This will probably be the last update ping before I post an actual chapter (still have no idea when that will be, but I'm almost feeling ready to dip my toes into Flight Rising again). I just wanted to let you know my thoughts for the locke going forward so I can finish it strongly without being overwhelmed.
As I have said before, I am no longer putting time constraints on the locke. What this will look like will be lockes likely going on for longer than a year, and ending them when I feel they have reached their natural conclusion (Or shorter than a year if I feel like things are wrapping up naturally before then). A locke a year worked really well when I was less busy, but now that I am working full time and have more responsibilities, I cannot maintain that without burning out. My plan for my next locke is going to be more based on the fest apparel than the familiars anyways, so we'll be breaking away from the "familiars shape the plot of the story", as much as I really enjoyed it. They still may come into play somehow, but it will be less rigid.
What this means for this locke is we will still do the remaining challenges (The Challenge of Shadow, The Challenge of Wind, The Challenge of Water and The Challenge of Nature) they will just likely not occur until after they corresponding fests actually happen. Likely months after they actually happen. I will write chapters between too, and just place the challenges when they naturally seem to fit instead of trying to rush them when the fests arrive. The next chapter I write will be the Challenge of Shadow, I am unsure how many chapters the challenge will be, but this will allow me to add more to the challenges rather than just fitting everything in one chapter. This will also allow me to take breaks when life gets in the way, or I need time to think about how the story is going to go. This will also allow me the time to finally start planning and writing lore for the first of my two original, unwritten clans to achieve my goal of having the complete arc of lore I have had since I joined the site in 2016.
Once I reach the end of the Challenge of Water and we enter the final "month" of the locke, that is when I am going to start my training push, and see who makes it out of the locke alive. That last "year" will probably be quite long, to give all the deaths justice. New dragons and nests will also be cut off at that point.
Speaking of new dragons, to stop myself being overwhelmed, I will still be accepting gift dragons at the usual rate (though be aware as we near the end of the locke with high populations, I cannot guarantee a lot of appearances or room for their plots and character arcs in the locke), and I will be cutting back on nests from pursuits. I will roll a d6 for each nest that a pursuit asks for, and if I get a 6, it will be a locke nest. Any other ones will be a pair from my hibden. I may occasionally bring in a kid from one of those nests into the locke, but that will be less likely later in the locke if I already have kids from that pair in the locke (for example, Malcolm and Maria have three descendants in the locke: Sunny, Buttons and Brightsea, so unless I got really attached to the appearance of one of their kids, I would not be keeping any of their kids. But a pair who doesn't have kids in the locke yet, like Yahira and Borealis, or someone who had a kid in the locke who died, like Wren and Sylas, would likely result in me choosing my favourite of the nest to bring in).
Anyways, that's it for big updates, I just wanted to keep you all in the loop of shifts going forward
