WorldEmber 2023 Homework

Week 1: The Goal

Even though I have been a member since 2019 I've never published anything nor partaken in WorldEmber. That'll change this year. During NaNoWriMo, I started drafting a novel and some gaps connected to the world, that are very significant to the story, have appeared. Therefore I hope to fill some of them during WorldEmber 2023. Because I'll participate in the challenge for the first time, I don't want to set the goal too high and will be aiming for just 10,000 words.

Area of Focus

Religion

Even though the humans' religion has such a crucial role in my novel I know way too little on the topic. I haven't even decided on the total number of deities. Therefore I want their religion to be my main focus.

Magic System

Hence one of the magic systems are based on the deities, it's heavily incorporated into the religion I want to focus on. Therefore I want to develop the magic system at the same time as the religion takes form.

Secondary topics

I can often take my time to make decisions and easily lose motivation, thus there's a risk that I'll never reach my goal. To make the changes higher I want some topics I can work with as well, if I'm stuck with my main focuses or just need a break.

The language used in the setting, or at least its protolanguage, is something I'm very interested in developing. Why it's not one of my main focuses is because of my uncertainty if I would be able to reach the word count goal if it was. Therefore I think it's a better decision to leave it as a minor focus.

The world where the story takes place is almost nonexistent and I'd love to create it from scratch; starting with its solar system. It's a long process and not something that's restraining me as much as the topics mentioned, why it's not being prioritised.

My Pledge

Even though the world is called Zlas for now, it'll absolutely possibly be changed someday.

Week 2: Mini-meta

Scope

As mentioned before my area of focus for the upcoming month will mostly be the religion that the humans follow. In the setting where the novel plays out the religion is so closely knitted with the society, especially in manner of class, that it's hard to tell them apart. In that regard, I may be writing articles in other categories as well, as long as they have a connection to the religion.

One of the magic systems is also so knitted into their religion so it could be counted as a part of it. Therefore it makes sense to develop it concurrently with the religion.

Themes & Moods

One theme in the setting is about humans' superiority complex and that is shown in the religion. First of all, the religion is built on deities that made humans - well, human, and they have each an aspect that contributed to that. Another theme is the agency or autonomy of an individual, where the religion plays a role; one person's capabilities and possibilities are restricted to the church or deity they follow.

At first sight, the religion is seen as the one true religion for humans, because everyone seems to fit into the template and all deities seem to be celebrated as equals. After a while, it's shown how oppressive the religion actually is, especially for the followers of the more "troublesome" deities.

Goals & Inspirations

My goals are mostly that I want to create all the deities in the religion and what their names, origins and abilities are. Included in that are also the magic abilities that each of them gives to their followers. I'd love to find out about their relationships with each other and the hierarchy, which will affect the class society and how people communicate with each other.

The usage of the religion is mostly inspired by astrology. For the deities' appearances, I'll probably draw inspiration from the ancient Greek and Roman gods since the setting is inspired by the same periods.

Week 3: Homepage

Since I don't have created any articles yet, this homework was fairly easy. I tried to figure out how I wanted to structure the categories but ended up leaving it almost as it was. I did delete the help articles, though. For now, I have made a category for the WorldEmber, in which I can put the published articles and order them later on.

Week 4: Last-minute Preparations

The whole WordEmber Prep could be seen as a last-minute preparation since I created the article on the same day as the assignment for the 4th week was announced. My roommate is also participating in WorldEmber and we have planned to have simple meetings where we can discuss what we're writing and help each other out.

Regarding my writing schedule I'm planning to write late evenings since that's when I'm usually the most creative. Then I can use the afternoons to research or just come up with ideas if I want or need to.