Flag of Thaur by Naelin
"I, King Naelin of Thaur, pledge to work my way back to consistency this month of Preparing"
— King Naelin, to the surprise of his advisor
Introduction
It's been a (half) year.
And I have not finished a single article since Bestiary February, of which I spent half of wandering England and getting to meet my
husband's family as well as
two other delightful anvilites.
While not much of the stuff that has been going on has changed, I hope SummerCamp can help me get back into the habit, and while I am of course secretly going to try for Diamond, I will at least aim for Silver.
Prompt Prep
Theme 1: Power
Oh what a delightfully appropriate theme for this world.
It doesn't escape me that, for a world titled Symbols of Power, I have talked very little about the actual symbols of power on the Archipelago.
The rediscovery of the
last symbol of power I wrote about is still an event whose conclusion is being eternally delayed, so I'm hopeful I will get a nice prompt that fits that bill.
Weavers' Wool by Naelín
I am also hoping to write about my (very neglected) favourite organization, the
Weavers' Network, an outside-the-law group whose power comes all from having the right contacts for just about anything at all.
The structures of power are shaken in the
archipelago, making for a nicely distressed ecosystem of governments and freedom fighters that should hopefully give me some good things to make for this one.
Theme 2: Frontier
Well that's a bit more difficult in an archipelago if you take things literally.
Different
societarian countries each ended up with a full island for themselves, though many have to keep the delicate balance between their expansion and the territory of the
tetsus, a limit generally set by geography.
Metaphorical frontiers might have to be the more explored option for me. Where has technology gotten to? How far have people managed to travel? Where do the limit of our resources take us?
This might also be a good opportunity to explore the fuzzy border between the
Trade Isles and the
Savage Isles, a concept I introduced last year when I redid my article about the
Irates.
Theme 3: Relic
Ararak delivers a speech by Naelin I haven't talked much about relics of the past until recently when the
Sash of the People resurfaced during the
Night of the Unlit Candles.
I still have things to write about it (The report about the end of the civil war has been pending for ages) but there is also a lot of space to write about new things.
Some potential things to explore are:
The Stunveldti are a very nationalistic people. What do they treasure from their past? Perhaps something from before they opened their borders?
Did the Glorious Vulkenar Telescope exist? Are there any wild rumours about it?
With the Kingdom of Merthiorn fallen, how are the Thaurian preserving its relics?
What do The Knowledgeholders have in their libraries?
Theme 4: Communication
Weavers' Wool by Naelín
In 2020, during my first SummerCamp, the prompts led me to creating my favourite organization in the Archipelago: The
Weavers Network, a controversial, secret group of people that help people have the same opportunities to perform their tasks at hand by offering equal access to the most important resource of all: contacts.
Those articles are old, not translated and quite neglected, so I've been looking for a good excuse to work on them again. Between the first theme and this one, it seems this Summercamp could be the perfect reason!
BIRBS! Can I politely remind tha author that he teased a spicy addition to the discovery of last year's birb? Not for SC obviously, but should he find the writing momentum again...