Worldember Prep 2023 - A mystical threshold

Oh hey, it me!
My hand has sutures in and bandages around it and is curbing my plans for NaNoWriMo harder than my procrastination ever could have. I suppose I can do a little typing about my plans for WorldEmber though, as slow as that may be!

Initial Thoughts

WorldEmber marks my first anniversary of really becoming active on WorldAnvil as a whole, so I am very excited. Last time I got over 25k words out over the month, most of it setting up the skeleton framework of Tai'Sans Hearth or Focis, my main project, which had hitherto only been cooking in the dark recesses of my brain. I also met so many amazing people in the worldember channel on the discord, including many of my now heroes be it in creativity, work ethic or CSS wizardry.
I can't wait for that to be back once more. Since WE a lot happened, including two Worldbuilding Award Nominations, achieving Diamond during Summer Camp and so much more! I am still amazed how this year flew by with this amazing community. Now onto the Homework ^^

Homework

Week 1 - Pledging and zoning in

My area of focus comes with an exciting new development. I recently indoctrinated partnered up with a good real life friend of mine Ben and we are now creating a world together! It is called Thræsh's Hold and in it we are exploring spooky themes and the human condition. I used Spooktober to create 11 stubs around the initial scope of the setting, and have written an introductory article, which allows you to take your first steps into the world, written fully in character. You can step into Moondoor, the settings preeminent city and learn what your life might be like at the start of a new year!

Naturally, it made sense to me to use WorldEmber to flesh out those Spooktober stubs and really start cooking with gas (or coals in this case). Thræsh's Hold excites me because I get to explore the supernatural/surreal, which never really fit into my main project thematically. Also, this is the first world I am making with a clear distinct goal of theme and genre so I am excited how trying to enforce these things in my writing will affect the process.

Overall, I will start with Moondoor as the major hub of civilisation in our inital setting/area, what this means in terms of its structure and what life would be like in Moondoor for the little guy/gal. I get giddy about it already ^^

If you think Thræsh's Hold might be for you, why not give it a follow and keep up with what I get up to during WE? Its very bare-bones right now but I will make sure to organise the world and start making it look nicer with some rudimentary CSS before we get to December :)

The Pledge

Last time during WE I smashed through the 10k and in the end got to over 25k by the end of the month. While it would be great to do so again with the new world/project, I am deliberately not pledging to do 25k for two main reasons:

• Reason 1: During last December I was alone in Tokyo, just a few weeks into a semester abroad. I had not made that many friends yet so I channeled alot of my spare time into worldbuilding. This year I am back in my home country and I doubt that I will have the same about of time again.
• Reason 2: I noticed during SC specifically, that pushing for the absolute max leaves me in a creative slump after the event ends. I want to avoid this kind of burnout at all costs, so I am intentionally aiming lower and anything exceeding my goal will just be a nice bonus on top.

Because of this, my pledge is to write 10,000 new words of original worldbuilding during December! (see above ;P) Lets get to it! (Oh and of course I will be competing for the special categories once more ^^)

The wonderful, spectacular, aweinspiring Annie has created a community badge for WE, the Comment Carolers!
Join us as we spread love and awesomeness throughout the event <3 (Click on the image/badge to learn more :)

Week 2: Preparing the Hold

Alright, week two and my hand is still in a bandage. On the bright side, my sutures are due to be removed next week and I can sort of type again, no infection, no nerve damage, no nothing honestly. Well except for a gnarly (is that still something the kids say?) scar that is forming. Perhaps one day I will be more scar tissue than man at this rate... Anyhoo, homework week 2 is here and its time to dig in!

Part One - Meta Madness

Given that I just did my meta for Thræsh's Hold (as linked to the right), and also considering that the initial scope of the world is precisely the thing I will do during WorldEmber, I will just reread and ponder upon the meta parts relevant here: As a short prior to that, Ben and I agreed that I will primarily do the mundane aspects of the world first (fleshing out the basics and that he will focus on magic and the metaphysical).

The Scope...

... will remain the same as we planned for the world. On a physical level, I will explore what is in and around Moondoor, and on a higher level I will start working on what it means to be human within Thræsh's Hold

Common Themes...

... I want to focus on are the fear of the unknown, be it your neighbor or the wilderness beyond the gates, and the upheaval that comes with a large enough technological advancement.

The Mood...

... in Thræsh's Hold is supposed to be one of contrasts. On a larger level, the world is supposed to feel eerie and uncanny, but on a much more personal level humans are able to find brightness and beauty within all the chaos and cruelty.

Goals!

By the end of WorldEmber, I want to have:
A map of Moondoor and one of its surroundings with articles linking away from it.
A rough history of the area reaching back about three generations or more
An understanding of what the culture of Moondoor looks like
At least 4 articles on the various levels of technology used in Moondoor.

Part 2 - Category Structure

Organisation will take me a few days, for two reasons and neither of those being that I am lazy (which I am, I just happen to have good reasons outside that). Reason one is that I need to confer with my cocreator, Ben (see above), on what we want to focus on. Reason two: I need to figure that out myself. From the top of my head important categories would be what I have listed on the right. Below I will put what I discussed with Ben, once I have done that.
Update: During our talk we settled on yet another eight-fold symmetry (more on that another time) and went for four physical and four metaphysical categories. I primarily will take care of the physical stuff, which are the more grounded elements. During WE, my main focus will be building a strong base to expand from, meaning that I will flesh out the area around Moondoor, which technologies are new and which are old (or non-existent), and finally flesh out a rough cultural and historical backdrop which covers how we got here.

Important categories:
Resulting from the fabric of the world:

• Magic (as a result of paths along the fourth dimension)
• Strange Phenomena throughout the world
• Bestiary (incl. Fae)
• Cosmology (Thræsh and Divine Spheres)

Mundane stuff to ground the world:

• Geography
• History
• Cultures
• Technology

Part "you wanted uniform numbering right?" - Other Worlds out there!

Cathedris

Like the god-husks of Cathedris themselves, this masterpiece of a worldanvil world hovers over this project in my mind. Stormbril has set the bar for me in so many ways that it is hard to count. The css and page design is immaculate and wonderful. The worldbuilding is grim and enchanting, and most of all it all just overflows with creativity. I already fear that what I create will be but a pale shadow of Cathedris, but on the other hand I want to aim high. Even if I wont reach Cathedris levels of perfection, I feel like I will achieve some cool stuff just by trying

Malkora

Created by my very own chapter leader, the incomparable Line, Malkora is not really a world with the same vibe like the one we are aiming for in Thræsh's Hold, but I just had to include this beauty of a world in my list. Line wants to explore magic in Malkora during this WE with a specific focus on the leylines that run through the world as well as the divine pantheon that shapes the world as a whole. I feel like I still know very little about Malkora as a whole, so I look forward to finally diggin into new areas of this world.

Dark-Fall

Speaking of worlds I have not read a lot about, as part of this Prep, I found a world I have never set foot in before today! Thanks WE prep for making me search for something new! Dark-Fall looks like a feast for the eyes and based on the little primer text I read so far, it shares some interesting themes with the Hold, namely a dark world in which the wilderness is plagued by dangers and life outside a support network is dangerous. I hope that I can read up on some parts of Dark-Fall during Worldember and perhaps draw inspiration from it.

Week 3: Onboarding

Our homepage has a facelift now! I did a complete overhaul of our css during this week and wrote out a nice welcome message! If you wish to check it out, here is another link!

Once WorldEmber starts I am making a nice Primer, but for now this is how it will remain.

Week 4: Last Minute Prep!

Prep is done! I have my tomies (chapter Seven Tomes) to support me on my journey, I have prepared a google sheet according to which I need to write about 500 words a day to hit my goal and today I am going shopping for some snacks. Bring it on WorldEmber!
See you next week <3