Inspiration came from two fronts, the Minecraft community, and real life. I will start with naming names:
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Gideon Seymour and his amazing
Running Red. This pack is an inspiration as it showed me that you can have a serious pack, one based around serious things, and still have it be fun.
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JadedCat and her
Agrarian Skies pack. This pack just inspired me to poke fun at questing as a thing that makes you lose heart in the tasks you undertake, as some of the late game quests in AS make you lose heart
Now for the boring stuff:
For the past 4 years I have been suffering from depression, and also gone through many of the "side effects*" of depression, such as self harm and anorexia, which I thought could lead to certain "interesting" aspects for this map. Using Blood Magic's sacrifice system, which is essentially self harm, to gain stuff that would be simple in the eyes of most people, such as getting food.
At the onset of my depression food was not an issue, which is reflected in the map, you get given quite a lot of food, but as time went on I started to develop an eating disorder, and food started to become more of an issue, which is something that will be replicated in the pack, with the lack of access to grass, which you won't get until you start to get into Blood Magic, where you will have to pay for the privilege to eat by cutting yourself.
It is a very morbid idea, but I feel that making something based off of experience will turn out a lot better than if I was to try and do a pack based off of something I have never experience e.g. coping with the loss of a loved one.
Anyway, I went off on a bit of a tangent... to carry on with stuff that inspired aspects of this pack. After leaving school, I didn't keep in contact with anyone I went their with, as I either did not get along with them, or I didn't want to seem annoying. So I lost a lot of friendships like that, and it felt as if I was living on my own little island, with no one else.
When I get around to doing the nether part of the map, the place will seem more idyllic, because throughout the past few years the nether/hell/death has been an occasional thought of heaven. Somewhere where I would want to end up. But of course the more you get into it, the more you think "will it be better?".
And a final inspiration, the first optional quest reward, the golden lasso called Fido. I used the name Fido as it is a common dog name, but my dog is called Benji, and I have had him for about 6 years now. He's getting old, which pains me to say, but he is something that always manages to cheer me up, no matter how I feel. He is the most docile dog you'll ever meet, but he somehow was there for me, whenever I needed someone. So, I thought giving the player that option of having a companion to start out with would be a little comfort in the lonely world.