New Year 2026
Gasp! A Newcomer?!
Happy 2026! It's a bittersweet goodbye to 2025 for sure - lots of personally good things happened against a background of a lot of bad. The one that really matters is that 2025 was the year I started GMing my very first ever D&D homebrew campaign... which is how I ended up here. So hi - welcome to this world full of possibilities and inevitable blunders.
2025 in too many words...
For 2025, I was very much a wallflower when it came to World Anvil. I had joined the Discord at the start of the year and while I left the server maybe a month or two later, that is NOT a reflection of the community. My imposter syndrome kicked in - hard - and I never felt like I had anything to contribute. Now, a whole year later, I'm back in the server and committing to World Anvil Challenges (who even AM I right now?!)! The feelings I had at the start of the year also bled into my campaign. I constantly felt (and often still feel) like a terrible GM who has no clue what she's doing and I've canceled sessions because of that feeling.
At some point (kind of early in the year) I decided I was tired of feeling overwhelmed by my brain dump page in OneNote where my campaign and the world was originally created and decided to use World Anvil to really get myself organized. I fear it did not help and I still have to refer back to my OneNote for a lot of things... but I at least did start using World Anvil for a lot of session prep! I've started utilizing Plots to try and organize the story a bit because not knowing what comes next is TERRIFYING to me. This is terrible for me because as a GM, you may drive the car but are not in charge of the GPS... and while you may already know the route you want to take, you can guarantee that at least one person in the car will need an unplanned bathroom break and you have to now drive 10 minutes out of the way to the GOOD gas station with the facilities. It's either that or the entire party starts screaming about going to your Aunt Meg's house for FOOOOD (please someone appreciate the Twister reference).
All of this to say... I've started to dabble in article writing and even started the Worldbuilding 101 course! I can confirm that having these originally random articles has made my world feel even a bit richer and more real. I think I'm most proud of Vontyre's Pass as a whole. I can't truly begin to explain how creating this mountain pass made me feel but, like most things in this world, the fact I still have this font of creativity feels like a miracle. Before starting this campaign, I hadn't written anything creatively in over a decade. It feels a bit like the scene at the end of the of Mamma Mia when the courtyard cracks and water springs up... just picture me screaming in slow-motion "It's Aaaaphroooodiiiittteeeeee!"
Inspirations for 2026
Oh no, oh boy - this is the part where I start to get very overwhelmed, very quickly. Everyone is so talented and creative. Thinking of Elyssom and what I'd like to accomplish with it, I'm narrowing my selections down to five things I wish I had in my world.
- Really cool CSS
- A regional festival/event
- Something that would be found on the black market
- A method of travel other than horse & cart or foot
- A new invention
Really Cool CSS
I found Lemmy Lou and, by extension, Middengeard , from this year's New Years posts on the event dashboard. Opening the post, I found myself immediately curious and helplessly drawn to the screen. While I can't say I've seen a lot of worlds on World Anvil, I can say with great confidence that I had never seen a peppy, bright field notebook layout. This notebook layout is everything I ever wished I was when growing up - well organized, colorful, and beautiful. The cohesiveness of the theme paired with the author voice is so well done. While I learned more about the general horrors of Middengeard , I came to appreciate the bright colorful aspect of the theme that much more.
What I'd like to take from this world and article: simple yet cohesive theming and page set-up. While I don't know that I'll learn CSS this year to an extend where I would be able to produce something of this caliber - I'd like to at least have unique header images and a better sense of organization. That World Primer article was beyond impressive.
Regional Festival or Event
The Evergreen Vigil is simple, beautiful, and humble. The different iterations of the vigil over the years is well laid out. Alikzander paints such a clear image of what the vigil looks like that it's easy to almost self-insert and picture myself making these offerings. The "mystery" of how the offerings disappear is so true to human nature - all are viable reasons yet no one really knows. Very setting out Santa's milk and cookies of the people... love it!
What I'd like to take from this article: The opening of the article has definitely given me the idea of either writing a short story of non-descript people engaging in the festival or ritual or to write it in a voice of an elder passing on oral tradition. Lore articles don't always have to be "official historian speak" and as I read more articles, I'm starting to enjoy that. It makes writing much less daunting. I think I'd like to apply this to a ritual around the various afterlife rituals that would occur (death, reincarnation, etc.).
Something on the Black Market
Whether Aetherglow is considered illicit or not is honestly beyond the point. The creation of, effectively, crystal copium (Snow Celeste 's own words) in the form of antidepressant x mdma is mind blowing. The tag lines or quotes about the effects of the drug are such heartbreaking touches. Reading the article I truly could understand why someone would feel so drawn to taking this. Every single section of this article felt so well thought out - from the opening feeling like a news broadcast about the return of Aetherglow to the reported effects/warnings, and the general sentiment towards those that rely on the drug. (P.S. the article design is simply breathtaking)
What I'd like to take from this article: What WOULDN'T I take? Just wow. I think the use of quotes really helps increase the impact - either from current users, former users, loved ones, or even dealers/manufacturers. I read the article originally knowing nothing about Celeste's world yet could relate heavily to the users of Aetherglow and their desire to escape and feel intense hope. I think that also is it's own special kind of magic.
A Unique Method of Travel
Wow - I tell ya what, wow! I kept seeing Kena'an by Make lore, not war (aka Imagica) be mentioned often and this was my first toe-dip into this world. If you've never read anything by Imagica, I highly recommend you stop what you're doing and GO CHECK OUT THE WORLD. Good gravy. I feel like the article on Cloud Chariots is one of those articles where every little thing has been thought of and that's what makes it so unique to Kena'an ... because of course only the Zephyraen can be pilots, naturally the chariot would fall apart as cloud cover dissipates and its simply the most logical response that the craft would choose to descend instead of fall apart. I couldn't image it working any other way after reading it.
What I'd like to take from this article: Okay, first off - USE OF SIDEBARS! I don't use them nearly enough and this feels like such a good example of their use. Secondly, I would love someone to read my article and be met with the same "well, yes, of course it's this way" feeling. I think this is something that will come with time as I get a better grip on Elyssom as a whole but its still a feeling/experience I want to keep in mind while writing.
A New Invention
So where do I sign up to send my thoughts to the Inspiration Engines ? The function and creation of the Inspiration Engine is another really impressive example of something that is rooted so thoroughly in the existing lore of the world. Even with this technology being so well tied in to pre-existing things, it still carries an air of theory - like not quite every kink has been worked out and there is still a wealth of possibilities in the development of this engine. It's so easy to write a technology article and it feel like the technology has always been around instead of exploring the "what could be" of inventions.
What I'd like to take from this article: Two things, mainly - the use of existing lore to build upon to create the new invention and then infusing the article with the feeling of being faced with a world of opportunity and what could be for the new invention. You don't need everything figured out - things can still be hypothetical. It's an INVENTION, for Aldarae's sake.
Putting It All Together
Your Majesty, Paolo is exhausted. Because only Paolo can take this, and this, and give you... A princess.
Okay, so I'm not giving you a princess... but instead, I give you Flower's Curse of Winter's Lake. The lore drop came from an earlier session of our campaign and was heavily based on Hanahaki Disease but reimagined slightly with a twist.
2026 Resolutions
Participate in and document Summer Camp 2026 and World Ember 2026 (or other challenges).Write the articles from the 2026 Inspiration list (regional festival/event, a black market item, a method of travel, and a new invention).
Organize Elyssom and create stub (or even blank) articles as needed.
Engage with the WA community more!
Click for my Super Secret Resolution
Final Thoughts
I'll keep these brief because this is already incredibly long. First off, if you've made it this far into my article - THANK YOU! You should probably go check on your loved ones because I kept you so long. Secondly, I'm going to be so bold as to give myself a pat on the back. I did it. I participated in a World Anvil Challenge and did the thing! Was it scary? Yeah, a little. Overwhelming? ABSOLUTELY. But we're here and we did it, self! Would ya look at that!
Getting to read others entries for NYR and World Ember has been so much fun. It has also been incredibly inspiring and eye-opening. Seeing just the world of possible article topics has dusted away some of the cobwebs and re-greased a couple of creativity gears. For that, thank you to the community at large. May your pillows forever be just the right temperature .
Cheers to the end of 2025 and to a hopefully prosperous 2026 for everyone reading this!
It's long... so here's how to get around:
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Author's Notes
I've missed the actual event deadline for this AND my article, unfortunately. No shiny badge for this author. Alas, I'm publishing this and the article because otherwise I will be breaking a promise to myself and I simply must stop doing that this year. If you've found and read this, I love and appreciate you endlessly.