#Stormwatch

As the title of this post hints towards, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me, trying to get ready for my study abroad in Barcelona; I didn't even realize that it was already the last day for WAWA voting!
  If you haven't yet cast those fabulous votes, then I'd love to invite you to check out the three finalists I have in the running, and also just serve as one more reminder to check out all the amazing entries and vote accordingly!
  As for me, this update post will probably be pretty short and sweet. I'm still packing and getting ready and dealing with life stuff of things like my partner's car dying and trying to figure out how to help with that before I leave in a couple days xD I am very excited for my trip though, it's going to be a nice vacation from crazy hard semesters and an opportunity to see parts of the world that I've never been to! I am going to take so many pictures and look at so much architecture :D Most of my time will be spent in Barcelona where my schoolwork and accommodations are, but I plan on making some trips out of the city here and there too -- I have the opportunity, I wanna do it! Any fun recommendations? :D
  And with that, that's that! Looking forward to travels, looking forward to summer camp, and looking forward to rest. What is it you're looking forward to as we get into the summer months here? Any fun plans? :D Let me know!
  #stormwatch #WAWA2024

WOW 30 ENTRIES   That's honestly way more than I had ever expected! That's actually over double the amount from last year, and I could not be happier <3 Thank you so much to everyone who participated! If you, like me, LOVE BUILDINGS and architecture and good worldbuilding, please go take a scroll through all the entries! You can scroll the #Marchitecture hashtag, or view all Context and Architecture articles in one place right... here!     In personal news, I am in the thick of it for my own architecture right now -- the end of the semester is fast approaching and I am almost through the hardest semester in my entire Masters. Two-ish weeks to go!   In the brief moments of reprieve I've been doing some doodling for some God-husk redesigns, and also brainstorming and theorycrafting some future-Cathedris fun things like spaceships >:) I post about em over on my Discord Server, if you ever want to take a look!   Also the #WAWA2024 first round of voting is nearly complete, and omg there's so many fantastic entries to look at. If you haven't yet voted, that's okay, because there is a TON to go through! If you're still looking for some good entries, check out the shortlists and shared articles from people I've been seeing posted around these days -- they have a lot of great suggestions in there! And if you're STILL looking for some articles to consider, you can even take a look at my submissions if you like!   But anyways, I hope you had a fantastic March, and here's to an even better April <3   #Stormwatch #UnofficialChallenge

We are now just over halfway through March, and it's been an exciting one so far! The buildings are being built and the context is being showcase and the participation in #Marchitecture has been amazing already. We're at 10 entries already! Each one of them are linked and displayed in the overview article, if you're looking for inspiration, please go and enjoy!
 
  If you've already completed your article, or you're still working on your building, don't forget to share it via global post with the hashtag #Marchitecture so that we can get those wonderful structures shared around and collected for more to see >:D
  ----
  In other, smaller, #Stormwatch specific news -- I've finished polishing my articles for the WAWA! A few articles of mine had huge overhauls (Like Anabelle, Days of Creation, and Cult of the Mind), and you might have seen the notifications pushed for that. I'm so happy with where they're at now, and hope you enjoy!
  #Marchitecture #Stormwatch #UnofficialChallenge

Ah, 2024, wh-- wait what happened to January?! What do you mean we're almost done February?!?!?
  Classic Stormbril, losing all track of time :D It's been a busy start to the year for me. Work on the Trinkets system for Cathedris, school ramping up to full speed, and travel plans for my Study Abroad semester coming this summer. It's been a lot to handle!
  I've managed to get a few other small things done in there as well, at least. One thing I'm really happy with is getting all 21 prompts done for the Cabinet of Curiosities! I did it in lovely Cathedris Snippet style, where each prompt had a mini article under 50 words written. Check them out if you like!
  But the big news I want to share is that I am taking part in #UnofficialChallenge month! I have just finished putting together the challenge page for this year's version of Marchitecture, an unofficial challenge that I ran last year that I was really happy with. This year there's a unique spin on it, and I am excited to see what people come up with! Please, take a look :D
 
  #Stormwatch

Surprise surprise but school is demanding 99.9% of all my time again :D
  But thankfully I'm still able to find a tiny bit of time to write! Thankfully, I've been inspired by everyone doing "stubtober" for this #Spooktober event, and I've been having a really fun time keeping my entries at 50 words or less. It's surprisingly difficult yet rewarding to do so, and it feels fresh and helps me to keep creating.
  It also helps that I've made a new CSS presentation for my snippets in particular, making them visually distinct! Let me know what you think of them :D
  In fact, here's a couple to see here:
  Are you participating in Spooktober, and if so, how? I'm really fascinated by the different ways people are approaching this event :o Stubtober, or full articles, or are you going more drawing-based for it? Share your favourite Spooktober article below!
  #Spooktober #Stormwatch

This was an incredible Summer Camp! I wrote more than I've ever written before, and I'm incredibly proud of what I managed to create :D If you're interested, I even put together a stats and reflections article! I've also included the 9 articles I'm most proud of, if you're interested o-o     I break them down more in the article itself, but here's the quick stats at a glance:  

Quick stats

---

           

---

  I mention it at the bottom of my stats article, but it bears repeating here too:   In the comments of this post or in your own version of a "Summer Camp 2023 reflection" post, think about how you approached this event at the beginning of the month, and then reflect on how you feel about it at the end! What were your goals, and did you achieve them? Also, what were your favourite articles of your own that you made? Additionally, why were they your favourite? Sometimes the pressure and constraints of the summer camp format allows the most surprising and great articles to explode out of random areas of our worlds, and that's the magic that makes me love this event so so much :D   Anyways, onward to a fantastic August and a lovely month of the READING CHALLENGE we go! I had next to no time during SC to read, which means I am hungry for some articles and excited to dive into people's SC >:D #Stormwatch

The words, they've been a' flowin!   We're now just over halfway through summer camp -- how are you finding it so far, and how are you doing with regards to your goals? Any specific prompts standing out to you as your favourite?   I've been quite happy with what I've managed to create so far! I'm already over 23k words written across 10 articles (though to be fair, a good chunk of that is BBCode). My goal is still diamond, though, so if I want to achieve that I will have to adjust things a bit -- especially as I'll likely be unable to write at all next weekend due to travel!   But I'm still optimistic, and excited to write more :)   If you haven't had a chance to check em out yet, here's a few of my favourite articles I've written so far!     Happy summer camping and enjoy those prompts! <3 #Stormwatch

Once again it has been a while since my last update -- whoops! In my defense, the end of the semester really took it out of me and I've been in recovery mode since. But the energy is coming back, productivity levels are beginning to rise, and I'm getting hyped for SUMMER CAAAAAAAAAMP! I tend to do SC in cycles -- one year diamond, one year copper. This year it so happens to be that I'm aiming for DIAMOND! Not only that, but I've got goals to also write a bunch of prose. I want to practice for eventual book writing, and maybe even play around with writing a few scenes from those eventual books! Take a look at my Pledge article if that sounds interesting to you!     Aside from that, I haven't really been up to much. It's honestly been a very nice change of pace! Tears of the Kingdom came out and I DEVOURED that, and it was incredible. I'm slowly working on 100%ing it in my free time, and still loving every hour of it.   I've also been slowly working on a portfolio website, building it from the ground up because I want to learn more HTML/CSS/JS. It's been incredibly difficult, and a ton of time, but it's slowly coming together and I'm happy with how it's looking so far! I'm hoping to have it done this summer, and you best believe I'll share it when it's done :D   The other thing I've been working on is 3D printing! I bought a 3D printer last semester for school, but these days I've been playing around with it trying to make nice quality squishy versions of my Okororos. I've also been designing a Magic the Gathering Commander deck box for my friends and I, currently on iteration 3 (because I forgot there should be some sort of latching mechanism xD)   ---   Above all else though, I really need to thank people for still appreciating my work and supporting me, even when I sometimes go on these extended breaks! I especially have to thank my incredible Patrons, new and old, for being amazing people. In no small way, Cathedris continues to be developed thanks to your generosity and support <3 All the amazing people who support me can be found in this article! If you see them and like Cathedris, make sure to shower them in love and tell them they are super cool people :D     I hope everyone is looking forward to summer camp as much as I am. The themes revealed so far are AWESOME, and I can't wait to see the final! What goal does everyone have, and is anyone else joining the cool clubs that awesome community members have been creating, like Camp Chill or Camp Feral? :D #Stormwatch

Ah, January, it's been a gre-- hang on, it's what month? are you sure?? what do you mean, where did the other ones go-- alright. alright.   Well, I've just been informed that it is in fact March 12th and I no longer understand the concept of time. Whoops :D   Things that are new and newsworthy: zinemonth, classes going well, WORLDBUILDING AWARDS, Marchitecture, and school/architecture portfolio!   So, what exactly have I been up to during these time-skip-months? A lot, apparently! My classes have been busier than ever and it's absolutely exhausting. A while ago, back in my first semester, I said I was "stressed but thriving" -- I think these days, the stress is starting to become more present than the thriving, haha. Only a few weeks to go till the end, but each week will become more hectic and busy than the last :<  

---

  In terms of worldbuilding, it's been busy too -- not in new articles sadly, but there's been the zine that I created and put out for sale (or free!), and I'm happy with the number of sales and downloads :D I had to skip on the beastiary challenge due to not having enough time, but this month I've launched a small community challenge called Marchitecture (that I might also have to also personally skip out on due to not enough time xD).   Marchitecture even comes with a cute little badge too, and only requires 50 words of worldbuilding towards it! Lots of time left to participate :D       The other big thing lately are the WORLDBUILDING AWARDS! I was super happy to receive some nominations for that, and I highly encourage anyone reading this who hasn't yet already to go and read the entries, view the nominees, and vote for your favourites :D I'd be overjoyed if you voted for me, but more than anything I'd love for people to read each nominee and pick which one they like best! If you haven't yet seen the link, you can go here to view all the nominees and vote: https://forms.gle/vyKgHVg9gauKY8jw5  

---

  As for school, even though it's been incredibly busy and stressful, I've been really happy with how my skills are increasing. I've become a lot more familiar and happy with photoshop and blender, and have been using it to create interesting renders of precedent or personal designs!   In fact, I'd like to use this time to plug my personal instagram page -- I post all my favourite renders there, so if you'd like to see them, go give it a follow :D   Here's one of my favourite renders I've done this semester so far, of a precedent project I've been studying. Done with 3D modelling software, and taken into photoshop after as a "hybrid rendering" technique.

 

---

  Alright! I think that's it. Maybe. I probably missed a few things in there xD I'm gonna have to try and remember to do these update things more often D:   I hope these last few months have been great for you! I know it's often so busy and hectic right off the bat in the new year, and it can be really easy to use up all your energy. I wish the new year came with a refresher on energy reserves, rather than having to deal with the exhaustion of December still.   So take your time and get your rest when you can, you've got this! This month is a nice quiet month, in terms of WorldAnvil happenings (except don't forget to vote :D), so it's a good opportunity to take a bit of rest or do what you feel when you feel it. Should you be looking for interesting things to poke around at with no pressure, there's tons of community challenges out there -- if not, that's good too. Just enjoy the process and follow the joy this month :D <3 #Stormwatch

Well, we're coming close to the end of the month, and the end of the year, and it's time to take a look at a few things I suppose!   First of all: December and School and WorldEmber updates -- great success, all around! :D I finished my semester with many sleepless nights and successful projects, and for my first semester in my masters program, I'm beyond happy with how it went. :D And then after that, I still had a week to do WorldEmber in, and got 4 God-husk articles complete!     It's been tough to juggle both world building and irl stuff lately, so I'm beyond grateful to people that are reading and appreciating the little work I get out <3 Thank you, so much, forever and always! I know lately I haven't been able to read or interact with the community at the level I would like to, and that's something I'm hoping to do more of, if this semester is kinder to me xD   With a few days left in WorldEmber to go, how is your month going so far? What kind of goals did you set for yourself, and how far along are you to achieving them? :O My original goal was to complete all the remaining God-husks, but I still have 4 left to do -- even so, I'm happy to have gotten to what I did!   Wishing all the best, happy holidays, and happy new year <3 See you in 2023! #Stormwatch

Before we get into it -- I've made a feature request that I think would be quite useful! Macro buttons for the Euclid editor, which would let us more rapidly use combinations of BBCode or other things that help the layout and article building process! Take a look and toss some coins at it if you like it :D   Onward to the update!   -----------------------------   Where has the time gone??!?   I blinked and August turned into November. School has been absolutely blisteringly busy, as one would expect, but oh boy have I ever been enjoying it! I like to describe my current state of mind as "Stressed but thriving". I definitely feel like I'm in the right place, and it's a great feeling. A lot of the stuff I've been learning and working on has been very conceptual, which means I sadly don't have the most cool architectural projects to share just yet. But eventually I will :D   As far as worldbuilding goes, I've managed to do a bit here and there, much to my surprise!   I participated in the "On the Shoulders of Giants" challenge with my A'victadi   Added a climate map layer to my stained glass world map of Cathedris

  And also managed to do 13 quick sketches + blurbs of text for Spooktober >:D   I gained a couple Patrons over on my Patreon as well, which has been incredibly heartwarming and I can't thank them enough <3 I've been having fun adding the bonus info to articles, and I am currently over 50% done adding the info to every article!   --------------------   So, what does the future hold?   Well, going forward I'm launching into what is likely to be the busiest 4-5 weeks of the entire semester for me, so that doesn't bode too well for worldbuilding D: All the same, I love WorldEmber and hope to participate in it! My goal is to complete the God-husks, which as I say it seems WAY too difficult to do, but I'm going in with the secondary goal of just being happy if I even get one done. I think I'll start with Qetzel, and go from there!   I've sadly been so busy that I haven't had the most time to interact with the community in general. How have the fall months been going for you, worldbuilding wise? Are you working on the WorldEmber prep homework, and do you have big lofty goals for December? :D I'm excited to see the wonderful work from everyone! And I hope the coming months are enjoyable for all <3 #Stormwatch

Summer camp is over, and the reading challenge has begun! If you'd like to see what I went and created, check out my pledge and tracker article :)     This month I also finished and shared my new world map (with new map view CSS!) here, and participated in Q's Imaginaerium here.   I am going to take a week to rest and relax (and finish unpacking and setting up shelves), and then attempt my own reading challenge as well! I'm not sure what 3 prompts I'll pick to focus on yet, but I'm excited by the format and looking forward to reading some great stuff.   ------------------------   And now, for the fuuuutuuuuuuuure! What are my plans going forward?   Well, eagle eyed people might notice that there's a link to Patreon at the bottom of all my articles... I've recently started that, and I'm currently in "soft launch" mode. Throughout August I am going to add bonus info and fully properly set up everything for that, before properly officially announcing it via a Cathedris notification.   Coming with that is likely going to be some openings of CSS and Art commissions (combined or separate) that I'm excited to try out! I'm very new to it, and slots may or may not be very limited as I figure out how long it takes me to do things.   Small various things I also want to try to get around to doing this month includes stuff like: small updates to my world map, figure out if I can really break the CSS on it for neat things, and try to finish up some art stuff. Maybe write an article or two on some SC ideas I never got around to finishing -- there's still more I need to write on the ACSA!   Finally, should energy permit, I'm thinking of running a secret unofficial challenge later in August :O   As for further in the future? I start my Masters at the end of the month, and have no idea how demanding of my time that's going to be. So we will have to see D:   How about you, how was your summer camp? Did you have fun? What are your post SC plans, and what 3 prompts are you choosing for the reading challenge? I think SC has always been my favourite event, and I love the challenge of attempting to do as much as you can during the month. It's important to know how hard to push, and how to not overdo things. I hope everyone avoided the dreaded burnout, and is proud of whatever they created, no matter the number they got. #Stormwatch

First things first, Cathedris has a new world map and I'm SO HAPPY with it.

  Let me know what you think! I've even updated my map view CSS for it :D Future updates to the map will hopefully include some climate information layers (Once I decide how I want to display that)   ON TO SUMMER CAMP MONTH UPDATES   It's been a very busy July so far, and I'm not even at the busy part yet. This weekend I'm out of cell service, and the weekend after that is the official moving time for me, and all the time in between goes to packing.   But, I've still managed to sneak out 5 articles so far. And I thiiiiiiiink I should have enough time to squeeze out a few more. With a chance of getting them done at the end of the month in my new apartment, should I really have to! I am still determined to hit copper >:)   I'm pretty happy with these first 5 articles, too. If you haven't seen them, check em out here!     How has your summer camp been going so far? On track for your goals? While there's still plenty of time left in the month, make sure to pace yourself and don't overdo it if you feel exhaustion starting to set in! It's important to do things in a healthy way :) #Stormwatch

Challenges are hard. Who could've known?   I had such grand plans for April! Such grand, but supposedly stress free plans, of just doing so no-pressure improv for 'The Comprilith Escape'. But for some reason as soon as I started, I felt immense pressure and experienced some very strong "adventure block". Which made me pretty sad :(   Eventually I will return to it, but it seems my mental block with writing/telling adventures still exists and hasn't set me free just yet D:   Once I made peace with the idea of stopping that idea however, I got my creative vibes back together again. And just in time as well! Catoblepon started a LOVELY Conditions Challenge, which was exactly what I needed to get back in a writing headspace. Made an article relating to Catalurgists that I was quite happy with!   After that, with the creative juices flowing, I got to work thinking about and planning my River article for the newest competition. After playing around a lot with layout and CSS (even dabbling in a bit of parallax for a while, though that ended up being a disaster lol), I got an idea I liked, and sat down to create it. I've very happy with the result, as it comes across like a combination of geography textbook and tour guide pamphlet!   Seems like the moral of the story for the past month and a half is that "If you're not enjoying something, move on to something you do enjoy". Once I did that, I had a great time writing things I was interested in.   If you're participating in either Cato's unofficial challenge, or the official River competition, let me know! Post your articles below and I'll get to reading them before the competition ends :D I hope you had a lovely April, and --checks calender... May 18th?? -- are having a lovely May as well. #Stormwatch

First things first! I am participating in Adventure April, but as I feel overwhelmed by some things these days, my participation shall be tangential and stress free :D   Over on the Cathedris Discussion boards, I am running an improv text based adventure where we escape The Comprilith! It is a "Many players, one keyboard" type of 'game', where everyone inputs commands and I shall write/improv the results as we figure our way out of this cursed tower.   Go check it out! I'll be running it for all of April :)    

---

  On to updates and other news!   Two big announcements for me -- I have upgraded to Sage! Aaaand I have migrated Cathedris's CSS to BS5! :D   I have lots of fun plans for how to make use of my new shiny Sage membership, and I'm also so relieved to have all my interactive CSS bits successfully migrated over to BS5. I'm at a point now where I can have fun digging in to new plans with a good firm base and not have to worry about things breaking in the future :D   I'm toying with some ideas for how to set up a Patreon/Kofi membership thing, and I'm hoping to get work done on setting that up this month. Perhaps launching in May or June or something? Who knows!   And finally, one last little tidbit of news/question for you dear readers! I have previously thought it might be interesting to set up a WA Chapter based on the visual aspect of worldbuilding. Where a lot of the focus is on how you present your work -- layouts, art, CSS, flow and overall design. I've had a couple people express interest, and I was wondering, are there others out there that also have an interest in a chapter like this? Let me know!   Enjoy your April, enjoy writing adventures if you're taking part, stay happy and healthy, everyone! <3 #Stormwatch

Onward we go through goals and resolutions! If you set some goals and resolutions in your reading challenge, how well are you keeping up with them? It's totally normal to have to adjust them a month or so in -- I certainly have. Some things I wanted to do early simply were not possible due to general exhaustion D:   I managed to do better than usual though! Often times after World Ember, I'm burnt out and get absolutely no reading or writing done for months. This time around, I actually managed to get my Bardicle done as well as reading and commenting on plenty of bards! If I haven't seen yours yet, link it below, and I'll do my best to read it and if I have the energy, leave a comment <3     I'm really quite happy with my bard :D A goal this year for me is to practice writing characters, so this was a great challenge to start the year with. Let me know if you found them believable, or if there was enough characterization there to have them be relatable <3   ONWARD TO MORE GOALS!   There's a flash challenge coming soon, and an ongoing unofficial flash challenge running right now as well. Plenty to write about, and I feel like I've got the energy for both!   There's some other small goals I'm keeping up with on Cathedris too. Not as fast or as productive as I had wanted, but better than recent years and that gives me hope :)   Also, at the end of this month, Elden Ring comes out and I'm going to be no-lifing that for at LEAST a few weeks, so gotta get some stuff done before then   How about you? Got your bard done? Gonna do any of the flash challenges? Gonna buy Elden Ring? WHAT BUILD ARE YOU GONNA GO FOR IN ELDEN RING?!? xD #Stormwatch