Summer Camp 2024: Homework, pledge and other shenanigans

Alas! Summer Camp is almost upon us and it is time for preparations.

Summer Camp 2024 pledge by WorldAnvil (edit by Angantyr)

Homework

Week 1

TL;DR

Week one was about organizing the world (Categories and Tags) and reminding myself of the foundations of the world (revisiting the Meta). The theme of the first wave of the prompts is Change, which fits nicely into the cultural changes I started exploring in the last months. I pledge to achieve the Copper badge, but hope to surpass it.

Detailed shenanigans

Assignment 1
Consider what kind of changes would fit in with your world's themes, genre, and other foundational points.

Change... there is a lot going on in the far, far ancient past of the Sáveni. For the change, specificaly I'm going to focus on the events that were the turning points for the entire society. I feel that I will get the most out of it if I go far and wide and connect the dots between other parts of my world, which have been treated separately. So Sáveni and Aškari will finally be reunited as one tribe, albeit in a very, very distant past, For the change prompt I will consider changes in:

place

traditions

language

food (maybe)

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Assignment 2
Based on this, decide how many prompts you'll go for during Summer Camp. Then, download the pledge document and fill it accordingly!

I will safely go for a Copper to not pressure myself and slowly chip away at silver if time and effort permit.

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Assignment 3
Get your categories and tags organized!

Lucky for me, that was a thing I began changing in the beginning of the year. The categories are almost done -- I am around 95% happy with their current state. The tags, though, needed a thorough rewrite, which means this Summer Camp I will be using the new system and gradually migrate old articles using API.

Currenty prepared new tags (Tag Trees?) include:

• history
  • era
    • preaedean
    • aedean
    • tanitrian
  • age
    • forced-oversight
  • event
    • renovation
    • destruction
    • creation

• species
  • archetypes
  • plants
  • animals
  • mushrooms

• events
  • challenges
    • summercamp
    • unofficial
  • competitions
    • worldember
    • unofficial

• story
  • character
    • scathach
    • hithean
  • TGoI (The Gifts of Ithrós)

• tradition
  • skaldic
    • weaving
    • molding
  • crafts
    • cooking
    • hunting
    • weaving
    • smelting

• tribes
  • saveni
    • tean
    • galawa
    • cymru
    • brudhe
  • askari

• geography
  • forests
  • mountains
    • pass
    • range
    • summit
  • lakes
  • hills
  • rivers

The hierarchical structure will translate to the following example tags:

1. challenge, competition: challenge-summercamp-2024, competition-worldember-2024
2. history: history-era-aedean, history-age-forced-oversight, history-event-creation
3. species: species-plant, species-animal, species-archetype
4. story: story-character-hithean, story-TGoI (The Gifts of Ithrós)
5. tradition: tradition-skaldic, tradition-craft
6. tribes: tribes-saveni-cymru, tribes-saveni-galawa, tribes-askari
7. geography: geography-rivers, geography-mountains-range, geography-mountains-summit, geography-forests

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Assignment 4
Take a look at your meta, primer, and any other high-level document and update it according to the current state of your world.

The primer could always use a small rewrite and the Meta needs love. I've been neglecting the poor bastard for far too long but I'm happy to announce a progress from 30%+ to 40%+.

Week 2

TL;DR

Week two was all about "refuge" and once again I thought of how the changes that occurred within the world have influenced the characters into fleeing home, seeking more peaceful grounds. I will take a closer look at the backstory and the aftermath of Stoirm Gunainm, which literally speaking, rewrote the world. The ability to shape the world to one will and its darker sides, the clashes, the consequences of not paying enough attention to details... People finding refuge from the changing world. People changing the world around them to find refuge both internally and externally. The feeling of safety, dread, ... Plenty to unpack.

Detailed shenanigans

Assignment 1
Consider what kinds of refuge would fit in with your world's themes, genre, and other foundational points.

There's the physical refuge in which my characters find enough peace to live their lives safely until the problems catch up with them. And there's that particular space in one's heart and mind, where self-righteoussness lives, the internal neighbour of ones perception on the overall thoughts and feelings of "right and wrong" about the world in general. That would be a good place to explore my characters' internal change, by looking how they overcome (or fail to overcome) their limited perspective on the world and how they fit into it.

Assignment 2
Find a community—whether that’s our Discord server, Facebook Group, your RPG or friend group, or something else.

I will be counting on my closest surrounding in the real life -- my partner and my cats, the latter exchanging love and purrs for food, but I'm free to interpret that as "Good luck! You can do it!" as much as I want to.

I may not have too much time to jump onto Discord, but if I do, I will likely join the WorldAnvil Discord.

Assignment 3
Find ways to improve styling and layout in your world!

Not touching the CSS right now as I only needed some small tweaks before the Summer Camp. Bigger changes will likely be postponed to Autumn, maybe before WorldEmber.

Assignment 4
If you’re a CSS wizard, maybe take the time now to give it a polish!

I've prepared content boxes and made them into variables:

I would like to dedicate this article to everyone, who, as I, had a great time chatting on the World Anvil Discord server and making every event a memorable one. Cheers!

This here is an information regarding the following article. All information found here is only an addition. All following content is safe to read.

CAUTION!
The following article contains short and vague mentions of mildly disturbing disturbing topics like: mental and physical disorders, physical, mental and emotional wounds and similar.
Procede with caution.

WARNING!!
The following article contains short but vivid descriptions of disturbing topics like: mental and physical disorders, physical, mental and emotional wounds and similar.
You have been warned.

DANGER!!!
The following article contains long and in-depth descriptions of disturbing topics like: mental and physical disorders, physical, mental and emotional wounds and similar.
Procede to the article only if you have enough space to handle any disturbing emotional load.

Additionally I'm planning to hide the caution, warning and danger sections of the article behind a color-coded blur and a pictogram, hinting the type of content. For example...

This paragraph contains a section with a caution.. Generally, CSS is a great way of hiding things on the front-end side of the browser. Just like this danger section! Whatever is hidden here may be potentially harmful, so it's a good thing people can opt-in. Throwing readers into uncomfortable situations is not a laughingg matter... For more drastic measures, the content could probably be served on the back-end using generators and subscriber groups? I'm guessing. Never done it before, but it's a thought for the future. CW blurs and boxes will do for now.

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Week 3

TL;DR

Inspirations, predominantly musical inspirations hae been updated. I've included a link to my Spotify lists if anyone is interested.

Detailed shenanigans

Assignment 1
Consider what kind of beliefs would fit in with your world's themes, genre, and other foundational points.

Main events before creation of Tanitris involved real life struggles, i.e.:

individual can change the world vs. individual can only be helpess and submit to external changes

the changes do the external world are limited by circumstances vs. there is no limit to the changes one can perform

the circumstances do not limit a person vs. the circumstances determine the external limits of a person

Character A has feelings of hopelessness and believs nothing can be done. During the course of the story they learn that one can gain power to direct their will to changes and that it what was initially impossible is in fact doable, albeit with sufficient effort. Character A will probably die...

"Creativity should be free for everyone to enjoy" is a belief that will form one of the central pieces of this year's Summer Camp. The way people use that freedom is very dependent on who they are at the moment. It will have its bright moments to release shackles on those who felt they have no agency whatsoever. However, it will also be used as means people use to torture themselves by misusing their imagination to create, replicate and evolve more of the internal horrors. The cases, when some individuals have been cast to deep into the bog to get out by on their own; moments when the dire situation they are in becomes a new known and twistedly safe reality. The close circle of bad actors responsible for Stoirm Gunainm will be put in that position.

Assignment 2
Create a bank of inspirations! Quotes, music, description of experiences and shower thoughts, etc.

I should add... "and put them into generators that will randomly inspire you, whenever you visit a dedicated 'Inspiration' article page". That's a thought for the next few days, especially music... My power fuel of choice for writing. I will be using my Spotify lists:

for vibing into low moments

for vibing into high moments (typically epic)

Assignment 3
Find art and pictures that inspire you, and grab a map if you don't have one (and need one).

For visual inspirations I will be revisiting my photo album from the trip to Karkonosze Mountains last year. The climate there felt similar to what I am aiming at this year, not to mention inspiring stories of mines, minerals, ores and mysteries hidden in the mountain depths.

Assignment 4
Check your inspirations again. Are they still relevant? Can you find any that better represent the current state of your project?

Back to the forgotten depths of the World Meta... As I heavily rely on musical inspiration I've added lyrics and repaired broken links, so it should be much easier to understand. Ædeos changed significantly since the beginning in WorldEmber 2020. It still shares the mixture of awe and dread but in a different tone. Most importantly, I've dropped the idea of one of my cultures to be all perceived as positive and the other all perceived as negative. Since I've created a Spotify list for emotional inspiration I will update the Inspiration Meta Section with some newer content.

Week 4

TL;DR

Detailed shenanigans

Assignment 1
Consider what kind of decay would fit in with your world's themes, genre, and other foundational points.

The decay and demise of the old order and ideas. What happens when people discover a life-changing technology, way of doing things? Life cannot stay the same, and if people try to avoid the change (especially if it makes everyday lives easier) parts of the societies will form small enclaves where they can live their lives peacefully, without the distracting novelties. I will be aiming at recreating the world after an impactful event by incorporating parts of it to everyday lives. There is a loophole that will be used by one of the characters to avoid breaking of the society and maintain steady progress.

Assignment 2
If you like special tea when you write, stock up for a month. Tidy your office, make a “do not disturb” sign, and think about any other last-minute strategies to optimize your writing space and time!

My morning walk&tea routine will be the foundation to everything else. Stocking up on tea is a great reminder -- I'm almost out of it!

Assignment 3
Review your world homepage to hook potential readers!

Updated to include works I'm proud of the most. The introduction article got a small rewrite as well to be lighter and more informative.

Assignment 4
Take a look at your author profile and pillar articles on your world and polish them!

There's not much time, but I may do as much as I can in the given circumstances.