Summer Camp Homework
This article is the first for this world. However, I am not entirely starting from scratch. The Celestial Grove is the setting of the Quadriarma Union (world), my first world project on World Anvil. I decided to continue working on the Quadriarma, but from a place that is more suited for its entire setting. I have decided that Summer Camp would be a great time to start on this side. I pledge to complete at least 10 articles over the month of July, but that isn't my limit. I will certainly try to push as far as possible.
My goal is write the foundational elements of the greater Celestial Grove. I am no longer focusing on the Quadriarma, but the narrative universe around it.
Theme I: Power
Which are the powerful organizations within your world setting? Who are the powerful individuals? What kinds of power do they wield and what are their weaknesses and needs?The Celestial Grove is full of organizations of great power and only regional influence. My focus from the start will be on the Confederacy of the Quadriarma, the most powerful faction to be conceived in the grove. It lasted for over a thousand years thanks to support from hundreds of member states. At its height, it controlled over 70% of explored space. Driven by need for resources and worlds to colonize in order to protect its fragile, livable planets, the union quickly grows to other frontiers. This is its weakness. The need for expansion eventually overextended the Quadriarma, leaving it unable to properly defend itself.
Theme II: Frontier
Where are the frontiers in your worldsetting? And why would anyone want to go there?! What about metaphorical frontiers, like the “frontier of medicine” or space, the “final frontier”?The Celestial Grove is a frontier in of itself. Most of it would be unexplored, much as large portions of space controlled by the Quadriarma is a mystery. As the people expanded their grasp on the universe, the knowledge of what people didn't know expanded. It became evident that the Celestial Grove was an island. By the time the Quadriarma fell, most of the grove was being settled. Outside of it was wasteland; skeletons of the first civilizations. Civilizations unable to survive the chaotic, younger universe. The story of everyone and everything in or from the Celestial Grove is the story of conquering frontiers. Not just physical one, but metaphorical as well.
Theme III: Relics
What aspects of the past are revered today in your world setting? Which peoples are remembered? And which are forgotten, and why?History is rich. It is full of knowledge and wonder of life in the past and future. When you have a setting on the scale of the Celestial Grove, which is influenced by civilizations from billions of years ago, there are plenty of relics left behind. If the focus is put on the more familiar civilization, than you still have a lot of artifacts. History in the modern age is well recorded. Normal people can search up media such as music, video, or news articles from when their people had first sent a person into space. Manufacturing technology allows for vintage and even ancient objects to be remade with fidelity. Despite all this, the common person doesn't have much knowledge in history from hundreds or thousands of years ago. Focus is on yesterday and now.
Theme IV: Communication
How do people and organizations from different backgrounds or cultures communicate with each other? How does communication happen over short and long distances? Who in your setting communicates secretly or carefully, and how?Communication is one of the pillars of a society. It cannot exist without communication. One of the biggest projects the Quadriarma Union has undertaken was its communication network which allowed opposite ends of the union to communicate in a high-quality, low latency connection. The Interspace Communication Network connects every world, station, and ship. Neutrino signals are converted to radio or laser for short-distance communication. The ability to communicate has created an ever-lasting effect on all the cultures and species of the Quadriarma. Even after the Quadriarma fell, its communication network continued to be maintained, and was even connected up with networks created by former enemies of the QU.
Comments