Summer Camp Prep 2025

 

Week 1

  Nourishment - Just random thoughts so far. I imagine the difficulties in rebuilding any sort of civilization will nourish a sense of personal strength, civic pride, and community within Azarth. I'm not sure how nourishing the main religion would be, mostly focused on repentance and the evil of magic. Possibly, there are special treatments needed to nourish the soil, changed from the cataclysm. Food-wise, the fare would most likely be simple, but calorie dense - fuel for the work of the day. Fancier dishes are likely status symbols among the well-off.
  Updating - Did some work to change references to old backstory ideas
 

Week 2

  Roots - Azarth is very much a product of the cataclysmic Shattering and more importantly, the way things did or didn't survive afterwards. Technology, species, cultures, so much was lost, and only some of it has been recovered since then. I do want to delve into the rebuilding phase, as that shaped people almost more than the initial disaster. In some fields, knowledge and technology is rather more advanced than most things, and in others, knowledge has been lost completely. In a landlocked country like Polira, knowledge of building and sailing large watercraft has basically died out, as it was not vital to survival in the first generations after The Shattering.
  Homepage and Primer - brushed these up a little, corrected some errors.
  First World - Technically, my first world building was the horde of imaginary alien creatures I made up when I was like seven. My first WA project was Kadeth, meant to be a D&D homebrew setting. I went crazy with worldbuilding details that would never come up or be important to anyone adventuring there. Since then, I try to make sure my articles, especially for the challenges and such, have something to do with the plot of the story I'm telling. On the upside, when I went to create a one-shot for April a few years back, I had a lot of the setting already nailed down, just add plot and stir! I learned a lot about how to write articles, formatting them, and so forth, so that they are both informative and easy to read (and hopefully entertaining).
 

Week 3

  I would love to finish my homework and finally do week 3's assignments, but I just do not have the energy. Summer Camp starts tomorrow, and I feel like I may have to downgrade my goal to Copper, or even just participating at all.
 

Week 4

  Tomorrow - This is something I've been thinking about a lot with my world. Where is it headed, and where do different groups within it want it to go? Especially when dealing with the future for casters in the realm. The first that jumps to mind is the underground movement, The Unbound. They definitely want a changed future for Polira, no more Sanguine Tower, but I think they have not quite thought through all the details and possible ramifications. The Maionene Temple would most likely love all mages to disappear off the face of the earth, but they are up against the government, which is harnessing and using casters for their own ends. Mostly, though, I think about what possible futures my main character would have as options among these varied and competing factions.
  Writing Prep - I rarely do much prep for my space. Mostly I need a good slate of writing sprint streams to get me started on articles in the first place! Tea, of course, is key, but my "tea counter" (baker's rack) is well stocked.
  Community - I always rely on the general WA Discord community for Summer Camp. Sometimes, I have to make myself stop reading and posting there, because I forget to do the actual writing. I have no specific accountability partner, just utilize the community's various sprint streams to focus. Sharing? I love to share. Maybe too much. I think this year I'll try to wait until I've had time for it to sit a bit and then go back over it.