Mochi's SC25 Pledge!
Hurrah, this is going to be my fifth Summer Camp! Time really does fly, it feels like only last year was I approaching my first ever Summer Camp. Although back then, I had no idea what Summer Camp homework was, so I was very confused seeing everyone in discord so excited over homework.
In general, Summer Camp is my best performing event. I've won two prompts over the four events I've taken part in (2022 and 2024), also winning Most Improved in 2023 and Human of the Match in 2024! Winning is always nice, but I'm at a point now where I'm not desperate to win anything, and I think that's far better for my mental health. No more worrying all throughout August that I've not written as well as I could have, or that I should've answered more prompts and given myself more chances to win. Just pure Feral Dewdrop energy!
My Beloved Accountabuddy
This year I'm partnering up with Polina "Line" Arteev to become an unstoppable team! Strixxline is a beloved friend and we've been following each other's works for a long time. I love attending their streams, Strixxline is an absolute joy to be around and such a talented worldbuilder.
We are going to uplift each other this year, encourage us to work harder, write some incredible stuff, and just generally have a fun time!
We are two intensely feral goblins who have been gnawing at the bars of our cage for a month now, waiting to sink our teeth into those juicy prompts. Now that Summer Camp is upon us (as of writing this specific section of my article), we can go absolutely nuts! >:)
Councilor of the Inner Sanctum strixxline
Ferality spreads in the Owlworks!
Seek a new dawn, in Malkora!
Craft a bright new world, in Ayun Sovos!
Week 1: Nourishment
Nourishment might legitimately be the most interesting theme we've ever gotten for any Summer Camp, at least for me.
Most people's first thought is going to be "food", mine was as well. The Summer Camp Prep page mentions a technology being nourished by an energy source, or philosophy nourishing the soul. There's a lot of ways this theme could be spun, and I love that!
I'd love the opportunity to create some delicious new foods for the Yonderverse, or some interesting technologies with unique energy sources or something.
Like every year I've participated, I will be aiming for Diamond! 32 articles has never been a struggle... up until last year. I started my first full-time job June last year, and by July I was still getting accustomed to having little free time and energy. I've found a balance now, but that naturally means much less writing than I used to do.
I think that will mean this year's Summer Camp will be easier than last year, for me. But we will have to see how well the prompts work for me and my world, and how inspired I feel. Unlike last year, I have an entire week off in July, I'm very excited!
As well as aiming for the Diamond badge, Polina "Line" Arteev's Camp Feral and Dewy Diamonds badges are calling my name as well. Camp Feral is all about the energy I bring to Summer Camp, while being a Dewdrop means I am aiming for Diamond in a chill manner!
Well, well, well. If anyone hasn't checked out my plans for the Yonderverse Overhaul, now would be a good time! Since January I have been slowly overhauling the Yonderverse, working on improving navigation, re-writing old articles and giving everything a massive facelift, and then at some point, a fresh new CSS theme!
The Yonderverse Overhaul is split into three phases. Phase 1 was focused on improving navigation; I created snazzy new template indexes which allows people to search through my articles based on the template, and I also created a brand new category system.
Phase 2, the ongoing phase, is all about re-writes. I am improving one planet at a time, going through every related article and either editing or re-writing them. First was Cilvarth, which remains half-finished, and second was Hothiri, completely overhauled. I hope to overhaul at least one more planet in its entirety before Summer Camp starts!
Week 2: Roots
I'm not going to select specific cultures to work on for Summer Camp, but I will talk about some cultures in the Yonderverse I think deserve some more love!
I've really been enjoying developing Razhea Capita, and fleshing out the peoples of this multi-cultural ecumenopolis. A planet-wide city, where modern facilities are literally built on the backs of history, is certainly an interesting place to dive deep into the planet's past.
The kavaari are an interesting space-faring species I've not talked about in a looooong time. They existed 3.9 billion years ago, which is ridiculously old and doesn't make much sense that so many artifacts have been found, but hey, it's the Yonderverse, anything can happen! I'd love to give more love to these extinct people, and flesh out their culture a bit more.
Cilvarthian culture is just full of good vibes and I'd love to write some interesting articles during Summer Camp. The planet Cilvarth was recently overhauled so ideas are fresh in my mind, and maybe a prompt or two will speak to me? Who doesn't want some exciting tea-flavoured articles!
Sooooo, a homepage upgrade is Phase 3 of the Yonderverse Overhaul, so this will be coming in at a later date. BUT! I'd like to sprinkle in a couple extra little features to my homepage this month, just to make it sparkle a bit more.
I'm not overly proud of my homepage in its current form, and honestly I doubt I'll ever find something I'm happy with. It's a problem with such an expansive world, how on earth do I portray this entire project, with so many different genres and vibes, into one single page? It's something I'll need to spend a solid few days, weeks... months... planning out. Because this world is everything to me, and I want the homepage to bring it true justice.
Hooooo boy. Naturally, my first worldbuilding projects weren't star quality, or anything close to that. The earliest tangible worldbuilding project of mine was this folder of cool creatures I had designed, and I wrote pages upon pages of information about these creatures in this alphabet I also made, so people couldn't see what I was writing.
These creatures have all wound up in the Yonderverse as well! They're all stuffed into planet Greenerth, which is actually what the Yonderverse used to be entirely. When I first joined World Anvil, I was only developing one planet, that being Greenerth.
It became a massive kitchen sink and I'd stuff any and all ideas into the planet. Because of that it still remains my most fleshed out planet, but by no means is it high quality anymore. And that's okay! I had little to no experience writing or worldbuilding when I first joined World Anvil, but that means when it comes round to overhauling Greenerth, I am going to have my hands full with around 250 articles to re-write.
Week 3: Metamorphosis
#transrights
Funnily enough, the planet I'm working on right now is kind of all about metamorphosis and change. The metraphites of Ivucarro are hyper-adaptive snail people that go through a form of metamorphosis and adapt to their new surroundings.
Queer culture is prevalent in the Yonderverse, or it would be if I wrote about characters and culture more. People's identities change, and the Yonderverse is a safe space for queer characters and I want representation for everyone. I'm not very interested in creating characters and cultures that oppose queer culture, at least not on a large-scale level. Being queer myself, I don't find satisfaction in that, and I want this world to be all happy and bubbly, a place where characters are free to identify how they please. I've got a couple trans characters already, namely Naja Avanas and Aryel Summers. Both are prominent political figures, and I'd like to have more trans characters in more professions, across the world.
Society and culture is always changing as people learn and develop. Technological and magical level can either increase or decrease depending on the culture, influenced by so many factors. Razheans and oanie are two very intelligent species constantly changing and adapting to new pressures. They're opposing species that often go head to head in conflicts, having to change tactics constantly to outwit one another. I'd love the change to expand on the relationship between these two most influential peoples in the Yonderverse.
I don't really have the energy right now to explore new genres, so I'll talk about ones that currently inspire me!
I'm in love with solarpunk and I want to include it more in my worldbuilding. Sustainable technology that works with the environment is beautiful. I've already got a bit of it in my world, some planets leaning into that solarpunk theme more than others.
Factories on Hothiri are attempting to go eco-friendly in order to protect the planet and maintain it, although this is largely out of self-preservation and less to do with genuine care for the planet.
In terms of artists and art styles, I've always been in love with the work of Alex Ries. I first discovered him and his work after playing Subnautica: Below Zero, and found out he was the designer behind a lot of the animals in that game, which is my absolute favourite part. I've since been on many rabbitholes, discovering all of his artworks, and last year I supported his project on Kickstarter, which is a collection of all his artworks in one book. I've already gotten a PDF version, and I've scrolled through it many times already.
I'll always jump at a chance to talk about all of the amazing worldbuilder round these parts. There's so many incredible people to learn from, and I love exploring all of the different worlds on World Anvil, getting to experience other people's imaginations.
Solaris feels comforting to me. Ignoring Mercury being destroyed and the entire Sol System being under attack, there's something so comforting about Solaris. I've been following it since the very beginning and I can't get it out of my head. I think about Solaris a good few times a day, just thinking about the world itself, my theories, and of course, mots.
The expansiveness of Ethnis is always something I've wanted for my world. Knowing this world has more than a million words keeps me writing, and keeps me working on the Yonderverse. It is just a visually stunning world too, and Ademal and Barron are phenomenal writers that know exactly how to write an interesting, well-written article with a unique and intriguing concept.
The thought, the precision, and the hard work behind wow that's a lot of stars deserves to be praised. I am inspired by Rin Garnett so much, and this entire world is a masterclass in design and formatting. I love the focus on culture and the people of these planets, and the limited scope is a great way to really hone in on these cultures and flesh them out. There's a lot I can learn from this world.
I'm going to keep myself to just picking seven worlds, because if I don't give myself a limit, I will literally put down every person I can think of because I genuinely love pretty much everything everyone creates. If you're not on this list, I still love your work <3
Demongrey's daily writings is so impressive and inspiring. Unfortunately I don't have that kind of self discipline. And even though Demongrey is writing every single day without fail, quality never waivers.
I can't wrap my head around the fact that Imagica has only been active on World Anvil for a year. Not only is she an absolutely incredible writer, her worlds are so beautifully designed and I get sucked in to the world just reading a single article.
Nimin N's The Rosepetal is another science fiction world I'm deeply in love with. I'm absolutely floored by the level of detail that goes into a single article. What I love most are the species articles, peak speculative evolution with gorgeous artworks made by Nimin himself.
I don't think you could give a definitive answer, but for me Cathedris is the most impressive world on World Anvil. Every single aspect of Cathedris is just perfection. The styling and formatting is out of this world, the writing is again, top tier, and everything is supplemented by gorgeous artwork.
The Spheres of Oblogga was one of the first worlds I came across when I joined WA, and it left one hell of an impression. Such a peculiar, fascinating world, and outstanding writing.
Ayun Sovos looks like a bakery, and I want to lick it. It is a visually stunning world and I love Polina "Line" Arteev's art style. Ayun Sovos is fun, it's light, and it is a perfect world for some light-hearted adventures.
Chimari Motera is also a very cool character, wink wink.
Polina "Line" Arteev is such an amazing worldbuilder and I love their work so much. Malkora is a darker world than Ayun Sovos, and I am in love with the map of this world. Malkora is such an inspiring world, and I have a lot to learn from Strixxline.
Week 4: Tomorrow
Good lord, there's so much I could talk about. For starters I'll discuss the two major powers in the Yonderverse, the oanie and razheans. The focus of this world has mostly revolved around the Milky Way, and these two species are the most important pair.
Oanie are constantly fighting to claim more planets, expand their reign, and terraform their home planet to turn it into the most powerful planet in the Milky Way. They are ruthless, they have conquered thousands of planets probably a million other celestial objects, they have weaponised viruses to clear out colonies on distant planets, and they will stop at nothing to get what they want. I hate to imagine what they'd get up to in the future... it won't be pretty.
Razheans are the complete opposite of the oanie. They are solely interested in learning everything about the Yonderverse, and their entire civilisation is built around Mastermind, a grand, benevolent artificial intelligence system. They claim planets in order to protect them from the oanie and other dark forces, preserving the natural world while studying it at the same time. They want the future to be a paradise, not just for their people but for the whole world.
Yeaahhhh, I'm not really one for specific writing spaces or schedules. It I feel inspired and motivated, nothing can stop me from aggressively spamming my laptop keyboard, mashing together random letters to make a lovely little article in like 30 minutes. That being said, I want to start making worldbuilding notes at work, ready for when I get home. The old version edit is terrible on mobile, euclid + modal edit is literally unusable, which leaves me having to use the visual editor + modal edit. I have a notes article ready, I just haven't used it yet.
I have an entire week off work in two weeks time, perfect for Summer Camp! I'm dog-sitting, so I'll have extra company during this week, but I'll absolutely be able to get lots of writing done, and art drawn.
I've been having some brain goblins over my writing recently too, and while it feels a tiny bit egotistical, I've placed my Best World award right next to my laptop as I write to remind myself I'm a good writer. So, during Summer Camp, that'll sit with me too.
I've got a lot of close friends on World Anvil that I'm talking to daily about our worldbuilding. I'm so inspired by my friends and I love them dearly, and I know if I get stuck with prompts, they'll be here to help. A big fat cuppa tea every five second will also help me achieve my goal!
My sharing strategy will be mostly discord, that's where I live. I'm active in the WA server, specifically the #challenge-discussion channel, where everyone talks about the current challenge! I've also got my own server where I send notifications for new articles. I'll also try to keep my bluesky account alive by posting snippets of my Summer Camp entries, and links to my articles, to promote my work over there.
Closing Thoughts
Summer Camp used to be my favourite event of the year, but as I grew as a writer and my world expanded, WorldEmber became much easier for me. The more I write, the more of an existing foundation I have, and it becomes harder for me to come up with ideas based on the prompts that also align with what I've written in a way that I'm happy with. I'm very particular about what I write, and if I don't get a certain vibe from an idea, it won't make it into my world.
That being said, I'm just so incredibly excited this year. I'm so excited for the first competition of the year being such a big one, and I hope it goes easier than last year. I'm so excited to see what everyone writes, and to support all of my beloved friends. I'm also hoping to check out some writers new to me for the reading challenge, so I have that to look forward to!
Diamond (32 articles)
Previous Summer Camps
Summer Camp 2021 Mochi's SC22 Pledge
SC22 Reading Challenge
Extra SC22 Reading Challenge Mochi's SC23 Pledge
Summer Camp 2023 Review
Mochi's SC23 Reading Challenge Summer Camp 2024
Mochi's SC24 Pledge!
Mochi's SC24 Reading Challenge
I can't wait to see what you have in store! \o/
Thank you so much! <3