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RavenOfSummer
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Series...I have been working on two of those for a long time. I have concepts for a couple others that go way back.
Neither of the current series began that way.
The first, 'Labyrinth,' was originally intended as a stand alone short story or novelette, 15,000 words or so tops. But, I kept adding things, trying to justify this or that, more than could fit in a single tale. So 'Labyrinth' burst its bounds. It is currently two books, one 62,000 words, the other about 90,000, with hazy ideas for a third.
The second is the 'Empire' series. This tale began with a realization on my part: decades ago, I spent a lot of time worldbuilding, detailing multiple nations on the primary planet. But, when it came to actual stories, all the ones I'd envisioned took place either at the borders of the primary nation....or beyond them. I decided to remedy that. In my mind, the 'nation preparing for war' thing had been overdone. The notion of a nation *recovering* from a devastating conflict, even one fought far from the story area, seemed much more interesting. Social upheaval. Fortunes being made and lost. Odd political movements. Intrigue. Initially, I had ideas for four stories, with four principle characters, each tale leading into the next, each set in different circumstances. The original idea had these four characters as employees of a powerful merchant, which is still sort true, though the merchant is also an imperial agent. The seeds for two of the tales came from 'Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay' modules (one online and very obscure), both modified beyond recognition. Another came from a couple books I'd read heavy on both characters and court intrigue. The last began with a question: what would realistically prompt a normal person to join a genocidal cult? When I started writing, I realized the fourth book was the wrong place to end the tale, and came up with two more, both inspired by Lovecraft (well, Lovecraft and Chambers).
That said, yes, I did a lot of worldbuilding back in the day. Alas, only about half of it is useful. I wrote more recently (as in the past couple years) - histories, descriptions of countries and magic, even a couple genealogies. But most of that remains woefully incomplete and seldom consulted. On this site, I participated in various story challenges, using the prompts to flesh out this or that event.
It sounds like you have an abundance of material that is ready to burst into stories! I'm particularly interested in the ideas for your Empire series. My actual professional/academic background is in international politics and international development, with a heavy emphasis on post-war reconciliation in developing nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on my experience, conflict recovery is indeed a context that is absolutely teeming with stories about the human experience on every level. I hope you'll continue to write these stories- I would love to read them! I'd also like to try out some of the story challenges here. I'm quite new here so there's a lot for me still to explore