From ancient lands, an old power rises…..

It all began back in 1991, in the loft we called our ‘dungeon.’

In reality was just my friend Tom’s attic bedroom. It had plenty of space for us to sprawl out across, and allowed us to toss papers, books, dice, miniatures, posters, maps and art materials about with abandon. When Tom’s mother came into the room bearing food and drinks for us, she stood at his door and asked “What in the world are you two doing up here? This place looks like you tossed over a library!”

It had…in a way. For it was the weekend that Tom and I began, one Friday afternoon, to merge our respective home brew campaign worlds into a single vision: Ratajan. Kinazar was the beginning of that endeavor, a renaissance-themed kingdom that took a turn as if the dark ages had never happened and “the church” had not grown so economically powerful. Toss in polytheism gone wild and that was Kinazar- a pseudo-secular polytheistic kingdom where guilds were the power behind the throne, created by the throne to disenfranchise the nobility and cast off the concept of the noble elite. It was, and still is, every college kid’s wet dream – where a ruler actually supports the welfare of the people rather than the special interests and ruling class.

From there, Ratajan really grew. Auryeb, Tom’s flagship kingdom based upon the Roman Empire, was added. Then the world-building began in earnest. The maps were merged. Some things lost out on their geographic origins, getting shuffled about on the new continent. Then came the cosmology. Then the gods of the setting. Then the villains that opposed the gods – demons, devils, daemons, slaadi, and the list went on.

It all culminated in a combined vision that I still use today. Tom has stepped aside from his golden age of gaming, having retired many years ago. However, I carry on, always revisiting the older material, updating it, adding new ideas, and sometimes even making them happen in game play.

This site is the home of my hobby. A place I can share what my imagination cranks out. A hovel for my passions, ideas, and frustrations. I get creative here and it’s where it all can live.

I’ve had this domain for 16 years now, and it was just renewed through 2020. It’s been rebuilt 4 times going on 5. Time to see how much content I can add in two years – cuz I am a digital packrat and I’ve got a lot of stuff just waiting to see the light from the darkness of my PC hard drives. Stay tuned if you’re curious just what might crawl out from the depths.

~ Ron Janik a.k.a. Ramicus, Lich Lord of the Belzken Blight.