World Ember 2023 Homework

IT'S WORLD EMBER TIME!!!!

— your local duck

Homework 1: Goal and Area of Focus

I am extremely hyped to finally participate in World Ember! I'm trying to set reasonable goals for myself, so I'm only striving for 10,000 words. Not to mention, 323 words a day is very achievable for me! Of course, I'll be happy if I can write more because more words means that there's more content and development to my world. My second goal is to not get burnt out. December is a busy time of year with the holidays, and I want to be able to pace myself a little bit.

Valtena

As usual, Valtena is my main world and still the primary focus for competitions. There are still a bunch of foundational articles I haven't written, so these will be the focus of my worldbuilding this World Ember.

Highest Priority

Akea	Ateus	Birdfolk	Catfolk	Cedun
Dione	Dragonfolk	Dwarf	Elf	Goblin
Hathchan	Huirtal	Khemina	Kobold	Kos
Lizardfolk	Orc	Osirtal	Otorveia	Qazakthein
Ratfolk	Selene	Serpentfolk	Stirkal	Tauna
Tovirkal	Valtena	Valtena

High Priority

Adventurer's Alliance	Evirs	Fenveikuria Civil War	Flying Islands
Heart of the World	Merfolk	Otor	Rabbitfolk
Royal Mage Academy	Sun Guard	Zeferon Salros

Dinosaur Country

This is one of my secondary worlds. I've barely touched it, sadly, and I want to give Dinosaur Country some love! The world is all about dinosaurs as the dominant species in the Old West. My main priority there is to write about Fossil Creek which is the main settlement. Also, I want to write about the main character Harriet Dobbs, the local raptor rancher caught in the middle of several conflicts.

Homework 2: Mini-Meta and Structure

Gods of Creation

Scope

Both the Gods of Creation and Minor Gods were created from the corrupted shards of Osirtal, but only the Gods of Creation were present when Huirtal first breathed wisdom into their creations. They form the main pantheon of the world.

Theme

The gods are incredibly powerful and immortal beings, but they are prone to vices and wrongdoing. They are mysterious beings with their own desires and drives. But different cultures place emphasis on different aspects of them.

Focus

The articles about the deities will primarily focus on their general characteristics, artifacts, holy books, and holidays with passing mention to the various myths they feature in.

Drama

The gods are bound together in nature. They take on a familial relationship, and in many of the myths, they seem almost human. Tension between them comes from differing personalities and the relationships between them along with the interactions with mortals.

Sapient Species

Scope

There are many more sapient species than what's listed in my foundational articles. The ones here are most likely to be encountered in Otorveia. Merfolk being the one exception, but they are the only sapient species created by Selene, one of the gods of creation. Other sapient species have alternative planar origins and aren't native to the planet Valtena.

Theme

Like the many different gods present in Valtena, the world is home to many different races who have all built up their own civilizations and mixed civilizations. The world operates at a tech level just before the industrial revolution with gunpowder being fairly common alongside magic. Different cultures have embraced or rejected these advances.

Focus

The focus for these articles is basic information such as anatomy, life stages, geographic distribution, special characteristics, and general opinions on the other groups of sapient species. They are primarily written as excerpts from Incador's Book of Beasts with some excerpts from other texts for flavor.

Drama

Over the course of existence on Valtena, many of the species have interacted with each other and developed relationships with one another. Some are more isolationist than others, some go out and conquer foreign lands. There are also variations in dietary needs and infrastructure which can make designing mixed cities difficult.

Categorization

Recategorizing Valtena has been something I've been slowly chipping away at since the end of Summer Camp. With over 360 articles (most of them draft stubs), it's been a process to figure out an intuitive way to organize all the new content being added to the world. For World Ember, all the meta articles such as the homework and hub will be in the Challenges Category. The articles themselves will be stuck in Challenge Quarantine until the judging is complete and badges handed out.

Inspiration

Much of my inspiration for the Gods of Creation come from Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. I also draw inspiration from the Valar in the Silmarillion and the pantheons in the Forgotten Realms and Golarion. The sapient species, while generally drawn from the classic fantasy races and DND races, are given their own unique origins and twists in Valtena. I wanted the world to feel familiar with its own unique twists.

Homework 3: Homepage

Valtena recently got a new logo which I am still working on incorporating into a new banner image for the world! With that also comes plans for a new color scheme. I've been really happy with the Deven Rue theme I've been using, but as the world gets bigger, I also aspire to make the page look more unique. The fourteen pointed sun represents the fourteen gods of creation which were made up of the shards of embodiment of Life. They surround the world which became the center of life's continuation within the Void.

by 4th

I have been meaning to freshen up the homepage. The current version is functional, and the intro paragraph length is unlikely to change. It fits perfectly in the excerpt text box when searching for the world. I'm also really enjoying the challenges I've done this year--Summer Camp, Spooktober, and now World Ember, so I will be keeping a spot on the homepage to highlight the challenge I'm currently participating in. I'm also planning on adding a Featured section to show off my favorite articles. Right now, I'm debating between making it a carousel of the article blocks of having them featured above the Recent Articles. Navigation is also getting some new improvements inspired by nnie and the tagging system! There will be new indices for length, challenges, stubs, and more.
Design isn't one of my strongest suits, so I'm open to suggestions and feedback!

Homework 4: Last Minute Prep

I can't believe that there's only a week left until World Ember starts! I'll probably end up doing something similar to Summer Camp where most of my writing gets done at work. I'm on the computer all day, and it's really common for me to have an extra hour or two to just kill time. My plan is to make the best use of that time as I can to write. Also! Writing sprints to help keep me focused. I get really stressed with open ended deadlines, so a set 15min block of time is awesome for me to focus in a way that feels extremely manageable.
I'm also trying to start up a new chapter called Articles Anonymous (check it out on the WA Discord!), so that's another way I plan on being able to write alongside other people for motivation and accountability. I've got my World Ember hub article prepped and ready to go, too. I gave myself some stretch goals beyond 10k just to challenge myself to write even more this coming month.
Finally, I've also got breaks planned in my schedule because I don't want to burnout or give myself too much fatigue. I'm gong to spend some time with friends every week as a way to rest my writing battery and recharge. I also get to see family close to the holidays. A big reason of why I want to do as much writing as possible at work is so that I can enjoy the rest of my day with family and not feel stressed that I'm not writing enough.

I lied...

So uh, the whole thing I said earlier about not really being ready to touch my world's homepage yet? Yeah, that didn't last very long. Valtena got not just a spruced up homepage, but also a whole new theme courtesy of Spleen! There are also new graphics, and I absolutely love the darker colors with pops of gold. It really fits the nobledark tone of the world better, and the blues definitely remind me that I really made this world because of my love of ships. I had so much fun helping pick out fonts and overall getting the world to look more unique. Still trying to figure out exactly how I want to fill the void in my article covers, and the large black area is mean to be reminscent of The Void in my world. Little secret, if you head over here, it'll give some context of why the void is relevant and important. I also added a Development Log to my world to help me vocalize and summarize the work that I'm doing. It'll be a reflection back on the time since the last update, and this is something I've been wanting to do since I got back into WA almost a year ago.

Current Worlds

World Ember Hub

Pre-World Ember Goals

Articles I want to finish before World Ember starts
Ril
Human
Amel
Speaker
Centaur
Halfling
Northern Nautical Confederation
Pantheon of Valtena

Community Cottages!

Check out the awesome community groups for World Ember!

Ember Cottage

Comment Carolers

Cosy Cottage Enclave

Inferno Cottage

by sunnybirdboi