WE21 Reading Challenge
Thoughts & Resolutions for 2022
While I completed WorldEmber 2021, I really stayed out of the community and just did my own thing because that's what felt right. I debated doing the reading challenge because I felt mostly removed from the great WA community, but thought this would be a chance to find some cool articles/worlds and figure out many of Isekai's goals for 2022, even if I have a ton of personal writing goals already written.
My search through the WorldEmber board found some great articles, far more than could be mentioned here. The ones listed are just a few that I thought would be fun to talk about.
Cathartics
Having written a ton of ethnicity articles between Summer Camp and WorldEmber, I wanted to take a look at an ethnicity someone else created. This article by Ademal did not disappoint. While a rather short article, it did give a great deal of context about these people in an easy to read format that I always appreciate as part of Ethnis. Every foray into Ethnis drives me to work more on my formating and my content as I would love to eventually hit 1 million words in Isekai like the Ethnis crew did during WorldEmber.Shinobi
While I have seen Jester% post on Reddit for many months now, I wasn't able to dive into the world of The Sagas fully until this challenge. The title caught my eye on the WorldEmber boards and was astounded by the article as soon as I opened it. This article on Shinobi goes into great detail, explaining important features of a military formation including weapons and equipment. When I write, I hope that the articles I put out have that level of detail and are formatted well.Soulfood
Sometimes food gets forgotten in worldbuilding or when it is written, its not always the greatest. The article Soulfood by Theiket is really wholesome and makes me want some chocolate to boot. It's really fun seeing creative articles on food that bring in a bit of everyday life and the joy brought by certain things. Thei's article makes me want to write about a lot more food in my world, especially things that are a bit wholesome and mundane.Fundamentals of Magic
As we begin to work on fleshing out the magic system in Isekai, I applaud anyone that has gone through that process or has even begun it. The Fundamentals of Magic by Fall is a succinct explanation of basic magic in the world, one that serves as a good introduction. Other articles expand on the magic system of the world, but this base article provides a good background before moving on to other things.Adroon Library
From what I've seen in the past, Kefkejaco is known for fantastic and vivid article layouts. This article is no different, boasting colorful category covers and maps that really bring the article to life and make it pop. Reading this definitely gave me some ideas about how to better incorporate some of WA's other functions into articles that I don't normally use.Prismarine
Another very detailed article, Prismarine gives life to something I assumed was a fictional item due to research associated with Minecraft. Dutrius does great work making the stone come to life in their world, with beautiful artwork as well.The Week of Terrors
ninne124 is another who's articles never disappoint. This article was a must read after realizing what it was about and takes a great approach to a difficult topic. Overall, the article is well-written and while sometimes topics such as this are difficult to cover in fantasy, it is done very well without lacking the necessary details for this article to come alive.Illirfrain
The Illirfrain were not what I was expecting when I began reading this article, but the writing of PanthersEye caught me and I was immediately interested. My favorite parts of this article detail idioms and literature involved the fabled Illirfrain, which sheds some light on the culture and peoples that surround or know the myth.Mapfolk
Melior is by far one of my favorite and most inspirational worlds to read and as always published some amazing articles to read during WorldEmber. From layout to content, there's little I didn't like, and a great deal of work was put into the peripheral things, such as images and maps, to bring this article to life. Every time I read through Melior, I gain more ideas about organization and formatting that can help me with future articles.Dwarf Tossing
The hilarious name caught my eye and I was honestly not expecting a rather serious sport, but Endrise created a great article that is a great explanation of a sport the Dwarves participate in. The information very much reminded me of the Ancient Olympics but it also fell right in line with how the Dwarves are. A very succinct article with a great deal of information is always great to find.2022 Goals
As of yesterday (1/17/22), Isekai officially reached 500,000 words written. When I started the world in 2019, I never expected this to happen but now we're reaching further and hopefully can reach this goal fairly easily. Return to Seireitei
October 2022 marks the return of the BLEACH anime and with that, I would like to return to Seireitei and do some writing in that world, even if its only a small amount. Calendar & Timeline Work
I would like to get our calendar and timelines up to speed with what has currently been written in our world so that these items can be used as quick references. Updates & Rewrites
Isekai is still in the middle of its big reorganization that started mid-2021. We're updating names and lore to fit more with the direction that we're going it. TTRPG System
The Storybook System is currently in the works but we weren't able to complete as much of it as we wanted to last year. Hopefully we can get closer to some testable rules this year. Write What We Want
This is by far the most important goal. We've gotten really hung up on writing for challenges and prompts and we would like to get back to writing the things that we enjoy. This means it may be days or weeks between updates or there may be a ton of notifications in one day. My biggest hope for 2022 is that we are happy with what we're doing and don't feel like it's forced.
Some great picks here of which I have not read some yet :o Thanks for including me in the list :D! Really appreciate it.