New Years's Resolutions 2023

Resolutions

2022 has been quite an eventful year. It started with some fun challenges which I loved to join. I also became premier league because of one of my world ember articles which was an amazing feeling but also gave a bit of a feeling that I perhaps should step up my game if I compared myself to the other amazing authors.
Soon afterwards I was a judge for the river challenge which was great fun and allowed me to put my frequent article reading to some good use! Sadly after quite a nice summercamp I lost one of my dear friends. Worldbuilding went a bit to the background and I only really returned during world ember this year.
I would really like to world build to the same degree once more after the fun world ember but our child that will be born in May will likely put some limits on that! Nonetheless I hope to achieve some things this year.

• One of my most important tasks this year will be to clean up my world further. This would mainly be creation overview articles for categories such as I did for magic this world ember. In addition to that I would like to rework older articles and unify the layout of my world.


• Another goal this year would be to make sure that basic articles are done such as the main humanoid species. Other articles to expand would be the Elervir Isles for the mission I got from Dimitris. Also the other not yet explored countries of Farlis and Pavanor would be nice additions.


• I would like to make my world more creative and unique. I often try to make my world more realistic and use real world history as inspiration. I will still do that to a degree but try lean in more into the themes of ancient technological ruins from the Prime Asmer and the magical Falls. In this way I would like to try to make my world feel more premier worthy.


• If time allows it I would like to explore creating a new world. This could be an alternative history in which America was discovered in ancient times. Another idea would be to create a truly weird and strange world within my exisiting Nervonia realm.

by kefkejaco with midjourney

Articles

I always have problems with choosing which articles to pick for a reading challenge. I always want to add much more so I added 20 articles that I liked instead of 10! Of course this still leaves out many other articles that I wanted to include but I didn't want to make the article even longer. However, know that if I liked or commented on your article I wanted it to be here :)

Rock Golems

What I really enjoyed about this article is that it had various unique takes on beings made out of rocks. Because they can't talk AP added another way of communication for them through the careful placement of stones. This article is filled with such small details that really makes it clear a good amount of thought was put into it.
For my work I will use this as inspiration to look deeper into how the physcial aspects of beings can really impact how they interact with the environment around them.

Gods' INFLUENCE ON LANGUAGE

A reading challenge would not be complete without one of Amélie's articles. I liked many of her world ember entries but for this reading challenge I chose the influence that gods have on language. It was not something I considered up until now that perhaps gods would want to make it easy for themselves as well.
This article made me think about how I would fit language for gods in my world. They currently have there own but it would be interesting to think about what ways they have to get around that problem.

How Not To Get Eaten by Various Phoenixes

Shadowphoenix did some great work on phoenixes this world ember but the best is still perhaps this book. It is the kind of in world book that would not only be useful but also fun to read.
In my world I have the encyclpedia nioratha for a more general overview. This article, however, makes me think about perhaps adding some books to my world that are directed to those travelling to dangerous places and need some extra information.

Guide to Solaris

Reading through the articles of Solaris was a delight and I would recommend any of them. But the one I enjoyed the most was perhaps the introduction to the world article. Not only is it to the point and with a clean layout it also allows readers to easily access a variety of related articles from there and continue their journey.
For one it inspires me to redo my own introduction and perhaps several other intro pages to make them shorter and easier to captivate people.

Irathian Funeral Pyres

The Irathian Funeral Pyres is an amazing article with a great amount of details. The various little aspects that were added, such as the bell or the kind of wood/oil that is used, just show how much thought and effort was put into this. Also the map that we regularly saw a progress update from in discord turned out great.
I have not written many traditions myself and I think this article is a great source of inspiration about how I would like to try to tackle my future tradition articles.

Skirmish for Terra

Honestly for Chrispy_0's article it was quite difficult to pick a favourite for this world ember. I settled on skirmish for terra as it was simply an amazing entry. This is a fun article to read through with a great layout which makes good use of art and images to make it as visually pleasing as possible. The small quotes from people who actually do know earth were a nice touch as well.
The main thing I can learn from this and other articles from Chrispy_0 is that layout can really enhance an article. I have improved somewhat last year but I hope this year to make my articles more pleasing to go through and closer to what is achieved here.

Gate Image

This shorter article spoke to me especially due to its theme. It gives us an insight on how people would regard ancient technology that they don't really understand. As a reader we know what it could be but to the people of the world it can seem different.
As my world is a sciencefantasy world with ancient tech lying around this article learns me that it could be interesting to add some smaller articles in a similar way. The people will most likely have found some such items and it could be fun to explore how they are regarded and used.

Kingroups and Kithweaving

This article was a very interesting read as it had a creative take on goblin society. I think the most creative part was how an otherwise humanoid species differes in matters of pregnancy. The addition of a third person getting a phantom pregnancy was quite original.
I think that from this article I learned that a lot of interesting ideas can come forth if you avoid applying the same physical rules to all humanoids.

Princes of Dawn

The world of Ninodonlord was new for me this worldember but I have quite enjoyed learning more about it. There were quite a few good articles to choose from but I picked the Princes of Dawn because it is a compendium of some great ideas. All of the princes are different in their own right and some of them are on the edge of what you would normally still consider an Elf.
As I still have to write a lot of pantheons for my world this article is a good example of how to go about it. I felt like every of the demi gods was interesting to read through and had some interesting ideas. I think I will use a similar approach to make a great variety in my gods.

Artificial Sun

Callyxtus has written some great articles this world ember but the one that spoke the most to me, and clearly also many others, was the artificial sun. It is a great example of how even in a fantasy setting people are effected by the environment and have to find ways to protect themselves. The artificial sun is an interesting solution to both the dark and cold from living underground.
From this article I learned that it could be interesting to look into what kind of magic/technology people use to protect themselves while living in hostile environements.

Introduction to the Sextant

So far I have not written a lot of technology articles so it is always interesting to see how other people write them. Jacob's article on sextants is a great example of being informative while still being a fun read. It was a very nice answer to dimi's mission and I am curious to learn of more naval technolgies in the future.
As I mentioned before I have not written much technology yet. This article is therefore a good inspiration to see how I could go on about it in future articles while still making it a fun read.

Warmth Bubble

The warmth bubble is a good example of how two forms of magic can be combined to create a new effect. The spell is not powerful but is nonetheless very useful and allows people to feel warm even in the coldest temperatures.
I find this especially interesting as I started my magic articles with the idea that elemental magic types could be combined. I focused mainly on the combat abilties but spells like this are intersting ideas to explore. The next year I will probably try to include similar things that just make life convenient for magic user without it being used in combat.

The source of magic

It is always nice to see somebody new come become active in the WA community. I already read some nice species articles from tele during WE but as I did my work on my magic system this WE I was intrigued by this article just after WE. I think the most interesting about the magic origin here is that there are actually two gods who influence it.
As I read through more magic articles from this world I learend of certain magic being more common in specific places. This is something I already approached with chaos magic but not much with other types. I think it could be intersting to explore this further in the comming year.

Frost Queen

I remember reading the river rime article during the river challenge and I was glad to see it return here. The frost queen gives a tragic backstory to mythological queen who still gives peace to those in the afterlife.
Like many other categories myths or legends are not something I created very often until now. Seeing some interesting ones like this inspire me to create some more in the comming year.

Aesir

Demons are not something that is that often encountered ouside of the medieval fantasy setting so it is quite refreshing to see genetcially engineered super humans be used against them. It is especially interesting how the first versions of the Aesir were very unstable and were only used again once the issues were solved.
When I write about technology, which is not that often, I tend to forget the limitations of earlier versions. For the current year I will try to keep that in mind.

Popcorn Phoenix

Reading emily's articles during this world ember for the culinary world was quite fun. All of them had more common themes but with a creative food twist to it. I really enjoyed reading about the popcorn phoenix and can imagine how awesome it would look to see it rain popcorn down.
I think from this I can learn that it can be pretty fun to write some silly but creative stuff from time to time.

Ice Ducks

Tillerz wrote a lot of articles this world ember and I had quite fun reading through them. That of course made it difficult to pick one. I decided to go for the ice ducks as it was something that immedeately struck me as a creative idea. It makes sense that creatures like this would exist in a fae realm even when from a logical point of view they would be weird.
From this I can learn that sometimes you need to go with a weird idea and see what creative and fun stuff you end up with.

Tatzel Café

When I went to a cat café in Tokyo it was quite a fun experience with many interior details to make it an ideal environment for the cats. Reading about the tatzel café gave me similar feel as things like the net make it ideal for a flying creature. It is fun how something similar to the real wordl is adapted for fantasy creatures.
I think it is a nice idea to explore what effects fantasy creatures or magic can have on locations.

Rune Deer

Mochi wrote many fun species this world ember so it was once again difficult to choose. I chose the rune deer because the orb between its horns struck me as quite curious. It is both its weak point and a way to use its magic. It was interesting to read how other creatures try to exploit it and bring the rune deer down.
What I like about this is the interaction of the creatures with other creatures in its environment. This is something I would like to take into account more in the future.

Deities of the great beyond

This is a well thought out and amazing article. Not only does it provide and interesting overview of deities but also a vast array of domains and sub domains. Working with this type of system allows a great variety of powerful beings and I find it particulary intersting that the number of domains that a deity control determines their level of power.
I think I can learn a great deal from this to write my own pantheons. I tend to stick to more standard ideas but perhaps it would be interesting to explore more varied domains such as displayed here.