[Poruku]

If you go to the badlands right now, you'll see tremendous amount of stuff. Market stalls, buildings, npc soldiers. It's true, all of this is simply never being used for roleplay. Personally, I think that's a shame, but mainly because I can't use it as a base for bandits anymore.

Of course, it would be nice if the badlands were being patrolled by geladyne, or if anything happened there. But it's not like Meiaquar was making use of it either. In the end, that's what 95% of Korvara is: empty space that nobody uses.

However, I think it's a leap in logic to want the badlands to be "returned to meiaquar" simply because of that. What would it accomplish exactly? Nothing. You want there to be a disaster that resets things to zero? A narrative convenience of that scale would cause massive problems in people's personal stories, as well as the lore and history of both nations. It would invalidate the work of many people.

No, that's not the solution. In fact I don't even think the state of the badlands is a problem that needs to be solved.

Let's look at what the war actually did for us. Have you roleplayed in Meiaquar recently? The hatred towards Geladynians makes for some awesome scenes and moments. We have tension, we have history. I think it's juicy, it actually makes the world feel like there's something going on. From something that happened over a year ago, there's still people talking about it and roleplaying about it. Do you really think this is useless?

And who decided that we don't want to do wars? From what I understand, the global consensus is that it could have been handled better in many ways. And the toxicity that emerged from it was also terrible. But does that mean we are going to give up all wars forever? Hell no. In the future, there might be a moment in time where the conditions are right for a war, and perhaps we'll come to an agreement and do it more efficiently and smoothly this time.

The point of a war is not just about conquering territory. The territory barely matters, nobody truly cares about the badlands in roleplay. What matters is the story it creates; the interpersonal conflicts that emerge.

The SL2 community is generally terrible at handling conflict, because this game is built on a foundation of consent. Since people expect consent to be a part of their experience, anything that goes against the story they wanted is a problem. Conflict inherently causes problems. But you know what else it does? It creates the best scenes, the most emotional moments, the most awesome stories. For all the pain, there still remains some unforgettable memories, and the events themselves echo throughout many roleplays in the future. This is why despite all the failures of the past, many people persist and still want conflict to this day.

I don't think anything needs to be done about the badlands. Think of it like empty space. It's waiting there until someone wants to use it. When that happens, then we can talk about how that will go. For instance, if Meiaquarise resistance fighters want to independently cause terrorism in the badlands, then that would become something.

But let's be honest, if Meiaquar took back the badlands, it would be the exact same thing as it is now. Just an unused piece of land that serves as a memory of past conflict.