The Yonderverse is currently undergoing a massive restructuring and overhaul, and things may look broken. Thank you for your patience!
Phase 1: Tags, Indexes, & Categories
Phase 2: Overhauling Articles
Phase 3: Overhauling CSS & Homepage
 

Mochi's New Year 2025

Happy New Year everyone!! 2024 has been WILD. This year has been the best for the Yonderverse, and for me. Thank you to everyone who's supported my writing, through reading, liking, commenting, or following, supporting me on discord, supporting me on Ko-Fi, it means the world to me!

Like my previous New Year's Resolutions article, I am going to break this down into three sections: Mochi's Top Picks, Mochi's Resolutions, and 2024 in the Yonderverse. I like to share various statistics, my plans for the new year, and all sorts of fun things in my New Year's articles. Expect this to be a chonker!

Mochi's Top Picks!

Mustaia in Ayun Sovos

I'm a big fan of Ayun Sovos, and Polina "Line" Arteev's work in general. I chose this article, not just because Chimari Motera is the single best character ever created, but because these are my favourite animals ever. I love the way Line has taken different groups of creatures in the real world and inserted them all as people in Ayun Sovos!

I love how this article brings together the wider world, by describing where different types of mustaia live, and why. Exceptional work!

 

Jala - Volcanic Gas in ELAQITAN

This article is so inventive, and I always look forward to new articles in ELAQITAN. I've never really thought about writing about a type of gas before, and I love all the usecases for this particular one. The article is visually pleasing, I love the formatting and layout!

I love the "at a glance" section, I find that a very useful section on a material article. I adore the gas's use as mosaics, and makes for such a culturally significant resource.

Hoverboard Relay in wow that's a lot of stars

Author: Rin Garnett

Hoverboard relay is a sport with zero political baggage. At all. Nuh uh. I love this world as it explores cultures and peoples so well, and so interestingly. I really enjoy that the sport was created in order to control the use of these skateboards, and the history of the practice.

wow that's a lot of stars is one of my favourite worlds, I am always floored by the unique design of each article. Formatting and styling is always on point, especially with the world's latest CSS overhaul!

 

Dragonmoth Breeding in Waking Materia

Author: Alan Byers

The concept of this article, and the symbiotic relationship between dragonmoths and semi-intelligent fungi, is soooo intriguing! I love that the fungi attach themselves to different breeds, for different purposes and uses.

This article has a true sense of awe and wonder at such an alien concept, and really makes me want to dive deeper into Waking Materia. It is already one of my favourite worlds at the moment, and I can't wait to read more!

 

Palepellis in Ysteria

Author: CoolG

I love this article, as it perfectly explains why vampires in Ysteria have pale skin and can't handle sunlight. I really enjoy that vampires actually find this condition appealing, and will put up with the consequences of the genetic mutation if it means they appear more intimidating to prey.

CoolG is one to keep an eye on. Great ideas, fun articles, and great worlds! I can't wait to see where her writing goes!

 

Prime Elements and Magic in The Magical University of Lille

This is next level nerdery. As someone who adores chemistry and writing about elements and their uses in worldbuilding, I go feral for Amelie's articles. I love her magical spin on real-world elements and how they work in this world!

Yr'rjee Sotorm in Ethnis

Author: Barron

Yaaay, space danger! This adds a very real threat to something as simple as travelling through the world. These radiation storms can be avoided, and ships can be reinforced to protect themselves, which puts my mind at ease. I really enjoy the snippets of prose throughout the article, it really brings the world to life.

I love Ethnis, it is my favourite world, and I tell everyone that. If you didn't know that... you do now. It is a world full of wonder, horror, creepy things and places, gay people; perfection.

 

Aurum Oak in Kena'an

Author: Imagica

What a pretty plant for a pretty world! These golden trees produce a glow during equinoxes, a lovely detail that adds richness to the world.

I LOVE that the bark is used for important documents, I'd love to see examples of some in the future!

 

Aiterean in Lethea

Author: Mihkel Rand

Nobody's doing it like Dhelian. Languages, characters, conflicts, organisations, I look to his worlds for inspiration for practically anything. The work put into this article and working out the mechanics behind this conlang is so impressive, it's something I could never do.

I love the quotes, written in aiterean and translated when you hover. 3,000+ words in the dictionary is astonishing. Incredible work, Dhelian!

 

Mochi's Resolutions & Goals

First, let's take a look at my resolutions from last year!
  • Avoid burnout
  • Another successful year avoiding burnout! If I had pushed myself to write more in the last few months of 2024 I think I would've burnt out, but I didn't and I am proud of myself for it. I know when to stop now, which is amazing.
  • Practice prose-writing
  • I wrote a couple little snippets this year, but nothing like I had planned. Hopefully 2025 goes a bit better in terms of writing and sharing my prose!
  • Work more on my master cladogram
  • Sobbing. My master cladogram crashed and the entire file jumbled itself up, to the point where I could not refigure it even if I wanted to. So that was many many hours down the drain! I may try and make another one in the future, but unfortunately there's no easy way to make a cladogram of the size I want.
  • Develop the Magic of the Yonderverse
  • HELL YEAH! Magic took the centre stage this year, particularly in the latter half. I worked hard on magic throughout Spooktober and WorldEmber, Chronomancy becoming one of the most developed magics in my world now. I still have a long way to go, but it feels like magic is a major part of my world now.
    Solid progress last year! I avoided burnout and still managed to achieve a lot.
  • Avoid burnout
  • I'm putting this in my New Year's Resolutions each year, just to make sure I don't overdo it. Knowing I've avoided burnout the past two years leaves me confident for 2025.
  • Update my Stickerbook at least once
  • I'm super chuffed with my stickerbook project - it took a lot of work to set up, and it's a fun adventure for the lurkers of my world. I've not released any new stickers since I published the article, so at some point this year I would like to drop a bunch of new ones for people to find! But I can only do that when I've fleshed out more planets.
  • Have content for every section in Elements And Their Uses
  • Bit of a random goal thrown in here, but I would really love to have something in each section of my Elements And Their Uses article. The article is about every element in the Periodic Table, both from real life and ones I've made up, and I want to explore their uses in the Yonderverse. It's something I started in WE23, and have only updated a few times since.
  • Hit 1 million words
  • Hooooo boy! As of writing this I am at about 884k words. I expect to hit 900k at some point during February, and I'm almost sure I'll hit 1 million words at some point this year. If I don't, I will be genuinely disappointed, considering I consistently write about 20,000 words a month.
    2024 in the Yonderverse!

    January

    I began the year as I typically do, powering through article after article as if WorldEmber never concluded. I was writing practically daily, fleshing out a planet I had briefly touched upon in the previous month.

    I am still proud of the work I produced in January, as I think it really helped me just get more words down in my world without the pressure of everything needing to be held up to a super high standard. I also began my Galaxy24 journey, designing a new solar system every week for the entire year. Spoiler alert, I made it half-way through before giving up.

    Favourite Article of the Month

     
    Incredible! The amount of work you must have put in to come up with all the species really takes the world to another level.

    February

    February saw the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge, creating item articles based on one-word prompts. I had a blast with this challenge, fleshing my world out with short articles on different artifacts one can find around different planets.

    Things got magical, things got dark, and I just had such a fun time creating little articles with cute doodles. I also worked on expanding a tiny bit more on the things I wrote about in the previous WorldEmber, which was very fun.

    Favourite Article of the Month

     
    Conceptually I love this. This is awesome, and this method for this challenge is super fun! It is also very well written, I love the style! Can't wait to see the collection grow!

    March

    We had the Unofficial Challenges month in March... which felt kind of contradictory to me but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There were a ton of challenges to pick from, hosted by countless wonderful Anvilites. I focused on just a handful, as there were too many for me to feasibly enter.

    I ended up fleshing out planet Kyrophis quite a lot, and I'd love to return to the planet at some point, I think it has a lot more potential.

    Favourite Article of the Month

    April

    I'm not quite sure what the hell happened in April, but I was able to publish article after article with no signs of slowing down. And I'm still so so proud of what I wrote. And many of these articles are far longer than I normally write, and yet I was able to write several a day.

    Sadly this energy is long gone, but I can look back knowing I did not waste any time in April, and I gave it my all. I'd also reaaaally love to flesh out Eclypsa more, and talk about DeoVita and what kind of organisms they are producing. So much good stuff from this month.

    Favourite Article of the Month

     

    May

    May is the defining month of 2024 for me. I won Best World in the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards, a feat I genuinely never thought was even possible. I submitted it in the first place because why not, what did I have to lose?

    Besides winning the coveted Best World Award, I wrote a bunch of solid articles in May. I also published Worldbuilding Ecosystems Vol. 1, a little guide to developing ecosystems in your world. I was happy to see a lot of people seem to enjoy the article, and I hope it helps people!

    Favourite Article this Month

     

    June

    June got off to a rocky start, with me in the midst of a mystery illness. I powered through and emerged victorious; while I was ill, I was working very slowly on a massive article, the Algol. I still think it's one of the best things I've written, and I poured many hours into research, taking photos of real life creatures and plants for inspiration, and mapping out the river system.

    It is one of the few times where I've sat down and dedicated a big chunk of my time to just one article, and I think it really paid off.

    Favourite Article this Month

     
    This is amazing, a wonderful snapshot of a complex biome, a major and large river like this and how it becomes a hub of sorts for all life (flora and fauna of any and all types) in a region. You really did a lot of amazing work Mochi, like you captured the complexity of such a biome perfectly, provided beautiful and wonderful visual aides to boot.   From reading this you both feel like you know the region well, almost as if you've been there, yet you know that in truth, we (the readers) are only scratching the surface of a biome like this. I loved this one a lot, and the skirxihi might be one of my favorite friends you've introduced us too. I dunno, but the little image, it just looks kinda cute and very canine/fox friend shaped :D

    July

    Favourite Article this Month

     

    August

    August was where I felt myself slump a bit. I slowly worked on developing planet Venus, but aside from that I didn't write all that much. Not like previous months, at least.

    It did feel good to relax from a difficult Summer Camp, and I am very glad I didn't push myself to write more than I could handle.

    I also published a big chonker, the Milky Way Encyclopedia of Life, which I completely forgot I wrote until 30 seconds ago. Yay!

    Favourite Article this Month

     

    September

    Much of my September was spent polishing and repolishing my Institutions of Learning entry, the Titan Ecological Academy. The time I spent on the article certainly paid off, as it was shortlisted! Didn't quiiite win though, but I was very pleased to see TJ Trewin claim the victory.

    I managed to squeeze out a couple more decent articles in September, but nothing crazy. I was still getting used to balancing work and life, and didn't really have the energy for much writing.

    Favourite Article this Month

     

    October

    I picked up the pace considerably during October, thanks to a week's holiday. Spooktober is World Anvil's annual October challenge, and I always enjoy it. I always end up making lots of little articles and developing various parts of my world, and this was when I really started giving Magic some love.

    I developed magic through new locations and languages, which was not what I was expecting to do, but I really enjoyed it! Planet Daglaci also got a lot more love and a lot more confusing lore.

    Favourite Article this Month

     
    The tail falling off is such a striking and unpleasant imagery. Poor fellas.

    November

    I had massive spikes and dips in productivity throughout November. I was excited by NovelEmber's debut, hoping to write ten short stories to populate my world with prose. I only ended up writing three, but I really enjoyed them!

    I was also getting myself ready for WorldEmber, preparing for the worst. After a difficult Summer Camp I was really worried I would have no energy for WorldEmber, which would've been a huge shame considering it is my all-time favourite event on World Anvil.

    Favourite Article this Month

     

    December

    Favourite Article this Month

       
    Classifying species is not easy, I always find it very difficult, especially since I don't use the traditional approach. I like how you use the traditional terrestrial approach of Linnaeus and then develop it further, which makes it very authentic.
    Previous New Years
    New Year's Resolution's Challenge
    Mochi's New Year 2024
    Statistics
    Some people do not want to see statistics, so I have censored them. Hover over to see!
    1st January
    Likes: 5643
    Comments: 876
    Followers: 191
    Articles: 1214
    31st December
    Likes: 10,561
    Comments: 1,692
    Followers: 328
    Articles: 1,606

    Word Counts

    1st January
    YONDERVERSE - 656,823 words
    JERNA'S DIARY - 44,461 words
    LATE JURASSIC EARTH - 4,662 words
    L.A.M.P. - 2,020 words
    WRITER'S DIMENSION - 3,352 words
    A TO ZOO - 46,660 words
    TERRA AVA - 1,138 words
    1st July (6 months in)
    YONDERVERSE - 772,398 words (+115,575)
    A TO ZOO - 57,399 words (+10,739)
    AVA ADMIRA (TERRA AVA) - 7,557 words (+6,419)
    Terra Ava rebranded, old worlds paused until further notice.
    31st December
    YONDERVERSE - 880,743 (+108,345)
    A TO ZOO - 60,094 (+2,695)
    AVA ADMIRA - 8,178 (+621)
    HABITA (new) - 985

    Comments

    Please Login in order to comment!
    Jan 6, 2025 07:27 by Imagica

    Thank you so much for including Aurum Oak here! Seeing one of my writings among all these amazing articles on your list truly humbles me and makes me blush. Congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished this year- I’m certain 2025 will be even more creative and productive for you! Also, I want to take the chance and thank you for all the incredible things you do for this community as well as the support you provide to newcomers like me. Without a doubt, it’s this kind of kindness and warmth that keeps people here and makes them fall in love with the platform. You are an amazing and inspiring bean!

    Come visit my world of Kena'an for tales of fantasy and magic!

    Or, if you want something darker, Crux Umbra awaits.

    Jan 6, 2025 19:48 by Mochi

    You're more than welcome! Honestly, I struggled to pick a single article from you, you've outdone yourself this WorldEmber!   Thank you so much for your kind words, it really means a lot <3 I love this community and I always try my best to give back the love I receive. <3

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 6, 2025 08:44 by CoolG

    Omg you have achieved so much in 2024! Here's to more words and more Yonderverse in 2025 :D And I know you'll get to 1 million words! Also, thank you so, so much for your lovely comment on Palepellis; it's so touching ;-;

    Explore the dark and mysterious Inferncenem, the bright and wonderful Caelumen, the dark but magical Ysteria, the vibrant and bustling Auxul or the world of contrasts Mytharae!   Have a good one!   Join the Discord and chat with like-minded people!
    Jan 6, 2025 19:48 by Mochi

    Thank you so much, and you're more than welcome! Hope you have a great 2025! <3

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 6, 2025 14:10 by Alan Byers

    You're so kind as usual Mochi, thank you for the lovely review. And what a committed, loving article this is! I'll definitely borrow the overall formatting style if you don't mind. Happy new year to you and may all your resolutions come true! ~~ Alan

    Explore Waking Materia and the myriad planes of the Eridún Crux Region.
    "It's like reading TvTropes" -- Kroww
    Summer Camp 2024 Greatest Hits | Spooktober 2024 Hub | WorldEmber 2024 Hub
    Jan 6, 2025 19:49 by Mochi

    Thank you so much! You're more than welcome to borrow the formatting of this article <3

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 8, 2025 20:59

    Congrats on your successful year! Hope you have a good 2025, keep up the hard work :)

    Jan 9, 2025 22:50 by Mochi

    Thank you so much! <3

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 8, 2025 23:03 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

    Congratulations on an amazing year, Mochi. Cheering you on for 2025 and always! :)

    Emy x
    Explore Etrea | March of 31 Tales
    Jan 9, 2025 22:50 by Mochi

    Thank you Emy! <33

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 10, 2025 17:46 by Lilliana Casper

    I hope you achieve all of your goals this year! I'm looking forward to exploring more and seeing what you have coming. I also want to add that I love the format of this article and how easy it is to read.

    Lilliana Casper   I don't comment much, but I love reading your articles! Please check out my worlds, Jerde and Tread of Darkness.
    Jan 11, 2025 17:14 by Mochi

    Aww, thank you so much! I hope you have an amazing year too <3

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Jan 12, 2025 14:49

    Congratulations on your great success during Worldember and the whole of last year. It's amazing to see how the Yonderverse is developing.   Thank you so much for choosing Jala, I didn't think it would be so well received.   I wish you the best of luck with your 2025 plans and I'm very excited to discover your periodic table elements. That could be interesting.

    Stay imaginative and discover Blue's Worlds, Elaqitan & Naharin.
    Jan 12, 2025 18:03 by Mochi

    aaaa, thank you so much Blue! <3   You're more than welcome, you know how much I love your writing and I knew I wanted to feature you somewhere in here <3   Hope you have a great 2025!

    I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way.
    Powered by World Anvil