Summer Camp Prep 2024

One of my favourite (and the community) moments of the year is coming!!... SUMMER CAMP!!. And I'm really hyped about it!. I want to really improve the quality of the world and the articles during this Summer Camp!. And now that Summer Camp is going to be a bit longer this year, I think I've plenty of time for achieving this goal!. I tried a new layout for some of my articles and I think they look better so I thought: let's continue this way and make Yeia shine!!

And now... without further ado, time to do the homework!.

Week 1

Change

What kind of changes would fit in with Yeia's themes, genre, and other foundational points?. That's an interesting question. Changes can mean lots of things; it can mean political changes (change of a dynasty, a revolution, a change in government), can be a turning point in the live of a character or a turning point in history (for example the Fall of the Ikarian Empire in 460 AP and how this changed the political landscape of an entire continent!. Or how Yuya and Nelli's parents tragic death changed their lives and became adventurers).
Change can also be related to social or cultural changes (changes in mentality, the introduction of new food from distant regions, religious changes or social mobility in a society, like this character was a humble peasant, but after 20 years, due to various circumstances and hard work, he became one of the wealthiest men in that region or city, or even reaching places of higher importance!). It can also mean evolution, like how this species has evolved and adapted to this new environment.
As you can see, changes are a perfect theme for your Summer Camp articles, you can use it for talking about all these subjects that affect your world. For example do you have an event that changed the world, or changed an era? Well, there you have it!, write about it!. Has one of your colangs changed over the course of the centuries?, write about it!.

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Goals for this Summer Camp 2024

I already talked about one of my goals (aside of the badges) that I want to achieve this SC 2024. But speaking about badges, my goal for this year is silver (considering I'll be outside home the first two weeks of July). BUT as always I'll try to reach gold (because let's be honest, once you achieve the golden badge you want it again hehehe).
I want to expand my world as much as possible without burning myself. I will try to give my all in this challenge to further expand Yeia's lore. That's why I'm going to join Camp Feral this year!!!.

by Strixxline

Categories and tags

Regarding this topic I need to "categorize" (hope that word exists in english too) some recent articles I wrote as well as some old ones. For the moment I think I don't need to add more categories to the already existing ones. What I'll try to do is to tag each article I wrote in July as a Summer Camp article, and thus making it easier for me to find them afterwards.

Updating the Meta

Oh gods, that would be a titanic challenge!. And that would be one of the main things to do before SC begins. I feel that Yeia's meta, is very incomplete and outdated, so I think this would be the perfect moment for updating it. So,aside of doing the homework I'll try to spend most of the month of June updating the meta and updating the content that I've already written in the past.

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Week 2

WEEK'S THEME: REFUGE

by Callyxtus

Refuge is a very interesting theme, it reminds me of the Snow Elves who took refuge in the caves in order to survive the cold winter, perhaps talking about some of these settlements would be a nice idea, or the dwarves who escaped enslavement and almost genocide by the bronze age Elves, hidding in the depths of the earth, thus founding their underground kingdoms and settlements. I already talk about them as an specie but I haven't written about their settlements yet.
Some people in Yeia found refuge in Faith, so it could also be a perfect moment to talk about Temples, Monasteries, religions or religious rituals. Some of these places serve as refuge for poor people or people in trouble.
Also, in case of danger or emergency people decide to take refuge behind the walls of mighty fortifications, for example Blati's double walls, the most formidable city walls in all of Yeia.

— Said Chibi Snow elf guide

ACCOUNTABILITY BUDDY

I am fortunate to have made lots of friends since I joined WorldAnvil and to have joined the Cookie Cottage chapter. Last SummerCamp was an awesome experience, being the first SC in which I was part of a chapter, the feedback and the support I experienced in the chapter was amazing!. So them, alongside the wonderful members of the Storyteller's Circle and the rest of the anvilites of the WorldAnvil discord server, who are always so supportive and are an amazing community would be my buddies during this challenge.

Styling and CSS

This homework has come in the perfect moment because I'm beginning to improve my skills with CSS, and I'm also thinking of change the theme of some of my articles. More precisely I want personalized themes and headers for every culture in Yeia. So depending on the culture that is related to the article you would have a different "vibe" so to speak. I want to make Yeia more beautiful and attractive to the people that have been following me for a while as well as for potential new followers.

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This would be the header style for the Sun and Desert Elves

This would be the header style for the Oronai

This would be the header style for the Blatians

This would be the header style for the Seris

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Another aspect I'm working in is making my articles more legible with new layouts instead of headers and then endless walls of text and some images in the middle. I think the inclussion of containers, more quotes, etc... could be a good way of breaking these walls of text. An example of what I'm trying to achieve can be seen in this article:

Week 3

Belief

Yeia is a world full of beliefs. In we understand beliefs as religions and mythological stories . I'd like to talk about religions. I covered the Ikarian religion I think 2 years ago, and also Yemuism, but still I need to go deeper into these two religions. I spoke about the Blatikuski, The Prophet of Blati. and the Reformed Church founded on his teachings. But what about the other davidovian religions?. It's true that the davidovian peoples share the same pantheons of gods and many myths but there are substantial differences between them. For example, the appearance of some gods varies depending on what davidovian religion we are talking about, as well as their attributes or even their roles might change from one faith to another.

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Abina ( Seris version of Abbon Shabai) by Callyxtus

by Callyxtus

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I wrote about the Book of Radiance, one of the elven holy books but I haven't talked about the overall Elven religion, their theological schools (regarding the canonicity of sacred texts, the right practices, elvenkind relation towards the gods and the rest of the creation or regarding the importance and role of each God and their revelations in the lives of every elf) and its variations depending on the Elven kingdom we're talking about. Elves have a similar pantheon to the Davidovian peoples because both civilizations believe they were the only ones to whom the gods revelied the "Truth of their existance", but this doesn't mean that the gods of both groups are just a copy paste.
Dwarves also had their belief that a kind of messianic figure would appear , or they would discover it, something that would culminate his return to the surface
If we talk about myths, Yeia's cultures have both a rich oral and written tradition regarding myths. I talked about one of the most famous ones, the Siege of Dorstulon, the city of the Ten Walls; but there are also many more like the beautiful saga of Prince Arjuna and Princess Sita, an story full of epic struggles, love, monsters, evil and treacherous spirits and lesser deities, faithful companions or wise guides

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Find Inspiration

My inspirations for Yeia mostly remain the same since I created the world.

Music

I'm constantly listening to music, whenever I'm writing a new article or making a new drawing. Music is always something that inspires me. Sometimes I choose music to cheer me up while I'm doing these things but other times I prefer to listen to music related to what I am writing about or that evokes that culture, that region, that character or that country that I am writing or drawing about.

Media

Watching films, series or playing videogames is also a common source of inspiration for me. Specially if they are sci fy or fantasy related. Everytime I see a good idea on screen I'm like:" This sounds cool I wonder how can I implement this in Yeia", and then my brain starts to work on it and I've come with really nice ideas, many of them haven't been implemented in Yeia yet. Videogames, I'm a Total War/ Paradox Games I can't deny it. And some of my games have surprisingly turned out to be great sources of inspiration, specially for rulers or important characters!.

History

I'm a history nerd, I think most of the anvilites that know me already are aware of this fact, that was the careerI studied so I can't help it. So my brain is constantly looking for different historical inspirations for the various peoples, religions ad civilizations that exist in Yeia. When creating a new culture or thinking about festivals or traditions I like to read some history books (related to the culture or cultures I'm interested in and that I think will be a basis for this new culture or tradition).

Week 4

Decay

Decay is a very interesting theme, like change, because it can mean a lot of things. For example ruined places, places that have undergone a period of decay. An idea for an article related to this could be the ruins of temples, public buildings, fountains, statues that you can find in the city of Ikaria. The city, the old capital of the Ikarian Empire was one of the largest cities in the known world, with close to a million inhabitants, and also the capital of one of Yeia's greatest superpowers, but in 460 AP, almost 400 years ago, it was sacked, pillaged beyond meassure. In the following centuries the city was a shadow of its former self, with around 10.000 inhabitants, until it was reconquered by the Blatian Empire when it began to recover. Despite this, today you can find much of the areas inside the old city walls, abandoned, full of ruined buildings and monuments. Even some areas have become grasslands where you can see cows and sheep grazing.
Related to this topic, in Blati there there is a magistrate in charge of maintaining public buildings and major infrastructure, such as sewers and aqueducts, so that they do not deteriorate and continue to function normally.
Speaking about ruins I also have the ruins of a mysterious civilization that can be found in North-Western Teria. Decay can also be related to "decadence", I think, for example decadent realms of decadent dynasties, so I've a couple of stories and lore about the fall of, for example, some Seris dynasties and also Sun Elf ones, or perhaps Ikarian emperors who lived a decadent live and were overthrown.
Decay I think can also be related to forces of evil that transform places not in the best way. I'm thinking about dungeons or the land of the dark elves, obscure, cloudy, where life in dark in every sense of the word, these areas controled by dark magic seem like damned, liveless, deprived of beauty.
I could also talk about animals that feed on decaying bodies?, but this is just a very vague idea.

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Preparing my writing space

Ok, I've my Summer Camp mug that I bought last year for extra sippies (that I'll probably need if summer begins to be a bit hotter). Usually I like to drink iced coffee or fresh juice. Also the place where I write from is mostly tidy. And I've also a wonderful app or web to help me focus, Focumon! (pd: Thanks Cato for recommending me that web :3). I also have some history books and some pdfs just in case I might need them for inspiration (depending on this year's prompts).

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Homepage

I updated the homepage a couple of months ago but I think some categories don't appear there so I've to place them in the homepage with their corresponding cover image!.

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World's intro and Author's page

Something similar happens with the world's intro. It seems WA read my mind because these week I spend some hours redoing my Introduction to Yeia (which is not finished but I added some art to it as well as some article blocks in order to get rid of these loooong descriptions of each realm of Yeia. So this, alongside the meta is something I'll be working on these week before Summer Camp begins.
Now the Author's page, I'll have to see what more I can add to it, I changed the cover image and the profile picture not a long ago, and I'm very proud of it, the portrait of Atyn and his Ilidari is just so cute! I love it!!. Perhaps I should add more information about me and my hobbies.