World Ember Reading Challenge 2021
Table of Contents
I spent a lot of time reading articles from many different authors during the whole of WE. It's impossible for me to mention them all, so I chose to showcase my favourite from the people I read the most. See the next section for bonus articles by even more people!
Angantyr's magic system is really fascinating, and I love how he presents it and use the concept of "weaving". I love technology and magic system articles and reading some always inspire me to make more :D
Luca wrote a series of of ethnicity articles during WE, and I really like the format he has used for them. He has made each of them really unique and drawn out a few characteristics about their lifestyle and how they influence their culture, history, and relationships with others that's very interesting. I'll have to come back to reference them when I do another ethnicity article.
Murder rabbit!!! Cato is always good at writing animal, cute and less cute :D She always come up with interesting biology or behaviour for them. Reading about them always make me want to make my own.
This is a great introduction to the setting, the history of how a whole civilisation was almost completely destroyed, and a presentation of the still ongoing conflict. Dani said this is the background for the setting of a story, and this made me think about how to introduce my own setting with one article and compare how I did it during WE (The defeat of the Dark Lord)
Dhelian has written a series of geography article during WE, and what stood out to me the most about them is how he managed to keep all of them short and yet different from each other by letting the geographical features of the region impact on societies, politics and history. This was something very interesting to see written side by side, and I will definitely have to think about it next time I write a geography article.
This is a cute mushroom article. I love the way people use snails to fight back against it! Emy is really good with making her article seem super realistic despite some fantastical elements to them. I used her mushroom articles as an exemple before writing mine (Storm mushrooms), and her enthusiasm about mushrooms has been super communicative and this is what got many of us writing mushroom articles during WE :D
This is a prose article showing how the main character, Rose, met the rest of the pirate crew and how they all got their hands on the super yacht they made into their ship. I love Jacob world for how he manages to let his expertise about sailing and all things ship shine, and this article shows how to incorporate that into prose too. Expertise in an area can really help with making unique worldbuilding, and this reminds me not to write mine off as something too basic or not interesting as it would certainly be for people not working in the same field as me.
I love kef world and a few of his articles stood out to me in WE. I love the science fantasy aspect of his world, but I chose this article because it presents the advanced society that is considered to be gods. I really love how mysterious they are and the little hints that were left about them in other articles. Even now that they have their own article, they are still a lot of mysteries left and this got my imagination going! This shows that sometimes it's best not too reveal too much :p His articles mentioning my favourite of his species, the very cool snake-like Selefer people, also always remind me I need to make my own snake people at some point.
As a vet, Kros is unsurprisingly very good with talking about biology :D This jellyfish article described very well the different aspect of the condition they can cause, while their species article describe half-dragon people's biology, culture and all the discrimination about them. I love how their expertise influence the way they write articles and make them really unique.
This is the tragic history of a betrayal and a divine curse and how everyone still suffers because of this. I love how Melu has introduced her setting through a series of articles that all built up on each other to reveal different interconnected aspects. Reading each of them really made me want to know more and keep going to the next articles and highlights the importance of taking the time to develop a few aspects of a world/story at a time.
Naelin wrote a series of sentient species articles this WE, and I really love how unique some of them are and how different they are from each others. In particular, the way he didn't shy away from giving them a different biology and has let that influence their culture. Their interactions with each other, and the stereotypes and discrimination is also fascinating. I'll definitely use the articles as references once I'll start making my own sentient species.
Amazingly cute little dragons! I absolutely love the series of articles nnie has written about them and how she developed their link to their hoard and to the banking system. Her articles about the coins, calendar, and cosmology of her world were really interesting. Those were not topic about which I intended to write at all, but the combination of them and TJ's own coin and calendar articles convinced me: Coins and trading system in the empire, Imperial calendar.
This is an absolutely amazing and fascinating world of underwater sentient beings living inside "sphere", gigantic sea creatures with a gas sphere on there back. This article was a super interesting deep dive into one of those sphere, showing something I was waiting for: a glimpse of daily life from the inhabitants of this world and how their society functions. I really love the starting concept for this world and how Rumengol doesn't hesitate to explore all the bizarre aspects and consequences they have on the society they depict, and all the technology and biological concept that comes from it. The way Rumengol has adapted the concepts of clouds and speech to an underwater world is really fascinating. All of this highlight the importance looking at the consequences of worldbuilding elements and of showing mundane details of the world we invent.
Great summary of the events of the Games of Tomes war against the Zombie Horde. I really love all the lore behind the event, that made everything really fun. This article details how last November, the most amazing of all House (totally unbiased opinion!), House Lapin, won the Iron Tome, all zombies were resurrected and we all became friend again. But I'll still have revenge for my keyboard!!!!
A coming of age ritual making young adult go into very creepy ruins filled with monsters and mysteries. I always love creepy ruins since I read Tolkien's Moria, and Satrium's were a nice example and inspired me to add my own to one of my world (Soul Jars).
Super interesting examination of all the cultural impact the importance of their beards has on dwarven society. Beards are almost always thought as an important characteristics of dwarves, but I've never seen before an in depth examination of the cultural consequences, and I really loved to read about it. This highlights the importance of how important and fun it is to look at the cultural impacts of the worldbuilding elements we create.
I always love the fun horrors Sloqush come up with, and how utterly bizarre and murderous most of them are. This one is about a food critique with strange culinary taste and an awful personality, and it really shows you can take any kind of concept and twist them if you have enough imagination! The way an article is presented really impact on how they are perceived, and Sloqush always make theirs super fun to read.
A very reluctant host of the famous emission five hundred ways to die, he even let himself get killed several times during the first few seasons! If that isn't dedication to your job XD I always love Solar's character articles. She make them fun and/or interesting, give us a real feel for the characters while still keeping some mystery and intrigue for her novels. It's also something I'm trying to do for my own character articles, so I like seeing how other people are dealing with that.
Amazing article finally revealing what happened during the war that made the god-husks! This article is not only amazing because of its css and splendid art. I really like how Stormbril presented the conflict itself, with a quick summary of what happened day by day and vignette with short dialogues by the characters with their picture next to it. This really made the conflict feel a lot more alive and helped me keep track of who was doing what and when. And this also gave me a much better feel for the personalities and relationship of all the gods than I had until now. Next time I write a conflict, I'll have to think about how I could do something similar.
TC is always great at writing atmospheric articles even when they're not myth! This one stood out to me because it's a "simple" geography article, yet they managed to make it feel really poetic. I love the name "Lands of the Wind" and the image of plains covered by strong winds. It was interesting to see how this influenced people settlements and explorations. The article reminded me of the importance of the way our articles are written.
TJ is always amazing with considering little details minor aspects of his worldbuilding. He wrote a series of great article for WE, and his coin and calendar articles combined with nnie's inspired me to make my own. However this language article stood a lot more to me, especially because off the writing system and the way people are counting which is incredibly cool. That's a small detail, but not something I had considered before. I have a projet idea for a world where maths is important, and I'll have to think more about doing something different with those elements rather than just copy our systems.
This articles is a myth set in the world of Qet, a setting I really love thanks to Timepool's Mesoamerican inspiration for it and how they have managed to transcribe that feeling into their writing. This shows how unique and interesting settings not using classical Western culture as inspiration can be.
1) Get Book 1 of the Empire of the Covenant ready for submission to agents by the end of January and start the submission process (done!).
2) Revise my three other books to make them ready for beta readers (February & March to revise Portal to Sérannie, April (Camp Naowrimo) & May to revise The Engineering Corps, if more time revise The Magical University of Lille)
3) Focus on developing Portal to Sérannie, then Magical University of Lille on World Anvil.
4) If enough progress has been made on that, work on a new world during Summer Camp so that I can write the novel set there in November. Otherwise use July to develop one of those worlds and November to write Academia Romance.
Mushrooms!
I made a list for all the mushroom articles that were written during WE 2021 :D (If you have one that is not on the list, don't hesitate to add it!): Mushroom list.Recommended articles
Angantyr
Angantyr's magic system is really fascinating, and I love how he presents it and use the concept of "weaving". I love technology and magic system articles and reading some always inspire me to make more :D
Luca/AzounIV
Luca wrote a series of of ethnicity articles during WE, and I really like the format he has used for them. He has made each of them really unique and drawn out a few characteristics about their lifestyle and how they influence their culture, history, and relationships with others that's very interesting. I'll have to come back to reference them when I do another ethnicity article.
Catoblepon
Murder rabbit!!! Cato is always good at writing animal, cute and less cute :D She always come up with interesting biology or behaviour for them. Reading about them always make me want to make my own.
DaniAdventures
This is a great introduction to the setting, the history of how a whole civilisation was almost completely destroyed, and a presentation of the still ongoing conflict. Dani said this is the background for the setting of a story, and this made me think about how to introduce my own setting with one article and compare how I did it during WE (The defeat of the Dark Lord)
Dylonshere123
The way Dylon use a series of articles to tell a continuous story is really fantastic, and I also love the different ways he balances the narrative with the worldbuilding elements into his articles, with either the narration highlighting the worldbuilding or the worldbuilding being mere prop to what is going on in the story. His example has really influenced the way I've been using quotes to tell stories in my own articles, with Lady Oriane Merisse, the recurring character I used for WE the ultimate results of this.
In this particular series of the narrative, I really love Amberlie, the character introduced by that first article. Her expertise with chemistry and medicine really resonated with me :p And I really like how Dylon has brought that into play in the narrative. The other article that stood out the most in the series is the Eden ships with how utterly alien they are and how Dylon still managed to describe them beautifully.
Dhelian
Dhelian has written a series of geography article during WE, and what stood out to me the most about them is how he managed to keep all of them short and yet different from each other by letting the geographical features of the region impact on societies, politics and history. This was something very interesting to see written side by side, and I will definitely have to think about it next time I write a geography article.
Emy/Serukis
This is a cute mushroom article. I love the way people use snails to fight back against it! Emy is really good with making her article seem super realistic despite some fantastical elements to them. I used her mushroom articles as an exemple before writing mine (Storm mushrooms), and her enthusiasm about mushrooms has been super communicative and this is what got many of us writing mushroom articles during WE :D
Jacob-W
This is a prose article showing how the main character, Rose, met the rest of the pirate crew and how they all got their hands on the super yacht they made into their ship. I love Jacob world for how he manages to let his expertise about sailing and all things ship shine, and this article shows how to incorporate that into prose too. Expertise in an area can really help with making unique worldbuilding, and this reminds me not to write mine off as something too basic or not interesting as it would certainly be for people not working in the same field as me.
Kefkejaco
I love kef world and a few of his articles stood out to me in WE. I love the science fantasy aspect of his world, but I chose this article because it presents the advanced society that is considered to be gods. I really love how mysterious they are and the little hints that were left about them in other articles. Even now that they have their own article, they are still a lot of mysteries left and this got my imagination going! This shows that sometimes it's best not too reveal too much :p His articles mentioning my favourite of his species, the very cool snake-like Selefer people, also always remind me I need to make my own snake people at some point.
Kros
As a vet, Kros is unsurprisingly very good with talking about biology :D This jellyfish article described very well the different aspect of the condition they can cause, while their species article describe half-dragon people's biology, culture and all the discrimination about them. I love how their expertise influence the way they write articles and make them really unique.
Melu
This is the tragic history of a betrayal and a divine curse and how everyone still suffers because of this. I love how Melu has introduced her setting through a series of articles that all built up on each other to reveal different interconnected aspects. Reading each of them really made me want to know more and keep going to the next articles and highlights the importance of taking the time to develop a few aspects of a world/story at a time.
Mochi
While I love Mochi's creature articles, I've chosen to showcase here an article that makes blood its own chemistry element. As a chemist I had to read it XD I always like any article that mentions chemistry or use chemistry as basis for magic, so I really ought to write more of them. In this article, Mochi came up with an interesting magic system using that blood, and I'll have to read more of their element articles.
Naelin
Naelin wrote a series of sentient species articles this WE, and I really love how unique some of them are and how different they are from each others. In particular, the way he didn't shy away from giving them a different biology and has let that influence their culture. Their interactions with each other, and the stereotypes and discrimination is also fascinating. I'll definitely use the articles as references once I'll start making my own sentient species.
Nnie
Amazingly cute little dragons! I absolutely love the series of articles nnie has written about them and how she developed their link to their hoard and to the banking system. Her articles about the coins, calendar, and cosmology of her world were really interesting. Those were not topic about which I intended to write at all, but the combination of them and TJ's own coin and calendar articles convinced me: Coins and trading system in the empire, Imperial calendar.
Panthers Eye
I like Panthers' series of articles about the goddess Irath and the myth people have about her and her sister. The different version presenting one or the other as the "good guy" and the resulting conflicts between their churches is really interesting. I should also consider more religious conflicts and different interpretations of events and religious texts between them in my settings.
Qurilion
Join the league by making a world/articles with evil gods messing up with their mortals! I love the idea of terrible gods, Qurilion always come up with fun and/or fascinating concepts. This inspired me to make a new world and a particularly interesting church of the Sun God :p
The gods
The gods
Rumengol
This is an absolutely amazing and fascinating world of underwater sentient beings living inside "sphere", gigantic sea creatures with a gas sphere on there back. This article was a super interesting deep dive into one of those sphere, showing something I was waiting for: a glimpse of daily life from the inhabitants of this world and how their society functions. I really love the starting concept for this world and how Rumengol doesn't hesitate to explore all the bizarre aspects and consequences they have on the society they depict, and all the technology and biological concept that comes from it. The way Rumengol has adapted the concepts of clouds and speech to an underwater world is really fascinating. All of this highlight the importance looking at the consequences of worldbuilding elements and of showing mundane details of the world we invent.
SableAradia
Great summary of the events of the Games of Tomes war against the Zombie Horde. I really love all the lore behind the event, that made everything really fun. This article details how last November, the most amazing of all House (totally unbiased opinion!), House Lapin, won the Iron Tome, all zombies were resurrected and we all became friend again. But I'll still have revenge for my keyboard!!!!
Satrium
A coming of age ritual making young adult go into very creepy ruins filled with monsters and mysteries. I always love creepy ruins since I read Tolkien's Moria, and Satrium's were a nice example and inspired me to add my own to one of my world (Soul Jars).
ShadowPhoenix / Sh4d0wPh03n1x
Super interesting examination of all the cultural impact the importance of their beards has on dwarven society. Beards are almost always thought as an important characteristics of dwarves, but I've never seen before an in depth examination of the cultural consequences, and I really loved to read about it. This highlights the importance of how important and fun it is to look at the cultural impacts of the worldbuilding elements we create.
Sloqush
I always love the fun horrors Sloqush come up with, and how utterly bizarre and murderous most of them are. This one is about a food critique with strange culinary taste and an awful personality, and it really shows you can take any kind of concept and twist them if you have enough imagination! The way an article is presented really impact on how they are perceived, and Sloqush always make theirs super fun to read.
SolarCat02
A very reluctant host of the famous emission five hundred ways to die, he even let himself get killed several times during the first few seasons! If that isn't dedication to your job XD I always love Solar's character articles. She make them fun and/or interesting, give us a real feel for the characters while still keeping some mystery and intrigue for her novels. It's also something I'm trying to do for my own character articles, so I like seeing how other people are dealing with that.
Stormbril
Amazing article finally revealing what happened during the war that made the god-husks! This article is not only amazing because of its css and splendid art. I really like how Stormbril presented the conflict itself, with a quick summary of what happened day by day and vignette with short dialogues by the characters with their picture next to it. This really made the conflict feel a lot more alive and helped me keep track of who was doing what and when. And this also gave me a much better feel for the personalities and relationship of all the gods than I had until now. Next time I write a conflict, I'll have to think about how I could do something similar.
TC/TheChangeling
TC is always great at writing atmospheric articles even when they're not myth! This one stood out to me because it's a "simple" geography article, yet they managed to make it feel really poetic. I love the name "Lands of the Wind" and the image of plains covered by strong winds. It was interesting to see how this influenced people settlements and explorations. The article reminded me of the importance of the way our articles are written.
TJ/Melior
TJ is always amazing with considering little details minor aspects of his worldbuilding. He wrote a series of great article for WE, and his coin and calendar articles combined with nnie's inspired me to make my own. However this language article stood a lot more to me, especially because off the writing system and the way people are counting which is incredibly cool. That's a small detail, but not something I had considered before. I have a projet idea for a world where maths is important, and I'll have to think more about doing something different with those elements rather than just copy our systems.
Timepool
This articles is a myth set in the world of Qet, a setting I really love thanks to Timepool's Mesoamerican inspiration for it and how they have managed to transcribe that feeling into their writing. This shows how unique and interesting settings not using classical Western culture as inspiration can be.
Bonus articles
Those are all great articles I read during December but that I couldn't fit above.Aster/PrincessESH
Condition affecting people's auraChris/Eccbooks
A fun character based on Captain HookDazzlinkat
Choose your own adventure story. I got eaten by the cat! O_OGege16
The bad guy in a world inspired by Russian cultureGern
Super interesting article based on the first "scientists" (the natural philosopher) and the historical sciences of alchemy and chemistryImoenkim
Fascinating cultural tradition in a matriarchal societyJames Woodwright
Article showing all the details of the profession of wax maker and how to make waxKitoypoy
Science fantasy technology to explain airship transportLyraine
Another coin article I used as inspiration to write mine :DMaybeStewart
Myth showing loving gods defending their familyMezzopatricia
Very fun article on the language of flowers, how to send elaborate messages with them, and how it differs between culturesMikaro
I'm a crazy scientist feeding people to my plants :pMilladamen
A nice winter feast traditionMishralalayana
Fascinating species/ethnicity that used to hunted and are now "protected"OncomingShower
Nice organisation/adventurer group and a perfect song composed by Satrium and sang by OncomingShower to put people in the right mood!Rey Write
Fun language article about words and symbols that make up the thieves' secret code/slangShyredfox
An interesting condition coming from a natural catastrophe and affecting people's kiTim/Bonus Action
A magical war where towers play an important partVoxT1
A character living with an injured soul2022 Plans
My plans this year are to mostly focus on the four novels I have already written:1) Get Book 1 of the Empire of the Covenant ready for submission to agents by the end of January and start the submission process (done!).
2) Revise my three other books to make them ready for beta readers (February & March to revise Portal to Sérannie, April (Camp Naowrimo) & May to revise The Engineering Corps, if more time revise The Magical University of Lille)
3) Focus on developing Portal to Sérannie, then Magical University of Lille on World Anvil.
4) If enough progress has been made on that, work on a new world during Summer Camp so that I can write the novel set there in November. Otherwise use July to develop one of those worlds and November to write Academia Romance.
OMG! You included one of my articles :O thank you <3