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###### tags: `CultDAO` `Proposals`
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# CultDAO<>Pluriverse Funding Proposal


### Synopsis

CultDAO and Pluriverse.wtf wish to initiate a long-term evolving collaboration for exploring transmedia lore in response to the Cult and RVLT manifestos.

### Overview

[The Pluriverse](https://pluriverse.wtf/) is a continuously evolving entity spawn from an engagement between [RaidGuild](https://www.raidguild.org/) and [Gitcoin](https://www.gitcoin.co/) to produce comic book content in support of the Moloch meme. This resulted in Gitcoin comics [#3](https://store.gitcoin.co/products/gitcoin-comic-3-raid-guild-mercenaries-the-phantasmagoric-molochdigital-edition) (ETHD 2022) and [#4](https://store.gitcoin.co/pages/books?_pos=3&_sid=2967c2fa0&_ss=r) (ETHD 2023). [Supermodular](https://supermodular.xyz/) has supported the creation of [*A Guide to the Pluriverse*](https://pluriverse.wtf/pdf/pluriverse-guide.pdf) (released September 2022 at MCON) to elaborate the regenerative philosophies of the books in the form of sci-fi narratives, inspired by the ConsenSys *Cellarius Universe Guide* of 2019. This incubatory phase has allowed the Pluriverse to diversify into a burgeoning transmedia franchise. [MetaCartel](https://www.metacartel.org/) has supported the forthcoming Pluriverse concept album and artistic collaboration with artist Billy Sprague, scheduled to be released with [Metalabel](https://www.metalabel.xyz/) in May 2023. In addition to these releases, Pluriverse is initiating a series of "infinite projects" including an ambitious 100+ page graphic novel, an academic research think-tank and journal, and a series of critical articles that elaborate the cultural significance of the Pluriverse concept.

In Q1 2023 the Pluriverse has been reaching out to highly aligned communities to form new collaborations in the form of exciting, radical, experimental, risky experiments in worldbuilding and lorecrafting. Considering CultDAO's intriguing aesthetics, controversial manifestos, and philosophically provocative ideologies in the web3 ecosystem, they make a perfect candidate for prognosticating potent images of the future of coordination, on-the-ground political action, and lucid ethical positions to benefit the imagination of *The Many* and beyond. A collaboration between Pluriverse and CultDAO would allow both entities to explore numerous media forms in distilling and disseminating these potent ideas while the Cult community ascends into a new phase of maturity.

### Problem

CultDAO is built upon potent culture, yet suffers from internal tensions imposed by external economic and social frictions. The community would greatly benefit from a lucid narrative and pantheon of key characters to increase the fidelity of their internal and external alignments.

### Hypothesis

As appealing as the manifesto is to some, it is equally aliennating/ostricizing to others. This might be considered an important memetic filter. However, to ensure strong internal alignment (the result of coherent lorecrafting) we might contemplate how the mechanism of repulsion plays into the CultDAO culture. A pluriversal design ethos of radical divergence and acute convergence might allow us to explore new imaginative strategies for clarifying the communities goals without sacrificing the strong ideological imagery that has served to attract the current community.

- How might we build upon the CultDAO vision (first articulated in the manifesto) to form a cohesive and immersive world? - How might we provide an additional imaginative layer upon CultDAO reality that allows the community to speed run controversial ideological perspectives and better understand the ramifications of the politico-cultural resonances, thereby avoiding and alleviating drammatic tensions within the community social channels?
- How might we orchestrate a community-wide LARP that challenges preexisting biases and allow the philosophy of the community to continue to mutate into exciting new forms?

### Solution

- By generating a pantheon of characters, diversity of worlds, and plethora of artifacts, all wrapped together with a lucid (or even hallucinatory) bundle of compelling narratives, we might supplement and support the historical depth and cultural breadth that is so essential in aligning the community towards a plurality of goals.
- By materializing these ideas into a diversity of forms - short stories, graphic novels, character development, game scenarios, artful artifacts, animations, etc. - we will be able to diversify the attention that CultDAO attracts and retains.
- Any rigorously realized artistic project is dependent on the generous extension of space and time to understand, articulate, and manifest the vision. By defining this project to be intentionally open-ended (divergent) in its early stages, we hope to incubate a radical collaborative practice that reflects the radical social practices occuring throughout the Cult conversation.

### Methodology / Deliverables / Timeline
- Weekly 30 min ops syncs to share knowledge and sense making, conducted in a private voice channel on Discord.
- Weekly updates in the CultDAO discord, in a dedicate project channel, where *The Many* can track progress and add their voice.
- Monthly project updates posted to Discord, viewable by *The Many.*

#### Phase 1: Design Sprint
- Start with the manifesto to elaborate characters, narrative arcs, and work towards building a whole world around Cult lore.
- Deliverables could include characters, published stories, abundant art inspiration, and at least the start of a graphic novel or storyboard that starts to put all the pieces together.
- By the end we should have a clear understanding of the artfact(s) we want to produce and the roadmap for production.
- This is ~3 months.

#### Phase 2: Team Assembly
- We initiate work on the artifacts.
- If we're going to do a *Midnight Gospel*-style animation, then we will need to organize a team (as a DAO/collective), divided by creative and directive roles, to make sure all aspects are being attended to.
- Parallel to the creative execution we might explore publication opportunities, including where and how the artifacts will be released, other orgs we could collaborate with for wide distribution, other web3 protocols for collabing on NFT minting schemes, etc.
- The team elaborates how all of this will feed back to support the Cult community on Discord, maybe giving utility to the token, and certainly supporting [the Moloch v3 build we are exploring through another initiative.](https://hackmd.io/@TravisWyche/By1zcqvl3)
- We tease and test the drop with the community to gather feedback and ensure that we are delivering something undeniably awesome and culturally relevant for all.
- This is ~3 months, up to 6.

#### Phase 3: Infinite Execution
- The creative work starts pouring out at scale.
- If feedback is positive, we are releasing copious micro content through the Cult+Pluriverse+frens social feeds to build a collectorship.
- The sustainable economics are in place, the release dates are scheduled, and planning focuses on the drop.
- The creative team continues gathering ideas and aspirations from the Cult community to generate a backlog of content.
- We organize content into "seasons" or installments.
- If the community architecture, regen economics, and lore content are all properly configured at this point, we can consider expanding the team, decentralizing the ideation, and basically "exiting to community" or at least have some clear feedback loops in place to have the lore grow and evolve in real time with the rest of Cult. The goal here is to scale in relation to the perceived value of the Cult community and eventually develop the architecture to be self-sustaining and no longer parasitic upon the marketing budget/treasury.
- Intentionally curate new content producers (writers) to iterate upon the Cult meme (similar to how the Nouns community does) to produce infinite stories.
- Content is handed off to an army of artists to interpret in their own styles. We will curate and organize the creative contributors.
- This mature phase take 6-9 months to achieve, but could last indefinitely.

### Economic Distibution
- Each new phase will be evaluated based on the quality of the previous milestone.
- Funds are deposited into a Moloch v3 DAO that we spin up just for this purpose.
- Maintains accountability within the team and back to the community.
- The project DAO can serve as a sub-DAO of the larger Cult architecture, setting the precendent for future "marketing" initiatives to retain autonomy while maintaining accountable to *The Many.*
- Compensation will be approved by Cult members.
- **The team would like to explore opportunities for long-term alignment with the CultDAO community.** This might include:
- Depositing the funds into a liquidity pool position (existing Uniswap v2 or forming a new Uniswap v3) to generate yield and add to the economic sustainability of the project.
- Stake and compound the funds to provide a positive presence in ongoing CultDAO governance/proposal decisions.
- HODL $CULT for 6-12 months and only sell in small installments to avoid contributing to price volatility.
- *However, there will need to be a certain amount of liquidity available to compensate artists, as they will be less inclined to hold or stake the token in the long run.* The team invites additional ideas from the community on how best to align our activities with the long-term vision of the DAO.

### Budget
- 13Ξ per phase