarks will also help increase your Country Score.)

Challenges
There will be regular challenges to guide and support Coloria worldbuilding. It is not required that you complete each and every challenge, but it is strongly encouraged! You may be tasked with “visiting” another country’s landmark and incorporating it into your lore, or you may be asked to describe your nation’s flora and fauna, or you may be given an important document to translate. The theme of the challenges will vary, and may come from any of the Coloria Staff, but they will all have the goal of strengthening the collaborative connection between countries.

Maps
The Coloria world map was generated (and is best viewed) in Azgaar map generator. The .map file and other viewable maps can be found in the #coloria-3-info channel in the CoC server. It is highly recommended that you open the .map file in Azgaar and look it over. Turn the various layers on and off to see where rivers, mountains, etc are, and to see the temperature, precipitation, population, etc in different locations on the map. Use this information to draw realistic country borders on your land claim sketch that would fit the environment and your culture.

Unlike Earth, Coloria is mostly land. There is about 175 million square miles (about 453 million square kilometers) of total land (including the parts buried under ice). Keep the scale in mind when drawing your country borders. There are also some HUGE water features, so have fun with your aquatic and amphibian cutlures!

Colorian
Create the pidgin by attempting to communicate in #pidgin, and add to the wiki wordlist as you begin to understand each other. Additional pidgins and trade languages may emerge but should be developed in their own threads, not on the #pidgin channel.

Planetary Physics
What we consider “the planet of Coloria” is actually a large moon of a gas giant. Keep this in mind when worldbuilding and culture building! For the sake of this project, the moon is habitable, with general climate similar to earth. There are two other moons in orbit of the gas giant, but far enough away that their gravity does not affect Coloria.

In-World
Each sidereal day (full rotation of the moon on its axis) on Coloria is equivalent to 24 earth-hours. There are about 33 days in one month (it takes 32.7 days for the moon to revolve around the gas giant). There is an eclipse every month for 14.6 hours as the gas giant aligns directly between the sun and the moon. There are 60 months in a year (full revolution of the gas giant and its moons around the sun).

Similar to earth, there are two primary seasons experienced in tropical and subtropical regions (ie. rainy/dry) and at the poles (ie. long day/long night), and four seasons experienced in temperate and subarctic regions (ie. spring, summer, winter, fall). Due to the orbit around the gas giant, each month Coloria also experiences slightly warmer days and slightly cooler days.

Coloria has a total world population of around 340 million sentient individuals. The population density and distribution varies by country, culture, and species. There are beings that live in areas considered uninhabitable by humans.

Coloria’s sky is a slightly more saturated blue than earth’s. The sun is whiter than ours with a blue hue instead of a yellow one. It appears in the sky about 70% the size of earth’s sun, similar in size to a fingertip held at arm’s length. The gas giant appears in the sky about 13x the size of earth’s moon, similar in size to a palm held at arm’s length. The foliage of the planet is predominantly violet and yellow-green.

Meta
The passage of time is measured in decades for the purpose of lore keeping on a meta level. One decade on Coloria is equivalent to one irl month. Time is not going to be subdivided further. You have a month to write your lore, complete challenges, make trade deals, etc. If you want to play the game turn by turn as if it is year by year, you can. If you want to “live” through five years today then one day tomorrow, you can (as long as you end the decade at the end of the month).