Trials and challenges in developing Mannon

 Good Evening Readers

this one's a bit late, apologies for the timing of it. Over the course of the last 5 years that I've worked on Mannon/Onn'uun, there's been a lot of hiccups that have lead me to a different path with the project. This post is about the history and greater ups and downs I've faced with the creation of the world.

I first started on this project in 2019 while I was in college, it became a handful of names and ideas I scattered about on a map that was entirely too small to be actually called a world. I was only vaguely aware of what it meant to start a worldbuilding project, as I had begun to do something during my junior year of high school revolving around the hobby, but it didn't really get me far enough into the understanding of towns, governments, populations, etc. 

I honestly half-assed the world when I first started but I wanted to do something fun because I'd been inspired by the D&D based play by post roleplays I'd seen and participated in during my high school years. I can definitely say I was not well informed on enough information to really even call it a playable setting, but I was eager and ambitious, and it somehow carried me throughout the creation of a community for a similar PBP roleplay as the year rolled into 2020. 

Mannon's Map as of 2020

Life changed and drama ensued as Covid hit but that roleplay community started to come together and I wrote all that could come to mind with the setting. I kept finding new ideas and working on the map over time, altering the layout and formatting of text and figuring out the puzzle pieces but drama ensued within the server, and the pressure of being a community leader definitely got to me more than I'd like to admit, especially then. I was dealing with moving from one house to another during that time, and I hadn't ever had to deal with moving in my childhood, so the minutia of that really caught up with me and my ability to keep the community healthy and growing. By the end of 2020 into early '21, I relinquished the ownership of that community to someone who didn't have my best interests in mind but I thought was trustworthy at the time.

As that community fell away from my grasp, I felt very alienated by the community I had spent so much effort building. I ended up setting down the writing of the world until the middle of the following year after a lot of renovations were done to the house we had moved into. I became re-inspired with a new fire in my eyes after having about a months worth of discussions with an old friend from my RP days of 2019, and like heated iron I set out to forge the world I had once forsaken from poor social relationships. 

Eventually bringing back a community for another playtesting play by post roleplay, I made a lot of new friends who still hold high hopes for the project as I continue it now. I got a lot of support from a dear friend of mine who helped me with a living situation when things got tough at home. I lived with him for 8 months and it gave me a lot of time to write while the RP server kicked up really well. 

It was at this point I discovered Obsidian, after a recommendation from a server member who quickly proved themselves as a non trustworthy individual. I am thankful to that person for showing me Obsidian, even to this day, but only for that. It was at this point that I had redeveloped my maps, expanding immensely on what I had created before. With nothing but time on my hands to make this world flourish, I spent nearly every day writing something or coming up with ideas that the world could operate with. 

Depocryss's Map as of 2022

I spent several days worth of time improving the maps as they needed a great reform, but in the meantime I was able to spout off endless components and ideas that could just be put down into the notes of Obsidian. Those 8 months I poured as much of myself and my creativity into the writing of the world as I could, and asked for help when I felt like I was falling short. During this time I was heavily inspired by the monthly content idea of Remembrances, which lead to their creation and swift consistency. With each one I made, and each note I created, I improved upon my ability to craft the world. 

Time moved on and life components shifted again as the year rolled into 2023, and so I had to move back home. During that time I held little weight in making a job work out, instead still overly prioritizing the writing I wanted to achieve without balancing the needs of life that were laying themselves out before me. I ended up putting down the writing once more for over a year again, working a full time job in order to get myself back on track.

Now after all of those years of struggle I'm back in a situation between jobs with nothing better to do than write. I've gained a lot of humbling experience over the last 5 years, and I'd like to think that I've honed my ability a bit in that time. I want to keep this project healthy and alive as I move into my next chapter of life, but I am really grateful to all of you who are seeing this work and getting the chance to watch it grow even further. I truly cherish the fact that so many people are getting the opportunity to see my work under a positive light and its continuous little tidbits of information that shine from the corners of my vault. 

Thanks for taking the time to read, and I hope that your holiday season is going well so far.
Sincerely,

Oni