WorldEmber 2023 Homework

Week 1 : Pledge Your Goal

I am building my new world of Verden (working name) that will be used for both prose writing and fantasy role-playing games. I will focus my time and my team thousand words on the people of my world. This will likely result in detailing who they are, their cultures and religious practices, settlements, and organizations. Verden is a fantasy world that could work as a setting for most fantasy role-playing games.

Week 2: Prepare your area of focus

Scope: I want to build this world for a few reasons. First and foremost, I like the creative process. As a GM and world builder I always want to do something new and different that focuses on the tropes that I enjoy and appreciate.
I am not entirely sure yet what makes it unique. I am toying with a few ideas around how magic works now versus how it worked in the past and how the gods to and/or don’t interact with the world and why.
I want to develop the people of the world and have the world grow around them. I want to focus on the people, their cultures, the organizations they form, and how they view the world around them. I want to use the world as a setting for gaming, but I also want to write fiction and create are set there as well.

Theme: I think this is a world that was once full of magic but something happened in the not too distant past to change that. There is still magic but it is more elusive and mysterious. It’s more dangerous and harder to access. The gods are likely dead, or at the very least, gone. The two ideas are connected, though I am not sure how. The themes explored will be discovery, rebirth, renewal, and…probably some kind of ancient evil.
Focus: The initial focus will be the people, or Folk, of the world. There are humans but there are also fantasy races/species/ancestries/kin. There will not be elves, dwarves, halflings, or orcs. None of the Folk of the world will be inherently evil. There will be evil, but it won’t be unique to a particular group of people. There will be monsters, but they will only come into focus if it fathers the exploration of one of the groups of Folk that I am exploring.
I’ll likely also explore magic and faith and how they interact in this new world.
Drama: Things are changing. Old magics are returning and new magics are being discovered. There is a feeling that something big is just around the corner. There is a sense of impending doom…but also hope. There are conflicts. There are battles. There are even wars. But it’s all somewhat trivial compared to what’s coming.
People: there are a variety of people, or Folk, in this world. Currently 5-7 intelligent species walk the planet, humans among them. Though not all of them are originally from here, it is where they make their home now. There are lost kingdoms. Old gods. Outer gods of Chaos, Ruin, and Despair.
Inspiration: Wheel of Time Marvel Comics The Dark Crystal Planetary Warhammer Fantasy Call of Cthulhu Star Wars The Rivers of London L Frank Baum Earth myth, legends, and cryptozoology