At one point in the beginning of his long journey to mastering magic, he was forced to grab up a sword and swing it at a foe or die. He managed to not only hit the creature, but to hit it in such a lucky way that it fell over dead. As he stared in disbelief at the dead foe, his companions called out congratulations at how he managed a weapon. To their surprise, he turned and glared at them, declaring, “I am a mage! I don’t do weapons!” In a huff, he threw down the sword, and then spent the next few days pondering how to increase the amount of magic he could wield without doing harm to himself.

One of many companions in the different groups that he gathered around himself as he sought out information on magic and spells, he had a human warrior named Alan join him. Alan was unusual in that he did not judge others on their race of beliefs, and as a result, he had maljers as friends. These tiny creatures usually were malevolence personified, but the tribe he had befriended were not like the majority of the vile creatures. He was helping them to find a place where they could live in peace. When the small creatures were brought to Raf’s attention, he quickly helped Alan set up a place for them to live, as they were disruptive even though they were not evil. While they were setting up the maljer’s new home, he and a maljer healer worked together to create a potato plant that would never die so that the creatures would always have a source of food.

Years later, when he met one of the maljers out adventuring, they referred to him as Papa Rafinos, and made sure that he was kept safe and healed as long as any of them were around. The potato that he had helped enchant was now worshipped by the creatures as it had developed sentience as a side effect of the combined magics, and Raf went out of his way to go see it and study it to understand how the magic had had such an effect.

During the time of great upheaval, when the Unborn One was laying waste to the continent on his march of vengeance on Waynesboro, Rafinos met a female elven mage named Coral. After journeying together for a time, he found himself beginning to care about her. Despite his best efforts, he fell in love with her, eventually marrying her.

When Danny’s ship drew his attention, he joined Danny’s crew, settling on the ship during the war with the Unborn One. He found he liked the security of being on the ship and decided to stay on there, going out with Danny when Danny left once again.

Out in space, they found a planet that needed a magical diety to fill a void that had been left, and Rafinos stepped into the opening, finding that he had found the niche he had been seeking. In keeping with the traditions of the planet, he changed his name to Rafidala, indicating the magics he controlled were of both land and sea based magicians. He was not restrained to just overseeing the magic of the planet, but was able to research not only magic, but also psionics, which were simply mind magic to his way of thinking. He learned not only from those on this planet, but also from other travelers in the stars, making his knowledge of magic impressive, indeed.

Later on, he met a maljer named Sprite. She was a competent Healer, and she shrank him to her size. They set up a tiny nest in the wagon where they lived together comfortably as they traveled on their adventures.

After the cataclysm, the faint trail became the main route northward from Noraston as it joined the road that ran from Waynesboro to Nonamee. Crossways blossomed into a big city where nomadic barbarians interacted with city folk from all over the continent. It remained a flat city, growing outward instead of upward like Nonamee had. Though it had a sheriff to keep the peace, the law was not as rigidly enforced as it was in Waynesboro. However, for the typical traveler, it was a safe place to stay protected from the marauding bands that roamed between the towns. Here, those wishing to travel to one of the three main cities could join a caravan, and travel in relative safety, or guards could be hired by those wealthy enough to be able to afford them.

He kept his post faithfully, even through the cataclysmic earthquake that turned Waynesboro from a smaller town set beside a sheltered cove that had an outlet to the sea into a thriving town right on the ocean. His duties grew harder for a short time, but he led the good people of the town into making effective walls. Friends, and those concerned about the royal family, put powerful magics on the city that Willum could use to see those who intended evil.

During the reign of the Good King Rud, Gadamir and Lissa came into his life, brightening it for all the days that they were around. They had many great adventures together, becoming the stuff of legends as they went out serving their deities.

It was another evil rising that he could not stop and that took the life of King Ruderik that chased him out of the city. It was with great reluctance that he left, taking with him the adult princess who had been turned into an infant by his goddess to protect her. He raised her again as his own, teaching her even better ways to defend herself, but it was during a time that he indulged her wish to explore a dungeon that they were captured. Before he could free them without getting the other captives killed, they were rescued by a group that contained Danny, Kayla, and Kyle.

It took a long time, but Kayla persuaded him that she would be in his life for a very long time, and he allowed himself to fall in love again for the first time in a very, very long time. They had many great adventures before another cataclysmic earthquake hit and the flying galleon he was on took off into outer space without letting anyone know that she was doing it, taking away from the planet the greatest protector it would ever know.

They went and retrieved him, trying to help him with all their magic and advanced technology. But he managed to fool those assessing his mental state about just how far from their passive ideals he really was and escaped without setting off alarms from the safe haven where they had restrained him.

He stole one of the few ships capable of not only space travel but also travel between the various dimensions and parallel universes. Not needing any crew, he killed the people tending the ship so that they could not tell who had taken it and left. It was a very long time before it was realized he was the one who had done this evil deed, and by that time, he was long gone.

He went through many dimensions and universes, hopping around in a random order, trying to find what he thought he needed as well as removing any chance of being tracked. The time alone was not good for him as he went even deeper into himself. Those he met found him a charming man, and the majority of them never knew how evil he truly was.

After many decades, he found a dimension in a universe that was blocked from most of the others that suited him. It was chaos personified, and those who survived there grew horrendous warriors to defend them from the continuous chaos that surrounded them. He learned how to create the warriors, called skurgin, from other intelligent creatures and attempted to conquer and control a small corner of this universe. Unfortunately for those he met later, he was unable to conquer even a tiny part of the small corner he wished to rule, so he left.

It took more wandering over many centuries before he stumbled across a species that he would be able to twist into the skurgin he felt he needed to conquer the greater part of a galaxy before contacting those he had left behind to show them that he was better than them all. His creation of the skurgin, though, caught the attention of the Moms. They sent agents to destroy the evil creations and to hunt down their creator, but Orswald always managed to elude them. The Moms enlisted the help of the Trackers to find him, and he moved further away from them to begin his work again.

Leelah was sent to investigate, and she met Orswald. She did not discover his ability to create the skurgin as she intrigued him. He thought that maybe he had met his destined mate and he sought to woo her. They did have fun together, but ultimately they parted ways. While Leelah thought they had parted friends, he took it as a personal affront that she had rejected his desire to marry her. Furious, he set out again to find a place where he could grow an army of skurgin, with his first objective being to destroy Home, where the Moms lived.

He found Jynsoerth, with its medieval life, and settled into a desolate corner to once again grow his army. Small parties, whether they were adventurers, traders, or ogre raiding parties, found themselves in the metal rooms of his ship. They thought they were dead and in hell as they endured the painful, tortuous process that turned them from intelligent beings into the huge, almost invincible, skurgin.

A Tracker named Raya arrived accidentally through a portal that crossed her trail as she tracked something else. She was highly intelligent, but very innocent of basic social interaction as she had been trained to find things out on her own in places that very rarely had intelligent beings. She found herself in a Keep full of contented, busy people, and set about learning about the place she had landed in as she sensed the presence of something her people sought above all other things.

After many personal misadventures, Raya found a skurgin. She immediately sent a message to the Moms about it. They sent Leelah to stop the maker, pulling her from a personal rest time. When she found who the skurgin maker was, she was dismayed, as she had thought Orswald to be a good friend.

Willum, Gadamir, Lissa, and Skychaser went with Leelah when she went to stop Orswald. Though she would have preferred to take him alive, she was forced to kill him. Willum and Gadamir both castfinal rites on his dead body, sending his soul to be judged. She left Jynsoerth, taking his body and his ship with her to Home.

On his death, his family knew of his passing, and that it had been violent. They set out to find the one who had killed him, intending to punish the one that had taken him from them.

She organized and led caravans for several decades before she decided that it was time for her own offspring to carry the burden of trading. There was a spot near the ocean that she had seen during her travels that she wished to settle in. It was along the southern border of the land, far enough south that it was out of the hot lands that she often traveled through in her journeys. She had saved enough money to get a decent village started, and she led some of her family as well as friends to the new place where she intended to live.

Just like everything else she touched, the new city thrived, being called Nora’s Town in her honor. She lived there for several more happy decades before her human body just wore out, long before her spirit even began to grow dim. She was buried on a small hill overlooking the city in a secret ceremony so that none would disturb her rest looking for the treasures she took with her to the grave.

Many were the crazy, wild adventures that were had by the characters that came in and out of the game. Some of them forced the world to evolve and change, and not always by deliberate intent. Most of those listed will eventually have their stories told in the story section because the things they did were outrageous or hilarious…or both.

He may have been a wise person, but even wise people have their small vanities, and he agreed, becoming King Wayne. His son, Rud, became King after him with the understanding that if he did not rule well, the town would choose a new leader. He ruled long, with great wisdom, outliving many of his children and grandchildren before being buried with appropriate pomp and ceremony. His great-granddaugher who had been crowned Queen by King Rud’s own hand ruled long and well, taking his advice to heart in choosing her successor.

The royal family led well, causing the town to grow and thrive. Unlike other trade towns in existence, this town held ethics in high esteem, throwing out even profitable merchants if they were found to be dealing in goods that were considered to be unethical, such as the slave trade. It became a haven for many, and the town prospered over the centuries.

Near the end of King Rud’s reign, a young paladin answered the call of T’Shari to become the Paladin Protector of the King’s family, and Willum came to Wayne’s Borough, little knowing he would be there for many centuries. Healers and mages also came to the town, building towers where others could come learn their specialized knowledge and then go out to use what they had learned.

Over the centuries, the name was contracted to Waynesboro, like all names seem to simplify themselves. Under Willum’s guidance, it became one of the best protected cities in the world. Over the centuries, it became an accepted fact that Willum would always be there forever to take care of the city and its royal family.

When the cataclysmic earthquake that split the continent into thirds hit, it turned Waynesboro into a port town abutting the ocean instead of inside a protected cove. The city rebuilt what damage it took in the earthquake and continued on its merry way until the rise of Prescon centuries later.

Evil personified, the Prescon had a special hatred for Waynesboro. He brought all the evil tribes under his banner, getting the ogres, orcs, trolls, gnolls, and all their ilk to work together. He persuaded evil mages and necromancers to join his growing army, and with their help he created immense creatures that he used to breech the almost impregnable walls.

He devastated the town, killing the King and all of the royal family that he could find. At the pinnacle of his success, Kyle, Danny, and Kayla arrived, bringing reinforcements to destroy Prescon.

As he fell, the city exploded, destroying the land for miles around, creating Waynesboro Bay where the mighty city once stood. Its spirit was not destroyed, though, as the survivors rebuilt along the edge of the bay. It was not the same without Willum there to protect it, but the rumors were that he had escaped with at least one of the royal heirs, so they held on, building for the time when their royal family would return and peace and prosperity would once again be theirs. Years did pass, but Sturgis returned, and the people rejoiced that their prince had returned, quickly making him King.

Time passed, and another great threat arose in the Unborn One. He, too, harbored a great hatred for Waynesboro and its people, and he gathered his own army to try to destroy it once and for all. His army, though, consisted of all the restless dead across the continent. As he traveled, he pulled them from the ground to follow him on his quest.

At the time of its greatest need, Willum returned from space to help Waynesboro, and to return Sabatrina to her people. He would not stay, but he helped rebuild and restore it to its former glory before he left once again.