I am Ameronis, and this is my dungeon.
I am writing a story, and you are in it!
= WHO AM I? =
I’m a storyteller, world-builder, and the creator of the writing prompts and inspiration tools over on RanGen.com.
My story focuses heavily on random prompts, user input and collaboration, and external influences, and my three goals are: to test out and tweak my random generators to make sure they’re fit for purpose, get back into writing, storytelling and entertaining people with my tales, and, to have fun going on an adventure with my readers; an adventure that has no set goal and few boundaries in a world that we build as we go..
A new chapter part is published online every two weeks under normal circumstances on the 1st and 15th of the month, with a narrated version uploaded once it’s available.
Incomplete chapter parts are uploaded to The Workshop. These will be missing artwork and narration, and may not have an official title yet.
Once they have a title and narration by PringleWings, they are moved to The Library as their ‘final’ form.
Sign up to the newsletter at the bottom of the page to be informed whenever a new part is released.
= WHAT IS THIS? =
The Archives of Nylas is an experimental, serial, light RPG-style choose-your-own adventure story set in a sprawling, open-world city called Derna, where YOU are the protagonist, and I am your travelling companion.
It is a slow-burn adventure. The world and story unfold gradually as you explore the city. The type and frequency of the struggles and conflicts you face depend on the situation and choices you and the other readers make; don’t expect fast-paced scenes or battles right away or frequently; this is more about the journey and the world around you developing over time. How relaxed or agitated things become will depend on the current direction.
TAoN doesn’t adhere to a single time period. It’s not your typical medieval fantasy nor full-on steampunk, but rather a hybridised, alternate-history world that fuses elements from several distinct eras. If you’re expecting strict adherence to specific genres, this may not be the world you’re looking for.
The region is built on a medieval foundation, and the poor have little in the way of modern delights, but in the city of Derna, the wealthy enjoy the luxuries and aesthetic elegance of the Georgian and Victorian eras, and the city grows exponentially thanks to an early industrial revolution.
Almost every location and encounter can unlock skills, resources, and relationships that might be useful now or much later. Some interactions can even trigger hidden plotlines that unfold with or without Valene’s further involvement. There’s no set path, but there are certain major quests and rabbit holes waiting to be uncovered, some hidden deeply, others right in plain sight.
Read along and vote on what happens next; your choices steer the story. Where we go and what we do is ultimately up to you.
Behind the scenes
I do not have full control over the narrative. Quite the opposite, actually.
Readers guide the protagonist by collectively voting on their decisions and shaping their growth as the story progresses, and bearing the vote results in mind, my writing is then influenced by the decrees of the “Chaos Engine”; a series of entities that periodically take the wheel and determine the direction or outcome of certain events through random generations and dice rolls. The end result is a narrative that is as unexpected and unpredictable for me as it is for the readers and the protagonist. My goal is to make the most of what I am dealt, and to cohesively weave it into the story.
The Chaos Engine determines the situation, direction or outcome at certain times and consists of 5 driving forces:
- My own established plotlines and direction for the story.
- Community votes.
- RanGen’s various prompt generators, particularly the Decision, Number and Dice Generators (referred to as the DND Gens).
- Specific decisions made by select individuals, both on and offline.
- The output of a handful of LLMs in response to specific prompts.
The readers guide the protagonist by collectively voting on their decisions and shaping their growth as the story progresses. I run the Chaos Engine to add a layer of unpredictability to the mix. I then use my own storytelling ability to bring all the parts together. The end result is a narrative that is as unexpected and unpredictable for me as it is for the readers and the protagonist. My goal is to make the most of what I am dealt, and to test my ability to cohesively weave the unexpected threads into a cohesive story, whilst attempting to guide it along the main story plotline I have in my mind.
You can read the Behind The Scenes notes at the end of each part to see exactly which parts of the story were effected by which element of the Chaos Engine; you can learn more about the reader votes (#1) and how they were applied, you can see which of my gens were used to produce and name new story elements (#3), and you can see what happened when and where I tested an LLM’s ability to respond to a specific prompt (#5). As well as that, you can read my ramblings about the story-writing process as I go, and learn a few other interesting titbits.
= WHY DO THIS? =
I am telling this story for 3 reasons.
- To test RanGen’s generators in real-world scenarios, and see how useful they really are.
- To get back into storytelling and to engage with RanGen’s community.
- To keep track of the capabilities of LLMs in writing and producing random prompts.
#1 – Generator stress-testing
The primary reason for RanGen’s existence is to provide inspirational prompt tools for writers, game-makers and artists, as well as for people to play with just for fun, and while I know people like and use them for a variety of reasons, I’ve never done a thorough test of them in a proper writing scenario.
So, I created the DunGen as a home for my new project, and am writing a story and using the generators as often as I can in as many scenarios as I can to see how helpful they are and where they’re lacking. This testing has allowed me to make changes to my generators, from minor tweaks and fixes to plans for big updates to improve the usefulness of the existing generators.
Along the way, it has also helped me to discover generators that RanGen needs but was previously missing, so it has resulted in the birth of a few new generators so far. I intend to keep writing, keep testing, and keep creating.
#2 – The joys of storytelling
I used to tell stories and play the role of game and dungeon master many years ago, but times changed, life became more demanding, and that pastime fell by the wayside.
Now, with the RanGen community steadily growing, and my desire to return to storytelling flaring back up, I decided now was the time to get back into it, and kill multiple birds with one stone; I can engage with my community, test my generators, keep track of AI capabilities, collaborate, help other writers with character and plot development, and help other creators as well, particularly artists and voice actors.
This is a little passion project for me now, which I hope can become something a little bit bigger.
#3 – Human vs AI (The rise of LLMs)
As a writer, coder, and sometimes digital artist, each of these territories is threatened by “AI”, as has been well-documented and lamented. People are very passionate about it and tend to swing to the extreme ends, either going all in and attempting to jam AI into everything, for better or worse (usually way worse), or going all against and frothing at the mouth if you even say the letters “A” and “I” too close together in a sentence.
I prefer a much, much more nuanced approach. But while I’m a bit old-fashioned, grew up looking forward to AI as a tool to assist humans, and believe that even now, it can be useful in certain circumstances, it’s clear that it still presents a significant risk. (I will point out that while I use the term “AI” here, I’m acutely aware that Large Language Models (LLMs) are not “AI” in the way that the general public seems to think they are, and that LLMs are, in a sense, much more like an advanced form of auto-complete…)
There has been a massive explosion of generator websites that are powered by LLMs, and due to its nature, in some regards, they can be more useful, flexible, and specific compared to the likes of old-fashioned sites like mine, the Seventh Sanctum and Donjon. RanGen itself has seen a decrease in users.
After testing several LLM’s myself over several years, aside from the instability and massive changes, I’ve noticed quite a few quirks… Despite all the information they have access to, they sometimes still manage to produce output that has a certain style and is sometimes… lacking. Either way, keeping an eye on what they can do allows me to see what I’m dealing with, shore up my generators so that they can still stand against them as standard, non-AI code, and find areas where these AI tools can actually be helpful assistants in the old-school way. I don’t think we can magically go back to the pre-AI age. It’s here to stay, but not in this form… Even if/when the bubble bursts, something will survive…
But, I’m getting off topic.
To clarify, the LLMs are not used to write the story; they are tested for their ability to generate usable prompts, character profiles, events, etc. I.e., the same things that my own Gens are used for during the writing process. How well does the AI generate a character description or scenario prompt? What can I do to make sure my generator’s results are better? Using LLMs for actual writing is a pretty terrible idea. Using it as a source of inspiration? The results so far have been interesting.
In each chapter, you can read the Behind the Scenes section to see where and how any RanGen or LLM prompts were used, and what the experience was like.
= COLLABORATIONS AND CAMEOS =
The community protagonist is not the only character whose tale I am telling.
The city is filled with all sorts of characters and stories, many of which intersect. There’s plenty of room and opportunity for secondary characters to undertake their own adventures outside of the spotlight. Some of these stories will be self-contained, but others can affect the world and the main protagonist directly.
There is also plenty of room for other worldbuilders to make their mark here; the world at large is still a blank canvas.
Currently, I’m looking for those willing to help me flesh out my own world and develop and define their own characters and concepts in the process via collaborative writing and roleplaying. If you’re interested in the story and would like to see how you would fare on Derna’s streets, you’re welcome to try! Alternatively, if you have an existing OC and you’re interested in developing their character, personality, and backstory by taking them out of their comfort zone and placing them in a D&D-style adventure, let me know! You’ll be amazed at how much you can flesh out your characters once you take them outside of the box.
In either case, contact me and let me know.