Tales of Aran'sha - Summer Chronicles

Ahlan wa salan, my friends! Summercamp has come and gone. So, what exciting tales did happen during our beach vacation? Quite a few! But first, lets talk shortly about my first summer camp experience:

From wave one, brainstorming these prompts with my awesome accountability buddy Koragath and twisting them to fit my themes was great fun - I highly recommend getting a buddy to bounce ideas back and forth.
Following up, writing down all these ideas week for week taught me a lot about pacing myself while not compromising the quality of my articles too much. It's certainly different to worldember, but not in a bad way.
In the end, it certainly paid off: I aimed for copper and ended up with a solid gold!
And that brings us to today. Where you and I stand before the giant mountains of wonderful articles the community has written.
I searched for the gems in these mountains that inspired me most, that grabbed my attention or simply were just that wonderful. And now - I give these shining jewels to you, knowing there are many more still out there to find.
(A small sidenote - if a follow button is missing it means you are already a follower of this world - thank you for supporting the author!)

Strange worlds and wonderful sights

Be it a heartwarming, foreign custom or a sight that will never leave your eyes...these are things you wont forget.

Mirror Cloud Paths

The mirror cloud paths - a strange world of wonders, found beyond the portals. Blue Fairy 74 takes us on a journey to these wondrous realms, into another world that is as beautiful as it is hostile to human life.
Whatever business you have there - better be quick about it. With gorgeous illustrations, a fantastic layout and a beautiful turn of phrase this is one place you will remember for a long, long time.

Inspiration for myself: Varied layout designs can help immensly to make even larger texts easily digestable.

Flowering Flame

This ritual for the dying paints a beautiful picture of one's the final hours in Iphars. It takes you onto a deep journey into the culture of its people and their way to handle funerals and grief. Bittersweet and beautiful are the only words I have for this work of Catoblepon.

Inspiration for myself: I especially like the last segment about the changes in this tradition - I might add a few hints how my traditions change over time.

Habita

A lone light in the dark, a jungle surrounded by the vastness of space and the light of strange suns. This abandoned space station is a mystery slumbering in the abyss. And we...we will follow Mochi into the unknown.
Written in an engaging style you, the reader, join our fearless explorers on the journey - and I cant wait to see more.

Inspiration for myself: In article dialogues are something I would like to experiment with. I also like the implementation of notes into the text.

The dance of the light

In a world shrouded in darkness, even a single ray of hope is cause for celebration. This is one of these. Frod0_baggins is taking us to the stars with this wonderful idea that touched my heart.
The world of Starsong is calling for you...

Inspiration for myself: A great example how even small articles can paint a vivid picture. Given that I have mostly written longer ones recently, I should try and keep this in mind.

Whispers in the dark

Tragic legends, terrible events - these are tales of trying times. But no matter what, there is always hope for a brighter future.

Ajur'shul: The Hollow Hunger

A haunting tale of addiction, this dark and beautiful article takes us on a journey into darkness. Written by none other than Koragath (the best accountability buddy I could wish for), everything in this from the haunting intro to the explanation on the drug itself paints a picture of dread - and I mean that in the most positive way.

Inspiration for myself: The implementation of music into articles is a great idea I have to look into. Also adding historical paragraphs divided by times could be workable.

Mana, the deceptive goddess

A tragic tale of revenge and grief, the tale of mischievious Mana is a story about a young godess and her downfall. Callyxtus crafts this wonderful origin story and adds gorgeous art on top of this. As far as celestial origin stories go, this is one of my favorites.

Inspiration for myself: Try to add origin stories and relations to the celestials, they should have weaknesses and strenghts too.

The Poisoning: Death of a Magical Forest

A magical forest is dying and the inhabitants are dealing with it in different ways. Crafted with vivid words and drawing you into the story, Jaime Buckley paints a wonderful picture of dread with a shining ray of hope.

Inspiration for myself: Use just the right amount of colorful language - something that is done in this story superbly.

The Legend of The Anipaantik

A dark and stormy night, a roiling ocean clouded in mist...and then, in the darkness. the faint, etheral glow of lanterns. This is Carolyn McBride's tale of the Anipaantik. The tale of a ship that's still looking to get home..

Inspiration for myself: I'm going to go and try my hand at some spooky stories settled in stories and tales from Aran'sha. I've done this once or twice, but I would like to revisit these and write some new ones.

By your own hands

Crafted by skillfull hands, these articles will bring you joy.

Anseni Pumpkin Pie

Reading this article, you can almost smell the freshly baked pie waiting for you. This is just a lovely kind of tradition, a heartwarming little thing that draws you into the wonderful world Polina "Line" Arteev created.

Inspiration for myself: I love these little traditions and will have to build more of those into my world.

Pottery, Mythic Pots & Urns

Pottery - a gift from the heavens, this lovely tale tells you all about clay and its uses in the world of Arc Sagas. From the earliest creations with divine help to the invention of magical pottery, Myth Cross tells us a wonderful tale. But beware...even emptiness can hide its dangers.

Inspiration for myself:Besides making more use of spoilers (and designing some) - dont forget you can put mysteries into the most mundane of things.

Bonfire Broth

This broth warmed my heart. Its such a simple idea, some friends and adventurers sitting around the campfire, sharing a meal together. I highly recommend you dive into the attached story too.
Jon has done a wonderful job here and transformed a simple campfire dish into a fantastic read. The fantastic artwork is a glorious desert after this filling meal.

Inspiration for myself:Draw a bit on Jontaros wonderful storytelling and add some actual rules to my items.

Legendary Worldshapers

These are people that impress and inspire me every time. Expect gorgeous art, awesome writing and supreme CSS skills in this category.

Night's Grasp

A tale as old as time - one power falls to the peopleand soon, another rises. Stormbril takes us on a history tour of the city of night and shade. Gorgeous design and great storytelling meet and make you hunger for more.

Inspiration for myself:When I see stuff like this I really want to work on my CSS game. And guess what - I have some things planned already!

Words of the Silent

A mysterious dark stele in the middle of a hostile wilderness holds a prophecy of dark tidings. This wonderful, but somewhat foreboding article by Han not only contains gorgeous article design and the prophecy itself - it comes with a fantastic reading by her. This is such a lovely touch, I listened it to it two or three times already.

Inspiration for myself:Aside from the article design which is already a HUGE inspiration, I will certainly looking into adding more audio components into my world.

Best Newcomers

Precious gems, these mostly unknown but fantastic worlds do not have many followers (yet).

Ayin-class frigate

A detailled ship description of the mighty Ayin-class frigate, this leaves out no detail. History, constrcution, design - its all here and wonderfully laid out. Savoic shows us a wonderful science fiction world thats worth exploring. A wonderful and inspirational read.

Inspiration for myself:I really would like to delve into a futuristic setting sometime. And writing technical articles is something I struggle with too, so this is a great inspiration.

Bilgi - God of wisdom

An eternal hunger for wisdom and knowledge, a path that ends (or begins?) in godhood. This is the tale of Bilgi, the god of wisdom. Leijona gives us this wonderful depiction of an ascension tale and I can't wait to see more of this pantheon.

Inspiration for myself:This is a great inspiration to write a pantheon - something I still have not gotten to.

Raklu

These gentle, scaled giants of the scorching desert have a very unique way to handle the heat. rugrat0ne managed to conjure a vivid and living picture of these creatures that made me imagine these majestic creatures.

Inspiration for myself: This article reminds me that even a short article can paint wonderful pictures - something I should do more often.

The german corner

Here you will find the finest tales in german language - I highly recommend you check these out too if you can find a translator.

Tararukthes-Vergiftung

This article is probably the single most extensive description of a "sickness" I've seen so far. From history, treatment, vectors and consequences, this has it all in extensive and beautiful detail. Secere Laetes really went all out on this one.

Inspiration for myself: I kinda struggle with diseases usually, but this gives me many great ideas. I especially like that the substance causing it is also dangerous to mundanes.

Golomons Haarrevitalisierungselixier

A whimsical tale of a well, hair growing potion. This potion will deliver what it promises and I love all the details Nightone surrounded this potion with. Well worth the read!

Inspiration for myself: Writing more mundane items that enrich the world.

Summertales from Aran'sha

Lastly, these are the tales I enjoyed writing the most about - take a seat, a sweetened tea and join me on my journeys.