Here we are, at the end of Year Six of the New Worlds Patreon! We wrap up this set with vegetarianism and other forms of food prohibition . . . comment over there!

Have you ever been hunting? This week the New Worlds Patreon turns its attention to the sport of kings — which is also the feeding of hunter-gatherers, the hobby of modern people, and many other things. Comment over there!

Do you like to think of a particular animal as representing you? The New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at animal symbolism — comment over there!

We’re in the final month of Year Six (!) of the New Worlds Patreon, and for our last topic, my patrons have voted for some essays about the interactions between humans and animals/the natural environment more generally. We begin with invasive species — comment over there!

Sometimes the organization of the New Worlds Patreon doesn’t work out as tidily as I might like. Since I’ve said my bit on violent crimes (sexual assault having been covered previously), instead we’re wrapping up the month with something that more belongs back with the theft essays from the start of this Patreon year: smuggling! Comment over there.

No discussion of violent crimes would be complete without murder, so this week, the New Worlds Patreon takes a swing in that direction. Comment over there . . .

Another week, another round of violent crimes at the New Worlds Patreon — in this case, assault and battery. Comment over there . . .

What a way to start off 2023 . . . but my loyal New Worlds patrons voted for violent crime this month, so here we go! First up is abduction — including the variants where it wasn’t actually a kidnapping, or it was but the law is on the kidnapper’s side . . . comment over there.

2022 and Year Six of the New Worlds Patreon are squeezing in one more fifth-Friday theory essay before the end! We’ve been talking about magic this year; here that means looking at the personal element that often distinguishes magic from science. Comment over there!

It’s generally been the pattern for the New Worlds Patreon that when we have an arts month, three of the essays are directly about art, and the fourth is about some adjacent topic. In this case, it’s patronage — comment over there!

And while we’re at it, this is a dandy time to remind you that New Worlds is indeed a Patreon, i.e. supported by the patronage of my readers. If you are not among their ranks already, it’s easy to join; members get a weekly photo, a monthly book review, and various other goodies at higher tiers, like voting rights in the topic polls and behind-the-scenes looks at how I build worlds for my own work. Even if you’re not able to support the Patreon directly, I’m grateful for any signal-boosting you can offer!

The New Worlds Patreon has finally gotten far enough into the topic of music to talk about the things that make most of the melodies, aka the strings and the winds! Comment over there.

The New Worlds Patreon continues its musical tour with something nearly as elemental as the voice: drums! Comment over there . . .

A new month; a new topic for for the New Worlds Patreon! This time around, my loyal patrons have voted for music. And so we start where music itself probably did — with the human voice . . . Comment over there!

“Ideological stuff we rarely stop to think about” month at the New Worlds Patreon draws to a close with the question of personal privacy — several different levels thereof. Comment over there!

This week, the New Worlds Patreon takes a look at the virtues particularly called out and valorized by a given society — and the pitfalls that can come with making too much of them. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon continues its look at the parts of our world we almost never think about, just like fish don’t think about the water we swim in: everything from ask vs. guess to interpersonal distance to emotional display. Comment over there!

The Topic Builders of the New Worlds Patreon have voted, and so for November, we will be looking at some of the more abstract, ideological aspects of worldbuilding. First up: individualism and communalism. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon is always ready to do a favor for a friend . . . so long as it gets one in return. To close out October, we’re looking at political patronage: comment over there!

This week the New Worlds Patreon is not talking about feudalism, because that’s an imprecise term for a confluence of concepts that’s falling out of use among historians anyway. It is, however, talking about part of what people usually think of when they hear the word “feudal,” which is the vassal relationship that structured a good deal of the upper class in medieval European society — comment over there!

Last week the New Worlds Patreon looked at citizens and subjects; this time around, it’s people who aren’t in those groups, but possibly want to join them. Comment over there!