WorldEmber 2022

The Fires Continue

Every year as the snows deepen and the cold reaches in, the fires of Isekai alight, warming those that gather to share stories of old and new. Those of all ages, experienced Storytellers and younglings alike, gather and join in this honored tradition around the fires of Winter's Evening.

The WorldEmber

The morning of Winter's Evening breaks to silence, the calm before the flurry of quill and ink or voice and song. What has dawned that morning stretches far beyond the lands of Isekai, permeating worlds and planes far and near, bringing forth stories for all to hear. Of all these places, Isekai is not unique, it is another plane with thousands of budding stories waiting to find their light in the darkness of this cold time of year. The fires bring excitement and passion, all things needed in the darkness, a last hurrah as the year comes to its close. As the month dawns, the fires are lit, and the quest begins anew.
The fires burn for the length of Winter's Evening, marking a celebration of storytelling. But only the bravest, most courageous, or those that wish to have their tale heard participate in this daunting challenge. It is a marathon of storytelling, a feat of word crafting, all for the sake of alighting the world with stories until the fires of Winter's Evening have burned their last.

Winter's Evening

The beginning of Winter's Evening dawns quietly, the Storytellers preparing their lore before the sun sinks below the horizon and the cold night before them presents the perfect stage for their craft. The fires warm and draw people in, their excitement palpable as they wait for the newest telling of culture and history.
Those of other planes and worlds may not wait for the canvas of the night to paint their tales, but the Storytellers of Isekai use the night to draw people close, accentuating their words with the cold puff of their breath. The winter has begun, and deep snows cause people to look for comfort and entertainment, often within the glow of a roaring fire.
For a moment, the fires erase the cold, marking people with the warmth of passion and excitement. This year's stories may be retellings or additions to those of old, but they are nonetheless things needed to be spoken about when the year has reached its end.

Stories of the People

When the fires begin burning, those of all races and cultures enter the glow, reading to share the traditions and truths of their people. The brilliant scales of the Dragonkin can be seen amongst the group just as the divination of the Centaurs can be heard through whispers.
As the year draws to a close, so many have come to share the stories of their people, to show the world a side of them that few knew existed. All those who wish to show their heritage join together, telling stories as the days of Spring's Morning move ever closer.

Reaching Spring's Morning

Once again we have gathered around the smoldering fires, warm cups clutched in hand, as Storytellers of all creeds begin their ballads, painting the sky with pictures and histories not to be forgotten. Even through the trials of the years past, we all join and share stories and joy around the fires.
The Goal of WorldEmber: To reach 25,000 words written in the month of December, flesh out the races and cultures of Isekai, and complete as many stub articles as possible.

Scope

Mood

Inspiration

If anyone has seen me on one of the WA streams in the past few months, you've probably heard by now that I'm the one with the crazy amount *cough* over 130 *cough* of playable races for our TTRPG system, Storybook. While I've written a few of these, so many more need to be done so that will be my largest focus during WorldEmber.
Of the races, I have picked certain sets and their subraces to work through, getting rid of as many stubs as possible and getting some published content out into the world. I'm set on working on a particular group of races that I hope will be as fun to read as they have been to prep and will be to write.
Check out the Mood tab to find out what races I plan to focus on.

Here there be Dragons

My main focus for WorldEmber will be on fleshing out our Dragonkin. With both Chromatic and Metallic Dragon ancestors, there are 24 colors of Dragonkin to create lore for. I am going to attempt to complete all of them and possibly delve into some of the Lesser Dragonkin as well.
I chose to work on these races months ago, but it has been in the last few weeks that I have started getting art together and thinking through some of the details that make each color of Dragonkin unique. This has been quite the undertaking and I'm glad I thought to begin brainstorming a bit early.

Chromatic Dragonkin

Metallic Dragonkin

WorldEmber 2022 Pledge by World Anvil

WE Mini-Meta

This year marks the fourth WorldEmber I have participated in and its time to look towards some of the important articles necessary to move forward with lore for our system. Instead of looking at a single area within Isekai to focus on, I chose to expand my focus and work through articles that are important to the various races and cultures of the world. My largest focus for WorldEmber will be race (species) articles, but that does not mean that I won't branch out into other templates as inspiration guides me.

Organization

I spent a great deal of time last year during June rebuilding the organization for Summer Camp 2021. During that time, Isekai went through a huge restructuring to remove our ties to D&D5e so we could begin building our own system. While some of that restructuring is occurring and tags are in the works, overall, the category structure for both the lore and the system of the world are established.
Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on dedicating some time to cleaning up category pages, setting icons, and creating cover images for the various categories that have been recently established.
Check out the behind the scenes look at the category system on the right and compare it to the category system that users can see by clicking the book icon to the left.

WorldEmber 2022 Going for 20k Badge by World Anvil

WorldEmber Pledge

I pledge to complete WorldEmber and the articles and ideas listed here to the best of my abilities, but not by sacrificing time for family and self-care during the holidays.
WorldEmber is by far one of my favorite events in this wonderful community. So many people take part and it's amazing to see the great work that everyone puts out during what is normally a busy month for a number of reasons. While only a competition against ourselves, to reach the 10k word goal, this is such a great time to find community and talk about one of the things we all love doing.
Weekly homework throughout November helps to prepare us as much as possible for the writing gauntlet that is ahead. While I've been planning WorldEmber for the past couple of months, this homework will allow me to finalize my ideas and build a feasible plan to reach my goal.

WorldEmber 2022 Homework

Final Presentation

CSS

At this point in the game, especially since I made the switch from Bootstrap 3 to Bootstrap 5 right before WorldEmber last year, I am not messing with Isekai's CSS at this point. That's to say, I'm not making any glaring changes to the world's CSS as we enter into WorldEmber, but I would be completely lying if I said that some of the articles I plan on writing won't see some special CSS.

Presentation

My article layouts are nothing special, but I do spend a lot of time getting everything to fit just right and keeping the spacing even. That will probably be a focus of many of my WorldEmber articles, especially since I will be working my way through a lot of Isekai's races and those require a certain type of presentation.

Graphics

Most of my images for WorldEmber are already created! I spent a lot of time using Portrait Works crafting the looks of our 24 Dragonkin and those will feature heavily in what I work on in the early days of WorldEmber. Once those are done, I will probably have to reevaluate my images.

Completed Articles