Summer Camp Prep 2025

Oh boy am I not ready for this at all! I'm in a dip in my life (it's actually a deep endless gorge but let's not think about it too hard) and I've fallen a bit out of love with writing. And writing for this world that has consumed me for so long.

I'm hoping this will help me. Give me fresh eyes so to speak. I know I shouldn't feel remorse or guilt for not updating this world or not writing, but I can't help it. I hope someone out there feels the same way, that this boat does not have a passenger of one.

Anyway - that's why I'm late.

But I'm here.

Week 1 - Nourishment

We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body.

— Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

 We’re starting with… food! Ok, not just food. In fact, this theme is way more general than it seems! For example, technology is “nourished” by an energy source, plants feed on sunlight, and it’s often said that philosophy and spirituality “nourish the soul”. Basically, anything that gets “consumed” for a positive effect is nourishment, physically or metaphorically. Yes, this theme goes pretty deep—you could almost say it’s food for thought! 

Assignment 1: Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?

 Some people do have what they need. Those in affluent cities and those in farming communities that get by on the land and are content with what they have. But the Sundering (the second of its kind) thinned the Veil between the Realms and brought an ancient war to Avaleen and its refugees. Those ancient beings are quite like the mortal races of Avaleen, just a little more powerful and with longer lifespans. They do not have what they need and they crave what they lost, even a thousand years later.

War and strife, death and chaos threaten a tentative peace as several factions claim what they believe are due.

Renourish your motivations

Why did I create Avaleen? I barely remember. I had this idea once upon a time about a set of characters in a multiverse of different genres and they each have a copy/clone in these verses. It was about a woman and a man, a doomed love story because I had lost my own love to a brutal accident.

Then I went to writing school and this mentor of mine, bless his heart, did not know nothing of fantasy and sci-fi and genre but was willing and eager to learn. But his constant "why?" nearly drove me insane. What was a throwaway line became the first scene, which became the first act, which became the whole fucking film script. Multiverse begone.

Then I found out about D&D through Critical Role and holy fuck. Exandria is so vibrant and alive and rich! It's flawed and perfect and everything in-between. Two things sprung to mind at the same time:

1. I wanted that. I wanted to create a world for D&D, but more than that, I wanted to create a fantasy world of epic proportions.
2. I had the perfect story. It was in the trash despite good reviews and an incredibly successful reading.

But how does one go about creating a world? My brain can't compute a thousand documents and master docs and whatnots. But google brought me here. To WorldAnvil through a friend who truth be told hates this platform. For him it's too convoluted and hard to learn, for me it was heaven.

What area do I want to focus on?

Geography and Creatures.

My Avaleen Campaign Setting is almost done over at Homebrew but these chapters lack a lot of content and I just want to hammer it home.

Could that be a goal? To finish the campaign setting and publish it there?

Assignment 2: Pledge your goal for Summer Camp 2025!

I pledge to get the copper badge. A low bar that I hope I will pass with flying colors.

Assignment 3: If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.

The whole front page and structure needs an overhaul, especially since every single formatting broke with the updates. It's such a sad little mess... But that is not for right now.

Week 2 - Roots

Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.

— Victor Hugo

Roots are foundations, the beginnings of things. And that's worldbuilding gold! The past is gone, but its effects are felt throughout history. And while the past is messy and full of events that shouldn’t repeat, it’s also the reason we are where we are—standing on the shoulders of giants! So, for this theme, we’re going back to the roots of your world and exploring where your characters and cultures come from. You don’t need to write a detailed history, but thinking about the origins of things will make the present time of your world all the more real and interesting. 

Assignment 1: Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.

Oh boy, for a homework assignment? I'm not happy about the timeline of the world but I have taken some measures to cleaning it up. Some articles still reference an old timeline, but that's the way of progress right? Messy and chaotic.

Most of the continents have their histories straight, except for Ala which I know nothing about save a few countries and that they launched an expedition to Zion after its fall. 

Assignment 2: Go to your world’s homepage and imagine you’re a new reader discovering the setting for the first time. What should you change to make the experience more engaging?

Everything...? The Primer is cleaned up at least!

Assignment 3: Find your earliest worldbuilding project. What mistakes did you make that you want to avoid? What good ideas from those early days can you integrate into your current project? Remember to take a moment to be proud of how far you've come!

 My very first world was called Mhiromina which I created as a 12-year old, and it was a classic story of a young heroine encountering a handsome boy and a bunch of deities on a mission to save their world. It's cute but very stereotypical. I think the wonder is what I loved about it, but I've definitely grown as a writer. Less telling these days, more showing (and showing off lol).

Week 3 - Metamorphosis

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

— Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

While our roots are ever present, the world slowly transforms and takes on new forms. And so should your world, if you want it to feel a living dynamic place! A metamorphosis isn’t a mere change, it’s natural evolution, or transformation with intent. It’s not about what changes, but about why it changes—and why some people don’t want this transformation to happen! Knowing the roots of your setting will be really helpful here, as you need to know where you’re coming from to understand what will change.

Assignment 1: What transformations and adaptations have the people in your world gone through? What changes are going on right now… and who is trying to stop them?

Avaleen is a world undergoing forced evolution after the Second Sundering. People change to survive—sometimes physically, sometimes spiritually. While some adapt, seeking a future that blends realms and reshapes destiny, others desperately cling to the old ways or try to weaponize the weakening structures for power. At the heart of it all lies a simple truth:

The world is becoming something else. Whether Avaleen survives that metamorphosis depends on who controls the Weave.

Avaleenians are not just facing a world with new powers, new people and geographical upheaval. They're also facing spiritual change, existential dread and a resolve to move forward and adapt. But there are forces who does not want this. Alexandre Kollisi's Illevan Insurrection want to unravel the Weave, ridding the world and its people of its very story and reality. The leaders of Couralis and Lossorach both do not want the liberal ways that the Shadow War forced upon the people.

Assignment 2: Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.

 I recently discovered that Douglas Adams didn't just write one story, but many, and the TV show Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a brilliantly bizarre fantasy where reality twists and turns, breaks and worlds bleed into each other only for them to snap back to a normality we're not even sure exists in the first place. I love it!

Assignment 3: Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.

Cathedris: It's such an inspiring world with writing I could only hope to achieve one day. I think of language in a strange way (maybe cause of my nd), like it's either open or closed, heavy or light and this world is heavy on the concept and so light and open in its language I fell in love immediately - like many others. Like how?!

It also made me look at the formatting of the homepage and change a few things around. And I found out about the icons and actually managed (yes, it's two clicks but it's been daunting until now.)

I've also recently discovered the worlds of Tyrdal, Haly the Moonlight Bard, Solomon Jack and Wordigirl and so many others and I'm in awe of their creativity, their language, their mastery of weaving a story and a world together so seemingly seamlessly. I'm looking forward to discovering more!

Week 4 - Tomorrow

Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.

— David Bowie

Last week we talked about the past… this week, let’s look ahead! What does the future hold for your world’s people? And what do they think the future looks like? People’s perception of their future is usually heavily influenced by the current state of the world, so you’ll need an understanding of the present in order to write about the future! The future also rarely ends up being what we expect it to be—so to make this more realistic, make sure what people expect from the future is different from your actual plans!

Assignment 1: Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?

Alexandre Kollisi, the general of the illevan insurrection is working to change the world while the goddess Ayursha is conspiring to do the same. After all, when is a world not more malleable than  at the brink of a new chapter?

Assignment 2: Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!

I have set up my "desk" in the window, overlooking the courtyard. It's summer time here in Sweden and light out for 22 hours a day. I think I'm gonna love it. However schedules and I do not go together. Creativity will flow when it flows.

Gosh I sounded like the spirit of Aloha just took over.

Assignment 3: Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?

I don't know about who. Even my beta readers are dragging their feet. But I have a little reward system with colors in full view of my desk. I will rely on dopamine to get through this!