Summer Camp 2026 Pledge

Ready, set, write!

"I have been focused on my new D&D game - in which I am not the DM for the first time in forever - and writing my character's backstory but it is time to return - as I always eventually do - to Linebound."

Spring and Love

I love a lot of things and that love hasn't been directed towards writing as of late. I found joy in photography - not that I didn't enjoy it before - while I was in Chile earlier this year and this has inspired me to pursue it further as a hobby; I really enjoyed taking photos of the animals there. I still want to spend time cycling and doing yoga as well as spending time with my friends. These are all things I love doing but so is writing and I need to do more of that.
It is good that the prompts will be based on seasons for while Linebound may not have day and night and the sun and the stars, the winds do carry with them the seasons - at least they do on Breharan. Spring is an incredible season - even if it comes late this far north - and is great for getting outdoors before the bugs get too bad and the days too hot. Here on Earth it is associated with life, beginnings, and hope. What is spring to the people of Linebound? Is it different for the Orth than it is for the people of Darapur? What traditions take place during the season?
Could definitely create some springtime traditions, perhaps revisiting the Drifters.
As for love, well, what is love? As an aroace author the characters of Linebound don't usually have highly-detailed romantic lives and don't find themselves embroiled in extremely dramatic circumstances that come about as a result of their love for another. This isn't necessarily intentional but a result of me being me. This isn't to say that the characters of Linebound are without love, just that the stories focus on different types of love. Erevard Baxkaltus is motivated by his love for his family, Takalia is driven to write from his love of travel, Nim and Karnaster Evulbrung took great risk for their love of freedom and of expression, it is rumored that Enkhtuya Dodai poisoned her husband - the Emperor - out of a love of the people, and the crew of the Harani disappeared because of their love of the unknown.
For love, I don't think I will change Linebound very much. People will continue to love each other, the things they do, and anything else, even if it doesn't focus on the romantic side of love.

"As I grew older I thought that I would eventually feel what the other girls were feeling but it never happened. Maybe it will happen sometime in the future but I am no longer going to spend time looking for something that isn't there."

— Ahriin of the People of the Dog

Summer and Growth

In Linebound, spring is the season associated with exploration because it was then that the Harani made her first voyage but summer is associated often with crops, animals, construction, and other such things that are an indicator of progress. It is also associated with apprenticeships, learning, and the progress of knowledge.
On Breharan there are several things that have grown very quickly over the past few decades. The number of skyships was just one less than seventy years ago and now number in the hundreds. Darapur started off as a place to stop between more important locations but has grown at an explosive pace into the hub of commerce, exploration, and science since the beginning of the Time of Exploration. The wealth gap between the wealthiest and poorest in Burim has also grown to its highest ever levels and mounting dissent has led to crackdowns on publications critical of the situation. Trade has expanded across not only Breharan but into the newly founded colonies as the map expanded ever outward.
However, over the last decade or so, real exploration - the kind associated with the Harani - has slowed with most nations and organizations focused on tackling issues at home, building up and extracting resources at their outposts, and making plans as tensions mount with their neighbors. However, the crew of the Ivende will be setting out on their own journey to find the first skyship and follow their trail beyond the edge of the maps. Their journey and their discoveries may reignite that passion for exploration that nations have lost as of late.

"Treasure your memories of growing up alongside your friends and family. Such joy it must have brought you. That is a chance the fae stole from me. In what felt like moments, my children became adults, and I missed precious moments."

— Javen Kolos

Autumn and Loss

Autumn is my favourite season. Since moving to the north, it is the time of year I head back down and visit my friends and family in a place where it hasn't yet snowed. Before that it was the season when it stopped being too hot - at least too hot all day - and was great to get outside with fewer bugs around. It also includes Halloween, the best not-holiday holiday of the year.
For the people of Breharan, it is the time to gather their harvest and prepare for the winter. It is also the season in which most rituals about ancestors appear, when food is burned for those that came before, when songs are sung and stories told. At some point along the way I forgot that Linebound is supposed to be full of art, music, and creativity. The setting has lost that and it needs to be recovered.

"Some things once lost can never be found, we can hold them only in our minds and in our hearts. I know, in my bones, that the Harani is not one of these things and we shall find her."

— Davetti Rasterion

Winter and Family

I remember from my youth the joy of sledding, walking in the snow, playing with it, and of spending time with family. Not much has changed really, save that I haven't gone sledding in a long time and now I live somewhere that has snow on the ground nine months of the year.
In Linebound winter means different things in different places. In Zinato the rivers freeze over and things slow down as pillars of smoke float up into the cold wind. On the fields of the great Graran plains, the people spend their time making and fixing tools for the next year of farming. For the Orth it is a particularly difficult season but one to which they have adapted.
The characters of the story I am working on with the Ivende are often defined by their families. Erevard seeks to restore his, Javen lost his to time, Reigus has been sent away from his, and Ahriin didn't know her parents. Yet they all in the crew they have joined have found - or will find when I actually write a story - unbreakable bonds with their new family.

"Everything I do, I do for my family. They may have given up on reclaiming the life we once had but I will not see my siblings wallow or suffer when we can't afford medicine. We will be as we once were."

— Erevard Baxkaltus

Goals for 2026

I have not yet written the short stories and the other goals have not yet come up. I really should come up with some ideas for the short stories though; the Linebound one is going to be the backstory for one of the members of the Ivende's crew.
Create at least two articles each month.
Participate in Summer Camp.
Participate in WorldEmber.
Write a short story in Linebound.
Write a short story in Talvorn.

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I really enjoyed my vacation in Chile but my other goals have not yet been completed.
Bike more.
Do yoga twice a week.
Finish my long-running D&D campaign.
Finish Galactic Treasure.
Release one custom Magic set.
Start drawing.
Vacation in Chile.

Summer Camp Goal

Summer Camp will be my main focus for the month and I will write an article for every prompt. Same as each year preceding this one.

Area of Focus

This year my Summer Camp writing will focus on the region that was previously traveled by the Harani. A section of the map made up of open skies and many skyislands, a place that includes the lizardfolk home continent, Kestatol, the Shattered Isles, the Verdant Archipelago, Line's Edge, and much more. This route through the sky and all the locations located therein is known as the The Explorer's Way.

A Time to Write

Finding time to write is going to be harder than it has previously been. I tend to be quite tired in the hours after work when I hit my metabolic low point of the day and when my energy levels recover, I am busy most evenings. I will have to power through those times and make use of my days off in July to accomplish my writing goals.
Another challenge will be the release of Grim Dawn's final expansion, Fangs of Asterkarn. I will play it, but it could serve as a source of creative juice if I don't play it at the expense of everything else. I should try to get enough articles in before it comes out so that I can spare some time.

Why Worldbuilding?

I accepted years ago that Linebound is my worldbuilder's disease project and that hasn't really changed. I am perfectly happy just to write about it for me but now, if I can make a good story and bring enjoyment to others through that story, that wouldn't be so bad. Early stages though, I have lots of different things happening and I am not thinking of publishing or anything. A series of short stories here on World Anvil? Maybe.

Hopscotch

For week one, I did some work on my timeline, trying out which types of things should be placed where, adding the birth dates of the important characters for my story, and made a few test events. I would like to get back to it, I had fun adding things to it.
Week two created a very short list of articles about the Explorer's Way. Remaking the article about the lizardfolk home continent, Kestatol, will be very important.
I must admit I cheated a bit on week three and replaced a walk with a bike ride but they were similar in spirit. Found some downed trees on one of the trails here but couldn't move - or remove - them myself.
The final week sees me preparing my writing space and getting some meals ready so I won't have to cook dinner for the first few days of Summer Camp. I am also trying to relax with another bike ride and maybe the new content for Frostpunk 2.

Warm-Up Articles

Bizeel the Greedy

Sahal