As seen in

I pledge to write at least 25,000 words of worldbuilding in December!

— Sam, A Freakmagnet in Texas

---

Worldbuilding Goals

Goal 1: Flesh out my PCs' histories for the campaign

They have saved the town of Duvik's Pass from the plot of an evil Orc Cleric of Gruumsh. They are delving the depths of the Sunless Citadel to offer the comfort of answers for an aggrieved mother. But who are these adventurers, really? And when will the pasts that some are running from catch up and test the fledgling bonds of camaraderie that have thus far been forged?

Santiago's family tree and city of origin

Taurindor Protectorate and Erindil's father

The Order of the Sky Stone

The humble hamlet that Sir Goode is from

These are the things that are going to net me the best opportunities for character-driven "quests" in the future, as they level. I want the world to feel alive to my players so that they will become more engaged. To that end, if things are happening "back home" while they are out and about in the world, they will feel (I hope) more inclined to get the group to help them tie up loose ends when it comes time for the spotlight to be upon them.

---

Goal 2: Flesh out my novel's area of the world

Spanning from the Wyrmspine Mountains in the West, all the way to the Eastern coastline of the Bardiac Deep, and even including the Falwryn Islands to the South, the Sameliund Empire covers a good portion of Eastern Elsfaer. It has come quite a long way from the small but robust coastal monarchy that it was a mere 500-odd years ago.

I'm beginning to rethink the notion of naming the largest Human empire in my world "after myself" (I mean... Sameliund Empire, really? Hardy, har har.), but it has already been seeded with my players as the place where most of the Humans in the world call their home, or at very least, their realm of origin. This is, in fact, the home of Aranya Traken (née Goldswallow), who is the main protagonist of my current NaNoWriMo project (which, in turn, has its accidental birth due to a Summer Camp 2021 article prompt. Oy, the meta.)

I envision fleshing out the empire's history and imperial families, as well as the capital city and some of its bordering realms as an exercise to get me ready for the novel's first rewrite in January. Also, being that at least one of my campaign's player characters comes from there, it will go quite a long way to seeding some ideas for a personal quest for him.

---

Goal 3: Worldbuilding via Mapmaking

I don't know what possessed me to hand draw the map for my homebrew campaign world. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. Further, the only reason I even have Photoshop is to tweak pictures of my kids (two-legs and four-legs alike). But there is something magical about sitting down with my newly-aquired, though inexpensive, digital drawing pad and adding layer upon layer of detail to the base map.

I have one continent with waterways and most of my geography and biomes figured out. I know where my players are currently. I know where I want all of the races to originate from. Chipping away at the larger continent will help me, I think, finalize the cosmology so that I can finally get around to doing a timeline and history for the larger world.

by TxFreakmagnet

---

Goal 4: Continuing that NaNoWriMo Pace

I'm confident that setting a daily habit of writing at least 1K words, as I am on pace to do with NaNoWriMo, will put me in a good place to be getting started with WorldEmber. I've already taken a social media hiatus (except for Twitch and Discord, of course), in order to carve out the time-wasting non-essential things that I do instead of writing. I would nix dishes, cooking, donning clothes other than pajamas, leaving the house at all, etc., but I fear the familial revolt that would ensue if I took it that far. So I guess just continuing my social media hiatus for another month will have to suffice.

I'm averaging around 20-28 wpm when I have an idea of what in the Nine Hells I'm writing about. And as I write the novel, I'm coming up with ideas for stub articles, and have started a WorldEmber 2021 Staging area in my Articles & Categories tab. More prep work needs to be done through Prepvember, for sure, but I'm excited to be doing the thing (NaNoWriMo) whilst looking forward to the thing I'll be doing next.

---

Days 1-4: Characters

The Broken Tower.png

by TxFreakmagnet

Remnants of the Amythestine Magusterium Spire, decades after the events of the Purple Cloak Rebellion. Made using Artbreeder

Artbreeder is becoming my go-to tool for daydreaming about the landscapes and destinations in Ysandre. I'm finding that visualizing a thing helps me to get into the headspace I need in order to write about it. The Amythestine Magusterium Spire (or, just The Spire) is the central location for the majority of the NaNoWriMo project I'm currently writing. The above picture is what I imagine it looks like at the end of the novel. Figuring out its history and importance before the Sameliund Empire takes over the Magusterium will be one of the other things I intend to tackle during WorldEmber.