Mochi's SC26 Pledge!
Woop dee doobadoo, my sixth Summer Camp! And yet I can distinctly remember my first event, like it was just last week. I've had crazy ups and downs with Summer Camp, but overall it remains one of my most favourite times of the year.
Last year I made a big mistake. For some stupid, silly, ridiculous, bizarre reason, I decided it was a good idea to answer all forty prompts - with at least 1000+ words each - with artwork for each - and every single article set on a different planet. This was a conscious decision of mine, knowing full-well I was lacking in energy and motivation. I made it about ten articles in to this challenge and had to stop there, and ended up writing thirty more bland, uninteresting entries.
I'm not making that same mistake this year, I SWEAR. Not happening. Nope, nah, naurrrrrr; this year I am still aiming for diamond (can't break my five year streak!), but while aiming for 300-400 words in each article. I will stop around this mark when writing, BUT if I feel particularly invested in an idea, I'll keep going! Essentially just letting the ideas flow.
World Introductions
For new readers, let's have a look at all of my worlds, shall we?
The Yonderverse is a gigantic science fantasy universe, focusing on expansive lore and exciting adventure. Instead of a focus on select characters, we're looking at the world as a whole. Conflicts between stellar empires who fight for planets to expand their territories.
Explore vibrant planets and discover (literally) thousands of awesome creatures in alien environments. Like all of my projects, everything is made entirely by myself. The Yonderverse is where the majority of my worldbuilding takes place, and where most of my energy is poured into. While it sits at just over a million words now, I have big plans that I've not even begun yet.
The A to Zoo is an urban fantasy world, a small slice of the Yonderverse! Inside this seemingly infinite zoo is more than four trillion species of animals to discover. The world is light, fun, and full of cool artwork made by yours truly!
This world will provide not only interesting worldbuilding, but educational resources on conservation and wildlife. This is my true passion, and to be able to transform said passion into a worldbuilding project is truly amazing. I hope to write a few fun little articles for the A to Zoo this Summer Camp!
Ava Admira is the lightest of light fantasies, focused on fun and whimsy. The world is lived in by various bird people, inspired by real life birds! Ava Admira is a magical world, with a little focus on archeology and uncovering the people of the past.
The year is 2250. Humans have existed in space for two hundred years now. Explorer ship XPO Galacta has just stumbled across a biosphere, floating in the void. In a vast, empty environment, coming across another human-made structure has caused quite a concern.
Aboard XPO Galacta, you work as xenobiologist Una's assistant. You are new to this role, having boarded just a few weeks ago. Your ship has just discovered a space station floating alone in the void of space. It seemingly had human creators, possibly hundreds of years ago. Everything else is unknown.
It is your job to find out the mysteries.
A fantasy world set within the Yonderverse. You are a visitor of the spaceway apothecary, led on a tour of the building by the handsome witch who runs it. It is a slow build-up romance story, which I hope to continue working on soon.
Aside from this storyline, you'll (soon) find lots of small articles on potion ingredients, familiars, wands, artifacts, everything to do with magic! This world was made to be a fun way to flesh out magic in the Yonderverse.
This world was just overhauled, with brand new CSS and i've deleted every article but a small introduction. This world is another slice of the Yonderverse, focusing on saurians, the people of Earth that lived during the time of the dinosaurs.
Read through researchers Aipo and Eiki's data, after their hard work was uncovered long after their deaths, trapped in the past. Learn all about prehistory of planet Earth!
My Beloved Bestie!
My long term accountability buddy, Polina "Line" Arteev, said yes to once again joining me in the adventures of Summer Camp. We're twins, joined at the hip, and we LOVE Summer Camp. This rock-climbing, bird-watching baddie is my biggest inspiration, and with literally like a million WAWA awards under their (rock-climbing) belt, they sure know how to worldbuild!
I love chatting about local wildlife with Line - we're always sharing pics of birds and squirrels we've taken and squealing at how cool animals are. To have someone share that interest is so meaningful! And I want to carry that energy through Summer Camp, squealing at all of our cool ideas together, which is going to massively motivate us.
Summer Camp Camps
Each year, several community members run fun little camps to lift people's spirits. I will be joining Camp Feral and Camp Chill this year, ran by Polina "Line" Arteev and Annie Stein respectively! These two camps, put together, equals me. I am going to tear apart these prompts, like a feral gremlin, all while sticking to my chill goals, and letting myself relax!
I'm also committed to the Dewy Diamonds camp, which is the one camp I'm in specifically dedicated to a writing goal. Being feral is a state of mind, as is being chill, but being a Dewy Diamond means I'm dead set on writing 32 articles. And I'll be cheering everyone else on, no matter what! No matter what anyone else's goals are, no matter if I'm struggling to write. I always want to support the people in this community <3
Week 1: Love
A lovely theme! I love a lot of things. I love my friends, my family, my boyfriend. I love nature, animals, the ocean, little seashells. I love the sky, and I love the stars and the moon at night. I love the rain, when it patters on top of my roof, and I can hear it as I'm going to sleep. I love waking up early in the morning, the world covered in mist, and the dawn chorus in full effect. I love how unique each and every person is, and how no two people are the same. I love a room filled with genuine laughter, and I love a room in peaceful silence.
Love comes in many forms. Passionate love between two people. Platonic love between a friend group. The love one has for family. Many love the natural world, many love science. The appreciation and love for exploration and adventure is a big thing, too. Exploring this will be very fun!
I recently wrote up a list of LGBTQ+ characters in the Yonderverse, titled LGBTQ+ Representation. I'd love to create more characters and expand on the many different kinds of love there is. Perhaps tap into Amaramancy, also known as love magic. Love is something you can manipulate, in the Yonderverse.
Sorry but that gif was the first thing that popped in my mind so there you go x
And the ONLY reason I politely decline the offer to review and update my homepage and world primer is because I know they are up to date! In fact, I updated my world homepage like... last month? And I'm really happy with it!
And my world primer is also pretty darn good, and I shan't be updating that either. You can find that here - Into the Yonderverse!
I'm absolutely the kind of person who re-writes homepages and primers, feels happy with them, then the next morning looks at them and goes ew. The Yonderverse homepage and primer has undergone so many changes I've lost count! For my secondary project, the A to Zoo, it's a similar story.
The A to Zoo has gone through CSS themes galore, as well as homepage overhauls to the point where even the core concept of the world has shifted. I plan on playing around with one or two A to Zoo articles for Summer Camp, so I'll consider editing the homepage in preparation for it.
Almost posted that gif again... but I held myself back. I don't plan on updating my world's CSS or layout, though. My layout has been consistent for years now, and I'm very happy with how I've set things up. It makes writing articles quite easy, and I don't need to faff around with an interesting article layout each time.
CSS is a similar story. I've not changed much in years, and while I do want to do a bit of a CSS refresh, now isn't the best time for that. At least not for me. It would be for the sake of it, before I'm ready, so I plan on tackling a CSS refresh in the future, when I'm ready!
For my timelines, I make articles instead of using the actual timelines feature. I don't like the functionality of the timelines feature in the slightest, but I won't get into that to keep this prep article cutesy and demure. That being said, my master timeline could use some more love! It's not been properly updated in a while, and I have CSS to tweak. Come check it out!
As per the Yonderverse Overhaul, I must make a map of each planet I overhaul. I've made six brand new maps for this overhaul thus far, and there will be many more to come! I also have plenty of other maps, from rivers to cities - I have a lot of maps, but compared to my world as a whole, it doesn't even scratch the surface. Miles away from the surface, in fact.
The meta is great in theory, but it doesn't really work that well for me. And that's okay, it works for other people! Perhaps I'll fill it out in the future, maybe even for this event. But it'll entirely be for personal satisfaction, not because it will help me.
I don't reaaaally like how the meta page is laid out, either. But I've seen some people do funky things with re-formatting it, so maybe I can do that too!
HOW ABOUT YES
I've been systematically overhauling this world for almost a year and a half now. I've barely made a dent, but it's a dent nonetheless!
Having seen what I can do when I really put my mind to this overhaul, transforming old concepts into fresh new parts of my world, I'm not stopping until I'm all done.
I don't write as consistently anymore, but when I feel like it I go back to an old article and tear it from the ground up to start again. Fresh new ideas build on the core concept I had all those years ago!
I don't need a "feel for my world" either, but I will be making new articles. I'm not the kind of person who doesn't write outside of events - even if I write slower nowadays, I'm making new articles throughout the year. I have a very good feel for my world and I know instinctively if an idea suits my world or not.
I wrote a small article for this prompt, a bit bigger than a stub. Fitting that I wrote it while at my sister's wedding over the weekend!
Week 2: Growth
Growth is a really nice theme, and I think it represents something very important that all good worlds need. Every world needs something that's growing, something you can see is progressing. Whether that be a society that's progressing, characters that are growing both literally and emotionally, factions growing, or maybe ecosystems too.
When you have a world that you can feel is growing, it makes that world feel alive.
I'd like to think a lot of things in the Yonderverse are growing. I mean, the hundreds of plant species I've made certainly are. Trash Planets are also growing, which is going to have a serious impact on society at large when they have nowhere else to toss away their garbage. And with populations on trllions of planets also growing... what happens then?
Society is growing at an exponential rate, in size and complexity. With new peoples and new cultures introducing themselves to the mix, space society grows and develops itself.
I don't think I'll choose a specific area of focus for the entirety of Summer Camp - I've learnt in the past that restricting myself to an area of focus makes things difficult for me. That being said, I have been thinking about expanding on the different realms of the Yonderverse.
Pocket dimensions, voids, elemental planes, there are so many types of realms in the Yonderverse. I've written about quite a few but I'd really like to expand on them and flesh them out more! Each school of magic is tied to a realm, such as Hydromancy and the Waterways.
In these realm articles I sometimes talk about the people or the animals that live there. I don't want all of these realms to feel monotoned, I'd really like to give them the opportunity to develop and grow, with different peoples, cultures, places, things like that.
It's really fun to write about these other realms because I can create such a different vibe with them, without the restriction of being on a planet, or something like that. Like with the Silent Halls, I wanted to tap into the fear of liminal spaces, and there's a lot of fun, creepy stuff that could go on here. I'd love Summer Camp to be the opportunity to flesh out some of these realms!
Below is a list of realms that have articles - some aren't written, and some need re-writing, which I might see if I can do before Summer Camp begins! If you see an asterisk* by the name, it needs re-writing. A symbolises a realm I really wantt to work on!
Outside of Summer Camp I want to be fleshing out these realms with interesting creatures, peoples, cultures, magical artifacts, materials, remnants of ancient civilisations. There's a lot I want to do (like always), and naturally I don't have all the time in the world, so I will attempt to embody the tortoise - slow and steady wins the race!
Realms are a complex thing in the Yonderverse. Most stack on top of one another, or side by side, and can be accessed through wormholes and portals. Other realms phase through other realms, such as the Time Dimension; time, a liquid, flows at a (mostly) steady pace through this realm, which overlaps most other realms. Where the time dimension overlaps, the passage of time can be felt.
Magic is drawn from realms, and different realms power different schools of magic. Realms have a tremendous impact on the people in the Yonderverse, whether they are aware of it or not. Those that denounce magic will still feel its effects. And then, those that practice magic have close associations with other realms. While I've really not focused that much on these other realms in the Yonderverse, they are very important!
Changing my categories is something I don't plan on doing - aside from everything under my Atlas category, I have everything I need, neatly organised. So if I want to write about a character, a material, or a historical event, I've got categories to fit them in.
The only thing that will need expanding are categories on the realms themselves - if I expand on geographic locations, I'll want to add more categories to streamline navigation a bit.
Other Realms
LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this is the prompt for meee! I'll definitely have an article for this prompt!
Aaaand here it is! Felt right to make a whole new planet, and I decided to tackle one I knew would have some interesting creatures.
Week 3: Loss
Loss is a tricky topic to brainstorm, particularly when the first thought is death. Death, just as it is in real life, is a sensitive topic when worldbuilding. For me, when trying to worldbuild the concept of death, it is the truest test of trying to create a rich and realistic culture. How people respond to death, and losing someone, differs not just in culture, but also person to person.
Death is not the only form of loss, though! There is loss in battles and in conflicts, which is a whole World Anvil template. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a Conflict prompt in Wave 3! I'm also thinking about how deciduous forests lose their leaves in autumn/winter time, which links back to growth, when said leaves return.
The loss of history, too. The Yonderverse being 640 billion years old leaves a lot of history lost to time. Cultures, species, everything is lost over time. Perhaps some are re-discovered in the form of ancient ruins and artifacts, but they were still once upon a time lost.
Awww the prep thinks I have a routine that's so cuuuute
In actuality I really don't have much of a routine, as I've tried many times before and they don't tend to help. I know that the words seem to flow better in the mornings and evenings, as whenever I try to write in the middle of the day, I just cannot seem to focus. Not sure why that is!
And as for my process, I tend to write an article top to bottom. I'll start with the introductory paragraph(s), then I go down section by section and write those out, formatting as I go. This is almost definitely why I struggle writing anything other than a species or a geographic location, as I have specific sections I tackle each time for these two templates, but not for any others. In order to write anything other than a species or a location, I need a very solid idea beforehand so I know what sections to tackle.
In recent months this has severely limited my writing capabilities, so perhaps it's time to try and change things up, and find a different creative process that actually makes writing easier!
Ayyyy, I went on a walk yesterday! And I'm going for a walk tomorrow. So I shall indeed be touching grass in preparation for Summer Camp. I love going outside, especially to nature reserves. They played a significant role in my childhood; I have countless fond memories of my grandad and I visiting local nature reserves to identify all the birds we can - usually these were wetlands and marshes, so I've grown very familiar with the waterbirds of the UK.
And since I'm a SC Prep overachiever, I shall also be spending some time in my favourite fictional world. Well, multiple. I love the Subnautica and Slime Rancher games for the same reason: I love the worldbuilding. They both tell extremely different stories, yet both are set specifically on alien planets. The Subnautica games are about exploration and adventure on alien ocean planets, and survival is key. The Slime Rancher series is also about exploration, but you're building a wholesome ranch full of adorable squishy little slimes.
Both of these game series have had a massive impact on my own worldbuilding. Hothiri, Ocearia, and a number of other ocean planets are in some ways inspired by the Subnautica games, while planet Osao is directly inspired by the Slime Rancher games. I'll for sure be spending more time in these fictional worlds before Summer Camp starts!
I love reading work from other Anvilites, so I'll be updating this pledge with awesome worlds I check out. Most of the worlds I'll post will be worlds I'm very familiar with (and you might be too!), but I'm going to make an effort to find some new worlds before Summer Camp starts. I'll be using this prep challenge to find those worlds!
Zero chance I was going to write this prep without mentioning Solaris. This queer science fantasy world is arguably my favourite world I've seen on World Anvil, in the 5+ years I've been on this site.
The number of accolades it has earned is a testament to the world's quality, and Annie Stein is an exceptional writer and artist. The well-crafted writing is laid out with perfect precision, and Solaris has not one, but two beautiful CSS themes - a light mode and a dark mode!
Annie Stein is participating in Summer Camp this year, abiding by the Camp Chill guidelines she set herself. I'm also in this lovely camp this year, determined to have a nice, relaxed time. nnie is a huge inspiration, not just to me, but to the greater community, and the work she has done creating guides and tutorials, providing plenty of feedback and advice, is undeniable.
Threshold is Demongrey's brand new world, and it is incredible. Set in the '90s, the CSS of this world really captivates and brings me in. The world is formatted as messages from different users on a bulletin board system (I think this is the word idk I wasn't born til the 00s).
There is mystery and magic in the world, and this works soooo incredibly well by having in-world messages telling you everything. You get different people's perspectives, you get to learn about different characters (and grow suspicious of them), and overall Threshold is just incredible.
Last year, Rin Garnett made a brand new world for Summer Camp, and created one of the best worlds I've ever seen. I'm always a sucker for a world written through journal entries, too. There is not much to explore in this world yet (as it is going to be expanded with Summer Camp prompts, of course), but what is there right now sets up an intriguing world, and I can't wait for more!
Rin is an amazing writer and I know that they'll be writing some really evocative articles; last year's Summer Camp entries from Rin made me cry. In a good way. I think. Long story short their writing is very powerful, and I love that!
Keon Croucher is one of the most prolific writers I know, specifically for writing big juicy articles I can sink my teeth into. There really is so much to explore in Valerick, but to nobody's surprise, I love reading about the animals the most. Each article is written in a way that it feels like I'm there, like I'm actually in this world.
Not only is Keon an amazing writer, he is one of the best people to hype others up during Summer Camp. In fact, Keon won Human of the Match last Summer Camp, a badge specifically for someone who really captures community spirit. If you need hyping up, some encouragement and words of advice, Keon is the man for that. I'm really excited, not just for some big chonky Valerick articles to read during my off-time, but also to get to enjoy Keon's lively spirit.
Dlynaeth is an amazing world I think more people should know about! I also need to read more of this world, too. Something about the styling and design of this world makes it really enticing, and makes me feel at home when I read.
I love the focus on nature and magic in this world. It's one of the worlds I'll be keeping a close eye on during Summer Camp, because I'm really excited for more!
House of Imagination, Imagica's newest world, is an adorable world based on a children's book she wrote! It's such a beautiful concept, and what I find most endearing is that this is also a challenge for Imagica to learn to draw. I'm always in support of human made art and - oh my god if this artwork is what Imagica creates as a new artist, Imagica is going to be one of the greatest artists in the universe.
I really love Middengeard, E.G Bear's world. This Summer Camp, Lemmylou is planning on writing no more than 500 words for each article, which is very similar to what I am doing, so it'll be nice to have company in doing that! I've already said it, but journal-style worlds are some of my favourites, and I LOVE the styling of Middengeard.
I'm very excited to see what Lemmylou ends up writing for Summer Camp! I'll be checking my notifications in the hopes for some exciting reads!
How could I not feature a world from my accountability buddy, Polina "Line" Arteev! Malkora is an award-winning world (quite a few times, too!), ever-changing thanks to magic. Malkora is mysterious and there are a lot of exciting things going on. Magic influences everything, it creates and it destroys. I love this about Malkora and I'm really excited to see what strixxline gets up to this Summer Camp.
Strixxline's feral energy carries me through these events, and I'll be relying on them for moral support and cheerleading. Together we're like that dancing crab meme, in the Summer Camp discord channel cheering everyone on.
I've got plenty of playlists to listen to during Summer Camp; I love World Anvil's Embers of Inspiration album, as well as a number of other worldbuilding playlists I've put together myself.
I watch a lot of the same TV shows which aren't particularly inspiration anymore, as I've watched them so many times any inspiration I can draw from them I already have! When I watch a new TV show or movie, I tend to feel very inspired by it and I'll end up writing an article or two inspired by concepts in said media.
I plan on watching some more new shows and movies in my free time, not specifically for Summer Camp prep but just to enjoy watching new media, as I don't tend to watch new things very often.
I made the teeniest, tiniest stub for this prompt! It's an interesting prompt, though it is one we've had in a past Summer Camp, in fact. But there's room for many more, so I made this stub while at work!
Week 4: Family
What a cute theme! I love how it links back to the first week's theme, Love. Like how the seasons flow into one another! As the prep states, family doesn't necessarily need to be something biological. Chosen family is a notable thing in the LGBTQ+ community, when someone is rejected by family after coming out.
I thought of taxonomic families, to nobody's surprise. I love me some taxonomy, and, well, a 'family' is a taxonomic classification seen all the time! The great apes make up the family Hominidae (we're in this family!), bears make up Ursidae, the great white shark is in the family Lamnidae... and I am going to stop myself before I lose track of what the hell I'm talking about.
If we're talking about people families, it's important to remember that families don't need children! You can have a family with your partner, or maybe a pet in there too. You don't need children. Single parent families, extended families, there are so many different versions of a family and all are valid.
Families are community. The members of the Galanti League are chosen family, inseparable thanks to all that they have endured. Daglaci and its upper echelons of society is ran by the richest of families, who have spent generations at the very top.
So... I think this asking about our general creative goals, based on the prep's description? If it is... I'm afraid I need every article in existence and that isn't quite possible. My creative goal is to create, simply put. I want to write stories and I want to create worlds, beyond that I can just have fun. So, there's not really specific articles I need.
Of course, things like world introductions and articles on core concepts and core locations are very important, so I'd like to have those. Perhaps, in some of my smaller worlds, if there's a good enough prompt I can make things like that!
I've already talked about my worldbuilding bestie Strixxline, but this year we wrangled up two more buddies! Ademal and Barron, the writers of the incredible Ethnis, will be joining us on our chaotic adventure!
I'm so excited to have a feral quartet this Summer Camp. I've got other groups of friends, both on WA and off WA, that will be supporting me in Summer Camp. My partner will (hopefully) be supplying me with gorgeous artworks to supplement my Summer Camp entries, as well as encouraging me every step of the way.
Having been a part of the World Anvil community since the beginning, I've made lots of friends near and dear to me through this site. I've certainly found my home, and I consider my friends my community.
Fabled Legend Mochimanoban
NOOOOOOOOO I don't want to take a break! I'm pretty happy with how I've plodded along this month. I've not written much, but I'm used to that now. I've made one or two average sized articles, a handful of stubs, and of course poured six thousand words into this prep!
This is my form of taking a break. Instead of locking in and steamrolling through article after article, I'm sensible about what I write, ensuring I'm only using available energy and time, to avoid burn-out as best as possible. I'll be maintaining this thought process throughout Summer Camp too, as I'm a proud member of Camp Chill.
My writing space is adaptive, as I have a laptop and many places to go. I write in my bedroom, I write when I visit parents and family, or my partner, and if the universe is on my side, then I can just about use WA on my phone to write a little something while at work. But that rarely happens.
In order to prepare such writing space, I'll take a look at my bookmarks bar and see what I can do! I store lots of links to great websites for worldbuilding inspiration, so I'd like to add more links and beef it up!
I have a couple worldbuilding playlists, one of them being the World Anvil: Embers of Inspiration album! It's such a wonderful album, so nostalgic for me. It always takes me back to the earlier days of my time on World Anvil, and it really gets me motivated to write every time I listen to it.
Sometimes I'll listen to rain sounds, or city sounds at night. Anything like that helps soothe my brain when it is running a million miles per hour, and helps me get into the mindset of writing. Safe to say I'll be listening to a lot of these to get me focused on Summer Camp!
32 articles (Diamond)
Reading Goal
3 articles a day (try to comment too!)
World Introductions
My Beloved Bestie: Strixxline
Summer Camp Camps
Week 1 Prep
Week 2 Prep
Week 3 Prep
Week 4 Prep
Previous Summer Camps
Summer Camp 2021
Mochi's SC22 Pledge
SC22 Reading Challenge
Extra SC22 Reading Challenge
Mochi's SC23 Pledge
Summer Camp 2023 Review
Mochi's SC23 Reading Challenge
Summer Camp 2024
Mochi's SC24 Pledge!
Mochi's SC24 Reading Challenge
Mochi's SC25 Pledge!
Mochi's SC25 Reading Challenge
Other Awesome Pledges!
| Atlas | Ash Field · Atigeo Sea · Chrihaia Lake · Endless Tower · Ison Copper Mine
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Biota | Atigean Clam · Clam-Eyed Fish · Fire Frog · Fire Noodle · Firepede · Firewood Beetle · Frogfish · Helsaurus · Mayhem Fish · Sawshark · Thermal Carp · Thorn-backed Thrasher | ||
| Cultures | Hell's Holiday | ||
| Misc | Hell · Hell Notes |
RAAAA 5 diamond badges??! Best of luck on your 6th one!! You better have fun this SC, or else >:)
lol that gif
> Root Directory is my hub world <
Legends of the Dragonguard • /dev/null
Summer Camp 2026
Thank youuu!! I will have so much fun :D