Worldbuilding - The Ecclesiarchy of Samoy

Alright, so I realized today, after much reflection that the project doesn’t end until the 10th. Time to do some more writing.

Alright so, first of all, the British navy in the 18th Century was a mess. Researching it with the help of a friend who is obsessed with things like this took a lot of time but I did learn a lot about how a ship was run in the age of sail. Me and him did a lot of studying of this particular chart we found on Wikipedia. Basically we were trying to come up with officer positions on the ship I’ve been writing about.

I eventually took the executive decision to strike a few positions, and not count midshipmen as officers, instead giving each of the officers a direct subordinate and counting them among the officers (I ain’t written about them yet).

All in all, between all the art I’ve looked up (and by god there was a lot), the writing, the coming up with a completely customized ship of my own, I’m very happy with this week. I technically didn’t do anything on my “want” list, but the freedom and exhilaration after the weeks of pushing myself to do what needed to be done, this was such an absolute blast.

Tomorrow I’m going to spend the time in reflection, looking back on the project as a whole, and comparing the process as it went now with my usual creative process.

But now, without further ado, I present to the DayKnights: The Mad Seraph!

PS: If any artist feels like they wish to take on the challenge of doing a detailed drawing of this I would be absolutely beyond ecstatic.

Alright, well, I don’t have all the officers yet, but it’s been a slog finding good art for male characters. But, here is a current draft of the document that I’m happy to share.

Guess I’m a bit late but I decided that I’m going to spend the last few days writing about a single ship and its crew. There really is no other reason other than: “I want to.” - Which is a really good motivator and reason to do it.

So the last few days kicked me where it hurts, but I managed to get back up again, albeit with a little bit of effort. I didn’t achieve last weeks goal, and on monday I was so tired when I got home that I quite literally fell asleep on the couch. And within five minutes I was asleep. For six hours.

That threw me for a bit of a spin, and derailed all of monday. I’ve been very busy trying to get signed up for all my university courses and the planning process due to my changing studies this semester has been very … busy. And I failed. Half anyway. SO: I have decided to take the half I succeeded at and use that as motivation for this weeks project.

I chose this week to do character writing. Not the ones relevant to the setting (so not the heads of the church and the queen), or not 100% relevant, but the small people. People like an innkeeper, a farmer, sailors etc. For that, I spent most of today looking for artwork. I think it was probably three solid hours to get about 25 images I was happy using. Tomorrow, with a bit of a delay, I’ll start on that.

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention that I reexamined my initial list of stuff that needs to be done, and that I want to do, shuffling some things around. But I did index it all. And checked and double checked, which felt good. To actually check things off the list.

Ended up writing about two out of nine cities, and am considering giving each their own document, but I consider it unlikely, considering I am not ready, yet, to put in the amount of effort that would justify something like that.

For the document, check the previous updates “Document with Artwork” :D

So, the past week has been thoroughly kicking my bee-hind. I had to get some invasive cleaning of my teeth, after which I fell ill for three days, as well as losing my sense of taste for several days (which made me a real Grumpy boy).

I’ve been struggling to motivate myself to do this weeks work, mapping out the cities and writing about them. I just finished mapping and naming them all, hopefully I’ll have time for more writing ASAP.

Provisional Map Document with Artwork

PS: I’m aware the formatting on the Document is god awful, will work on that as I do my writing.

So, today I took a long hard look at my lists of stuff that NEEDS doing, sorting them into rough groups based on how much time they would take. I then sorted out the ones that simply fall outside of the scope of the current project. Below is said list:

Religion - Mostly done Agriculture - Doable but not as high up the list of what needs to be done. Army & Navy - Way outside of the scope of the DK30 Important Characters - Yes this needs doing, no I don’t think this falls within the scope of the DK30, because I actually really enjoy writing character pieces. Cities - Annoying, yet relatively easy to check off but crucial. (And potentially fun) Names - This takes a significant amount of time, too much time. Racial Distribution - Considering its a D&D setting, it’s kind of important to do, but due to how different races (consider for example Goliaths and Halflings) have very different requirements for buildings etc. this one will probably take more time than I’m willing to put in for the DK30

Based on that, Week 3 will be dedicated to my Cities!

We did it! It was a difficult journey but somehow at the end of Week 2, I have at least a very basic set of documents for the gods of the Pantheon (minus Ajdar, because I really don’t know how to handle that one quite yet). The one I dreaded most went surprisingly smooth, though I had to brush up on my scripture a bit in the process (don’t ask).

And thus, I am proud to present, the last of the five deities in the pantheon actively (and church and state condoned) worshipped: Sokail, the Sky Father

Second update, hopefully I can finish the third before tomorrow :D

Safila, the Deliverer

First update of hopefully three!

Onor, He Who Sleeps

So, my sleep rhythm is about as screwed up as can be, but on the plus side I feel fewer blockages after like… 1am. Creatively speaking, get your mind out of the gutter.

Not written an update in a while, but I’ve worked on two out of five currently ‘Officially Worshipped’ gods: Yldir, the Earth Mother, and Daryssa, the Spirit of the Deep

Second and last update of today. After failing to organize my brain for more in-depth writing on the state and the church, I decided instead to do very basic introductions into all the branches of the church.

In the words of Simiric: “Something is infinitely more than nothing.”

The Pantheon

First of likely several updates today.

I have begun work on the first part of my “NEED” list of things: Religion! I decided to start off by writing an ‘Origin’ story for the gods in a semi religious sounding litany.

The Origins of the Gods

So, not really much happening in the organization part of things, but I kinda uh, realized that if I’m going to have a government, I should probably dedicate at least some part of the writing to actually writing what the government is like.

No picture today, since really I stayed up too late and it kinda happened in a flash.

Added:

• Added ‘Central Theme’, meaning things like Architecture, clothing, naming etc., to ‘NEED’
• Added ‘Language’ to ‘WANT’. There’s no way I’m ever finishing this one, but I do want it.

Almost forgot to post an update today…

Today my only thought was: IT’S GROWING!

Finished outlining some more things in the NEED category: Army & Navy Important Characters

Now, the first of these, technically for a D&D campaign isn’t as important, but serves as a foundation for the Discord server, where wars can happen, therefore you need to have this ready. As well as using them for ‘expanding’ your lands on the map.

Important Characters in this case isn’t anywhere near as important, but does need to happen. This is a list of people like the current Monarch, heads of the branches of the Church and the Church as a whole. Later I should probably add generals and admirals, but that comes after I figure out that part of the ‘To-Do List’.

Finished outlining two of the things in the NEED category: Religion & Agriculture.

Religion significant because, being an Ecclesiarchy, there is a union of Church and State. As such, outlining Religion becomes core to understanding not only the religious aspects of the nation, but also how it affects the government, foreign policy etc.

Agriculture is significant for a variety of reasons: A) It means I need to lock in what the terrain looks like, B) I need to lock in the soil conditions, C) It means understanding the logistics of how the nation keeps its people fed and many more.