WorldEmber 2025 - Prep

This will be my very first WorldEmber that I'm participating in, and I plan to make it a good one! My plans look fairly clear for this December, but I'm starting small since it's my first time, and aiming for 10k words, but given my writing style I won't be surprised if I smash that goal!  

My WorldEmber Pledge

Area of Focus

I think for my very first WorldEmber, I want to focus on one of the most important parts of my world: the magic system! Pearalos (now called Atronach) is a relatively new world, but I finally want to pin down a solid magic system concept and start fleshing it out!   I've struggled with this historically, because it's easy to go back and forth: is it too much or too little, for example? I'm using this as a chance for myself to really just flesh out a robust magic system and see where it takes me, with no care if it ends up expansive beyond all measure or not (I'm sure it will).   I also want to ensure I have a solid foundation to avoid retcons down the line and so that I can develop the world even more in the future!  

Writing Goal

I set a tentative 10k milestone for this WorldEmber, but I intend to do much more than that if I can! I also hope to enter into at least one of the special categories for this WorldEmber, though I don't really know which yet.  

Pledge Document

(The world is named organisationally as Atronach for ease, but the pledge is for the same world all the same)  

Prep Bingo

I like this novel idea! I've chosen the following row of prep bingo:  

Plan your worldbuilding playlist

This is simple! Pearalos is based a lot on the jRPGs like Final Fantasy (especially 11 and 14), and I already listen to their soundtracks quite frequently, so I will be ensuring I have that queued up for next month to listen to while writing.  

Make a list of articles you want to write

I intend on planning out my root magic document this month to define the core rules of magic and then develop a list of sub-articles from there to work with, but I already know a fair few I definitely want to work on!

• Magic in Pearalos [DONE!]
• Traditions of Magic [DONE!]
• Schools of Magic [DONE!]
• Magic Spells [DONE!]
• Mana [DONE!]
• Divine Mana [DONE (Part of Mana)!]
• The Mana Weave [DONE!]
• The Fae Cycle [DONE (Part of The Mana Weave)!]
• Magic Aura [DONE!]
• Mana Pools [DONE!]

More are to come! I have yet to finish planning my magic document in earnest to know what I want to cover. I may end up writing that core magic document this month to ensure I know exactly what I need to cover, and from there update the list!  

Plan your writing schedule

I should have a relatively clear December, so I don't have to plan anything firm, but I mostly intend to write for my articles during the evenings after I've had dinner, and aim for an article to be finished every few days!  

What kind of people can you find in your worldbuilding area

I suppose given the context of what I want to work on, we'll be seeing lots of magically-interested NERDS during WorldEmber! Wizards, Druids, Priests and the works, generally speaking. Plenty of space for some very weird and wonderful (and not so wonderful!) people to show up.  

Do some research about the topics you'll write about

I've started collating ideas for potential magic approaches I might want to draw inspiration from for my system; the general idea of the magic system the world is using is to be an amalgamation of many different component parts, so one of the most important parts of my WorldEmber prep this month is to determine those component part inspirations so I'm not writing in the blind!  

Pre-WorldEmber Prep

The big things I want to do in this month leading up to WorldEmber are to fix the navigation and general CSS to be more usable, since it's not very practical right now, and also to plan out and potentially write the basic introduction article to magic, so as to get an idea as to everything I will be writing about come December!