Summer Camp Prep 2025
Welcome to Summer Camp 2025
Summer Camp is an annual event run by the wonderful staff here at World Anvil and supported by members of the community. Each week during July, a set of prompts will be released which are based on a specific theme. To prepare for this, the team release the themes alongside a set of prep activities during each week of June. This article collects together all the prep work as well as my thoughts heading into Summer Camp 2025.Progress
Homework Completed: 4/4Heading into Summer Camp
This Summer Camp feels different to me, especially because of some personal circumstances that have drastically changed for me over the past year. As a result, I am looking to hit the ground running this Summer Camp. My goals mostly work around writing a good article for each prompt this year. I'll write more about my plans in my Summer Camp 2025 Hub, which will sum up my main goals, but I wanted to talk a little bit about what I'm planning on doing over the course of the event.
A big priority is to develop the continent of Ossalimar with each of my prompts. For this, I am going to focus each assignment on this continent. However, for each theme, I want to develop some ideas for an alternate continent to give me some wider thinking of the world.
Week One: Nourishment
Assignment One
Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?
Ossalimar
One of the main themes of Ossalimar is conflict and resolution, as a result there is always something stoking a fire. With the primary conflict between the Ossalimarian Empire and the Dolvalyn Sovereignty being fueled by a silent war, the idea of supplies and nourishment, and technological advances nourished by different sources are all interesting ideas to approach with this theme. Nourishment through technology and sustenance is core to the Empire and the Sovereignty. Across the entire continent there are many who look to nourish the spirit with Divine and Arcane means. The Ossaman Tribes is a great place to look at this. With a variety of magical means appearing across the entire region of the Ossaman Tribes, it leads me to think about the ways that they keep themselves sustained. However, the culture is ingrained in the idea of bettering oneself, as a result, the idea of nourishing the mind and body is ritualized among the Tribes.Kyradon
When the theme of Nourishment was first announced, my mind went to food and filling oneself with what they require. My mind immediately went to the cities of The Jeweled Alliance. Food and fulfillment is a massive element of these cities and is a core identity I want to develop for the cities. When considering wider interpretations of nourishment, Kyradon has two areas that really work well with a variety of different interpretations. The Dumal Prefecture is an area filled with primarily Light Elf and Wood Elf settlements that have a powerful connection to the spirit and understanding of life. On the other hand the Slycol Desert is a wasteland filled with arcane energies that ebb and flow constantly, these have formed different and new ways of nourishing the self and also revitalizing ancient technologies that require strange and unique power sources.Assignment Two
Download the pledge document and fill it out with your goal for Summer Camp!
Camp Feral Badge by Strixxline
Dewy Diamonds Badge by Strixxline
While the pledge document highlights my overall goal, the pledge document doesn't include the two other "camps" I am going to be part of this Summer Camp! In previous Summer Camps and continuing again, I shall be joining the Dewey Diamonds and Camp Feral, chomping at the bit for each piece of Summer Camp while still taking care of myself as I go for my goal of diamond!
Assignment Three
If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.
Last month, Tillerz ran the May-be This Could Be Done Better unofficial challenge. This gave me a chance to start looking back at some of my oldest articles to pull them back towards the standard that I've set on my newest set of articles. You can see the results of this challenge below.
Once I was on a roll with updating articles, I have since gone back and reorganized many of my older articles to give me a better understanding of the important articles of my world overall. This has given me motivation to develop a better understanding of my world and finding the important articles to develop over the course of June.
My goal over the next week are to go and develop some of the more key articles for the foundations of Nonvyrox. This looks at the old pages for categories and the continents to ensure that the structure is there to give a better understanding of the world overall. I also want to ensure that there is details on the links from my primer and its related articles.
Week Two: Roots
Assignment One
Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.
Ossalimar
Over the centuries, Ossalimar has become a melting pot of different cultures. However, they all have their origins stemming from the end of The Shatter. In the northern region, the Dolvalyn Sovereignty still bears the scars of the war and The Deceiver Gods. The Ossaman Tribes are holding back the elemental flares of the Inner Foci. In the regions that now make up the Ossalimarian Empire, there were powerful warlords and nobles that took each of these regions until they were conquered by a figure known as Malithan Bornate. Eventually though The Reign of Bornate was felled by the Ossalimar noble family, leading to the renaming of the continent and creation and conquest of the Empire.Vilura
Stemming all the way back to the eras before The Shatter, civilization in Vilura is based around the city of Sovmora, a city that has existed since The Dawning, the era when the first set of mortals came to exist across the realms. However, this has lead much of Vilura to be trapped behind magics that are inaccessible by those in the modern day. As a result, much of Vilura and its ruins are based around the idea of secrecy and understanding. However, newer nations such as Xhen-dra and the Kutow Collective have started appearing in the past couple centuries and have origins that are still to be explored, especially with such powerful magical potentials existing within each of these regions.Kyradon
Like many of the different continents, Kyradon was mostly decimated by the end of The Shatter, however the scars of the war are highly influential on the people of Kyradon, especially as it involved the destruction of much of the Dumal Jungles and the magically infused desert that is the Slycol Desert. Each of these regions have brought in massive changes in technology and worship due to the cultural significance of the magical infusion of these areas. Additionally, looking at the power of The Jeweled Alliance and its origins is something I want to further explore and explain. I feel like the different cities of the Alliance need more detail to understand where the founders each came from and how they formed a collection of cities across the entire north of Kyradon.The Moon Shards
The biggest area of mysterious origins, The Moon Shards needs to be much more fleshed out in terms of its roots, especially as it relates to the beginning and end of The Shatter. Depending if the right prompt comes up, I want to maybe look at how The Moon Shards were formed and how they still exist despite the magical energy flowing through its existence. I also wonder how the different possible cultures that exist on the different islands may have come about. This gives me food for thought about the different people that may even possible exist in the islands.Assignment Two
Go to your world’s homepage and imagine you’re a new reader discovering the setting for the first time. What should you change to make the experience more engaging?
I have recently put in a lot of work to fixing up Nonvyrox and its homepage for a possible entry to the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards. While my entry never cropped up, I do think that the improvements I made to the homepage, including the inclusion of the world primer Introduction to Nonvyrox, have made strides into improving the engagement from users.
However, there are a few things that I feel could still be improved in the homepage and the primer. For the homepage, I want to work to add some of the important articles for Observers and the important articles for Players. Adding these articles I feel will be important to engage different types of users onto the Homepage overall and give links in to the various different parts of the world that are important to different people.
An important aspect of my primer that I want to work upon is the one section that is labelled as "Coming Soon", the article overviewing the deities of Nonvyrox. As a result, I want to aim to work on and complete that article before the start of Summer Camp, to give both Observers and Players a better understanding of the breakdown of different types of deities and their relative power levels.
Assignment Three
Find your earliest worldbuilding project. What mistakes did you make that you want to avoid? What good ideas from those early days can you integrate into your current project? Remember to take a moment to be proud of how far you've come!
My earliest worldbuilding projects have unfortunately gone missing over the past few years between several different moves. However, I have found some of my earliest digital attempts at worldbuilding. The world of Acrila originally started as an expansion for an existing world that a friend of mine started to develop for a set of RPG games. However, it ended up becoming a continent that had been split by the emersion of powerful primordial creatures that were only defeated by the power of the divine beings and their champions.
Acrila was a great first start but much of it fell into stereotypes of fantasy and a level of depth that was lacking across the world. Much of the structural elements that would keep me on track for developing the world, was lacking throughout leaving me on a wild goose chase of worldbuilding that eventually wore down the world. However, some of the work that I started on the 'Prime Dragons' of Acrila came to inspire the Guardian Dragons. Several other concepts from Acrila were the founding of things such as The Grand Archive of the Obsidian Forge, Nagran, and several members of The Shattered Pantheon.
When looking back on my content for Acrila, I am proud and intrigued by the sheer amount of writing ability and depth that has changed since I last worked on Acrila nearly 4 years ago. This has made me want to keep looking back on content I have done to improve my craft and look at the progress that I have made over this time.
Week Three: Metamorphosis
Assignment One
What transformations and adaptations have the people in your world gone through? What changes are going on right now… and who is trying to stop them?
Nonvyrox is a world of transformations, the whole world has had to transform and change after The Shatter as divine magic and people's connection to divinity drastically changed. However, this led to a different realm of understanding from world on the whole about their place within the larger cosmos. Some people's religions drastically changed, whilst other parts of the world were still adapting to the geographical changes resulting from the war.
In the modern day, there is a growing amount of change around politics and who reign supreme in the world. Organizations like the Defenders of the Scales and Grand Archive of the Obsidian Forge have started to work towards maintaining the balance of the world as it currently stands, but many others seek to upset the balance leading to political, social, or even religious reconstruction across the world.
Assignment Two
Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.
For another worldbuilding project, I have been fleshing out my understanding of Sword and Sorcery beyond my current understanding of the genre. I looked back at films that I watched growing up, particularly Ladyhawke, The Neverending Story and especially The Princess Bride. While I have memories of each of these films, this week I looked back on the work more thoroughly to get a better understanding of some of the tropes within the genre. I do want to look into any further examples of films with a combination of different genres added to Sword and Sorcery to flesh out its development in the world alongside other genres.
I want to explore some of the more personal stories I've seen in each of these films, where character motivations are just as core to the existence of the world as the idea of grand narratives. I also want to see if I can put together some of the whimsical vibes that are present in these films into the ideas of Nonvyrox, particularly in the planes of the Fae Lands and across some of the more whimsical areas of the mortal realms.
Assignment Three
Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.
There are a significant number of worlds and articles that I would love to talk about in this section that have been an inspiration for the past year, but I want to focus on four articles (and in some cases worlds) that have been a huge inspiration to me. Through not only the person involved, but also the content.
Incarnates of the New Age - Polina "Line" Arteev
Nonvyrox is a world filled with gods, so reading about how they are handled in other worlds is always very interesting. The Incarnates of the New Age are the first pantheon of Malkora. When reading this article I liked the distinction between the different aspects, or Shards, of deities getting their own articles and mention within the Pantheon article. This is definitely something I want to consider when looking at the changing faces of my many gods throughout the realms.
On another note Malkora and Strixxline have both been a huge inspiration in keeping Nonvyrox flowing and my own imposter goblins at bay! I want to keep thriving to be half the worldbuilder and artist that Strixxline has shown I could be!
God-husks - Stormbril
As to be expected from the master of CSS, this article is beautiful. I looked beyond the CSS at the article content and was inspired. Cathedris has a significant amount of content about a world that is still feeling the effects of a divine war. This is the effects on the gods and talks about how these powers exist and are used across the world of Cathedris. For me, it has inspired how some of the different divine effects can be an imprint on the world of Nonvyrox.
Cathedris has been a world that's inspired parts of Nonvyrox for quite some time, as well as its design overall. Stormbril's work is inspirational and I want to keep focusing on my design elements and adding unique ways to interact with different articles.
Aavar, God of Gods - Mochi
This article is one that I spoke with Mochi for several weeks about prior to their starting of it all. While it is still a work in progress there are many things that have inspired me from this article and its current state.
Firstly, I love adding deities to the world of Nonvyrox, and this article is an amazing outline for what feels important to add to the articles that I write. There are clear links between the deity and different parts of the world, and also adding in links to related deities within their family. Adding in some information about mythologies and relationships feels key to developing a great understanding for the power of a deity and their unique focus across the realm. I want to go back to some of my completed deity articles to emphasize and rework some of those relationships to be more clear.
Speaking on a wider note, the work that Mochi has done on the Yonderverse Overhaul has been inspirational over the past few weeks. Its reminded me that I can go back and refresh all the work I've done so far and bring it more in line with the work that I am completing now. The transparency of their work has inspired me to keep going back and start a more full overhaul of Nonvyrox over the course of this year.
On a personal note, Mochi has been a champion and kind guide over several months. Long may this continue because their help, advice, and counsel has been amazing and inspiring over this time.
Iphars and Shattered - Catoblepon
Rather than focus on a specific article, I wanted to mention both Iphars and Shattered by Catoblepon. Cato and their worlds have been a huge inspiration to myself and my work. I find that I am always inspired whenever I read anything Cato has written and listen to their advice and support when given. I would recommend to anyone to follow both of these worlds!
Week Four: Tomorrow
Assignment One
Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?
There are many different ways to take this assignment in the world of Nonvyrox, especially in its current form. There are elements of the current ongoing campaign I am running in the world that easily could affect its future, however I don't have a way to predict the course of the world in those regards as I don't know what the dice will say.
I think that the second part of the question is really interesting, especially asking who. I have several powerful organizations on the national, continental, and international stages that are making a drastic impact towards creating specific futures. Some of them look back to ensure a brighter future, while others have the influence of darker beings with the intent to destroy the world as it stands. As a result, I want to use this assignment to look at a couple of the organizations that are (and will be) fleshed out in the world of Nonvyrox.
Ossalimar
The continent of Ossalimar is filled with different ideologies between nations that have only been exaggerated by some of the diverse organizations within the continent. This section will outline some of the organizations in Ossalimar that have a direct plan for the world's future.
The Veritas Convention are a power-motivated political collective of archmages and arcane practitioners. The nine archmages have their goals, but each of them see a future in which they or the collective are in control of at least Ossalimar, if not the world of Nonvyrox. Under them are the Saitodian who are a secretive group enforcing the will of the Veritas Convention upon the continent and beyond.
Bloodband is the name given to a collection of cults that are trying to bring in the presence of a powerful demon from the Demonic Realms to the mortal plane, where they can exact their own will. Several branches of the Bloodband have started to invoke rituals to summon their demonic leaders.
Divine's Folly were a scattered collection of people disillusioned by the power of the divine beings of the world. Eventually they were brought together in the commune of La Margal, until its recent destruction. They are once again scattered and looking for a way to remove the power of divinity from the world and bring in their own existence without such an overreaching power.
International Organizations
The world of Nonvyrox is filled with a number of organizations that cross oceans and massive reaches. These International Organizations are known throughout the world for their immense understanding and communication across such vast distances.
Setup in the wake of The Shatter, The Grand Archive of the Obsidian Forge are renown for their knowledge and understanding of history and the world overall, giving them a better position to act upon the more corrupt and divisive parts of the realm. They aim to have a world that is free from the darkness and malice that helped to start the last Divine War.
The Archani Conclave are another research and knowledge based organization, but the Conclave are known for their practice of the arcane arts and sharing secrets of an arcane nature. Some compare them to the Arvadian, a collection of people who let their hubris lead to their downfall.
Spread throughout several continents, the Ossaman Tribes were founded by the five Metallic Guardian Dragons to protect the world from the different elemental incursions and scars that bridge the Inner Foci and the mortal plane. They just look to have a world of peace, sending many among their ranks out as representatives and mediators in many tense political situations.
Assignment Two
Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!
Similar to the breakdown provided on the challenge page, this section is going to focus on some certain sections of my prep for Summer Camp in regards to getting things ready for the challenge this year.
Writing Schedule
Unlike previous Summer Camp events, I have more free time I can devote to writing articles for Summer Camp this year! As a result, my writing schedule is a bit more freeform than usual, leaving me a lot of time to dedicate to writing. For Summer Camp this year, I want to spend at least an hour a day writing content for the prompts. However, I want to also spend at least three hours on each article, allowing me to spend this formatting, writing, and creating art for articles.
Writing Space
My writing space has become cluttered over the past couple months, so I am using this following week to clear things up and make it nice and neat for creating new ideas as quickly as possible. Additionally, my wider space needs some organization to allow me to have a few different spaces to write over the course of Summer Camp. The final thing to consider is my digital writing space, for this I have set up several macrobuttons to help me to be more efficient with my writing.
Worldbuilding Resources
There's some research and planning I want to do regarding some of the more obscure templates, particularly Language before this Summer Camp. Particularly on how it can relate to some of the current themes. However, there is some information that relates primarily to the Species articles that I have been waiting to look into, so this lead up to Summer Camp is probably a good time to do so.
Stubs
I have been following Catoblepon's Stubout Challenge, in which you tryand crush as many stubs as possible over the course of the year. I have thus far managed to remove more stubs than I have created over the past several months. However, this has meant that there are several unfinished parts of my world. I want to use the time leading up to Summer Camp to see if there are any superfluous stubs that can be removed before Summer Camp.
Assignment Three
Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?
This sections will be broken down into the who and the what of Summer Camp. The Who will focus on my attempts to stay accountable over the course of Summer Camp, whereas the What will concern the how of Summer Camp including how I plan to share my articles to reach as many people as possible.
The Who
There are a lot of people who are going to help me get through Summer Camp whether or not they are fully aware of it. First I have the "Accountabullies" from Polina "Line" Arteev's Discord server, a group of people who will help me make sure that I am keeping up with my own goals during the course of Summer Camp.
Secondly, I have the Cookie Cottage. Focused on keeping members positive, the Cookie Cottage has been great to share my articles and talk to other members of the World Anvil community. I hope to use this as one of my big supports by talking through problems I'm having with my articles. Additionally, I will be able to expand this more to the World Anvil Discord as a whole, which will be a huge time of support over the course of Summer Camp.
Finally, I have my friends both from on and off World Anvil, several of them are writers and creative who are looking to help me ensure that I keep up to my promises and achieve my goals. A big element of this is my D&D Players who are constantly curious for information and lore about the continent of Ossalimar, where they are playing. The combination of friends online and offline is going to be a huge boost for my motivation and confidence in my articles.
The What
Now for the nitty gritty! I have a combination of alarms and a set of post it notes that will help my outline my plan for the month week by week and physically remove the successes and completions I have on each element of the prompts.
I plan to attempt to complete at least one article a day, to ensure that I am not putting too much pressure on a single day in comparison to another over the course of the week. Additionally, I want to spend about an hour to just try and get each article to cross that 300 word threshold first. Once that's complete, I want to come back and further flesh out the articles with more content and more accurate formatting matching the rest of Nonvyrox.
This comes to my sharing plan. Each article will be shared on both my Discord Server and Bluesky as soon as I feel they are in a state to be shared. Each Friday of the challenge I will make a community post that will outline the different articles I completed within the week. Both of these methods should allow me to spend some time ensuring that my articles are as polished as possible.
Looking forwards to the new country region
Ossalimar has a bunch of content that has already been started! Its going to be great to flesh the continent out more!