Welcome to the World of Ynysfall
a Substack world-building effort
A Codex of broken memory, where all truths are partial and all glories fallen to ruin.
Not all words endure the centuries. Some vanish. Some linger. Which will yours become?
Wanderer,
You have found your way to these pages, though perhaps not by chance. Here are gathered the fragments of a world long scattered—whispers of kingdoms that fell, songs that were silenced, bones of beasts whose names few dare to utter. I am but the Chronicler, tasked with piecing together what remains.
The world is Ynysfall. No single voice can carry the weight of its entirety. That is why I invite you—writers, dreamers, seekers—to lend your hand in the shaping of the wyrd1 of Ynysfall, what we shall call The Ynysfall Codex. Together, we will build a realm vast and unknowable.
see the full list:
How to Contribute
Each entry in our tome is a fragment: a lost document, a half-remembered tale, an artefact’s inscription, a bestiary record, or a map’s torn edge. Alone, each piece is incomplete. Together, they begin to form a world.
Your task, should you accept, is to contribute a fragment of your own.
The Rules of the Realm
Stay in-world. Write as though your piece is an artefact from this universe—never step outside the fiction.
Fragments. Keep entries short and suggestive (around 300–1000 words). Mystery is the marrow. You can submit multiple entries.
Truth is mutable. You may echo or contradict earlier fragments, but always as rumor, memory, or rival telling (propaganda). History is never whole.
Leave doors open. Do not create “final answers” or ultimate powers. Let the world breathe.
This isn’t a hard rule, but I encourage everyone to engage with everyone! Share your favorites, draw links from one story to another, theorize, and have fun getting to know new writers!
Choose your form:
Lost Document (letter, decree, journal entry)
Folk Memory (song, riddle, curse, prayer)
Object of Power (relic, weapon, cursed item)
Bestiary Entry (from hunter, scholar, or victim’s perspective)
Place Lore (city, ruin, shrine, battlefield)
World-Tone Cues
Bleak Beauty: The Codex gathers fragments from a world of ruin and half-forgotten glory, where truth lies buried beneath ash and bone.
Ambiguity: Every tale is a shard—none can reveal the whole, and all may contradict.
Decay & Ruin: Write as though your words are etched into a crumbling wall or whispered by the dying.
Hope: A glimmer of life can be found in even the darkest corners. Someone, somewhere is reading these documents. Hopefully, they can draw some wisdom from our pages and bring forth the light.
See an example, here
Submissions
First, send your fragment to shades.of.night23@gmail.com with subject: Ynysfall Codex_[your name]
Include title and category/form [i.e. diary entry, letter, place lore, curse, or beastiary entry]
Send in PDF or Word Docx
Must be written in Times New Roman, 12pt font.
Further information about posting will be emailed to you!
Submissions will run until October 31st. Posts will be linked on the official Ynysfall Codex page on a rolling basis.
The final cut will be arranged into a downloadable PDF (final date TBA—the exact day is hidden still, as the Chronicler awaits the proper hour). As Chronicler, I will determine which fragments have survived the passage of time and may be entered into the final Codex. Those that remain unchosen are not rejected, only… lost
Rights & Permissions
By submitting, you grant the editors a non-exclusive license to:
Publish your work in The Ynysfall Codex
Use brief excerpts for promotional purposes (e.g. newsletter, social media).
You (the writer) keep full ownership of your work. You’re not signing it away. The editor(s) only get limited, non-exclusive rights to publish it in The Ynysfall Codex on Substack and PDF as well as use snippets for promotion.
Collaborations (
‘s “the Suf”, ’s Penter Painter’s Holiday Haunts, ’s “Weather Reports”, and co.’s Midnight Vault, and “The Blackwater Files” from my own attempt) are one of the most beautiful things that the fiction side of Substack has brought to the platform.They show what happens when writers step beyond the solitary page. These projects feel less like simple newsletters and more like living archives, testaments to what this platform makes possible when imagination is shared.
To all who would set quill to parchment and cast their fragments into the Codex, I bid you fortune.
May your words outlast the ruin.
'Few words in any language have so much ethical and ideological power impacted into four tiny letters. Scholars from very early in the history of Old English literature constructed the idea of “wyrd” as a link between Germanic pagan fatalism and the illustrious legacy of “Fortuna” in Classical letters, often rendering it in English as “Fate.”' (https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/2017/06/08/wyrd-bid-ful-araed-the-wanderer-line-5b/)
An invigorating idea!
This is fantastic!