1ore's TWWM Journal
Those Who Went Missing is a collaborative worldbuilding game centered on odd-fellow nature spirits, called esk. You can find more information about my works with the world here. This journal is for keeping track of sentimental dates and personal achievements.
Long Ago
I learn of the Witherlings bestiary. The little guys blow my mind. Witherlings' work stays with me through my formative teen years and beyond.
2017
Those Who Went Missing launches. Wither's old friend Nameless is joined by a whole gaggle of nature spirits and a collaborative world. I start reading the lore like it's the Sunday paper.
2018
April
... But I don't even consider joining until a year later. I think to myself, "Lore you can't! You don't have time! Just keep being a hermit!" Then the first inklings of a weedy little trespasser take root in my brain, just as the Desolate collection goes up.
I fall head over heels for #946. I don't win the raffle for them, but even so, it's too late for me.
2018
May
I join TWWM 🎉 I participate in my first event, Eskplorers, and on May 25th I submit my first piece of art to the group.
I'm content to sit back and wait another year for the trespasser of my dreams and/or nightmares to appear. I have a ridiculously specific image in my head for her: a desert boundary, a nature feature found in the Sonoran Desert that's somehow related to water or the monsoon, a monochrome black and white palette, just a really nasty nature that I can jive with, and so on.
It's still May 25th. That night, providence delivers a Nursery ID with all of the above.
Joined TWWM May 14, 2018
Sprout Level: May 25, 2018
2018
June
My Nursery esk Dia #1117 is uploaded to the masterlist on my birthday.
In the midst of all this, I land an internship at my local ghost river, doing environmental restoration work. My life is absolute chaos and I love every minute of it. This experience plants the seeds for what would later become an emotional rollercoaster of a creative project...
2018
July
Firestorm. What else is there to say? My first "big" event in the group is a whirlwind of activity during the whirlwind of my life. Through the week I work full time at the river, scrambling the proteins in my brain under the midsummer sun. Then on the weekends, I rush to illustrate that week's quest prompt. It's ridiculous. Don't know how I pulled it off, but I loved it.
Seedling Level: July 2, 2018
Bud Level: July 2, 2018
Blossom Level: August 17, 2018
2018
September
#1542 is quietly uploaded to the masterlist on September 2, 2018. She's the protagonist of a story that would soon become Ghost River.
September 2018. Thank you!!
Shrub Level: November 6, 2018
2018
December
Baby's first Greenhouse. I spy an esk in a Seventh Greenhouse that has a "dammed river" boundary and my heart goes soft. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum says that something like 90% of riparian habitat in the state has been lost to damming and diversion—the river I interned at is one of them.
2019
March
Something in me snaps and I ink 41 pages of Ghost River over the course of a week, concluding the first chapter of the comic. The pages are colored and released daily until late April. Was it, strictly speaking, the healthiest thing for me to do? No. Was it fun? Also no.
Tree Level: March 5, 2019
2019
April
Compels me, though.
Nature Spirit: April 26, 2019
2019
June
#2604 is uploaded to the masterlist on June 12, 2019. At the time, she's the deuteragonist of Ghost River.
Nature Spirit Level 2: June 27, 2019
Dia #1117, August 2019. Thank you!!
2020
January
Snoodls approaches me to do a design trade. It's baby's first esk design for somebody else, and it introduces me to some dear friends in Snoo, Vlpn, Bagellesbian, and Kiire : -)
Nature Spirit Level 3: January 2, 2020
2020
February
Ghost River enters an indefinite hiatus on February 28, 2020 when I realize there are foundational problems with the narrative. Through spring and summer I significantly alter the comic's script and rewrite its ending. By this time Ghost River is something like a dayjob to me, but the work is largely invisible.
Meanwhile, my first guest artist auction goes live (thank you staff!!) and I make my first wish at the Wellsprings. It starts out as a joke, but...
2020
March
... Well, it's quickly joined by another.
I take my first private esk commission, as well, the proceeds of which were intended to fund a sensitivity reader for Ghost River. Thank you porkuspine!!
2020
April
The Tower #3488 is uploaded to the masterlist on April 14, 2020. He took me almost a year to settle on a design.
2020
May
Ora #3636 is uploaded to the masterlist on May 19, 2020. She's the esk I designed for Snoodls!
2020
June
Vlpn gifts me Heath #019 on June 3, 2020. He's baby's first Wither esk, and I'm over the moon to have a token of all those sentimental years in esk form. Thank you!!
I also complete the Natura Humana questline, the first quest I played to completion since Firestorm.
2020
August
After consulting, I decide to take Ghost River offline. The full circumstances surrounding that decision are outlined here.
In brighter news, I design an esk for Vlpn as thanks for gifting me Heath. Her esk Jude #3804 is uploaded to the masterlist on August 8, 2020.
Nature Spirit Level 4: August 17, 2020
2020
September
Providence at the Wellsprings grants me not one, but two new walnuts. ES #3882 and Rhodes #3883 are uploaded to the masterlist on September 10, 2020.
On September 25, 2020 I purchase #946, the esk that kinda got me to join the group 🎉
Nature Spirit Level 5: November 17, 2020
