Apologies, and some proposed changes

[Shyriath]

I've been thinking about this place and the stuff associated with it quite a lot recently, even if I haven't been doing much. Indeed, maybe even BECAUSE I haven't been doing much. I used to have such an enthusiasm for all this, and yet nowadays I look at the Ages of Shireroth and shudder. I know I can be lazy, but this goes beyond that, and I was at a loss as to why until these past few days.

I think that perhaps I have been too ambitious in wanting to create a single vast work, "The Ages of Shireroth", right from the get-go. It's not suited to my style; in such a situation as this, when the history is so sparse over such long stretches of time and requires filling, a unitary, book-style canonical work could take forever to complete. This is why I find myself cringng at the thought of continuing with it; I see no end, no goal.

I am beginning to think, therefore, that a new, more manageable, and more flexible approach is required. Instead of a single longer work, the Official History should consist of a number of shorter, more self-contained essays, dealing with specific individuals, or places, or timespans.

Aside from being a format well-suited to the wiki, this arrangement would offer a number of other benefits as well. Different essays could be assigned different levels of canonicity, for example; established "truth" could be separated from material of a more speculative nature, and standards could be established for the entry of a speculative essay into the canon.

It would also allow for a variety of focuses that wouldn't be as feasible in a larger work. Whereas the Ages of Shireroth can only cover a few important topics in any great depth and still be of a manageable length, a set of collected essays could examine just about any issue at varying levels of detail and emphasis.

Obviously, some sort of overarching structure will still have to be in place to keep everything in order, but I think a modified Timeline would be able to perform that function.

[Braden Indianensis]

*Nods.* You'll find much more success and much less frustration writing it in small, self contained essays and treatises. You may not even want to write them in chronological order.