Let me take you back to the years between 2019 and 2023. What do those years have in common? If you were anything like me, they were the years spent waiting for the release of Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to Breath of the Wild. (Remember when we all called it BOTW 2? No name, no nothing? Good times.)

I was one of the millions COMPLETELY obsessed with it.

I went through countless theory videos like it was nothing, and paid insnae attention to every hint and side quest hoping it meant something or ANYTHING. Some of those theorists went all the way in, replaying Breath of the Wild just to speculate what might come next.

And that’s when I discovered The Zonai.

A forgotten, mysterious and ancient tribe that vanished without a trace. They left behind architecture, relics, and questions but no clear answers, and that fascinated me.

In the years before Tears of the Kingdom finally released, we as the fans, imagined who the Zonai were, what their purpose was, and what role they might play in the sequel. And in doing that, I accidentally started building my own world.

Even if it was just OC stuff, even if it had no real potential, I started filling in the blanks myself. I invented names, motivations, histories being inspired by The Zonai. I even created my original character: WABU in this period. Eventually, like most early ideas, I dropped it. I told myself it was fun, but aimless. Something to pass the time.

Then Tears of the Kingdom finally came out. I played it, loved it, but I also went back to all those old notes and theories I’d made, mainly just curious to compare what I thought the Zonai were versus what Nintendo actually revealed.

And when I saw how different they were, I realized that I could take those original ideas and ACTUALLY make them mine without worrying abiut nintendo coming after me.

So I returned to those ideas. Refined them. Reimagined them. But a game? I still didn’t think I could do that.

UNTIL I had to come up with a game concept for my Final Major Project. A game about conflict.

Suddenly, everything clicked.

And from that, the Zothari were born.

An ancient species of peacekeepers, once devoted to spreading harmony across the Uni-Verse. Until tragedy struck. The Great Bleed nearly wiped them out, and now, in order to survive, they’ve formed the ZARIMAR: a military force, a necessary contradiction, built to fight for a chance to be who they once were again.

That idea—that struggle between identity and survival—became the core of Strife & Serenity.

It started with a species. Just a single seed. But that seed grew into something much bigger. And I think the most important thing I learned through all of this is:

Never throw away your ideas. Even if they suck.