The Learnings of Barron
The Hall of Holy Moley Articles
I'm gonna start with my article reviews first, cause gawsh dang this community is like the biggest reason I participated this year. I got myself some of the coolest articles I could find this year, some real special pieces by equally special folks. I learned from so many folks this year and this January has been stuffed to the brim with reading and absorbing.
I got some cool new worlds to follow out of this, and inspiration for projects in the future. Huge win.
Mochi has been such a fantastic inspiration this year for my worldbuilding and for helping me keep up my energy. Their premiere article of Worldember 2023, Monster Hunting, is a fantastic entry for how to add both information and intrigue to a world.
In this article they not only establish a premise for the practice of Monster Hunting, but they dig into the reason behind it and the economic/class struggle style divide between the rich and the poor.
Mochi's a true mensch of the Worldbuilding community, and always someone worth having in your DMs and being in their server.
Hanhula, top mod, and a top creator. You open Influence of the Shards and it immediatly captures you with a fantastic design and impressive generation skills.
One thing I have learned from Hanhula is that as long as you are good with your formatting and you intersperse with great content, you can go for some heavy wordcounts and still keep a reader engaged as this article did for me.
This is the condition to beat this year, and Hanhula has set that bar skyhigh.
Now I don't know who this Ademal is, and I've never heard of Ethnis, but this article is a showcase piece for how to add a new subculture in your world. Terms, tech, slang, and even subarticles!
I love the break down of the different kinds of Anthros within Ethnis, and the tie in to not only how they look, but how they afford it and in which Banners the tech is possible or available.
Always trust Ademal to make a showcase-worthy article!
Solarcat and I share a special friendship built upon mutual respect for each other and a love for bringing out emotions and life into our writing. Mercy is another example of how well Solarcat can convey complexity between characters through dialouge.
Gripping, dramatic, and full of that love-hate tension, I'd recommend sitting down with a nice hard drink and give this a read.
Solarcat is such an inspiration.
Ribbit...
Owen's a pretty new name to me personally, but the Rockleith frogs article convinced me to stay for a follow. The fun exploration into a species of frogs is well illustrated, well laid out, and does a fantastic job opening up the species to be used in your next TTRPG game!
I love seeing a good species, and Owen pulls off a great piece here.
Ameliel has done something that few worldbuilders are brave enough to do. They defined an aspect of their magic very clearly. When defining the 'hard' lore of a world. it can be difficult to keep it digestable.
They pulled it off! And it was a great enough piece that it got a new follow and made me curious enough to see the attached articles!
Well done, Ameliel.
Line is an absolute lovely presence to be around. Positive, creative, and with the worldbuilding chops to back up their fantastic ideas.
Leylines, is a wonderful piece of world-defining worldbuilding. Establishing a global rule is no easy feat, but they managed to illustrate and describe one in an pleasant to read article. I particularlly love the breakdown of the different lines, and it was a smart idea to include that after the sort of initial breakdown of how these lines work!
Wonderful job, Line!
I was just talking to TJ about how exciting it was to see him take up a new world in Worldember. And hearing the story why they did it, makes the success of it even more inspiring.
TJ is a legend of worldbuilding, his creation is the icon of the site! But beyond the fame, his worldbuilding is exquiste and fun, their worlds are engaging and interesting.
His introduction brings you to a fair, and from that point on you are hooked on their adventure through the lore. Take a dive in if you haven't yet, you won't regret it.
It's an article by -the- Stormbril in the powerhouse of Cathedris. If you expect anything less than fantastic you are setting yourself up for a surprise.
Stormbril has done something pretty dang unique here with the Trinket Chest, of course I also give credit to TJ as well. But Stormbrils chest reminds me of going to an amusement park or a zoo where they have the collection minigame that you are encouraged to have fun with.
They've managed to do that, but with Worldanvil?! And that just blows my mind. They always push the bounds of what is possible, and I love it!
When I was linked this article, at first I was confused. Byte? Like an 8 bits of data byte? Is that binary?! Oh snap! It's a computer science article!
That was my first reaction, so I dug in. This was an amazing anthromorphizing of data storage, I'd say it's the most fun refreshing myself on the storage acronym conversion.
This was a real cute one, and it put a big smile on my face.
I look forward to reading more Shadow!
Barron's Learnings
I offer you some lessons that I learned from Worldember as quotes. Some no doubt will take some time to really settle in, but others I'm already putting into practice.
Here's to another great year with World Anvil and its community.
Always be looking for threads of inspiration, don't let them escape. Grab 'em, wrastle 'em into an article. Makes it funner.
Participating in Worldember without engaging in the community is like going to a kick-ass party just to stand in the corner.
It's okay to focus on quality over quantity. A few punchy articles feel much better than a ton of tiny ones.
Parallax is fun. Thank you, Ademal.
Thank you so much for the kind words, as one of my favourite writers on this website, this really means a lot to me <33 I am so glad you had an amazing worldember and I am even more honoured I could be inspiration!! Hope you have an incredible 2024 full of amazing things, I can't wait to see more from my favourite world :D
Thank you Mochi! I'm glad that the pinnacle of the community has people like you! Really makes participating worth doing!