The Simmering Broth

The Logical Next Step to other logging articles, like I Need More Soup, Soup for Tomorrow: The pledge for more soup., The Dead Chicken in my Soup, and Chicken Broth.

I estimate that, given the artificial increases incurred by the October Spooktoberfest (i had to make a generic article copy for each non-generic article submission), my actual wordcount is around 341K. This means i need 2.65K words per day to read 500K by December 31st. This means around 79K per month; I will aim to get excess thereof, to around 100K, during November, and in December, I should have enough excess to reach the finish. This is to say IF I have excess, which is why this month is so crucial.

WorldEmber Missions

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That's wonderful. It's kinda Marxian, how one puts a part of oneself in one's work. At the same time, you know, much like dog owners are kinda like their dogs, a worldbuilder seems to become like their worlds. And if that is true, I think the world of Olivarenith has no purpose in life, and I myself contain multitudes that could not be conceived in a millennia, and the world has all the wonders of life in it, and I could be as empty and hopeless as a dead rat.

In the internet, it's very often that what you put out there is not yours anymore, but passed around like a blunt at a college frathouse. My work, even though it's attributed to I dunno, this whole year-long mission evokes something of a dread in me. When I'm done, and hopefully having written to 500K words, that 500K's worth of myself will be stuck in my world, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to retrieve and reclaim it. All that I write is tied not to myself, but to a strange online persona named Sirzbear, and it is Sirzbear that you see posting these things and writing these words. In a visceral way I think myself Sirzbear, but I know that me and him are separate. I could die, and Sirzbear would still be there.

I spend all day writing and writing, walking the walk of a worldbuilder, and never really looking back and reading my footprint trails. Perhaps I want to escape to some degree, maybe I want to forget to other degrees. I imagine that, by the end of the year, I'll be as exhausted as someone that's walked a lifetime. Maybe then I'll find the strength to keel over. I just feel so empty now, and have always felt so empty... I think it would be best to leave something behind, and I guess when you look at my footprints, the Sirzbear is who you will think of, and not me. But Sirzbear is me, and so are all other parts of me. Leaving behind a portion of myself is perhaps the best I can do in this regard. But beware that lies fester in all partial personas.

Define the Scope of your Worldbuilding in WorldEmber

I had so many plans and so many things to look forwards to back in August. But now, with the passage of time reveals the frailty of man, and I have fallen short of my goals in ways that I find inexcusable. Right now is my Thanksgiving Break, so I'll define the things I wish to do and those I can do in my power through my marathon. The biggest challenge is to get the Khólteðian Wars done, which is something I think I have been subconsciously avoiding due to its complexity. After all, it involves 32 belligerents, whose internal logistics I cannot comprehend on a normal Tuesday.

I think, reflecting on how I was able to get so, so much done this year, it all came down to an informal spontaneity. Numerous times, I've tried to sit down all formal and stuff, and crack my knuckles and put my worldbuilding cap on, and tackle this huge thing, and every time I immediately go off doomscrolling and gaming and at the end of the day I have gained absolutely nothing. It is frankly tragic how many times I've tried. But I must; I think I feel a sense of finality in the end of the year, and lest that feeling be forewarning my mortality and/or that of my world, I must at least conquer a looming incompleteness that has been plaguing me since day 1.

I think I'll take a hippie approach. You could also say a euthanasia approach. Me, the old lumbering fool, will be innocently led to do some worldbuilding on this one article that is vaguely tied to the Khólteðtian Wars, and then I'll be told to do some writing, while the cunning me in the back of my brain puts a tiny bit of LSD in my hands and lets me just stray from what's already established to create something new. And then that will be the basis for another day of writing. Yes, I can already see it. I'll be writing the article for, say, Rlúýš-Ýïr and then OOPS! I've accidentally created a new character or battle or at least implied something that opens the doors for so much more writing and more importantly, more fleshing out of the Wars. However, what is imperative is that I as a persona must be semi-conscious or just winging it; if I engage myself fully, the rebellious side of me will steer me away and I will live out the rest of my days in abject suffering.

Read a book, dammit

I'm reading a book already, it's called Quantum and it describes how science (specifically quantum physics) developed in the 20th century. It's like a Shakespearian play in that there's plenty of murder and animosity and wasted potential (oh, like me!). I think it's a great look into the complexity of life and the human condition, especially in relation to other humans. This isn't really an ad, I had to read it for a school project but I didn't finish in time and am just continuing to read it as a real-life demonstration of the sunk-cost fallacy. It just so happens that the WorldEmber prep requires a book, and I guess this is what I have to bring to the table.

Make a List of Articles you want to Write

I put into this list all the articles pertaining to the Khólteðtian Wars. I do not want to inundate this article with those links because it would artificially balloon my wordcount in ways that are not moral. Instead, I put a brief summary of these articles.

• The tribes of the Arðor-Tal
• The tribes of the Arðor-Úŋï
• The 14 tribes of the Arðor-Kýï
• The Ýïrúl War and the successive subconflicts that appear afterwards
• Any additional articles on specific persons, settlements, titles, what-have-yous that arise from the process described above

Join the Community!

Listen, socializing is not my strong suit. It has never been my strong suit, and I have lived the vast majority of my life in a disparate loneliness. This is why I worldbuild, after all. Now, I've always defined myself in terms of what separates myself from others. I enjoy classical music, and little else, and know of barely anyone who does the same. I worldbuild in this very analytical and objective style, and know of barely anyone who does the same. I find myself to be very moral and guided by moral values that place myself last, and know of barely anyone who does the same (that woul be suicidal). It is a fact that I do not make friends from these interests of mine, but make friends based on circumstance. If you and I were shoved in a box or some other perilous situation, we will become friends in virtue of us having to interact with each other, irrespective of whether you have the same interests as I do.

It is merely reasonable, then, to suspect that the online community is not really the place for me to find friends in. Am I to slink around and find those with exactly the same interests as I do? It would be more than rare to do so, and I had already tried with my other interests and been found wanting at every end. I know I sound like a bummer and an old man, but experience has told me that the niche qualities of my interest lend very little flexibility (perhaps even abject jealousy) when all that links me to someone else is only some vague interest. For my sake, and that of the other party, I have stopped searching, and I doubt I will find anything if I started again.