WorldEmber Prep: A'arde and Me

Homework Week 1

My First WorldEmber!

I've heard people say things like "take it easy if it's your first time", and as this is my first year on World Anvil, that seems like pretty sound advice.
However...
I've been worldbuilding for a VERY long time now outside of World Anvil, and I'm already a two-times winner of the 50k novel-writing challenge. Given all the notes and half-articles I've written over the last five years for A'arde, 10k doesn't seem like too much at all, so I shall be jumping in at the deep end like an idiot!
I'm going to be writing for a world that means a lot to me: "A'arde". The first world that I adapted to become a game setting as much as a novel one.
A'arde is by far the most in-depth world I have ever created, and I have notebooks spanning five years of snippets, thoughts, ideas and sketches that I want to finally get sorted into something more organised.

My Pledge

So as can be seen, I have pledged to write 10k words for WorldEmber. I consider this completely doable, as I managed to write almost 3.5k for a single article on the Academy of Nautical Studies and Shipwrights in less than four days. Cutting it down to the word limit for the Educational Establishments challenge was the actual hard part! It's tempting to go for a higher number, but while I'm jumping in at the deep end, I'm not yet willing to do so without some floaties to aid me! 10k is the hard goal, and anything above that I will consider a personal best!

Areas of Focus

I have a lot of things that I would love to write about, and SOOOO many things waiting to be transcribed from notes. However, here are a few things I definitely want to get down and written up on World Anvil:

• Base Sapient Species
• Some of the Major Gods (especially ones that crop up in my stories and games)
• Highlights of the Year (Festivals, Observance Days, etc)

I'm also tempted to throw in a few critters, beasts and artefacts for good measure, in part because my players happen to be carrying a few around, but also because it will give me something different to focus on if I get stuck or bored of my primary focus!
The reason I've chosen these three main areas is because a) I keep having to repeat myself on a lot of heritage-related things to my players and having them down centrally would ease that; b) the Gods are very active in A'arde and the ones that have shown up so far in games and stories are quite important; and c) I generally just enjoy researching and writing about how people celebrate different traditions! On top of this, the fallback idea of critters and artefacts would allow me to expand on things that have already appeared or been mentioned in my games, which would once more help my players out. I intend for my World Anvil to be an all-in-one source of background information for my players, much like the Forgotten Realms wiki is for Forgotten Realms D&D, so focusing on the bits that are important to my players (and on a slightly lesser level, my proofreaders for my stories) would be massively beneficial to them and me!

Meta

I am terrible for Meta, so until now, I hadn't filled it in! Everything is so clear in my mind that I didn't think I would EVER need to.
However, WorldEmber prep requires me to think about it!
For now, I have placed a few short sentences/thoughts into the Meta until I can get something more detailed in place, though I'm not sure how much more expanded I'll be able to get. I don't like to give too much away, and a lot of the questions within the Meta would, for me, actually require very lengthy and detailed responses, e.g. the Meta about cultures. A'arde is literally a whole world, so cultures vary from place to place, and writing all that in Meta would be a monumental task. I want to just... stick that stuff in the actual articles, thanks!

Final Thoughts for Week 1

I do have some reservations about my participation, not least because I still don't feel that I belong amongst the worldbuilders of World Anvil.
The Imposter Syndrome is very real, sadly...
But made a promise to myself that I wouldn't allow my reservations and hesitations to control me anymore. I spent too many years hiding my work, only showing it to my players, and feeling that I wasn't important enough to put it on the internet. So now, WorldEmber is my chance to show what I'm truly capable of.
The World of A'arde is very special to me; it's very much my baby and finally putting things down in an article format on World Anvil is almost like my gift to something that has kept me going through some very dark moments.
10k words... here we come!

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Homework Week 2

Homepage

I overhauled a lot of the homepage, adding a few new columns, putting in some details, a link to the World Primer, and then added some lore tidbits for good measure! It didn't take as long to sort as I thought it would (I was anticipating 2 days of work, instead it only took 3 hours!) so I am very pleased with how it is coming together so far. Of course, I am still using provided templates for styling, as I am NOT a coder, but I think the one I have chosen suits the vibe just fine for now.

World Primer

My World Primer is basically a copy of the document I handed out to my players at the start of our campaigns, with a few additions and amendments! I never realised it would be this useful! But now, I can also use the World Anvil page rather than having to search through my folders and files for it every time I need to add a new player or remind players of what the world is actually about!

Community Tools

For the Community Tools, I have set my Global Footer to include Follow buttons for both myself and the world. Additionally, while I was in there, I updated my copyright notice as I noticed that I hadn't added it properly! I tried to make it as unobtrustive and cute as possible, but I know it's something I will have to look at again in the future.

CSS

For CSS, I will say two words with absolute certainty: Absolutely Not!
I can NOT code for toffee. I would go so far as to saying that I would not be able to code if my very life were in danger! I just don't understand the shortcodes or whatever you want to call them, and I wouldn't know what to do with any of it even if you shoved the rulebook in my face!
The safest thing for me to do is to just Leave It Alone. Messing around trying to learn CSS now would be far too great an undertaking so close to the actual challenge, and I am not prepared to mess up my chances of "winning" Novelember by hyperfocusing on CSS.

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Homework Week 3

Books and Movies

I must admit that a lot of my inspiration originally came from the D&D Forgotten Realms setting. I have read and absorbed so many source books about this material, as well as archives of information scoured from the internet! When it came time to create my own setting, I used a lot of this as a reference or starting point. However, I am also heavily influenced by old myths and legends, so have read a lot of books relating to mythology, spiritualism and ghost stories from around the world. For the purpose of this homework, however, here are a few films, TV shows and books that I regularly think back to while writing.

• Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (Movie) - This film pretty much
  
  captures the wild and random ride that follows TTRPGers in their games! I love the setting, and it was a great film to point out places and say "we've been there!" with my fellow party members.
• Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Movies) - epic scale, great battles, and Tolkein's world is just so deep and perfect... I wish I could be half that good! The music is amazing as well.
• Merlin (TV Series) - There's so much wrong with the folklore interpretations of this show, but at the same time it's fun and the visuals are quite nice. I also liked how the show touched on things such as "the power of names" and the like.
• A Treasury of British Folklore (Book; Dee Dee Chainey) - this book is so cute on the outside, but the folklore inside delves into the weird and gruesome! This is permanently sat on my desk at the moment, alongside my game book for "Legends of Avallen"
• "Study" and "Glass" Series (Books; Maria V Snyder) - I like the way that magic is described and depicted within the books. It touches on concepts of blood magic, the magic of life, and how magic itself is neither good nor bad, which are tropes and themes I always enjoy reading.
• "Dhampir" Series (Books; Barb & JC Hendee) - Honestly, I love the conflict within these books, and I love how mysterious the Fey beings are depicted. I also love how creative the MCs have to be in order to achieve their goals, and how tense things often become, even between to two protagonists.

Moodboard

My moodboard contains a lot of photographs of rennaissance and fairy cosplays, interpretations of Elves and mythological beings, and photographs of forests. It also contains a lot of my own work, which incorporates a lot of fantasy and horror elements, as well as screenshots of maps I have created using Talespire, and minis I have made using HeroForge. I spend a lot of time playing on these two programs, and being able to use them to explore different themes, styles and aesthetics can be very helpful.
On top of this, my moodboard has a lot of images depicting different types of architecture which I then like to attribute to different fantasy species. There's a post out there on social media that talks about Art Nouveaux being Elven and Art Deco being Dwarven, and it's that same kind of vibe! For good measure, I've also added some of my own landscape paintings into the mix, which are often a little bit more fantastical in nature.

Playlist

I have a playlist on YouTube, called "The Patron's Playlist", that I listen to almost exclusively when I create things. The playlist is 87 pieces of music long (at the moment, I add new things to it from time to time!) and lasts for around 3 hours - or at least long enough for a journey from where I live in the Midlands to where my parents live near London with some songs to spare! It is predominantly made up of Scottish Gaelic Rock, pipe music, Scottish singers and Gaelic songs, with some Fey-themed and bagpipe-based ambiance tracks thrown in for good measure. There is definitely a theme to my music taste when it comes to writing and creating!
As strange as it may seem, this playlist actually originates from some early inspiration I took from songs by Runrig, a Scottish Rock band that split up several years ago after 45 years of performing. I was at their last concert in London at the Hammersmith Apollo and it was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life.
Runrig provided inspiration for a song in a short story I wrote about one of my PCs for a D&D game I was playing at the time. While the game ended leaving a lot of difficult, traumatic memories, the PC and her family ended up becoming a focal point for a novel I planned to write, and the inspiration from Scotland, Scottish and Irish Folklore, and traditions from those areas continued to push me toward what I'm creating now.
I don't tend to use specific music for writing specific moods, as I find that the music itself is enough to stir me into creativity. Some of my favourites to listen to are "Gamhna Gealla" and "Cnoc Na Feille" by Runrig, "Steam Train to Mallaig" by Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, "Wake Me Up (Avicii) Radio Edit" by Red Hot Chilli Pipers, and "Touch the Sky" from the Brave soundtrack, sung by Julie Fowlis. However, if I am feeling a bit stuck, and I am looking for certain tones or emotions, I have a few of songs on the playlist that I will queue up and listen to while meditating to evoke certain emotions.

• For horror/fear/war: Albannach - The Gael (Epicus Symphonia), An Toll Dubh (Runrig), From the North (Runrig)
• For love/happiness/community: Walking on the Waves (Skipinnish), Cearcal A Chuain (Runrig), Reul Àlainn A' Chuain (Kathleen MacInnes)
• For adventure/excitement/wonder: Highland Cathedral (Royal Scots Dragoon Guards), Ard (Runrig), Soraidh Slàn & The Rise (Skerryvore)
• For mystery/secrets: RPG Exploration Music - The Feywild Forest (Michael Ghelfi Studios), A Gift of a Thistle (James Horner), Siubhail (Dark Isle Piper)
• For sadness/loss: Flowers of the Forest (Dark Isle Piper), Fuadaichean (Skipinnish)

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Homework Week 4

Community

I am quite lucky in that I am already part of a number of worldbuilding and TTRPG communities across numerous socials. I also have the opportunity to share my work through the Actual Play I'm part of (Homebrew Havoc, available on Twitch and YouTube via the AmpersandD20 channel), plus the podcast I co-host (2 Kobolds in a Trenchcoat, available pretty much wherever you download your podcast goodness!).
I am already a member of the World Anvil Discord, but for personal reasons do not post much there. I generally interact more on the WA streams.

Schedule

I am currently out of work due to redundancy, so have quite a lot of time to dedicate to my writing. Generally speaking, I do a lot of my best writing in the morning, when I have fewer distractions and do not have expectations of me to engage in housework, etc (noisy housework at half six in the morning is usually frowned upon!).
I will have to work around a new puppy, as we are collecting her on the 7th of December, as well as travelling around Christmas. This year is going to be doubly awkward as I will have to travel to two separate locations during Christmas, so I am not planning on getting very much done between the 24th and 28th of December. Toward the end of the month I will also be supervising a sick cat that suffers from siezures, so I will have to work around giving him his medicines too!

Fresh Air

I live in a rural village near an ancient heritage site, so have plenty of places to go for fresh air! I also use my time wandering around these places to seek inspiration, as there is an abundance of rich history and folklore in the area. So fresh air is never going to be a problem, especially as I regularly walk into the village to go to the shop!
I must be honest, I'm not very good at "relaxing" in the traditional sense. I always have to be doing something, as I tend to get very agitated if I sit around for too long doing nothing. It's why I hate things like spas and sunbathing, and can never really sit properly still when having my hair cut. The one time I went to get my nails done, I fidgeted so badly, I'm sure I made the nail artist very mad! If I ever get a tattoo (which I intend to) or get my hair coloured again, I know I'm going to need to take something with me, like a tablet or book! Relaxing, for me, is simply doing the things that I want to do, rather than chores or requirements pushed upon me by others. Maybe it's a 'tism thing, but it works for me, so...!

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Planned Articles:

Here is a list of articles I have planned for this WorldEmber. I shall continue to add to, cross off, and generally update this list as I go through the month!

• Species: Elf
• Species: Goliath
• Species: Fisdragua
• Species: Ginnaya
• Species: Changeling
• God: Selene
• God: Fisnik-Erjon
• God: Raven Queen
• God: Jernmand Peder
• God: Warde
• Celebration: Midsummer
• Celebration: Deadhallows
• Event: Eadar-Amail