WorldEmber 2024
Week 1 - The Pledge
Wait, only 10,000 words? That seems, Kind of small, at least for Chrispy_0?
TL;DR - I don't feel like competing with people using AI programs like ChatGPT to boost their word counts. It happened last year. It will happen this year. Making a personal goal out of reaching 100,000+ words just feels empty now. I've done it twice now, maybe that's enough...
The Long Version
I would normally go for 100K words, at least, but... Last year I saw people with very high word counts who used generative AI. I could care less if people use it for images (I certainly do!) because this competition is about writing words. Problem is, people were clearly using ChatGPT to boost their word counts. AI is able to generate stuff at a much faster rate than any human can hope to compete against. Knowing that there will be people trying to ChatGPT their way to a high word count this year, I see it as pretty stupid and pointless to try competing in that particular area.
If you guys do try using AI to cheat your way up the leaderboards, well, you guys do you. It isn't my job to report people for doing stuff like that. The last time I did was in early 2022 when I know I legitimately wrote the most words for WorldEmber 2021. I even had evidence that all of the top five writers all plagiarized their content in some way. Some WA discord moderators kindly told me to fuck off, so fuck off I did. I am forever grateful to Kefkejaco for encouraging me to dm some people to get it fixed. It did get fixed in an article announcing the winners, but the leaderboard from 2021 will forever show me in sixth place.
Well, to hell with that! If pointing out stuff like that caused such a negative reaction from the people in power, then I'm not going to bother. I'm also not going to try competing against AI either. Once I hit 10,000 words next month (by like, day 1 or 2) I'll probably put some effort into editing articles for the 2025 Worldbuilding awards or just read articles and be done with it. I will also be laughing if I see someone using AI to get to the top of the word count. The same is true for people using plagiarized content, and the same is true for people copy/pasting paragraphs or entire articles with a majority of the content being the same except for some small keyword changes. But otherwise, whatever...
Plans for World Ember
Smoke and Frost Story....
I'm not even going to wait until December to continue this story that I started in July. The next part will be posted this weekend (11/9)! The start of the story is in the article to the right and follows a group of knights as they investigate the origin of a magical condition on another world. So far I have six parts written out of eighteen total. I kind of need to finish this story so Ren and Lucia aren't still stuck on some alien moon! The last part of the story had them attacked by Magma Wolves. My work on these articles and story will bleed over into WorldEmber.
Legendary Weapons
What fantasy world isn't complete without a borderline excessive number of legendary weapons? Most weapons except two I have mentioned on this world at some point but none of them has a dedicated article except for one.
My plans this year include writing one article about each weapon, its construction, its abilities, and how to came into the possession of its current owner. Then there will be an article about a legend surrounding the weapon or its creation, as told by someone in the world. Those will involve things like a dying dragon lord crashing into the planet like a falling star, a monstrous creature being slayed with the weapon, a judgement being carried out, Twins drifting apart, or something else.
The seven weapons to the right are the main ones I want to write about, but there are a few others I want to work on if I have the time. The number of swords in my world is a bit much, so if I do anymore next month, it will be bows, hammers, spears, or something else that isn't a sword. Also, I need to rethink some of the names a little...
* - The Castle Rose does have an article and already. It will be rewritten before World Ember begins so it falls inline with the notes I made for the sword's twin. I am planning two myths surrounding the sword for next month as well. Another already complete weapon that will get a myth or two surround it is the Shattered Sisters.
Kingdoms of Cassel
Every area to the right that isn't colored is fair game to write about next month. To date, I have written about only 26 of 151 baronies of the Kingdoms of Cassel, across 21 counties and 5 separate nations. I have 125 to go. Last year I wrote 22 location articles for Cassel, so we'll see how far I get this year.
In addition, there are some larger overview articles about the region I will be writing about. The articles will go over basic things that I still haven't gone into detail over, like government, military, ranks of nobility, demographics, and a few more.
One of the articles deals with social issues in the region, and is going to piss some people off just because of how polarizing that stuff is in 2024 and will need a preemptive trigger warning. I'll just leave it at that for now.
Progress so far... Yeah, I have a bit to go!
Worlds, Lots of Worlds
Over in my sci fi world, Cairn Sector, I have been slowly working on dozens and dozens of planet images. Making each image took anywhere from 45 minutes to six hours, depending on how complex the surface was. My goal is to have a number of star system articles with stats and descriptions of around a hundred planets and thirty stars total.
There will be a few smaller articles with generalized character work, maybe a food article, and maybe a language article. Other than that, I'm not really making much for this world... yet. My last article here was three months ago! The original reason I created two vastly different worlds with Vreathe and Cairn Sector was so that I could jump between them as I get burned out of working on one or the other. For some reason I just am not yet burned out of working on Vreathe.
Mana-Lith - In case I do somehow get burned out...
My currently one article world. Even with just one article, if you read through enough of it, you can tell the world is overflowing with all manner of paranormal and fantasy stuff in a contemporary setting. If I do somehow get burned out of my other two worlds, then this one is a good third (and if I somehow get burned out of this one, I have a fourth emergency world, the Crystal Age, which is currently private.)
My Plans for Mana-Lith is to work on the Vampire and Werewolf Clans, the Demon and Celestial Realms, how the Elves fell from grace and revealed the secret world to everyone, what the knock-off 'Men in Black'/'SCP foundation' is like, and maybe do some character articles.
Homework
Week 1
Week 2
Saya
Saya
"Why do I have to do this? ...Ugh, whatever, let's just get it over with!"
There is a desktop and mobile version to maximize readability.
Major characters have multiple portraits for different emotions. Many minor characters only have one.
For characters that do not have an animated portrait, a simple exclamation speech bubble will show instead.
There are also animated scrolls and journals that will be floating around. You can hover over them for info too!
Good luck in WorldEmber! Sad to see you not aim high, but I understand and empathise with your reasons. Nevertheless, excited to see what you write! :D