New Year's Resolutions 2025
Introduction
Personal Progress
Completed Resolutions
I made a set of resolutions in 2024 and, all told, I finished three out of four of the major resolutions. All of my worldbuilding resolutions were completed, but I just wasn't able to get across the finish line with regards to my prose - a matter I intend to resolve in the following year (see below). I managed to get over 100,000 words of worldbuilding done - including more than 50,000 here in the Manifold Sky - and I competed in every major challenge WorldAnvil put out. I was only able to finish my resolution to do a State of the Manifold post for every month via the alternate criteria, but a win is still a win. Overall, I feel pretty good about the progress I made this year.Room for Improvement
One thing I’m going to do differently in 2025 is to re-prioritize writing new prose and editing old articles. Looking back, I think that I wound up putting a lot of (frankly) low quality and conflicting lore articles just to maintain the frenetic pace of article writing required to meet my own arbitrary word count goals. I've always had a problem with flowery prose and a desire to develop my writing in a direction to where it's concise without losing its evocative quality; crunching for word counts seems to run contrary to that goal. Moreover, my early articles had an inconsistent tone, failed to make good use of the tools (i.e. reference links) provided by WorldAnvil, and were written without the benefit of foresight when it came to ‘big picture’ aspects of the world that hadn’t been cemented at the time. These issues are problematic because, since I strive for internal consistency and include a lot of reference links in modern articles to enhance the feeling of interconnectedness throughout my work, frivolous, perfunctory, or poorly constructed articles have the potential to box me in when it comes to later worldbuilding efforts. While I did learn a lot from all this writing, I feel like I can’t grow further unless I go back, assess what worked and what didn’t, and start actually putting my worldbuilding to work as a project that might actually see a bookseller’s shelves one day.My Goals for the Future
Complete at least 100,000 words of prose in The Fortress of Salt or Catalyst: A Manifold Sky Story.
Stretch A: Complete a manuscript. This should be market length (~100,000 words and feature a completed plot such that editing and subsequent pitches to publishers can proceed.Stretch B: Finish editing a manuscript.
Stretch C: Submit a finished manuscript for consideration of publishing.
Edit at least 2 previous articles per month to meet the new standards of quality set forth in modern articles.
Ideally, links to at least 2 of the articles edited during a given month should be provided in the State of the Manifold post (see below).Complete at least one State of the Manifold post per month.
For the purposes of this goal, posts can fall within the last week of that month or in the first week of the following month, but there needs to be at least 12 posts, one for each month, for this resolution to be considered complete. Last year, SotM posts were useful accountability tools because writing them forced me to evaluate the volume and quality of work I was putting out each month, so I intend to keep putting them out on a regular, ongoing basis.Compete in every major challenge on WorldAnvil.
Stretch A: Win at least one competition with a high-quality article.Stretch B: Participate in one or more unofficial challenges.
Full completion of all sub-challenges (i.e. all prompts for Spooktober) is not required for the purposes of this goal, but a badge (even for just participation) must be earned for each challenge this resolution to be considered complete.
Expand the Sealed Kingdoms timeline and set down specific dates for important events.
The Sealed Kingdoms is meant to be a 'hard' science fiction setting; all events are meant to plausibly unfold as a result of preceeding events in keeping with known scientific facts about the universe. Time is a big factor, as the speed of light limitation applies to objects and information in that universe. Moreover, as someone who studied social sciences, I should be working to make societal developments follow a similarly plausible arc within the setting; if technology is going to stagnate, for example, then I should explain what events caused that stagnation. Filling out the timeline is going to help with these issues.
Complete the non-rules sections of the BCGR ruleset.
Alternative A: Publish the BCGR core ruleset and/or open it for public play.Stretch A: Add example creatures, vehicles, and adventure locations to the BCGR ruleset.
Stretch B: Add additional Creature Features to the BCGR ruleset as set forth in the Discord.
Stretch C: Build a New Generica adventure site featuring BCGR for the Adventure April challenge.
This is technically not a worldbuilding challenge in the traditional sense, but, because BCGR is the official roleplaying system for several of my settings - Manifold Sky, the Matrioshka Multiverse, New Generica, and Kit's Crater, to be specific - finishing out the ruleset is very important for getting more work done in those settings. WorldAnvil has systems for use by game masters and players, as well, so including this goal here is not without precedent. It would be cool to see people outside of my friends group playing BCGR and providing feedback on what works and what doesn't, though I don't personally have aspirations to do 'actual play' content.
WorldEmber Article Review
Slime (by Mochi)
I like the concept of the slimes, and it's an interesting touch that they can make clothing and equipment out of their own secretions. It was also nice to see imagery with a human touch in this article, especially considering the proliferation of AI art in recent years. My only real critique is that the phrasing of some elements of the article can be confusing; for example, in the diet section, it isn't clear to me if the slimes can be chefs, provide the ingredients for chefs, or do both. Overall, I would like to see the lore surrounding their level of intelligence and society explored further. It seems like the slimes have an almost monolithic culture from the article, old divisions based on aesthetics notwithstanding, but I would imagine that a species spread througout known space in alliance with other species would have time to undergo some social speciation that could lead to some juicy plot development when disparate groups interact.
Chaos Magic (by Kefkejaco)
I thought this article was neat because it talks about what players of tabletop RPGs migth call 'metamagic': spells or powers that enhance other spells rather that being wielded directly. I like how the author employs a lot of reference links so that this article feels like its well integrated into the worldbuilding that preceeded it. I also liked that there was a consistent color range across the images selected for the article, adding a layer of visual theming to the subject at hand. There are a few typos and missing commas, but the content was otherwise fine. I would like to see the moral and legal ramifications of chaos magic in the world explored further.
Ka'dih (by Tyrdal)
Like the article on honey nut bacon later in this set of reviews, I appreciate this article for getting into recipies, an aspect of worldbuilding that could hypothetically be actualized in the form of a foodstuff the reader can actually make. I also like when articles integrate prose to ground the content in stories and human sensory experience in the way that paragraphs of dry description couldn't. The little aphorisms following each recipe step gave the cooking process a ritual quality. Unfortunately, the descriptive text was short and appears to be duplicated in a couple of different forms, perhaps an artifact of looking for the right way to articulate the content in the face of the challenge's time constraints. Still, the prose at the top and poem at the side made for an enjoyable read.
Solar Pulse (by Annie Stein)
I usually like my science fiction more on the 'hard' side of the spectrum, but the particular blend of science fiction and fantasy present in Solaris piques my interest. This article is concise and meaty in its implications for the wider setting. I thought the author's use of the reference link system was good, with the text boxes expanding the lore of the setting without forcing the article to be longer than it needed to be. Until this article, I was unaware that WorldAnvil tooltips and reference links were able to also display images or snippets that would normally be considered sidebar content. I'm not sure if that's a special CSS/BBCode thing, but I'm glad to have learned it regardless and might start employing this technique in my own efforts if I can figure it out. It's really hard to critique this article in any case; I do want to see more, but I also feel like the article's brevity means it doesn't belabor its premise.
Prime Elements and Magic (by Amélie I. S. Debruyne)
I think this article is great example of how attention to detail can be a boon to worldbuilding. I like how this is presented as a document from a college course, complete with a surprisingingly detailed chart about how each element contemporarily discovered in the world can be affected by, or used within, the magic system also present in the world. It's clear from the author's notes that effort was undertaken to make relations between the magic system of the world and real-life chemical properties, which is a level of research that I can definitely respect as an avid fan of 'hard' science fiction. It might be possible to tweak some phrasing/formatting to make this look even more like excerpts from a college textbook, but I'm very happy to read this article as it is.
Archaeomancer (by solomonjack)
This article is about a mile deep when it comes to its content. This kind of article is exactly what I like to see when it comes to challenge submissions because, so long as it isn't overly flowery or verbose for verbosity's sake, it suggests to me that the author thought through what needed to be said rather than hammering it out an article for the sake of the deadline (something I'm guilty of myself). I like how archaeomancers are presented as equal parts scholar, adventurer, and wizard - sort of an 'Indiana Jones meets Elminister' kind of vibe.
Clockwork Colossus (by Chris L)
What I like about this article is that it fleshes out a bit of in-world lore that establishes a useful literary device for the author to imploy in later stories. Soulforged Stillness is also a WorldEmber '24 entry, but I saw this article first. With this condition, a character like the Clockwork Colossus can generate a sense mystery about the nature of its condition, generate that sense further around conditions under which the condition will end, and, when the time is right, emerge into a story to shift its course without the spectre of deus ex machina. I think this character is also interesting because, as much as he is a potential character, he is also a landmark. One thing I would suggest with regards to this article would be more content about who the Clockwork Colossus is as a character beyond his status as such; it might well be that he has existed for so long that no living person has directly experienced his personality, but I'd love some more description with regards to things like equipment or the known history surrounding what he was like when active.
Gruzzo: The Goblin Chef (by Make lore, not war)
For some reason, despite taking a semi-random approach to article selection this year, I kept alighting on articles about cooking; to be clear, this is not a complaint, as generally do like this kind of article. In any case, what sets this article apart from the others is its clever use of CSS and the 'feature completeness' of its narration about what the character is like and where he comes from. This character feels ready to have his lore expanded out into a full piece of fiction in its own right. The two-sided recipe sheet was a particularly nice touch. I have mixed feelings about generative art in general, but it was tastefully integrated here if not entirely consistent in the depiction of the character himself.
Sandshapers (by Callyxtus)
I liked the overall vibe of this article. I would like to see more content in the future about how sandshaping magic is used beyond the entertainment industry in the world, as one would imagine that having the ability to move and sculpt earth - even in small amounts - would have a lot of utility. Pairing sandshaping magic with musical magic is pretty interesting and something I don't see often in the fantasy works I'm familiar with, though I confess my exposure to the genre is mostly through the lens of roleplaying games rather than written works. There are some minor grammar issues here, including changes in tense, incomplete sentences in places, and a slight change in point of view (he/she vs. you) at the end. The article is still intelligible, though, and these issues could be chalked up to writing as a stream of thought or as spoken in the interest of expediency, as the last edit looks to have been performed right at the end of the challenge period.
Honey Nut Bacon (by Haly the Moonlight Bard)
This article was short and sweet; I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine if that's a pun or not. I do enjoy articles that contain within them something that's actionable in the real world, whether that be games or, in the case of this article, recipies. The actual worldbuilding content of the article is concise and doesn't overstay its welcome, but I would like to see more integration with the world. Something I liked that kind of goes beyond the scope of the article per se are the visual elements of this world - cosy and nostalgic, though I couldn't put my finger on exactly why it evokes that feeling.
Thank you so much for featuring Slimes! I'll edit my article as soon as the WE Ceremony is over, but to clarify; slimes can be chefs, and slime is also an ingredient in their food (they are cannibals, but like, slimes shed more slime, so it's not considered a bad thing in slime culture)! You won't find AI images in my world, I draw everything myself (or fanart/commissions) <3 Hope you have a great 2025 and achieve all of your goals!