[Felkesste]

Please don't view this as an official application, more like pitching an idea and getting direct feedback from as many sources as possible.
The TLDR is that a team of academics from Karaten would wash up on Korvara with the goal of researching and cataloging everything to form some kind of encyclopedia of Korvara- and the less important objective of surviving long enough to do that.

Coral Quill would be a naval branch of a larger research institution within Karaten, sent aboard contracted or privately owned vessels to either support aquatic experiments and research, or actively carry out their own studies and tests above the surface of the ocean. While given basic training, ranks, and often having respectable educations behind their hiring in the first place, they're still primarily scholars at the end of the day and would generally be seen writing reports or collecting samples rather than wrestling squid monsters or taking part in military affairs.

The pitch is that this theoretical naval research team would be sent out to investigate unusual tidal movements somewhere in the vicinity of Korvara, (speculated to be something massive moving deep beneath the surface, too far for the team to get any actual information at the time with the staff and resources they had on hand), and when a freak storm ends up sinking their ship, the survivors end up washing up on Korvara. Their surviving pocket money is useless there, as it's the wrong currency. Their equipment was lost, or ruined in the storm, leaving them with the basic rags of any fledgling adventurer. Their bodies are not in the best of shapes, though it's unclear if that's their scholarly lifestyle or the battering of the waves and mysterious magics that brought them to this point in their lives. Starting with nothing but the pins of their company still stubbornly clinging to their clothes, the Coral Quill would have to make contact with locals, and navigate the complicated waters of staying on everyone's good sides while studying their cultures, their histories, *Cough* their magical secrets *Cough*, their economies, all while organizing expeditions into the wilderness to obtain soil and mineral samples, flora and fauna samples, and write field reports on everything they see and experience that deviates from their idea of normal back in the empire at large.

This would be something people sign-up for. There'd probably be a set deadline for signing on to the crew, and when the day came around, there'd be an announcement or immersive freak storm in-game, and the selected members would be put into a guild together and dropped on a random stretch of beach together in Korvara. Some quick things to keep in mind for the speculative terms and conditions of signing on,
- This is not going to be an opportunity to bring max level characters from the mainland over to Korvara. You will start at level 1, on a fresh character. Again, you can explain this initial weakness as being a paper pusher by nature, or as having been wounded in the storm and shipwreck.
- Karaten does not approve of liches, vampires, or dullahans last I knew, and would not likely hire them for naval research teams. Other unusual races are probably a case by case discussion with admins, though it goes without saying that you probably won't be allowed to sign on initially as a Korvara native race. Future members will likely be recruited from that pool, I imagine.
- You will not have any authority or political power on Korvara. I mean, you probably don't have any kind of power back in Karaten either, but that's likely doubly true when you're just a shipwreck survivor with nothing to your name and no way back home. You're an outsider, a stranger in a strange land, and thus anything you promise or threaten is entirely on you, giving you a difficult position to negotiate from. How the locals and their rulers choose to view you is going to depend on how your guild operates and contributes to life on the island.

The pro's, as I see them, are things like having an opportunity to immersively learn about the lore and mechanics of Korvara, introducing a neutral faction that's more interested in information and research data than politics or war, having a group that'll pay for escorts and expeditionary forces to unite players and stimulate the economy some- "Bringing new job opportunities to the unemployed masses!" If all goes well, the foundation of a library of information and lore in-game at whatever ends up being the Coral Quill's campsite or base of operations, giving players a place to immersively learn more about the island and the myriad of differences between it and the mainland's sensibilities. The Coral Quill can be kept under close watch and control by admins to serve as a sort of informational deus-ex-machina as needed for future events; If something like an earthquake is about to hit, or some ancient horror is waking up, it'll probably be the guys collecting soil samples and monitoring seemingly inane changes in the air that'll be the first to know, and from there they can inform the local authorities. This would make them good for introducing events ahead of time immersively.

Some optional toggles for this proposal would be..
- If the guild is headed by an admin, and kept under watch within certain limitations and rules not unlike guards, then the Coral Quill could potentially be given a limited means of communicating and trading with Karaten to exchange information and resources, to eventually open the door to imports and exports to and from the island handled entirely ICly by the leaders of the island. Something like a rudimentary gate that can transport inorganic matter, but would fry or expose anything with any organic components trying to pass through to the void.
- The guild could serve as an introduction to a rising threat, whatever was beneath the surface and whatever brought on that storm. The nature of the threat could be as straightforward and simple as a titanic monster from primordial times, or as complicated as some mad wizard trying to take something precious from the island in secret.
- Incentivizing research for members or even just freelancers that know how to read and write and show up with a decently written report, with in-game rewards, keeping tabs on who accomplishes what, and Karaten or the local leaders or whoever taking it upon themselves to reward the member of the Coral Quill that did the field research or served as the guild's mouth-piece during negotiations or first contact. This would keep the guild and it's recruits active and ambitious both ICly and OOCly.

The guild would not benefit from aggression on the whole. This is not ever going to develop into conquest, and any wars they take part in would either have to be really, really forced on them by the local political powers, or a matter of survival for the island as a whole. From the start, their goals and desires would push even the most ambitious among them to take peaceful approaches to any disagreements, because you can't learn much from people that have closed their gates to you, and you can't survive if no one wants to trade with you- especially if all you want to do with your time is study the life cycles of the local butterflies. As fascinating as that may end up being, it won't keep you fed without outside support...

I'd appreciate feedback of any kind on this. Criticism, concerns, complaints, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts, from the admins, to the players, the Sigrogana imperialists to the Korvara islanders.