World Ember 2025

Welcome to my first ever World Ember challenge page! According to my prep page, I'm working on The Willowmoor Series for World Ember, but after spending half the year in that series, I find I've lost the inspiration to world build in it for World Ember! I'm pivoting to contributing either to my new project, Brihland, or my world for random ideas, Vault of Muses. This way I can stay in the damn competition!

My Submissions

The Prompts

I'm going to list the prompts here along with some brief brainstorming thoughts.

• Condition
• Frankly, since this is a whole new world, the possibilities here are endless. I should really focus on something that could affect a person's magical abilities, though, since that's one of the hooks of the Brihland.
• Title
• Ohhhh what about my consorts?? I still don't know what they're going to be called, so this would be a great opportunity to figure that out...
• Language
• Vesian, Old Brihghan, Tesheghan, Inaian; so there are a few
• Document
• Well, there is the Treaty that was signed between Vesa and the other nations some centuries ago and which still dictates how they govern today...
• Building
• The Palace is the obvious choice since it's the main set piece for the first part of the story. It's also a character in and of itself for how large it is and for the goings on that take place within it...
• Military Formation
• This might be my least favorite category because I am not military minded even if I do like to write military characters and come up with other things to do with the military. Formations, though? Hm. It would have to be something to do with magic again.
• Profession
• There are many I could list! After all, any world is made up of the people who live and do business there. The thing is that a lot of them are going to be pretty standard stuff: shopkeeper, farmer, seamstress, soldier, etc...
• Conflict
• Like with the Treaty for our Document, the best Conflict that comes to mind is the great war wherein the Treaty was signed at the end. Although, it might be more fun to write about a previous war wherein an entire peoples of the Brihland were massacred...
• Tradition
• Again, there are a lot to choose from since this is a new world that I've already imagined various rituals for.
• Geography
• It makes the most sense to write about a place in Vesa since that's where our heroine is from and where the first part of the story takes place. Would it be Lake Shahl or something else, though? Or I could still go outside of Vesa since there is much to see in the world...
• Ethnicity/Culture
• Well, there are the six races: Vesian, Petrian, Umboran, Ethian, Teshen, and Inaian. There's also the mysterious seventh race that was wiped off the face of the earth by Vesa hundreds of years ago.
• Natural Law
• Magic!
• Plot
• I will say that I should use this to plot the first part of the story since I only have the very beginning figured out and then a vague direction after that. I'm excited to write this thing so getting the details down would be beneficial to me well outside of World Ember...
• Character
• Oh, there are too many to list! I've already tackled our MC, Elowena, but I could write about any other character: Asmund, Niall, Avani, Mari, Zaderyn...
• Species
• Well, considering I've decided this is a world filled with magic and monsters, it might be a good idea to figure out what the monsters are, and this would be the place for that.
• Item
• You know, I haven't thought of any items yet, but I know there are at least the magical heirlooms being passed down by the non-Vesian kingdoms, so I could brainstorm for one of them...
• Settlement
• I've written about Glios already, which is where our story is set for at least the first part of it. I could write about any other capital city since I know all their names (Ged, Fara, Thinia, Raecia, Nirios). I could also write about a lost city or another settlement in Vesa (not Glios).
• Vehicle
• Well, as with my Willowmoor series, the horse is probably the main mode of transportation in Brihland as well. Unlike my Willowmoor series, though, we have magic in Brihland, so what would some magical forms of transportation be?
• Myth
• I'm not sure what I could use for this yet, though I have been thinking that there should be an old myth that not many know about that someone (the Emperor's Vassal, most likely) decides is about Elowena...
• Organization
• The thing about this category is that I know I will eventually have various organizations in the world of the Brihland, but I haven't thought that far ahead or they haven't come up yet in what little I've penned of the tale. Meaning I have some brainstorming ahead of me for this one...
• Prose
• What is considered prose? Because this would be an easy category for me if I'm just writing a portion of the story here. I mean, I could get all my 10,000 words down here if that's the case! XD
• Material
• There are so many materials that could be created that I'll have to brainstorm this category as well.
• Technology
• Hmmm most of the technology in Vesa is powered by magic, which I'm going to make a natural law for the purposes of the Brihland. What other technologies do they use - specifically in the lands that don't have power over magic?