WorldEmber 2023 prep

As the song says: Its that wonderful time of the year... . Yes, folks, WorldEmber is approaching, only a month for one of the most wonderful moments of the year, and my favourite challenge. Not only because of the fond memories and the feedback I received in the previous editions, but because WorldEmber is all about creativity, and I love to read about the amazing things fellow anvilites write during this challenge, as well as the beautiful art they make.

First week’s assignment

It's difficult to choose an area for WorldEmber. For this WorldEmber 2023 I have a couple of ideas . Most of the articles this year will be about Kingdoms, wonderful cities some battles, an a lot of interesting characters and traditions in Yeia's Western Continent, Teria! . I chose Teria because its the continent where I am most interested right now and where I have a clear idea on how I want its realms to be like. Like for example what sort of historical inspirations are behind this kingdom of this one. And also I chose it because it is the setting of most of the adventures of Yuya, the Seris adventurer and his friends.

Continent of Teria by Callyxtus with Azgaar Fantasy Map generator

As many of you already noticed, writing about Yeia's multiple countries is something that I enjoy a lot (as well as writing about military units and wars). So I think WE is an excellent opportunity to write about all these topics.

Also, I'm very excited because this WE 2023 I’ll be introducing a new race to Yeia! Dwarves!! (and possibly talk about an already existing one, the Tieflings). The irruption of this race would change the political landscape of the continent (and would give a bit of a headache because I need to create new realms and change the map but I think you fellow anvilites, and especially those of you who are veteran adventurers in the world of Yeia, will enjoy it. WorldEmber is also my favourite time for making art for my articles.

I can't forget the amazing feedback my drawings received last WorldEmber. This year i decided to make the drawings a bit earlier because I want to to be epic in style! and also because I have so many ideas for drawings that I'll probably need the whole month to work on them. I want to force myself to get out of my comfort zone and make drawings with multiple characters for example, draw architecture etc... . And If I manage to finish most of the drawings for WE, that would be awesome!

Mini-Meta

As I said last week in the previous homework, the scope of this year's WorldEmber will be the continent of Teria. The continent is home to many powerful realms that I haven't spoken about yet. This worldEmber will also have like a time scope, as I'll roughly be talking about events taking place for over 1300 years. From the 5th century BP to the present time. I'll also talk about events closer to the present time than in previous occasions. For example, the Dawn of the Dwarves will take place about a hundred years or so before the present time (the year 820 AP) as well as some characters like the rest of Yuya's adventurer party, and perhaps their descendants (if I've enough time).

As for my goals; my main goal is still to delve deeper into the history of this continent, which is vast and rich. I'll also take my time to talk about traditions, a topic I haven't written in quite a lot of time. Teria is also a land that has seen a lot of wars so I'll take my time to write about some of its most important conflicts. But at the same time my idea is to talk about more daily based things like traditions, festivals, beliefs and religions and their role in society. I think all of these is essential in order to create a fantasy race or culture and make it feel like "it’s a living thing". The same way I'll try to write for example about dialects of classical elvish, now that I've written about it and because as in the real world (and probably in most of your beautiful worlds) the languages of Yeia do evolve, and classical elvish has been spoken for millennia in different areas, most of them disconnected from each other either by the sea or by human migrations, so the language evolved into many dialects, some of them very different from the standard version that we know that is the language of culture and international trade.

Another example I can give of an article, or more specifically, a tradition I'm going to talk about are the Davidovian Games, a competition inspired by the ancient Olympic games, in which athletes from all the five davidovian nations compete for glory and the honour of their countries, but at the same time, the games were designed as a gathering, as a celebration of the common heritage of these five peoples.

What's going on in Teria?

So, the mood and theme behind all my articles would be based on an unstable period of epic rise and fall of kingdoms and important figures, an era of impressive and epic feats but also of treason and murder. But at the same time focusing on traditions will get me and the readers closer not only to the lives of the kings or the heroes, but also to the common people.

Inspiration

I began reading some books as a way of getting inspiration for some of the articles I'm going to write for WorldEmber. But, to be honest, most of my inspiration comes from many amazing worlds creating by equally amazing anvilites, and these are some few examples:

Homework week 3

This week's homework asks us to review our homepage and see what could we change about it. Overall I've to say that the description of the world is somehow updated, since it is 400 years, not 250 years the time that has passed since the Fall of the Ikarian Empire, for example. I also think there are too many maps, and I'll that the world map would be enough (but I don't know how to eliminate the other ones). I don't know if the ammount of categories is too much or its helpful for the visitors and followers of Yeia. My idea was that the more categories there were the better, and that would also made my world more organized.

I think that the timelines are fine, but I'll try to put them perhaps below the world codex and left the space in the center of the homepage for the latest articles. I'll try to do that and I hope not to mess up things. Also If you've some suggestions I'd really appreciate them!. Last but not least, i need to complete the world meta because it's very short and it misses a lot of things

Homework week 4

Cleaning up the writing space

My desk is clean and ready for WorldEmber, I've my tablet nearby ready for more drawings and I've a couple of books near my computer that would be very useful for the upcoming articles. I also have created multiple folders in my computer with both images for inspiration for my drawings, some finished drawings and also some notes I've written these days regarding the lore behind Tieflings and Dwarves, as well as some traditions and festivals celebrated in the continent of Teria.

Writing Schedule

Well, it will depend on my work, but I think that during the week, I'll write most of my articles mostly during late afternoon/evening and weekends probably will be my most productive part of the week in terms of writing and drawing because I've the entire day for doing worldbuilding. I think writing is always the easiest part for me during WorldEmber because it takes less time for me to write an article than making a drawing or a map. So having an schedule or an idea of what are you going to write and when are you going to write is really important.

Now that I can use containers (and learned a bit more about CSS) perhaps I'll spend more time organizing, polishing and embellishing my articles.

Support group

Support and feedback are always nice and I think are very important aspects specially during the most important challenges like this one and SummerCamp. Fortunately, of course this community is amazing! so good advices, positive feedback that will not be lacking.

Also, one of the things in which I am very fortunate is to have met some amazing people who I have the honour and fortune to call friends. People that have made me feel comfortable in this community and that have encouraged and taught me to improve my worldbuilding. This WorldEmber of course I will be attentive to what they write, which I am sure will be incredible as always. Of course I can't write about support without mentioning a cosy place full of very supportive and amazing people, the Cookie Cottage!. Because chapters are also one of the places where not only you'll meet other anvilites and share your ideas, but chapters are also nice places to get feedback and useful advices. This year it was amazing taking part in SummerCamp being part of a chapter and I think WE would also be an amazing challenge and a month full of creativity in the pleasant company of my fellow cookies!.

Writing Treats

As with many other articles, and especially during this cold months, I'll follow the classic old Deivi approach to writing in winter, a good old cup of tea or coffee and, because its December I'll probably buy a bunch of typical Spanish sweets consumed during Christmas such as nougat, polvorones ( I think the English name is shortbreads i think?), home-made Marzipan, and many more things... oh God, thinking about all of this makes my mouth water!.

Past WorldEmbers