This article is a meta article and therefore its contents are to be viewed from an out of universe perspective, rather than as if it were present in-universe.
Week 1
On The Topic Of: Nourishment
The theme of nourishment gives me thoughts as to the roles of cooks, chefs and in general the food production logistics. I've talked about it before with friends but I have never put the words into an actual article. If some prompts are compatible, I shall use it to flesh it out said food systems. I know it's a pretty surface level reading of the theme, but I have been meaning to talk about the food system in general for a while beyond very high level concepts.
The Pledge
I haven't had great luck with these sorts of things in the past, but I'm in a much better space than I was before, and so I'm going to set myself the minimum goal of the Silver badge, but I will aim to get the fabled Diamond one!
Image within!
Revisit And Update
While I didn't get to updating old articles, as I find it's easier to update them to reflect whatever I'm writing now, rather than forcing myself to update based on ideas that I may not have at the time, I did get to updating my
World Meta to better reflect the current plan. Going back to it made me realise just how long it had been and how much my thoughts and plans for this world had changed since I first did it. I wish it had a 'last updated' (or that I saw it if there is one!) so I could have realised how long it had been since I wrote all that beforehand.
Week 2
On The Topic Of: Roots
How the past shapes the modern times is a bit of a difficult thing to write for me as it's a very unified culture, so it's a lot of work to be able to find one thing to point at and focus on. I'm sure I can figure something out, mostly in relation to the largest religion, The Winged Children. I'm sure I can flesh out their past a lot to show how it has influenced the modern day expression of their faith.
Homepage Updates
Amusingly, I had already been working on reformatting my homepage to be more pleasing to the eye and present it in the format that I'd like. While it's still a bit of a work in progress, the formatting itself is done and it's just actual content that I need to fill it out with. A player primer is something I certainly do need to write, and shall likely get to that either during or after Summer Camp.
The Root Cause
My first true worldbuilding project is this one! Sure, I've had ideas of settings before, but this was the first time I actually put those ideas into words. Granted, as per my world meta change, the scope and ideas have changed, but the core concept has been the same throughout it all, and I'm quite proud of being able to stick with my first true world for as long as I have, and I'd like to keep going for a lot longer! While I've had ideas expressed in other worlds that I've worked on that I may introduce into the Galactic Archives, it's generally been the other way around, with the things I've learned from this world being used in those.
Week 3
On The Topic Of: Metamorphosis
Well, this one is easy! The Siathan Court, the focus of my world, is going through the biggest transformation yet: Turning from a planet-spanning empire into one spanning the stars. This results in a lot of needed adaptations throughout all aspects of their society, from their bureaucracy and customs to how individuals perceive the universe at large, now that they are able to travel beyond their own star system.
While there is no true overarching antagonist stopping them from this goal (At least not in the 'true' timeline), smaller things are happening that impede them in this, such as the events on Sekrina. But the most natural thing slowing them down is their own rate of adaptation towards this new frontier.
New Art To Peruse
Branching out from my comfort zone is certainly difficult, something I'm sure many can relate to. At least I didn't have to look far for where I could go for this. I've had Inferno by Dante Alighieri sitting on my shelf for a while. Well, the closest thing I have to a bookshelf anyway. Now it's certainly not 'new' in the grand scheme of things, but it's new to me. It's a slow read for me as I don't get as much time to sit down and read as I like, so I'm still mostly working through the introduction. However, just reading about the life of Dante himself has given me ideas for the history of city-states and the individuals that help shape them over time.
Fellow Worldbuilders
I'll admit, I'm dreadful when it comes to checking out other people's work. I find myself fussing over my own work for various reasons when looking over other people's works. I'm sure almost everyone else has felt their own work was lacking when reading someone else's, and I'm no exception. But for this, I braved it and decided to pick three worlds at random to have a look at! Given that I've usually worked in isolation for worldbuilding, I don't truly know the etiquette for linking other people's worlds, but I'll link the pages I gave a look!
All of these picks were done by just scrolling through those who had entered into this very homework event and opening three at random! I do fear that my writing ended up feeling more of a review than simply what my thoughts were, it's a habit I'm doing my best to break when talking about other people's work.
Amazing art was my first thought when looking at any part of this world by Jontaro. A beautiful style and fantastic attention to detail really got the theme of the setting across! As for the Runeclaws themselves, the concept is both scary and wonderful to read about. The starting comment really sets the tone of how dangerous these things are and the size comparison to the side really adds to that.
Further reading really sells just how much of a terror the Runeclaws are. Spells to augment themselves, but also attack others, all while being just as tanky, if not moreso, than a normal bear? Yeah, not something I'd want to face with any adventuring party. The addition of in-universe ideas as to how to prepare to fight one is a very nice touch when it comes to a setting designed to be played in and I'm always a fan of it.
It's a long way before I'm happy enough with my own art to put it up here, but reading the Runeclaws article and briefly glancing through other parts of the world of Oniran has renewed my desire to improve my own art as well as get pieces commissioned for my own world. On top of that, it has served to remind me to make enemies that are not just other people for the eventual TTRPG system I intend to make.
The map on the sidebar is what drew my attention in this article by Wellsygaming. Something I certainly want to do similar to in my own world once I get maps sorted out, which is a whole other struggle. Beyond the sidebar map though, including both notable locations and settlements in separate headers is a fantastic idea and I'm almost disappointed that I hadn't thought of it myself. The short snippets to give an idea of exactly what's included in the proper articles is always a welcome thing, making it quite easy to learn about the basics before clicking in for further details.
Quite a long read, if you don't mind the spoilers, from cruisercrusher, but a worthwhile read all the same! Quite the combination of an overview of a character as well as an in-depth look into their backstory. Multiple pictures of the character with different expressions and outfits really helps get their personality across and that is on clear display here!
At first when reading the backstory I was seeing a few similarities between Shea and Caithlyn from my own world, but as I read on, the similarities ended, which was a bit of a reassurance for myself and kept me quite interested in what was to come with the rest of the story.
Writing such an in-depth personality description while also giving enough backstory to lend reasoning to the personality traits is something I really need to give a proper go, and the article about Shea has given me the inspiration needed to tackle it once Summer Camp comes around properly.
Week 4
On The Topic Of: Tomorrow
Everyone, in one way or another, is working to make a specific kind of future in their own mind. Of course, this is true for the real world too, so I'll take a more broad view of it and focus on organisations, rather than individuals.
The Siathan Court, as a government, has a mixed view of the future, as they are trying to be prepared for hostiles out in the galaxy, potential friends and to be the only ones creating a space civilization, all at once, leading to many mixed goals and a very unclear vision of the future.
As in any capitalistic society, corporations envision and work towards a future where they are the dominant player in their field, controlling everything about their industry to ensure that they remain the richest, for whatever ends that may be. This'll naturally put them at odds with other companies, the government and individuals for various reasons.
The Winged Children follow close behind the rate of expansion, with a future of greater understanding of Dragons and members across every settlement to help with the research of such being steadily worked towards.
With how era-defining the ability to travel to and settle on planets many light years away is, every event, big or small, is capable of changing the future for better or worse, potentially in ways that people may not ever expect. It's a perfect demonstration of the Butterfly Effect and one that I hope to explore in-depth throughout Summer Camp if the prompts support it!
A Date With Writing
Writing schedules are a difficult thing for me, as the inspiration comes in big bursts and goes just as quickly, although I will do my best to stick to at least starting three prompts each week, giving me two and a bit days to finish each one. If I finish one and the inspiration is still going, I'll certainly take the time to start or finish another, so this is by no means a hard and fast schedule.
Community Connections
I've previously touched on how I usually do my work in isolation, not really relying or getting help from others. I'll be trying my best to turn this around, helping a close friend who's really only starting with worldbuilding and Worldanvil at large to get into it and we can easily bounce ideas off of each other and help ensure that our ideas are well communicated in our writing.
I've also been quite the lurker in the Worldanvil Discord, although the big wipe due to a staff member being compromised has given me hesitation at getting my words out there, although I'll use Summer Camp as an excuse to at least say a few things from time to time, rather than just be a silent observer.
As for sharing, I'm likely to keep things just to the same group of friends I've shared all my previous works with. Generally I only update them when I'm happy with something I've written, although I, naturally, won't stop other people from stumbling upon what I've written if it should interest them!
