Summer Camp 2021 - We're back!

Nothing's ever quite been the same around here when July hits. First we had Gnome Punting, then we had Great Gallivanting Goblins! and The Little Rebellious Teacup... what the hell comes next?!

Istralar has been through three rounds of Summer Camp, at this point. It's time to do it again! I'm sure I haven't been through any massive real-life changes, like a switch in career, that might impact things... well. We'll see! First and foremost - here's my singleplayer sheet for this year!

If you want to use this sheet for yourself, I have a version you can make a copy of here. I'll update the master sheet with prompts as they release!

Summer Camp Pledge Homework

Don't hold me to any promises made here! I'll work on random ideas if I have them!

What world are you working on?

Whilst I do want to focus on Istralar... my lore has mentioned other worlds. Depending on what the Summer Camp prompts are, I wouldn't mind touching on more details about far-off planets past or present...
Terra Arcana existed for a long while before its destruction, after all. And the elves come from many other planets across the cosmos.

Which area of the world(s) are you working on?

This year, I hope to focus on the three upper continents - Iskaldhal, Valathe, and Xin-Jiyu - since they're the most well-developed.
Whilst I usually use SC as an opportunity to expand new areas, I'd like to go into more detail on the other countries and locations that have yet to be explored rather than focusing scattered prompts on the two remaining continents.

How much are you aiming to complete?

COME ON WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER. I've gotten the max amount of prompts done in every single Summer Camp up til now, and I'm CERTAINLY not stopping!

When will you write?

This one's actually a little varied! If I have downtime at work, I'll work on articles then - otherwise, I like to do the bulk of my Summer Camp writing in the evenings when my Teamspeak is a little quieter. I struggle to write when there're people around, so I need the quiet - oddly, though, music is fine. If I'm kept busy all the way up until bedtime, I'll do as I did last year: close out of Teamspeak to go to bed, and instead of actually going to bed, I'll open WA and see what I can get done. Those articles don't tend to get published until the next day, which is fine so long as it's not the end of SC!

Who is your support network?

I'm lucky to have a little bit of an expansive support network! I have my dearest friends and roleplay groups - my campaign's players, the former players who're still involved, my partner, and everyone who hangs out in my Teamspeak. My Twitter followers who I love to brainstorm with, and my FFXIV friends who have no idea what my worldbuilding is like but will offer ideas anyway. My chapter of Tabletalers in Discord - for whom I need to finish off the chapter tracker - and the rest of the lovely folk in Discord who're pretty much always down to chat, sing, or brainstorm. I get so many ideas from random chats. Oh! And my parents. My mother loves when I tell her about the cute things in my world.

Organizing my Worldbuilding

Recategorising Istralar

This has actually been a project I've intended to take on for a long while. The category system in Istralar has long been an issue, with any and all NPCs roughly shoved into a single major category and disconnected from their homelands. Prior to the release of the 2^nd pledge homework, I'd rearranged my world via plotting out a series of new categories in Word (because it's far easier to use Word on my work PC)... that organisation system is being put into place as we speak!
Locations will now be easier to navigate, with each continent having dedicated categories for countries, landmarks, and cultures. NPCs will be rearranged into their location-relevant categories unless they're more appropriately sorted with an organisation, at which point, they'll go under that organisation. Sociology gets to be its own category to make finding traditions, games, etc easier. Few other changes, too, but it's not really worth clogging this all up with aaall the details.

Containerising Istralar

Istralar's got a fair few containers, used for applying colours and effects. You may have noticed the main page has recently gained extra shiny borders on a few of the elements - I'm looking forward to updating the containers with these, too. Here are some of the current ones in use:

Generic Infobox

Arcane Magic

Divine Magic

Psychic Magic

Halls of Ice

Corruptive Shade

Boxxxy, you see

Deepest Shadow

Danger

I'm going to be making some fancy variants of these, so... keep your eyes open for them!