Text: Darkness, Dreamworlds

I remember the hot summer in Kansas like it was this summer in Colorado. The sun is the same, no matter who or where you are. Sometimes I would escape the basement to be comforted by it's warmth. I had little physical warmth back in those days. A hug or a kiss or a feeling of passion was as the result of textual discourse and my imagination. Apart from running outside during the summer months, I participated in a lot of exercise classes in high school. I tore the hell out of my abs, arms, and legs doing a weightlifting gym course. I had nothing else to focus on except my dreamworld and a rather silent sophomore year.

Andarielle's player sent a check to my mom that week to help her recover from the giant phone bill. Andarielle's player, who I will just call C, reminded me that her phone bill's were much larger. I could only imagine--long distance wasn't cheap during those days. There was a rather large group of people that surrounded our two characters, sort of fascinated by them as a pair, like they had a Brangelina-style celebrity status. It could be merely my perception, but sabotage, jealousy, and a constant barrage of instant messages to either of us supports my notion. When we would log on, it wouldn't be long before someone sent a message our way, maybe even several people. We'd have to sift through a variety of mail from council decisions, applications to the kingdom, missives from friends, family and enemies. It was like being captain of a political office, where at least a hundred people would be directly involved in your current dealings.

Let me give you a brief explanation of the realm that surrounded Alendria, but do not get confused, as no group was associated with the other, some characters and lands were in different time periods, others existed on the foundation of being certain types of characters, like Goblinoids. A group called DETH had Mourne and NightJewel at the helm and they thought so highly of their own writings and affairs, they were like a mini-France. There was the Goblinoid Horde led by EVILGOBLIN and VILEGOBLIN, GOB7DSYNS, NastyGob, and scores of other players that specifically lived out the roles of Orcs, Goblins, and other evil races. Alongside Alendria, several kingdoms existed to keep control of the evil population, and merely to help bring some order to the chaos that was Free Form Role-Playing. The Wardens of Loreil were a small group of players who acted like judges to combat disputes and mentors to new players. I pictured them like sheriffs of the realm, since they put special attention to wearing the badge of Loreil. I explored all of these groups, but not in depth. Draven watched from the outside, perched atop his throne in Alendria, bogged down in worldly affairs.

War was always on Draven's mind. It was really the only competitive outlet I had online and offline. Personally, I loved baseball but I didn't want to join any group in Kansas. Not after the way I was constantly treated. The only way for me to channel any sort of rage or feel any adrenaline was through character combat. Draven entered tournaments, jousts, even battled "death matches" where the loser would have to delete their screenname from AOL. He won about 20. It was just a gamble of the dice. In a random survey online one year, Draven was named the Most Experienced Male Combatant in a realm of thousands. Although, it can't be a huge compliment, of course the survey was only participated in by a small group of people. Not everyone knew of Draven and his legacy.

I found a picture of how I saw Draven, it was the closest I could find, so it is not entirely accurate.



(to be continued)