Hapoy WBW! What's your favourite world building bit in your current WIP? @catharticallysarcastic
Hey @catharticallysarcastic thank you for the fun question!
Boy howdy do I have a lot of worldbuilding in both my WIPs, so it took me some time to figure out my Favourite.
For Rocket Boosters, I think it's the Death of the Trillionaire(tm) backstory piece. I had a lot of fun figuring out what finally tipped people over the edge enough that his own private militia turned on him!
The answer is: an ostensibly well-meaning but ultimately self-serving act that Screwed Everything Up For Everyone. It has to do with a privately funded power grid upgrade that goes so horribly wrong that it causes a huge EMP, which leads to a nation-wide state of emergency, which leads to the National Guard being called and martial law being enacted, riots, revolts, and a country-wide lockdown.
All of that happened about 10 years before the start of the story. :)
For Athenaeum, I love the design of the main character's home city, Paredes, and the giant atrium that serves as HQ for the Greenhouse Project. It's shaped like a lotus flower, and it opens during the day so the solar panels on the 'petals' can take in energy and closes at night. It houses a garden sustained entirely by Source and cultivated by conduits who have specialized in botany and horticulture. This is where they are trying to create plants that will withstand the harsh conditions of the wastes in an attempt to bring life back to the barren parts of Terra Verde. It's been pretty slow going, but they make progress.
Tainted / Glitter / Rainstorm for your WIP Atheneaeum
(oh my goodness that is so hard to spell 🙈 what does it mean 👀)
@bloodlessheirbyjacques ✨
Athenaeum is another word for a library! :3 These are some fun words for the setting too, thank you @bloodlessheirbyjacques 👀 okay, here goes nothin' :3
---
The canisters clanked together in protest as Tagoni shifted the carrier off her back, the glass still holding onto droplets from the morning's rainstorm. They glittered like little jewels in the early morning sun, but they would dry up soon enough: This hill marked the last opportunity to check the seedlings before making the arduous trek across the wastes.
Traveling to and from Paredes meant journeying through miles of ruined land in every direction. 'Every trip a battle, every courier a soldier'—that's what Ori always said. Tagoni and the other guild members each carried a payload that would help the Greenhouse Project reclaim the wastes one tiny plant at a time.
Checking the valves, pipes, and fittings on her canisters, Tagoni replenished the Source in each one. She would do her part to make Terra Verde live up to its name, yes. But the wastes were home to the Withered, and the Withered did not want her there. So, with her precious cargo in tow, Tagoni took a deep breath, looked straight ahead, and began the long descent into the tainted lands before her.
Only Source would keep her safe.
---
If you want to stay up to date with Athenaeum, please ask to be added to the tag list! :3
🌍 - What is distinctive about the setting? What sets it apart?
Rocket Boosters:
It's a post-apocalyptic society, but the apocalypse is not the main focus of the story. Nor was it really one event, but rather the inevitable result of inaction.
I'm not a fan of bleak worldscapes, and I'm really not a fan of "the world ended so everyone is out for themselves" cliches in stories, so I decided to focus on the brighter side of things. It's a story about perseverance, community, and the importance of not isolating yourself when the world turns into an even bigger dumpster fire.
Athenaeum:
I think the most distinctive thing to me when I think about the setting is the stark contrast between the lush, high-tech utopia and the harsh surrounding wastes. There's a sense of relief that comes with entering the safety of the city's walls, but eventually that relief turns into a feeling of being restricted.
It's not necessarily unique, but I do love the concept of an ancient advanced civilization lying in ruins, the evidence of it visible at every turn, but having it hold secrets that impact the protagonists' lives in huge ways. It's very Horizon Zero Dawn (and was in fact heavily inspired by it in some aspects!)
🏆 - What is the end goal? What are your characters fighting for?
Rocket Boosters:
One of the main themes in all of my main characters' arcs is their search for a sense of belonging. That's the true thrust of the story, but most of them are on a ~noble quest~ to find urgent medical help for the settlement of Basin's Edge for technically selfish purposes: Beck is trying to reach her brother, Yarrow wants to get out of a place where she no longer has any allies, Hawthorne is Looking For Someone (and also running from someone else), and Cal doesn't care if anyone survives except for his brother.
Athenaeum:
Where Rocket Boosters is a "you can't change the world as a whole, but you can change your world" type story, Athenaeum is quite the opposite. The characters start out trying to change the world around them in incremental ways for the better, but end up on a mission to save the whole world.
I don't have their individual arcs as well in mind as I do for RB, so that's what I'm currently working on for this WIP. :)
Notes: I wrote this a few years ago now, but it still hits just right. This is set directly post-Cataclysm, 1,000 years before the events of Athenaeum. CW for character death.
The lone traveler pulled their cloak tighter, concealing their face and their precious cargo from the malevolent eyes lurking in the shadows. Although the Withered would not dare move from their places until nightfall, darkness was fast approaching and the traveler pressed onward, their portion of mankind’s last hope in hand. Warm light passed from their fingertips into the glass canister, nurturing the treasure protected inside.
It had been a long time since human feet last walked here. Towers of twisted, charred metal lay scattered across the wastes as if chewed up and spit out. Though the fires stopped burning long ago, the wind still carried with it the scent of ash and devastation. Flurries of dust and awful memories kicked up with every footstep. Even those would soon be no more. What was a memory with nobody around to remember it?
The land had been soaked with the blood of a thousand battles in its history, leaving it an ancient, war-torn hellscape. For centuries, the powerful ravaged the world and the weak, and the wealthy bled the ground and its people dry just to add another pebble to their mountain. They almost drove themselves to extinction more than once.
“Almost there,” the traveler croaked. Just ahead, on the outskirts of the ruins, the final waypoint loomed: a landmark, grotesque in its disfigurement, but still recognizable as a monument to humanity’s greatest achievement (perhaps erected prematurely, in hindsight). Not much farther, then. Rest would come soon. How ironic, the traveler thought, that humanity finally corrupted the very thing meant to save them.
The discovery of the Source all those centuries ago could not have come at a better time. Some called it the miracle that saved mankind. A few thought it was fate, that humans were destined to dig it up when they hit rock bottom. Others saw it for what it really was: an opportunity to do and be better.
It was beautiful and dynamic, both ever-changing and ever-constant. Not all who approached gained its power, and those who did could only wield it for a short time before their power depleted and they needed to replenish. To prove their worth again. Wherever the worthy would walk, the world began to heal. These became known as Conduits.
That old saying, “knowledge is power,” had never been more accurate. Conduits the world over began to share what they’d learned to help others like them harness the Source’s inexact nature. They created networks and databases spanning all four corners of the poisoned earth as it was slowly restored. For the first time since anybody could remember, there was a future to live for again.
Humanity rose to new heights, forgetting its nadir in the wake of progress. Only a select few kept that memory alive, recording everything for the posterity of future generations. Eventually, nobody but those Keepers knew the true horrors humanity kept hidden in its dark past. Only they knew what the human race was really capable of.
Now, the last vestiges of civilization faded out of sight in the traveler’s dusty trail. They could try one last time to reach their fellow Keepers, but the networks had finally crashed and the communications tech had all fried with the last Surge. There had been warnings for ages, like tremors before an earthquake, but nobody paid them any heed.
The traveler could only hope that the others reached their destinations, sustained by what little pure Source energy remained. They coughed. The Source had been kind, letting them get this far, but corruption had spread and their link to the last wellspring had grown too weak. There was nothing ahead, no wells this far out, nothing to sustain them anymore. The glass shattered as it hit the ground, and the last of the warmth seeped out of their fingertips.
The sun set, and night fell. The dusty, barren land stretched out like an infinite page, a scathing testimony to humanity’s avarice. They were locusts consuming everything in their path. This had been a city once, and now it was a mausoleum standing on nothing but flat, scorched earth.
At the feet of the fallen Keeper, a stone’s throw from the end of their journey, the ground split open beneath the broken canister and fresh water bubbled forth, accompanied by a golden light.
Happy late late WBW! What sort of celebrations/holidays are there in your world? Do your OCs like them or hate them? @catharticallysarcastic
It's okay, I'm answering so late it's almost Early WBW :P
In the world of Athenaeum, Initiation Day is a pretty big deal. It's when apprentices in the Greenhouse Project finally become full-fledged members of their respective guilds. There's usually a big festival, and traveling merchants all come and set up shop in a bright, colourful celebration! The festivities usually start a day or two early and finish a day or two late, but the ceremonies themselves all take place within one day.
At the start of the story (as it exists currently), Tagoni is looking forward to her forthcoming initiation along with the other conduits. Wren has been a member of the engineers' guild for a year and is excited for his best friend, too! Ori and Masha, their mentors, have been through enough of these that they're just another yearly Thing to worry about, but they're happy for their apprentices anyway.
Leilanie, on the other hand, is not a big fan because she doesn't like crowds or crowded spaces.
Other celebrations in the area are the anniversary of the founding of the city of Paredes and the Greenhouse Project, and the Feast of the Guilds. The Greenhouse Project conduits (the whole main cast except Leilanie) love them, and unsurprisingly, Leilanie does not. ;P
