NFE 2014 Tagset

[aurilly.livejournal.com]

As promised, this is the post to clarify some of the nominations. We’re trying to arrive at a final tagset of freeform tags that are broad enough to be requestable(?) by multiple people for multiple characters/prompts, but specific enough that people are happy. The more tags we have, and the more specific they are, the harder matching will be. We also want to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding what the tags mean; this will make people more comfortable offering them, and thus, more likely to match on them. Please note that some of the currently approved nominations may not end up in the final tagset, and, depending on the answers here, we may revise the wording of some nominations or consolidate them. We’ll put a glossary of any potentially confusing tags in the post that lets everyone know sign-ups are open. Please remember that your prompt will still be written out in the optional details; the tag doesn't need to encompass it.

We'll add to this post as more nominations are made.

Nominations We’re Asking to Revise
Bacchus/anyone: If you nominated this and have space in your character nomination slots, would you please delete this and nominate “Bacchus (Narnia)” in the character field instead? You can request Bacchus as a character and say in the details that you ship him with anyone your writer chooses. If you don’t have space, let us know and we’ll nominate him as a character for you.

Questions
These are questions for people who nominated certain tags. Depending on the answers here, we may revise the wording of the nominations, or consolidate them.

—Tisroc: If you nominated this, did you have a specific Tisroc in mind? I’m assuming you mean the Tisroc from The Horse & His Boy, but just want to confirm that you weren’t thinking of a world-building story about Tisrocs in general.

—Spare Oom: If you nominated this, what were you thinking a story for this tag should entail? It is what Mr. Tumnus calls England, but how would you characterize a 'Spare Oom' story?

—The Missing Years (pre-crash): I’m assuming this means life in England after the Pevensies were expelled from Narnia but before the events of The Last Battle, but just wanted to be sure. Would this only mean a story set in England, or could it also mean a story between Rilian’s reign and Tirian’s? Could it also mean a story set in England that ignores The Last Battle and pretends everyone lived on in our world? What if we had a tag called “Post-Narnia Life In England”, and used this to encompass both 'the missing years' and an 'Everybody Lives' scenario that ignores the train crash? The optional details are where you could let your writer know your preference; I'm pretty sure someone offering the more meta tag would be open to either sub-period.

—Telmar and Telmarine Era: Did the same person nominate these? What if we consolidated these into a single tag called “Telmarines” that encompasses a) what happened on the island of Telmar, b) the Narnian era over which the Telmarines ruled, c) stories about minor characters such as Glozelle and d) what happened to the Telmarines after Prince Caspian. That way, people can offer “Telmarines” and you can specify in the optional details which kind of story you’re looking for. Again, I think people offering this tag would be interested in most of these sub-options (but I might be wrong).

—Alternate Universe: Am thinking of having two broad Alternate Universe tags: a) “Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence” b) “Alternate Universe – Different Setting” and leaving the details for the specifics. The first would allow people to request a specific change in canon and an exploration of how this would affect other stuff. The second would allow people to request a specific Alternate Universe setting (ex. Historical, coffee shop, etc.).

—The Wood Between the Worlds: (in full disclosure, this is my nomination) I want this to be about the mechanics of world-hopping, or maybe stories where characters world-hop to places other than Narnia; it doesn’t necessarily have to involve the Wood or the rings. If anyone has a better idea of how to succinctly describe this, I’d really appreciate it.

—’time wonkiness’/’the usual muddle about times’: Another one where suggestions are welcome for how to describe a story that plays with the concepts of weird time passage and (de)aging that happen when people travel between worlds.

THANK YOU!

Comments

[aurilly.livejournal.com]

Hm, Dimension Travel is on the right track. I think I'll make it 'Non-Canon Dimension Travel', since that's what the request is for,. and that makes it clear it isn't just what happens in the books. Thanks! That helped. :)

which would most obviously apply to stories set in the PC/VDT/SC era, the TLB era, or anywhere in between
If I understand this correctly, you're using 'Telmarine Era' the way people talk about 'Bourbon France'. This is TOTALLY valid, but I don't think it's universally understood. Until I read this, I have always immediately assumed 'Telmarine Era' referred to the period between when the Telmarines invaded and when Caspian X was crowned. That's a very different period from what comes after, because it's about the animals living in hiding etc etc. While people might be super excited to write about Rilian and Tirian, those same people may not be at all interested in writing about Caspian I, so I hesitate to say 'Telmarine Era' should cover both. Combining might put people off offering it, thus making the tag less matchable. And at the same time, 'Telmar' is only a place and wouldn't necessarily be enough to convey 'and also them leaving Telmar for Narnia etc'.

We already have 'The Long Winter', 'Golden Age',' Archenland', and 'Calormen', so it makes sense to continue the idea of era and place tags. I think 'Telmar & Telmarine Era' should be a hybrid place/era tag to cover Telmar and people leaving Telmar for Narnia and the reigns of Caspian I through Miraz; then in the details of the prompt you write what you actually are requesting. But we still need one for post-PC stories set in Narnia. It doesn't have to be canonical; we can make it up solely for the purpose of this tagset. Maybe 'Narnia: Caspian X onwards'? And I'll put the definition in the glossary. What do you think?

(sorry this was so tldr)

[edenfalling]

Hmm. I would tend to interpret "Telmarine Era" as any time in which a person of Telmarine descent was in de facto control of Narnia, but Caspian does mark a HUGE division point in the nature of that control so splitting it into before-and-after sections makes a lot of sense. Maybe "Telmarine Occupation" would be better for the first nine Caspians plus Miraz? Since it's only from Caspian X onward that that family gets sort of... um... legitimized by Aslan's decree as rightful de jure rulers of Narnia.

I'm trying to find a more graceful way to describe the post-PC era, if only because I would like to have these tags available for my own future use (and I think if at least two people use the same tag at least 5-10 times, it tends to get made into a canonical tag that pops up in the little fill-in windows), but I can't think of one off the top of my head. So yeah, let's go with "Narnia: Caspian X onwards" or something along those general lines.