Powering Up the Whirlpool

Week 1 Assignments 1. Major changes that would fit Vorago's themes would be further changes in the present gods and/or in the dominant magical fields; the first just due to time, the second due to large magical events. Major political changes are a consequence of both of these; stabilizing magical fields would lead to more infrastructure, while new gods would lead to political turmoil.   2. I expect to be able to answer one prompt roughly each day (on average), so I'm aiming for 6 articles a week!   3. I'm pretty happy with my categories right now, but I'll probably add nation- or location-specific tags to groups of people, magics, etc.   4. Meta is still in vogue!   Week 2 Assignments 1. Refuge: While I would expect any individual character in the setting to find unique refuge from magical, political, or personal threats, the main systematic refuge would probably be halfling villages. I've written a cultural tradition article about it 2. I've talked with one of my personal friends, and they've agreed to be my accountability buddy.   3. I'm pretty happy with my current styling, but I've uploaded a huge collection of the Elder Scrolls Online loading screen artworks that I can use as tone-relevant article background art. I've already set up the defaults, and know how to change to alternate arts as cool headers.   4. No CSS for me, thank you!   Week 3 Assignments   1. Belief Unlike most polytheistic fantasy settings, belief in individual gods doesn't inspire much hope in Vorago; it's well-known among the educated that the power of individual gods waxes and wanes. This relative lack of divine enforcement has combined with a myriad of historical factors (private organizations and exceptional individuals having lots of power, invading empires often having stronger magic than individual native gods) has created a general zeitgeist of material ambition, and there is a prevailing belief in a sort of Fantasy American Dream. The other most common belief would be that it's somehow possible to return to one's homeworld long after Vorago has disconnected from it. Most ethnicities have completely different worlds they're hoping to return to, of course, and all have different harebrained schemes to do so, but most believe it's principally possible.   2. Most of my inspirations are either video games or fantasy books. The list primarily includes: Tyranny (2016), Elder Scrolls Online, and The Stormlight Archives. All of them are inspirations for good fantasy political worldbuilding.   3. As for asthetic inspirations, I have a huge collection of conecpt art, game art, and music from the Elder Scrolls Online that will serve as good baselines for fantasy imagery. Perhaps the clothing is a little too overdesigned, so I'm still looking for good fantasy fashion inspiration. I've already got a map which I've been annotating heavily.
  4. New world, old inspirations still relevant.   Week 4 Assignment   1. Decay I think decay is a really large part of Vorago's themes; magical decay especially. It's a slapdash world where the politics, magic, and even the seasons are held together with spit and glue. I think the two biggest kinds of decay would be the relatively recent Destabilization of all magic (and the consequential collapse of magical infrastructure), and the constant cycle of the gods. At any given time there are at least two faiths going through a crisis as their deity's power decays. I think that's what makes a notable figure or organization in Vorgao, heroic or otherwise; the ability to last more than a century without losing significant power and influence.   2. I've optimized my environment in a slightly different way; my laptop broke recently, so I've figured out a regular time in the afternoons to go use my local library's computer. It should reliably fit into my schedule, and going to somewhere for the express purpose of writing should help me stay focused on the task.   3. I'm pretty happy with my homescreen's aesthetics already, but I've trimed down some excess default timelines and such so that everything available there actually links to content. I've also upgraded my world's Meta.

4. New world, no need to update yet!