Pledge Summer Camp 2022

Creative goal

I will be working in a new alternative history world, "Rome and the Sasanians". I'm especially hoping to develop the Roman and Sasanian empires, their capitals and leaderships, their enmities for each other and the Barbarian tribes, and all the local social and political tensions - with a focus on gender roles, religions, and the faith-based magic system. I'm lucky that Summer Camp themes seem to fit perfectly with what I want to do!
Last year, I also did an alternative history world, and this allowed me to be super productive with the historical and science research I had to do and to clear lots of articles on my to-do list. I'm really happy with everything I did, as I really don't not think I would have had the motivation to do as much research and preparation for the setting without Summer Camp :D So this year I'm hoping to repeat the same success.
However, the rhythm of writing one article per day was hard when I had so much research to do. This year, since my world will not be following real history as closely as last year's world did, I'm hoping that I can go lighter on the research, write shorter articles, and have more time to relax. But we all know how my good resolutions on article length go XD

In a 4th century Roman Empire, Livia, the emperor's estranged daughter, is forced to go back to Rome with her mother to take refuge from the Sasanian invasion. This thrust her at the centre of the conflict between her parents, the deadly politics of the imperial court, and the attention of the empire's enemy, the Sasanian king.

Motivation

I want to do all this research and writing as a preparation for writing a novel set in that world. Like for all of my other projects, I want to focus on only what will actually be relevant to the novel. Which means that I will probably be making more general and "overview" articles rather than focus on tiny details.
While I will let myself be inspired by the prompts and twist them how much I need to get something I like out of them, I won't force myself to try to make something fit in the world if I don't think it belongs there. I normally don't have problems with that, but last Summer Camp I made one article that I will need to move in a quarantaine area at some point because it doesn't really fit with my vision of the world. I'm hoping not to repeat that mistake this year, and instead I give myself permission to go to two other worlds (The Magical University of Lille or Soul Jars) to write a few prompts if I need to.

Challenge goal

I'll be aiming for Diamond, but I might have to change that goal depending on what I'll be doing in July. My work contract is finishing at the end of June, so I'll be on "holidays", but I'll have to either do more job applications and interviews or to go to the other end of the country to visit apartments. If that's the case, it will probably be better for me to not write a daily article on those days and to reduce my article count accordingly, unless I am actually successful in writing shorter articles.

(ignore the year XD)

Summer Camp themes

Expanse:

geography: the steppes, Barbarian lands beyond the empires and the empires' outposts, the Mediterranean sea, deserts of the Sasanian empire with oasis cities, silk road, Roman networks of roads, inns, and messenger service

politics & cultural: Roman and Sasanian empires

urban expanse: massive city of Rome

religious: the dominant religions in each empire with minority ones

Leadership:

families: the Roman emperor and the imperial family, the Sasanian king and the royal family, the Barbarian leaders

politics: the Roman senate and senators, the Roman and Sasanian administration systems

military: the Roman and Sasanian generals

cities: Rome and Ctesiphon

religious: the religious leaders of the different faith

intellectual: notable philosophers, historians, and writers and their works

technological: feats of engineering (siege weapons, aqueduct, cement, cities, irrigation in the desert, roads, temples), the building of big impressive temples

organisations & culture: the Roman and Sasanian empires over the Barbarian who often imitates them, also how the conquered region of the empires are assimilated

Discovery:

geography: the Roman discovering Western Asia, the Persian discovering Europe with their conquest of Anatolia, Greece and now attacks of , the Barbarian discovering the empires and their urbanisation

ethnicity: new Barbarian people

intellectual: new art technique, historian rediscovering Rome's lost past, the Sasanian rediscovering the Persian past of their region, Barbarian discovering urban life

religious: new forms of magic (Roman forest magic, Sasanian fire magic, those of new Barbarian people), new gods, philosophy or interpretation (Manicheism, Ahura Mazda becoming the foremost deity in Zoroastrianism above Mithra and Anahita, Mazdakism, Christianity)

technologies: siege weapons, weapons, materials, Roman/Sasanian/Barbarian fighting styles new inventions and discovering about each other's

cultural: new freedom for women

Monstrous:

societal: slavery, women's freedom, rich vs poor in both the Roman and Sasanian empires, Sasanian priests trying to gain influences and the way the king is trying to limit that

political: Roman women's have limited involvement even if it's growing, inheritance of the Roman empire

cultural: the way some of the Barbarian tribes treat vanquished enemies, wars

Resources and inspirations

Roman resources

The Beginnings of Rome: Italy from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars by Tim J. Cornell

24 hours in Ancient Rome by Philip Matyszak

Roman Woman: Everyday Life in Hadrian's Britain by Lindsay Allason-Jones

A Writers Guide to Ancient Rome by Carey Fleiner

Ancient Magic: A Practitioner's Guide to the Supernatural in Greece and Rome by Philip Matyszak

Sexe et Pouvoir à Rome by Paul Veyne

Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans by Garret Ryan

Legionary: the Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine by Noel Lenski

An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Uniforms of the Roman world by Kevin F Kiley

Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods, But Verify by Rose Mary Sheldon

Kill Caesar!: Assassination in the Early Roman Empire by Rose Mary Sheldon

The Roman World 44 BC-AD 180 by Martin Goodman

Sasanian resources

Sasanian Persia: the Rise and Fall of an Empire by Touraj Daryaee

Sasanian Persia: between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia by E B Sauer

The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires by V S Curtis et al

The Armies of Ancient Persia: the Sassanians by Kaveh Farrokh

(review article) Legal status of women in the Sassanid’s Era (224–651 AD) by Mahmoud Emami Namin. Cogent Arts & Humanities. (2018)

Image resources and inspirations

Paintings representing historical Iranian women by Hojat Shakiba (under copyright, cannot use).

Reconstruction of Sasanian kings' portraits from busts and coins by Mo Rasoulipour (free to use).

Reconstruction of archaeological sites from the Roman and Sasanian empires by Balage Balogh (can be licensed).

I've found images I can use for my characters on DepositPhotos, and I've adapted them to fit my setting. I have also a few European paintings in the public domain that represents Ancient Rome.

For Sasanian Persia, I have found a few limited images that I can use, but it doesn't seem that there is a lot available on the internet that is free to use or licensable.

Shapur, King of Kings of Iran and non-Iran by Mo Rasoulipour

Emperor Junius by TopVectors on DepositPhotos

Princess Livia by TopVectors on DepositPhotos

Empress Aurelia by TopVectors on DepostPjotos

Meta

I answers some questions from the worldbuilding meta in my world introduction.

Organisation

I've created categories and added category bookcovers to my homepage, and I wrote a world introduction in preparation for Summer Camp. Regarding my schedule, for the first two weeks of July I am planning to write all the time when I'm not organising my move. After that I'm not sure yet as it's going to depend on when exactly I'm moving and then what my parents want to do. But I know I'm going to miss at least the last 3-4 days of July so I need to be done before that. As for my support community, this is all my friends on the WA discord and private discords.