Reading Challenge 2024

Obligatory Summercamp Recap

Summercamp is over and I crushed my already high expectations of gold. Getting diamond has been tough this year, with all my other obligations outside worldbuilding subtracting from my creative time. Seeing all the hyped people in the community gave me the last push (with some direct help as well) to hit this big milestone this year as well.

Now enough talk, let's highlight some articles that have sprouted from my followed worlds during Summercamp 2024!

The Juicy Bit

Burial Practices

Author: Endrise
Endrise's "The Fabulae Anthology" was one of the first worlds I followed, mostly because of the writing style and custom CSS. I chose this article in particular because I love the concept. Using real life traditions and giving them new backgrounds/origins is just fun worldbuilding.

Blackfield Pearl Funerals

Author: Mochimanoban
Two articles mentioning death back to back, chilling. These funerals are disturbing, yet wholesome for some reason? The depth that the article does not explain but insinuate is why I mentioned it here though, with different values, morals and traditions in the ethnicities around this burial practice.

Age of Emergence

Author: Qurilion
I love non-wiki-styled articles so much. I love reading all kinds of articles, but Q does it in a way where it keeps you wanting more. Vague information, a general sense of unknown is something powerful for a reader, but can be uncomfortable to write as a worldbuilder. This is especially true on Worldanvil where you want to show off every idea as precisely as you can to your fellow worldbuilders, but damn does the vagueness pay off in immersion.

Kisara's Dagger

Author: PrincessESH
A genius answer for a relic or symbol of belief. It's not a thing that symbolizes religious belief, but an item used to assassinate a holy person, which sprouted a series of rumors (beliefs). So a double belief item. Also, the fact it is nothing facy, but just the most ordinary knife ever goes against all immediate thoughts but makes total sense the longer you think of it. Greatly executed. (Pun intended)

Spice Jars

Author: Kydra_Hunter
I chose this article from Kydra because I love evolving articles. I have a share amount of them on Ignotas as well, and the way these Spice Jar improvements both showed believable difficulties and solutions really shows the in-world evolution. This style of structuring an item-based article feels very thoughtful. New tech is never perfecct at v1.0, so showing possible improvements or failed ones brings immersive depth.

Skye's Stew

Author: Tillerz
Tillerz articles always captivate with structure and variety, and Stye's Stew is no different. A dish can be made 100+ different ways in real life, so why not fictional ones. With regional ingredient and preparation differences, one food can be enjoyed plenty different ways. You can feel the love poured into the article, simply through the amount of detail and entire vibe of it.

Makta'ba

Author: Sh4d0wPh03n1x
It wouldn't be a Summercamp without penguins, and ShadowPhoenix delivered. An, what can only be described as, physically morphed, endless book-shaped igloo, inhabited by penguin people is maybe the most on brand thing I have read by Shadow. The idea of a library being a refuge from the world is pretty fun on its own, add the visual twist, together with the immersive penguin-puns, and you get just a very cozy article.

Lirra

Author: Theiket
Theiket has mastered the art of conveying emotions in as little words as possible. His articles are very bite-sized and approachable, which more often than not brings simplifications, but not with his articles. Lirra is a perfect example of this, making you feel genuine empathy for a goddess of sleep that is destined to never experience the comfort of her own domain for herself in just over 300 words.

Hodela's Banquet

Author: tjtrewin
Hodela's Banquet is a wonderfully sad story about a sweet woman baking sweet things. The entire story is an emotional tour and I don't know how a lost cookbook can make one man so emotional. With the summercamp prompt being a myth about food, the story is not known to be true, which would be a standard ending to the article, would there not have been a tradition born of the myth itself. The idea that a tale is so widely spread and accepted by a certain group of people that a wholesome tradition is born from it just makes this article complete.

Muddled

Author: Oneriwien
Last but certainly not least, the "Muddled" condition is a very interesting disease that perfectly illustrates decay of a persons mental health. Environmentally locked diseases (or conditions and ailments in general) are always an interesting addition to a world, and with different exposure levels, similar to the previously mentioned articles, it gives the entire disease a sense of realism. Also, I just love the world article design of Ravare.