So Brotherhood was a lot of fun, and after being irked about having to start from scratch in Revelations, I'm really starting to enjoy myself.

Looking at the composition of Constantinople is giving me a lot of ideas for the Kareid of the Central Sea. I've never really had much exposure to the history of the near east, and I have to say that it's pretty awesome.

In particular, I realized that I've been too hung up on creating "regional races." The Blackwood is a little bit of a different beast (because it's such a small area), but it's something I'm going to have to move away from as I start to work on these larger regions. The Romani people in Revelations are really similar to the way I've been envisioning the Kareid (colorful, artsy wanderers with a vicious streak), but I don't think that needs to be the full scope of my vision for that civilization.

Instead, my new plan is to start working on at least half a dozen distinct ethnic personalities for the Central Sea. Most of this work will be done in the form of working out the region's history over the course of about 3000 years; that should give me plenty of time to have a few different cultures rise and fall, and I can use those "tent pole" cultures in history to help me flesh out contemporary ethnicities and their relationship.

For example, the vision I had originally held for the Kareid--remnants of the last great empire meandering down a path of ultimate decadence--can be split up and expanded for a multitude of peoples. It will no longer be the case that the entirety of the people of the Central Sea are mariners who dye their skin as a rite of adulthood. There will be a culture that does that, but they will probably be the scattered remains of a much older empire, and they probably won't even have anyplace to truly call "home."

Of course, I need to wrap up the several regions in between the Blackwood and the Central Sea, but I'll get there.