I totally understand tho if y'all are busy, I'm also struggling to find free time—so this doesn't have to be a huge committment but y'all seem to want to look back at this so maybe we should try :)

Oh. Gosh. I totally forgot about this! I really only have time to check puddings place. And sometimes inkwell but rarely down to earth... What's been happening lately?

OMG MATESSSSSS

So I found a couple Vox documentary-style videos about intriguing situations in Africa. It just gets me so excited for some reason??? Like the narrator mentioned tombs and that had me SOLD-

One was about a remote crater-mountain in Madagascar (it reminded me of the Sheikah from Zelda in BoTW/ToTK) and brought back that idea of an incredibly isolated village sitting in the caldera of a steep, remote mountain range. Idk why, but that really sparked a lot of interest in me. They are a farming/mostly agricultural group, only established in the crater since 2008 I believe, and moved there (where they are an ethnic minority) in search of enough space for farming (the section of Madagascar they were from was very overcrowded), and the soil there is actually really fertile thanks to the unique type of (now dormant) volcano that they sit in.

There was another cool one in Algeria, where there's apparently a string of large circles/formations resembling craters in the middle of the desert, visible by satellite. There were a bunch of theories about what they were, from some kind of tomb, to these cool foggara (a type of qanat, which is a clever method of transporting water in these desert-areas), to excavating/extraction of natural resources. I won't spoil the findings here, but please do try to look into awesome stuff like this if you find it interesting! 

Please speak freely or comment with any thoughts, ideas or opinions, no matter how small or seemingly silly! I love hearing what you brilliant people have to say, and I'm really glad we're all still interested in this project, even if we don't have the clearest or grandest of objectives, lol 

Ok so I've been checking out other political situations too, to gather some ideas. It's a bit tough for me (mostly in a good, challenging way) because I get really upset when I see such obvious unfairness and, ugh... it's just so frustrating, and I can't help but get really invested and upset on the behalf of those struggling. 

One of the situations I'd suggest looking into is Haiti. I personally have a particularly strong connection to this one because I've gone there many times (probably most frequently, with the exception of maybe Niceragua) to help with infrastructure and long-term development to help the people living there. Most of my life I've spent there I was technically working as a missionary, but I do want to make it clear that despite heavy influence from a protestant-Jewish mixed upbringing I no longer practice any form of religion, nor do I endorse some the their actions. I've honestly always struggled with religion, and despite this, I often participated in missionary work specifically when it was less overtly "here, this is your lord and saviour, take it or be smitten" and more focused on making fairly worldly, positive effect on the people living there. (For instance, digging wells, helping out with construction after storms/hurricanes, inserting water-purifying devices, etc.).

Another big one that's been on my periphery is the whole Hong Kong situation. I'll probably elaborate on this one later, but do notice the common theme of those gosh darn colonists destroying local... everything, really, and then leaving behind a goopy trail of ongoing issues even when independence is reached. Oh my goodness, it never turns out well, does it?! Potential material to work with there. Interesting how it has been tied to China and Britain without really belonging or identifying fully with either. It reminds me of that one city in Avatar: the Last Airbender that's all mixed and has a bunch of different nationalities... Never actually seen it, but I've heard it's a great show, and listening to my friends go on and on about the lore makes it look like yet another interesting potential pool for us to draw from~

Okay and then obviously The Russo-Ukraine war is on-going, and maybe a future area can be based on that build-up to history, but I prefer to draw on less Euro-centric places for now. Lemme know if y'all want to do it differently, just a personal restriction so I don't fall back on the familiar while we're exploring. So much of "history" has already been defined by Euro-centric-ness, so I want to get a look at some other cultures before I return to what I already know oh-so well.

Anywayyyy. Yeah, that's all for right now. I'll probably pop in again real soon with more ideas. (Also my dog just escaped and its dark out and I had to chase her down through a bunch of brush and woods and she likes to chase cars so I was scared she would find the closest road and get hit, especially since it is so dark and she'll cut right in front of them because of her herding instict- Yeah, anyway, I caught her and she's fine (needs a bath, but safe), but I'm still a little flustered so I'll get back to this when my mind is a bit clearer) *frazzled laughter*

So have you all seen my new story? The one in Merouge? I was thinking of tying in that story to this world, if you all think that's alright. It means we'll have more world altogether, and a whole lot of interesting things can come up, which gets me really excited! If you are all fine with that, but don't want to directly cross over, we can always just leave 'easter eggs'/references or have it take place far in the past/future from that story. Just food for thought. I'd love to know your opinions, and it's totally ok to say you don't want them merged together, if that's how you truly feel