That image of a suited up dog probably has a bit to do with last part of 3. But its a chuckleworthy image of decent quality, so that doesn't matter much.
We fully agree with discarding most of the NPCs we crafted. Especially the one-shot ones. We just added names to those for depth, not because we actually felt we needed to have them. We're normally rather fond of killing our own (N)PCs, so that'll probably happen again. Especially if it aids the plot.
We're thinking of keeping an invasion, but making it not start so soon.
2. Relics should have some sort of basic rules yes. But again, those rules should be mystical and not really understood. Especially not for the player characters. We'd think they should have some sort of source for their power, something that means most relics can't be on constantly. We'd think it would not be identical source for all, but it could be related.
How relics were made should not be understood, wethinks.
One of the small peeves we have in RPs is that technologies make sense in relation to each other, and that clothing/armor/weapons/etc. are realistic. Mind you, if someone's got the strength of many men, then the armor they wear can be heavier than that of someone with normal strength. It doesn't have to be, though. Chain mail bikinis, breastplates with cleavage, armor with exposed abdomen, etc. never make sense. If you've got the technology to make armor like that, you've got the knowledge of what sort of armor actually protects the wearer. We've no objections to primitives wearing hide loincloths or stuff like that, as societies where that is normal probably don't have the knowledge to make better protection.
We got the raw map from Sparks a bit ago, so we can set up a new map.