To better put things together for Chapter 5 of CoP, I was working on encyclopedia entries, particularly about the government of the Kiennar Federal Republic, which prompted me to do a more detailed map of the country and a demographic breakdown by its 24 states and the federal district of the capital city of Fedelis. That work is still underway, as I have to take the data I already have for the country and make it fit with the sum total of the aforementioned states. Yes, because I’m just making up numbers, those numbers aren’t set in stone or anything, but I don’t want to throw off the proportions I’ve cited earlier too much.

Once I finish the demographic breakdown, I can figure out the number of congressional representatives each state has to better visualize their relative political sway, the regional power balance, etc. You may wonder how all of this is relevant, but it does play a role in the C Plot. (The A Plot being the Protectors getting Ellis to Ahorazed and the B Plot being Sarek and the Shields’ efforts to stop them.)

As a bit of a side note, as I was going over the manuscript for Chapter 4 before posting it, I was really liking that I gave Ellis a smart aleck side that makes for some fun banter with Rio that will hopefully serve as a counterbalance to his whining. Without that aspect of his personality, even with character development, he might just come across as Aurelius from Tzipi’s Garden. (Aurelius did serve his purpose in that story, but in the back of my head I had been considering having him go on more of an arc in the course of the story and part of me regrets not doing that, but there is a thematic element of having both the protagonist and the reader question the cause being fought for.)

I expect to continue that work on Kiennar, but maybe I can also squeeze in some writing while I’m at it (and dealing with the update). Stay tuned.

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