This month we’re debuting a new challenge format: Worldbuilding Showdowns! Keep reading to learn more, along with this month’s updates to World Anvil.
👀 Major updates coming soon!
This is an exciting month, as we’re almost ready to release some major updates! In the coming weeks, you’ll see significant improvements to…
- The sidebar menu lists: No more cluttered unorganized lists of maps/timelines/etc—organize ALL THE THINGS!
- An updated image management system: Upload, organize, and manage your images with a new UI designed to let you focus on what matters.
These two features have been in Alchemist testing for some time now, and they’ve been very well-received—we can’t wait for you to try them out too!
And if you’re an Alchemist keep an eye out for new testing rounds for more updates that we’ll open soon. Development never stops! 🥳 (Read this if you’re not sure what an alchemist is!)
Check out the Changelog page on World Anvil for the full changelog.
🗓️ September events
After a month of worldbuilding Summer Camp then our super-chill Reading Challenge it’s time to get on track with a brand new challenge style – OUR WORLDBUIDING SHOWDOWN!
- 📖 Worldbuilding Showdown: Elves vs Aliens. Join #ΤeamElf or #ΤeamAlien by developing either an alien or elvish culture in a week! Check the challenge page for details.
- ☕ Sage Roundtable: Managing Artistic Collaborations. This month’s seminar will be on Saturday 20th and will be all about managing collaborative projects (or, in other words, how to herd cats!) You’ll find the link in the Professional Portal.
Upcoming Events on World Anvil!
Here’s a list of our upcoming challenges and community events, to help you get ready:
- September: Elves Vs. Aliens!
- October: Spooktober (see last year’s here!)
- November: Novelember – write a novel (or something else) in a month! | ΟR get ready for WorldEmber with WorldEmber Prep
- December – WorldEmber is coming….
All our challenges launch first on community live stream, so follow us on Twitch to get the news first!
🍨Claim your Summer Camp prize!
Over 50 of you won a Summer Camp prize (or more than one, in some cases!). Check if you won and claim your prize! You MUST claim your prize if you won, otherwise we won’t be able to send it to you!
📹 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 Worldbuild a Royal Palace: If you love stories of intrigue and espionage, of romance and drama, of heists, duels and feats of derring do… you should consider worldbuilding a palace! Here’s a checklist of essentials to build a palace.
- Worldbuilding Hidden Societies & Magical Masquerades: In this video, we pierce the veil to uncover a simple framework for worldbuilding secret worlds, whether you want to populate it with vampires, witches, assassins, aliens, or more!
- Why Abandoned Settlements Are Worldbuilding Goldmines: Ghost towns are plot hook factories, amazing for character development, and thematically rich settings for any story! Here are 3 real-world ghost towns and a 5-question template to inspire you.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
🌟 Community highlight
In a single night, an entire culture was almost totally anihilated. This is the premise of Eclipse Extermination, this month’s community highlight! Here’s what Kranjax, the author of the article, had to say about it:
The world of Elviria, where the stories and offshoots of Fragments of a Sky take place, is the first world I started writing and eventually building. It’s a project that my wife and I are working on, and no matter how squirrel-brained I get, I aways come back every so often and add something new. Eclipse Extermination happens to be one of the key world events and irrelevant to all stories currently told or planned for the world.
World Anvil gave us a single place to create, store, and share our work. As I became more active it also provided a sense of community, the importance of which would be difficult to overstate. I’ve made friends and creative allies, and we all push each other to improve our various crafts.
If you want to see more of my work, check put Elviria, Team Lambda, or Nexus 423 to see some collaborative shenanagins!
This article won the Strength & Honor Award in the Worldbuilding Awards 2025, so go check it out for yourself now!
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