Spleen's WAWA 2024 Shortlists

I did not personally submit any articles to the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards this year for a myriad of reasons, and it has taken me until just about the last minute to actually dedicate the time to reading through all of the hundreds of submissions and choose favourites. I tried my best to read every article, though I did end up skipping the timelines and maps categories for the sake of my own sanity. I've compressed each of the long lists for each category into a much more manageable five-article shortlist, which I have chosen my personal favourites from. I will not be sharing my final picks, nor have I even made them by the time of me writing this. These lists were incredibly difficult to select, especially given how many amazing articles and worlds were submitted to each category. To everyone who submitted anything to WAWA, I wish you the best of luck, and I want to congratulate you for taking that step and putting your worldbuilding out there.

Article Categories

My process for each of these categories was essentially just systematically going through each article and giving it a ranking between one and 5, which I kept track of through Amelie's incredibly helpful spreadsheet. From there, I tried to look for a few that stood out to me, either by interesting concepts, visual appeal (primarily judged on formatting, though css and/or handmade art were a bonus), quality of writing, level of detail, and my personal interest in the article.
So, if you haven't voted (time is very quickly running out!) or if you already have, but haven't yet read some of these articles, I highly recommend checking them out. To all of the authors of these articles, thank you for all of the love and hard work you have put into your worldbuilding, and for sharing these articles. Keep it up!

Hearts & Minds Award

In this category, there were eighteen articles that got a 5/5 in my ranking. The five that I've narrowed this category down to (in no particular order) are:

Rise of Nations Award

Rise of Nations was no easier of a category to decide, with 14 articles that I consider a 5/5. I actually cheated and added a sixth article in here, shh don't tell.

Wondrous Nature Award

I have a soft spot for nature in worldbuilding, and there were so many interesting articles in this category. I initially narrowed it down to only 12 aricles (somehow), and it was so incredibly difficult to narrow it down further. The articles I ended up choosing were:

Okay, I couldn't go without mentioning these either. I know, I know, this is the second time I've broken the five-article limit and I'm only three categories in. This is going well so far. Anyways, here's three more articles I absolutely loved:

Strength & Honour Award

Though millitary, nation, and conflict articles are not generally the kind I like to write, a lot of these articles were very interesting and thought-provoking. Some of the articles even inspired me to actually want to write about my own politics. The five favourites from this category that I have selected are:

Pillars of Progress Award

This was another great category, and I thoroughly enjoyed multiple of the articles that were submitted. I was able to narrow it down initially to only 10, of which I have selected the following five articles:

Myths & Legends Award

I love myths! Legends, mythology, theology, the whole lot. These were some amazing articles that were so fun to read, and it's a miracle I was able to narrow it down to 12. My five top picks, however, would be the following:

Best Worldbuilding Article

This one was, by far, the worst category to have to choose from. There were so many amazing articles that fully deserve this award, and I think I spent the most time going through each of these articles. Ultimately, these are the ones I was able to narrow it down to:

World Categories

I don't have much of an introduction for these last three categories, but I'll just list my top three picks for each of them:

Most Beautiful World

Best World

Best Newcomer