World Ember - 2023 Pledge Article
Completed Articles For The Dragonstar Sagas
This is my first draft for the plot outline for The Heart of The Half-Dragon, the first book in The Dragonstar Sagas. I was hoping to have 10,000 words in this article by the end of the month but I wasn't able to make it that detailed this month. I plan on continuing to flesh out the plot in preparation of writing the novel.
Arcaic magic uses a programming language. When the correct phrase is used, the game system triggers a response. Pronounciations must be very precise or the spells won't work. Some spells require the user to be standing in the correct zone (region) within the game for them to be successfully cast.
When androids became violent, their revolt was swift and deadly. Before The Syntax War, there were colonies of humans spread throughout the galaxy. Most humans were killed, leaving behind a what is now known as The Dark Galaxy, the light of civilization is gone.
Captain Claw and The Maruaders are space-faring android felines who scour The Dark Galaxy for spare ship parts. They avoid confrontations with violent androids and have found a work-a-round to avoid Voluntary Shutdown Syndrome.
Arastoo is an artifically intelligent database administrator who is really just a big book-nerd at heart. He enjoys helping people and finds the events on Akir to be fascinating. Many of the Dwarves on Akir worship him as a deity.
To the folk of Akir, Ten is a sacred number. It appears over and over again in the world that Kaesta created for them. Many of their traditions has evolved to celebrate the number ten and honor The Dreamer. For Kaesta, who is a middling programmer, ten is a number that makes computer programming easier.
Androids that are created by the uploading process go through a terrible and painful transformation that turns them into malevolent psychopaths. The first commercially successful androids were instead created algorithmically within their host bodies.
The Escapist's Fantasy is a high-tech spaceship that Kaesta and Asimov explore the galaxy in as they search for a cure for her Isolated Sensory Network Dysfunction. The Escapist's Fantasy is shielded from outside interferance, equipped with a HydroHarvest farm, powered by two rechargable sources, and controlled by a super computer.
Voluntary Shutdown Syndrome is a complete misnomer. Androids who do not serve a purpose will shutdown to prevent depression and anxiety. With the destruction of the human race, most androids have falled to VSS. Sensors that detect sound and changes in light can reactivate an android if their operating system believes a person is nearby.
Completed Articles For The Drow Agenda
The Flame Sword of Lloth is a powerful artifact that The Brotherhood need to keep out of the hands of fervant priestesses! Its last known whereabouts were within Undermountain. House Auvryndar is actively seeking the evil weapon!
The Demon Queen's Gate is the only way to access The Demonweb Pits after Lloth's deminishment. This gate haunts Slies as it appears in his recurring nightmares. He knows how to use The Broodstone to gain entry into Lloth's hidden realm but he dies at the end of every dream. Unfortunately the artifact is firmly in the possession of Quenthel Baenre, Lloth's chosen.
Extremiton, the Ulitharid, has ordered his mind flayer underlings to help him create a simulation known of Waterdeep as Alterdeep. Jarlaxle Baenre has high hopes that downloading the information will give Bregan Daerthe an advantage as they emmigrate to the surface. Kimmuriel hopes the data also contains information about stopping ceremorphosis.
Vhaeraun knows that his sister, Eilistraee, has made overtures to Gurren, The Bard, in an attempt to recruit him to her cause. The Lord of Shadows plans on making a better offer to Gurren. Will Gurren Oblodra join The Church of Vhaeraun based on Vhaeraun's promises of individual freedom and a better afterlife?
Inspiring Articles
These are some of the articles that I've enjoyed during November. I'm making time to Comment Carol, so that these wonderful authors know their work is appreciated!
A terrifying ghost ship naval battle with undead rising from the sea caused by an unknown sleeping god.
Merchant explorer Dwarves with runestone enhanced sailing ships and a vibrant port!
A fleeing pirate using an experimental reality cutter accidently opened a permenant rift from from which hostile darkverse fauna flood out.
A festival dedicated to learning and sharing knowledge held in honor of Quan He, Enlightened Scholar.
Agressive skeletons animated by a glowing fungus that drains the positive energy of anyone who gets too close.
Meatybones is a Tabletop RPG that offers flexible roleplaying experiences. It's been a pleasure watching Dazzlikat create this game system on their twitch stream!
Capepo appeared literally out of nowhere about 700 years ago, complete with flora, fauna and people. Visit to admire the birds and buy some of the abundant crops.
A super fun quiz to see what sort of psionic talents you have. I happen to be a telepathic biospion! A fun article and a unique idea.
Magic perfume that mages carry in little vials to help focus their arcane actions and make their spells more powerful.
The Goblins got their own page! K.S. Bishoff wrote this entire article live on Twitch. Not only is the content great to read, but there's amazing BBCode to boot.
Goals
For WorldEmber in December, I am hoping to write out the full plot for my first novel, Heart of The Half-Dragon. I'm expecting to hit 10k in the final outline document. This means that my Homework in November will be focused on what I need to actually get the novel written. I'll also be continuing to work on my current D&D5E campaign, The Drow Agenda. This campaign is part of The D&D-verse, a living world set in The Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft that I have been running campaigns and one-shots in since 2001.Homework Week 1
For WorldEmber Homework this month I will be focused on writing articles about the heroes and villains of The Dragonstar Sagas. Expect to see articles on: Kaesta, Syntax War Survivor & Virtual World BuilderEmber, The Fire Sorceress
Alikaine, The Loreweaver
Vareena, The Hateful Warlock.
Zalthor, The Demonlord
Arastoo, The Grand Archivist and Database Administrator
For #UnofficialMapVember, I plan on making a Metro-Style map to help align the various plots for Heart of The Half Dragon. I'm using MetroMapMaker for this project. I am inspired by this Nanowrimo Article: Outline Your Story Like a Subway Map.
Homework Week 2
I finally got around to writing The World Meta for The Dragonstar Sagas! I know we were supposed to do a mini-meta for World Ember, but I felt that the overall Meta was severely overdue. I'm glad that I've gotten this far along with world building so that creating the Meta wasn't overwhelming. It's fortunate that I had already re-organized the categories for both of my worlds recently. I'm happy with how they're set up and didn't have to change anything.
Homework Week 3
Just before WorldEmberPrep began, I had reorganized the homepage for The Drow Agenda to act as a Landing Page for my players. I put the most important information upfront to help them keep track of what is going on during the long, 20-level campaign. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I do want to add article blocks for the House Rules, Important Magical Items and the timelines for previous sessions.
At the top of the page are the most important article blocks, The Player Characters! We had a lot of problems adding one of the player character sheets to the campaign due to quirks with World Anvil. Two of the players had found artwork that we did not own the rights to, so I created AI artwork that captured the feel of their original portraits. Now we're in compliance with World Anvil's policies on art attribution and ownership. One of of the player character portraits was created by a player using Stable Diffusion but the image was too low resolution to use as a header so I used another AI program to digitally upscale it. They guys are all looking great!
Next, I wanted to focus on our main antagonists. This keeps the entire campaign in focus. The three most powerful villains are at the top. The big bad is Lloth, The Demon Queen of Spiders - an evil former goddess who controls and manipulates most of Drow society. Next we have Extremiton, The Ulitharid - a powerful mind flayer who wants to invade Waterdeep. It wouldn't be an Undermountain campaign if we didn't include Halaster Blackcloak, The Mad Mage - a crazy and powerful wizard who claims the megadungeon as his own.
It's important to remember your friends and allies so I've added those article blocks next. Bregan D'aerthe, the secret society of disaffected Drow seeking a new life on the surface is the first and most important article block for the players. Next I included Vhaeraun, the Lord of Shadows - Lloth's son who wants to tear down the corrupt matriarcal society in favor of individual freedom. The Brotherhood keeps gaining allies, so I hope this section grows. You'll see The Zhentarim, The Sept of Ill'Ghat, The Shard Shunners and The Harpers there so far.
Last but not least, you'll see two sections for quests. We've got the major quests that The Brotherhood are all working towards followed by some more minor quests. They're a busy group of guys! They need to win over the hearts of the Waterdeep citizenry, Stop Ceremorphosis for Slies, and eventually kill the Spider Queen herself. Along the way they want to save Kimmuriel, Revitalize Skullport, avoid Orcus' Wrath, Discover Undermountain's Secrets and Retake The Black Tankard for their friend Chasz. There are most quests to come!
The Dragonstar Sagas front page was in desperate need of a major overhaul. Originally I only had a single paragraph about the fantasy world of Akir being attacked by demons. I was afraid of telling people that my snuggly little fantasy world was wrapped up in a big cozy science-fiction blanket. I knew that genre mixing was a big turn off for some people, but there's no reason to hide it. If folks don't like sci-fi and fantasy together, my book will not be for them. I was also afraid this might somehow be a spoiler, but as Kaesta's story is woven throughout the novel, I figure everyone should know about this upfront.
I recently changed the header image from The Great Valley (now the background image) to one of Kaesta as she builds her fantasy world on her computer. As soon as you land at The Dragonstar Sagas front page, you're hit with the science fiction square in the jaw. Now that I've re-organized my overall plot, I know that the first chapter of my book will feature Kaesta and Asimov. There's no denying that we're starting off in a high-tech futuristic setting.
The opening paragraphs now explain that we're exploring two parallel worlds - a science fiction setting and a high-magic fantasy world. Hopefully these consise paragraphs are enough of an introduction to The Dragonstar Sagas to hook potential readers while giving them a realistic expectation about the first novel in the series.
I'm still not quite sure what a potential reader would like to see on the front page. I also am hoping to find a publisher and editor that want to help me after the first draft is completed. I am hoping for a partner who wants to put their own stamp on this dual universe, someone who is as excited to create these worlds as I am. For now, I have put up the Cast of Characters as these article blocks will hopefully give potential readers a good place to start exploring. We're still missing a few important dramatis personae but they're coming soon.
If you're someone who enjoyes sci-fantasy or a professional in the industry, opinions on a better way to present my world would be appreciated. I am quite comfortable receiving critical feedback as I know that's the best way to learn and grow.
Week 4 Homework
To make sure that I arrive safely at work this winter, I will be leaving an extra hour early. This gives me time to deal with icy roads, driving behind snow plows and clearing off my car before commute. On days when the weather doesn't slow me down, I'll be 45 minutes to an hour early for my shift. I'll be setting up base camp in the breakroom. There's a nice corner desk with a power outlet that I plan on using. Is there anything better than a new notebook and a fresh pen? With the inhumane amount of overtime for December, my only day of freedom will be Saturdays. I'll have another hour of distraction-free writing at the laundromat (30 minutes to wash, 35 to dry). There's a small table there that I plan to sit at and write. Saturday afternoons will be my best opportunity to type up everything I've written for the week.
#UnofficialMapVember Entries
Both of the MetroMaps that I created contain spoilers, since they're about the plots for The Heart of The Half-Dragon. These are very high view plots, only covering where the main characters are at during each of the five acts of the book. They're not super spoilery, but they do contain spoilers for sure.This Map is Hidden By A Spoiler Tag
This Map is Hidden By A Spoiler Tag
Here's the list of stubs that I'm working on to round out my novel's setting.
I'm #CommentCaroling to help spread excitement and cheer during WorldEmberPrep!
I'm hoping to earn a badge for #UnofficialMapVember by creating a map of my novel's plot and subplots!
by WordiGirl
Good luck! :D You can do it!
Thanks, Emy! Gotta keep myself accountable and heading in the right direction. :)