Summer Camp 2023 Pledge and Plan

Me and my muse, sitting at a small wooden table sipping spiced mead.
YARIK: So, Kros. What are your intentions with us?
ME: I don't know really. I feel like I just keep making empty promises to you. I really care about you and you've been so important to me but I feel like I keep failing everybody and I don't want to fail you too.
YARIK: But we live in your mind, Kros. Abandoning us won't free us, just kill us. You might think that letting people go will free them and make them happy and I don't know if that's true for the people in your life. But it will only cancel us. The only way to free us is to write us and let us be part of other people's minds.
ME: I worry I won't make you justice.
YARIK: That's a shame because you're the only one who can, so you should start to write more and get better if that's your worry. 

The Pledge

I, Kros, pledge to participate in this year Summer Camp and recover my love for my world and write at least 300 words for a few prompts. I will do my best to be infected by the hype and go feral on the new prompts and spit them back out unrecognizable if I must, but I will at least brainstorm new concepts for my setting.

The Why and the How

My main external goal with Hislariya is still to improve as a writer, editor, mapmaker and to learn to code some CSS
This year in particular the main focus will be to recover from my burnout. I am in particular struggling with writing the romance part of my stories, but I will start with something more tame and if the spark comes back I will follow it even if it means to stray away from the prompts.
Hislariya is much more my private garden than something to appeal a vaste audience.
This is more important than ever. I am struggling a lot recently and I need to reconnect with some parts of me through my writing. If this means that I won't share or notify some of my work, so be it.
Hislariya is also a gift to the people who believed in it from the very first spark of an idea.
I still love you all very much and am grateful for your support and affection, and I hope to be able to give you some new articles and stories, but please keep being understanding if this won't be the case.

The Focus Area

I decided during an informal brainstorming session with a friend that I will try to focus all my worldbuilding in the Kithanda region, if the prompts suit the premises. If not, I will bend the prompts, if even that is not possible, I will set it in another area of the world.

Prep Work

As for every year, I will keep myself organized and motivated by filling TJ's worldbuilding planner.
I used to make grand plans for preparations during summer camp prep month, but I think this year is the year to keep things simple and I only plan to follow the prep homework and brainstorm some lose ideas on 4thewords (they have a pride event going on and I want to collect some gadgets).
At most, if I have extra time, I will make some images moodboard or some playlist to use during SC for inspiration and to decorate the articles.

The Themes

Power

The first theme can be taken from a variety of different angles, so we'll see what the specific prompts suggest, but at first glance, it looks like I could talk about the lore regarding the Apex Mines Company and also I could slip in some articles about the power dynamics between Dragons-Humans-Makarids and how the current situation developed with the shift of power between dragons and humans.
I could also delve a bit in the history of hislariya and talk about some elements of its past that I only vaguely mentioned so far.
Another line of thought I can take is that of the magical power, though I think most of the core articles are already written.
I could also potentially brainstorm the details of some influential makarids clans, another element of the setting that I always meant to explore more in depth but never had the time or energy or excuse for.
If I get back the mind place for NSFW I could explore power dynamics and consensual power exchange in the cast of characters, maybe even release a companion side story for the theme.

Frontier

Frontier as borders, I could talk about the stretch of sea between Kithanda and Bada and the archipelagus that dots them.
Some of them are also legality frontiers, places where law doesn't always reach and pirates and smugglers have their bases.
Yariks' and the therapists study of the sensory stupor is also at the frontier of medical experimentation and, some would say, at the frontier of moral costumes.
Other friends of the therapists are people who push the boundaries of whar's known and of the status quo to reach new frontiers of acceptance, research and enlightment. Other are more interested in physical frontiers and are explorers of farther lands or thinkerer who try to bend to their wills the potentials of the natural laws.
Having a look at the past, there has been for sure frontier's conflicts between the dragon's possessions and the expanding humans nations, and most of the dragons went in hiding in remote locations at the frontier of the explored world. In Yarik library, several books focus on geographical and scientific exploration and I could detail some of their content in separate articles to give a glimpse at the world's history.
Many Makarids clans, pirates gangs and dragons set their hideouts in frontier localities and many organizations, for the most varied of motivations, are seeking them out in these areas.

Relic

Hislaritya has a rich history and many are the testimonial objects of its past, both from dragon manufacture and human manufacture. A lot of its main theme and esthetics is also linked to collection of old items and art pieces. It won't be difficult to come up with something relevant to the relic theme, either from the hottest spices itself, from the pirates, from the Sea Dragon's cult or from the dragon themselves.
Seeing that I wanted to concentrate on Kithanda, I think I would like to introduce the leader of apex mining company as a  collector too, in antithesis with Yarik, in particular a  collector of trophies from the raided makarids community. Some of these relics might be actual magical items of dragons power that the organization still failed to decipher. Some makarids history might have been lost at their hands and some of them might be trying to get back in possessions of these items.
Is Yarik one of them? Maybe Aurya? Are there dragons trying to  get back in possession with some of their treasure?  Where is this treasure kept? WHat level of power it gives to the leader of Apex? Apart from the obvious blackmail material, is there any magic that he managed to tap into? Has any part of this treasure managed to escape his hands? Who was the thief? Is any Sea Dragon cultist aiming at part of it? What about petty criminals or pirates? Has the treasure ever been transported and raided? What measures does he have in place to protect it? Is any part of it that is effecting him with a curs or other condition?Is there a particular relic he's obsessed to find but didn't manage yet?

Communication

One of the main themes of Hislariya is safe and healthy communication in romantic relationships, so I can use this theme to detail the ways this is implemented in hislariya.
One important application of the theme could be interspecies communication between humans and dragons and the attempts of the humans to decipher the old draconic language, and how dragons learn and use human languages to communicate with them. An important thing to consider could be the specific "dialect" of the human languages that the dragons and the makarids use to express concepts that are tipical of their own species.
Another subtheme could be specifically about communication in relationships and kink spaces and how the species differences might affect this.
Of importance is also the communication from the past and with the future, which is very important in the makarid community because of their attachment with the concept of family and lineage.
Communication between human nations is something I didn't explore much yet, but if I want to start delineating Kithanda I will need to think about it too. The communication challenges between the continent and the isles will extend also to the makarids communities in both places as most makarids adopt the human language of their base land and only in rare cases uses a heavily altered version of the draconic language.
Kithanda academies are surely studying ways to improve the speed of communication, but rarely concern themselves with the improvement of the effectiveness in communicating.
There is also the trope of the pirate cant that can be applied and adjusted to fit with Hislariya other themes, very likely it is  a language that heavily incorporates sexual references.
Again in the more spicey side, body language is something that is heavily used in my stories, as are negotiations contracts, love letters and slang terms. Some makarids specialize in the monitoring of negotiations between partners and in relying messages between lovers.

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