Summer Camp 2025

Guess who is still here and still writing? Me! Terrifying, isn't it? This year comes up on my 8th Summer Camp, and while I'm certainly not as productive as I was back in 2020/2021, I do always make the time to participate. Hopefully I can bring in the clean 8 ^v^  

Week 1 : Nourishment

Assignment 1

Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?

It's an interesting prompt, and I like that the prep page offers answers that aren't as obvious, such as about technology and philosophy. Some regions are definitely "lacking" something :

The Medura lacks political autonomy, and its people were treated like tools by the imperials of The Vosti Empire. It was inevitable that they would seek to take autonomy by force.

Skarhu lacks its own language, lost to them by centuries of imperial oppression. Researchers continue to scavenge through what's left to reassemble what once was, but the task is daunting, and the cultural truth hidden in old artefacts will likely never be known.

The twin Xüfonz of Pris and Ibza still do not have peace, locked in centuries of cold-conflict over their right to territory. While Loi-lii II of Pris Xüfonz angles for peace, Ünivis III of Ibza Xüfonz maintains his claim and his iron fist, all while the democratically inclined among his people stir towards rebellion.

Xiy Kiiquldast lacks for territory and resources, holding a meagre few islands in the cold north. With peaceful trade blocked to them by their historical deeds, they continue to seize what they need to survive through piracy. Some, such as their only land neighbour, itself struggling with resources and hounded constantly, sees their own option dwindle.

Though self-sufficient on their own, the two continents of Abravost and Thurásin long for company in the vast expanse of the sea. Disheartened and emboldened, respectively, by the tragedy of the Dyiiladuun Fleet, various efforts are being made to bridge the gap. The Amara Project, the furthest along of such efforts, struggles under the weight of the undertaking, and what route will bring lasting connection between distant lands.

Shixiiwul still lacks a DragonGoal Championship Cup.

While most of these are, by the detail provided, ideas I've already explored to some extent already, I think there's a lot of room here for expansion and more detail. And, who knows, maybe fleshing out the beef between Xiy Kiiquldast and Biin will inspire me elsewhere!  

Assignment 2

Download the pledge document and fill it out with your goal for Summer Camp!

As with last year, my goal is just to hit copper. I would like to keep my streak going, without stressing myself out on top of university work, potentially doing ArtFight (still mulling that over!), and avoiding having to "crowbar" ideas into my setting just to suit a prompt. I've done this before at various points, and my worldbuilding still has to grapple with some of the consequences, so the less of that the better!   I would definitely like to focus more on Thurásin, the large second continent of my setting that has seen a few passes. It might be particularly good to visit the frigid north, as many of its places are underdeveloped or nigh-complete unknowns to me, just blobs on a map. While this would be ideal, there's a high likelihood that I fall back into my safe sandbox of Abravost, especially orbiting the conflict of the Second Vosti Civil War which is shaping the region at this moment in canon.  

Assignment 3

If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.

While I don't really use my meta (it's not a tool that suits my creative approach, I think!), I definitely have some outdated articles, and have actually been recently going through them to bring them up to snuff!   For some of them, the tweaks were easy - Tiyu Amara advanced 11 years into the future a few years ago, and as a result a few articles needed to account for the time gap. Others, well... Will need more substantial edits. I plan for that to be this weeks task!  

A few of the updates

Week 2 : Roots

Assignment 1

Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.

For Thurásin's north, at a baseline there are two things that are going to have a huge influence in the past: The Urisoril Empire's presence in parts of the mainland, and old Xiy Kiiquldast in the islands and similar mainland sections. Urisoril's conquests bear a long shadow across much of the continent, and while the northern islands avoided their influence, the mainland experienced sporadic conflict, and parts still speak Urisoril's old tongue. The old kingdom of Xiy Kiiquldast similar bears a long influence over the islands, and more than likely the modern-day monarchy of Ffosetásin owes something to their prior ownership.   New Xiy Kiiquldast, in the piratical sense, also shows its scars in the region, largely in the islands it has squabbled over since the Collision. The republic of Biin has been defined politically by defiance of both versions of Xiy Kiiquldast, having been conquered and reconquered.   Other important cultural factors in the north are the regional worship of the sun god Qiliind, remnants of a sort of "blood cult" originating in new Xiy Kiiquldast under the admiralty of Godhzu, and the freezing cold that bids the seas turn solid in the darker months.  

Assignment 2

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?

Oh man. I have always struggled with the idea of "selling" something, really showing off its best side. It certainly doesn't help that what Tiyu Amara is, as a worldbuild project, has changed drastically over the half decade I've been working on it. Starting as a setting for a story I half wrote during a Nanowrimo, it's now a lot more than that, and has a less clear "selling point" to hook people on. At the moment, my homepage probably isn't that intriguing, and neither is my introduction that I think I wrote in the lead up to a previous Summer Camp (2019, maybe?).   I'll still try to rewrite the blurb, and maybe make some visual alterations!  

Assignment 3

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!

Haha! Good joke.       Alright. My earliest worldbuilding I can recall in any detail was a very messy elemental magic system bolted on top of Minecraft, taking advantage of common lore at the time, like Herobrine and such. In service to a serial fanfic I ended up deleting from the internet, it was an absolute mess, less a planned out system and more ideas laid in front of an oncoming train. I've actually taken a few stabs at cleaning it up over time, with an initial pass to decouple it from Minecraft in the first place, but the whole thing remains a bit convoluted. The lesson learnt from that experience was to try and think things through a little more, though the amount of hasty articles in Tiyu Amara and elsewhere shows that's always going to be an ongoing process. And, for what it's worth - I think the fire goddess I spun off of Herobrine was kinda cool, and exploring her widespread villification (and who still has faith in her anyway) would have been quite interesting, and hints of that do emerge in later version.   The earliest worldbuilding I still have published is actually Asavla, which I don't talk about much.   Another world built to service a specific narrative, and another narrative that maybe wasn't fully thought through in terms of its implications before I started laying track. I started working on Asavla in 2018, but stopped some time after that year's Summer Camp. While the project was fun, and still has some articles I think are quite fun (Such as Boundary, my in-universe supernatural romance novel), there was an actual lesson to be learnt from Asavla - not expanding the world for its own sake.   Because I had started with a single narrative in mind, I initially only worldbuilt the things that directly related to that narrative - the countries of Divinice and Stolisia, the system of demigods, etc. And then the scope creep started to set in, as I established other countries in the south pole, distant nations with historic links, and countries on the other side of the world with only tenuous links to any of it. At some point I sat back and realised I was getting grumpy dealing with this expanded setting, and a bit unhappy with the central narrative, and the whole thing sort of fell apart.   Tiyu Amara has not been immune from scope creep! It also gained a whole extra section of the world, largely divorced from the other. But the thing that has helped keep it together is the idea of building out narratives, since that's what gets me hooked into a setting and excited to explore more of it. It's the reason there's a lot of articles relating to Ozäxa-Lavüdh and the Central War, because the narrative involving the diarchy and specifically Dhözii I interested me a lot based on the small details I'd seeded. The scope creep definitely wasn't solved, but my reaction to it, of getting grumpy and throwing all the toys out, has definitely been improved by finding new angles of attack. I hope, anyway! ^v^

Week 3 : Metamorphosis

Assignment 1

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?

It would be cliche to keep mentioning the Collision, but it is something of the defining change of the world, having introduced elves and elven landmarks throughout the land. Smaller consequences are the "creation" of conditions like Ashiel, theorised to be a result of the boundaries between worlds becoming permanently damaged in the event.   Regionally, there's the many political upheavals, such as the recent creation of Äshrrowädh and Telziad's democratic governments, with the former being an explicit attempt by the king to prevent his state being torn apart by internal dissent. There are also the technological innovations that threaten to transform their areas, such as the Gliders being developed in Abravost that would make the skies accessible - something that could have massive impact on current shipping lanes, and shape supply lines during the Second Vosti Civil War.   Another change, perhaps more relevant to Thurásin's north, is the development of steam powered vessels like the Yuvqaru and Dhiqan. While "rudimentary" as mechanical designs, their potential to revolutionise the ice-bound navies of the north can't be overstated, and there are many within Xiy Kiiquldast in particular quarrelling over whether the navy needs to develop their own versions to reclaim the seas, or should reject the "modernisation" they promise in favour of the traditional sail-bound methods. Given the admiral owns the country's only steamship, opposing this could mean political upheaval.  

Assignment 2

Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.

This'll be a tough one, as I often find it hard to explore things outside of my comfort zone. But I have been trying over the course of the last few years, through a regular movie night with friends, and by occasionally borrowing books from my local library!   I've actually been recently reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros, which was recommended by very different people. I haven't read a sort of teen/YA book in a while, and I might roll my eyes at such a bluntly established love triangle (I assume, anyway!), but I like some of the little details swirling around, and the formatting of chapters beginning with quotes. That last part is a formatting I also use, but not as effectively or interestingly, and perhaps during Summer Camp I'll explore having the article opening quotes be less directly/obviously relating to the topic!  

Assignment 3

Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.

Week 4 : Tomorrow

Assignment 1

Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?

Some of the bigger current events of Tiyu Amara are wars. Some are 'cold' or simmering, such as the conflicts in the north between Xiy Kiiquldast and their neighbours, or the conflict between the two Abiyadins in the south. Others are hot, such as the Second Vosti Civil War.   For the northern conflict in particular, Xiy Kiiquldast's various territories might have multiple claimants, and different factions within a country might have different designs on them, ranging from outright conquest and division to subsuming the "errant" pirate navy as a military vassal. For instance, the country of Hiyehusewi might be inclined towards a strategic alliance, gaining greater access to less competitive northern trade routes and reaping the benefits of protection from pirates.  

Assignment 2

Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!

A struggle for this year's Summer Camp is that the beginning of the month is going to be quite hectic due to needing to travel interstate for family, followed not long after by the usual slate of university work, and my recently acquired responsibilities as a committee member for my university's game club. My hope is that I will be able to take advantage of a large gap in my timetable on Monday's for some worldbuilding to break up assessments, as well as slotting in time before classes, though I still don't know my exact timetable. Real nightmare, university ^.^'  

Assignment 3

Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?

I honestly find the sharing element of worldbuilding to be the least enjoyable part, especially now that I'm nowhere near as active in the discord as I used to be. I always feel awkward talking about my work in chat, or dumping it into the showcase channel. I'm far more comfortable with just plodding away quietly on my own, occasionally rambling about my progress on social media, and occasionally pushing a notification for an article I'm proud of. It lacks a bit of that community spirit, but I primarily worldbuild for myself as a creative outlet. I'll still try to post occasionally in the discord, and to read others work as a way to get inspired!

Submissions