Chris Altnau

Luke Parish

Todd Antill

All pictures circa 1999

Board of Advisors
My 'board of advisors' consists of the original crew without whom the Sister Worlds would never have been born.  These three individuals offered the most input into the creation and refinement of a campaign world in its infancy.  To all three of you, I offer my sincere gratitude.

In the Fall of 1994, I was introduced through Kenneth Cotton to a strange group of gamers that met every Friday night to play IBM PC games over a local network connection.  I met Chris Altnau, Todd Antill, Alan Apperson, and several others with whom I would spend many hours blowing one another away at Duke Nuke'em 3D, Command & Conquer, WarCraft II, and even Doom 2.  We spent close to a year's worth of Friday nights playing until dawn, and developing good friendships.  Over the tops of our computers, we talked smack, and also talked about our hobbies, likes, school, work, and more.  Chris and Todd played Dungeons and Dragons -- some game that I likened to a Live Action Role Play, and didn't pay much attention to.  Indeed, Chris played AmptGard -- what I thought Dungeons and Dragons was (either that, or it was some kooky board game that I wouldn't enjoy).  After awhile, though, my yearning for high fantasy got the better of me, and I took Chris up on an offer to play.

In the Fall of 1995, I drove through torrential rains to Chris' place, and let him create for me my first Player Character with the 2nd Edition version of Dungeons and Dragons, set in the world of Oerth.  After several sessions, I began taking notes, and even told the story from my character's perspective.  I lacked any real audience for my writing, save to print off the story, and let the other guys read it at the gaming table, the next time we played.  I rather enjoyed the story-telling element of the game, but I also enjoyed the hack n' slash nature of Dungeons and Dragons.

By the Summer of 1996, I was itching to do something, but I had no idea of what.  My brother, having long voiced his disdain for my newfound hobby, was finally bored enough to ask me to play Dungeons and Dragons for him.  I had to become a Dungeon Master, armed with no more than a Player's Handbook and a head full of Fantasy novels.  A tiny map began to grow, even as my brother's fondness for the game grew.  Chris even began to play under me, coaching me along as a Dungeon Master while he relieved his burn-out by being on the other side of the table.  Others soon joined -- and my obsession began.

But I still yearned to play, as well.  Todd invited me to be a Player Character in a Forgotten Realms campaign set in Erlkazar.  In watching a masterful story-teller, I discovered my passion, and began working all the harder on my own campaign world.  Todd's story was as deep as the dungeons we traveled, and as high as the dragons we feared.  If I wasn't in school or at work, I was fantasizing at work about this strange new hobby of mine:  Dungeons and Dragons.

Todd coached me along as a DM, and I learned as much as I could before leaving Texas for parts unknown.  I discovered GeoCities, and began publishing my campaign materials there.  After several years, though, I had to get my own site:  the SisterWorlds.

Player Advisors
My philosophy as a Dungeon Master became, 'Nothing is impossible.  Some things are just highly improbable.'  I let my players choose whatever they wanted, save evil alignments (though I've recently had to allow for evil alignments; they're fun, after all).  To make things work required interesting and detailed histories.  Detailed histories required that I flesh out more and more of Gaeleth.  Before I knew it, the campaign world had grown into a history of three campaign worlds, tying in some of my fiction from before I started playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Many of the characters became fascinated by Gaeleth.  As I worked out histories, and performed in-game miracles for them, they discovered that they had the power to create as much as I.

Special Thanks
My brother, Chris, and several others contributed so much to Gaeleth's history that it's impossible to keep track of it all.  There are some people, though, that made very specific contributions -- and whom I would like to thank.

To Tony Flores, thanks for creating the flame goddess Xoriah, the legends of the Shaping Wars, and the first of my Chosen.

To Daniel Clark, thanks for creating the Shadow Guard prestige class, and filling in some interesting gaps in my histories.

To Jared Ho, thanks for your work on the 'oriental' continent of Chilleth, and it's background concepts.

To Ed Shearer, thanks for creating the fourth (and largely unmentioned) Sister World, Kara -- home of the gnomes.

To Adam Montgomery, thanks for the background histories of many a dwarven clan, and for the incorporation of the smaller clans into the overall picture.

To Diego Dasilva, thanks for crafting a workable system for the Alekdan Principalities -- and for your excellent character craftsmanship of P'Arkon and Sam. 

To Harry "Mac" McKenzie for his work on the Stonehelm Clan of Rakore, and for his detailed analysis of the Battle of Mount Basilisk.