Setting Free

Author’s Note

Let’s Talk Worldbuilding (The Jungle Remembers… but So Does the North)

Okay, since you’ve made it this far, let’s hit pause on the drama (just for a second) and talk about something behind the scenes: the bones of this world.

I’ve had a few readers ask where the Ixchele came from—if they’re based on a real tribe, or if they just showed up fully formed with obsidian blades and feathers and thunder in their eyes.

The short answer? Both.

The long answer? Let’s go.

The Ixchele are a fictional bloodline in this world, but they’re built from the real histories, beliefs, and spiritual systems of Indigenous peoples who should never be forgotten.

The Northern Ixchele, like Sofia and her family, were inspired by the Rarámuri people (often called Tarahumara) of Chihuahua, Mexico. These are people of endurance, silence, strength, and memory. They run across mountains barefoot. They hold tightly to their ancestral ways even when the world pushes against them. They live not in noise, but in knowing. I saw them and thought—what if their descendants could shift into wind? Into owls? Into firelight that never flickers out?

What if the quiet ones were the strongest of all?

And then there are the Southern Ixchele—like Xiuhcoatl and his warriors. These were shaped from a blend of Mesoamerican cultures, especially the Mexica (Aztec), Maya, and other Indigenous civilizations of southern Mexico and Central America. If the Northern Ixchele are bone-deep memory, the Southern Ixchele are carved in fire and stone. Their ceremonial garb, battle formations, feathered regalia, and rituals are all rooted in real ancestral practices. The death whistles? The obsidian daggers? The belief that shifting is a divine birthright? That’s not just fantasy. That’s history with the volume turned up.

But this world isn’t a replica. It’s a reimagining.

I wanted to honor these cultures—not by copying them, but by asking: What if colonization hadn’t shattered their systems? What if the bloodlines had continued, protected in secret? What if the gods weren’t dead? What if the land hadn’t stopped whispering to its people?

And what if… those people could shift?

So yes, I did the research. A lot of it. Late nights reading academic papers, hunting down oral traditions, digging through museum archives and ethnographies. Not because I wanted to write a history book—but because I believe if you’re going to build a world, you should build it with both imagination and respect.

The Ixchele are fiction. But the people who inspired them? They’re real. They’re still here. Still running. Still burning.

And in this story—where blood sings and feathers fall and love rises from ash—I hope you feel just a sliver of that truth.

Thanks for being here. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 10 is coming soon. But for now?

Let the land breathe.

It remembers.