Naelin's SummerCamp 2022 Pledge

Flag of Thaur by Naelin

"I, King Naelin of Thaur, pledge to prioritize my people this month of Preparing, while still doing my best to achieve greatness"

— King Naelin, being side-eyed by his advisor

Introduction

It sounds right, right? I met my fiancé on a WorldEmber, and I'm marrying him on a SummerCamp. It all fits (I hope the shirt and waistcoat also fit, but I'm getting a plan-B outfit just in case).
That said, this obviously means it will be a less than ideal month to do a marathon writing challenge, so this time I am not aiming for Diamond, though I will still try. I will not pass on the challenge though, it's a challenge after all! But I will be happy if I achieve Copper or Silver.

The Big Release

Veld the Imaginative by TJ

Oh boy I hope I am done with this part before July starts.
I have been working hard in February to have a theme ready to move SoP's CSS into Bootstrap 5.
And then I had a burst of inspiration and my fiancé and I developed it into an amazing idea: What if I combine it with ███████████████ and then release the ███████████ for an epic ███████████ right before SummerCamp?
So these were some interesting 5 months to work on a bunch of stuff ready for the thing. I want to start SummerCamp with the sense of achievement of finishing the previous project in time.

Goals & Motivation

Preparation is motivation!

My Worldember 2021 challenge was immensely aided by TJ Trewin's amazing Worldbuilding Planner. It helped me stay on track, and also gave me the big rush of seeing the curve on the graph go brrr!
Buuut this planner is designed with wordcount marathons in mind, so, how do you adapt this to Summer Camp?. After thinking & tinkering on it a bit, I came up with the following system:

• Each prompt requires a minimum of 300 words, so your goal is the number of prompts you aim for multiplied by 30 (9300 for diamond)
• You track the amount of words you wrote, but only up to 300 per prompt. So, for example, if today you wrote 450 words in an article and 200 in another, you count a total of 500 words.
• This helps you keep track of the number of prompts you completed, without having to wait to complete one to track it.

This is what I think will work for me. Monkey brain likes bigger numbers. Others may find it way easier to just mark the number of prompts as their goal.

Meaning is motivation!

Winter Teal'Jin by Naelin

I obviously feel a connection to WorldAnvil's main yearly events, and to WorldAnvil in general. The fact that I chose a person that I met in one of these as my partner for life is not a minor thing.
So, even when I'm doing the wedding thing at the very tail end of July, I still want to participate in this year's SC, and so does TJ.
SummerCamp 2020 was the event that introduced me to WA's community, and I owe it a lot. I hope SummerCamp 2022 also brings amazing things with it!

Amazing friends are motivation!

Not a week ago a bunch of amazing, lovely anvilites joined together to arrange an Eternal Grandmaster subscription for me as a wedding gift.
I am grateful beyond words about it to each and every one of them, and I plan on honouring it with mahoosive amounts of worldbuilding.
Gotta put it to good use!

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Creative Goal

These last months and on the two previous marathons I focused on setting the basis of my worlds, doing as many essential articles as possible.
I hope to relax a bit this time, and do some fun, lovely articles about the small things, the cool myths and the friends we made along the way.

Challenge Goal!

Each year I have aimed for Diamond in SC and at least 25k in WorldEmber.
This year I would be stoked if I manage that, but I will put my wedding first.
So this year, I am aiming for Copper at the very least.

Preparing for the Prompts

This year 'round SummerCamp comes with its waves divided in Themes: Expanse, Leadership, Discovery, and Monstruous.
I have compiled a list of stuff from my worlds that contain these themes to draw inspiration from. A lot of these already have associated articles, but they can work as starting points for related stuff!
I am also a Co-author on the wacky surrealistic world Shakiraverse. However, I'm not listing themes for them, since its articles are mostly standalone concepts.

Copper Theme: Expanse

Symbols of Power

The Chalk Expanse

The Kartian savhanna

The Delta of Many Birds

The ocean

The Kartian mountain range

The firmament

Tierras Mágicas

The Ocean

The Big commercial city

The universe

Tierras Magicas' grasslands

The Lava Hallway

The dimming stars' firmament

Silver Theme: Leadership

Symbols of Power

Ararak

Lush Enis

The RuhRics

The Circlecrats

Heliom

Tierras Mágicas

Laura

Sebastian

Charito

Wiretail

Blacky

Gold Theme: Discovery

Symbols of Power

Welkinal

Danae

The Delta of Many Birds

The island of Daltael

Tierras Mágicas

The universe

The search for Sebastian

The world of Victoria

The Faeries

Diamond Theme: Monstruous

Symbols of Power

The darigas

The buck Night Dweller

Tazyl, the disgraceful

The Irates

Prince Virgilim

Tierras Mágicas

The Geyser Snakes

The Gliding Rays

The All Mighty

The Tempest

The retrival of Sebastian's soul

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Symbols Of Power's
Mini-Meta

The Island of Karte

The island of Karte plays the same tones of geopolitical instability as the rest of the Haan Archipelago, though their reasons are social, instead of based on The High Rust
A racist oligarchy at the brim of collapse serves well for leaders to raise between the peoples to fight the monstruous regime.
As time is actively passing in SoP, the most pressing matter is that of the Civil War's status, with Ararak hiding from the government and the tension rising on all sides.
Karte also contains a vast expanse of territory that remains unexplored in the lore: There is plenty of space to discover and plenty of areas of culture and politics to develop.

Tierras Mágicas'
Mini-Meta

The Big Commercial City

The World of Plaza's biggest continent is a zone of exploration, resorce-gathering and fun, but also the place of unknown dangers, mystery and tragedy.
The big pivotal point in Tierras Mágicas' story is the dissapearance of Knight Sebástian, which occurred after a monstruous tempest in The Ocean, a big expanse located on the Big Commercial City.
My narrative connects many of its stories to this point, so this continent, where otherwise secondary, got filled with stories of leadership as they tried to discover Sebastián's fate.

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Planning for Success

Setting aside time

Not an easy task this time around! My calendar is a mess.
I calculate I will be able to set aside time most of the first week and half of the second. The third week will be crazy with wedding prep, and the fourth I will have it off work due to the wedding, but we will see how much writing we can cram on it! We are still not sure if we will go somewhere for a couple of days in the middle.
This month looks so short!

Organizing the world

I'm just about finished with reorganizing Symbols Of Power after moving to BS5, aligning it in canon with The Book of the Habits and Beasts' 3rd edition release.
You can read about all of the stuff it entalied in this journal post!

Desk tidying

I've upgraded since 2020 :p The map on the background can be useful sometimes. Consider it!

Beverages

I'm bringing a British man here. I have already stocked up. I wonder how long will it last!

The Author by Naelin & TJ

"I, Master of Skulls Naelin, pledge to participate in SummerCamp 2022 and leave perfectionism on the side to enjoy some relaxed worldbuilding with my husband"

— The author, very excitedly pointing at his Anvilite fiancé

Previous challenge pledges

Inspiring Content

My Writing Playlists

Go on, try it. It's insanely good for writing.
A mostly swing and jazz playlist for the energetic days. I had another one previously, but TJ made this one for our wedding party and it's much more complete.
Future husband is good at playlists. This one is made for writing his world and features a bazillion slightly dark no-lyrics songs.

Quotes & Songs

That night his eyes are full of jewels, and all the jewels are green as candle-wax, as fox-fire, as algae, as the light on the well. "I never understood," he tells you. "I still don't. Give me your name. If you won't give it to me, I must take it from you". There is an ugly scene. In the morning no trace remains.

— Fallen London, "Betray the Master Jewel-Thief"

This is my very favourite piece of text. It took me long to understand part of the why, but that last phrase deeply touches on how I process some stuff. I hope to someday manage to transmit the same level of melancholy this scene gives.

That man worked, who will write his history?

— Juan Carlos Baglietto, El Témpano

This is a quote from a famous Argentinean tango song. (The linked one is the Argentinian folk metal cover I usually listen to)
I find it to fit the lens of my world really well, as I try to focus (I usually fail) on the lives of normal people and tell their stories.

Be Proud of your part in it. It wasn't easy

— Fallen London, "If things had been different"

Another great quote from Fallen London. It was one of the driving inspirations for Hylmer's article (A very musical one, you will see). I find it very inspiring to think about characters' personal feelings of failure and regret in more dark-toned scenes.

Community

I recon I will be sharing my content with two main communities this SC:
The Happy Sun Lodge, a relatively small side Discord with some excellently good anvilite friends, and, if I manage to make a prompt fit, the Unofficial Blue Anvil Collective, a side Discord we created for authors and readers of adult content in WA.

Are you ready? WorldEmber Summer Camp is coming