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Birth of a New World
When I left school and headed for college to study English, History and Computing, I never envisaged creating a new world while I was there. Growing up I had always enjoyed fantasy. Films such as The Neverending Story, Legend, Willow, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth never ceased to enthral me and even today those films stand up as true escapism pieces.
In 1998 I spent my free time from studies on my brother’s Playstation. I used to just play whatever games he had but then I started branching out and trying some of my own. On a whim I bought the RPG Final Fantasy VII and it changed my life. It was my first experience of this series and after negotiating the opening few hours I was enjoying the game to an extent but then the story left the city of Midgard at the outset and took you into the wide world. I was blown away.
I eagerly snapped up Final Fantasy VIII when that came along and moving between the two games things slowly changed for me. This RPG series has gods that your characters can summon to aid them in battle. The creators have drawn on gods from world mythologies, such as Shiva and Quetzalcoatl, and I was fascinated to learn more about them. One god – Odin – led me down the path of Norse mythology. I read extensively, taking in such works as Sturlusson’s The Prose Edda. From there I embraced the Icelandic sagas and even read Beowulf. After a few months of Final Fantasy and Norse mythology, I had drawn a world map that became Elenchera.
In 1998 I spent my free time from studies on my brother’s Playstation. I used to just play whatever games he had but then I started branching out and trying some of my own. On a whim I bought the RPG Final Fantasy VII and it changed my life. It was my first experience of this series and after negotiating the opening few hours I was enjoying the game to an extent but then the story left the city of Midgard at the outset and took you into the wide world. I was blown away.
