Worldember 2022 Pledge

by World Anvil

by World Anvil

The Homework

by World Anvil

The Pledge Assignment
Last year, my writing was very unfocused and very much trying to get myself back into my own worlds, rediscover old goals, and get some momentum.
Well, I succeeded. This year, I am much more focused, and I have much more defined goals.
I am going to be focusing almost entirely on my Katheryn story universe.
To say this universe has a long history is an understatement. It started in 1994 as something I jotted down in Mrs. Wilcox's Pre-Algebra class. To say she and I didn't get along was like saying you shouldn't smoke around puddles of gasoline. She pretty much hated me, I think. I tried hard in her class - I really did.
I am bad at math. She was not a great teacher for someone bad at math. After most of a semester doing my best to take good notes, do my homework, and keep my head down, I was exhausted. I could feel the winter break beckoning me with that refreshing chill and the promise of two weeks of sleeping in, overeating, and playing D&D.
So, one day in class, I chose to do one of my favorite things - writing. I followed all of her rules:
These rules only applied to me. No one else. The ladies in the class could do all of the things I could not. Because I am a boy, and boys don't need/want all of the 'extra' stuff I used for class.
I did not have one of my notebooks (where most of my notes lived) out. I had a single peice of notebook paper on my desk. Nothing else.
I was not writing in pen - especially not one of my colored pens. (*gasp a boy using colors other than black or blue? Scandal!)
I did not switch writing untensils, have any non-approved supplies (stickers, highlighters, rulers, etc) out.
My small rebellion felt pretty good. I didn't have any ideas, so - I just started writing something. Anything. After a few paragraphs, I slid it over to the guy next to me - my foster brother and best friend. He grinned at me, checked to make sure Mrs. Wilcox was ignoring us, and whispered to me 'I'll read the book.'
This didn't click with me at first. But it did, eventually - he thought what I had written was pretty good and I should keep going. He was, for the longest time, my biggest fan and best supporter.
I kept writing and I ignored the winter break homework.
I had started a Star Trek fanfic.
A few weeks later, I wanted to enter our middle school's yearly writing contest. But my brothers were both behind on homework, and thus needed the only computer we had available to us. (I loved that old Mac LC II.) When they finished their work, they got to game.
Weeks passed. And I never got the chance to write the book. I was having something of a meltdown (as you do in middle school) and my parents agreed to let me stay up late and write the novel. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and my Dad went to his office to print it off and let me turn it in. I got to school early and turned it in just in time.
Just barely.
I won. I got to go to the Young Writers' Symposium for the third year in a row (awesome event.) And I decdied to turn it into a book. This was, I think, my true beginnings as serious writer. I dove into turning it into a book, doing world building, character devlopment, and plotting.
Whoops.
It outgrew it's fanfic origins and by 2000 or so, it was it's own universe. That was a long time ago, yes? Yeah. Long time ago. The problem is that I had created a story I wasn't ready to write. I didn't have the skills.
I do now.
So, it's time to write it. Finally.
Assuming, of course, my familiar decides that Worldember is a good use of my time.

Guardian of the Notebooks by TheNotebookWizard

the Katheryn story

The prophecy is a lie - and she knows it.

This story is epic space opera. Hundreds of thousands of years of history, and a grand tableau of prophecy, politics, realtionships, dynasties - and war.

You know what I want?
Space mythology.
Saints of the starship and angels that take their true form as nebulae, great and fiery amorphous beings that speak the will of the Universe
Nymphs of asteroid fields and planetary rings, sylphs that fly in the tails of comets and solar wind, the gods of the galactic core
Demons that dwell in black holes and eat the hearts of dying stars, spirits of galactic battles that cause engines and shields to fail when you get too close to their graves
Ghost ships, long MIA, drifting in dark space, an inaccessible monument to those lost
Demigods, Herculean beings forged in solar fire surviving alone and unshielded in the vacuum, on an icy rock so far from a star as to never see its light
Heroes and saints ascending to their gods by dissolving into starlight and void
Just…Space mythology.

~ Attractthecrows

(Also. I cannot forget Operatice Maximalism
Note to self: I still need a better name for this univers
I have some great ideas for this universe. I lot of lore. A lot of history. A lot of characters, and a solid plot. But there has always been something that's gotten me - stuck with it. I keep working on it, re-working it,
All of my other problems as a writer aside (inability to finish stories, too many WIPs, etc) I ended up figuring out what the problem was...only, it broke my timeline.
Gotta fix that.

Goals

Goal the First: Rewrite the history. Yes. All of it.

It's been a long time since I wrote the history of the universe. I need to go back to it and rewrite it. Even though most of it won't really appear in the story, aside from references, I need to know. I'm a much better writer and better world builder than I was when I first started this story. It's time to apply my new skills to this universe and make sure I know what the foundation of my story is before I dive too far into it.

Goal the Second: Rework the timeline of the book(s).

Katheryn isn't fully human. She isn't going to age like a human. I need to respect that, and I need to adjust her history and timeline to deal with her not aging like a human. I don't know what that's going to look like or what that's going to do to the longer story, but I need to do it.

Goal the Third: How does the space magic even work?

I have a pretty fair idea how the space magic works, but I don't know how all of it works. I really do need to sit down and rebuild the magic systems - both arcane and clerical magic - and have them fully developed before I dive into the writing.

The Specifics

Such as they are

Short list isn't that short
Species: define them. Create culture. Create history. Explore their place in the New Order Explain the Space Magic Create space mythology for the space gods Write. The. Prophecy. Find a better word than 'house' Technology Katheryn's ship Stellar nations Immortals The Disinherited Rewrite the history and define the Epochs better

Stellar Nations of the Known Worlds	Sworn Orders
(thus far, anyway) Empire of Terran Worlds Republic of Lost Stars Outworld Alliance Eridani Combine Coalition of High Worlds Diasporan Confederation The Remnant Disinherited]	(space wizards. some space priests.) Mystic Lords Aurora Knights Blackguard Void Walkers Wardens of the Edge Pact of the Forgotten

Immortals	Species
Riani Ashari Impranu Remnant	Elaasian Antarian Eltoan Ttysrien Sahde

Notebook Wizard Logo by Leah Joy Roberts

Table of Contents

Worlds to Create

The Katheryn story

"The prohecy is a lie - and she knows it."

Starfire Quests

"Ad astra per aspera. Ad eternum."

Cell Phone Sorcery
Chiaroscuro
Semper Fidelis
Office of Reality Intervention & Immortal Affairs
The Secret History of the Solar System

Fanfic Worlds

Magic of Intention & Circumstance (Harry Potter)

"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."

From Beyond Our Stars (Star Trek)
Unnamed Star Wars the Old Republic Universe
Star Wars: Songsteel Sentinels
MCU: There and Back. Again.

Campaign Settings

Silver Gryphons
City Guards of Meridia
The Goblin Wars
"Oops!"
Starflight

From the Notebook

"May the Gods always stand between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk."

— ancient Egyptian blessing
(for Babylon 5 by Harlan Ellison)

"I improvise. Suddenly. Violently. And all over the place.

— Simon R Green (paraphrased)

"We walk in the dark places where no one else will go. We stand at the gates and none may pass. So no one else has to."

— The Order of Bablyon (me)