honestly kind of tired of monarchies/nobility systems in fe games.
like instead of fighting as a noble or mercenary who want to maintain the system, why not as an ordinary villager who is pushed to fight/overthrow the government?

i was brainstorming ideas and like
a corrupt democracy maybe? mostly taken from ancient greece, where the city-states had councils that ""anyone"" could be elected to but it was mostly just wealthy elites. plus one spot for lower classed citizens to fight for

things that stayed with me from my history classes in hs: the idea of "blood and circuses" that was used in rome to distract ppl from the corrupt and crumbling govt
aka why coliseums/gladiators were so popular

me thinking about ways to kick the plot into gear: what if there was a plague and the council refuses to send aid bce the protags village isnt important-
me: shit, wait

an interesting idea is one map being a defend map where the nobility is trying to have the protag assassinated but thats enough brainstorming for now, its like 2 am lmao

on my bs again and thinking about this
i know for sure i want one semi-important character to be a former gladiator. i want them to be big and buff and somewhat intimidating, but thats bce they get along better with animals than people.

me: -trying to seriously brainstorm possible plot-
my brain: ok but what if the protag and the ex-gladiator kissed-

honestly looking at this thread you can tell i was one of the kids obsessed w ancient greek as a kid. back then it was mostly mythology, though. i was also into the roman empire, but mostly the 'bad parts'.

like, the hoarding of wealth, allowing infrastructure to crumble, in-fighting, etc... the "fall of rome" was always an interesting topic to me despite the details being fuzzy now.
the idea of "blood and circuses" has stuck with me since the moment we learned about it.

like, i just think using ancient greece/rome for ideas is interesting. the "democracy" of some of the greek city-states and how some of them had a special position for a rep from the common folk to keep them compliant
plus the democracy /actually/ being an oligarchy

when people talk abt ancient greece, a lot of them focus on the "cool" aspects like sparta's military might or athen's golden age of knowledge. ancient greece and rome were actually pretty shitty, especially if you weren't a rich native man.

anyway, off topic ramble abt ancient greece/rome aside, i also think gladiatorial sports would be an interesting thread to tie into the story as well.
if the corrupt council wants everyone to be distracted, bloodsports is one way to do it. plus other ways it could be used.