Summer Camp 2022 Pledge

"Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth." - Rumi, The Essential Rumi

Creative Goal

For my second Summer Camp, I would like to focus on expanding the world I have already started, and resist all urges to give up and start something new just for the challenge. There should be plenty of room in the world of M.A.P.S. (only one city has really been about halfway sketched out, with a map of the various kingdoms sketching out the very loose outlines I’ve started on). I would like to work on building ideas off of each other instead of going off on random tangents.

Summer Camp Themes

Expanse (Copper Theme)	Leadership (Silver Theme)	Discovery (Gold Theme)	Monstrous (Diamond Theme)
I have lots of ‘expanses’ that I’ve just given names to on a map. The Ancient Whispers and Ancient Starlight Forests should be built out as they are geographically closest to the majority of the worldbuilding I’ve already done in this world. There are three additional forests on the map (Dogleaf, Bramblewood, Coralwood Forrests), along with the Elfenbein Salt Flats, and unnamed desert and canyon area that can all be brought to life as well. As more of a travelogue of a world so far, I am very interested in all the places one might go and what they might see there.	We are a little lacking in the leadership department currently. Who heads up the eight kingdoms, with the idea that a single leader from a single city is the one keeping them all in line? What conflicts do the political leaders have with the religious and cultural ones. There have been previous ideas about generational cultures that clash with one another, military conflicts between the eastern kingdoms, and the hint of an idea about scholars hiding away knowledge that other leaders would like to wipe out of modern memory.	This is a setting prime for discovery. There are relics of the past and completely abandoned places left behind by ‘the old gods’. There is knowledge and books being secretly hidden (maybe the library and Gardinya Lyra holds more secrets than originally let on). What about the hidden magical world, what secrets and potions have they hidden away. There are places beyond the mountains and through the Forever Sea that I haven’t even begun to dream about yet.	I’m a little light on conflict at the moment, which I really need to work on fixing. The monsters might be creatures, but I don’t want to create anything that has to be killed. They might be in leadership, there is plenty of room there to add some villains, drive up some conflict between the kingdoms, maybe the one king is thought to be a monster (ruling though fear as a mask), maybe the kings advisors are trying to consolidate power, maybe they are afraid of the human threat from beyond the mountains.

There is also the loose goal of illustrating all of my own posts, and while I don’t know how much of that I will have time for during the month of July, I’m just putting that on the table – a reach goal, you might say.

Motivation

Worldbuilding is fun. It ties in the passion for writing I had as a teen, with my current passion for hand-drawn art, bringing in my knowledge and love of history, and a burning desire to rewrite the world around me.

Challenge Goal

As someone who lacks focus and has a hard time finishing things without goals or challenges, my goal is to finish (reaching the Diamond level with all 31 prompts), and to write every day, at least 300 words.

Inspiration

Images

Pinterest Board

• The idea of all-white gossamer and lace court dresses, of lords and kings with shoulders of royal medals and bright sashes in their kingdom's colors. The idea of the king regularly calling up the royal families to his sacred city for useless rituals if only to keep an eye on them. Crown braids and jeweled singlets,
• The idea of high fashion in court dress, and the idea that struggling kingdoms all place enough value on the looks of the people they send to the court that collections are taken up to make sure their people are seen well. Images of descending down long wide staircases into sea of people waiting like sharks.
• Mont Saint-Michel, towering island castle, idea for King’s city on the river. (Lilly Appa or Raea depending on how we feel about it).
• Pa Phru Tha Pom Khlong Song Nam, Thailand – bright blue waters and mangrove trees (when sea water mingles with fresh water during the tide) - would be an interesting image of the Bramblewood
• Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, Madagascar – stone forest carved out by rainfall, maybe for the canyons around the Stone and Ruins City?
• Hallerbos Forest, Belgium – a forest floor covered in purple flowers and Yili Apricot Valley, China – beautiful blooming fruit trees, very pretty, maybe in the hills north of the Dogleaf Forest.
• Bamboo forests, like in Kyoto, that tower so high you can’t see the sky except for the carved meandering fenced path carved through the forest. - maybe for the Ancient Whispers Forrest?, although images of the Black Forrest in Germany might be better for this, with Goldenwood Castle and all.
• Cloud Forrest, like in Ecuador, where towering trees, and constant fog give the area a mystical view of being in the clouds - maybe for the Ancient Starlight Forest

Quotes

• "The purpose of government should be utility. The method of government should be efficient. The spirit of government should be toleration." - From 'The Long 19th Century: European History from 1792 to 1917' on enlightenment thinking
• "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx
• “Great empires are not maintained by timidity.” ― Tacitus
• “Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.” – Barbara W. Tuchman, 'The Guns of August'
• “There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally, they credit the wrong person.” – Bill Bryson, 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'
• “The capitalist accepted Junker rule because it gave them prosperity and unification; the working classes accepted Junker rule because it gave them social security and the vote. The only loss was freedom, and that is not an item which appears in the balance sheet in a history of trade union benefits.” - A.J.P. Taylor

Mini-Meta

Drama

The kingdoms of the East seem to be on the brink of war, with Night and StarRise fighting over carving up and controlling Day, and StarSet massing a mysterious army. The Western Kingdoms pose a problem, they do not want war, and younger generations do not see themselves as four separate kingdoms but the West as one entity, one that might be powerful enough to swallow up the east if they ever decided to (the east has suspicions of this because that is what they would do, so they are posed to attach the west first, as a preemptive defensive strike in their minds). The king needs to keep all of the kingdoms together and has tightened his control over everyone to do that. Scholars are worried about knowledge that is mysteriously disappearing and how that might tie into all the potential political drama and coming war.

People

To save myself some time, I've started brainstorming names for people that might be created:

The Royal Court
Rhys, The Shadow Prince
Davith, The Black King
Titania, The White Queen
Kamila, The Ruthless
Abert, The Grim
Feodor, The Damned
Sophia, The Vengeful
Sasha, The Poisoner

Spring Kingdom	Summer Kingdom	Autumn Kindgom	Winter Kingdom
Calla Acker-Poppywell	Ever Morganstern	Laurel Rose	Lyra Gastrielli
Daisy Flores	Briar Eaton	Hazel Browning	Delia Rieekan
Bryony DeWitt	Astrid Sasson	Rory Barrette	Isolde Auclair
Kale Copeland	Sebastian Ogden	Archer Gildebran	Keegan Slorazov
Finn Merrick	Kieran Nash	Hunter Gildebran	Dragon Saragoskavo
Graham Quinnt	Austin Gillbert	Hawthorne Parsons	Gareth Bonneslavsko

Night Kingdom	StarRise Kingdom	Day Kingdom	StarSet Kingdom
Calista Rzestova	Portia Dalloway	Celia Hutton	Lux Kowalczyk
Aurora Rosst	Larissa Bassett	Harmony Olsen	Crescent Windham
Lennon Wallace	Cambria Van Harper	Abrielle Guillory	Audra Mercier
Bastian Alinsky	Torin Van Brent	Caspian Edmonds	Indigo Ambrose
Tyson Morozov	Eoin Van Hagan	Owen Bixby	Saros Kaczmarek
Thaniel Abreosky	Bran Fensby	Porter Van Wray	Arche Westwell

Writing Time and Support

I’ve never been particularly scheduled, but I’ll try to write around my work schedule. I’d clean my desk, but I kinda like it the way it is, completely surrounded by all of my art supplies. I’m also more likely to finish this if I’m not thinking at all about the possibility of anyone else reading it (nothing kills creative frenzies like anxiety).