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Went for a drive today, just to take the Abarth up in the hills for some twisties; took a few photos while I was there…

A new book just arrived; I think I’ll read it in the unicorn room…

What – you don’t have a unicorn room?

I blather on quite a bit about this “Roanoak” thing, and I’ve gotten a few questions about it all, so I will dispense with some information here where I can just link people to it.

To begin with, some ancient history…

Roanoak is a modernization of an RP land I created back in the early 80’s called “Vardale”, and the world Vardale sits in, called Caerth, came about a few years after D&D came about.

I managed to score my first box-set for D&D in like 1977, and my friends and I started to burn through the pre-made modules at a pretty quick rate. During all of this pre-made module nonsense I had started taking bits of popular culture that appealed to me at the time, and creating a setting for our use.

This came to be known as Caerth – named after the fledgeling SCA barony here in Denver. 😉

It would have been sometime in ’79 when I was running a campaign that called for a unicorn NPC – I have mentioned here previous how these critters factor into my day-to-day life – and an NPC named “Flinthorn” was created. Flinthorn hailed from the Gamboge forest from the Greyhawk setting, and henceforth became Flinthorn Gamboge – that Shire-colored unicorn that eventually became a full character and can still be seen on the post headers here… Some of you may have heard of this character, as he has been featured in a few game supplements over the years, and for a long time was something of a fixture at conventions… As one of the first ‘named’ RP unicorn characters, the work I did in creating a ‘race’ for him became a bit of a standard – such as the “Three T’s”; Teleportation, Telepathy, and Telekinesis – the defining characteristics of the race, and what allows them to interact with the other races.

While all of this is going on, one of my favorite books (that had been tapped for some of the linguistic ‘feel’ of the Caerth setting) was turned into an animated movie; “The Last Unicorn” in 1983-ish. This popularity allowed Flinthorn from above to be a full-time character in the setting, and allowed me to start expanding the race. Then in 1985 or so, the My Little Pony thing began with “Rescue at Midnight Castle”… “Rescue” was surprisingly Dungeons and Dragons-esque, and while it was candy-colored ponies – the world was pure Frazetta, and that caught the attention of my RP group.

With this, Vardale was created as the land the unicorns and their ilk came from. The pony ‘thing’ had garnered enough interest in my group that Vardale quickly became the default setting for our adventures, and thus the kingdom needed more history – more story… This led to Vardale becoming a hegemonic empire after the First War and the Dragon Wars, and the creation of the immortal winged unicorn Empress who ruled over it – based loosely on Empress Alicia from Vicky Wyman’s “Xanadu” comic in 1988, which was also big with my group…

Also with the advent of “Xanadu”, the denizens of Vardale got a whole lot more anthropomorphic… But that is a tale for another time.

So, roll everything forward about, oh, twenty years, and Lauren Faust reboots My Little Pony on 10/10/10 (Binary 42 – which is, as we know, the answer to everything), and the opening episodes set the stage for what looks an awful lot like Vardale. The ponies have a kingdom now, with winged unicorn leaders, and there is that same sense of D&D-esque ‘world’ going on with the magic and the adventure, and the combating of darkness in the form of emotional issues… A place where upset, anger, and disharmony are manifested as travails to be overcome.

A few months after this, as the fandom starts to grow, “pony” in SecondLife was pretty much being run by the 4chan crowd – so the areas for ponies tended to be mashups of memes and a lot of anon-style shenanigans. Because of this I was not too horribly enthused and decided to just bide my time in Luskwood (an anthro-critter hangout run by some friends of mine) as Valinye – who is one of the later era anthropomorphic denizens of Vardale.

But, being a dick will eventually catch up with you, even in SL, and LindenLab eventually got tired of the pony crowd messing up everyone else’s day. So LL nuked the two sims where the fledgling fandom in SL was hanging out to take out the leaders. But not all of the ponies were assholes, but all of them were suddenly cast adrift in the virtual world.

Terry, one of the Luskwood folks and one of these early adopter pony fans, came to me shortly after the Ponypocalypse asking if there was a way we could make our own sim for the ponies, but with a noted absence of channer-bait and meme-culture asshats. As I had a sim and some passing experience with this whole thing, I was the go-to I guess.

Well, Michi, the owner of Luskwood, has far more experience than I, and so I start asking questions and getting input, and eventually I decide to give it a go… To build a ‘pony sim’ for the non-asshat pony-fans in SL. But to do this correctly, a place needs a reason to exist – a story… And all good stories need a main character, someone to interpret the world for the viewer.

And thus “Empress Aurora” came into being in SecondLife…

So I dust off the 3″ 3-ring binder where Caerth lives, and set about bringing Vardale up to the things I am seeing in Gen4 – and then create it all in Secondlife with the help of several really great folks from Luskwood – specifically OldVamp… None of it would have happened without his help early on.

I called this new setting “Roanoak” – horse puns are a requirement in Gen4, so Roan as in the red-brown color of a horse, and Oak because I have a thing for creating forests in SL. It also played nicely off of the tale of Roanoke – the lost colony, which would become more evident a year later.

This is where “Trotsdale” began, a town located in the Empire of Roanoak, and eventually Morgan Castle (another horse pun) was created in another sim, and collectively this formed the core of the 15-ish pony sims in the area right around it to this day.

Over the last three years there were some epic stories told, some really great players encountered, and a lot of friendships made.

One of the more fun things for me was trying to guess where Gen4 MLP would go, and beat it to the punch with my blatantly non-canon rendition of Hasbro’s IP.

For example; Aurora has been an Alicorn (a pony with wings and a horn, and who tend to be rulers) since the beginning – and I took SO much heat for this from the fandom for the first year or so. But I had a reason and a story – a story far and away more detailed and rich than a cartoon aimed at nine year olds – and eventually the Internet grudgingly gave Aurora a pass…

Which brings up one of the more interesting things about the Gen4 fandom; I have never encountered a fandom so thoroughly entrenched in unwavering adherence to the scripture of canon. Daring to not be a clone of a show pony is tantamount to sin… And I have the bruises from the stones over the years to prove it.

But, I am not easily dissuaded from my course, and over the years I crafted story elements that seemed so far-fetched when I put them into play, and then later the show did the same thing – leading many to believe I work for Hasbro… I don’t. 🙂

Many of these story elements had illustrations made of them, and I’ll post a few here…

The Roanoak story, like Vardale before it, used “Rifts” to bridge various worlds to resolve the vagaries of running a large-scale RP setting. In Vardale, Valinye is the “Mistress of the Rifts” and she is in the employ of the royal court for her ability to create and dismiss these gateways to other places. For Roanoak I decided to integrate the Empress and Valinye, and have Aurora’s talent be the tempering of naturally occurring Rifts… Her talent is, literally, bringing people into the world of pony – fitting I think, as I did this for about a thousand people over the last three years.

Aurora cannot outright control these rifts, but she can dismiss them or hold them open for a time… The Gen4 MLP Cartoon eventually did this as well, with the magic mirrors used to allow Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer to reach a parallel human world in “Equestria Girls” and now in the comic series.

The problem with holding these Rifts open is that it far exceeds Aurora’s magical power, so she has to draw power from Roanoak itself… And this led to a backlash of magic that ended with the entire Roanoak Empire being removed from the world for a time… Much like happened with the Crystal Empire in the Gen4 cartoon, but about a year later.

I mentioned above that Aurora taps her Kingdom’s power to do the really big stuff. The Roanoak story has it that the various kingdoms are led by “Royals”, these are the landed Alicorns, and due to their connection to the land are essentially immortal. The other kind of Alicorn are the Ascended – those who have earned the mantle of rule, but as of yet do not have that bond, and are still mortal. This comes from the Vardale story where the kingdom’s power is a shard of the old magic that created everything. This power is held in a thing called the Heartstone, and the Heartstone resides below a massive tree that is the link between the land and the stone…

Quite some time ago this illustration was done in response to Aurora encountering the visage of Roanoak’s Heartstone – which happens to be a large stag-like creature that embodies the virtues Aurora must uphold…

A couple of years later, in the beginning of season 4 for the cartoon, we discover that Equestria’s power comes from a gem-like tree that is intrinsically tied to the Elements of Harmony, and this coming Saturday as season 4 ends, we will get to see this tree again with regards to Twilight’s Kingdom… Seems familiar. 😉

There have been many things such as this, mostly dealing with technology such as airships, or the how’s and why’s of pony life. Roanoak eventually became frighteningly canon, even as I tried to steer away from the show’s canon in order to do things more adventuresome than is possible in a cartoon aimed at nine year olds.

But, there are some things Roanoak has done that have not come to pass – yet…

One was a huge arc dealing with the Changelings. I eventually came up with a ponified version of “District 9” with regards to trying to work with the Changelings – and it eventually ended in the northern end of the Empire being taken over by the bugs and we pony-folk being routed from the area and the crown relocating to the port city of Ardennes… As in, this really happened…

Changelings are insanely popular for some reason, and as soon as I postulated a way for them to coexist with ponies, the sims were literally overrun with the bugs. We were, in a very real way, completely overrun… So I took that and ran with it, ending with Morgan castle being sacked and the nearby town of Morninglight being taken over.

Which ended with me having to completely re-theme two regions to create Ardennes, the city we all took refuge in.

And, as things began to slow down and I began to have my fill of the drama and headache of it all, I finally closed Roanoak down in SecondLife and archived the millions of words of story and history… Three years does not seem like much when faced with an RP setting nearly thirty years in the making – but it was enough. 😉

Speaking of history, one last illustration:

These will eventually be hanging in my home as huge 4 foot tall canvas prints – and yes, the script is translatable.

   What an amazing four weeks weeks…

   It all began last year, when the administration team for the SecondLife RolePlay group I used to run, called “Roanoak”, decided to go to an MLP convention called BABScon.

   There are a few of us who attended EQLA last year, and that was really fun – so we decided to do it again… And after some discussion the available folks for the convention in April would be Tursi, Aurkae, Marjan, Daza, and myself.

   Daza would be coming all the way from Australia, which is rather expensive, so was looking for a couch to shack up on for a week before and after the convention rather than pay for hotels… After all, if one is going to fly half way around the planet, they should hang out for a while right?

   As I had just gotten a rather large house with several extra rooms, I offered to put up Daza for the week prior to the convention, and Tursi offered to put up Daza for a week after there in California.

   Word of this idea got around rather quickly, and many other people wanted to meet up with us there. So the plans expanded…

   Diomades, another Aussie from the Roanoak sims and all-around great guy, was going to be in California for GDC, which was about three weeks prior to BABScon, and if he could get a place to shack up for the duration he would attend with us. So I offered him the other room at my place, and Tursi would also take him in after the convention for a while.

   Keitee, another Ronaoak player from the much closer east coast, is very close with Dio and wanted to come see him while he was here. So after some fiddling with plane flights and such Keitee was also staying at my place for a few weeks.

   And then Aryte and Cassius arrived with Cassius’ father for a weekend in the middle, just to say ‘hi’ to everyone. 🙂

   So Keitee arrived on the 26th of March, Dio, Aryte, Cassius, and Cassius’ father on the 28th of March, and Daza on the 11th of April, and Daza, Dio, and I all flew to San Francisco on the 17th of April, and I returned on the 20th of April…

   The group of us for BABScon was Daza, Dio, Aurkae and Thunderspark, Tursi, Marjan, Sara, Erin, and myself… And it was a blast!

   Prior to the convention though, at one point we had Dio, Daza, Keitee, Painless and Griffy, Sara and Ryan, Nate from work, Erin, Scott, and myself all in the living room of my place – and we all fit comfortably!

   And here I thought the house was too big…

   Anyway, I am still recovering from the last month, and the convention… Sleep depravation, so much eating out, way WAY too much booze, exposure to thousands of people at the convention, plane flights…

   Wow…

   All in all though it has been a really fun month… A bit on the expensive-side, but fun is rarely cheap these days. And I could really use a vacation so I can recover from my vacation. 😉

BABSCon was a hoot.

Went there with a bunch of folks from Ronaoak in SecondLife and had a pretty epic weekend in Burlingame California.

The hotel was massive – like a city block under glass.

Lots happened and I took way more photos than would fit here… We hung out with some of the voice actresses for a day, and then palled around with Larson (one of the writers) for a while – he’s wild.

Here’s the whole group of us:

I created a fun commemorative poster poking fun at the disorganization of the con and the incredible lines…

   I like MMOs. They are exceptionally cheap entertainment by the hour, relatively social, and somewhat challenging.

   But I really like MMOs with a really good story to them…

   World of Warcraft was the last real MMO I got into, and that was because I was very much into the story of the world. The Warcraft franchise has a ton of interesting fantasy lore to it, and it was fun to be a part of that – until Blizzard took off into left field with it all at least.

   Since then I have tried a few other MMOs, and they all fall short on the lore… A player is never really quite sure where they are in the world, or why they are there.

   It feels random… The typical MMO is an odd mishmash of fantasy tropes with no real historical grounding for why things are that way. The world feels like it was put together about a year or two ago to fit some story arc you might be vaguely interested in.

   So in the history of MMOs there have been two that no only have a truckload of lore, a series of player-based games that people are familiar with, and are created by the company who owns the IP: World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls Online.

   Sure, there are other MMOs with access to a treasure-trove of story and lore; Lord of the Rings Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic would be two examples… The issue is these two examples are not created by the folks who own the IP, and do not have generations of games behind them.

   They do not translate well to a game.

   So… I am currently playing ESO, and having a blast.

   ESO is the same just left of center fantasy world we have come to know – swords, sorcery, various flavors of elves, various flavors of humans, a few anthropomorphic races for spice…

   And then things get weird…

   The flora and fauna of Tamriel is right out of the alien world of a scifi novel; strange giant insects and oddly mobile plants exist side-by-side with people in full plate on horseback. The religious aspects are a bit odd too – where you are never quite sure if the ‘gods’ are just very powerful (and slightly bent) people.

   All in all, one could easily imagine Tamriel being some alien world where in the far future humanity made an attempt to colonize – but something went wrong and a thousand years later everyone is living in the dark ages. It has that “Oh, hey – this is just like lord of the rings … wait – what the hell is that!?” effect going for it – and that is rather fun.

   I’ve not done an introduction post for a really long time, so for those of you who might be new here:

   To begin with I am an avid role-player… I am the player of a thousand characters, the creator of a thousand settings, and my online nom de guerre changes as needed for the image I intend to portray. In this the names I am known by are all characters upon a stage, playing out their parts as needed to bring the audience into the overall performance.

   The one commonality in both my characters and my online personas tends to be that they are mythical beasties – unicorns, specifically – and this has been true since the late 70’s… There is a reason for this; I have always been fascinated by the symbolism, and how such a chimerical creature of pure whimsy could get such an incredible foothold in human culture.

   Unicorns do not exist – everyone knows this. Yet ask anyone to identify one and BAM, the finger lands squarely on the one-horned horse.

   Nearly every culture on Earth has some similar mythical beastie – even cultures that never communicated with one other… That is a pretty potent myth, and I find it interesting how the symbolism is ‘adjusted’ to fit the prevalent ideals of the time.

   So as I find a connection in the symbolism, and thus unicorns have been integral to my life for 40+ years at this point, this explains the name of the company I run for my personal efforts; Alicorn Inc.

   Traditionally the ‘Alicorn’ is the horn of the unicorn, but in more modern times this has come to be used to refer to winged unicorns as well. And with the soaring popularity of Generation 4 “My Little Pony”, wherein the leadership are all Alicorn ponies – it seemed fitting for me to use this iconography as well.

   While I am not a magical flying unicorn who rules an Empire and is responsible for the livelihoods and security of thousands – I am a director for a good-sized tech company where I am responsible for the livelihoods and security of hundreds.

   And that makes this web site, in a very real sense, a peek behind the curtain to watch the Great and Powerful Oz pull the levers and turn the cranks that make the whole spectacle occur. But, how can one be certain this is not just another layer of imagery? Just another illusion, another mask, another stage piece built to amaze?

   You don’t.

   Welcome to the Internet. 😉

Peter Beagle has been trundling around the U.S. doing a theatrical tour for “The Last Unicorn” – so a bunch of us drove up to Ft. Collins to meet him and see the movie.

It was a ton of fun, and Peter is such a genuinely nice fellow. He looked beat though – the tour is really wearing the poor guy out.

My CFO at work owns a bunch of property and accordingly I’ve rented from him a few times. Well, he’s got this mansion over in Murphey Creek that he wanted to rent to me; 4 bed 3 bath with a full basement and a 3-car garage – which is enough space for a few roomates which make it affordable…

Well, today I start moving in…

I just got back from EQLA 2013… What a week!

Spent a day at Disney with friends (one of which is an actual “Imagineer”)

And then spent the weekend at the show with a bunch of the Roanoak players from SL – and a few special guests. 😀

I’ve not posted much for the last six months because I was going through a bit of a rough spot.

Back in February Wolf and Lyon broke up and Lyon moved out… I’m told Lyon decided out of the blue that he was apparently gay as well as having been invovled in some polyamorous relationship, and he simply couldn’t be with Wolf anymore.

Wolf has always vented her issues with Lyon to me, and there have been plenty over the years, so it was natural that she did so once again – which is how I got involved.

Well, not only was this an emotional blow for her, but it was also a financial one as she couldn’t afford the mortgage without Lyon’s help.

So, being as my lease was up on my apartment in Parker in March, I donned my armor and saddled my charger and offered to move in to Wolf’s place and split things with her…

I’ve roomed with Wolf several times in the past and knew her pretty well; but that’s where I was wrong.

Wolf’s time with Lyon wandering the scenic underbelly of humanity really changed her, and it was like rooming with a total stranger – and I’m not so good with people I don’t know. Ultimately I ended up spending all of my time either working or hiding in the basement guest room and trying to avoid the situation I put myself in.

In early September Wolf decided to sell the townhouse, which fulfilled my obligation to help with the bills and I made good my escape.

I signed the lease on the 29th for a new place back in the apartment complex in Parker that I left in March, and moved everything I still own in two trips yesterday.

Ultimately I’m back in my own place with some solitude and I’ll be trying to regain my center.

An absolutely amazing show and some really good new material for Yes.

Take a bow fellas, you deserve it. What an amazing show.

There was a fairly shocking shooting not three blocks away at the local theater. Details are still still murky, but apparently someone shot up the midnight showing of Batman at the theater over at the mall about a half an hour ago.

I’m fine, Wolf is fine, just lots of sirens.

The sims are having a lot of performance issues and that’s making my renters upset. I’ve had Linden Lab involved for a week now with no answers other than the main sim’s “image” might be damaged… The fix for that is to take it offline, so I might have to move the entire setting to a new sim.

Not looking forward to uprooting everyone because the platform can’t cope. 

Trotsdale is now three full regions and two homesteads…

That’s roughly 40 full-time renters and the sims see probably a thousand visitors a week.

Trotsdale has become such a popular destination I’ve had to expand it to four sims (two full regions and two homesteads).

This is bigger than I ever thought it would get; it’s actually a bit stressful to be in charge of such a big thing in SL…

There’s a huge winter festival coming up. I’m expecting over 100 people to show up.

For a week or two now I’ve been building a virtual setting in SL to go along with the Generation 4 “My Little Pony” cartoon, which has become incredibly popular.

Tonight I opened “Trotsdale” for visitors… It’s a place similar to the cartoon, but in a different place with different history, heroes, and  backstory so that people can have their own adventures.

It looks a bit like this so far:

Counter clockwise from the close side is Aurora (the empress of this fanfiction location and my character), OldVamp who built all of the buildings, Clinton and Etheria (two of my admins), Sky Bluedeer, Hoppie Glitter, (unknown), Nighteyes, (unknown), (unknown), Zecora (Scott’s avatar), and (unknown).

I’ve got something brewing in Second Life – here’s a hint: