An Attempt at Summer Camp 2023

Written by Cyborg Starfish

Ok, time to try this again.

Part 1: How, What, Why?

Part 1.0: To Summer Camp or Not to Summer Camp

I've been debating if I want to participate in Summer Camp 2023 or not. I'm definitely in a better place mentally than I was back when I first tried Summer Camp back in 2021. Unfortunately I still won't be able to do many prompts this year because my priorities now lie with finishing the first two acts of my novel before the end of the year. The good news is that, after some shuffling around with the planning, my vacation has been delayed until August, which means I will be able to do a lot more in July than I thought I would.

So screw it, I won't be able to get any badge, but if I manage to get some nice articles regardless (even if it's only one), I consider it a win.

Part 1.3: In What World... (And What I'll Be Doing Differently From Last Time)

Of course I'll be working on The Monster's Alliance. My only world. This time I won't be focussing on a single region like I did back in 2021. Everywhere is fair game. I still hope to keep it close to the Glasslands because that region is the most fleshed out so far. But if a prompt that doesn't fit that setting catches my fancy I'll gladly travel to the other side of the world if need be.

I also won't be arbitrarily forcing myself to write in a short story format anymore. It was a nice experiment, but now I just want to focus on regular lore articles. I have a bunch of ideas for short stories still lying around. Hopefully I can flesh them out when my novel goal for the year has been reached.

Part 1.7: Camp Chill

This year I'll be joining Annie Stein's Camp Chill. It's about taking it easy, writing what you want to write and leaving what you're not interested in. On top of that, it's also about not abandoning your non-summer camp goals, which is neat for me who still prioritizes their novel.

Part 2: Theme Preparation

Now onto the good stuff.

Power

I love this theme, even though it also intimidates the hell out of me. Trying to map out the many different power relations between organizations and individuals is a daunting task, especially in a world in which nation states don't exist anymore. How do all of these communities, tribes, clans and independent cities engage with each other?

The Monster's Alliance has a very specific view on power, which is reflected in the metaphysical law of The Custodian's Vow. In this universe, power is inherently corruptive and it's corruption must be guarded against at all costs. This corruptive aspect of power is why authoritarian nation states are doomed to destroy themselves from the inside. It's why rulers cannot be trusted to meet the needs of the people even if said rulers have noble intentions. The aforementioned Custiodian's Vow is an unspoken promise that individuals or groups will never be powerful enough to dicate the lives of other people. For if they do become this powerful, it will only end in bloodshed in ruin.

During Summer Camp 2021 I wrote a haphazardly put together article about The Doninghal Empire, the empire that used to dominate the continent of Valahiri before it was destroyed in The Three Cataclysms. The reason why that article was so vague and disjointed was because the exact fate of the empire and how and why it ended up meeting that fate is actually an important plot point in my novel. I was worried that I might end up spoiling that plot point before even finishing the first draft. I hope to revisit the empire this year and still meaningfully discuss its lasting influence on Valahiri even after its demise without mentioning the last five years of the empire's existence (the period that is relevant to the novel). I still don't know how to do that yet without giving away too much. Hopefully the prompts will give me ideas.

Frontiers

It's now been over seven hundred years (or Cycles, as they are called in-universe) since the old world was destroyed. Valahiri's only humanoid species, the Elphin, have very long lifespans, but they still won't last that long. This means that if there is no active attempt to preserve knowledge of what was lost, this knowledge will be lost as well.

The apocalypse has fundamentally changed the landscape of Valahiri. The vast majority of older plant and animal species have died out and given way to new, heavily mutated ones that can survive in this new environment. The vast majority of this new Valahiri remains uncharted. Elphin communities form in regions where the air is no longer polluted and no-one ever dares to travel without a Filter Mask.

For all the lost knowledge and uncharted lands, magic itself continues to be a frontier no matter how adept anyone is at it. The Echoes that are the primary source of all magic are constantly shifting, evolving, devolving, transforming. Magic very much has a mind of its own, and for every question that gets answered about its workings, many more questions arise.

This theme also fascinates me, but I don't have a clear vision of what I want to do with it yet. There is so much to cover and I have so many ideas. I guess, once again, the prompts will guide me.

Relics

This one threw we through a loop at first. But after my brain spent a few days making dial up internet sounds, I eventually thought: 'Wait, I have a dead empire that used to dominate an entire continent. I could hypothetically fill up hundreds of books with just a list of the junk they left behind.'

And so my brain started working again.

One of my recent articles is about the Moldy Painting of an Imperial Couple. After the disaster that was my first Doninghal article, I figured it might also be an idea to tell the story of its downfall through the relics the empire left behind. That story would be inherently flawed of course, fraught with misinterpretations and misrememberings, since the empire was notorious when it comes to bending the truth to suit its needs.

I've also recently been thinking about the other nations that existed before the Doningal empire conquered the entire continent, most of these nations are inspired by past worldbuilding projects I worked on as a kid. All of these projects got scrapped, unfortunately, but I've been trying to find a way to give them new life in The Monster's Alliance universe. The relics these nations left behind are far less numerous than the imperial ones. Colonialism always attempts to erase the culture and history of any colonized nation. There are a lot of interesting questions to answer. How do the descendants of these cultures engage with these relics hundreds upon hundreds of years later? How do the survivors honour the culture and history that was erased?

Communication

Oh, I'm going to have a field day with this one. It just so happens that my entire magic system is based on communication, as opposed to control. Magic and its sources very much have a mind of their own in this universe, so using magic is all about communicating with it, finding out what makes it tick, what it needs and how it might react to you and everything else in its environment.

I've been thinking about unique forms of communication that shape a specific culture or community. I love to come up with something weird and unusual, and then extrapolate from there. One of my articles for the Bestiary challenge was about Stonemold, a massive fungal cluster that is used for long distance communication on Kalanannat. I've yet to figure out the full extent of how this cluster shapes the communities that use it, but it will play a large role once I get to flesh out Kalanannat.

One of the major themes in my novel Gahnalek the Iconoclast is the inherent violence of restricted communication. One of the symtomps of the Image curse involves isolating its victim and cutting off all possible communications on all fronts. It also manipulates the way the victim is viewed by others and thus how others react to the victim. The story of the bard Satashona is an example of communication breaking down to such a degree that the only way for the titular bard to connect to people is by building an instrument that produces a horrific sound that is supposed to be a representation of the sound he keeps hearing in his Image-induced dreams.

With this theme being also a major theme in my own novel, I'm going to have to resist writing articles that spoil too much. But at this point, I also feel inspired to maybe write some pilot scenes or short stories that are set within the timeframe of the novel but probably won't make it into the novel. Or maybe the promts will guide me into an entirely different direction. Who knows?

Monsters, like angels, functioned as messengers and heralds of the extraordinary. They served to announce impending revelation, saying, in effect, “Pay attention; something of profound importance is happening.”

- Susan Stryker

A Reminder of What I'm Doing

The above quote I also put in my 2021 Summer Camp article. It's from the essay My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage by Susan Stryker. The essay really speaks to me on a personal level, and this quote in particular helps me remind myself of what I want to do with my art and writing. Things are really hard for us right now. I'm lucky I don't live in the US or the UK, and I'm still relatively safe in my home country. On top of that I have an accepting family and a large support network. I can't even imagine what it's like for those who aren't that lucky.

For me creativity has always been my main form of communication when it comes to expressing experiences to difficult and confusing to put into 'normal' words. It's one of the reasons why I'm in love with the bizarre and the monstrous.

This got really heavy all of the sudden. I guess it can't be helped these days. Which is why it's extra important for me to find joy in what I'm doing, regardless of why I'm doing it. I hope others will find that joy as well.

Summer Camp Camp Chill Badge

by Rin Garnett

A custom badge made in honor of Annie Stein's Camp Chill.

Nnie's Camp Chill Guidelines

Remember the prompts are suggestions, not requirements.

Write what you're passionate about, leave what you aren't.

Relax when you feel tired.

Fight off any pesky brain-squitos trying to make you doubt your work.

Don't abandon your non-summercamp goals! Write that article you're itching to write, even if it doesn't fit any prompts.

(Shared with permission from Annie Stein. Read her thoughts on 'Camp Chill' on her Camp Pledge.)
If you'd like to repost this badge, add [imgblock:4574878] or [img:4574878] to your article.
If you'd like to repost the guidelines, Amy Winters-Voss made a block version you can use by adding [block:1050823] to your article.

Some Art I Did Recently

The Moldy Imperial Painting

Imperial Painting by Rain Tunison

This one started out as an excuse to try out more painterly styles. I am already starting to flesh these two out in my head, but their story is still a work in progress.

Memorial of the End

Memorial Shrine Mural by Rain Tunison

The banner of a The Three Cataclysms article I'm working on. An attempt at trying out a different style that isn't as time consuming as the one I use normally. Like the Imperial painting, it's a piece of in-universe artwork.