WorldEmber 2024 Pledge: Governy's Gambit Prep

   

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Week 1: Pledge Your Goal

  While the minimum badge goal is 10,000 words, my current pace and schedule make that less feasible compared to previous years. As I am running a long-form dnd campaign based on Laminarum for the first time, I figured I should use WorldEmber as an opportunity to prepare for the next one. My next campaign will be called Governy's Gambit and take place in Eldurgrund, so I'll use this to build up their culture more than I already have. While I focused on Eldurgrund for a bit in the past (and it is probably the most explored region in my world), the small day-to-day aspects could still be ironed out. I'm way behind on my world meta (still lacking one after a few years) but I think that task is best saved for when my world has been thematically designated.   I'm certainly happy with my homepage, though everything beyond the surface leaves a lot to be desired. Lately, I've made it a goal to work weekly on the details for each of my "categories" so that the main page is ironed out. The essentials for my world's languages have been completed, but now I'm on to the different playable races. It will be quite a long time before the races are all completed, though I figure that the more generic races can be put off; most fantasy lovers know what dwarves are, after all.   Second is my Magic and Cosmology of the Web category which is far broader than the others. I've been able to define a few rules for the universe that have been neglected for far too long and I'm really happy with the page format. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I think it is becoming far more digestible with the progress I've made.   The world primer is something I've needed to make for a while. I currently have a small substitute at the top of my home page, and unfortunately, I won't be able to make a more succinct and full primer until the world is a lot farther along. Finally are the community tools, which I'll probably avoid unit there are a few fewer typos in the world to embarrass me.  

Week 3: Hunt for Inspiration

  Inspiration finds me in several ways. Music, campaign plans, player character ideas, books, movies, video games, etc. Naturally, something like Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire are big sources of inspiration for me, but I've tried to explore where more of my past inspirations have come from. For example, I think Halo has evoked a lot of feelings regarding abandoned civilizations or lost history, particularly with its atmosphere. Destiny and Destiny 2 have given me a lot of admiration for the conflict between good and evil. Looking really far back reminds me of Godzilla and the writers' use of symbolism. All of these (and more) have given me a lot of ideas for where I want to take Eldurgrund and my campaign within it. Now, I want to explore The Witcher, as it displays a lot of Germanic folklore I'd like to explore in the city of Euvurcrest.   Writing this reminds me of last year's WorldEmber, but I think my dnd campaign playlists are synonymous with my inspiration playlists. There are a few lyricals that give me good ideas (particularly the band "Dirt Poor Robins," which I've exhausted in my current campaign), but something as simple as combat music can get me excited to flesh out more of the world.   This portion of preparation will be the hardest for me, mostly with regard to scheduling and getting fresh air. I struggle with balancing my life and now I'm doing more than ever (work, school, worldbuilding, and running a campaign my usual pitfall is investing all of my time into one portion of my life while the rest end up suffering. Luckily, there's no school while WorldEmber takes place and work is on a schedule, if not inconsistent. The only two areas I'll have to worry about are campaign preparation and worldbuilding, so I'm hoping I'll be able to tackle this WorldEmber better than the last (even though I have a much smaller word goal).   As for a community, my players offer plenty. Whether I'm talking about characters for their campaigns or vice versa, I always get more ideas through discussion alone. Still, I'm hoping to get back into some of the writing channels I used to frequent, such as Hello Future Me, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Savage Books, Tale Foundry, etc; in fact, I wish I had returned to them for NovelEmber, as I ended up abandoning the even rather early due to lack of inspiration. Overall, I think inspiration will still strike this WorldEmber, even though it has been lacking this year in particular.  

My first voyage, nigh 1600 years ago (ca. 1947 NG), was one of high expecations, ambition, and ignorance of the struggles to come. My first step upon a ship left me possessed by the grandeur of stories beyond the coast of my home- beyond the coast of familiarity. To explore anything that wasn't elvish filled me with joy, pariculary after surviving The Exodus. While my voyages were exciting to a young Encyclopedic, I found that reality quickly overtakes the 'ignorance' of dreams, as was phrased by many Eldur Monks in the later years of my travels.   Ambition and reality are competitors at their first meeting, but marrying the two need not feel impossible. To create great works, the likes of which we are all familiar with, ambition must be tempered with planning, scheduling, and revision; these three aspects, while not as illustrious pure creativity, are the features that create greatness. My encyclopedias, while concrete in their material, require the combination of creativity and structure.

In your own exploration of creativity and structure, do not allow yourself to become overwhelmed- such feelings are only barriers to your final creation. I emplore you all, persevere beyond the barriers you find yourself behind; a task that I'm a hypocrite in recommending, though we all find ourselves lacking at one time or another. I'll oft find myself reading my own works in disgust, but it reads well in the hands of others. Surely, to be satisfied with one's own writing is to not be a writer.   In my travels I have found that all fields require creativity and logic, be it math, science, storycrafting, or poetry. For who can craft a profound experiment without creativity? Who can write a profund story without a common theme? I rest at the end of my career with the value of hindsight- something that no writer has in good time.   There are many changes I would still make to my works, though I know the changes would go overlooked or unnoticed (realizations earned through my years of writing). While I will always preach the value of revision, try not to fall victim to an unending period of change... Now, my prescribed writing for the evening comes to an end, but I'm told to include a finishing note: 'good luck with WorldEmber?'

— Everis Averis Dumont, the Encyclopedic