The Fourth Annual Morrowind Writing Competition
Another year, another Morrowind Writing Competition! From the 6thof January, 2025 until the 20thof January, 2025, you can submit one or more pieces of literature about Morrowind in the #submissions channel of the Morrowind Writers' Guild Discord server with the chance to win tangible prizes. The competition will start and end on the indicated days, at 00:00, according to UTC. (Coordinated Universal Time.)
What do you consider a “piece of literature?”
Any written work, in any genre, such as fan fiction or essay.
This year, we will once again also accept mods that involve writing: it can be a quest or a dialogue mod, or a new in-game book, for example)
Why should I participate?
Just by participating, you might gain an audience for your writing, along with feedback from the members of the server.
In addition to which, the author of the writing that gains the first place will win a special channel on the server dedicated just for them and their writings, where the spotlight will be entirely on them. (In the Corners of Our Writers section of the server, similarly to the channels already there.)
The winner will also win the “Champion of Writing” vanity role in the server.
Cxu mi rajtas partopreni per skribajxo kiu estas en alia lingvo ol la angla?
Every writing that you submit must be in English.
Ayup lass, can uz piece o’ literature be written li’ dis?
Works submitted in any dialect of modern English are acceptable.
I have just finished a fan fiction which can be compared to In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, as far as length is concerned. I want to submit it for the competition, so please spend weeks reading it and giving me feedback!
This time there are no restrictions concerning length. However, please bear in mind that people might have a limited capacity to read, so if you want a bigger chance to receive feedback, you might want to aim for submitting shorter pieces. If you insist on a writing a larger project for this competition, the submission of an excerpt or a demo instead of the whole work is totally acceptable, and recommended too.
I have a drawing which depicts Darth Vader surviving Episode VI and establishing a new Jedi order with Luke, as Anakin Skywalker once again. Can I submit that for this competition?
Works submitted must be about Morrowind and they absolutely should be, at the very least in part, some kind of a written work.
I have a fan fiction about an Orc Barbarian who beheads his enemies and uses their heads as hats. Can I submit that for the competition?
There are no restrictions concerning the theme (as long as it fits the broader theme of Morrowind). We believe that one of the most important functions of art is self-expression. Works exploring sexuality, trauma, grief, violence or other sensitive topics are okay, but the usage of content warnings before posting is highly recommended.
How can I submit my work?
Your work can be published on any platform that is NOT a site of a deep web**, as long as you provide a link in the #submissions channel of the server for us to access it. Somewhere at the top of your description, please include the line “Part of the Morrowind Writing Competition organized by the Morrowind Writers’ Guild” and an invite link to our server. (Can be found in the #invite-link channel of the server)
**I understand being shy about your piece of writing, however, one of the aims of this competition is to advertise our server and get new friends for us to hang out with, so just putting your work up to Google Docs, or uploading the .esp will not be acceptable this time. Your work must be published on a proper site of the surface web to be considered this time. For fan fictions and essays, we recommend using https://archiveofourown.org/(or AO3), for mods, we recommend https://www.nexusmods.com/but any site on the surface web is fine.
I will just copy-paste a popular fan fiction from AO3 and submit that as my original work, muhahahahahaha!
For anything that you submit, plagiarism is forbidden: your writing must absolutely be your own, original work.
In case of mods, just like in other modding competitions, using any non-written assets by other modders is permitted, as long as you credit them, and you’re sure that you have their explicit permission for using their asset.
What about using AI, such as ChatGPT to help me write my work?
Since there is no way to catch anyone who would cheat with ChatGPT at this point, its usage for the sake of this competition is tolerated, but not endorsed. Just try to use it for brainstorming and inspiration instead of making it write the whole thing, okay?
How will the winner of the competition be determined?
The winners will be based on the vox populi: members of this server will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite piece of literature once the competition ends.
Can everyone participate in this competition?
Since it’s a competition organized by only one person, only members of the server can participate, by submitting their work in the #submissions channel. If there’s someone you would like to participate in the competition, who is not a member of the server, you can use the invite in #invite-link to invite them.
You can join our server here.
How about a completely optional theme, just to get us inspired?
Okay. Utopia. Utopia here does not mean a perfect society, (what is perfect anyway?) but a better society. Life in Morrowind is hard, there is conflict, struggle and moral ambiguity and it is part of its charm. However, can you imagine a way life in Morrowind would be better? Can you also imagine it in a way that is realistic? I mean, Morrowind wouldn’t become a republic overnight, but maybe your story would be about a noble who cares deeply about their subjects, and listens to their opinions and grievances. Slavery wouldn’t be abolished overnight, but maybe you can tell a story about a plantation where slaves get ample food, healing, and it is forbidden for the guards to beat them up. And of course, they wouldn’t just do it because they are good people, but out of some kind of necessity: perhaps in order to create unity against the Sixth House or the Empire. Perhaps it’s part of a deal with a Daedric Prince. Perhaps instead of relying on the benevolence of particular characters, you can just work with things that are readily available in this world, such as magic. Restoration magic to restore the land destroyed by the volcano? Manipulating the weather to irrigate crops? Curing diseases or even extending the lifespan of people? Transmutation magic to create gold and ebony out of iron? Teleportation magic to accelerate trade and make it risk-free? Or perhaps you could finally have some clever mage figure out the way Dwemer robots work, and the people of Morrowind could be freed from the necessity of menial labor with them. Perhaps you want to intertwine this topic with our current Writing Challenge, which is alternate history. (On the server, we also organize semi-regular Writing Challenges, and the current one runs parallelly with the Writing Competition, by the way! Yes, it is permitted to submit the same piece of writing for both events.) Maybe you could write about an alternate timeline where the Red Year never occurs, and the Nerevarine liberating Red Mountain would result in a better society, with all those lands, and ebony and glass mines suddenly being there for the taking. Bonus points if you also manage to write such a story in a manner which is not just a boring description that things have improved, but you also write an exciting story around it, where the new circumstances result in new problems emerging.