of
First words
from the translator (transl. by Carsten
Riedel, 1998)
(revised edition by Stefan
Kroll, 1999)
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,...
DAS SCHWARZE AUGE,
AVENTURIEN and ARKANIA are
of 
©1997
Arkania needs you !