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# Author's Notes

## Montosho

Montosho is one of the first areas I made, and one of my absolute favorites.

The inspiration comes from several sources:

- The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Probably the best book ever written, and I didn't really do it justice, but it inspired me.
- A documentary about how an entire forest could be a single tree, with new trunks growing from roots of the other trunks. From here grew the idea of the mega-mind behind the hostile jungle.
- A dream I had about baboons.

The idea of a fallen empire which the boons once had came from discovering that the AI image generation was great at doing jungle ruins, and made so amazing pictures that I felt I had to do something with them.

Catlings are basically the "not quite tame savage" stereotype, with some jungle cat lore added on. I feel that they can do great as a guide which also gives a slight sense of unease.

The empire trade stations are directly inspired from Heart of Darkness, as is the Waverider story. The monologue in the Waverider story is mostly AI, given the directive to make a feverish druid rant which is either madness or genius, but impossible to tell which. I think the AI really nailed that feeling.

The Waverider story is very much inspired by two author gods: Joseph Conrad and Kurt Vonnegut. Conrad has already been discussed, but Vonnegut contributes with his book Galapagos, where he explores the topic of intelligence being a liability, rather than an asset.

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