Summercamp 2025

I climb out of the hole of Other Projects^tm like some sort of dishevelled hermit to find that it's June (Happy Pride!) already? Time has gotten away from me this year.   Right then. Time to warm up the Word Forge and make sure the Hammer of Inspiration and Tongs of Holding Hot Articles are in good shape, and top up the Quenching Barrel with more Creative Juice.    

There and Xaph Again

  In line with the vaguely aforementioned Other Projects^tm, Xaph keeps popping up in my worldbuilding projects wearing new bones just like the git did way back when in my best friend's first ever D&D campaign. This year I'm going to write him into the Allsaga as part of the Verse of Xaph.   Alright. With that out of the way, what's the first theme this year?    

Nourishment

 

Ink is the blood of the writer. Though it may bleed from their pen, it brings life to worlds and stories on the paper.

  Interesting.   One thing I like to do during Summercamp prepwork is to think about twists and inversions of the themes, whilst keeping them on theme, as it were. For Nourishment, I have a couple of ideas for this.   The first is Decay. The cycle of life and death, of rebirth, and how Nourishment may come into this. Think of rot, of molds and bacteria that break down the leaf litter on the forest floor. Although the decay is destructive to the leaves, it is nourishing to the microorganisms responsible. This same process is used by gardeners to create the compost that fertilise the next generation of plant growth. For another example, the cinders and ash that incubate phoenix eggs, or the supernovae that seed the rest of space with heavy elements beyond iron.   The second is, funnily enough also Decay. This time the decay and atrophy that occurs when Nourishment is witheld. An unusually hot and dry spring may lead to drought, where rivers run dry and crops wither in the sun. Famine follows as food becomes scarse, and conflict occurs over what is left, leaving longer term ripples in history including political fallout and cultural shifts. All because there was less of a specific type of Nourishment, rain.    

Roots

 

Just as tradition binds cultures and history anchors civilisation, just as a root binds the soil against erosion and anchors the mighty oak.

  Another interesting one. Working out where a culture comes from and the "why" it is as it is is a strong theme.   I am finding it harder to find twists and inversions for this one, beside the literal ones. The roots, bulbs, tubers and rhizomes of plants. The roots of mountains and the deep places beneath the surface. Money, the "root of all evil".    

Back to your roots

  So, I had actually been looking back at some of my old projects recently, but I hadn't looked at the very first. The very first worldbuilding project I ever put on WA was Ars Moriendi, which definitely wasn't a clone of Einsteinian Roulette. You win 10 Imaginary Internet Points if you know what that was. I had Big Plans^tm for that, but it was ultimately short lived.   It's definitely showing its age now, and I approach my worldbuilding very differently these days. It's interesting to look back and see concepts that I still like to reuse, if twisted slightly into newer and more refined shapes.   Oh goodness, I'd forgotten about all the in-jokes and very specific references that won't make sense to anyone else.    

Metamorphosis

 

The only universal constant is change.

  This is one incredibly solid theme. I'm choosing to interpret metamorphosis as something undergoing a change of state, while remaining fundamentally the same thing. A caterpillar pupates and becomes a butterfly, but remains the same organism. Water freezes into ice, but remains the same substance. A Kingdom does away with its monarchy and becomes a Republic, but remains fundamentally the same nation. A person's gender identity may change after a journey of self discovery (Happy Pride for all this applies to).   The homework article makes mention of the why of metamorphosis, rather than the specific what, but I like to think about the wider consequences. A good example of this though process is the silkworm. The silkworm is a moth which spins itself a cocoon within which it metamorphises into its adult form. The moth's metamorphosis is a minor part in this, it is the cocoon itself which became important as the single viable source of silk for much of human history. It lends its name to the Silk Roads, historically important land routes through Asia along which caravans of merchants travelled to trade silk and exchange other valuable commodities. Settlements along these routes, and at the terminus of these routes, became very prosperous and many merchant families became very wealthy for the time period. The silk industry itself underwent a metamorphosis when the secrets of silk production became known outside of China, and the silkworms themselves were taken to other regions.    

Tomorrow

 

This is a problem for Tomorrow me.

— Yesterday me

    There are exceptions, of course. Some worlds have hyper-intelligent computers (or super beings) that can predict the thousand most likely futures at the Speed of Fast. Other worlds have cyclical time, prophesies, and divination where the future can be painted in broad strokes, even if the fine details are cryptic or elusive. And what happens when all of these predictions and prophecies end up being completely wrong when the story demands it?   Summercamp is another Tomorrow. We can make all the plans we like, do all the prepwork in articles such as this, but we do not yet truly know what Summercamp will bring. Even the best laid plans rarely survive first contact with the Prompts. Tomorrow brings change, and we must remain flexible.    

And Finally...

  Good luck everyone! Grab that hammer, and smith some articles upon the great World Anvil. Every prompt you complete is a piece of your world that did not exist before, and you should be proud of that!