Summer Camp 2022 Pledge Document

Diamond or die!

Goals

Gold or mold?

I've gotten diamond in both summer camps entered so far, but my life is also becoming busier every year. However, it's not really to the point where I don't have time to write at all. Nevertheless, I would not be surprised if this ends up being the hardest summer camp yet. As much as I have an insistent badge goblin, I'm not going to be especially disappointed if I don't end up with diamond, even if that is my goal.

As always with these challenges, my goal is to expand my setting, which I use as a general creative outlet and as a place to run TTRPG campaigns. I'm starting another one soon, and will likely use the prompts to expand on things in the region that campaign is set in.

I'm very much a pantser at heart, so I'm not even discounting the possibility of creating another scifi world and writing some articles there, but most likely I will be using the same setting I've been writing in for the entirety of my time in worldanvil.

Planned content

My most recent worldbuilding areas have been the Children of Aktar and the Mekub. The Children of Aktar has a fair amount of articles, but doesn't really feel done even though I already started writing there during the last WorldEmber. The Mekub only has basics. Certainly some part of my worldbuilding will be focused on these areas, but I'm not going to be as strict about it as in previous challenge months. The regions of Valeny and Palatina have also been creeping into my other worldbuilding, and I may take a detour there just to get some words on a page about them.

Themes

Expanse: The main expanse I'll likely be exploring during summer camp is the Lake Mekub. The Makuubi region got a few articles during the last WorldEmber, and this is an obvious place to keep expanding on those articles as the massive lake is a central element that I've written almost zero words about. Another option, staying within this particular worldbuilding area is the The Shaftway, but it's all going to depend on the exact prompt.

Leadership: Prompts in this category are pretty easy to fit anywhere, because most of my worldbuilding is fundamentally about societies. The Agbith worldbuilding area has a dragon in its backdrop, but I've mostly kept the dragon and her minions a mystery. However, the contrasts between tribal and feudal leadership, as well as the contrast between the theoretical idea of the Thaner system compared to the actual warlord-infested failure mode it finds itself in have been a pretty major theme in this area. I'll likely also use these prompts to fill in the details abouit Makuubi systems.

Discovery: Perhaps rediscovery is a more apt term here, as much has been lost and forgotten in 70 years. The dragon's arrival represented a great loss of knowledge, and the old Thaner kingdoms are passing into legend. The current generation leading the Agbithan Crusade no longer remembers Agbith in its heyday, and the learned old who grew up there will die soon. Particularly lost Shaftbuilder lore in the Children of Aktar will likely be a shoe-in for this category.

Monstrous: The Dragon Queen is a monster, the abominations in the shaftways and the lost shaftbuilder sites are certainly monsters, and to some Ras Gafhi Yaner is also a monster. That said, it remains to be seen how much I can actually write about any of these as I don't want to go into exhaustive detail about topics that people in-setting also don't know that much about. Another option is to stray a bit from my worldbuilding area, and perhaps expand on how classical mythological monsters like vampires or werevolves appear in my setting.

Inspiration

"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."

— L.P. Hartley

My inspiration isn't usually based on music or images, but on wikiwalks and history. Bret Deveraux's blog on (mainly) history which I read every friday is particularly important. Another enduring source of inspiration is actually my randomly generated world map. My worldbuilding tends to be based on extrapolation and what ifs, so having a geography actually helps a lot.

by Made by me.

"The point, as Marx saw it, is that dreams never come true."

— Hannah Arendt

Another major source of inspiration is social science and political philosophy. The world might have dragons, dwarves, and weird monsters in it, but what it is actually about is people, power, and the organization of human affairs. Lately I've been reading up on Arendt, and the society in the Agbithan crusade was specifically inspired by Arendt's ideas on power. Other examples of this kind of worldbuilding would be the dragons themselves being an exploration of the limitations of "consent of the governed" theory.

Music usually doesn't figure in much, though when writing about nomads Tengger Cavalry and Nine Treasures do feel especially appropriate.

Planning

Setting a date for myself is something of a fool's errand, as whatever I write here is essentially vapor anyway. The time I use for writing is the most flexible time I have, as it requires no organization or preparation other than having a computer to write on. My most consistent writing times tend to be saturday afternoons, and this will remain the case. However, if I have something else to do when I'd otherwise write, then I'm going to write some other time.

My usual haunts other than the WA discord don't really contain active worldbuilders. Thus, my main support group will be the Summercamp 2022 channel and the TableTale chapter. To a lesser extent, players in my ttrpg campaigns inspire my worldbuilding by asking questions.