Role play and the shop setting (Canon issues?)

[iStoleYurVamps]

I love role play, and I do have a love for the idea of getting down to role play my Soq. However...

While there is quite a bit of lore and information on the soq, their species, and the shop setting, I have seen so many confusing things! How do you canonly role play ponies that have obvious non-native American influences? How do you explain those that have objects on them that wouldn't even exist? What is currently going on in the world of Soq? What is a good base for new soq owners to start their role-play from? Is it valid to role play them as humanoids provided it's still following other shop guidelines?

While I'm not saying the shop needs a total do-over in terms of canon, I think it needs a sort of well written, well organized hub of information to explain all of the canon. I'm a person who would enjoys sticking to canon when I can, and drawing from the established rules of the setting, but when the rules are vague and I can't find them very easily, I'm deterred.
A nice thing for the shop might be a canon clarification guide. How factors of all those crazy out of this world edits will come into play, and how to stay close to the 'world' of soq.

I do know a lot of information exists that does answer some of the basic questions. But, again, much seems to be scattered and I have to dig overly hard to find, sometimes missing my answer completely.

Um, any thoughts, additions, am I just thinking to hard too late at night? |Da  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

I'm sort of a newbie (one soq) who doesn't chat much in the thread (shy), but I think that that this sort of thing would be really useful- especially to people like me who don't really know where to jump in for RP. Even though the basic information is out there, little details are much harder to find. For example, in Soq canon, do the horses really wear clothes? How do the pants and shirts get on 'em? I think it would be really cool if there was an information hub with links to where this sort of information could be found.  

[Graceangel]

Recently, Nissy has launched a rp guidebook. it does get into each race's whatevers.

Though I do agree that how people translate their cosplays or unique soqs into the soq world and make sense in rp boggles my mind. Like.. all these soq's who came out of the wow event.. many of them had magical properties in game, but no soqs have magical abilities? Or, unless some do? but how do you know if they do or not? and what determines if they can have them? What makes a soq eligible to have special abilities versus those who don't?

I think having abilities is ok as long as there are strict guidelines.

Like, for my Fera. I wanted to write it to where her and some of her childhood friends came here from azeroth through a magic portal gone awry. I wasn't sure if that would be allowed. It seems to ask those sorts of questions in thread bring hugely negative overreaction upon you.  

[Dragain]

I've seen mobile phones on most of the TWEWY Soquili and I wonder how they are going to explain that ICly. xD

*cough* Niss had been working on an RP guide - as posted by Graceangel - so that might help things in the future? Also, Mind had provided an updated map to show that Kawani is actually really big~

Honestly, Soquili had always been really slack where sticking to "IC-edits" are concerned, since it'll probably cause people to be upset if they did. For example, I know in SoA, they have a very strict policy on what edits are not allowed - mainly "modern" items that can never exist in that time. Instead, people are encouraged to stick to simple things like cloth pouches, accessories made of natural materials such as precious stones and even animal parts. Not sure if this is a viable suggestion, but I'll throw it in here anyway?

Grace -
Um, that is probably not allowed. |D Sure, these ponies are rather magical but its still set in a "real world" setting. Besides, magical creatures from an alternate universe coming to Kawani through a portal and turning into horses sound pretty far-fetched?

Although pure skinwalkers come from "hell" through a portal on a tree in a cursed graveyard (that must be a huge tree?), Wolterpingers exist, I've seen custom drawn winged foxes as familiars on an Angeni and I believe that Mind's Soq has a dinosaur familiar, so... Ask a staff? xD  

[Sabin Duvert]

While I agree that having some setting information is good and necessary, I'd really worry about going into too much detail beyond what's already been posted for the mere fact that soquili has been around for over... 5 years now? And there are people with years of story built up around their soquili having to elaborate on the basic rules/premises.

So the more you start pinning down concrete information, the more you're going to find yourself conflicting with the plots that people have already established for themselves. The ways people have come up with to explain their soquili with apparent "futuristic" or foreign accessories, etc. It's just such a massive shop that it's kind of hard to go back and ret-con in a more detailed setting without stepping on a lot of toes.

I think in the basic lore, it's a setting based on early America. It would have to be after some contact with Europe merely because of the fact that there ARE horses - and I am pretty sure at some event in the long past they had some horses with saddles come in representing colonists' horses.
There are supposedly other places in the world outside the soquili map, and it's been green-lighted for people to be able to play soquili from foreign lands in the past/have accents/etc.

Beyond that... I personally think it's hard to nail down TOO much at this point in time.  

[mouselet]

It's easiest in general to RP a Soq that is not from Kawani lands as simply being "from very far away" and never go into too much detail about the actual place they come from. If you just refer to customs, people, relationships, etc without getting into specifics, it'll fit in with the general setting much easier.

As for accessories/items, you might say that they were a gift from a human, or something that they found, or something else like that.  

[Malis Vitterfolk]

I know I worked out a few of mine to fit within the setting. Malis (and most other 'trolls' I have seen) come from the South American jungles. my Dr. Who soquili was on a (blue)boat that came from England. Rynn (and a few of the Bloodelve soquili) came from Northern west America close to where Washington state is. What I mean to outline is that, with a bit of creativity, there is nothing stating that they couldn't have come from somewhere else and still been within the correct time period. That being said, I have no idea how to explain the small bug boxes (aka phones) as I don't have any on my herd!