WorldEmber 2023 Pledge
Introduction
Welcome intrepid reader to the slowly expanding world of Gokrenxia. I'm Koragath, and I'll be your guide on this roller-coaster of a ride through my first ever WorldEmber! It's hard to believe Gokrenxia is coming up on seven months old. Seven months, and almost 67,000 words. I couldn't be more amazed at how the WorldAnvil platform, team, and community have inspired and encouraged me to bring to life the dream I've always had - to create my own world , to write stories, to breath life through words on the page. Combine these desires with my love of role-playing, my discovery of the Ironsworn solo RPG, and offset my lack of artistic skills with generative AI, and suddenly the things I've only ever imagined come to life before my very eyes. All of this to say THANK YOU to you for being here, for your contributions to the community, and your encouragement. I am admittedly nervous about committing to write 10,000 words in a single month, but I'm going to try and see how it goes. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything!~Koragath
we pledge by Koragath
Homework: Week 1
For this, my first ever WorldEmber, I intend to focus on the plethora of stubs and open threads from Tales of the Inner Council. Ideally, I'll also put out one or two Episodes during the month. As for stubs, there are so many unwritten threads: from the most critical of topics like defining world species of Shar'elum, Ja'nakh, and Rundabah, to some of the twelve Dwarven Houses, only 4 of which presently even have a name! I've put together a list of all the different threads and stubs I could potentially target:Conflicts
Creatures
Species
People
Top Tier
Second Tier
Third Tier
Orgs
Places
Objects
Vehicles
Jobs & Titles
Kingdoms
Conditions
Documents
Consumables
Other topics
Homework: Week 2 - The Mini-Meta
This... Is... DwarfEmber!
Scope
Drawing from my comments in week 1, I would dial in my scope for this year's WorldEmber some. I jokingly thought of my WE cover image as "DwarfEmber," but writing about the Dwarves of Gokrenxia really feels like the most significant swath of things about which I'd like to write. Looking over the category list, over half of the orgs (6/11) are focused on the Dwarves, as well as one of the two Kingdoms, three of the "Other Topics," both of the "Creatures," four of the "Places," and one (maybe two?) of the "Consumables". After the Dwarves, my secondary scope are those items having a prominent focus in Tales of the Inner Council. That is, the major races such as the Avian Shar'elum (from which one of the main characters hails), and the Equine Ja'nakh (who have had several prominent secondary characters thus far). Other items such as the specific functions expected to be carried out by the Titled positions of the Inner/Ruling Council would be great to help build additional depth and richness to the world.Goals
My meta goals for the world were to have fun, to have a creative outlet, and to "build an interesting world in which I want to explore and tell dramatic stories." Even in just writing this homework, I'm getting more excited about fleshing out the Dwarves of Gokrenxia.Themes
Pulling Gokrenxia's recurring world themes down to a Dwarven scope:- A war weary world filled with distrust, skepticism, and political intrigue: The Dwarven "Kingdom" is comprised of 12 Houses, each crashing into one another with their own agendas, motives, schemes, allies, and enemies.
- The sins of the fathers: The Dwarves of the Second Age (2A) suffer from the strong devotion their forefathers had to the Elves. Many Dwarven lives were lost in the Great War to protect that which was not theirs. In doing so, they paid a price in defending their own lands against the Dwellers, on top of the terrible loss of their preeminent mountainhold of Kurzniert.
- The hope to do more, to be more, to grow beyond that which we are born into: The Dwarves of the Second Age are born into a House ranking system with roots dating back generations. Many of the youth have lost touch with why things are organized the way they are and question the wisdom of the current societal hierarchy.
Inspirations
To date, my inspirations for the Dwarves of Gokrenxia have been a cross of the ideas of organized crime - mafia families (both organizationally and functionally), Al Capone's organization and cooperation of various families with a ruthless rule, and sons of anarchy biker gang flare. I expect these will continue to be the core drivers for defining Dwarven society in Gokrenxia.Homework: Week 3 - Homepage Review
It's difficult to put oneself into the eyes of one's readers, when one has no expectation of having readers. Hah! That said, if I put aside my own inadequacies and look at the homepage as someone new to Gokrenxia, in the context of the recommended article there are definitely some things I like, and others I don't.The Pitch
I really like the opening slogan, though I recognize it's nowhere near as all-encompassing as the examples provided. The idea of a fantasy realm living in the shadow of a great war was probably the first "truth" I established that began the foundational aspect around which all else would ultimately be built. Expanding upon the slogan, the three summary paragraphs feel approachable and the right balance of just enough information without being overbearing.Post-Pitch Problems
Below the pitch though, the viewer is immediately presented a deluge of disjointed links, recent articles, maps, and timelines. These are probably fine for people who already have an idea of what Gokrenxia is all about, but as a new reader I'm left with a feeling of "where do I go next." It seems like I really do need to go back and spend some time putting together a world introduction. I've started this several times over the past few months, but have rapidly found myself overwhelmed at the concept. I don't intend to tackle that as part of this November prep, or WorldEmber itself, but it is a good reminder of something needing to be addressed.Colors & Theme
I still like the current dark color scheme and theme of the world - The bright dawn of a new age juxtaposed against the crumbling ruins of the past. I would love to condense the left-hand navigation block, as well as the "World Codex" sections of the homepage. Both feel very "blocky" and as though they're taking up far too much screen real estate. Honestly though, I've had little desire to put in the effort on the coding side, instead favoring the creation of new content. Perhaps this is something I might tackle after Gokrenixa's one-year birthday, in May 2024. That's still a ways off though, so only time will tell!Homework: Week 4 -Last Minute Prep
BWAAAAAAAA! Can you believe December and WorldEmber are almost here? I certainly can't. The final homework for November is Last Minute Prep. In these final moments leading up to WorldEmber, I've been taking a number of different approaches to prepare. First and foremost, I took a pause on writing and put my mind into some alternate creative endeavors. I've had a lot of fun building some maps for the #UnofficialMapVember Challenge. I cleaned up, reorganized, and expanded upon the list of resource websites I often turn to for support in my worldbuilding/writing and added a tag list section to the bottom of this page, along with my standard CSS, so I can tag all of my WE23 entries and have them appear here. In the physical world, taking cues from the WE challenge page, I went ahead and cleared a bunch of stuff off my desk, picked up some clutter around my office, and dispatched the perpetual pile of paperwork living on my shredder. And I've been doing some reading! I've been reading articles about character development, different types of photography, and really studying different styles of of generative AI art prompts, to improve the images I'm creating for Gokrenxia. For example, I don't just want a picture of a fantasy village, I want an ultra-detailed, wide-angle drone shot of an ancient village in the grasslands, ruined by war.
Unnamed Ruins by dream by WOMBO
- Decide the names of the Twelve Dwarven Houses.
- Assign them to their geographical regions in the Stormbreak mountains.
- Add them to the (#UnofficialMapVember-inspired) Stormbreak Mountains Map.
- Make some quick geographical notes that might influence each region.
- Generate over 30 different interesting Dwarven images.
- Select 12 of those to be the leaders of the Great Houses.
- Roll some random traits to reflect the "identities" of each House (which will serve as the basis for the article).
- Create generic articles for all of the Houses
- ...and more!
Damn, almost 10k per month! That's dedication. You're gonna blow Worldember outta the water, I have no doubt about it.
Thanks nnie! Can’t wait to see what comes out of Solaris!
You're too sweet ahh, thank you!