A motive that speaks for itself [hunter changes]

A quick psa before I go off the rails for this one- If you haven't heard me say it, my sleep schedule is all out of whack (I have given up control to my body adjusting to all this craziness until it's out of my system) and my posting schedule is suffering for it- I think there might be a full 24 hours before my Ida/MC nsfw piece goes up, which will be my Friday but probably your Saturday. Sorry for any inconvenience!<3

Now. 

Check this out, take a look at this.

I have been deep into reworking some elements of plot that I don't think are working out the way I want them to- namely, the hunters motivation on being forced back to the hedge. In my OG vision, I wanted it to be very complex with the blood oath and some mysterious forces regarding the ties that bind them to Oakwerth, ones that would be revealed as the story goes. But, as I write, it keeps falling short and it keeps nudging me back into writer's block. To be real honest, it just hasn't been fun to write! It constantly feels like something is missing, it feels too flimsy, and I think it's because I want to write this story 'backwards', but that is not going to be possible with the way I'm publishing chunk by chunk. I'm still keeping a lot of the mystery, but adding a crucial detail that will make it easier for me to put the hunter front and center from the very start of the story.

The solution I've come up with? The hunter becomes the pathfinder. They are the only one left from old days that has knowledge of cryptic trails and cache locations recorded by runners. They are the ones that used to lead their team on their expeditions and hunts, with very specific knowledge about the forest and how it shifts and changes, how it tapers into [REDACTED], and most importantly; the hunter alone knows most about the deep forest and how to survive now that running is an extinct practice and all the old blood hunters are gone. They have lived out there, outside of Riven, for 200 years now. They know some shit the shut-ins at Riven know nothing about. 

The RO's are following for their own motives, they all have some task to complete that are tied to their 'personal quests'. In terms of Oakwerth, I'm toying with the idea of having them be a stronger, more oppressive presence in Riven rather than visiting dignitaries, to justify Rivenians not knowing about the forest the same way they once used to. Curfews, strict zones of 'free-roaming', fear-mongering, the whole bit.

This would mean that while the hunter is still called because of surfacing evidence of Leith, the team needs the hunter to lead the way, because no-one else knows how (Id does, as scout, but their knowledge is limited too due to their own restrictions). 

A lovely side-detail this allows for is a hunters journal- instead of a codex, it is a sketchbook or journal kept on the hunters person. The formatting for the codex pages would finally be solved and it makes me giddy to just think about.

Now, I am finding this incredibly hard to explain because it's all loose notes and bulletpoints still, but if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them! I will also post this on discord if you want to chat about it there; poke some holes in the idea, or fuel it further.

But first, I'll ask you. What do YOU think about this change?