This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we turn to something I love rather a lot: maps! They can take so many forms and serve so many purposes, and all of ’em are neat.

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Navigating your way to the latest New Worlds Patreon post is easy: just click on this link right here. After I’ll give you guidance on how to find your way to other places, whether it’s by landmarks, astronomical measurement, the observation of the natural world, or some other clue.

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The New Worlds Patreon rounds out the month of October with a discussion of demons! As usual, comment over there.

And remember, if you’d like weekly photos and other benefits such as ebooks, the chance to vote on topic polls, and more, you can always become a patron! It’s through their loyal support that I’m able to continue this series, bit by bit creating what is probably on its way toward becoming the world’s most comprehensive discussion of SF/F worldbuilding.

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, the conversation takes a theological turn with a discussion of angels. Comment over there!

This week the New Worlds Patreon continues its exploration of monsters with shapechangers — of both the human-to-animal and animal-to-human variety. Comment over there!

For October the New Worlds Patreon will be exploring the topic of monsters! Last year we hit witches, faeries, and various kinds of undead; now we explore the beasts of mythology, starting with chimeras. Comment over there!

I know I post these essays for free publicly, but if you’ve been enjoying the series, consider becoming a patron! You can get access to photos, polls, bonus essays, and more, and keep this project going strong.

The last security-oriented post from the New Worlds Patreon involves keeping information safe, either by rendering it into apparent gibberish, or hiding that a message is present at all. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon continues to keep your valuables safe with everything from secret compartments to a diabolical form of sealing letters — and I’m quite serious when I say that if you can think of a good way to circumvent a dagger lock, tell me, because that would be an awesome challenge to put into a story for some character of mine. Comment over there!

Good news! you don’t have to pick any locks or climb any walls or sneak past any guards to read this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay, which discusses security systems. All you have to do is click that link. And comment over there!

I have this urge to say “the New Worlds Patreon returns,” even though it’s been ticking along steadily with its usual essay per week. But all my travel in August meant I wrote that month’s essays ahead of time and scheduled them all to go live on the apppropriate days, so it’s actually been quite a while since I did this! Anyway, we return/continue/whatever with security, which is the topic my patrons voted for this month. And we begin with locks: a topic that could fill thousands of words and several videos on its own, but that’s only if you delve down into the specific mechancics of how the different types work and tips for how to go about defeating them. This is just a general overview, with an eye toward the arms race between defenders and attackers, and what these days makes a lock maximally secure.

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It seems we can’t go three months this year without tripping over a fifth Friday. But that’s okay, because it gives me a chance to work through more of the “theory posts” that are one of the bonus funding goals for the New Worlds Patreon. This time around I’m discussing the concepts of emic and etic frameworks from anthropology and folklore, and how to apply them to worldbuilding.

This is your periodic reminder that the New Worlds series is supported by my excellent patrons. If you get value out of these essays, please consider joining their ranks — you get a photo every week, and at higher levels of support, things like ebooks, opportunities to vote on upcoming topics, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at my own projects! Or recommend this series to friends; I always welcome new readers and patrons.

Come on a trip with the New Worlds Patreon! Not the kind of trip I just went on; the sort where your mind is opened to the cosmos and you see things that aren’t there. We’re discussing hallucinogens!

The New Worlds Patreon is here to relieve your pain, by discussing painkillers both ancient and modern! Comment over there.

Drink up! The New Worlds Patreon’s tour of drugs continues on to another one so commonplace we don’t even think of it as a drug: alcohol, in all its myriad forms. Comment over there!

Wake up! My lovely patrons have voted; this month’s theme for New Worlds is “drugs,” and we’re starting off with coffee, tea, and other stimulants. (Yes, that coffee you’re drinking is a drug.) Comment over there!

I was fascinated when I found out that vaccination against disease goes back centuries further than I thought. So this week on the New Worlds Patreon, we’re talking about immunization — and how the technology to do it (at least for smallpox) is available in pretty much any century! Comment over there . . .

This didn’t go up on Friday, but better late than never: medical month continues in the New Worlds Patreon with germs and bad air! Competing theories for what causes disease, which overlapped just often enough to obscure the fact that one of them was wrong. Comment over there!

As befits the material, the topic of epidemics expanded wildly out of proportion with the rest of last week’s essay on disease in general — so this week, the New Worlds Patreon is talking about plagues and their effect on society. Grim stuff, but hugely influential in history, to a degree I think we sometimes underestimate in modern times. Comment over there!

My lovely Topic Backers for the New Worlds Patreon have selected “medicine” as this month’s theme — which was supposed to begin with a different essay, only halfway through writing it I realized that a) it needed to be two essays and b) I had also started in the wrong place. So we begin with disease itself, and the mind-boggling extent of its effect on our history and our world. Comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we wrap up the topic of travel (for now) with air travel, space travel, magic travel, and so forth. Comment over there!

And remember that patrons get extra bennies, like photos every week, ebooks, chances to vote in the topic polls, extra essays, and more. More details on Patreon!