Star-sparkling Winners

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How we wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the golden sun doth rise,
Fills with shining light the skies,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How we wonder what you are.

Excerpt from the poem "Star"
of Jane Taylor from 1806 -

My review of the month

While many of you were excited about the nominations for this year's Worldbuilding Awards - congratulations to everyone - this month had a few rollercoaster emotions in store for me. The worst part was definitely that the hard drive on my trusty laptop died after about 14 years. Yes, it had already become apparent after a long illness, but oh God, all the photos, pictures, texts, music all gone? I was close to tears.
Fortunately, I had fulfilled my dream of a "writable" tablet last year, so I was at least halfway through writing and programming hell. Why? Well, not being able to disc for four weeks would have been really torture. But writing, image editing, creating maps and, above all, translating and programming with a mobile device are all somewhat doable, but also very frustrating. At this point I would like to apologize to all readers for the longer loading times of my images in the written articles. I will replace the images as soon as possible.

In mid-April I finally got my first relief, because one of my best friends is a computer scientist and he tried to clone my old disk. It probably gave him a few new gray hairs to save my data, but at the end of last week I finally had my baby back with all of its treasures and two new SSDs.
However, the month also had some moments of happiness to offer. While many people might have had fun with an April Fool's joke on April 1st, I was happy about the first 1,000 likes. Additionally, my main world Elaqitan cracked the 50 follower mark in April.

1,000 thanks for your support and loving comments.

And, if that wasn't huge enough, there was a request on my profile last week from Felicity Harley - Autorin von "The Burning Years: Until This Last Quartet" - to help her with her latest project. We are currently in contact with each other and I am very excited to see how things develop.
Of course, despite the circumstances, I have written a few articles for the many great unofficial challenges in the last two months, but more on that in another review. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish my own Astralis article because my star map is on my laptop, but I'll definitely submit it later.

Elaqitanian holiday cake by Blue Fairy 74

Look into the Stars - Astralis

Astralis-Challenge 2024 by Blue Fairy 74

With 25 entries, the challenge received µ twice as many entries as my last challenge last year. I'm really very happy with the result and everyone who wrote something is a winner, no matter what my decision for the three medals turned out to be. Congratulations to all participants! It was a pleasure reading your articles.

In the next few days I will deliver the badges to all participants and if you would like some brief feedback, please write me a comment. In a possible challenge next year I will increase the word counts as I felt some of them were pushing the limit and would have liked to say more. If you have other suggestions for improvement for the next challenge, please write to me too.

And the winners are ....

The star medals in bronze

The two articles from Solstice and Callyxtus were truly gems among all the articles and both deserve the bronze medal with the title “Valuable Cultural Heritage”.

Astralis-Challenge 2024 by Blue Fairy 74

At first impression, Solstice's article seems inconspicuous without any additional images and few quotes, but the topic really has a great and very inspiring idea behind it.

The constellation of the Great Tree is closely linked to the cultures of elves and men and it changes like the seasons in Solstice's world of Domen Aria, so you would love to be there to experience the phenomenon as well as the festivals and traditions.

Callyxtus' article tells us a wonderful myth of two royal children who find each other through the love star and blessed by the gods.

The author cleverly incorporates the meaning of the celestial phenomenon for the elves in the world of Yeia into the article through wonderful "antique" art and quotes, which makes it particularly worth reading and inspiring.

The star medals in silver

The two articles from Mochimonaban and NimrodialLibrary were the most creatively understandable of all the articles and deserve the silver star medal with the title “Inspiring Works of Art”.

Astralis-Challenge 2024 by Blue Fairy 74

Mochimonaban's article hides a truly magnificently fascinating idea about glowing "soul balls" whose size, gravity and temperature depend on the number of souls they contain.

With the authors wealth of information, the author created a wonderful place that invites you to travel and makes you want to find out more.

When you open NimrodialLibrary's article, you immediately notice the wonderfully drawn books with star maps.

But behind it is an inspiring technology that is part of the magical training in the use of starlight and that I would very much like to see in use.

The star medal in gold

Tyrdal's article is an absolute must-read, which I awarded with the rating "Wonderful Reading Pleasure" and the Gold Star Medal.

Astralis-Challenge 2024 by Blue Fairy 74

Already at the introduction I was completely captivated and blown away by the metaphors used such as: "Reading the stories written in the celestial tapestry ..." or "... stars are ... the lost keys to unlocking the greatest secrets of the universe.".

Tyrdal provides a nice all-round view of the organization, whose purposes are navigation, omen reading, and star magic. The history part is particularly inspiring, as it offers lots of interesting stories.

He also hides all sorts of clues for hopefully future articles, which I would have loved to read immediately in order to delve even deeper into this wonderful world from the 1001 Nights.

Congratulations to all the winners!