WorldEmber 2023 Prep

And the Earth has made another pass to once again arrive at WorldEmber time!
My pledge will focus on Greenglimmer, a deep and secretive part of the Elfiniti Rainforest in the ghostly lands of the Evenacht. Not coincidentally, Greenglimmer is the second book in my Evenacht serial, which is set to begin on Dec. 15 :). Yes, yes, just in time for the holidays (I never said I was good at scheduling things).
I needed to make a choice between Greenglimmer and Broken Dulcet. In Broken Dulcet, we'll see more of Dentheria by way of Trave, the seat of the Dentherion Empire's military. It's a huge, tech-infused city, much at odds with the tech-absent living Lapis is accustomed to. Writing some articles on Trave, tech, and the depletion of the mineral which powers all modern tech on three continents, would have worked well as a WorldEmber focus, but I'm a bit more interested in Greenglimmer right now. That having been said, if I get stuck in the Evenacht, I will write on LoN. It will be nice to do a few articles on modders and khentauree, anyway.

Lorgan Tally Fyrij Mera Verryn Vantra Laken Qira Katta Kjaelle Vesh

of the mini-Joyful are all very excited about me writing about them during WorldEmber.
Not pictured: Rayva and Salan, Dedari, Kenosera, Lesanova, Tagra, and they, too, are excited :D

The Evenacht serial follows Vantra in her quest to Redeem Laken, a Condemned spirit ready to leave his afterlife punishment behind. To do this, they must search for his sundered essences together, which rest in disparate corners of the evening lands, and piece him back together. Bad for Vantra, and even worse for Laken, powerful foes don't want the Redemption to succeed.

Greenglimmer is the location of Laken's right arm essence. A scholar, Lorgan, had already found it a thousand years previous, so the mini-Joyful is expecting to rush in, retrieve it, and focus on the next locale. But things change in a thousand years, especially in a place considered a rainforest labyrinth. Is the way forward really as clear as Lorgan expects?

Settlements have risen and fallen. Peoples once common in the area no longer reside there. And, being a dark rainforest, Greenglimmer has a ton of nasty plants and animals that can wreck havoc on a ghost's essence, not to mention a corruption-ridden port city.
What does that all mean? Lots to write about!

Featured Image Pics
mini-Joyful

Week 1

Characters

-Veer Tul deity article, that I really need to get done
-one on Zibwa the Healer and the Evenacht's native Death, Levassa
-mini-Joyful character articles. This may be a little hard for a couple of them, since Greenglimmer has SURPRISES and I don't want to give up the ghost before those appear in the serial

Geography

-Greenglimmer
-Dryanflow River
-I've been meaning to write articles on the three Evenacht continents in general. I may get motivated to do those, too

Peoples

-article on the Aristarzian, specifically related to the Light Gauntlet
-article on elden southern Talis elfine peoples from around 8300 years previous. This is relevant to Kjaelle's backstory, which we will see more of in the book

Technology

-we'll see a bit more of the Badeçasyon tech that the ghosts of the interstellar invaders have

Magic

-an article on intonation
-explanation of the gift of life and the powerful mantles deities accept

Flora and Fauna

-highlights on the most deadly of creatures in the rainforest
-highlights on a couple of helpful ones as well

Locales

-Selaserat, the main port of Greenglimmer, on the Dryanflow River
-some of the temples and villages in the area

Week 2

Mini-meta
Greenglimmer is a northern region of the Elfiniti Rainforest on the western continent of Uka's Lament. It is known for

• 1) its labyrinthian growth, which helps sequester villages within the trees' embrace
  
• 2) its ancient elfine ruins, from which the Elfiniti gets its name
  
• 3) the port city of Selaserat. Corruption runs rampant, and the city leadership is either part of it, or unable to do anything about it
  
• 4) deep nightly mists that can cause even the most experienced traveler to lose their way

Greenglimmer was once the elfine homeland in the Evenacht, staked by the ghosts of the southern Talis elfines. They, known as a wilder lot than their northern, more sedate cousins, fit the rainforest and its dangers perfectly. All was brought to an unceremonious end when much of the population met the Final Death in a terrible flood caused by the collapse of a Dryanthium dam. While elfine ghosts continue to reside their, the glories of the past have been swallowed by the rainforest growth, all but for the name, Elfiniti.
Greenglimmer is a domain in the Elfiniti Rainforest administrative region and is overseen by a council in Selaserat. It takes at least 20 days to travel from the Sea of Winds coastline to the Parley Mountains border. The area is large, but sparsely inhabited except for Selaserat and the surrounding farmland. Most income comes from trade.
Local living populations have a love/hate relationship with the ghosts who reside there. Many smaller communities keep their distance, wallowing in the eons-old resentments of spirits from Talis taking over their homeland. Some, who live near the trade route from the coastline to Selaserat, have found wealth in trading with ghosts, so have dispelled with grudges.
It is rumored than an elden population of elfine ghosts inhabit the darkest parts of the rainforest, but Selaserat declares that a folktale.

You can check out the map w/ zoom here

The feel of Greenglimmer is like that of a foggy night in southern Louisiana where things seem soft and untangible. The fog rises from the Dryanflow, the major river that drains the giant lake, Dryanthium (the homeland of dryans in the Evenacht). As such, it produces a heady amount of magic-laden mist for ghosts to absorb (which was what initially drew the ancient elfine populations).
The mists hide so many things, like Selaserat criminal enterprises and the sundered essences of punished ghosts. Ruins hold floral and faunal dangers, like poisonous blooms and venomous serpents, but also outlaws on the run and zealous religious cults.
Another, rarely spoken of, danger lurks at the back of every mind; a potential gigantic flood caused by the Dryanthium dams failing. Despite its location nearer the mouth of the Dryanflow than the lake, past floods have ripped that area of the rainforest to shreds. But, because the flooding happened several thousand years ago, only the older ghosts recall the terror and the ensuing hardships--and warn that it might happen again.

Categories
I have my categories, though I still go back and forth about where to stick Lorgan's Notes. Lorgan, our intrepid scholar, writes about a plethora of things. His notes can be found in every category. I sometimes wonder if I should not have them in a separate Lorgan category, but I think I'll keep it as it is.

Media

Inspiration

World Anvil:
Blue Fairy 74's Elaqitan

Other:
Have any of you played Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Wonder?They're both interesting games, in that the developers could do as they wished. And they came up with so many interesting game mechanics because they weren't under time constraints or being told what to do by the powers that be.
In TotK, you can built long bridges. Like, really looooooooooooong bridges. What materials can you scrape together to manage it? That leads into kitbashing Zonai tech into all manner of helpful things--your imagination is the limit (build animals, build a giant robot, built a ship). To solve puzzles, the combination of the unique abilities can lead to multiple ways to achieve the solutions. And I don't recall those particular abilities being very common in other games (fusing weapons, able to move up through solid objects, etc). I feel like the game really prompted players to use unique creations to achieve the end goal.
Wonder is a wonder. It has kernels of corn as enemies that pop when exposed to heat! Mario can not only turn into an elephant, but cake and a jiggly jello thing and a bouncy slug and a cloud. Each one has a unique way of moving and defeating enemies in these special mini-levels. I don't think I've ever played a Mario game this unique (of course, I haven't played them all, but I love the SMB stuff, the Paper Mario series, Mario Galaxy). When devs are given free rein, they develop delightfully unique things.
And that is what I want to bring to Evenacht, if I can; the twisting of norms into something special. Will I achieve it? Dunno.

Images

The feel of Greenglimmer, if not the feel of this article

Mood Image Credits

Week 3 & Week 4

After much angst and "WHY DID THE CATEGORIES CHANGE POSITION AND WHY WON'T THEY STAY WHERE I PUT THEM" and "WTF FOLLOW BUTTON WHY WON'T YOU CENTER?" I finally have updated my homepage :D You can check it out here:

I will probably still fiddle with it, but I think it looks nice. There is a bit to do on revamping the color scheme for the tooltips and such, but I'm tired and will set it aside for the time being.
Though I really like how the featured image turned out!
Capturing the feel of the Evenacht has been more difficult than I thought. I know it's misty, spooky, land of the dead and all that, but it's not dead-dark, either. There is much hope in the Evenacht. Yes, it's a dark fantasy, but that doesn't mean there isn't light here and there.

With so much time spent on the homepage, I didn't get much of the Week 4 stuff done. I dusted my desk (victory!) and made a schedule.
I created a daily schedule for sticking workouts and breaks in between creating stuff. I hope to follow it, but knowing me as I do, it will go the way of me trying to plot a book--derailed within a few minutes of implementation.

And with that, I will call this prep good and done! It is also the last day before World Ember starts, so yeah, time to focus on the work ahead.
I hope everyone has a fun and productive WorldEmber this year. I can't wait to read what y'all have to say!