It’s the end of the year… which means it’s WorldEmber time! Plus the Articles & World Manager is even more improved, we have announcements for the next Worldbuilding Awards and more!
Articles & World Manager improvements
A month ago we released the new Articles & World Manager, with a new interface and new features that speed up article creation and management. We’ve been sorting through the mountains of feedback you’ve left us and implemented a lot of your requests in the past weeks! Here’s just some of them:
- Better drag-and-drop: When editing a category, drag articles from the central panel to the left panel to sort them into different categories.
- Expanded filter options: The already powerful filters got an update to fine-tune the search results even more, as you can now sort by category and in different sorting orders.
- Quick article toggles: Toggle between private/public, draft/published, and WIP/Done with a single click and from the article list too.
- Advanced article icons: You can now pick all icon types, including duotone, thin, solid, and more.
And much, much more. You can read the full list of updates & bugfixes in the changelog, and we’re not done yet! We’ll continue to watch your feedback and implement any necessary updates and fixes as necessary.
đ„ WorldEmber is here!
WorldEmber is the largest worldbuilding challenge of the year, in which we challenge you to write 10k words of worldbuildingâor more! There are special categories too, and prizes to be won. So check the challenge page and get writing!
Additionally, a bunch of amazing Anvilites are sponsoring the event to make it even more amazing with even more prizes! Here they are:
- Special category sponsors: Tillerz, Barron, Daeni, eccbooks, Those2Nerds, AsterVela, Michael Chandra, Janet, Thepinkgm, AelyryaPayne, Asmo, solomonjack, Make lore, not war, cedes, WordSmithSteve, devinsxdesigns, Dimitris, Absinthe, George Sanders, Moonlight Bard, Vazdimet, Serukis, Kwyn Marie, and WordiGirl
- Raffle sponsors: Tillerz, AelyryaPayne, Thepinkgm, WordiGirl, Michael Chandra, Absinthe, drunkenpanda951, Moonlight Bard, Conquest Publishing, George Sanders
đïž All December events
WorldEmber is the star of this month, but that’s not all! Here are all community events:
- đ„Â WorldEmber: This month, write 10k words worth of worldbuilding and get the badge… and physical prizes! Check the challenge page.
- đ Community Christmas Party: On Saturday 20th we’ll have the last community stream of the year before the holidays! Tune in on Twitch for fun cozy community vibes.
- đ Sage Roundtable: Preparing articles for competitions – part 2. There was so much discussion in last month’s roundtable that we didn’t get to everything! So this month we’ll have the second part of this roundtable, where we discuss how to prepare your world to compete in events like WorldEmber and the Worldbuilding Awards. The roundtable will be on December 13th; you’ll find the link in the Professional Portal.
- â Inner Sanctum Coffee: if youâre a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee on December 20th, at 10am UK/2am Pacific and 4pm UK/8am Pacific! Dimitris and Janet will be discussing the recent changes to the site, gathering your feedback, and sharing secret new projects! The link will be shared on the Discord channel on the day.
Upcoming Events on World Anvil!
Here’s a list of our upcoming challenges and community events, to help you get ready:
- December: WorldEmber is here! Write 10k words of worldbuilding (or more) and win prizes.
- January: Start a new year by setting achievable creative resolutions (spoiler alert: we’re shaking this challenge up this year!)
- February: Submit your entries for the 6th Worldbuilding Awards.
All our challenges launch first on community live stream, so follow us on Twitch to get the news first!
đ„ Holiday Gifts and Stocking Stuffers
If youâre still searching for holiday giftsâeither for yourself or a loved oneâwe have them in abundance! World Anvil Gift Memberships are available in the store. And our +10 Fireball of Inspiration line has already proved a flaming hit! With mugs, Tshirts, stickers, notebooks and cozy hoodies, there are options at every price point to help the beans in your life get creative and light up the forge. Check our store for even more gifts!
đȘ Worldbuilding Awards details
The World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards is our annual contest to spotlight the best worldbuilding of the yearâand your chance to show off your hard work! Award winners get featured in the Showcase Page and even get a physical trophy. The submission phase for the Awards begins on February 7th, but we want to make sure you have enough time to prepare! Check out the challenge page for more information about this event.
đ Claim your NovelEmber win!
NovelEmber is over! If you achieved the goal you set for yourself… congrats! If you didn’t quite get there, you still tried as hard as you could, which is also worth celebrating. If you won, there’s a digital winner certificate AND a winner badge waiting for youâand if you didn’t, you can claim the participation badge too! Go to the challenge page and click on “claim your win”.
đč YouTube video round-up
Need a little push to improve your worldbuilding? Or want some advice from a professional worldbuilder? Here are our latest YouTube videos:
- D&D Bastions: The Secret to Player Involvement. How can you let your players shape the world without destroying all of your hard worldbuilding work? Let them build a home base (and hireling NPCs) they care about!
- What is “West Marches” Style D&D? If you’ve been keeping up with Critical Role’s fourth campaign, they’re running what theyâre calling a West Marches style campaign. And more homebrew DMs should consider this approach to sandbox worldbuilding!
- 5 Totally Free Gifts for Your GM. Here are five totally free gifts that will make your GM’s heart grow three sizes this holiday season (and if you’re the GM… send this video to your players in case they need a hint!)
- Why Your Sci-Fi or Fantasy Stories Get Rejected. Theme is the missing ingredient in many rejected short stories. Especially when writers fall in love with their premise. In this video, you’ll learn the difference between premise and theme, how to spot a missing or mangled theme, and how to fix it.
- Should You Worldbuild Your Novel Setting First? Ever wondered when you should worldbuild your novel setting? Before you write? While you write? Or after? Here’s a framework you can test, tweak, and totally make your own, whether you’re a plotter, pantser or something in-between!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
đ Community highlight
This month, we’re featuring one of the shiniest maps on World Anvil! This won the Artist’s Cartography Award in the 5th Worldbuilding Awardsânot only is it a very informative and clear map, it’s also beautiful to look at. This is Shadowfire, by Ononomad; go check it out now!
And here’s what Ononomad had to say about this gorgeous map and the origins of Shadowfire:
The very first spark of Shadowfire occurred way back when as a 10yr old I read Dune, and kind of obviously wondered: so⊠what if half desert, half ice? And knowing our Moon always faced us, it wasnât a huge leap for me to wonder what if our planet became tidally locked to the sun?
This concept sat deep in my brain for the following⊠ahem… few decades, until I started getting back into RPGs and writing. When Covid hit I found time was now on my side and used that as an opportunity to breathe some life into the idea.
I dove deep into an online vortex of tectonics, climate, astrophysics, and worldbuilding (including of course World Anvil) and tried a few programs like Wonderdraft, but found the process of hand-drawing so much more cathartic.
Of course magic needed to be involved – which led me to my cosmology and deep history of the world and why it is shaped as it is. This is the second big concept of Shadowfire: what if the magics of creation enable living things to create gods and bring their desires into reality. How would that work for individuals and the collective, and into themes of community and collaboration vs subjugation and control? This I saw as an analogy for our modern âpost-truthâ age of propaganda, memes and cults of personality we are all buffeted by, and in Shadowfire terms, this was the cause of the Godling Wars and the Destruction that shaped the maps I was drawing.
Over the past few years, World Anvil – the platform, the community, and all the regular challenges – have been nothing but a wonderful inspiration for me, even if life sometimes gets in the way. Everyoneâs creative work, big and small, has inspired me to dig deeper into the cultures, communities, characters and all the weird implications of the forces that shaped Shadowfire.
Winning the award for the map was awesome of course, very chuffed that something that has been bubbling away in my head for most of my life has got people’s attention, but it really is the community that is the biggest prize for sure, so thank you all.
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