The Library is OPEN!

What a summer it's been! I had intended to develop various aspects of Belerion, but it turns out the universe had other intentions for my work this summer; I managed to improve on my efforts from SC23, writing 24 articles this summer camp.
The biggest change I have made this summer is in fact to my online presence; In the real world, I am a drag artist. The challenge this presented me was having three sets of social media accounts to manage (personal, drag and writer). Initially I had sought to use my drag persona as a nom de plume, and have my writing exploits become part of my drag entity; as I set about converting everything, it occurred to me that I could in fact write the main story from the perspective of Lady Evilyn - her position in society would enable her to see most of the world as it is, and would be quite fitting as the character is inspired by my drag persona, so the story would become almost biographical.


For the reading challenge, I've selected a mix of articles from the prompts that I had not manage to submit articles for, or for which inspiration had eluded me, or for which I really enjoyed writing - the articles are:

• Eternal Storms by anc789sims for: "An environmental or other large-scale natural disaster" (law)
• Barkback Boar by tybarbary for: "A species with protective anatomy" (species)
• Druidic Language by Kaching101 for: "Slang or a language associated with a religion or belief" (language)
• Masroc by netrom09 for: "A hybrid species intentionally bred" (species)
• Tide Cleaners by StillnessandSilence for: "A profession that is considered dirty" (profession)
• Nabrok by willwritten for: "A myth or prophecy about the end of the world" (myth)
• The Progress of a People by Travakh for: "A document that changed the course of history" (document)
• One by JoebiWanKenobi316 for: "A building associated with joy and fun" (building)
• Barisstone Wayfinder by Xalderane for: "A technology used for defense or protection" (technology)
• Agwaetiti Anunu by bklein for "A tumultuous region prone to natural disasters" (location)

Each article has inspired me to either revisit parts of Belerion that I'd moved on from, or reminded me to explore new elements that I hadn't thought to include before. Such as exploring "beyond the veil" and what an after-life or spirit plane in my world might look like (and subsequently how various religions and science understand that plane), how language isn't always necessarily a spoken word (which reminds of an article I read in another challenge about sign-language), even to perservere when exploring how modern concepts like nightclubs could have existed in an epic fantasy setting.

New Side Quests:

• Explore the "ethereal planes" of Belerion; what exists after death? Is there a heaven and hell? How does death interact with life?
• Add Beasts of Burden to the Bestiary; what creatures are used by different cultures? to what end? How are they suited or adapted for that work?
• Consider the passage of time; what do the cycles of Belerion look like? Are there weather patterns? Do volcanoes supererupt at regular intervals? Does mass migration of one species significantly impact the existence of another?
• Understand Non-Verbal Communication; what other ways might people communicate? Is there a sign language used by various cultures? Does it have dialects? Is there iconography or symbology that people can use to convey a message?