WorldEmber 2025
Fri Nov 28th - Sat Jan 3rd
WorldEmber 2025
End the year with an epic achievement!Welcome to THE ULTIMATE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE!
Finish 2025 with an achievement — Start 2026 with a bang
We challenge you to write 10,000 words of original worldbuilding content this December. Check out the prizes and rules below!
All you need is a free World Anvil account, grab your hammer, and GO WORLDBUILD!
Get your WorldEmber merch!
We've got hoodies, mugs, notebooks, and much more! Whether you want to get a gift for a friend or you just want to treat yourself, we've got you. Check our merch!
Worldember Special Categories
Click on a prompt to write your response.
Let the games begin!
Condition
Condition
Rank
Title
Language
Language
Sponsored by Kwyn Marie
Prize: Grandmaster subscription to World Anvil or World Anvil Store gift card
Prize: Grandmaster subscription to World Anvil or World Anvil Store gift card
Document
Document
Sponsored by Morgan Biscup & Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull
Prize: On Writing and Worldbuilding series by Timothy Hickson (volumes 1, 2, and 3)
Prize: On Writing and Worldbuilding series by Timothy Hickson (volumes 1, 2, and 3)
Building
Building
Sponsored by Haly, the Moonlight Bard
Prize: Dragon-Themed Shiny Math Rocks Bundle: Deuce-Dropping Dragon plush dice bag + GenCon 2025 Sharp Edge Dragon Inclusion Dice (LE 1/1000) + 2025 GenCon Blacklight Dragon Eye dice tray.
Prize: Dragon-Themed Shiny Math Rocks Bundle: Deuce-Dropping Dragon plush dice bag + GenCon 2025 Sharp Edge Dragon Inclusion Dice (LE 1/1000) + 2025 GenCon Blacklight Dragon Eye dice tray.
Formation
Military formation
Sponsored by George Sanders
Prize: Dragonlance Trilogy and Art Pack. Three 5e adventures for heroes of Krynn along with tokens and handout art.
Prize: Dragonlance Trilogy and Art Pack. Three 5e adventures for heroes of Krynn along with tokens and handout art.
Profession
Profession
Sponsored by Absinthe
Prize: Winner's choice between a warhammer or a similar item, to be discussed with the sponsor
Prize: Winner's choice between a warhammer or a similar item, to be discussed with the sponsor
Militaryconflict
Conflict
Sponsored by Dimitris Romeo Havlidis
Prize: $100 USD gift card for the World Anvil Store
Prize: $100 USD gift card for the World Anvil Store
Ritual
Tradition
Ethnicity
Ethnicity
Law
Natural law
Sponsored by Imagica
Prize: Winner's choice between $50 World Anvil Gift Card, Wonderdraft+Dungeondraft Bundle, or a custom CSS theme for your World Anvil world.
Prize: Winner's choice between $50 World Anvil Gift Card, Wonderdraft+Dungeondraft Bundle, or a custom CSS theme for your World Anvil world.
Person
Character
Species
Species
Item
Item
Sponsored by Lou
Prize: A seat in a 12-session professionally GMed campaign using D&D, Cyberpunk Red, or Daggerheart.
Prize: A seat in a 12-session professionally GMed campaign using D&D, Cyberpunk Red, or Daggerheart.
Myth
Myth
Organization
Organization
Prose
Prose
Technology
Technology
Join the Race!
Do you want to get your worldbuilding skills up to scratch? Join the fun!
CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT
How it works
Participating in WorldEmber is super easy!- Write 10,000 words of worldbuilding in new articles before January 3rd to get the winner badge. There are also 25k and 50k goals if you're up for the challenge.
- Optionally submit articles to the special categories listed above. With Competitor mode enabled, your submissions will be judged and the winners will get a prize.
Prizes
Here are the physical prizes that will be raffled among Competitors with 10,000 words or more! Click to see the raffle prizes!
Bundle: $20 USD gift card + PDF of Digital or physical copy of the 2024 D&D Starter Set
Sponsored by Lou
Bundle: World Deck featuring over 20 World Anvil worlds + item art commission
Sponsored by George Sanders
Bundle: No Mercy in This Land anthology + $20 gift card to Storytelling Collective courses
Sponsored by George Sanders
Lifetime Temporary Dependency Membership to WordiGirl's Ko-Fi page
Sponsored by Lexi Con (WordiGirl)
10,000 Words
Write 10,000 words and will have successfully completed WorldEmber!
25,000 Words
Write 25,000 words to earn the Award of Verbosity!
50,000 Words
Write 50,000 words (a full novel!) to earn the Award of Loquacity!
Best Article
Awarded to the user who wrote the best article during WorldEmber, chosen by the community.
Best Body of Work
Awarded to the user with the best overall work this month, chosen by the community.
Human of the Match
Awarded by Janet & Dimitris to an all-around good spirit of WorldEmber — we see you!
Special Category Winner
Awarded to the winner of each special category, chosen by the community judges
Community Judge
Awarded to the amazing beans who sponsor WorldEmber
Join the community!
One of the best things about WorldEmber is the community support—everyone rallies together on multiple platforms! You can find our community on Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and our community stream. Use the hashtag #WorldEmber to share ideas and find one another, and download the public asset pack to fly the WorldEmber colors!Rules
Timescale
Challenge begins: 29th November 2025, 7pm UK time/11am Pacific timeChallenge ends: 3th January 2026, 7pm UK time/11am Pacific time
Goal
The goal of WorldEmber is to write 10,000 of original worldbuilding during December—the site will automatically track your wordcount. Valid words are:- Written in articles only.
- Written in articles that are new (i.e. created after WorldEmber launched), public (i.e. not private) and published (i.e. not drafts). Learn about the differences between Public and Published articles.
- Written in articles with over 50 words.
Detailed rules
- All worldbuilding should be new and original. Previously written content, placeholder text, copying the same content over multiple articles, and text written by someone else is not allowed.
- Meta content isn't valid for your WorldEmber wordcount; this includes project updates, articles explaining your WorldEmber progress, and similar content.
- Only articles are counted. Any words written in timelines, statblocks, secrets, or other non-article elements don't count.
- Articles must be at least 50 words long to be counted (or 300 for a special category). There is no maximum word count.
- You can only submit one article per special category. This doesn't affect your total wordcount, as articles not submitted to a special category still count towards your WorldEmber progress.
- If you submit your article and subsequently remove it from the challenge, make it private, or make it a draft, it will no longer be eligible for the challenge!
- No art theft. You must have permission to use any art you post publicly on World Anvil, and all art must be credited using the artist credit fields or in the article footer.
- Only one account per person may enter WorldEmber. Note that the use of multiple accounts is against the World Anvil Terms of Service. Multiple users can write in the same world (for collaborative projects) and you can write in multiple worlds.
- World Anvil retains the right to arbitrate and/or change the rules where necessary to uphold the spirit and integrity of this event and the community. We will communicate changes as necessary.
- As always, World Anvil claims no ownership over your original work.
Questions & Feedback
If you've read through all the rules, checked the FAQ section at the bottom, and still have questions or feedback, here are some ways you can reach us!
- [email protected] - send us an email!
- Discord - hop into the help or WorldEmber channels and ping or DM the @Community Team!
- Facebook Group and Subreddit - ask your questions there if you prefer these platforms!
Resources & Guides
Feeling stuck and need some inspiration? We've got you covered:- World Anvil's YouTube channel - for inspirational videos, and more tutorials!
- World Anvil's Twitch channel - for the latest streams—come and chat with the community!
- The Learn section - for how to use all the features of World Anvil!
- Article BBCode Guide - how to make your articles look amazing!
- 5 best character portrait resources
- 5 best city map image resources
- 5 best landscape resources
- More free art resources for worldbuilding
How to submit to special categories
Edit an article and click the trophy button in the bottom toolbar:
The Awards Ceremony
On February 7th, we'll throw an AWARDS CEREMONY! If you've won a prize, this is where you'll hear about it. The event will also feature raffles and the traditional Beautiful People event! Follow us on Twitch so you never miss an update!FAQ
Can old stubs be counted?
The leaderboard doesn't seem to be up to date. Why?
Can I copy in my old work or stuff I did in NovelEmber?
Do I have to pick a single world to work on for my wordcount?
What about co-authors?
Yes! A stub is an article under 50 words, and it will be counted for WorldEmber if you follow these instructions:
- Open the article for editing in the old edit UI.
- Click on Advanced Tools & Options on the right hand side.
- Click the SPECIAL ACTIONS panel on the right hand side.
- Click the Reset Date button. This process will update the creation date of the article to the current date.
The leaderboard information refreshes periodically, usually during our community streams, to prevent it from creating lag on the website. Check back later and it will have updated! In the meantime, why don't you grab your hammer and GO WORLDBUILD?!
Verbatim copying of previously done work (even your own!) is not in the spirit of the competition, but expanding on previous work — for example, creating a book bible extrapolated from the first draft of a novel — is just fine.
Nope! Wordcount is per author, so you can write across as many worlds as you like!
Multiple co-authors can write in a single world; their word counts are accumulated based on individual user, not the world they write in.
How can I see which articles are being counted for WorldEmber?
How do I opt in to get prizes?
When will the winners be announced?
When will badges and prizes be delivered?
Can I make my articles private, or delete or edit things after the event?
How do I enter an article for a Special Category?
Use the button at the top of this page to check your personal progress, including every article that is being counted for WorldEmber. You can also view other users' progress pages by appending their username to the URL of this page (https://www.worldanvil.com/community/challenge/worldember-2025/homepage/).
In order to get any prizes on WorldEmber you will need to enable Competitor mode. To do so, go to your Account Features settings and make sure "Competitor mode" is enabled.
This affects both raffle prizes and special category prizes. If you want to have a chance to win a special category prize, you will need to submit to that category. But if you submit without Competitor mode enabled, your article will not be judged!
All users who get to 10,000 words or more will receive the completion badge regardless of the Competitor status.
The winners will be announced at the WorldEmber 2025 Awards Ceremony stream, a special live-streamed Awards Ceremony on our Twitch on February 7th. If you can't tune in live, we'll release a page on the community category of the Learn section with the winners, as well as in our social channels (@WorldAnvil everywhere!). Stay tuned on our social media for updates!
Once the Awards Ceremony has taken place (on February 7th) and all the winners have been announced, we will start the process of giving out the badges and delivering the prizes. World Anvil has millions of users though, so this might take a minute. Please be patient!
After the Awards Ceremony (on February 7th), yes! If you make your articles private or delete them before the ceremony has taken place, you may forfeit your digital badge or your prize, as our team will be unable to check your work for cheating.
This restriction applies to articles submitted in Competitor mode. If you don't have Competitor mode enabled (and, therefore, are not opting in to get any prizes other than badges), you're free to edit your articles at any point.
To take part, write an article using the special category's template, making it public and published, and submit it through the trophy button in the article edit toolbar. If you have Competitor Mode enabled, the judge of that category will choose the winner at their own discretion, by their own means. We recommend to keep special category articles below 2,000 words so that the judges aren't overwhelmed!
If you submit to a special category without Competitor Mode enabled, your article will not be judged.
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2025 [en] | Anvil Time: 22:36, Nov 30 2025