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How the UTO Codex Redux is going to be posted and hosted
5 months ago
Most have probably seen the preview by now and I'm not going to repeat myself too much here.
This journal is just more of a warning that I might post a bunch of stuff soon and to provide some behind the scenes commentary since the project has gotten more complex than originally intended.
So the UTO setting has snowballed over time and gotten fairly expansive. The original writer, Hetzer, only wrote the Integration series and Homecoming as a spicy side story. Despite this, there's a ton of fanfics and fanart for the setting these two stories take place in. As a result, a lore codex for the setting eventually got developed as a tool to give fan artists and anyone interested in the setting basic info, but there's currently three codex versions with mutually exclusive information or other issues.
These are unofficial terms I'm using, but you have the following codex versions.
- The Classic Codex. Hetzer mostly wrote this version himself focusing on Integration. It's rough around the edges, but fully complete.
- The Modern Codex. This version is incomplete and was more of a wide community effort with an extended timeline established by Homecoming.
- The World Anvil Codex. This version is also incomplete and the most up to date, but only a small group of people were handpicked to work on it with entirely new species and lore added to the setting with Hetzer's personal involvement being fairly minimal or non-existent.
I prefer the classic codex overall because it's actually finished and focuses on the time span Integration takes place in rather than the far future. It just comes across as more of a rough draft. The other two codex versions suffer from issues where they're simply incomplete after multiple years, and I have creative disagreements with how they were written. I haven't really touched this setting since 2019, and progress on codex completion is almost in the exact same place six years later, so I figured I might as well do it myself with other fanfic writers dabbling in the setting. However, trying to comb through all this information while providing my own interpretations feels like I'm trying to translate the bible. I feel a bit silly overall since it boils down to a furry size kink setting. For better or worse, the setting really sucked me in all those years ago and still does to some extent since the size differences made for surprisingly excellent storytelling and worldbuilding that inspired or influenced my own content.
I'm calling this new version the 'Codex Redux' simply because I want to return to the roots of the setting. The reasons are twofold. As I said, I'm mostly interested in the invasion of Earth and the Integration time period, but I also have some qualms with the extended timeline established later on. I feel like it created some bloat or didn't respect the source material, especially if people who weren't Hetzer were the main minds behind adding a ton of random new lore and species independently. Like the annelids / slith completely upend a ton of previously established lore if you know about them, and it feels like they'd fit more in a setting like Warhammer 40k rather than the UTO setting if they're trying to enslave or kill everyone while being horrific, wormlike parasites... so I'm giving those things a footnote at most since they're originally from a canonized fanfic with Integration making zero mention of them.
But anyway, here's how I plan on going about this. I've run into an issue where FA has a 10MB post limit, and just the preview I posted for the codex redux is around 8MB large. So I plan on slowly posting the codex redux in segments so that people on Furaffinity can read it natively on this website and provide commentary or feedback. Once the project is fully complete, I'm going to link to a master file hosted on either Google Drive or Dropbox for a proper E-book for those that prefer it. Since Piershey / Jist is the main writer I'm collaborating with on this project, they're eventually going to make a post bringing attention to the completed master file as well.
I'm hoping this approach won't annoy my watchers though because I don't wanna spam their submissions tab, but you might see daily posts covering one species at a time. It's drip feeding content in a sense.
It's also a high-effort fan project trying to be faithful to the source material either way. It's not official. I have no clue if Hetzer will ever return to the setting or not. I still think he's a great writer, despite what happened between us in the past with Disintegration, but I don't wanna get into that. I'm just hoping this whole thing provides the resources I wish I had all those years ago to any aspiring fanfic writers. Even if things never continue officially, I think fan artists will continue the setting in spirit. I'm taking an open-ended approach for the project overall to accommodate official and fan material alike since I don't wanna invalidate any currently existing content, just fill in any holes and provide a basic lore foundation for the future that's timeless and easily accessible for everyone to preserve everything good about the setting.
This journal is just more of a warning that I might post a bunch of stuff soon and to provide some behind the scenes commentary since the project has gotten more complex than originally intended.
So the UTO setting has snowballed over time and gotten fairly expansive. The original writer, Hetzer, only wrote the Integration series and Homecoming as a spicy side story. Despite this, there's a ton of fanfics and fanart for the setting these two stories take place in. As a result, a lore codex for the setting eventually got developed as a tool to give fan artists and anyone interested in the setting basic info, but there's currently three codex versions with mutually exclusive information or other issues.
These are unofficial terms I'm using, but you have the following codex versions.
- The Classic Codex. Hetzer mostly wrote this version himself focusing on Integration. It's rough around the edges, but fully complete.
- The Modern Codex. This version is incomplete and was more of a wide community effort with an extended timeline established by Homecoming.
- The World Anvil Codex. This version is also incomplete and the most up to date, but only a small group of people were handpicked to work on it with entirely new species and lore added to the setting with Hetzer's personal involvement being fairly minimal or non-existent.
I prefer the classic codex overall because it's actually finished and focuses on the time span Integration takes place in rather than the far future. It just comes across as more of a rough draft. The other two codex versions suffer from issues where they're simply incomplete after multiple years, and I have creative disagreements with how they were written. I haven't really touched this setting since 2019, and progress on codex completion is almost in the exact same place six years later, so I figured I might as well do it myself with other fanfic writers dabbling in the setting. However, trying to comb through all this information while providing my own interpretations feels like I'm trying to translate the bible. I feel a bit silly overall since it boils down to a furry size kink setting. For better or worse, the setting really sucked me in all those years ago and still does to some extent since the size differences made for surprisingly excellent storytelling and worldbuilding that inspired or influenced my own content.
I'm calling this new version the 'Codex Redux' simply because I want to return to the roots of the setting. The reasons are twofold. As I said, I'm mostly interested in the invasion of Earth and the Integration time period, but I also have some qualms with the extended timeline established later on. I feel like it created some bloat or didn't respect the source material, especially if people who weren't Hetzer were the main minds behind adding a ton of random new lore and species independently. Like the annelids / slith completely upend a ton of previously established lore if you know about them, and it feels like they'd fit more in a setting like Warhammer 40k rather than the UTO setting if they're trying to enslave or kill everyone while being horrific, wormlike parasites... so I'm giving those things a footnote at most since they're originally from a canonized fanfic with Integration making zero mention of them.
But anyway, here's how I plan on going about this. I've run into an issue where FA has a 10MB post limit, and just the preview I posted for the codex redux is around 8MB large. So I plan on slowly posting the codex redux in segments so that people on Furaffinity can read it natively on this website and provide commentary or feedback. Once the project is fully complete, I'm going to link to a master file hosted on either Google Drive or Dropbox for a proper E-book for those that prefer it. Since Piershey / Jist is the main writer I'm collaborating with on this project, they're eventually going to make a post bringing attention to the completed master file as well.
I'm hoping this approach won't annoy my watchers though because I don't wanna spam their submissions tab, but you might see daily posts covering one species at a time. It's drip feeding content in a sense.
It's also a high-effort fan project trying to be faithful to the source material either way. It's not official. I have no clue if Hetzer will ever return to the setting or not. I still think he's a great writer, despite what happened between us in the past with Disintegration, but I don't wanna get into that. I'm just hoping this whole thing provides the resources I wish I had all those years ago to any aspiring fanfic writers. Even if things never continue officially, I think fan artists will continue the setting in spirit. I'm taking an open-ended approach for the project overall to accommodate official and fan material alike since I don't wanna invalidate any currently existing content, just fill in any holes and provide a basic lore foundation for the future that's timeless and easily accessible for everyone to preserve everything good about the setting.
I'm begrudgingly giving them a small section since they are technically official material, I just really don't like their implementation. It's practically impossible to write about anything post-integration without the annelids being this genocidal, existential threat looming in the background at least.
Don't let that deter you from writing about whatever you want, but it's really hard to do anything past Integration while keeping it "lore friendly" so to speak. There's very little information to go off of, and I doubt it's going to ever get fully fleshed out and explored properly considering how long it's been. I also personally feel like it's potentially adding a lot of fat and not respecting what Integration established to begin with since the story seemed like it was going to build up to an eventual confrontation with the rynar somehow.
Looking forward to the release. I have ideas for short stories set earlier in the timeline and a new shiny codex will be a big help with those.
Infiltrating every facet of society and doing all sorts of horrible things (to both mesos and their fellow men) in order to achieve their goals, showing that the cute and tiny Humans can be monsters too and be pretty damn good at it.
Not really a spoiler for my story since it was going to be in the prologue.
But I doubt it. We might have a section going over guardians and charges at least. Again, I feel like a lot of lore established in the extended timeline could be a bit silly.