This world is a little different ...
Introducing Miscellaneous, a world I created specifically for answering World Anvil challenges at times when my focus is on private worlds. The Cabinet of Curiosities event inspired me to make this world because I really wanted to have a go at doing at least one entry, but right now I'm (theoretically) focused on a private personal project I'm calling my
my practise novel.
I haven't had a lot of spare mental energy for this challenge but I wanted to enter as many prompts as I could. This has meant that most of my responses are a very basic paragraph with a few notes for context. However I enjoyed the creative challenge and I look forward to finding a good time to properly flesh out these articles.
Practise Novel Articles
The genre is a portal/urban fantasy, and I've been taking a little break from it so this event was a great way to get me thinking about it again. Although the world in its current form will not be made public beyond this individual articles, I do intend to re-use and adapt the setting for a "real" novel series one day.
Everwinter's Crown
Chaos prompt. Winter in the realm of Hjemtir is an extremely harsh season, and Everwinter is the mythical embodiment of it. I'd mentioned Everwinter when I developed the frost horses, but this got me thinking in a bit more detail about the myth.
Key to the Sparrows Archive
Knowledge prompt. The magical bookshop is one of my favourite places in the city of Lokmare. I'd gone into a lot of detail when designing the magical key system for a different building mentioned in the article, but until this prompt I didn't really start thinking about the magical protections for this place.
Roamer's Spear
Pointy prompt. Until this point I haven't done a lot of worldbuilding the Elves, so this was a good place to start.
Runehead Whistle
Protect prompt. I'd previously created different breeds of wolves, including very dangerous magical ones, but not given a lot of thought to how characters will protect themselves from them.
Shackles of Thartir
Sentient prompt. This was a difficult one. I'm still figuring out the cosmology for this setting so I'm leaning into the mysteriousness of this item. The idea itself took me by surprise; I'm interested to see where that goes.
Starlight Ink Pen
Light prompt. A miniscule delve into the daily lives of halflings (and when I say miniscule, I mean miniscule) in their home realm of Jitua. A lot of work still to do here but I do like the idea of the invisible ink pen.
Private World N Articles
I dabble in fanfiction for fun--a lot--and am always finding excuses to worldbuild in them, and that's what this project is. Whether anyone else will ever read it, I have no idea. Like with my practise novel, it's entirely possible I may take the setting and write an actual novel with it later, but who knows.
Cerulean Tiara
Ancient prompt. I confess, at this point, I have no idea where Lower/Higher Cerulean get their names from. I was batch-naming a lot of neighbourhoods at once and it just sounded good. I know even less who the tiara belonged to or why, I just thought it was interesting that such an old artefact was unearthed in that particular place.
Less Excuses
Time prompt. This was the first prompt I did, and spent most of the time coming up with the nickname. I'd hoped to come up with an interesting backstory for this clock before the challenge ended, but it wasn't to be.
Seal of the Republic
Proud prompt. I'd doodled the design for this before I decided what the symbolism meant. The Republic of Ors is a major player in the politics of this setting, which I'm still figuring out the details of. Politics is complicated!
Six Chimneys Mural
Art prompt. I wanted to do something that wasn't a traditional piece of art, and factored into the daily lives of the characters in some way. Please don't ask what the mural looks like because I have no idea!
Songfruit
Sweet prompt. Probably the longest article I did for this challenge! I do enjoy worldbuilding food. Food with a folklore connection is fun, and I accidentally created a condition as well.
Other Articles
Ring of Words
Language prompt. This one stumped me for ages because I really wanted to do the language prompt but I wanted to do something a bit different. The concept of how this item works, is something I'd vaguely thought of using as the caviat for a translator spell or something. I don't know where I will use this item, maybe my practise novel, or maybe a later fantasy project.
Final Thoughts
I would have loved to have done more for this challenge--not just the other prompts too, but actually building more details for each article--but, well, life happens. I'm glad I didn't write off participating in the challenge, and I really hope World Anvil do something like it again because it's a great concept.
For anyone that's read this far, thanks for your interest in my work. I hope you're not too frustrated at the limited glimpse into my private playgrounds. As I said earlier, I intend to adapt my practise novel's Five Realms setting for an original series one day, but that's not going to be for a long time.
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