WorldEmber 2023 Homework

December is almost upon us, and the World Forge is starting to heat up. Worlds need building, so it's time to prepare for the biggest World Anvil challenge of the year: WorldEmber.

Very briefly, WorldEmber is a challenge where each author has to write a minimum of 10'000 words of world building in one month. It can be about anything, but it must specifically be world building and original work, obviously. The entire month of November is thus dedicated to preparing for this soul-crushing challenge. (It's supposed to be fun though, don't burn out, please <3)
This page is my entry to fulfil the requirements of WorldEmber Prep. Find out more about the challenge.

Da Pledge

There is still a lot of work to be done, as FODD is still in embryo state at this time. I want to have a MVP/beta released ASAP to get as much story/writing and gameplay feedback to help guide further development.
This is why this month I am set on participating in, and winning, my very first NaNoWriMo by writing at least 50k words of story. And I intend to do the same regarding the world building part in December for, again, my first Worldember (well, the first I'm taking seriously rather).
It is my hope that by the end of December I have enough content to have a solid beta to release by the beginning of 2024. What better way to start the year than by releasing the first playable version of my very first game?

Pledge Details

Obviously, 50 thousand words is A LOT, especially for world building, and I don't want to get stuck in the dreaded world building rabbit hole. After all, the story is what matters for this project. That is why I intend for most of the content I'm going to expand on during December to be focused on:

1. Detailing the Cosmology, the different Gods, Pantheons and Religions, as they will play a central role within the story of FODD.
2. Detailing the history, structure, and key figures of the Silver Guard because, well, the story is kinda about them.
3. Finishing the first draft of the world map, climate zones and geographical locations, so I can figure out countries and some of the main historical events and the current geopolitical context of the world.
4. Detailing the Nation and City (both unnamed yet) the beta will be initially set in.
5. Developing the Main Characters present in the beta.

Once this is done, I believe it will be a good enough foundation for figuring out the rest of the World bit by bit without reworking the entire story at the same time. At least, I hope so.
Ultimately, though, I won't be too disappointed if I don't reach the exact word count. I just want to push myself to write more consistently. I also noticed that somehow, the more I have to do, the more I do. Strange.

Mini Meta

My world meta isn't even finished at the time of writing, woupsie… But I made an attempt for World Ember to clarify my focus for the coming month.

Scope

From Our Darkest Desires is set in the fantasy world of Tharan. My plans for the finished game are to eventually explore all of it, but for the initial beta, the first (still unnamed) nation is more than enough. Specifically, we'll mostly visit the capital city, even if some other areas will be featured.

Themes

FODD is a Dark Science Fantasy novel, so expect some gory stuff with the occasional divine intervention (which might or might not be the source of said gory stuff), socialist demons, elves who are actually not all obnoxious c*nts, and some science-fiction elements like equal pay for equal work and universal openness to poly and same-sex relationships.

Mood

The world is a mix of moods. Tharan had a moment of respite after the end of the last God War and enjoyed a time of prosperity and technological advancement, so it feels pretty bright (relatively) at the beginning of the story. But with a magical sh*t storm incoming, things will turn darker. Sometimes, much darker. Sometimes so dark I worry about my own sanity. I still haven't found a therapist who wanted to risk talking to me…
Still, despite all the bad we will witness, I want the world to feel beautiful and awe-inspiring sometimes; particularly when it comes to romances. Because who doesn't like good ol' poly and queer romances?
I ask you, WHO DOESN'T??
TELL ME WHERE THEY LIVE!!

Focus

I want to mainly focus on the main participants of the God Wars and aspects of the world related to it, which will be an important part of the Main Storyline. I will expand on other parts if I feel the need for the world and story to function properly, but otherwise that's it.

Goals

Flesh out the Silver Guard and its Main Antagonists (Gods, demigods, angels, and demons, etc...) Flesh out the World and its Main Powers, particularly the region the player starts in. Flesh out the Love Interests the Player meets in the first chapters. Flesh out the magic system

Inspirations

For the Silver Guard, the organization is inspired by the likes of Witchers from The Witcher (duh!), the Grey Wardens and Templars from Dragon Age and the Hunters/Men of Letters from Supernatural. I see them as this well-respected, at least back in the day, group of monster hunters and lore masters. They act both as protectors of the mortal world as well as councilors and advisors for nobility (and more recently, politicians) when dealing with supernatural forces.
For the rest, I get inspired by all kinds of sources, including video games, novels, movies and TV shows, religions (for demons and angels), folklore, etc…

Category Structure

I already have a category structure that I find good enough for now:

• Introduction ⇒ For articles that introduce the game From Our Darkest Desires, it and the world it is set in.
• From Our Darkest Desires ⇒ Focused on the structure of the story, the romances and main characters the player will interact with. Basically, the more narrative elements rather than pure world building.
• The World ⇒ Pretty self-evident. The substructures need rework but, for now, I actually have no idea how to structure them. I will keep them that way, then see about changing it when a better alternative presents itself. For now, writing articles matters more to me than putting them “in the right place”. Sorry, readers…
• History ⇒ About the main events and occurrences of the world.
• Gameplay Elements ⇒ explanations about the different gameplay aspects that will be present in the game and how they will influence the narrative
• Dev Logs ⇒ I want to start writing Dev Logs. Not only during WorldEmber, but throughout the year as well. Not sure what's that going to look like yet, though.
• Competition Articles ⇒ Self-explanatory. These are more for the draft articles that I will write during specific events. Eventually, I'll create and link the full articles that will be in the general categories.

Homepage Rework

My homepage was pretty… Empty.
So the most significant change is that now there's actually something to read. Enjoy.
I tried to expand a bit on the current situation of the world and tease about the story of the game. It's not perfect. I'm not good at this (yet). But it's more than before. So I hope it tingles you in the right way, and you feel more excited about discovering my work. If not, oh well. I'll do a better job next time, haha!
Meanwhile, don't hesitate to give me feedback on what I could improve. That goes for everything, not just my intro.

Last-Minute Prep

This entire homework, aside from my Pledge, has been last minute. I'm literally writing this in between writing sprints on the finishing line of NaNoWriMo (spoiler: I made it through to the end.) It's 11PM, and I haven't published this yet and still have 1k words to write to win NaNo. Totally doable. But I'm cutting it too close for my liking.
Suffice to say, I've learned a lot during this first participation in NaNoWriMo. The biggest takeaway being that I learned what I'm capable of. These next 50k for WorldEmber are scary but totally doable. So at the very least, I'm not backing out of my Pledge before even starting. Yay, me!
But I also learned that it isn't as “easy” as I thought I'd be. Not that I thought it'd be easy, far from it, but I kind of thought (hoped?) I'd be able to write 1666 words everyday while still having a life and a job.
Yes. That was very naive of me. The arrogance of youth and inexperience, I guess. But I made it. It's now 11:50PM and I just wrote my 50027th word of this month's challenge. I'm done. I'm so proud and happy and… Oh, fuck, we're back at it tomorrow…
Okay, I'm actually super excited. But I now know that being equally productive every day is near to impossible. Especially with life getting in the way. However, I now know the amount of acceptable work I can produce per hour and thus, I can plan accordingly for this month's challenge. Well next month. But it's kinda this month also too now. In 8 minutes…
Planning With the “stress” caused by my organizational shortcomings during NaNo, I want to be more intentional with when I schedule my writing sessions, especially in relation to my actual work schedule.
I tend to write more, and better, in the morning before work, than after a long day when I'm feeling exhausted. It's logical, but still worth remembering. I shouldn't rely on last-minute writing sessions at the end of the day to do productive work.
Community The best thing that I did for NaNo was to find a community to write with, share about my work, and rely on for motivation and emotional support. I'm thus looking forward to interacting with the WA Community more regularly over the Discord but also, hopefully, in comments on the actual website. I want to thank the people who already commented on this article and sent me their encouragement; it means a lot!
I might also try to join a Chapter if I ever figure out how haha
Writing Space My space is already pretty neat, but I want to have a room where I will only write and do nothing else. This will hopefully help me get in the zone and be more productive. It would also just be good for the tidiness of my bedroom, which looks like a mess at the moment with all the flying notes all over the place.
Snack, tea… Let's just say that mistakes were made during NaNo…
Visualization I want to practice visualizing the end of WorldEmber and receiving my official Award of Loquacity as a reward for fulfilling my Pledge. But more than anything, I want to focus on how I'm going to feel. The pride. The joy. The relief. And the excitement about what's next.
Slowing Down Last but not least, as this is probably the most important one for me.
One of the biggest lessons I learned this year, which kinda became the Theme, was to learn to Slow Down and remember my WHY. Why I'm writing. Amidst the stress that one can go through during challenges like WorldEmber, especially with a goal this big, I have to remember that I write first and foremost because this is what I love doing. Not to win challenges. Not to have millions of people enjoy my work. Not to make a living out of it. But because this genuinely makes me happy. Ultimately, that is all that matters. Enjoying the ride.
In that spirit, I want to build a practice of finding small moments of gratitude where I can stop and appreciate where I am presently; be it in my writing or in life in general. I want to be more present. I already accomplished a great deal just with NaNoWriMo. This is worth celebrating, even if there is still lots of work ahead of me.
There are also many small things I want to remind myself to enjoy:

• A cup of Tea/Coffee.
• Watching the birds and listening to their singing.
• A walk by myself.
• Good conversations with good people.
• Sleep. I LOVE SLEEP!
• Listening to a good song in the morning to get into a positive mood.
• Chocolate.
• And an infinity of other small things that are worth more than the biggest trophy…

Winning challenges is awesome. But enjoying life is better.