Checkpoint 1: Kick-off

[nepenthee]

With slight delay, this DW community is now open!

As mentioned on the event site, the challenge will be accompanied by regular checkpoints where you can share your plans and progress, ask for help and discuss anything regarding site-making. These checkpoints will be posted in approximately biweekly intervals by me, your host, and sometimes by larissa. :)

Some questions to start with: What are you making and why, how long has the shrine been on your wishlist, and where are you starting from?

Feel free to chat about anything, no need to answer any of these questions!

Comments

[nepenthee]

Hi everyone!! I’m delighted (and touched) that so many people signed up within days after the event site was uploaded. I’ll try to advertise the challenge some more now that I’m no longer sick and the DW is ready. :D

I’m going to make a small dedication to Nanako Amachi, a character who shows up in one chapter/story of the manga The Top Secret, whose pilot chapter I’ve already made a shrine for. The motivation behind both shrines is very similar: digesting the story in writing so I can slowly shake off the still-vague feelings that follow me everywhere. For this one specifically, I also want to experiment in a different direction to explore what shapes shrines can take… I’ll see if I can pull it off.

The shrine’s been one of my dreams since at least 2021, and I have a despairingly awful graphic WIP from then (to be tossed and forgotten), a concept, a foreword, an outline that needs to be reevaluated, nearly a dozen paragraphs of drafts and many notes. This is one of the projects I have to get out of the way so I can start dreaming up new things. TIME TO SORT THINGS OUT FOR GOOD. >:(

WE SHALL MAKE ALL THE SHRINES.

[velvetdusk]

I’m so looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds — your writing voice has always been something I deeply admire. The length, the cadence, the way you let emotion and observation breathe on the page… your shrines feel alive in their own right. You could write about paint drying and I’d still be spellbound. There’s such a quiet gravity to everything you craft, and it’s always a joy to read 🥹

[nepenthee]

Oooh Elita... Thank you for this gift of words. It touches my heart that my writing has resonated with you in that particular way, and I see you more clearly for it. I hope this shrine, too, will feel alive.

[larissa]

Hello!! I'm really excited to be here, in no small part because this event is going to get me off my butt to finally make a site I've had half-finished for a few years now, haha.

I'll be making a site to Ardbert from Final Fantasy XIV! I decided to make this site back in 2022, wrote about half the content, got to a section I didn't really want to write, and promptly stalled, as one does. So I'm hoping that this event kicks me into finally finishing it 😤

On an unrelated note, if anyone has any questions about how to use Dreamwidth, feel free to message me (or reply here)! I've been here a long time and am happy to assist, since I know it's very different from modern social media.

[nepenthee]

I like how we walk in here with our ghost projects in tow like the most natural thing. omg that's the actual event theme isn't it. "Here's my abandoned, unborn dream from years before (what is time). Here's my love I have been trying to revive. Here are all the projects that haunt me. Let's set them on fire exorcise them together."

(Nice icon. 8D)

[larissa]

To be fair, with how slow-moving I can be, I think all of my WIP sites would qualify that way...! But I'm excited to see this one to completion.

[velvetdusk]

I haven’t played a Final Fantasy game since X-2, so I’m going in with only the faintest sense of who Ardbert is — but I’m so intrigued to see what you create. There’s something deeply satisfying about finally returning to an unfinished work and breathing life into it again. I’ll be looking forward to seeing this one take shape.

[larissa]

have you heard about final fantasy xiv's extensive free trial—

no I'm kidding. It's really funny that Lethe picked this for the theme, because Ardbert is (quite literally) a ghost, and "Ghost of You" was already my planned site title...! Fate works in mysterious ways.

I have no good excuse for setting the site down last time, really, which means it shouldn't be that hard to get it going again. Of course, I say this and I've made no progress on it since the month started, haha. But it's been perlocating in the back of my mind, waiting to come together while I work on other things.

Here's hoping we can bring all our ideas to fruition!

[nepenthee]

Yeah, the effect of having a specific subject/project on our mind is already part of the process and can't be underestimated!

I haven't touched the existing text of my shrine or any graphic material yet either (so many life obligations this week), but I've started rereading the manga to immerse myself in its mood, and have sunk into the two poems that I want to embed, and dug up some essays on the poets. From all that pondering sprang a brilliant idea for a structural element of the site... and now I'm excited!! That progress alone makes participating in this challenge worth it, and I hope others will feel similarly by the end of the event hehe.

[requiems]

Us right now

(to everyone else: this links to somewhat vague yet major XIV spoilers on my god please don't click on this)

[larissa]

LMAO this is in fact us, too real

[velvetdusk]

Hello hello, I’m Elita — it’s so nice to be here again after such a long while away. I’m working on Scarlet Remembrance, a shrine for Millicent from Elden Ring. I used to design small sites and graphics back in the early 2000s and was last active around 2016 under melusine.nu before drifting away from the scene for a while. This challenge feels like the perfect spark to return — to both the craft itself and the slower, more intentional rhythm of the handmade web.

Millicent’s story has always stayed with me: devotion, decay, and rebirth intertwined. She feels like the perfect emblem of what remains — a ghost not of loss, but of transformation. My hope is to build the shrine as a kind of digital reliquary, something between a study and a prayer, stitched together in scarlet and gold.

I’m a little nervous but mostly excited to be back among others who still tend to these quiet gardens of code. Here’s to haunted HTML, gentle revival, and the return of the longform 🖤

[larissa]

Hello!! I think I have a faint memory of your previous domain, so it's lovely to see you here now.

I haven't played Elden Ring myself, but I watched a friend stream 90% of it, and it's really such an atmospheric and melancholy title. I'm looking forward to visiting your site so I can learn more about the game and your chosen subject.

[velvetdusk]

Aw thank you, Larissa! I’m surprised (and touched) that you even remember melusine.nu — it feels like a lifetime ago. I used to visit your domain regularly back then (and still do, from time to time); it always had such a distinct voice and atmosphere.

And yes, Elden Ring is one of those worlds that’s heavy with silence — all mood and ruin and strange grace. Millicent fits that tone perfectly, and I’m hoping the shrine can capture a bit of that melancholy beauty.

It’s genuinely nice to see familiar names again after so many years. 🖤

[nepenthee]

Elita, I love your writing voice and am, despite not knowing anything whatsoever about Elden Ring, so hyped for your shrine. Reading your hope for the project, I am very curious whether our shrines may turn out kindred in spirit, and it gives me an extra push to make mine happen – thank you!

[velvetdusk]

Thank you so much, Lethe — that means a lot coming from you! 🖤 It’s surreal (and really lovely) to be back in this space again, especially surrounded by others who still care for this kind of craft. I’m so glad to hear my post resonated with you — and now I’m equally excited to see what you’re building!

[lexicalcrow]

Hihi! I've been making websites in some form or another since like 1996 or thereabouts. I had a couple of angelfire sites back in 2004, one of which has evolved from angelfire to wordpress to neocities. It's somehow still up on angelfire, which astounds me tbh, but that's the old web for you, ig.

I've known about shrines and such for a long time, but never actually got around to making one, so I was excited to see this come up on my reading page. I'm excited to have a go at making one, and hopefully it'll lead to me making even more. :D

The shrine I want to work on is from the UK series Taskmaster. There's a lot of headcanons that myself and others have written about Greg Davies being some kind of god/spirit/fae/shadow creature and I want to make a shrine for that. It's one of those things that has some visual canon support, shall we say lol. But it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the prompt 'ghost of you'. I want to explore these headcanons and fanworks that support that, and the lore/canon that inspired them.

I do have other ideas that I want to do apart from that though, but this is the one I'm going to focus on first. I'm hoping it'll give me some inspiration for the mini shrines I want to make for my fic archive for each of my fandom pages, so I can move those along too. They're only going to be one page shrines, but I like the idea of introducing my tiny fandoms to other ppl before dumping all the fic I've written about them on the page, so. That's the goal, to get my brain back into making websites and continuing to work on the ones I have.

[velvetdusk]

I love the sound of this — what a brilliant premise for a shrine! The “divine Taskmaster” interpretation genuinely made me smile; there’s something so fitting about turning that kind of recurring, uncanny humor into mythic shape. I’m not deeply familiar with the series beyond the clips I’ve seen, but I can already imagine how fun it’ll be to weave that lore and absurdity together into something atmospheric. I’m really excited to see how it comes to life — it sounds like the perfect spark to rekindle that old-web rhythm again.

[lexicalcrow]

It's so interesting, because you can see the Taskmaster house like a church. The Taskmaster's portraits are everywhere. There's a large enthroned statue of him in the yard. He's always watching you even if he's never there. In s8, the two round windows in the front of the house had eyes in them, the ones from the Taskmaster's portrait for that series, as if the house was the Taskmaster itself keeping an eye on the contestants. Everything is done For Him, as Alex often points out. It's such interesting lore to play around with.

Also, in all the Taskmaster books (and also on social media posts), Alex capitalises all of Greg's pronouns, which I think it's fair to say can be read as either religious or kinky, depending on your viewpoint. It just adds to the divine Taskmaster headcanons, and/or sacred kink, depending on your flavour. Devotion and worship can go both ways, and Alex gives so much material for both, the fucker lol.

I will admit I'm very good at basic 2004 web and graphic design lol, but I'm going to work to improve my coding and design skills, because I have a Vision and I want to be able to make it happen. :D Also looking at some of the shrine examples gave me some srs inspiration and I want to be able to make something more than just a basic-looking site.

[velvetdusk]

This is such a fascinating lens to view the series through — the imagery you describe makes it sound almost ritualistic in its own right. The idea of a “living house” watching from its portrait-eyes and this playful line between reverence and kink… it’s deliciously strange in the best way. It’s such a reminder of how much fun it is to take something familiar and lean into its mythic edges.

And oh, I relate so much — I haven’t really coded or created anything since 2016, so I’ve been brushing up on my skills lately too 😭 That 2004 web energy is so real though; it’s like muscle memory, dusty but still alive under the fingertips. I can’t wait to see what you build — I have a feeling it’ll capture that nostalgia perfectly, but with the spark of someone rediscovering their craft.

[lexicalcrow]

It's such a fascinating show! Because on one level, yeah, it's comedians doing stupid things and making fools of themselves. It's comedy. It's hilarious. But then you add in all the other layers and it gets deep and so so interesting. It is a show that didn't need 'Lore', but the Lore adds so much to how it works, and the relationship between Greg and Alex that plays out over the course of each series.

I mean, there's a portrait of Greg that greets you as soon as you walk in the front door of the house, but he's not looking at you, he's looking off to one side. Indifferent. Imperial. Imposing. For a long time, and I don't know if it's still like this because I haven't noticed it, but they had small portraits of the champions on the wall beside that entrance portrait too. Fascinating show. So much visual language to play with.

That's such a mood lol. I can barely remember how to do CSS, but I can remember basic HTML 4 woooo. XD But yeah I wanna up my game a bit, make it worthy of a Taskmaster shrine. Not too fancy, ofc, but just fancy enough. :D

[larissa]

I have never watched Taskmaster and only have a passing familiarity with it, but the concept for your site is so fascinating to me! In this corner of the web, any sites to live-action subjects have long been few and far between, and I'm genuinely so thrilled that you'll be working to add something new to the table.

Also, your plans for your fic archive are super neat! I just made a fandom-specific fic archive recently, and this is making me consider whether I want to add more introductory material to it, hmm. I appreciate the food for thought!

[lexicalcrow]

Ahh, thank you! :D I've definitely not been much in touch with the greater shrine-making community, but just going from the examples that were offered, yeah, I can see the lack of live action stuff going on, and I'm happy to be contributing to that. Maybe I can coax some others into making more shrines too. :D I'm excited to start on mine, it's such an interesting idea that I don't think really gets as much coverage as other aspects of the show do.

Oh neat! :D I've written in many small fandoms and fandoms-of-one over the years, so I felt it was a nice idea to have a little page introducing my boys to people so they're not diving into the fic without knowing who they are. It feels like a more customised kind of archive. Not just a list of fics, but here are all the idiots I've written about and why I'm insane about them. I think it would add a nice touch to it. And hey, if it inspires you to do something similar, that's awesome!

[nepenthee]

This takes me back: Back when everything was new on the web, there was this huge German platform (Animexx) for all fandom needs where everyone had an account (with customized profiles that included blurbs, comment sections, fanwork overview, purchasable trinkets etc.), could post fanart, fanfic, comics and reviews and comment on other people's, participate in discussion boards etc. (I assume DeviantArt comes closest to it on an international scale?) Every single fic had its own "homepage" on the platform with a chapter overview, but also a summary/blurb AND the option to add a cover image and character profiles, images included. People could use that space to introduce the series to anyone not familiar with it or not familiar with the latest developments, or highlight their aesthetic/visuals for the characters (graphics! fanart by the writer or lifted from around the web!); more importantly, that space was used veryyyy creatively in the case of AUs, crossovers and OC involvements. (Any comments and fanart to the fic would be linked there too.) Here's an example (click on "Charaktere"; I linked the first thing I found so no judging).

I haven't seen anything similar on any platform since, so I love seeing you talk about how to design self-hosted fic archives or fic overviews to draw out their max potential!

On a related note, I only read fics of things I know, but am aware that others may check out fics of subjects they're unfamiliar with, for example if they like an author's works very much. Being devoted to shrines myself, I think of them also as starting points to familiarize oneself with the work in question – and/or to get to know someone, as a webmaster, writer, designer, fan or person; it follows that I dislike the thought of only checking out shrines to things one already knows. I'd say fics are slightly different (as they aren't specifically meant to introduce, which is an element of many shrines), but the kind of introduction you're planning for your fic archive can change that!

Do you guys know whether live action shrines were really that rare in the web of old or whether it's a case of communities not being aware of each other? I once stumbled upon someone's site in the past few year or so, and the webmaster expressed nostalgia for the stylish layouts of old that featured characters from live action series, musicians and other celebrities. Was that limited to journals, self-hosted blogs, personal sites, graphics sites and such?

[nepenthee]

Can I just say, going from Angelfire to Wordpress directly sounds like such a big and odd jump to me (self-hosted or not), I don't think I've talked to anyone in the fansite sphere (or personal sites, sans blogging) who went that path lol. (I assume it's not uncommon, since there has to be something between getting shared hosting by a company or by people in the scene, and not making sites until, say, discovering Neocities.)

You know my thoughts on your choice of subjects already. I like your ambition and step-by-step plans, and am eager to see how things will turn out for you, especially as I started making shrines late too, despite having known them for a long time! If there's anything you're curious about or would like help with, do feel free to make use of this community.

By the way, I saw your mention of HTML 4 in a comment. If you feel up to it, you may want to look into the semantic elements introduced by HTML 5, which are key to accessibility but also save you a little bit of typing and make your code more readable to yourself (e.g. <header>, <footer>, <nav>, <section> instead of having divs with separate IDs like <div id="header">). If not, you can always pick it up later.

[blaubeermars]

I'm currently working on a shrine to Fern from Frieren, as part of the Ghost of You event! I had originally planned to make just a fanlisting for her, but when I saw the challenge theme, I changed my mind. It felt like the perfect opportunity to explore her character more deeply.

I wasn’t quite sure at first whether to focus on Fern or Frieren, since both mean a lot to me, but in the end it was one of Fern’s fighting scenes that made the decision clear. There’s such quiet strength in how she moves and holds herself, and that moment really stayed with me.

I already had a layout made back when it was still just a fanlisting, and I’m currently in the process of coding it -_- but something about it feels off. I think the fonts are the issue; they make the whole thing feel a bit flat or too plain, and I’m not sure the atmosphere is right yet. Still, I’m working on it bit by bit, and hoping it’ll all fall into place soon!

[nepenthee]

I like the way you describe how you made your choice on the subject. If you're going to cover the moment that captured you in the shrine (even if only on the Site page or so), I'd love to read/see it.

I know some old video game shrines used to include descriptions on how characters move in battle (naturally so, since those are recurring animations in old school RPGs), if not analysis on how that relates to their characterization, but I haven't seen many observations of the kind outside of that (with the exception of things like Avatar benders). I once wrote one myself, and it was very fun.

How do you go about choosing fonts?

[blaubeermars]

I do notice how characters are presented and animated. Especially in scenes that carry emotional weight or subtle shifts in tone. The way someone moves, pauses, or even just how their eyes are drawn can say so much about who they are. I think that’s part of why I love characters like Fern. It’s not just what they say or do... it’s how they exist in the space around others, how they carry themselves. I find those little choices really compelling.

That said, I don’t actually choose fonts with much care, to be honest. It’s usually a mix of “this looks nice” and “does it fit the vibe?” rather than a carefully planned process. I just go with what feels right in the moment.

But you, on the other hand — your layouts always feel like a piece of art. Every detail seems so intentionally chosen, like each element has a specific purpose or quiet meaning behind it. It’s one of those things where you can instantly tell how much thought and care went into it. I really admire that!

[nepenthee]

Thank you so much for the kind words, Christina! <3 I do love typography, but choosing and matching fonts is such time-consuming labour to me... Usually I try to leave the font searching for days (or rather evenings) where I'm too spent to do anything that requires much thinking. I select a bunch from Google Fonts/Bunny Fonts/whatever, copy over the code, and then try them out one by one in the code editor's live preview to see what they look like in the layout (for lack of imagination lol)...

I once saw someone do that kind of testing directly in Photoshop, but it'd take me too long to go up and down the drop down list. And other fonts programs I know (e.g. FontBase) obviously wouldn't let me preview text in a layout.

(If anyone has a better way to do this, do please chime in.)

[requiems]

The tribute I'm making is for Fray Myste from Final Fantasy XIV. Fray is the job quest NPC for the Dark Knight questline, a quest series that has been lodged and percolating in my head ever since. Everything else about Fray is a huge spoiler but simply know this... they are very, very good.

I've had Fray on my tdl since 2022 and been through a few layout iterations every now and then until I finalised it this year. My plan was, the next time I do the 30-50 quests on an alt, I'll write about Fray...! And then promptly put off doing it for like, eighteen months? lol. Now's a good time though. I love sinking my teeth into these quests and I've never done 30-80 consecutively, so I'm looking forward to it.

As an aside when Larissa first linked me to the event my first thought was "Amélie" - because she haunts herself. She's a ghost to her own life, she wanders through memory, she tore her emotions and the grief out and yet they remain, Widowmaker saved her but it took everything away...

And then I went "Rems you have to do Fray first you can't do Amélie first". And this is fine with me, honestly - I tend to hold them up to admire from similar angles. (And she's the alt I'll be doing the 30-50 quests with for maximum vibes.)

[larissa]

You already know I'm excited for this but AAAAA I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS. Cannot wait to read everything you have to say about Fray, because I know you have Many Thoughts on them :)

[toothpastepancake]

What are you making and why, how long has the shrine been on your wishlist, and where are you starting from?

I'm making a shrine to Anna Sheridan from Babylon 5. Her story, I think, embodies the theme perfectly. Here's an excerpt from my WIP intro page:

"She gets the opportunity of a lifetime in 2256 -- an expedition to the Rim of known space, to a world that may have had a civilization (and useful technology) long, long ago. Intending to study it, she finds that there is still life on the surface of this planet - that will later be known as Z'Ha'Dum - and said life overtakes her and transforms her into a living central processing unit for their ancient vessels.

Later, Anna reappears on Babylon 5, thought long dead. This Anna is nothing like her former self; her personality had been wiped entirely by the transformation and by spending years plugged into the alien ships. At this point in the story, she is only a weapon. A tool. A ghost."

I've always loved Anna. I read Jeanne Cavelos's novel about her back in 2022, and that launched me into adoring her. Her true self never appears on screen in B5 outside of flashbacks --- the real Anna is truly a ghost. I tend to fall in love with minor characters, and I am always looking for places to show my appreciation for them. I've been wanting to make this shrine since 2023 when I first got back into html/css.

[larissa]

Oh, I'll be excited to see this one! I haven't watched more than a few episodes of Babylon 5 myself, so I'd love to learn more about it (and your chosen character) through this site. This introductory section alone is more than enough to pique my interest, so I'm looking forward to reading more!

[nepenthee]

Yay WIPs and minor characters! I have never heard of Babylon 5, and, reading this, am looking forward to get a glimpse of it from this specific viewpoint.