Novus Luna's Yuatja Application - Ikthala N'ritja (Cataclysm Dance)

[Novus Luna]

Byond ID:
My Byond ID is Novus Luna, as are my Discord and forum usernames.

Marine Name (so we know who you are; if you play alien mostly, state that here):
I primarily play as Cyrus Ambrose. In playing him, I mostly play as Executive Officer or Staff Officer, as well as Specialist or Squad Medic. When playing as a Xenomorph I normally play Boiler or Hivelord.

Name of the character you want whitelisted (The name your predator will use. This must match your in-game predator name):
My Predator's name is Ikthala N'ritja, which translates to 'Cataclysm Dance' or 'Destructive Performance'.

Are you familiar with the Predator Code Of Honor?
I have read over the Code of Honor multiple times and familiarized myself with it.

Character background (An ADEQUATE description and story of your predators background):
Ikthala has not always carried himself with the degree of outspokenness and pride that he does now. Early on he was a runt of sorts, showing little promise both in combat and in strategy, at least in comparison to the Yuatja around him that were to become hunters. Wanting to match up to the scale of his more talented and wise peers, Ikthala did what he could in training and study to attempt to match to their level, though it was not an easy gap for him to close. This petty jealousy for him was a motivator, but it was not a powerful one. Often he would attempt to duel with his younger peers, and just as often would he lose in these duels. This embarrassment fueled him more, but it was still not enough. Nothing seemed to be.

The first major motivator, the first major event that shaped his actions and personality, came during a time where he was to accompany his father in a hunt and merely observe, as to better teach him the code of the hunt, and the ways of combat. He came across a Drone of a Serpent Hive, and almost lashed out to attack it out of desire to prove himself preemptively, but he was stopped by his father, who explained the nature of prey like that, the ones that were protected by the code. Ikthala was not the greatest of fans of this concept, but went along with it nonetheless. It was not much later into this hunt, as his father did battle with a Serpent of the Sword, one of the hulking creatures with blade-like hands, that he gained such spite for even the 'defenseless' creatures, like Drones, that the code protected. As his father battled, he witnessed the Drone from before draw nearer with intention to impregnate his father with the spawn of the Serpents. This changed the tide of the fight enough that his father was forced to flee with Ikthala, to avoid that great dishonor. It was this trip that began to shape Ikthala's pride as he felt the weight of the code weigh upon him. Nevertheless he would follow it, but with the faintest of scorn for it.

It was during the chaotic hunt that he became blooded that he was truly shaped into the sadistic and strangely merciful thing he is. His clan accompanied their Elder into the depths of a nest that contained an accursed Serpent born from one of their fellow Yuatja. As the Elder did battle with that disgusting abomination, he and the rest of his clan fought off the hive, and due to their sheer numbers it had turned towards a losing battle. He had a moment of worry that all hunters of his clan may fall in this battle before the terrible death-cry of the half-breed echoed the battlefield. With the Elder victorious, several of the hive combatants fled in fear, as their greatest token in the battle had fallen. Ikthala himself, going through the motions of marking himself with his first kill, still looked on, astonished at the utter fear that the Elder commanded from a single victory. Even the Serpents that had not been caught in the battle had fled in self-preserving panic. This, Ikthala thought, was the key to bypassing the code in one fashion or another, the key to keeping those 'protected' by it at bay. This sadistic fear-spawning became his greatest motivator for his betterment, one that he utilized just as well as a weapon in future hunts.

How do you intend to play your predator (as in, describe HOW you will act/play your predator)?
Ikthala is cocky, prideful, and - in a strange, less direct way - sadistic. His sadism is not inspired out of sheer desire to cause pain, but out of a desire to fuel his twisted ego. In his mind, if he can fell someone respected, a great leader or renowned warrior, anyone that falls in line behind that person will fear him, and as such he will have some degree of power over them. When hunting, it will be his way to attempt to single out the one greatest being in a group, be that the leader, the person most well armored and armed, or sheerly the one that has displayed the most skill in combat. In that combat, he will be merciless. It would not be beyond him to cause the greatest suffering he could, or rend several limbs, even in a duel...but he ensures that his target lives, whenever possible. It is one thing to strike fear into the hearts of those around the target by killing them, but by letting them speak of what happened to them, that fear is so much more. In doing all of this, Ikthala will seldom engage with 'lesser' prey, they that have not earned a place that would put fear into the mind of others. He will engage them to keep himself sharp in times where no one has proven themselves, or sheerly to survive if being attacked or needing to eat, but rarely otherwise. Outside of those circumstances, he watches. He waits. He observes his prey and singles one out.

In practice, this means that Ikthala will rarely kill. If he is attacked, whoever dares do so will die, yes, but beyond that he will watch and wait. He will interact with other Predators to learn what they have seen. If a Marine has shown themselves capable enough to fall many Serpents, as an example, that Marine will be his target. If a Serpent has progressed enough to become the likes of a Ravager, or a well aged Warrior or Defender, they may become his target as well. Something important to note is that he is not beyond honor duelling another Predator. If he has witnessed another Predator 'make the allies of the prey fearful of them', then he sees that as a very important challenge. If he wins in a duel against that one Predator, then he has shown himself not only to be higher than that Predator, but than they that have lost to them. It is that fear that he strikes that fuels his pride, and that pride that drives him forward.

Why should we whitelist you?
I like to consider myself a good roleplayer, something of a core quality for the Predators of this server it seems. I hold it in a high regard, having come from servers the likes of Baystation and Apollo where it was a core function to the server itself. As it is now, I do my best to interact naturally with Predators and roleplay, not treat them as just another thing to kill as many marines do. If I am in Command, I order realistic first contact procedures, forbidding engagement with them if they have not proven hostile. If I am on the field, I observe and interact with them with the astonishment and wonder one should have in meeting an alien species. If I am an alien myself, I act cautious when around them, not wishing to provoke contact with something I am fully aware could destroy me without the hive at my back. I made this application, this character, with the desire to actively avoid entirely killing and removing someone from the round so much as attempting to promote interactions and roleplay.

Have you been banned from CM in the last month for any reason (we will check, and lies may result in immediate denial)?
I have never been banned from Colonial Marines.

Are you currently banned from any other servers and if so, why?
I am not currently banned from any servers to my knowledge.

Do you understand that any player - donor or otherwise - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our rules or disobey the Predator Code of Honor?
While this is currently a non-issue point for me, I am aware that anyone can lose their whitelist in the event of a violation of the rules or code, including donors and staff.

[Novus Luna]

For reference by the Yuatja Council and anyone else that wishes to know, here are the other applications I've had, in order of posting.

Commanding Officer - Pending
Moderator - Denied
Mapper - Pending

[Drownie]

Even though the app appears to lack in effort it was meant to be in that way, his background showed his MO well and the playstyle shows something unusual. The balance between culling and neutrality is something great, and the "Predator Hunter" type of playstyle just makes it better as it's unusual and harmless (stated by himself).

I've had a nice chat with him on DMs of Discord where he answered most of my questions regarding the playstyle and effort in the app, he seems to be someone that would handle Pred well - furthermore, he's known in the community as a competent roleplayer.
No reason to not +1 him.

+1

[Novus Luna]

For the sake of anyone else that they may be applicable to, here was the Q&A between Drownie and myself in private messages:

Q: What would make your Predator different from the other Predators, what you showed in your "How do you int.." is mostly personality but not actions. Tell me, what is different on your playstyle?
A: The status quo of predators seems to be 1 of 2 things- going for a bunch of prey throughout the round indiscriminately, or do practically nothing. the style I'm going for is to try and find a balance of this, while also effectively never killing marines. When I fight, it's going to be either against an old tier 1/2, a tier 3, or a marine that has proven themselves greatly. In fighting marines, I'm fighting specifically to cause pain, at least, if no one is watching. If there are spectators to the fight with a marine, I'd go as bloody and damaging as possible without killing them.

Q: Based on your playstyle you showed yourself a bit more lean to fight Predators, how that would work?
A: It is an amplification of my characters desire for fear and respect. If some predator just beat a marine specialist that has killed 30 serpents, my character will think 'okay, that predator now has the humans shitting themselves about him, now I'll show them that I'm better'.
==Q: That policy wouldn't be a murderboning policy?
==A: He wouldn't be wanting to kill them; he'd likely try to fuck up Predators less than he'd fuck up a Marine.

Q: I noticed your story kinda lacks about the first contact between Pred X Marine, how that would happen in a round of you?
A: He would kind of have a god complex when it comes to humans, having heard the stories of old regarding predators being worshipped on earth. He would likely attempt to get that level of respect one way or another.
==Q: So, he is powered by ego?
==A: Yes, that's why he rarely kills sapient life. It's one thing to have the power to kill something, it's another to show that you have control entirely of if someone lives or dies.

[Ghostdex]

The application is more or less generic to me but I’m going yo skip over that.

Your moderator application was denied on the basis that your behavior towards players and staff was displeasing. I like to think that a players attitude and behavior standard is that of a staff members or higher.

Going with a -1 for now until I notice you’ve improved.

[z a n e b o t]

The application is more or less generic to me but I’m going yo skip over that.

Your moderator application was denied on the basis that your behavior towards players and staff was displeasing. I like to think that a players attitude and behavior standard is that of a staff members or higher.

Going with a -1 for now until I notice you’ve improved.

Pretty much this

[spartanbobby]

The application is more or less generic to me but I’m going yo skip over that.

Your moderator application was denied on the basis that your behavior towards players and staff was displeasing. I like to think that a players attitude and behavior standard is that of a staff members or higher.

Going with a -1 for now until I notice you’ve improved.

I don't know much about this so *shrug

Your app seems fine and I liked the "Look at me I'm so strong I don't even need to kill you to prove it" or that's at least how I took it you could just be completely insane. You seem more active in discord than the forums something I can understand, I've seen you around in-game a good bit. I'd still like to see your post count improve
+1

[Symbiosis]

Player has spent an extensive amount of time (over a month) bouncing ideas off myself and other Preds to make sure they don’t break any of the honor code and some research to make sure they’re trying something unique.

I like the story and I like the effort!

+1

[Sailor Dave]

I like your effort and the style is pretty neat.

I know sadism is kind of your thing here, but as long as you're considerate and keep other players in mind while you're hunting, I don't mind giving you a go.

+1

[Emeraldblood]

Need more community feedback

[420MYK]

Hmm not a bad story, Though i think pred lore stories are meant to follow closer to the original lore (xenos would NEVER run away from a battle for the hive, Losing a queen might cause confusion in the hive as we can see IG with losing hivemind for some time. But if a hive lost an abomination itd be no different to losing a facehugger in the hives eye, every last beno is the penultimate killing machine or they are nothing/dead) But i know that CM has to take certain liberty with the lore and stretch it abit for gameplay/legal reasons, so ill ignore that part of the story.

"Not alotta effort" but if that was purposeful then thank you, Long convoluted storys etc are great but not needed IMPO keep it simple and add spoiler drop down for the extras.

Im happy to put a soft +1 on this because i know you in game, your competent enough at the game to know not to abuse the preds strength. oh and +1 for him being a sadist :L if you get cleared you gotta nugget someone (within IC/Hunt ruling of course).

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Need more community feedback

This is... confusing. I thought that only the council's vote was relevant to if people pass or not, community feedback or not.

Well, I'll just have to make my review then! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay, so whilst I have already spoken to Novus about the name, I've had to say I'm not a very big fan of it since it could be prone to miss-spellings. There was a ruling several months back that staff wished that predator names were more understandable and easy to write, which is why names like Hun'tah Deth and such became more popular. Overall it ain't going to account for much, definitely not how Novus can play, but me still no likey >:C

As for the story itself, I have to say I very much love the contents, it really reminds me of something akin to a comic book villain's backstory from their perspective. But I do have a few gripes:
- The story itself spans a bit too much for how many words there are written, in just a paragraph your character met a drone, was stopped by their father, explained the code of honor, watched his dad fight a ravager, AND watch his dad get infected by a drone. I believe if you had spent more time detailing each event and fleshing it out, the story could be much more impactful, dare I say probably one of the best predator backstories on the forum.

- The story is VERY SHORT. Which is something I very much love, and have to thank you for. People seem to keep forgetting that humans need to read these fukken things, and then they go and write seven pages in a google document. I really appreciate you keeping it short and sweet, it's made reviewing way easier. Though I think with all the content in yours, it couldn't hurt to make it a little longer, exploring some of the details of each event to establish stuff like location and deeper emotion, but I'm still cool with it.

- Alot of the use of predator slang might confuse some other readers, for instance calling a ravager a 'Serpent of the Sword' could very easily make some folks tilt their heads and go "Since when did lizards have swords?". You could fight that off with a more apt description of the opponent, maybe some kind of memorable mark like scars or colored carapace, etc.

Your intended playstyle is... well, not 'original' so much as... 'remixed'. Alot of people who've applied for, or tried to apply for, predator tend to focus on making their character a sadistic killer, so they can exploit the opportunity to murderbone. Yours focusing on sparing opponents to produce fear is... in my opinion not going to work in-game, as people don't fear predators so much as... hate getting killed by them. I still think it's a very interesting idea, but if you want it to work you're going to need a full platoon of high rpers or high rping xenos.

Overall, activity-wise I'd say you're definitely in a good position to apply, constant chatting on the Discord, forum, and playing on the server. Though I have to admit I haven't seen you RP as much as I'd like to see it, I still believe you'll be able to pass this just fine.

Serpent Trapper sends his regards.

+1

[Novus Luna]

I will say that I wrote the story the way I did because I don't like that other applications seem to do scene-specific backstories that don't cover the predators life so much as a single moment of it. I prefer textbook backstory to narrative backstory. I was tempted to combine the two and give a narrative taken from each of the three parts of my characters life that were mentioned, but that would've made it far too long. I have proven on another thread that there is such thing as too long, and didn't think it appropriate to waste the time of those reading with what didn't need to be longer.

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

I will say that I wrote the story the way I did because I don't like that other applications seem to do scene-specific backstories that don't cover the predators life so much as a single moment of it. I prefer textbook backstory to narrative backstory. I was tempted to combine the two and give a narrative taken from each of the three parts of my characters life that were mentioned, but that would've made it far too long. I have proven on another thread that there is such thing as too long, and didn't think it appropriate to waste the time of those reading with what didn't need to be longer.

Like I said, the issue isn't that there isn't enough content, it's just that the content is too compacted.

You just needed to spend maybe another paragraph or two to flesh out each of the points of time events were happening, basically. You had enough stuff, just not enough to show it in.

[ChengChan]

Yeah good player. +1

[Survivor]

I think he can handle it, +1

[Avalanchee]

Who cares about the story anyways?
Most of the time it's completely forgotten once the app is accepted.

On the other hand, I think we can trust Cyrus
+1

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Who cares about the story anyways?
Most of the time it's completely forgotten once the app is accepted.

On the other hand, I think we can trust Cyrus
+1

Imo the story is very important is helping to form the character and helps the player shape their personality.

Its also an easy to tell if they understand the medium and what they're actually playing as.

[Avalanchee]

Imo the story is very important is helping to form the character and helps the player shape their personality.

Its also an easy to tell if they understand the medium and what they're actually playing as.

Yeah I get it, it gives you a look at the lore knowledge and few other factors, but after the app gets accepted nobody really continues to develop the story, it just gets lost in the forums

[x31stOverlord]

I was going to get back to this sooner. I forgot to. My bad and apologies.

I'm going to give my +1 to Novus. Given that I've been watching them in game a lot and going off of recent interactions I'd say they have the capability to join the hunt.

Story was decent, if not "typical" but that's fine. Everyone has their own writing style. It gave off enough information and shows the player is intent on putting effort into this app which in my opinion is pretty much what the story is for.

TLDR : +1

[Emeraldblood]

Resolved - Accepted