R

EALM

S

of
 

A

RKANI

A

                                 First words                                    

 from the translator (transl. by Carsten Riedel, 1998)
(revised edition by Stefan Kroll, 1999)
 
The following pages are still under construction. Some are not available!
 
May the Twelve be with you, wanderer of the Limbus, or should I say the transcendent mass that spans between all the spheres of our precious Arkania...
 
 Okay, quite too much for the beginning, these pages are designed to convey a recent part of german culture to the world, that has already spread to some computer screens and got stuck there a while ago in the computer game trilogy called the Realms of Arkania. What you are going to be presented in the next pages is a complete translation of the main rule book of the most successful role-playing game (RPG) in Germany ever and yes, you understood it in the right way, not only the most successful german role-playing game, but the most successful in Germany throughout the years.
 
Before I go further, I want to tell a little bit more about its history. The propagation of the word of mouth, that a german role-playing game was developed, started way back at the beginning of the decade which is now known as the poppy Eighties, that first game, however, was not "Das Schwarze Auge" (engl. The Black Eye) , as Realms of Arkania is called in its original, but Midgard. Now, do not bother about Midgard, because Midgard lost track of the new competitor soon after its release shortly after the first german RPG. The inventor of the success was Uli Kiesow, which some of you might know as the writer of the novel "The Charlatan", which was also translated into english. This great creator of the most-popular german fantasy continent Arkania died last year, i.e. 1997. His game never made it to the island, nowadays known as the United Kingdom or the promised lands nowadays called the United States of America. As far as I am concerned, I think, this was partly due to the failure of the game in Italy (released as ...), in France (released al "L'Oeil Noir") and the Netherlands (released as "Het oog des meesters") and partly to its inherent avoidance of english influence, so that in inner circles of the Realms of Arkania a single english sounding name was like a pact with the Nameless - the devil-equivalent of Arkania. Only Attic Entertainment with their release of the Destiny Blade broke through this barrier and finally, Star Trail, the second part, was a major success world-wide. Its fame spread, but the role-playing scene of Germany did not wake up, till now...
 
So this WWW-page tries to tear down another wall to open up the cosmopolitan mind for the invention of "real storytelling" and simple, but all the way well-calculated rules, that could still be a strong competitor in any choice of role-playing games worldwide.
 
Nobody wants to force you into anything, but think about it,...

Arkania needs you ! 

DAS SCHWARZE AUGE, AVENTURIEN and ARKANIA are REGISTERED TRADEMARKS of  ©1997