Awesome work, it's great to see some forward movement . Honestly though, Artimidor, my optimism about the ability to reinvigorate the project has proven naïve, I think. As you said, it's really unsustainable without some large mass of people.

I'll see if I can get my entries where I want them in, mostly with the Verse Curse among other things, but it's still great to have contributed to such a wonderful project, even if it's just for  a short time.

Thanks to everyone,
Seagazer

Overview.

Description.
As a boat approaches Saenyhal, the face of the cliff rises out of the mist to stand hundreds of times taller than any human being. The term cliff face has particular meaning for Witchking’s Cliff, because the power of the wind and water (and perhaps darker forces) have carved the cliff into a crude facsimile of a human face with a clearly discernible nose and chin.

Atop the “head” of the cliff lies a bare patch of green grass, along with a “crown” of giant stones arranged in a circle, the Demon Circle. Among those standing stones, local folklore tells of unspeakable acts of cruelty and malevolence, forever marking that circle a place of ill-will. Those stories have spread, which leads to sailors keeping a wide berth of the cliff for reasons beyond the risk of shipwreck. That fear has led many sailors wasting time who are journeying northeast to Churican or Milkengrad to head far to the south, towards Mt. Armacan.

The name of the cliff is thought to have arisen from the lore of the rituals that once took place in the Demon Circle, and particularly the witch king who led them. Local tales tell that it is that witch king’s visage which is carved into the stone of the cliff in the instant of his death.

Location.
The face of a small peninsula that juts into the Dark Sea like a god-sized dagger, Witchking’s Cliff is one of the most striking features of the island of Saenyhal in the Santharian province of Vardýnn. In fact, the island is so associated with the cliff that the island as a whole is often called the Witchking’s Isle.

People.
No one resides on barren Witchking’s Cliff, but its few visitors are mostly the people of Saenyhal: Erpheronians

Climate.
Open to the ravages of the open sea, the weather on Witchking’s Cliff is frequently brutal. The wind blows across the cliff, and a strong gust has been known to knock a poor soul off the cliff entirely.

Fauna..

Flora.

Lore.

Mina, I completely forgot that Kh'omchr'om was a Sarvonian language. So my advice is entirely irrelevant, so you can scratch my prior post! 

Though if the laws of regular evolution, and hence genetic drift, don't apply in Santharia, why would linguistic change over time occur in Caelereth? I guess that's just one of those hand-wavey things that must be done to construct a fantasy world.

Well, you have your very own expert on Kh'omchr'om here, but I have absolutely no idea for what you should choose. Wroszul sounds good to me, but so does Hef Oc (imposing orc), or Mxas Oc (not-hot orcs).

All of those sound great to me, and I look forward to reading more about the Orcen people of Cyhalloi.

The description works perfectly and seems to me a great place to start for an entry of their own, either written by you or someone else.

Yeah, this is all good from my perspective.

It's such a wonderful Santharianisation of a Terran idiom, and really adds some of that wonderful depth that makes Santharia so unique.

I know this is still a work in progress, but I just wanted to say that I love the name Luneweep.

It's so wonderfully poetic, and really brings to mind a teardrop from the moon itself.

Again, clever idea.

Seagazer

Don't worry about the deadlines.

I'll remove all the dates, it was perhaps overly ambitious.

Okay, I will tentatively be writing an entry on Witchking's Cliff and surrounding folkore on the Island of Saenyhal.

It should be spooky and unsettling, but undeniably Santharian.

Who wants to contribute to the group project?

I assume Coren is interested, given the origin of the idea, but it would be cool if it was a genuine group project.

You don't need to do something very big, just a grass or turtle or hamlet.

Don't all come at once!

Does there even need to be a cure?

Perhaps there are old wives' tales about eating redberries to sweeten the stomach acid to make the stomach unpleasant to the parasite in a quasi-Ayurvedic sort of thing, but that most believe that the only cure for the GulletCramp is a hardy constitution and a lot of time.

Rookie wrote a guide to Llaoihrr naming, if you find that useful for your reasearch.

Perhaps Oorret Birchbark for a guy or Rreiee Greenbark for a girl?

Perhaps we could do a group project on Voldar for the second round of the group project?

That would maintain the Vardýnn theme, while making one of the most important cities in Santharia have one of the better entries.

How many man-hours did the Ximax project end up taking?

Coren, absolutely!

I think that the Erpheronian entry is probably the most important, so that has been moved to the primary entry, and I removed some of the larger ones.

Check it out and see if it works for you.

Welcome to the primary thread for the first cycle of the Regional Taskforce system, the Winter 2015 cycle. Please reply on this thread if you want to join the taskforce or if you want to propose a change to the taskforce itself.

What is a Regional Taskforce?
A regional taskforce is a group project focusing on a particular area, either geographic or topical. The taskforce can be composed of any interested contributor to the Dream, whether an old hand or a newbie. A cycle of the taskforce is made up of two rounds.

The first involves the reading of a set of essential readings of entries that are already on the site, and then the composition by each member of the taskforce of a new short entry that is connected to some or all of the essential readings. In the second round, each member writes another entry, this time based on the entries of the first round. Hopefully, each cycle provides a group of closely connected contributions to the Dream that promote both integration and creativity.

Topic:
The Santharian province of Vardýnn, with a particular emphasis on the human inhabitants of the province.

Group Members:
1.   Seagazer (Witchking's Cliff)
2.   Altario (Cahlgrey)
3.   Val (Canyssa's Gate?)

Essential Integrations:
Each entry in the first round should integrate the following references.
1.   The Erpheronians
2.   Thar the Great
3.   Armeros
4.   Aerelian Lakes
5.   Churican

Helpful Readings:
Those who are interested in participating might find the following resources.
1.   Map
2.   Rayne's Masterplan

Ideas for Entries:
Rayne compiled a list of possible entries, but I made consolidated some entry ideas below.

Remember: SHORTER IS BETTER. We want momentum in this, so entries should take no longer than a few weeks to write. Don’t pick some monster entry unless you’re willing to spend serious time each day on it.

Places:
1.   Hèckra
2.   Twinnean Peak
3.   Crow Hills
4.   Witchking’s Cliff
5.   Island of Paragonj
6.   Vandrina River
7.   High Fores
8.   Efirhal
9.   Midlanir
10.   Westhorn
11.   Accam
12.   Thyslan
13.   Cemphiria
Natural World (take note of Rayne’s analysis in Masterplan thread):
1.   Pill bug: little wingless bugs that can roll up into a ball for protection.
2.   Centipedes: Things with multiple legs. Feel free to use your imagination to spice them up.
3.   Spiders: Both poisonous and not poisonous to create beautiful webs in our plains and forests!
4.   Grasshopper and cicadas: they hop, they fly, they sing—Vardýnn would love to have some of these talented creature.
5.   Moths and Butterflies: Small creatures that live off the nectar provided by the flowers that grow in the area.
6.   Water Bugs: Little insects that live in the water or that, in their larval stage, live in the water.
7.   Finches: Small birds that eat insects like Malise, Myrmex, spiders, and flies
8.   Falcons and hawks: Predatory birds that eat small snakes, fish, and rodents
9.   Sea-birds: We have gulls, but some other shore-birds might be nice!
10.   Turtles and Tortoises: Reptiles that may hang out around the lakes and rivers, eating small fish and insects that live there.
11.   Snakes: some common snakes, poisonous and nonpoisonous, would be wonderful for our grasslands.
12.   Newts and salamanders: Slimy creatures that like moist conditions.
13.   Frog and toads: We have some, but I would love a few more to join our croaking choirs!
14.   Rabbits: Animals that hop around. We need some for our forests and plains!
15.   Chipmunk and marmot: Small, scurrying creatures to inhabit our forests and plains.
16.   Moles and groundhogs: Under-ground, digging rodents to cause terror to the local farmers.
17.   Weasel: Long and slender creatures with short legs that slink about prairies and plains, similar to the mimsey.
18.   Racoon: Bandits in furry forms.
19.   Otters and Beavers: As well as any cute, water-friendly creature you can think of!
20.   Trout: Fish for our rivers and such that eat small insects in the water as well as other fish.
21.   Minnows: Silvery little fish perhaps similar to the Mithralfish.
22.   Shiners: Silver fish, very minnow-like with big eyes.
23.   Flounder and sea-fish: Fish to populate the western coastline.
24.   Crabs: Small crabs, large crabs—salt and fresh water—for our lakes, rivers, and shore!
25.   Flowering plants: Flowers for sunlight and flowers for shade—enough flowers to throw a great flower parade!
26.   Vines and creepers: We need some for our forests, to clime and drape gently from our trees, and those for our plains, to creep quietly across the ground.
27.   Fruits and Vegetables: I would love some more squash-like plants, as well as pears, plums, etc.
28.   Water plants: Algae and other water plants that grows in or near rivers and lakes.
29.   Grasses: Perhaps some more varieties of grasses in the spirit of alth’ho and wean grass?
30.   Grains: For the baking of bread and the brewing of beer and ale!
31.   Mushroom: We need many more!—for woods, for lakes, for teas and cakes! For slime and stink, for waste and rot, we need some ‘shrooms, and need a lot!

Mina, I think feeling guilty doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Contributing to Caelereth should be fun, not a burden. Feel guilty about feeling gulity!

We'll see, though I'm leaning towards Vardýnn myself. It seems so incredibly medieval as opposed to the more early modern feeling of Manthria and elsewhere.

Though I worry, Mina, that the reason that people aren't contributing isn't for lack of freedom but because of it. It's difficult to find a place to start doing something if it's just one big, blank map.