What AQ Is and What AQ Ain't

This article was developed as part of a History of the AQ Project.

AQ has always been a place for expressing creativity within the framework of an alternate Earth. The principal attractant, we hope is constructed languages; we hope to have a veritable host of conlangs within our community. Secondarily, we hope to attract what naturally follows a conlang, and that is a conculture. Natural languages in the primary world do not exist in vacuo, and neither do naturalistic conlangs in their setting.

AQ is a "family creation". Members come from divers walks of life and from many different lands, cultures and linguistic backgrounds. But all share the same common goal of discovery within a fantastic world. AQ is a friendly place. Like any close group of people sharing physical space and activity, AQ Members sometimes disagree with one another, but personal feelings remain amicable and personal insult is certainly not the norm.

The world itself is a fairly realistic model. We have not really tinkered with basic sciences -- whether chemistry, physics or sociology. Some may prefer to concentrate on the "nice bits" -- but it is quintessentially human to err and we ought not expect a greater perfection from our constructed people, their governments or cultures when we ourselves often fall far short of the ideal. [This is not to say that ideal fantasy cultures are in any way abberant, just that such idealistic fantast has no place in an AQ conculture.] AQ therefore is a "realistic" world, where war and poverty and disease mar the beauty of existence; yet it contains some elements of the fantastic as well. Often time technical developments that were surpassed or overlooked *here* are mainstream *there*.

AQ is not the creation of any one person, though there are some individual Members who have put in rather a lot of work. Every Member from the first to the most recent has left a mark on this shared world -- some are vivid and spectacular in their scope, others are infamous, still others are barely discerned and much dimmed by Time. AQ is not a private intellectual property. It has been the generally stated concensus of the Membership that, while conlangs and the specific content of individual's webpages remain the intellectual property of the individual creator (unless specified), all other work done on the cultural and historical aspects of AQ become common property.

AQ is and is not alt-history. A statement on How AQ functions and on choosing a region to develop [18-AUG-2003]: Realistically, AQ operates under Ytterbion's Special Rules of Creation. Basically, the chief rule by which AQ operates is: "The (overall) history and culture of *there* ought to be similar to that of *here*, so long as the other pant-leg of history allows." In other words it ought to be familliar. That means that a lot of countries get imported in toto from *here* to *there* without any actual thought. Also, countries *there* tend to take on archetypal roles that are familiar from *here*.

Basically, make sure what you proposes fits, and that everyone agrees to accept it in.