This event has ended!
Scroll down to see all submitted entries!

"I can't carry the ring for you, but I can carry you."
— Samwise Gamgee, The Return of the King

This month's competition is about companions, friends, and sidekicks—because they deserve the spotlight too! Tell us about a companion or friend of a major character who also had a big influence on the world.

Examples and inspiration

Sam Gamgee is the prime example of a treasured companion—Frodo wouldn't have been able to complete his mission without him. But he's not the only one! Other examples are:

R2D2 (Star Wars): how many times did he save the day? The answer is "many"!
Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes): he's the narrator of the story! If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the detective's adventures.
Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon): the entire movie trilogy wouldn't happen without him and he causes an entire culture to change its values.

Standard League Winner
sbdrag

Premier League Winner
Chris L

Prizes

The two winners of the competition will get:

Merch bundle from the World Anvil store

A Featured Article on World Anvil

A live article read and feedback on a World Anvil Community Stream by World Anvil's Founders, Janet and Dimitris!

The Standard League winner will be bumped up to the Premiere League.

Winners and runner-ups

Standard League

Premier League

Winner: Chris L with Ghost Boy of Kirinal
Emily Armstrong with Navigator
Sh4d0wPh03n1x with Bit
Darkseid with File 0.3C/41 - Mr. Hench Man

The Rules

How to Enter

All competitors need a World Anvil account (don’t worry, it’s free!) to get started. Once you’ve logged in and created your first world, you’re ready to enter the competition!

Write your entry using the Character template on World Anvil.
When ready to submit, make sure that your article is not a draft (i.e. published) and public (not private).
Click the button on the right-hand side of the edit interface to submit it to the challenge!

Adjudication Process

The Premiere League will be judged by the World Anvil Team, while the Standard League will be judged by the current members of the Premiere League. Each league will have one winner (so two winners in total). The winner will be announced by the World Anvil Team on Saturday October 21st on the World Anvil Community Livestream. Entries will be judged on a number of criteria, including originality, presentation, and thoroughness. For more information on how the judging process works, check out this blog post.

Timeline	Event
September 2nd - September 23rd	Competition is opened and closed (both on livestream)!
September 23rd - September 28th	Sharing period, give feedback, make minor edits.
September 28th - October 21st	Adjudication and Judging
October 21st	Winner Announcement Date!

Other Rules

Articles must be submitted before the closing time to be eligible (please note the competition will close during the World Anvil livestream).
Only one article may be submitted per person (this does not mean one article per world, in cases where multiple authors work on a single world).
Articles will have a 5 day-long period after the deadline to make small edits, share, and get feedback from the community. This period will end when the shortlist is compiled.
The minimum wordcount for a submission is 300 words.
Articles can be no longer than 2000 words in length! All submissions must be new worldbuilding articles created during the active competition period.
Word Count will be counted by copying all words present in the article's body and sidebar into a word counter. BBCode does not impact word count. Linked articles do not impact word count, and will also not be considered during adjudication.
As always, World Anvil claims no ownership over your original work.

For any further questions or clarifications about this challenge, message the Community Team (@Community Team) on the World Anvil Discord or post to the World Anvil Facebook Group!

Social media sharing

You may wish to share their entries on social media to garner interest from the community and share your hard work with the world.
Posts tagged with #WACompanions which mention @WorldAnvil may be shared by World Anvil's official social media accounts!

Leagues

There are two leagues that will be independently judged, the Standard and the Premier League. The Premier League consists of all the authors who have previously won a World Anvil competition. Winning a competition in the Standard League will promote you to the Premier League for future challenges.

Looking for inspiration or seeking some ideas? Make sure to stop by the World Anvil Discord, our Facebook Group or Subreddit for worldbuilding conversation and inspiration!

Helpful Resources

We have several resources to make your characters feel deeper and more real! Check out these posts on our blog:

5 tips for writing compelling characters

5 types of hero and how to write them (who says a companion can't be a hero?)

We also have several videos on our YouTube channel:

Treasured Companions