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Sat May 18th - Tue May 28th

Documents of Discovery

Every expedition has its logs, no matter the medium it is stored.
This event has ended!
Scroll down to see all submitted entries
 

Description

"As we passed on, it seemed those scenes of visionary enchantment would never have an end." - Meriwether Lewis

  As long as there are facets of our world that remain unexplored, there are individuals vying to discover them. Explorers have been a part of our culture since the beginning of time: Lewis and Clark, Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, and many others who set forth into the unknown. These brave souls set forth for different reasons but all made tremendous discoveries.   Many of these individuals kept a journal, a recollection of events and documentation of what they discovered. These journals are what we wish to hear about. This is a challenge unique from the others, as it lies heavily on informative narration. Give us a taste of what adventures your explorer went on through snippets of their scrawling

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Standard League Winner
Law of Mana

Premier League Winner
Stormbril

Prizes

All participants will receive the participation badge. The winner will receive an extra shiny badge, have their article featured, and will be shouted out on the weekly World Anvil update stream and on the official World Anvil social media accounts.

The Countdown

This Countdown Clock is set to when the Challenge will end!

The Brief

We at World Anvil want to take a journey in your world, told in the words of one of your most famous explorers!   Using the Document template, we want to take a dive into the journals of an explorer of your world. Take some of the most important sections, break them down and immerse us in the joy of exploration.   The date or manner of the exploration does not matter. It can be a space exploration, a water venture, or even a trek across unknown land. We want to know how the journey started, was our explorer contracted by their government? Was it personal wanderlust that drove them?   We want to hear what they discovered! What were their first reactions? How did they speculate its purpose or what it could mean for society?   Were their any hardships on the adventure? Did they meet anyone along the way? There is so much to write and it all requires getting into the mind of your explorers and writing as they did! Combine that with the ability to add your own informative notes and you'll have a great article!   Bonus points for a map of the adventure!

What to cover

The Adventure

What was the reason for the adventure? Who hired them or did they decide to go on their own? What was your explorer's perception of the adventure at the start? How did they prepare?  

Discoveries & Reactions

Pick some highlights from the adventure to cover. Did they discover an important landmark that bewildered the explorer? Maybe they had interactions with a new species or native inhabitants? Give us their narration on the event!  

Information

For your narrative sections, break down some of the major findings in an informative section. Tell us the meaning behind the landmark the explorer found, or if the species the explorer documented would spark a new industry. Those little details will help establish the legacy of the adventure!  

The Rules

How to Enter

Firstly, all competitors will need a World Anvil account (don’t worry, it’s free!) to get started. Once you’ve logged in and created your first world, you’re ready to enter the competition.   Write your entry using the Document template on World Anvil. Once you have finished your entry and are ready to submit it, make sure that your article is not a draft and then click on the button on the right hand side to submit it to the challenge.  

Adjudication Criteria and Process

A shortlist of the top twenty entries (as organised by community likes and ten from each league) will be compiled by the Master of Games. The master of games will choose the winner. The winner will be announced by the World Anvil Team on the following weekly update stream.   Entries will be judged on a number of criteria, including originality, presentation, and thoroughness.  

Other Rules

  • Articles for Submission must use the Document Template
  • You do not have to use all fields of the Document Template
  • Articles must be submitted before the closing time, else they will not be judged
  • Articles will be taken from a shortlist of likes, the top ten from each league will be judged by the Master of Games.
  • Articles can be no longer than 2000 words in length!
  • You will be able to submit your article only if it is public!
  • Only one article may be submitted per author, this does not mean one article per world. Think of the Coauthors!
  • Articles will have a three day period after the deadline to make small edits, share, and get feedback from the community. This period will end when the shortlist is compiled. The purpose of this deadline is to let people focus on writing and sharing separately.

Social media sharing

Because community likes are an important part of the competition, competitors may wish to share their entries on social media to garner more interest from the community. Entries which are tagged with #DocumentsofDiscovery and mention @WorldAnvil might get shared by World Anvil social media!  

Leagues

There are two leagues that will be independently judged. The Regular and the Premier League. The Premier League consists of all the authors who have previously won a competition.   Winning a competition in the regular league will promote you to the Premier League for future challenges.  

Timeline

For May's Competition, it will be open on the 18th of May at 1300 GMT and closed on the 27th at 0300 GMT. The Shortlist will be compiled on the 1st of June!

The Countdown

This Countdown Clock is set to when the Challenge will end!

Challenge entries