What's your Canon?

[Geschosskopf]

In my universe, Kerbals are something akin to fungi, asexually reproducing through spores when they die. The new "female" Kerbals are just a different strain of the same species, probably due to mutations introduced into certain spores by radiation and hazardous chemicals.

Kerbals evolved from the vast green fungal mat that is the only other lifeform on Kerbin and covers nearly all its surface. The various "trees" and "cacti" are just various appendages of the fungal mat. Kerbals were once the same as trees, fixed in place, but somehow broke loose and are now their own species.

Normal Kerbals suffer extreme agoraphobia so live underground in dense warrens. This is why there are no Kerbal cities. However, a small percentage of Kerbals suffer from a type of insanity that makes them want to fly and explore space. The few structurs visible on Kerbin are their work and are connected by tunnels to the underground cities. The crazy Kerbals still feel most at home in close, crowded spaces, however, which is why they prosper when shut up in tiny capsules for decades at a time.

Kerbals live in a highly stratified, class-conscious society run by an ancient nobility and "new money" industrial barons (although most of the latter have some connection to the nobility). There's not much a middle class and the upper class does its best to keep the lower class in its place. The insane members of the upper class run the space program. There might be some insane members fo the lower class but they lack access to the surface so nobody really knows. Because there are practically no volunteers for the space program, once the nobles resort to the pressgang for mission crews, with the blessings of society for ridding it of some ne'er-do-wells.

The space program is a corporation. It's governing board is known as Mission Control, which is run like a Parliament. There are 2 main factions or parties, the Boffins (engineers) and Scientists. The practical Boffins are the majority so make most of the decisions on which missions to do and how to do them, plus design and control the ships. They're looking mostly for profit. The Scientists are more about knowledge for knowledge's sake, whether it's of any practical value or not (especially after the tech tree ends). So the Boffins run the show but must make some concessions to the Scientists. The 2 factions tend to settle disputes with physical violence, such as by throwing staplers shooting paperclips at each other.

[Mister Dilsby]

Interesting--most folks are describing origin theories, rather than a canon per se which I would define here as the officially published material (history and facts) pertaining to a fictional universe. For instance, it is Kerbfleet canon that there exists on Kerbin a kind of snake called a 'kobra', because Lisa Kerman made a reference to it on page 54 of "Duna, Ore Bust!" There are probably other animals on Kuzzter's version of Kerbin but no canon exists for them because they haven't been mentioned*. If I ever make refernce to a kow or a kougar in the strip that will instantly become canon--but for now, they are not.

Of course every time new content appears in an ongoing work the canon builds. This is the fun part, especially when multiple creators are playing in the same universe--the general rule is that nothing can contradict existing canon without some sort of justification. For example, I've made it canon that due to transmission time limitations probes have to be controlled by a nearby Kerbal pilot. If I were to suddenly show a probe landing on Eeloo with no crewed ships in the area, I would be violating my own canon.

Anyway, some people like to design the whole thing from the start (like sumghai, whose stuff is extremely detailed and definitely worth a read!), and some like to let it flow. Since I'm drawing from a lot of parody sources I have to keep it loose, I wouldn't want to avoid a good joke just because something I'd written down previously contradicts the new material. I mean, today it was a Simon and Garfunkel reference--imagine if I'd already made it canon that every male Kerbal has the exact same haircut!

*ETA: whoops, I did mention kittehkatts a couple of times. But that's it so far.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Kuzzter

[Goddess Bhavani]

Well, being an avid petrolhead, my Kerbal canon can be summed up very nicely in my KerbalWagen thread, where I propose a low cost economy car be marketed and sold to the masses, while making a joke that existing vehicles in my space program are the size of lifted bro trucks carrying just one or two persons.

Ahh the endless debate between good ol American iron vs Euro subcompacts replicated in KSP in the span of one weekend collaborating on the F-150 Replica project and making a joke mini car beside it

[Randazzo]

[CommanderSpock]

I personally don't do canon, I have a Sony a6000 (Although I do use canon FD lenses...)

My Kerbals have harnessed time, so unless they mess it up, they can revert time and not kill anyone (or infinitely kill anyone...)

[problemecium]

Sooner or later someone was bound to post a picture of a cannon. Alas, it would have been funnier if OP had misspelled "canon". Well spelled, OP, well spelled.

[Whovian]

KW Rocketry and Umbra Space Industries have been bitter rivals since Rovin Kerman singlehandedly bested Winston and Kyle Kerman in a game of Minmus golf.

[Randazzo]

Sooner or later someone was bound to post a picture of a cannon. Alas, it would have been funnier if OP had misspelled "canon". Well spelled, OP, well spelled.

It's Scottish. That's the only hint you get.

[KSK]

Capital - I love a good guessing game.

Although you could have given us a wee bit more skyline to work with. A nice shot of an old volcanic plug for example...

Back on topic, I think sumghai had it right. Fanon is a bit of a contrived portmanteau but its more accurate than canon in this context, since none of this has been approved by Squad. As for my fanon - see the link in my signature for the long version but the main points (if you don't mind extensive spoilers) are probably in this chapter.

[Mister Dilsby]

Back on topic, I think sumghai had it right. Fanon is a bit of a contrived portmanteau but its more accurate than canon in this context, since none of this has been approved by Squad. As for my fanon - see the link in my signature for the long version but the main points (if you don't mind extensive spoilers) are probably in this chapter.

Well that's certainly true--but isn't SQUAD really just distributing the game and leaving all the storytelling to us? It's not like there is a KSP movie out there that tells us what Jeb's first mission was or explains the island runway. So yes, we are fans writing fiction, but what we are fans of is not a fictional story. It is a framework intentionally left open so that almost any kind of fictional story can be built on it--or none at all. Though it is fair to say that the orange-suit characters each have a "stock" (forgive the term) personality based on their in-game behavior and what few characterizations SQUAD have made in promo materials. Every fan-made work I've seen so far stays true to that, and one of the main things I've tried to do in my work is to add some depth to the "stock" characters of Val, Jeb, Bob and Bill.

[KSK]

Well that's certainly true--but isn't SQUAD really just distributing the game and leaving all the storytelling to us? It's not like there is a KSP movie out there that tells us what Jeb's first mission was or explains the island runway. So yes, we are fans writing fiction, but what we are fans of is not a fictional story. It is a framework intentionally left open so that almost any kind of fictional story can be built on it--or none at all. Though it is fair to say that the orange-suit characters each have a "stock" (forgive the term) personality based on their in-game behavior and what few characterizations SQUAD have made in promo materials. Every fan-made work I've seen so far stays true to that, and one of the main things I've tried to do in my work is to add some depth to the "stock" characters of Val, Jeb, Bob and Bill.

Oh absolutely - and that (pretty minimal) framework is the main reason I love writing about KSP. There's very little actual canon - really just a handful of memes and a lot of names (of parts, companies and characters) - which gives us a vast amount of room for any number of different fanons. Just look at the range of different origin stories on this thread for example!

But it's still Squad's framework at the end of the day and only Squad get to say what's canon. Anything us ink-stained wretches contribute is provisional at best.

[peachoftree]

I don't have a cannon, this is a space simulator, not a 19th century warfare simulator

[Slam_Jones]

This is my Head-Canon:

Yes, I'm just that unoriginal

[SkyRender]

[HafCoJoe]

I prefer the term "Shtick"... xD

What is my special thing... well, those of you who watch my YouTube channel should wait for the last frame and find out!

[Kerb Johnson]

I'm post-Battlestar Galaktika. We're the kerbals that found out that everyone else wanted to go tribal and said "screw that" and restarted their space program.

[CaelumEtAstra]

My canon is as follows:

Kerbin has always been a mix of many ideals and demographics along with a very diverse culture. (Not unlike Earth!)

It is made out of 32 nations, some large, some small, but all unique. However, these nations were separated into different warring factions which fought for many years, sometimes threatening to destroy the planet. Eventually, the fighting stopped and the dust cleared, allowing the nations to think properly.

The United Commonwealth of Kerbin was established to shed the grudges of the past and to forge new alliances to maintain world peace. The UCK currently has 17 member nations, 11 applying nations and 4 non-members/allies.

KAERA or the Kerbal Aerospace Engineering Research Administration was created after many years of desiring to "capture" the stars and explore the kosmos. It acted as a natural extension of the peace-keeping mentality of the UCK, drawing attention from several of the nations, non-members included. So far, they have gotten three satellites, Star 1-3, into orbit. Muna 2 is set to launch and impact the surface of the mun after the failure of Muna 1--it did not have enough delta-v. A manned program was created to test the credibility of Kerbalkind to expand their capabilities. It is set to launch soon after Muna 2.

Other Info:

Tech is close to around 1982

A lot of the launchers are re-purposed ICBMs/IRBMs

UCK is socialist-democratic

4 non-members are smaller nations that were just created

TL;DR Kerbin ditches violent past, creates world government and multi-national space program

[CalculusWarrior]

My canon's the same one as in my story I'm writing, see below.

</shameless plug>

[Spacetraindriver]

Whenever I "start the game" I "teleport"into the game. I become like a controller of kerbals conciseness. They do their stuff, not like they are my slaves. I appear in "physical" form in dreams sometimes.

[Overland]

I'm post-Battlestar Galaktika. We're the kerbals that found out that everyone else wanted to go tribal and said "screw that" and restarted their space program.

explains why everyone looks the same..

the 13th colony...is cylon

[Whirligig Girl]

The Kerbal Space Program is a government agency with public funding.

The Kerbal NASA Program (Real Solar System with stock-ish parts) however, is a different story.

In the year 1951, Kerbals land on Earth. NACA hires them due to their prior knowledge of spaceflight (meanwhile essentially creating a Kerbal-NASA), and in the midst of civil rights protests and an assasination of the comedy duo and civil rights activists Joegard and Lenbur Kerman, Kerbals land on the Moon for America in the 50s, completely beating those commies in the space race, opening up the cosmos to America. The Soviets meanwhile have decided to try and break even with America. They steal some Kerbal rocket scientists, and America now realizes the Russians is indeed a threat, so they had better work on rescuing Ayndruw, Rabika, and Teyo Kerman from the far side of the Moon.

[Ten Key]

My "canon" is something of a work in progress.

[MarcAlain]

My canon is that kerbals evolved from Frogs, of course. They were always one group of individuals, and never managed to split into seperate groups because of the impossibility of geographic isolation. since they learned to work together, their one world government managed to have enormous funds for space travel. The rest, is well, history.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Canon? I just use my iPhone. [/overused joke]

- - - Updated - - -

My kerbals are in the Matrix, so no matter what happens to them, they don't get hurt. That way, it's acceptable for me to use manned planes for weapons testing. Yup, I'm evil.

[WWEdeadman]

I guess this will put me on the outside: I don't have any canon. It's just a game I enjoy playing.

Best,

-Slashy

This. (10charlimit)