Stats: Trinket Chest 3 Month Recap

Let's take a quick look at how this whole Trinket Chest system is going -- which Trinkets are most found, which faction is most popular, and has anyone even found all 22 Trinkets yet?!

— Stormbril

Turning Cathedris into a "game"

It's something I have often talked about (I think often, at least): what my big dreams are for Cathedris. One of them that I think would be the absolute coolest would be to turn Cathedris into a GAME -- video game, board game, whatever works. After seeing what TJ did with his stamps journal for JOY, an idea clicked into place in my head and I knew I had to make a sort of scavenger hunt, gamified system within Cathedris.
Well that idea spawned an article that is over 10k words long, and introduced a WHOLE LOT OF CSS into Cathedris. We're now 3 months out from the release of the entire system and I figured it's a good and interesting time to see how it's been going! Don't worry, if you've been playing along and haven't found all the Trinkets yet, I will spoiler the names of them and where they are found. I don't want to ruin the hunt for anyone!
However, this article WILL SPOIL one small thing: the very first Trinket required to open the chest in the first place.

Stat break 1

Most Found Trinket:

With 71 people total having found it, the most common trinket is the

Ornate Key!

The second most found Trinket (at 48 total) is the

Basic Key, the key required to even open the Trinket Chest in the first place.

, which is honestly quite interesting to me. Spoilered thoughts ahead that talk about where each Trinket is found:

This makes sense, in a way -- the Ornate Key is found on the God-husks article, which is hands down my most viewed and continously viewed article. Many more people will see that article and discover the Ornate Key than will ever find and open the Trinket Chest itself. Still, the Basic Key can be found on every single page in Cathedris, and that helps the visibility of it as well -- although it is locked behind joining one of the two factions. Overall I think these numbers are great!

Least Found Trinket:

On the flip side, only 4 people have found the most rare Trinket, the

Rusthaven Passage Ticket!

The next least found Trinket(s) at 5 people is a tie between the

Rendling Cell

and the

Complicated Cypher!

I have some thoughts on why these are the hardest to find, too. Spoilered thoughts ahead that will reveal where the Trinkets are found:

So these Trinkets all share a few things in common -- the biggest one being that they are all hidden on some of my "least popular" articles, ones that get lower amounts of views. Not a bad thing! All Trinkets are located on Summer Camp 2023 articles, and are thus on some of my newest work, so it just hasn't been around long enough. In particular, the Complicated Cypher is on the... I'd say "least impactful" article, one not as interesting as the others.

The difference between the most and least found honestly surprised me -- not that I expected huge numbers of people to find every Trinket, of course, but more in that I am so surprised at how often the most found Trinket is collected! It's honestly performing much better than I ever could have expected or hoped. It makes me wonder what most peoples first Trinket found is -- and what their favourite Trinket overall is as well!

---

The Trinket Chest has been more than worth the effort it took to make. Some of my favourite design has gone into this thing! If I had to pick any specific Trinket as my favourite, for any number of reasons, it'd have to be the

Lost Dolly.

It has the art I'm most proud of, the way you discover the Trinket is my favourite mechanism, and I just love the lore and worldbuilding tied to it (both from the article it's found on, as well as the bonus lore you get within the Trinket Chest itself).

— Stormbril

---

People and Players

One thing that I wanted most out of this entire system was Engagement. I love love LOVE the idea of people choosing sides, factions, favourites, anything of that sort, and then interacting with the world through that specific lense they have chosen. I think it makes the world feel alive, and it helps readers interact with each other without the creator of it needing to be present or injecting life into it continuously. I still have a lot more to do in order to get Cathedris to that point, but I think it has made some really great strides towards that.
That's the main reason why I technically "hid" the entire system behind the two factions of Cathedris, the Altruistic Concilium of Sacred Architecture and the Regiment for Humanity. They are opposing forces in the world, and I think exist as the perfect opposing sides to provide readers a choice. Either faction can be joined from any article at any point, as it's always within my global footer.
So, with that, let's take a look at these factions and the people within them!

Stat break 2

Most Popular Faction

And the award goes to... The Regiment for Humanity! This force of good has a total of 41 people within it. However, the "evil" group (merely misunderstood, if you ask Amelie) is not far behind, with the Altruistic Concilium of Sacred Architecture (ACSA) coming in with 32 members total. It's always fascinating to see whether the good or bad group is most popular, and it makes me really happy to see them so close. My favourite character I've ever written (Dr. Anabelle Evingston is the leader of the ACSA, so I might be a bit biased to them, but that doesn't mean I don't also love the Regiment.

But who is "winning"?

Once again, forces of good prevail! If my rough counting and calculations are to be believed (counting isn't my forte), the Regiment are at 136 Trinkets found total, while the ACSA are again not far behind at 110 Trinkets. The other important stat to consider in this calculation is that currently, only two people have found every single Trinket, and both of them are a part of the Regiment. The team for good just keeps on winning!

Okay but "WHO" is winning?

Lets give ourselves a little look at the "TRINKET LEADERBOARD", and see who's on top. Two people have found all the Trinkets, but how close are the others? Here are your top 5:
1: Mochimanoban | 22 Trinkets Found | Regiment for Humanity
2: vivengene | 22 Trinkets Found | Regiment for Humanity
3: Strixxline | 19 Trinkets Found | Altruistic Concilium of Sacred Architecture
4: AmélieIS | 18 Trinkets Found | Altruistic Concilium of Sacred Architecture
5: jumpingspider | 18 Trinkets Found | Regiment for Humanity

(note: if you wish to be removed from the leaderboard, please let me know!)

I honestly love the idea of a Leaderboard like this. I think what I might do is actually place a leaderboard directly into the Trinket Chest! That way everyone who is perusing their own chest can see who's found all the Trinkets, or if there's been any new people joining the rare ranks of those who have found every single one. At least, every single CURRENT Trinket -- as yes, there are plans to add more!
But I want to make sure I add more in the right way. It will likely be in batches. I'm thinking of at least 5 Trinkets per batch, more if I feel energetic. In the future, when the chest runs out of room, I will have to figure out a way to add pull-out sections that contain more Trinkets, secret compartments, stuff like that. I want to layer the secrets upon themselves as this thing goes on!

---

Well that about wraps it up for this recap! I do have some questions for you, if you've made it this far, and if you've tried your hand at collecting some of the Trinkets. Do you like this stat overview, and should I do another later down the line -- maybe a year out?
What was your first Trinket found, and what was your FAVOURITE trinket found? If you don't want to spoil the name, put it in a regular BBCode spoiler :D
And finally, are you excited by the idea of yet more Trinkets being added into Cathedris?

— Stormbril