Hearts and Minds
How ordinary mortals worship the Nine
I put a lot of spit and polish into this one. I intend this to be one of tent poles of Scarterran lore when I planned this out and wrote it.
Rise of Nations
Fumayan humans
Fumayan humans became a bigger deal than I expected. I built this article over a long period of time, one section at a time.
Wondrous Nature Award
Cannibal Sickness
I ended up choosing
horrific nature.
I originally created this for a relatively minor villain of the week, but it became a popular topic with my players, me, and my small fan base so I expanded the depth of my cannibal sickness lore a lot.
Strength and Honor
Dwarf salt masters
This is not a giant earthshaking article, but I did put a lot of thought into this one. People focus on dwarves living in the mountains and loving metal and stone. I always figured that keeping a subteranean population fed is constant struggle, so I created an industry around it.
Also the dwarves of Meckelorn went through a few rough centuries which they have not forgotten. They are very paranoid about having another famine and horde food like there is no tomorrow. I think it adds some depth to Scarterran dwarves.
Pillars of Progress
Rowraek dragons
My alchemy articles mostly focus on serious stuff, but this article I wrote for fun shows how versatile alchemy can be in a creative person's hands. And you can follow the hyperlinks to read up on more serious alchemical applications.
Myths and Legends
Fumaya the Half Elf
Originally I made the name "Fumaya" up out of thin air for the nation of Fumaya.
But after reading some Robert E. Howard, I was inspried to give the Fumayan humans a Sword and Sorcery style heroic ancestor with a Scarterran twist.
Scarterra is mostly a high fantasy setting, not a Sword and Sorcery setting but I like to dip my toe in the water of Sword and Sorcery from time to time.
Best World Buidling Article
elemental ethnicity in mortals
My favorite part of Scarterra's world building is religious lore but that lore is spread among MANY articles but I am proud of my elemental ethnicity lore and it fits succinctly into one article.
Also, I spent a lot of money to get a professional artist to lllustrate this for me which is a nice reference for all my character articles.
If I say "This character is mostly earthy with a spark of fire," I want readers to understand that means. This is how I describe everyone. The parent elemental ethnicity article shows clear examples of mono-element people but the child articles give examples of mixed raced people.
Most Beautiful World
Scarterra main page
I don't expect to win this one. But I have made vast improvements in my art and overall aesthetics in the last year, and I am proud of this.
I use a mix public domain art, open source photos, AI art, Hero Forge portraits, and professionally comissioned art.
I'm not made of money so I can't get comissioned art for everything, but I try to cover all the important bases. Right now it is focused primarily on fantasy races that are unique to Scarterra, you can see all my art comissions here.
I have the talented Zeta Gardner working on detailed portraits for all nine of
the Nine, but you cannot rush perfection. I'd hope they would be ready for this contest but they won't be ready for at least a month, so I guess next year Scarterra will be even prettier.
And the rest
It's a slow process, but I'm going to try to read ALL the World Building entries. I am not going to vote for myself. I'm going to put my votes here with spoiler tabs when I get that far.
Note, the voting deadline sneaked up on me, I had to make some decisions very quickly. The only one I did leisurely was Hearts and Minds.
Hearts and Minds Honorable mentions
A lot of rich detail for fantasy humans. Not every good fantasy article needs to be surreal.
I always find Selkies fascinating, and this is an interesting interpretation of the selkie myth.
I like deep dives into how magic can affect culture and strive to do similar things in my world.
It's got actual sea shanties in it! What's not to like?
Light on detail and visuals but a very creative and unique concept
I always like fantasy sports and competitions
Richly detailed overview of a fantasy race
A well-written character profile
An interesting interpretation of the real world Ancient Greek history.
Richly detailed
A funny and unorthodox take on orc culture. It is good to give violent people a soft spot for flavor.
An oldy but a goody (in that I already read the article earlier). A fantasy/sci-fi take on a bar and restaurant crawl. I wonder how many people throw up from over indulging.
An interesting unorthodox approach to a fantasy race. I like their "secret" language
A very unique take on metaphysics for land worship and ancestor worship
I always am interested in well thought out funerary customs
Rise of Nations
A simple concept, but richly detailed and organically feels real
I like the idea of a memorial coral reef.
Simple concept with excellent execution of detail and lovely pictures.
Well detailed
I've been pondering astral walkers in Scarterra, similar in concept (but I haven't comitted anything to an article yet). This is a gold mine of inspiration.
A riveting story, enough to make me follow the world which is something I dont do every day.
Rich in detail
Short but sweet, and beautifully illustrated
Veledare is similar in concept to the Elven Empire of Scarterra.
I like the differing viewpoints on the city with flavor quotes.
Rivers are often overlooked by worldbuilders so it is nice to see a good river article.
Beautiful Nature
Clever and somewhat scary concept
May not be A-tier, but it is the high end of bee-tier.
I'm not a huge fan of most sci-fi pages on WA (personal preference), but this was very well thought out and well-written.
A good primer on the fae
Actually liked this one before as part of a prompt. Still like it now.
A well-developed river article
A beautifully written and illustrated location
I'm a sucker for detailed fae lore
a nice on take on the world tree myth
Awesome frogs
Cute and funny concept for kleptos
Another cute and funny concept for kleptos
Living mischievous books is certainly unique
Strength of Honor
I found this category a bit of a slog. No insult to the writers, I just think this was a difficult category to write well. A lot of the articles were pretty dry. I was not able to come up with a giant pile of honorable mentions, and I tried.
I thought this was one of the better articles in this category
Myths and Legends
I might not have time to read all these and place a vote before they end the vote. I do have a job and a need to sleep.
A cute little story
Well written metaphysics
Well written grimdark backstory
Interesting story
Well detailed and well illustrated
If this one doesn't get nominated at least, I'm going to be upset. Creative, elegant in it's simplicity and well-presented
Very well-written and from an author I'm already following and supporting. I liked this article ages ago.
Good metaphysics succinctly stated and artistically portrayed
Most Beautiful World
Every contender but these are the ones that a presentation style that made me think "I want make Scarterra's page more like that!"
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/alana
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/laminarum-smokingbat7906
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/wow-that-s-a-lot-of-stars-those2nerds
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ethnis
Best Newcomer
Tough choice but my vote went to Gokrenxia
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/gokrenxia-koragath
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