WorldEmber 2023 Homework

Here's a funny story-- which I'm adding up here at the top at the end of the prep period because it only just occured to me. Back in school, I never really did any homework, lol! I avoided it at all costs, and I everything I did do was always left to the very last minute. I'd procrastinate everything, half-ass a lot, and cheat on anything math and science related whenever possible. I think this is maybe the first time I've ever honestly taken "homework" seriously! I looked around at some other people's prep homework and was pretty blown away by how in depth and detailed it was. I guess in comparison mine looks pretty rudimentary-- maybe a 'C' rather than an A-- but I always was a "a pass is a pass" kind of student. Either way, comparing myself to others isn't really a great habit and the point isn't really to put myself down right now, but I mostly just wanted to say how impressed I was by other people's work, and make a joke about how it kind of shows I never learned how to take notes in school, huh? Haha! All that formatting looks like hard work. I'd like to learn how to get to that level, but for now, this sort of informal journal entry style report works for me just fine :)

Assignment 1, pledge

This is all pretty new and exciting, I have never done worldember before but I'm looking forward to giving it a shot! I've decided I want to focus most on the worldbuilding surrounding the various nations and kingdoms, and their peoples, their cultures and customs, history and development, of the Golden Continent. It's something that we have put a lot of thought into, but I have yet to actually write it all out in detail, having focused more so far on the characters and stories. Also, I want to have at least one worldbuilding article published in each folder for the Golden Continent (&beyond).

Still not entirely sure how this will all turn out, but I'm excited and hope to be able to fulfill my goal!

Assignment 2, mini-meta

This week's assignment has made me realize I have yet to actually write out any meta for the world, lol. I've never felt the need to write any of it down before, so I should probably also work on that at some point soon. But for the specific mini-meta for this challenge, what I've come up with is this;

The main goals of this world, being technically Legend of Zelda fancontent, is to expand, enrich, and improve the world of the Legend of Zelda. There's the rewrites and redesigns, sure, but the worldbuilding is a major part of that. Due to the nature of the video game format, it can be difficult for the games to come with a lot of specific details about the worldbuilding if it's not relevant to the story, and sometimes even then. So for worldember this year, those details are the things I want to focus on most. Things like the political atmospheres, international relations, social structures of not just Hyrule, but the kingdoms surrounding it as well. And especially how these different nations and groups all tie together. I want to present it all very factually, information for information's sake, as if these were parts of history books. There's a lot that's implied, mostly just via context, in the various Zelda games about the sociopolitical states of Hyrule. It's something that I think is important to focus on. Like, how in Ocarina of Time, you have the Gorons who live on Death Mountain, and are very obviously a distinct people not just fantasy-race wise but also in terms of their culture and social structure. However, despite being their own distinct nation, they are considered to be part of Hyrule, and are ruled by the king of Hyrule, who is also the king of the Hylians. Furthermore, they are experiencing a famine and are dependent on Hyrule for aid, aid which has not come, their requests for help unanswered, and, the only road up and down Death Mountain is gated and guarded by a Hylian soldier, and permission from the royal family is needed to travel there. This all points to the Gorons being an opressed, exploited group within Hyrule, however, despite it being clear as day, that power imbalance is never explored and is instead treated by the series as a natural part of the world, something normal and inevitable, not worth questioning. Well I'm questioning it!

Assignment 3, homepage

Like the world's meta in general, the homepage's organization isn't something I've really looked at almost at all up until now. To be honest, it didn't really occur to me that anyone other than myself or my sibling/co-author would ever even see it! Now the world has a whole two (2) (!!!) followers and I am seeing that is not the case, haha. Recently I picked a specific theme for the world's display but that's about it. Turns out I have a lot to do! I'm going to make some custom cover/background images for myself and I'm going to create a proper introduction for the world's homepage, so that navigating the world might be a little easier. And I'll have to actually put something in the meta too.... so much to do ahhh!

Assignment 4, last minute prep

I don't have a lot of free time to write because I have a very busy work schedule, which is going to be my biggest hurdle for worldember. It's the reason I wasn't able to complete the spooktober challenge as well.... sadness. So I've been spending the last several days working on organizing and prettying up our homepage, and have created a good amount of articles in advance that I can add actual content to during worldember. I'm also going to spend some time reviewing our notes, relevant discord conversations, and rewrite plans, so that all of our worldbuilding ideas are fresh in my mind and ready to be put into words. I think I'll also try to make a higher number of short, simple articles, rather than just a few very long and in-depth articles. Gotta remind myself that not everything has to be an entire novel! I'm also going to have to divide my time with cleaning and packing because we're going to be moving at the beginning of January, so December is actually going to be kind of crazy for me-- maybe I'll use worldember stuff as a reward-incentive to motivate me to pack faster. Time to buckle up and make sure the gas tank's full, because this is going to be a crazy ride! Wish me luck!