Summer Camp 2025

This is my first proper pledge and prep article for Summer Camp. My world is currently undergoing a lot of development (as always I guess) and though I wish it would materialise as the perfect piece of worldbuilding prose, I think part of my personal development is to know and accept that is not true.

And so I present my world of Middengeard, as you find it, with the understanding that every fraction of it exists in a constant state of chaos and confusion.

Assignment 1.1

Nourishment

Ideas for nourishment

• For food: its easy to come by for the rich, but for slaves, they are limited to what their owners give them, and so they have to be a bit more creative, growing their own food (which would have to be done with permission from their owner) or trading on the black market (which can result in severe punishment)


• For spirituality:There is the faith of Cosmos, which everyone must follow, even if they don't believe in it. cosmos affects all areas of daily life, culture, politics, everything. Only the Magi, the mega rich and privileged, can study to become clerics of cosmos. For ananans, the natives, they have their faith, Belasa, which they practice in secret. It is the belief that everything has a soul, and that they can sometimes commune with these souls. Meanwhile Cosmos believes that the world was created in the vision of the angels, and because of this, everyone has a place which they must maintain and respect.


• For knowledge: University is mainly attended by magi, and a few of the wealthier, more privileged humans. Studying in your own time, for personal gain, is seen as affecting the will of the angels. To study, you must attend a class, and pay money for that class. Knowledge is not valid otherwise. If that is the case, by human nature, there is probably a black market for studying.


• For farming: There are two areas of this. Farming, agriculture wise, is entirely done by slaves now. As an industry, it is well supported, but to the average person who lives in a town or a city, the experience of farming and how it affects the food on their plate, is meaningless. The other side is Nightwalkers, who require a monthly infusion of blood to live. This blood can come from anywhere, but the nicest blood comes from ananans, and so we could look at the industry of farming ananans for blood.

Conclusion

1. The Black Market :
   • trading, bartering, the values of food, how its performed, and the consequences
2. Ananan blood farming:
   • why it happens, how its performed, the affect on communities, fear and myths surrounding
3. Farming:
   • with the regulation of slavery, what does farming look like, how does it affect the food industry
4. Cosmos:
   • an overview of the faith (its a very big area)
5. Belasa:
   • an overview of the faith (^ditto^)
6. Growing your own:
   • what we might do as a hobby is actually a necessity
7. Studying:
   • or education in general, again an overview, but what the education system looks like, how you get on it, and what you do if you can't.

Assignment 1.2

Renourish your motivations

Why am I worldbuilding in the first place?

• Because I'm trying to write a book. Why?
  • Because I've created this crazy world inside my head and I want to share it with others. Why?
    • Because for some strange reason, the story gives me comfort and helps me work things out. Why?
      • Its a place of escapism.

I'm worldbuilding to escape.

Why am I building this world specifically?

• It's a satirical view upon the real world, presently. How?
  • It explores the lives of the wealthy and the poor, those born into higher status, and those who have to climb their way up, as well as the treatment of employees, the innate attitude to those who may not be so privileged as us, and the desire to somehow always make ourselves the victim. How?
    • By looking at the lives of varying people in the land of Favont, including natives, slaves, royalty, middle class, etc... Why?
      • To explore every facet of this world from multiple view points and to create a really believable and immersive environment

To create a satirical viewpoint on the real world.

Am I still serving these motivations?

1. Am I still trying to write a book?
   • Yes, but I'm getting waysided by worldbuilding.
2. Does the world still offer me a comfort and form of escape?
   • Yes always, and forever, and that's still why I want to share it with others
3. Is it still satire?
   • It becomes more satire disturbingly each and every day
4. Do you still look at the viewpoints of a wide range of characters?
   • I always try, but I also have my favourites, and the main character of course. Some are not so thrilling to me, and I suppose that's why they get ignore. And that's okay. because if they're not thrilling to me, they're not thrilling to others.

Yes, but worldbuilding disease is sometimes distracting me.

What have I been focusing on recently, and is it helping me achieve?

• Redesigning the look of my articles. I was just using the plain old style, with a custom background, but now I've really gone for it and improved my css. My idea is to create a collection of articles that looks like a notebook. It's not helping me achieve my goal of writing a satirical fantasy novel, but it looks pretty.


• With my redesign, I've been revisiting some of my core articles, so when summer camp was announced, I realised I could definitely use this to help me. I've been looking at my article on Favont as that is my starting point for everything. This definitely helps me achieve, and has even inspired me to make a few changes in my book.

Redesigning and revisiting existing work

Assignment 1.3

Revisit your world

What I intend to revisit

• Meta for Middengeard : Does this represent my motives and ideas still? Does it show my tone of voice?
  • EDIT-have now updated to reflect
• Favont: I need an article that I can navigate quickly for information, and is a strong base to link to other articles from. Every article and category should come back to here.
• Ethnic Groups: Aside from humans, I have three ethnic groups, and one class of people that up to this point I have ignored writing about, but I realise that this is becoming progressively more important.
  • Ananans : the natives.
  • Nightwalker: the rogue immortals.
  • Magi: the ruling species.
  • Helots: the slave class.
• Cosmos: faith is core to understanding the culture, and though I have previously written an article, my ideas have far surpassed that now. I also need to write an article for the opposing faith of Belasa, which will form part of my Nourishment section.

Update the key country, peoples, and faith of my world

Assignment 2.1

Roots

Culture History

With intentions to work on my ethnic cultures, this fits in very nicely.

• I will explore the history of the Magi, who, as the reigning species are the writers and controllers of history. History and culture reflects their might, and I want to convey this more in my articles.
• I will look more into the history of the Nightwalkers, immortals, and yet one of the most recent species to come into existence. The way they behave and treat others, and the way others treat them is all intwined with their history.
• There is a lot of denial about ananan history, particularly by the Magi, as there is history of Ananan blood in some of the rulers. Understanding these differences in history will deepen the understanding of why Magi treat ananans the way they do, and why they encourage humans to do the same.

Explore history of the Magi, Nightwalkers and Ananans, and how it affects relations and culture

Assignment 2.2

Review your setting's roots

• Work out my audience:
  • Readers of my book who want to learn more.
  • Browsers interested in this genre of fantasy
• Improve my pitch:
  • Look at elevator pitches.
  • Answer where are we, what’s going on, and who are we following?
• Direct the reader:
  • Define areas of interest.
  • Make categories clear.
  • Take the reader to the starting place

Tap into my audience and engage their interests

Assignment 2.3

Back to your roots

My earliest projects

• Steffen - Updated about 6 months ago. Needs more information relevant to the book. Currently discusses Steffen like a wikipedia article, but needs to pick up on little details, like the atmosphere of the train station, the view from the palace, the smell of the markets, the shrine everyone prefers, the divide in faiths etc.
• Magan - Updated this year, but is not easy to navigate, needs breaking up, different formatting styles etc
• Aeryn DeSteffen - One of my oldest articles, about one of my most main characters, and I've never written anything about her. Keep starting, and never get anywhere. Need to tie her into history more
• Ananans - Currently working on. I have the information, but I think it needs to be reworked to make it more useable and approachable. I have to keep in mind what is important for me, the writer to know to help the reader learn. Write more about cultural differences, attitudes, and other things that people can connect with.

Mistakes

Viewing my worldbuilding as a separate entity to my novel. They should be part of each other. I'm writing about things that aren't always relevant, but in that moment interest me, despite knowing they will not make the book, and sometimes that's interesting, but most of the time it causes major worldbuilding disease and keeps me off-track. I need to approach each article asking 'what do I, the writer need to know, and what does my reader need to know?' Not 'what does wikipedia write about articles of this genre?'

List what I want to know about things as a writer/ reader, and answer those questions

Assignment 3.1

Metamorphosis

A big transformation in my world actually took place seven years before the book begins. The Reconstruction saw the enforced enslavement of millions of people. And it was a big change. People who had lived as free and equal citizens were now having to behave in a certain manner, to follow certain rules.

• Some took the change well...
  • Yoa
  • Nina
  • Rance
• some appeared to take the change well on the surface...
  • Magan
  • Katya
  • Mala Vasparada
• ... and some did not take it well at all
  • Dacoran
  • Stefan

Someone who is definitely trying to stop this change is Terva, a terrorist organisation of whom several of my main characters either have dealings with or work with, and yet I have not written a dot about them... again. And they should be more important as they are the background noise to my book and their actions cause delays in events, deaths of characters, and just general chaos.

But so far I've named only slaves, and a terrorist organisation associated with slaves. Someone affected by the Reconstruction and was forced to metamorphise is Aeryn DeSteffen. It was an event in which she lost her only son, and her grief has caused her to retire from public life, but when she returns, it is unknowingly for her, a catalyst for change that results in many events taking place.

Look through my characters and consider how the Reconstruction has affected them

Assignment 3.2

Shake things up!

So in light of this, I guess I should consider an opposing genre (as I do tend to pick things that reflect the state of my mind and what it produces, but for the sake of shaking things up and being different, I should embrace the world beyond my brain).

So...In Conclusion

• Listen to some modern pop (screams internally)
• Read some chick lit (Cries extensively)
• Study the artwork of more pro-visual worlds and work on a style that visually pleases me, but also meets my time constraints (Claps happily)

Expand my world by expanding my tastes

Assignment 3.3

Learn from other worldbuilders!

What inspires me overall

Be authentic

Ditch the AI for writing and images. Its useful for ideas, but I'm a writer and an artist. I need to own that, and represent that. My favourite worlds and articles are always the ones that include genuine artwork, and I enjoy seeing it as it helps me understand the writer better.

Remember you're writing a book

Sometimes I put all my focus into world building that I often world build for world building sake. Its great when a prompt inspires me and takes me on a little rabbit hole where I never thought I'd descend, but sometimes I can't get out of my hole. The worlds I like have snippets of prose within their articles, always linking it back to their end goal, which in my case... is a book!

Paragraphs are boring

I can't explain this one. I can sit for hours reading novels, turning pages and reading without any further input, but on a computer screen I need change. I want different styles, different formats, things that are interactive. My brain becomes a child in need of constant stimulation.

Be an authentic and engaging writer and artist

Assignment 4.1

Tomorrow

I think this is very true for my book. Spoiler alert, the resulting end is not the future that anyone is working towards, but it is satisfying and happy... relatively... for the characters that make it that far.

But what sets it all into motion is a major event, the attempted assassination of King Terys III by Katya. It is the catalyst for all change in my book, which takes everyone's futures and propels them in a direction they had hitherto not considered, and most importantly, its a current event.

Create an article on the assassination of Terys III

Assignment 4.2

Plan Ahead

Look at me getting organised. Here's a nifty little table, all ready to go. Fingers crossed I can fill it.

Write consistently everyday, and let's get Summercamp done!

Assignment 4.3

Connect with the community

I'm on Discord, user name lemmylou. Find me if you will.

I'm not too sure how one tells your normal vanilla non-world building friends that you write articles about a fantasy world that lives in your brain... for fun, and if they are interested, pretty sure it will just be out of politeness.

Let's be worldbuilding friends!