I appreciate the compliment! I'm more used to hosting RPs than joining them, so old habits die hard. :P

One of my weaknesses is [i]completing[/i] plots. [i]Starting[/i] them is the easy part, and what I'm competent at. But figuring out the middle, how we get from opening to climax, is a whole other animal. Group RP is good for hammering that out, which is partly why I find it appealing.

Regarding the start of the RP, I had an idea about that. What if the New World is one of the places people go when they reincarnate after death, and maybe reincarnation grants them immense magic power that can't be acquired any other way. The various nations are using them as trump cards in a sort of Cold War for supremacy, with the Witch posing the greatest threat to them all (warranting a temporary alliance). Maybe not [i]all[/i] the reincarnations have combat-related abilities, but even non-combatant ones are often still useful for giving great boons to local economies with their other skills and technological knowledge. So nations have been desperately searching for reincarnations and stockpiling them whenever possible.