Riverun originated as a set of stories by Angela and Elisabeth. It has since been developed into numerous roleplaying campaigns. Characters Many of the characters in the Riverun stories were inspired by members of the Group. We each play the character that we feel matches us best. These player characters make up only a small selection of the total number of characters in Riverun. The Empress Her Imperial Majesty, Irene Emeraldskie, Empress of Riverun, played by Elisabeth The Sorceress Her Majesty, Adrianne Dawning, Queen of the Southern Kingdom and Royal Sorceress, played by Angela The Warrior Queen Her Majesty, Denholm-Andromeda Himalia, former Queen of the Western Kingdom and Royal Minister of the Arts, now a traveling mercenary warrior, played by Julia The Sage Eowan Harperson, Marquis of Mountain-to-Sea and Royal Sage, who sometimes masquerades as a hermit, played by J.C. The, um, Chancellor Thomas Lochzarion (a.k.a. Gregory the Smith and a host of other identities), Chancellor [Royal Assassin], played by Matt The Count Count Aleksei, Imperial Military Commander, formerly played by Michael, now retired The Hermit Formerly played by Joel, now retired "Princess" The Sorceress Azura, who went by the nickname "Princess" while enslaved, played by Michael The Evolution of Riverun Several different stories and game campaigns have branched from the common root of Elisabeth and Angela's original story. Through its many incarnations, the features of the world of Riverun have remained quite consistent. The evolution of Riverun has seen five stages: 1. Elisabeth and Angela's First Version Angela and Elisabeth created Riverun at age eleven. They explored and played in the woods near Elisabeth's old home, and imagined the sylvan kingdom of Riverun, of which they were the joint queens. At first, they used the names of Muses for their characters. Later, Elisabeth named her own character Irene Emeraldskie, and Angela chose to be Adrianne Dawning. They changed the leadership of the kingdom, assigning Irene the highest royal position of Empress of Riverun, and giving Adrianne the role of sorceress and one of the Four Queens. Other characters developed when Elisabeth wrote a collection of letters meant to be the correspondence of imaginary Riverun personalities. She also added characters based on her closest friends in junior high, granting them various titles that she deemed appropriate. Since Riverun's conception, few things have been changed; the silliest products of eleven-year-old minds have been removed, but most of the characters remain true to the original. 2. Michael's Version Way back when Elisabeth and Angela knew Michael in elementary school, he invented a home-brewed RPG, before he knew about commercial RPGs (in fact before he even knew what "RPG" meant)! He called his game Lairs of Darkness. At first Mike limited the players to his male friends, but then he expanded the game to include Elisabeth and Angela. However, rather than simply giving them characters within the already existing setting of his game, he decided to add them while incorporating the entire Riverun world into Lairs of Darkness. Michael helped Riverun's creators refine the ideas to make them more logical and less the ramblings of eleven year olds. Michael's version still continues, but only intermittently, because the Group tends to favor the more familiar AD&D system. Mike's version of Riverun includes a number of fantasy creatures such as cheetars (not cheetahs), plus certain events, like the assassination of Dorian Green, that do not exist in other versions. 3. J.C.'s Version During high school, Elisabeth assigned characters and titles one by one to each member of the Group. From there it was natural to build our characters in the AD&D system, with J.C. as DM. New dimensions and twists were added to the characters through some very enjoyable roleplaying sessions. J.C.'s Riverun campaign waned as some difficulties developed. One problem was that because J.C. ran the adventure, he was never able to play his own character (the Sage) as much as he would have liked. Also, some sort of conflict developed between the Empress and her right-hand assassin, Thomas. The ultimate consequence of this was the demise of the Empress and the end of this phase of Riverun's evolution. 4. Elisabeth and Angela's Second Version At some point, Angela and Elisabeth began in earnest to write stories about the places, characters, and events of Riverun, partially fueled by interesting developments that we had roleplayed in J.C.'s version. Elisabeth spent her junior year of high school in France, and the geographical distance between the two Riverun creators forced them to develop their stories separately. Angela made excellent progress on a Riverun novel, and when Elisabeth returned from France, they continued work on this novel together for awhile. But since they each went off to separate colleges, they have not had much time for cooperative writing. 5. Newest AD&D Version Angela has continued her efforts on the Riverun novel. Lately, she has been inspired to return Riverun to the AD&D realm, with some new twists. Dan is building a character in Riverun, and Michael has switched his character of choice from Count Aleksei to the sorceress Azura. With Angela as DM, this newest incarnation of Riverun is quite a feast of visions, mysteries, and mind-games. Choose Another Adventure