Summer Camp 2025 Pledge
First Ever World Anvil Summer Camp!
I'm iordamos, and I am worldbuilding for my DnD setting of ten years, though there is very little of my setting actually viewable in WA at present. Aiming to fix that this year (by a few articles at least...). My friend ike9899 first got me started with World Anvil a few years ago, but I still mostly pick at articles in short spurts, leaving the bulk of my notation for worldbuilding elsewhere. I'm trying to get better about that and almost did Summer Camp last year, but well time and such slipped through my fingers. I have even less time now than I did last year, but I've made it a point to have greater awareness and ike9899 has helped me to keep track of prep. Therefore, this article marks the record of my first World Anvil summer camp!
The time has come to gather my notes scattered as they are across different physical and digital media and earnestly begin to make it cohesive, a task made more daunting by the thought of organizing and formatting information.
Week 1: Nourishment
Assignment 1
Think about the ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don't?Looking at this within the context of the lands of Eastern Eabrath, it of course depends. The Lustarine Kingdoms generally enjoy relative security due to their allies within the Elves of Andavar and the dwarves of the Sturmburgenreich. The people of the Iron Circle's Dominion are varied and many are descended from indigenous groups that centuries ago began experiencing subjugation by the Corsov empire. Now in the absence of that empire, the collapse of the grand duchy of Acrad, and the rise of the Iron Circle, many of these people itch for sovereignty over themselves with renewed fervor, pointing to cultural and/or religious differences. While the Iron Circle is fairly inclusive to natives, there are positions high in the rungs of authority which are not generally open to Acradi natives so much as to loyal and long-term officers. All in all, despite some meritocratic leanings, the authoritarian rise and command of power makes it difficult for many people who pride themselves on either indigenous heritage or imperial legacy or both to stomach, being ruled by an entrenched oligarchy of foreign warlords. The needs most commonly threatened in Acrad are safety and security, belonging, self-determination, and spiritual. Rebellions have broken out in the ICD before, but so far none have thrown off the yoke of the Iron Circle, and many would-be rebellions were extinguished in nascence by spies and plants from among the ranks of the Iron Constables, furthering distrust. Feuds have sprung up between clans over differences in attitude toward imperial and then later Iron Circle rule, and the scars of these regimes will haunt the people for generations.
Assignment 2
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 thing about this is, I have so few articles actually published, that they are either all out of date or all current depending on your perspective. As I have not majorly overhauled the layout of my articles in some time, I do not think there is anything to update yet. But certainly there are articles which are incomplete and... I'm getting to it. Mostly it's down to adding links and adjusting formatting in some cases. BUT I did discover that a worldbuilding meta is a thing that exists. And I did fill that out. We'll consider this WIP.
Week 2: Roots
Assignment 1
Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.Ah, here we go. What follows is an alphabetic order of most of the important cultures of the region without it just being a list of thirty or more. Andavari Elves
The Andavari Elves are composed of two wood elvish peoples living harmoniously. The Moon Prince Morthwyl of the Allanari realm-in-exile led his people from the Forlorn Lands to Andavar where they have remained as the guests and allies of the Andavari elves and their Princess Sorcha. Previous wars between elven realms and the Corsovian Empire (and its successor states) have left the elves greatly diminished in number and might.
Breggandalers pride themselves on their resistance of outside rule and unique modes of worship. They claim descent from ancient hill tribes that were wiped out during a last stand in their homelands during the campaigns of Valdemarios the Bold. The Breggandaler attitude of suspicion toward outsiders and especially outside interference, as well as their observance of pagan rites and construction of dog shrines to honor the hounds of ill omen said to be the phantom hounds of their massacred ancestors.
The Dunnic are some of the most populous people of Acrad. They are the descendants of various Dounocian tribes who allied with or paid tribute to the Ost-Corsov conquerors. Moreso than even the Pirmen, the Dunnic people were greatly involved in the Ost-Corsovian conquests of Acrad and have spread their culture wide.
The Gjall are giantkin who were centuries ago driven to the brink by Corsovian expansion and then forced into a tributary existence on a specially marked territory of land between the Wayve and Brunwater rivers, their borders with the imperial lands clearly marked and the penalty for crossing them was death. Nowadays, the Gjalund Reserve as a territory is largely unmanaged by the Iron Circle except for the military patrols of the Dominion-facing borders. The Gjall today range further west and southwest, remaining principally outside the authority of the Iron Circle, but there is talk of the Gjall one day rising into a realm of their own... and such rumors are treated as wishful threats on the part of the giantkin by those Iron Circle officials who pay it any mind.
Lustarine culture is slightly different between the Stargarders and their southern kinfolk of Sternhelm, but both are quite similar especially when compared against the other human dominated cultures of Acrad. The Lustarine realms have been independent since the withdrawal of the empire and were once united as one of the latest provinces incorporated to the empire. As such, they have retained much of their heritage and have been culturally influenced more by the Andavari Elves and the Sturmburg Dwarves than the Iron Circle or the Grand Duchy of Acrad before it.
Karkothi are descended from the ancient Karkoth barbarians and are further subdivided into East Karkothi and West Karkothi. They once were the dominant culture in the region in ancient times, but were devastated by a cataclysm almost a millennium ago. Now, they are little more than a divided minority in the northern prefectures, their people having largely been assimilated by their neighbors under the empire.
Markosians are among the most imperialized people of the eastern lands. During the conquests of Acrad, the Markosians enjoyed great prestige, which was only heightened when the Ost-Corsovs found themselves suddenly leading the empire, though briefly. It was in South Markosia that the conquests began and though their territories are rugged, their cities are some of the oldest human settlements in Acrad and have strong lines of nobility and ties to the legacy of the Empire. Many Markosian nobles allied with the Rivierrens of Les Réinvitations to bring Acrad back into the fold as a reconstituted grand duchy. With the victory of the Iron Circle, many of these nobles were executed or deposed in favor of Iron Circle appointees or relatives who were more willing to acquiesce to the Iron Circle's rule.
Nexians are the descendants of the magelords of Nex who survived the Dawn of Dust and White Fire. The Nexian magelords practiced slavery in the region as a means of providing for rigorous needs of various alchemical and magical components as well as vellum. While slavery still exists as an institution in Nex, today it is mostly an indicator of status as the wastes beyond the City of Spires are inhospitable and certainly unworkable land.
The Nytrathan people (and the prefecture they call home) are named for the prominant Keldari ruin of Nytrathas. A fairly imperialized people, they are spread throughout Nytrathas, the Harrowcoast, parts of the Dunnic Heartlands and North Markosia.
The people generally regarded as Seamoorish arose from Dunnic, Pirmen, Nytrathan, and proto-Breggandaler amalgamating and incorporating influences from outside Acrad via smugglers, pirates, and other Corsovian seafarers. Their shores were never as important as Markosia, but the ruins of many old fortresses and settlements exist along the coast, the legacy of imperial and ducal neglect. Now the Iron Circle seeks to correct the decline of the region and build a grand navy to rival the other Corsovian nations.
Trollocs are another giantkin people who were pushed beyond the Tollisdelve River, where Verahd's Wall was later built by the Ost-Corsovs to keep out the barbarians of the Forlorn Lands. The trollocs have little in common with the other people ruled by the Iron Circle, save that they too are a conquered people, for the boundaries of the territory were formed by the Grand Duchy of Acrad after the wars of conquest the Toldain family waged. The Toldains held the territory for generations, sometimes as a semi-autonomous tributary, to act as a buffer against Frorlending raiders. Trollogrod briefly had a surge of importance to the Iron Circle as well, when their consolidation of power was less complete and the threat of Frorlending attacks more dire, and the need for a secure road to the west was greater. But even that glimmer of attention has faded greatly, and the trollocs are largely left to fend for themselves in their backwater prefecture in the northern border region.
Vryloka are a culture borrowed from the 4th edition of D&D, mostly because I enjoyed the name and the backstory and made minor tweaks. They were originally nobility arising from the alliances between Pirminic tribes and Corsovian Kings. They came to rule present day Nytrathas, but have never been particularly numerous. While some Vryloka remain in their ancestral castles among the Cronewood, many have become itinerant taking among small adventuring bands.
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?I've always had the homepage as just a placeholder in my mind, thinking that "yeah, sure I'll update it at some point, but after the content is sorted." That said, I can certainly see that it isn't terribly effective; it's mostly meant to be somewhere I can immediately redirect my players from, but well I haven't actually done that part yet. I'm reading up on creating a good home page, and I want to take some time to learn some CSS to style the homepage (and everything else) just right as it's fairly spartan and default at the moment. I'm afraid that the summer camp will begin with it remaining quite bare bones however.
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!I think my first worldbuilding could just be counted among my childhood play, drawing maps for kingdoms my stuffed animals ruled and the adventures they went on. Much later and more consciously worldbuilding, in high school I wanted to write a novel and had laid out a loose magic system and cast of characters in a sort of arcanapunk victorian setting. Most of that was abandoned, but the names of some characters made it with other, newer ideas, into the worldbuilding of my first DnD campaign in college.
Week 2: Metamorphosis
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?I think I'll keep this brief for a change. The area of the setting I'm focusing on for summer camp has gone through different phases through its history, from barbarian tribes and kingdoms, to subjugation by the empire, to the grand duchy and Corsovian Triumvirate, and now the Iron Circle holds command over much of the region. Different factions seek to either tighten or break free of their authority, variously seeking independence or to reestablish a regime based on the old imperial virtues.
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.This one really stumped me because I'm constantly looking for new music so that I don't feel like what I listen to is getting stale, and I'm still reaching out to friends for inspiration. I know it doesn't have to be musical in nature, and my partner has just started a K-Pop kick and is wanting to get into romance anime, who can say what ideas that will spark as we watch together. In the meantime, I can already see that no small amount of inspiration is going to be coming from veteran worldbuilders (see below).
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.I found Melior by TJ Trewin to be quite inspiring. I had initially discovered it through reading up on tips for a good homepage, and when I opened up the homepage, I immediately understood why it was being spotlit. The colors of the page immediately convey tone as do the brief, but evocative, lines of text. The "Start Here" page was the reason for the spotlight in the article and for good reason. Not only does it reiterate the pitch, which is helpful, but it explores the geography with two very cool interactive map features, identifies the central conflicts, and briefly mentions the people that live in the world, drawing you to ask more about them and click those articles when you're ready. It acts as a great hub for exploring the setting. I also discovered while looking through the world, that TJ has articles to reference back to as guides on colors, formatting, and styling. I can definitely see the value in it (and maybe it's common practice, but I saw it here first). I found Malkora by Strixxline via the article on leylines which won the wondrous nature award in the 2024 Worldbuilding Awards. I could tell right away that I liked the colors at play and perused a few more pages before deciding to follow the world and check out Strixxline's summer camp prep. I think I'll have to follow along with their progress, because I can't wait to see what goes on. In the meantime, I'm saving the link here to fully digest later.
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