SummerCamp 2023 Reading and Future Goals

Part I: Reading!

Alright! It is almost midnight, I have a nice half glass of red and its time to start reading! For tonight I will pick out the articles golly do I have a list of people I want to read stuff from. Time to pick out articles! The wonderful people I will pick out stuff from are:

Grandmaster EBelt

Jacqueline Yang

Eternal Sage AmélieIS

Amélie I. S. Debruyne

To see what I am up to: my submissions to the worldbuilding awards 2024.

Eternal Sage Kefkejaco

 

Feel free to check my new world Terra Occidentalis if you want to see what I am up to!

Grandmaster DMFW

David Worton

Grandmaster Blue Fairy 74

Stay imaginative and discover Blue´s Worlds, Elaqitan and Naharin.

Councilor of the Inner Sanctum Serukis

Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

       

Emy x
Etrea | Vazdimet

Master MelissaPlaysRPGs

Melissa

Grandmaster CrazyEddie

         

You wanna see what we did for the last events? Go, click here: Eddies Major Events

Sage Kat Chiron

Kat Chiron

     

⚙️See my WorldEmber Homework 2023
⚒️Watch me build Merlin's Gate
✍️Visit my Author page

Since I want to really give back to the amazing community, I am doing three each, giving me plenty of reading material for the coming days: The Prompts and Authors will be divided as such:

Prompts 1, 7 & 22

Prompts 3, 8 & 29

Prompts 2, 12 & 13

Reading Challenge 2: Tomie Boogaloo

Author	DMFW	MelissaPlaysRPGs	Serukis
Prompt 1: A powerful organization in your world
Prompt 7: The title & responsibilities of an important person in your world
Prompt 22: An item of great cultural or religious significance to a people in your world

Author	Blue Fairy 74	CrazyEddie	AmélieIS
Prompt 3: A resource that provides fuel or power
Prompt 8: A destructive natural or supernatural event
Prompt 29: A ceremony that represents a transition or transfer

Author	EBelt	Kefkejaco	Kat Chiron
Prompt 2: A seat of power (of any kind!)
Prompt 12: A settlement at the limits of the "known" or "civilized" world
Prompt 13: A profession that takes its practioners to remote or faraway places

Some placeholder art!

In der Wüste (In the desert) by Carl Haag

Finally, I want to highlight people from my Chapter, Seven Tomes, by doing one article each! The following list will expand as they send me their favourite article:

by TheDumbOwl by Endrise by RueMarr

by Johe by Strixxline by ThatMomFriend

by Moonlight Bard

Bruín in the winter (via Midjourney)

Okay, So I may have gone overboard with this and now we are at 33 prompts to read. To not overcrowd this page, I decided to employ some CSS Magic from the best CSS Wizard I know.

To make this less empty until you click on a tab, have a piece of placeholder art!

Ser Wobblesworth, the fae knight by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

CSS Magic: Spoiler Button Tabs by Stormbril

With this out of the way, let us get to reading!

Prompts 1, 7 & 22

Prompts 3, 8 & 29

Prompts 2, 12 & 13

Reading Challenge 2: Tomie Boogaloo

Prompt 1: A powerful organisation.

• The Puzzle Lords Directorate by DMFW: In this post, David describes the most powerful mercantile guild that essentially ran a game club. It goes into detail of how they formed, what they controlled and how they eventually crumbled when the world got turned on its head by hunger. I particularily enjoyed the very deliberate and well chosen balance of brevity, while still covering every important question that one might have about the Directorate.
• The Summitstone Mining Company by MelissaPlaysRPGs: Melissas article introduces a company of dwarves that runs on the mineral rich ground of a now inactive supervulcano. They have a railway line which they use with great effect to effectively distribute goods within the network. They also maintain a company town, which in good dwarven fashin is subterranean and sustained by the surrounding farms and ranches. This article struck out to me as especially clean in its design, using some Midjourney art to great effect and drawing you in with a well readable text to boot.
• The Azure Guard by Serukis: I had read this one during SC already and i remember being immediately captured by Emilys fascinating merfolk. This article presents a organization charged with safekeeping of an archipelago which houses several different merfolk. They protect the people and keep peace between the different civilisations while forsaking their former lives. As I'm sure Ill say again during the following articles by Serukis, I really like learning about Merfolk, because it is essentially an alien civilisation for landdwellers but at the same time can be right at the doorstep so to speak. Definitely something I want to explore more when I can.

Prompt 7: An important rank

• Fisher Kings and Queens by DMFW: This article talks about a lineage of Kings and Queens that have represented the city of Nephatar for over 6000 years, with a direct line reaching from the first King to the current. It goes into detail of the person ascending to power, what there responsibilities are and how they have shifted in the long years since the first one. This article really adds depth to the world, where one title has been around continuously since ancient days. This very same effect is something I am constantly chasing in my own stories, that time abyss that seems to swallow you whole when you comprehend how truly old something is.
• Governor by MelissaPlaysRPGs: A governor in Melissas world is the title of a ruling dwarf, who is in charge of a city-state. In the article we learn, that they must walk a careful balancing act, ensuring prosperity of their city while also keeping it supplied by surrounding parties. In a fun twist, the powers of a governor are cleverly revealed by contrasting them with what the governor usually delegates to experts under his rule, designating who they put in power in regards to military, law and historical records.
• Lord of the Shademire by Serukis: Ruling over the swamp-dwelling merpeople called the shadefolk, this lord (which is called lord regardless of the persons gender) is the unilateral leader of the swamp. They are in charge spiritually and physically and are elected for life. The article also mentions the importance of the title for diplomatic relations with the neighboring (human) settlers, called the Dunn. This focus of cooperation and diplomacy was somewhat of a realisation for me, since I have not explored the concept in my own worlds, even though it certainly would exist! I suppose I need to think about how diplomacy unfolds in my own realm.

Prompt 22: An important item

• The Net of Pruth by DMFW: In this one, we learn more about a relic of the Fisher Kings we have just met. This magical net is woven by starlight and supposedly a gift from an old god. It can shrink and expand in size, capturing even entire schools of fish. We also learn about the original purpose (ending hunger for the city of Nephatar) and how a wizard tried to steal it for himself. This article feels very magical and is no doubt the most important relic of that city, given the history and how prized it is.
• The Dreamstone Codex by MelissaPlaysRPGs: Melissa takes us on a small trip into the past with this article, where we learn about god (I assume) given relics which contain ancient history and enabled the formation of a common tongue by which the different species can communicate. The Codices are history incarnate and through that lens we get to explore how different species consider history and their own history in particular.
• The Crown of Coral by Serukis: For our last of this set of nine articles, we learn about a crown of tritons from living coral. The item has grown and adapted in shape over many rulers, and even survived going missing for 2 centuries and breaking once! I particularily like the image this conjures, of this ancient symbol of power that now displays all its scars proudly, still living on after its empire has fallen.

Prompt 3: a resource providing power/fuel

• Aqi Talúsix - Tree of Elements by Blue Fairy 74: Blue Fairy introduces us to the World Tree, which grows in a central island and whose roots stretch out to even the furthest reaches of the world. I particularily enjoyed the ease with which this article blends the creation myth of the tree and the magic it enables with the facts of how it grew and what it is like today. Oh, and the tree has some very neat cultural influences on the people who live under its canopy, which is a nice bonus!
• Chocolate by CrazyEddie: This article by Eddie is a particular favorite of mine, because it sparked a whole number of different chocolate flavored (lol) articles all around the topic. The use of chocolate as a resource that provides power is a genius twist on the prompt and is executed beautifully. We learn about the people growing and making the chocolate beans, how they solve local problems and how they distribute their goods across the world. Finally this article leaves us wanting to know more about chocolate history and then gracefully provides not one, not two, not three, but four different articles to sate that particular craving.
• Orichalcum by AmélieIS: Finally, the article by Amélie is on a platinum-copper ore, which sees great use in the creation of artifacts. In good tradition of Amés writing, which I have enjoyed a great deal previously, the entire article is written in universe and from a perspective of a magical research institute, which goes into great detail on the uses and problems with Orichalcum. What really sells me is the veiled sass within the article, which I can attest definitely does happen in professional research settings. The article is such a joy to read, that you don't even realise you are being fed worldbuilding alongside the fun.

Prompt 8: a destructive natural event

• The Flood by Blue Fairy 74: Blue Fairy takes us on a history tour, where we learn that the myths on earth about a flood (i.e. in the Old Testament) originate from a human exodus from Elaqitan to Earth. The Myths were then added to obscure the truth. Ive personally never dabbled in worlds that have Earth coexisting with them as a place you can reach, but I think this still is a very cool way of making this kind of connnection more solid within the fiction.
• Purple Cataclysm by CrazyEddie: What happens when someone tries to open a portal to an ominous purple place called the Void? Well in Eddies world "Humans are space orcs", it feeds into itself, explodes the star that powered it which in turn reduces the entire area of space to cinders and radiation filled wastelands. Oh and the terrible illnesses for anyone that was far enough away to not be killed immediately. Overall, Eddie really nailed the catastrophy aspect of the prompt. Whatever specifically happened here left a wound so horrific people are still dealing with it 160 years later.
• Runaway ritual magic by AmélieIS:
Amélie in turn takes the prompt in a different direction and once more wonderfully ties it into in-world writing. This time we learn about ritual magic, which is associated with the dark side (from which our protagonist hails!). We learn about all the signs of it around and what to do to stop it. Very nicely fleshes out the status quo and the backfoot the dark side finds itself on currently.

Prompt 29: a transition-ceremony

• The Holy Marriage by Blue Fairy 74: For our third trip to Elaqitan, we learn about a ritualised marriage between a prince of Naharin and the high priestess. The ritual symbolizes the link the future prince is supposed to embody between gods and men, while also reaffirming the princes right to rule. What I loved about this article is all the worldbuilding that sits behind the ritual. It all feels very natural and "in place" for a lack of better term.
• Eilhovar Lárállár by CrazyEddie: Do elves get a retirement party? In Koria they do. When they turn around 1500 years, they progress into their final stage of life, an occassion celebrated heartily to all the wishes of the retiree entering Eilhovar. I really appreciate the time Eddie takes here to immerse the reader in the mindset of the elves, because it creates this crucial feeling of "otherness" of elves, which I am a big fan of.
• Mastery viva by AmélieIS: In good academic fashion, Amélie gives us another glimpse into the ways of the rune guild. As someone, who is currently living in academia part of me forgets that I am reading about a fictional universe exploring magic runes as a science. It really is like that. In the article the reader is prepared for their final step to become a full master of runes, the creation of their "masterpiece" and the subsequent presentation of this to a panel of experts.

Prompt 2: a seat of power

• Ataccar by EBelt: Ataccar is a defensive base by an organisation known as the Draconic Defendre. Given that this base houses the higher ups of the group, it makes sense that is perhaps the most fortified base I have read about recently, with natural barriers like a dangerous lake and artificial ones like walls and spikes. The entire article is written by someone not "in the know", so all we know about the place is what can be seen from the outside, which adds to the mystery of what could be hidden within.
• Alexandria Karchedon by Kefkejaco: Kefkejacos new world is an alternate history world in which Carthage found a way towards the New World across the atlantic, but was conquered by Alexander the Great. It later fell under Egyptian rule when the Macedonian Empire was split. I really enjoy the path we take in this article, starting with the well known founding myth of Cartage, but then adding the diverging paths into the mix until the dominoes fall and we end up with a very changed situation.
• Vyrvania by Kat Chiron: Kat Chiron takes us into a megalopolis, a giant city home to the Vampyrs, which is neatly divided into four quarters. These quarters each perform functions which set them apart from another, with the Eden Quarter being mainly gardens parks and other buildings intended for recreation, while another, the Techno Quarter pushes the boundaries of science. It is founded and run by Garrick Thornwood, who Im sure we will learn more about in just a bit. I appreciate the distinct choices for the different quartes, because they lay some solid ground work upon which the city can be expanded later on.

Prompt 22: A settlement at the limits of the known

• Bozwei by EBelt: For our second article, EBelt takes us to Bozwei, a city that feels very surreal. The citizens dont know they are living in a desert, there are god-created organisations who run the city and crime is almost non-existant. This article in particular stood out to me because of all those unanswered questions. I immediately want to know more about the setting, who this city came to be and why the organisations seem like a weird (in a good way!) mix of bureaucratic monstrosity and omniscient deity.
• Colonia Australis by Kefkejaco: Continuing in this alternate history world, Kefkejaco now explores the first roman settlement in the new world, which is misnamed for the fact that its discoverers believed it to be the southernmost part of the continent. I have to admit that I am rather curious where on the Americas this place lies. In any case this article perfectly emulates the city it is describing in that it is a venture into unknown territory and then is transformed into a new hub from which further ventures can be undertaken.
• The Underworld by Kat Chiron: Well, would you look at that! Another part of Vyrvania, and precisely the part we wanted to know more about. Kat Chiron takes us into the Underworld, the place where the rejects of the city are banished to. It is quite literally underground and home to the Shadow Syndicate, a group of banished vampyrs which run the place and offer refuge to the other banished in exchange for their abilities. What I enjoy about this article is that you can feel the built in conflict that the underworld and its bosses have with the more legitimate parts of the city.

Prompt 13: A job that takes practitioners to remote places

• The Investigators by EBelt: Once more we learn more about the Draconic Defendre, in this case about the human servants within the organisation. They are expected to find new Drakos. They travel far (as per the prompt), to seek out new rumors and are trained for many years before they are deemed ready, learning skills like interrogation, reading people and Drakos and overall being menaces to ordered society ;) I do appreciate that this article adds to the image the reader has of the Draconic Defendre, which seems to be shaping up one of the most central aspects of the world.
• Cohors Exploratorius by Kefkejaco: What do you get when you put roman soldiers into the south american jungle? The cohors exploratorius! These lads are tasked with charting the new continents, and dealing with punic settlements in the new world. It is very cool to imagine what the roman legionaires might have had to do if they had made it to the Americas.
• The Fortune Seeker by Kat Chiron: I love me a good wanderer and the Fortune Seeker (singular) is just that. This person specialises in traveling different realms and offers her services as a well of information or investigator to the highest bidder. I feel that ofter worldbuilders shy away from talking about their "most powerful" or influential players within the world, because it can seem like limiting future writing, so I am happy to see that Kat Chiron explores someone who is right at the top of the food chain with such eagerness.

At last, its tomie time! For those not in the know I am part of the WorldAnvil Chapter: Seven Tomes! We mainly focus on Fantasy and everything that comes with it and I want to take the opportunity to highlight at least one article by some of the amazing beans in my chapter:

• The seat of extraordinary and unbelievable power by TheDumbOwl: DumbOwl is a master at parodying what a serious fantasy world looks like. And here we have perhaps the most serious prompt of the bunch, "A seat of power", so what could go wrong. Well Owl goes on to tell us about the chair of a god of chaos, which is so imbued with that gods power, that it has its own fanclub. Cheeky, witty and soo fun to read.
• False Garden by Endrise: False Gardens are floating whale-creatures which inhabit Endrises Plane of Air. They can grow insanely large and host diverse ecosystems which form various symbiotic relationships with the giant creatures. This results in camouflage that disguises them as floating debris, which may fool unsuspecting travellers or prey into getting too close.
• Ofirar by RueMarr: In Rues article we learn about the Ofirar, which are humanoid beings that were created in the distant past. The article is a little long, but in that space we learn a lot about them, often via comparison to human experiences which serve as a nice way of putting them into perspective. Very solid work, which I hopefully can read more of in the future.
• Bubatus by Johe: Johe writes primarily in spanish, but I highly recommend reading this article regardless, if need be using a translator like I did. Bubatus are almost humanoid seeming owl beings, which hunt at night and are downright terrifying. Despite the language barrier you can still see the amazing picture Johe paints with his words and as a bonus, this article also incorporates a soundbite, that honestly made my blood chill. Amazing work all around and well worth the effort of overcoming the language issue.
• Champions of the Dawn by Strixxline: When you go into an award-winning world, like the one from Line you can't help but have some level of expectation to what you find. The article about the new deities of Malkora delivers expertly on these expectations. On a surface level, the presentation/design is clean and wonderful, but on a more in depth level, the worldbuilding is solid and delightful to read all while teaching you about the different deities that ascended from their mortal origins a long time ago. Each gets a good introduction and we are also told that the list will expand at later points.
• Library of Eons by ThatMomFriend: For summer camp, Jada made a place that very much intrigues the book nerd within me: A giant (emphasis on that) library which is part carved into and part built adjacent to a mountain side. What especially intrigued me was the description of a (central?) pillar of light that illuminates the endless levels further and further down into the earth. I am a sucker for this kind of mystical elements to a fantasy world, because they really elevate the place.
• Growing Unrest in Central Tilth by Moonlight Bard: Eat the Rich! (and devour the truth?) Its civil unrest in Tilth, a region of Argentii, where all is sand and glass. The working caste is rising up against the man because finally, the systemic exploitation happening has been pushed too far. Haly has really outdone herself with Summer camp, writing all 42 (!) articles but more importantly tying them all into a cohesive plotline of inteconnecting articles. This one feels like the crown jewel, the thing resting at the centre of the work and boy does it live up to the task!

Another set of tabs so this doesnt balloon the article!

To make this less empty until you click on a tab, have another piece of placeholder art!

The forge (via Midjourney) by Ninodonlord

CSS Magic: Spoiler Button Tabs by Stormbril

Part II - Goals

Lets first revisit what goals I had set myself in January (not realising they were only for half a year and not until next WorldEmber).

Goals from January

The overarching goals I had set for this year are the following:

1. I want to finish my novel (ideally before NaNoWriMo, so that I can focus on a new story by then.
2. I want to put my TTRPG ruleset into words.
3. I want to make it to a progress of at least 75k words before next WE (luckily I am already at 42k right now)

More specifically, I had made some tangible goals as well, those being:

• I want to flesh out my megafauna more. Over the years I have noticed my own bias towards the concept "What if beeeg?" and its time I lean into that more! I want to make at least three new types of giant animal this year!
• The unknown as a terror is something I feel can satisfy my itch for darkness in the world quite nicely. I feel like I should therefore think about what is out there (quite paradoxical no?). If I can write two or more articles about the things beyond Tai'Sans veil I would be very happy.
• I need to think about things that have great influence on my world more. Two of those is my magic system(s) and organisations powerful and longlived enough to actively change the path of the world. I want to write about three world-level organisations this year and finally work out some of the rules of magic
• Finally I dont want to neglect normalcy for the sake of extraordinary. I want to match each of the above articles with a little one that describes life on a smaller scale, that fleshes out the day to day or that breathes details in between the broad strokes.

To get to the big goals first, I can proudly announce that I blew the third goal out of the water. WorldEmber is coming in 5 (?) months and I am already resting well above the 75k word goal, now having written 100k words about Tai'Sans Hearth. Time to up the ante. New (long term) goal is 1M words, but I wont renew a yearly goal until next January. Sometimes its ok to just rest on achieving the previous thing.
Regarding the smaller goals, I can happily report some very nice progress here also. The megafauna has been expanded, with writing about the Drachick, Sahal and Razortooth Giant expanding the beeg category of my fauna. Additionally, I made huge strides in the goal to focus on normalcy, which I am especially happy about. I was worried that I would struggle to fill in the stuff in the world that is not extraordinary, but instead I am glad that I got to expand majorly on normal life things in Aduël and Aruël. The other two goals are less done, but given that I made them with the idea of completing them during the entire year, I think I can cut myself some slack in that department.
Overall I think the first half of 2023 has been a great success! Which brings me to

New goals

Meta goals

Summer camp was a very productive period of time for me, and it helped me greatly in fleshing out Noria during the age in which I set my TTRPG stuff. I do however hope I dont notice a trend that may start now: After the big events during which I set ambitions goals and push myself, I seem to fall into creative slumps, which do not feel too great when it happens. After WorldEmber and Bestiary February I took a break (though I was also just very busy IRL during March) and after Adventure April was tough on me. Therefore for the time until the next challenges roll around I will make it my primary goal to listen to myself and see how striving for and hitting diamond during SC affects me after the fact. I want to avoid a cycle of just worldbuilding for the big events and badges (because I know how I can be prone to FOMO) and so if I notice that I see a pattern starting, I will deliberately set lower goals during the next events.

Worldbuilding goals

That being said I do want to continue worldbuilding and so I will make a new list for me to refer back to when looking for guidance on what to build next.

Goals from before Summer 2023

Non-Worldbuilding/Longer term

1. I want to finish my novel (ideally before NaNoWriMo, so that I can focus on a new story by then).
2. I want to put my TTRPG ruleset into words.
3. I want to make it to a progress of at least 75k words before next WE (luckily I am already at 42k right now)

Legacy goals

• I want to flesh out my megafauna more. Over the years I have noticed my own bias towards the concept "What if beeeg?" and its time I lean into that more! I want to make at least three new types of giant animal this year!
• The unknown as a terror is something I feel can satisfy my itch for darkness in the world quite nicely. I feel like I should therefore think about what is out there (quite paradoxical no?). If I can write two or more articles about the things beyond Tai'Sans veil I would be very happy.
• I need to think about things that have great influence on my world more. Two of those is my magic system(s) and organisations powerful and longlived enough to actively change the path of the world. I want to write about three world-level organisations this year and finally work out some of the rules of magic
• Finally I dont want to neglect normalcy for the sake of extraordinary. I want to match each of the above articles with a little one that describes life on a smaller scale, that fleshes out the day to day or that breathes details in between the broad strokes.

Future Goals Summer 2023

Non-Worldbuilding/Longer term

1. I want to finish my novel (ideally before NaNoWriMo, so that I can focus on a new story by then).
2. I want to put my TTRPG ruleset into words.
3. I want to listen to my bodies response after SC and if necessary set better goals to avoid potential burnouts.

Concrete goals

• There are 8 prompts I created articles for but did not work on. I want to flesh them out at least a bit. (The articles were Tennet, Northwatch, Cognitor Leti, Frenia, Of the Elusive Ksrizka, Octopuns!, The church of the Trinity and Lisandro Orazios)
• I want to do more collaborative stuff with my Tomies! Hopefully things can start happening in that regard in the near future :)
• (The unknown as a terror is something I feel can satisfy my itch for darkness in the world quite nicely. I feel like I should therefore think about what is out there (quite paradoxical no?). If I can write two or more articles about the things beyond Tai'Sans veil I would be very happy.)
• (I need to think about things that have great influence on my world more. Two of those is my magic system(s) and organisations powerful and longlived enough to actively change the path of the world. I want to write about three world-level organisations this year and finally work out some of the rules of magic)

The end!

Wow, what a long article! If you read until here, thanks for sticking around! If you read, liked and/or commented any of the stuff I put out during summer camp, thank you so much, it means the world to me that someone enjoys these silly things I hammer into my keyboard. I hope that I can read more excellent stuff from the community in the coming months and that I can contribute stuff that is at least somewhat on par with the quality you all deliver! Until then, I wish you all the best,

with love,

Nino