This month, we have powerful quality-of-life improvements, an awards ceremony, and we’re launching the 6th Worldbuilding Awards too! Let’s take a look at what we’ve been busy with in the past few weeks, and what’s coming in the next months.
📝 Quick article creation while writing!
When using the Visual Editor, you can now create new articles as you write with the new Inline Article Creation feature! Just type “@” followed by the name of the article, as you would if you were linking it, and click the new create option. A new article with that title will be created in the background and linked there—no more going back and forth every time you write about an article that doesn’t exist yet! Check the video for details:
🔍 New Search updates
The world search has been updated to make sorting through your world’s contents easier than ever! The results are now organzed in tabs for different types of content, and you can access all entities (timelines, maps, etc.) from the search panel without having to open the side menu panels. This is what it looks like:
Check how to search your world for more details on how to use this feature.
🫳 Manual save is back as an option!
After hearing a lot of feedback about this, we’ve re-implemented manual save on articles as an option. Autosaving will be the default option, but you can now go to your account features and disable autosave. Note that, if manual save is active, autosave will not trigger and you will lose work if you close the tab without clicking the save button!
Thanks to all the Alchemists who helped test both manual save and the new search! <3
⚙️ Other minor improvements
We made a bunch of minor improvements to make the overall experience smoother, including:
- When editing an article, click on a tag to immediately get a list of all other articles with the same tag. Check the guide to tags for more information.
- If you create a post in the global community feed and attach an article, only public and published articles will be available (otherwise you’d be posting inaccessible links!)
- Fixed a bug that made article URLs not update properly when the article title was edited.
And more! As always, the full changelog has a list of all updates and fixes as they are deployed.
👀 Small UI update coming
The new version makes all your options available at all times. Some of you pointed out that the new Article & World Manager hides the top bar including many useful tools and links! We’re fixing that with this update.
You’ll also have more vertical screen space for your work! And just like with the left sidebar, you can completely collapse the new menu with the little arrow button at the bottom.
On the mobile optimized version, where horizontal screen space is limited, all the options will be available when you click the profile picture circle on the top right.
When’s this coming out?
We expect this update to come out in the coming weeks (probably during February), although it might be delayed if it needs a bit more time to be implemented properly. As always, your comments and feedback drive our decisions in developing World Anvil—we know you care passionately about this software and the community!
Check the changelog for the full list of changes
🗓️ February events
Here’s everything going on this month!
- 🏆 Worldbuilding Awards Submission Period: In the Worldbuilding Awards, we, the community, and a panel of external judges will choose the best worldbuilding among all participants. And submissions start on February 7th! Winners get a physical trophy, priority when featuring community works, and exposure to industry-leading professionals like Tracy Hickman and Brian McClellan. Check the challenge page for details.
- 🔥 WorldEmber Awards Ceremony: Learn if you won a WorldEmber prize or a raffle in the Awards Ceremony on February 7th! If you can’t make it, the winners will be published later too.
- 🙌 Talking WAWA with the community: This month’s community stream, we’ll chat with Anvilites from the community about their experiences in the Awards and why you should take part! Tune in on February 21st at 6pm UK/10am Pacific, on our Twitch channel.
- 🎓 Sage Roundtable: This one sparks joy. This month, we’ll talk about finding (and refinding!) the joy in your creative practices. You’ll find the link in the Professional Portal.
- ☕ Inner Sanctum Coffee: if you’re a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee on February 21st, 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.
🏆 Worldbuilding Awards
The submissions period for the 6th World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards opens on February 7th! You have until March 1st to submit your best worldbuilding and have a chance to be recognized as the best work of the year! And, if you get nominated to one of the five major categories, you’ll be judged by industry experts including Tracy Hickman and Brian McClellan. Check the challenge page for the full details!
🔜 Upcoming Events on World Anvil!
Here’s a list of our upcoming challenges and community events, to help you get ready:
- February: Submit your entries for the 6th Worldbuilding Awards.
- March: Worldbuilding Showdown flash challenge! Details will be revealed later.
- April: Adventure April will return!
All our challenges launch first on community live stream, so follow us on Twitch to get the news first!
📹 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:
- How to mix fantasy and mystery: How does fantasy affect the mystery story structure? In this video, we talk about author Leah Cutter about this genre mix!
- Tolkien hot takes! Was Gollum a good guy? Should Legolas have been a woman? Janet and David Green of the British Fantasy Society talk about their spiciest Tolkien takes!
- How to build a cozy fantasy setting: In this extract from Worldbuilding Con 2025, Travis Baldree, Sarah Beth Durst, Caitlin Rozakis, and Yilin Wang break down what makes cozy fantasy feel cozy.
- Blow up your ancient empires! Destroying your ancient civilizations is a great way to add a web of mysteries and unanswered questions to your world! Learn how to make your players want to explore your world in this video.
- Worldbuilding in DnD? Don’t start where you think: Typical TTRPG worldbuilding methods end up with generic worlds full of contradictions that require a ton of maintenance. Here’s how to create a world that feels exciting, mysterious, and connected!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
🌟 Community highlight
This month, we’re delving into an award-winning world with a map… that also won an award in last year’s Worldbuilding Awards! This map not only looks pretty, but it’s also highly informative and very well-organized! Check out the Cursed Kingdom of Demenore by Hatwolf, winner of the Cartography Award 2025.
And here’s what Hatwolf had to say about their world of After Silence and the map of Demenore:
When I began creating the world of After Silence, my goal was to subvert familiar fantasy conventions, like questioning who is labelled a villain, who is allowed to be a protagonist, and whose stories are worth telling. The map of Demenore is an extension of that idea: an entire realm of people struck by a terrible curse, yet forced to keep living and to find their way back toward something resembling normality.
The concept of cursed beastfolk who simply want to return to their lives fascinates me. Through its many locations, the map tells the story of three eras: life before the curse, the spread of the curse, and the world left behind afterward. It explores how cultures change, how people adapt, and how they endure loss, grief, and tragedy.
To have this concept seen, understood, and recognized means more to me than I can easily express. The work itself never truly stops. I’m currently developing both a book set in this world and a visual novel. But being nominated by World Anvil, and ultimately winning the award, was something I never expected. It has been an incredible encouragement that I am on the right path. And I am truly thankful for that.
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