New Year's Resolution 2024

It's hard to believe that 2023 (and even January 2024) is over already. The last year seemed to have just flown by, with its ups and downs. I'm now looking back at a year filled with some of the most amazing experiences and some of the worst I've had so far. Still I believe in the end, the positives have outweighted the negatives and I'm greatfully looking forward to this year.

Looking Back

When I started looking back at the last year, I noticed how much I actually managed to accomplish, even with all the other things going on in my life. I've created two more pieces of music, which I'm incredibly proud of and even put up all of my music on spotify, youtube music and everywhere else you can listen to music.

Listen to it: here

Listen to it: here

Also in Lothrea lots of things happened. I've comissioned AP. with a map for the main continent of Teldora, and I still love the result. She did an amazing job on it. Then during Summercamp I expanded on some bits and pieces around the The Golden Coast, and during worldember I finally managed to finish up my Pantheon. Here are some of my best work of this year:

And then during December something unbelievable happened. Lothrea surpassed 100 followers and over 1000 likes. When I started on the journey to put my worldbuilding up here, it was only as a notebook for myself. I never believed somebody else would be interested in it, and I still can't believe 111 amazing beans have followed what I'm doing here.

Looking forward

The last year as thought me that there is no point in forcing my creativity, when I don't have much time. It only suffocates my motivation to write and create, so for this year I want to focus on following my creativity wherever it might take me. There are many places in Lothrea that I would love to explore, my DnD campaign is till ongoing, and will continue, so there will be new things, I'm just not sure yet on what form those might take.
Considering that this year will be rather stressful for me, I also want to focus on the things I have fun doing and that help me unwind from work and other obligations. In the past creating music always did that for me. It's my way to shut out everything else and just start creating. So for this year I want to set myself a goal of creating six new pieces of music, roughly one every two months. This goal is intended to force myself to put aside time for things I enjoy doing.

Reading Challenge

The Worldanvil communtiy is always a great source of inspiration and motiviation. It's the most uplifting communtiy I've ever been a part of, and there are so many amazing people out there, creating incredible things. Sadly I don't have time to read everything, so here are some of my favourite picks from Worldember 2023.

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Dragons

by Theiket

Theiket wrote about a bunch of dragons during Worldember, and I'm just picking these two as a representatives, because they all have been amazing. I love how they start each article with a quote, that always makes me love. Their articles are short, but filled with great ideas and are always awsome to read. Theiket is a prime example, that you don't need long articles to create awesome things.

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Titans

by Sunnybirdboi

I've worked a lot on gods and deities during worldember, so seeing other people work on similar things has been a great source of inspiration. I like how they divided the gods. Each of them feels unique, but because of their pretty absolute teachings, non of them seems particularily good or entirely evil for that matter. The way they tied the Books of Magic to each of the Titans, adds another layer of complexity to how they have influenced the world. It made me realize, that I should create more powerful artifacts, and show how they changed Lothrea.

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Bards

by Eccbooks

I love Chris' work. It's fun, and he always managed to make me laugh. Sometimes it's just the silly but amazing idea, an incredible pun or just the way Chris writes his world. This article in perticular is an amazing combination of it. Playing of the sitcom friends, adapting it to his world and then adding a bunch of amazing ideas to it.

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Bug

Sh4d0wPh03n1x

This is probably the nerdiest and one of my favourite new worlds recently. ShadowPhoenix dives into concepts around computers and technologies, and explains them amazingly along the way. The three characters Bit, Byte and Bug help to explain everything, and especially as a software engineer and full time nerd, this world just speaks to me. If you are interested in old computers, and technology, give Computer Adventure's a follow!
I picked Bug out of all the articles because it just speaks to me. I have to deal with bugs at work on a day to day basis. I just love the style of this article, and I lvoe how Shadow explains everything and throws in a few little puns and jokes along the side.

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Metamorphis

by nnie

Ever since I created one of my favourite characters Ezra, I love to see different takes on shapechangers and similar people. The sole existance of an ability like that entirely changes how people perceive themselves and others. Concepts like individualism, appearance, gender, sexuality, freedom of expression, identity and so many more are just turned on their heads.
Nnie explores and touches on all of these aspects. I love how they included various different sub-cultures. It just makes so much sense that people would develop completly different views on their abilities and how to use them.

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Pantheon of the Dawn

by Dhelian

Another pantheon with an entirely different take on gods. This is a pantheon at a decline, with little to no worshippers. Still I love the divide of powers between the gods. Can't wait to read more about every single one of them. Dhelian's article made me realize that faith in a god changes over time. Traditions change, faith changes, and sometimes are lost entirely.
While Lothrea currently assumes that everybody is praying to the same gods, I like the idea of subtle differences between cultures. The interpretation of gods can differ, while still worshipping the same deity. Some might even prefer to worship other powerful entities, no matter if they exist or not.

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The Underworld

by Michael Chandra

I like how Micheal gives a nice overview on the Underground in his world. After reading this article, I have a solid understanding of each of the factions, how they operate and what they want. It's a perfect example for an overview article, that introduces the reader to a specific part of the world.
For Lothrea I really want to create more of these kinds of articles as well. Many places within this world currently lack easy entry points and overviews to get into reading or playing.

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Heretic GA-7

by Skairunner

Another Solaris article, this time by skai. I always struggled with writing about vehicles and technology. Skai did an amazing job focusing on the important things, while still diving into some technical details. I also love the little stats block at the very top, giving you an instant overview of the kind of ship you are reading about. I love how she ties technology, history and so many more things into this short and concise article.

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Dandan's Dragon Store

by Tillerz

Tillerz writes some amazing articles in his world, and it always makes me feel like I want to dive into the world as a player or GM. He does an incredible job at painting an image of the thing he is writing about, and then expanding it with secrets, GM Notes and plot hooks. In Dandan's Dragon Store many things are openly on sale, but there are even more things sold under the table. The addition of rumours and secrets adds so much to this place and its characters.
I want to introduce more of these things into Lothrea. More secrets for players to discover, more hidden information and especially more plot hooks to help myself and others to run a game within this world.

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The Dreaming

by devinsxdesigns

For the last article I wanted to find someone new, so I went looking through a bunch of Worldember articles, and this one cought my eye. It describes a religious tradition people undergo before taking their final vows in great detail. I love how they dive into the preperations and history of the tradition. It's especially great to see how this ritual differs across various orders. The small artworks also add a lot to the overall feel of the article.