Scarterra Worldember 2025 Prep
I wrote 84,601 words in 2024
I wrote 70,135 words in 2023
I wrote 100,476 words in 2022
I wrote 80,963 words in 2021
This year I have less on my plate than I did the last two years, so it will not be remotely difficult for me to hit 50,000 words. My ordinary monthly output is probably around 30,000 words though I'm slowing down a little bit.
It's hard to measure quality, but I want to focus on quality and more and not just quantity, since an article isn't worth much if people don't want to read it. I've been trying to put more emphasis on embedded images, formatting, and editing.
I like the BINGO card approach to Worldember prep this year, and view it as a more interesting approach than the weekly homework assignment route last year.
The middle vertical line and the fourth horizontal line are very close to what I was doing anyway.
"Create a Mood Board for your area of focus". I'm not a big fan of moodboards in general, but I recently upgraded to version 7 of Midjourney and they push Mood Board, so that's something I was doing anyway.
"Review or create your world primer article". Months ago I petitioned Janet of World Anvil to make a Sage Seminar on how to make a World Primer after I watched the excellent video on Elevator Pitches. ANd Janet released said video in late July, so I digested the helpful information and carefully worked on my Scarterra world primer and now it graces my homepage. Even now I'm still making tiny edits and adjustments to it.
"Free Space"
"Plan your Writing Schedule", maybe it's a cop out, because I don''t have a concrete plan. I basically write or edit on Scarterra an hour or so every day, even more during Worldember. It's just something I do before and/or after work.
"Review the Visual Appearance of your World". I have a slow but steady stream of art that I commission from professional artists though since I'm not made of money, I afford to commission a relatively small number of pictures.
A small number of artists have given me written permission to use their pre-created art on my website, and I've used a fair share of open source and public domain art.
I have been slowly accumulating Hero Forge portraits made by me and my friend.
I use AI art, and I know a lot of people loathe AI art. Ido make some art myself (if Hero Forge portraits count), and I do periodically pay artists for their work, but I write articles way too fast to make or buy art for every person, place, or thing in Scarterra. I recently updated to Midjourney Version 7 and I am very much enjoying the new upgrades. It's a lot easier to make specific variants of fantasy humans and elves than it was before. I am not fan of Midjourney's attempts to make dwarves, gnomes, satyrs, evil bat people, nice bat people and other weirder creatures, so it's no coincidence that most of the art I commissioned is for gnomes, satyrs, evil bat people, nice bat peopleand other other weirder creatures. Dwarves are on my to-do list, but that's a 2026 thing.
My art creation and acquisition in 2025 is pretty similar to what it was to 2024, but one major change as of about 6 months is I was advised that 1920 x 500 is the ideal dimensions for a header images on the internet and that more vertically oriented pictures should generally be limited to the body of an article. Whenever possible, I have been creating and/or editing my art so that the headers fit these dimensions or something reasonable similar. My favorite header is the one made by Zeta Gardner adapted out of her awesome portraits of the Nine.
What kind of people can you find in your world building area?
As my "Torches in the Twilight" campaign grows in scope well beyond what I initially envisioned, the cast of characters has increased dramatically and I have been writing gratuitous backstories and details for "minor" character that catch my interest and this spawns new character ideas. A large portion of my Spooktober 2025 articles fit this mold, and I will continue exploring these interesting character for Worldember 2025.
I wrote 70,135 words in 2023
I wrote 100,476 words in 2022
I wrote 80,963 words in 2021
This year I have less on my plate than I did the last two years, so it will not be remotely difficult for me to hit 50,000 words. My ordinary monthly output is probably around 30,000 words though I'm slowing down a little bit.
It's hard to measure quality, but I want to focus on quality and more and not just quantity, since an article isn't worth much if people don't want to read it. I've been trying to put more emphasis on embedded images, formatting, and editing.
I like the BINGO card approach to Worldember prep this year, and view it as a more interesting approach than the weekly homework assignment route last year.
The middle vertical line and the fourth horizontal line are very close to what I was doing anyway.
Middle Vertical Line
"Create a Mood Board for your area of focus". I'm not a big fan of moodboards in general, but I recently upgraded to version 7 of Midjourney and they push Mood Board, so that's something I was doing anyway.
"Review or create your world primer article". Months ago I petitioned Janet of World Anvil to make a Sage Seminar on how to make a World Primer after I watched the excellent video on Elevator Pitches. ANd Janet released said video in late July, so I digested the helpful information and carefully worked on my Scarterra world primer and now it graces my homepage. Even now I'm still making tiny edits and adjustments to it.
"Free Space"
"Plan your Writing Schedule", maybe it's a cop out, because I don''t have a concrete plan. I basically write or edit on Scarterra an hour or so every day, even more during Worldember. It's just something I do before and/or after work.
"Review the Visual Appearance of your World". I have a slow but steady stream of art that I commission from professional artists though since I'm not made of money, I afford to commission a relatively small number of pictures.
A small number of artists have given me written permission to use their pre-created art on my website, and I've used a fair share of open source and public domain art.
I have been slowly accumulating Hero Forge portraits made by me and my friend.
I use AI art, and I know a lot of people loathe AI art. Ido make some art myself (if Hero Forge portraits count), and I do periodically pay artists for their work, but I write articles way too fast to make or buy art for every person, place, or thing in Scarterra. I recently updated to Midjourney Version 7 and I am very much enjoying the new upgrades. It's a lot easier to make specific variants of fantasy humans and elves than it was before. I am not fan of Midjourney's attempts to make dwarves, gnomes, satyrs, evil bat people, nice bat people and other weirder creatures, so it's no coincidence that most of the art I commissioned is for gnomes, satyrs, evil bat people, nice bat peopleand other other weirder creatures. Dwarves are on my to-do list, but that's a 2026 thing.
This November, I am quietly stockpiling illustrations for articles I plan to write in December. And I've been updating the character portraits of old articles about very important characters.
Fun fact about this picture of Lunet the loa. I was trying to make a friendly Zarthus priestess so I used the key words "bard" and "moon priestess" but I ended up typing "bard" as "bad" and got a witch, but the picture was too awesome for me not to use, and I was planning to expand Lunet's story importance anyway so win-win.
Admittedly, I haven't gotten around to mapmaking much in 2025. I'm kind of kicking the can to 2026 on this one.
For more on the various forms of art I use, check outPutting the "Art" in ScARTerra, overview
Fun fact about this picture of Lunet the loa. I was trying to make a friendly Zarthus priestess so I used the key words "bard" and "moon priestess" but I ended up typing "bard" as "bad" and got a witch, but the picture was too awesome for me not to use, and I was planning to expand Lunet's story importance anyway so win-win.
Admittedly, I haven't gotten around to mapmaking much in 2025. I'm kind of kicking the can to 2026 on this one.
For more on the various forms of art I use, check outPutting the "Art" in ScARTerra, overview
by me with Midjourney
My art creation and acquisition in 2025 is pretty similar to what it was to 2024, but one major change as of about 6 months is I was advised that 1920 x 500 is the ideal dimensions for a header images on the internet and that more vertically oriented pictures should generally be limited to the body of an article. Whenever possible, I have been creating and/or editing my art so that the headers fit these dimensions or something reasonable similar. My favorite header is the one made by Zeta Gardner adapted out of her awesome portraits of the Nine.
Nine in 1920 x 500 header by Zeta Gardner
Fourth Horizontal Row
"Plan Your World Building Playlist", I tend to have Youtube providing me background noise or I rewatch some of my favorite TV shows that I've seen many times over. Music wise, sometimes I like musical comedy, sometimes I like Y2K era pop songs, sometimes I listen to contemporary pop songs, sometimes I like New Age, and sometimes I listen to medieval style music. This is pretty much what I do all the time anyway.
"Make a list of articles you want to write" I write for Scarterra all the time. I have three main areas of focus. 1) I'm running a long-term campaign for my friend, that we call "Torches in the Twilight",2) I am trying to make articles to make Scarterra more welcoming and user-friendly for beginners and casual site visitors, and 3) I'm trying to polish my RPG system to eventually publish it.
I very frequently get an idea that I think is interesting but does not apply to one of those three things. When I jot down the idea and add it to my Idea Bank which is partially written down which I then draw on for Worldembers and Summer Camps (and sometimes Spooktober) and partially in my head.
A large portion of my idea bank ties directly to the next two items on the BINGO card.
"Make a list of articles you want to write" I write for Scarterra all the time. I have three main areas of focus. 1) I'm running a long-term campaign for my friend, that we call "Torches in the Twilight",2) I am trying to make articles to make Scarterra more welcoming and user-friendly for beginners and casual site visitors, and 3) I'm trying to polish my RPG system to eventually publish it.
I very frequently get an idea that I think is interesting but does not apply to one of those three things. When I jot down the idea and add it to my Idea Bank which is partially written down which I then draw on for Worldembers and Summer Camps (and sometimes Spooktober) and partially in my head.
A large portion of my idea bank ties directly to the next two items on the BINGO card.
by Eron12 with Hero Forge
What kind of people can you find in your world building area?
As my "Torches in the Twilight" campaign grows in scope well beyond what I initially envisioned, the cast of characters has increased dramatically and I have been writing gratuitous backstories and details for "minor" character that catch my interest and this spawns new character ideas. A large portion of my Spooktober 2025 articles fit this mold, and I will continue exploring these interesting character for Worldember 2025.
Ship at Sea (public domain) by Edward Moran
Below the surface of the oceans in Scarterra lies the realm of Scaraqua which is a loosely connected fantasy realm with merpeople, shark people and other fantasy sea creatures. It's fun to write about Scaraqua, but it doesn't have any direct bearing on my RPG campaigns (which are all in landlocked areas), so I end up doing my most of my Scaraquan deep dives (PUN!) during Worldemeber or Summer Camp.
At some point I want to beta test a Scaraquan RPG campaign and try to figure out what aspects of my RPG system needed to tweaked for an undersea campaign, but that's a long way off. What I really need is a good friend who is a marine biologist and a fantasy fan whom I can bounce ideas off of.
I do have a good friend who I frequently bounce ideas off but he is an expert in British naval history, not an expert in marine biology....
At some point I want to beta test a Scaraquan RPG campaign and try to figure out what aspects of my RPG system needed to tweaked for an undersea campaign, but that's a long way off. What I really need is a good friend who is a marine biologist and a fantasy fan whom I can bounce ideas off of.
I do have a good friend who I frequently bounce ideas off but he is an expert in British naval history, not an expert in marine biology....
"Do some research about the topics you'll write about" I watch, listen, and/or read a lot of material on real world medieval history on a routine basis and this has already formed the basis of much of my idea bank. Scarterra is a medieval fantasy world, but it's a world with magic, monsters, and active feuding gods. It's fun to think about what aspects of real world medieval history would be mostly the same, what would be moderately different, and what would be radically different as a result of magic, monsters, and active gods. It certainly constituted a huge portion of my a huge portion of my Worldember writing in 2024
One of the first things I plan to write about this year is inspired by research I've done on real world medieval fashion. How did they make clothes, how did they dye clothes, how did they wash clothes, what were the rules and norms about who could wear what. I'm taking all the real world history lore and viewing it through a Scarterran lens. It should be fun to write about, and hopefully it will be fun to read about too.
Other history-inspired topics will surely be explored, but fashion is the top of my list this year. There is a deep rabbit hole to explore here. Clothing is complicated. Cotton, hemp, and linen come from plants. Leather, silk, and wool comes from animals. Dyes comes from all sorts of things. The various aspects of the supply chain for clothing has economic implications. Fashion has social and cultural implications.
The supernatural aspects of Scarterra affects things a fair bit. My "Wool in Scarterra" was mostly written for a lark, but it turned out to be one of my most well-liked articles ever, so I think medieval fantasy fashion is something people will enjoy reading about and thanks to my premium Midjourney subscription, I should be able to include plenty of visual aids.
I'm guessing I'll have at least 10,000 words to write about this broad topic alone (don't worry, I plan to break it up into smaller articles.
Another medieval-adjacent topic I want to explore is work versus rest cycles for Scarterrans and what various races, cultures and social classes of Scarterrans do during their downtime.
One of the first things I plan to write about this year is inspired by research I've done on real world medieval fashion. How did they make clothes, how did they dye clothes, how did they wash clothes, what were the rules and norms about who could wear what. I'm taking all the real world history lore and viewing it through a Scarterran lens. It should be fun to write about, and hopefully it will be fun to read about too.
Other history-inspired topics will surely be explored, but fashion is the top of my list this year. There is a deep rabbit hole to explore here. Clothing is complicated. Cotton, hemp, and linen come from plants. Leather, silk, and wool comes from animals. Dyes comes from all sorts of things. The various aspects of the supply chain for clothing has economic implications. Fashion has social and cultural implications.
The supernatural aspects of Scarterra affects things a fair bit. My "Wool in Scarterra" was mostly written for a lark, but it turned out to be one of my most well-liked articles ever, so I think medieval fantasy fashion is something people will enjoy reading about and thanks to my premium Midjourney subscription, I should be able to include plenty of visual aids.
I'm guessing I'll have at least 10,000 words to write about this broad topic alone (don't worry, I plan to break it up into smaller articles.
Another medieval-adjacent topic I want to explore is work versus rest cycles for Scarterrans and what various races, cultures and social classes of Scarterrans do during their downtime.
The Accolade by Edmund Leighton
Relative to other medieval fantasy worlds, Scarterra has a relative dearth of non-humanoid monsters. This is something I'd like to rectify but it's easier said than done.
This is something I want to remedy. I am fastidious almost to the point of obsessive for making my world cohesive and believable.
A monster needs to be strong enough to be a threat that requires brave adventurers to deal with it. It's a careful balancing act not to make a monster too strong or too weak. If it's too strong, it will drive all the local humans away from the area entirely. If it's too weak, the local humans will drive the monster to extinction. On Earth, think of all the species that humans accidentally drove to extinction. Humans are even better at deliberately exterminating pest species. they certainly would try to eliminate any monster that routinely ate humans.
Grootslangs are my favorite monster. Based on ancient African folklore with many different interpretations, I combined their with the monsters from the Tremors movies and gave them a Scarterra-friendly backstory. Grootslangs travel far and hibernate a lot, making them more akin to natural disasters than creatures, but since it's almost impossible to find their lairs, it means that it's hard to hunt them to extinction or evacuate an area that they happen to be living in.
But grootslangs are one monster species inhabiting one region of Scarterra. From a storytelling perspective, every land should have it's own unique local terror. Plus Scarterra need a couple world-wide monstrous threats.
This is something I want to remedy. I am fastidious almost to the point of obsessive for making my world cohesive and believable.
A monster needs to be strong enough to be a threat that requires brave adventurers to deal with it. It's a careful balancing act not to make a monster too strong or too weak. If it's too strong, it will drive all the local humans away from the area entirely. If it's too weak, the local humans will drive the monster to extinction. On Earth, think of all the species that humans accidentally drove to extinction. Humans are even better at deliberately exterminating pest species. they certainly would try to eliminate any monster that routinely ate humans.
Grootslangs are my favorite monster. Based on ancient African folklore with many different interpretations, I combined their with the monsters from the Tremors movies and gave them a Scarterra-friendly backstory. Grootslangs travel far and hibernate a lot, making them more akin to natural disasters than creatures, but since it's almost impossible to find their lairs, it means that it's hard to hunt them to extinction or evacuate an area that they happen to be living in.
But grootslangs are one monster species inhabiting one region of Scarterra. From a storytelling perspective, every land should have it's own unique local terror. Plus Scarterra need a couple world-wide monstrous threats.
Wow that's a lot of words! Amazing :) Have fun with WE! Love the art included in your pledge!