Domain

Sutarodo.net was registered in April 2016 to function as a network domain for Megan's projects. The name was purchased and is hosted by Dreamhost. Star Road is a recurring place or theme in the Super Mario series, usually accompanied by beautiful colors and adorable stars, and it's one of my favorite locations in the series. The name originates from an area in Super Mario World and appears again in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Star Road. Sutarodo is the name of "Star Road" in the Japanese versions of the games. I liked this domain name immediately and could not stop thinking about it once I'd drawn up the first concept for it.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the Star Road is an important place: it is where all wishes become Wish Stars which then fall to the surface to grant the wisher's desires. This is a concept seen in a few other Mario titles, and it's always been one of my favorites. I relate this to one important concept: hope.

History

I've had a few networks that have had different homes in the past, moving due to hiatus or outgrowing the name. My first site was on ExPage which no longer exists, but I was probably around nine or ten years old when I started to teach myself HTML. I've been hosted on a variety of subdomains, but I purchased my first domain in 2006. I left in 2009 due to real life responsibilities but finally returned in 2014. Please note that I do not consider this current network to be any of the ones that existed before 2015 as none of those sites exist in any form, and my vision for my network has changed drastically. I consider those sites to be an important part of my history, but I am no longer tied to them.

The first domain that housed my network was named nymphean.org. To be honest, the word was something I'd chosen at random, and I can't really think of what reasons I would have at the time for naming my network this other than I liked the word at the time. My stay at this domain was short, but I still consider it my first home since it was my first network. In 2008 and 2009, my new network was located at exire.org, a name pulled from Tales of Symphonia. I loved this name, and it meant a lot to me. I'd taken a hiatus shortly after due to real life and left the community.

In 2014, I began lurking around The Fanlistings Network again, admiring people's layouts and enthusiasm for subjects. Shortly after, I realized some subjects that I adored did not have any active fanlistings anymore so I purchased hylia.org, my first domain after over five years. Since I was initially involved only with fanlistings, hylia.org became a fanlisting collective. Eventually, I found the shrining community, Amassment, after requesting affiliation for my fanlistings. I'd remembered shrines from back when I had my first domains, but I hadn't been aware of an active forum for such a hobby. I was interested in getting more involved, especially since I have started to really love writing again. Since Hylia was a fanlisting collective, I needed to purchase another domain for my new network.

I had decided to try to stick with the Tales of theme that I'd previously had so I purchased sylvarant.net, the original home of this network, and launched it in March 2015. I adored this name and still do, but I do not like the direct ties it has to Tales of Symphonia and the fact that there was a similarly named domain out there. I want my domain to reflect who I am as a person and include interests other than Tales of Symphonia so I knew I had to eventually move from that domain. Typically, I associate Sylvarant with humble beginnings because it's location of the start of Tales of Symphonia and it's significantly behind Teth'ealla since it'd been in decline for so long due to so many chosen's failing to complete their journey. Originally, this name fit perfectly with what I'd imagined for my first network. However, I've learned a lot within the last year from working on multiple shrines, and I think that my network had started to outgrow the definition that I associate with Sylvarant. It was time to move to another domain to relaunch once again, hopefully for the final time.

In April 2016, I registered sutarodo.net to relaunch my network. Sutarodo has been the home of my network since July 2, 2016. At this point in time, I have not decided if I am going to renew Sylvarant when it expires or use it as a Tales of-centric network. We will see what the rest of 2016 brings!

Design

You are currently viewing the debut layout of Sutarodo featuring Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia as she appears on the cover of volume 2 of the manga. Yes, I realize the irony of moving from a Tales of-themed domain name to this one with a layout featuring a character from the series, but I can't help it. I just adore Colette and relate to her a lot so I thought she would be a perfect subject for my network's relaunch.

Originally, I'd wanted to play off of the star-themed domain name using some art from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, but the layout didn't feel quite right. I wanted something light and airy, and the original design I created was very vibrant and bold. Once I'd found this scan, I knew that this was the image that I had to use. While this is not directly related to Star Road of the Super Mario series, I think Colette fits the original concept that I was aiming for quite nicely. Colette is the Chosen of Mana, and the people of Sylvarant place their hope in her to complete her journey to regenerate the world. It also relates to my previous domain name so this layout is a little bridge between the domains.

There are quite a few external resources that I'd like to acknowledge. Header image was obtained from Minitokyo. Textures are from 01, 02, and 03. Mikari made a beautiful seamless, starry background that you can subtly see in the header and provided the magical animated navigation code. Content fonts are Open Sans and Cedarville Cursive from Google Fonts, and header font is Violation. I'd also like to thank Crystal for being really supportive during the redesign of my domain and Lethe for listening to endless and hateful rants about my layouts and struggles with this design, helping with written sections, and layout troubleshooting. Thank you, everyone!