Do you know who Aradune Mithara the in game character is ? This may seem like a ridiculous question for this forum all things considered, but my wife and also a coworker who both know Aradune as Brad here on the forum and as the dev of both EQ and VG neither knew he had a Pally on EQ and a Ranja on VG both with that name. They both come to this forum often and my coworker has played both his games quite a lot, so it floored me that neither of them would know. Do you know Aradune Mithara ? Do you know Tyler Durden (LOL) ?
Last pic is of an imposter btw .
Actually I got to meet Aradune in EQ once long ago. It was as part of an in game wedding for a few guildies of mine. I think I even met Brad at one of the first Fan fairs in Seattle for EQ....My question then to you is this: Do you know why he picked the name Aradune Mithara?
Freyja said:
With my head lowered in shame I admit I didn't know of his in game characters until recently LOL I am however a big fan of the man himself and of his games . He looks studly by that motorcycle don't you think ?
Freyja Njörðrdóttir ! You should indeed be ashamed LOL And yes, Brad is a studmuffin .
Sogotp said:
Actually I got to meet Aradune in EQ once long ago. It was as part of an in game wedding for a few guildies of mine. I think I even met Brad at one of the first Fan fairs in Seattle for EQ....My question then to you is this: Do you know why he picked the name Aradune Mithara?
Jason the Newbie said:That's awesome ! And a very good question. Why did he pick that name ?
Kazingathi said:
Looks like he's in Az, or southern Cali. Sorry Brad, but not studly (I'm a guy) but it does look like he had a full day of fun.
Yep, Ocotillo Wells off road park in the Borrego Desert about 2 hours east of where I live. And I was indeed tired after that ride :)
Here's a recent pic (over the holidays) -- we rode from the snow and mountains down into the desert.
So the origin of the name Aradune Mithara.
When I was a teenager/early adult I wanted to be a fantasy author -- I'm a huge fan, of course, of Tolkien, CS Lewis, Feist, Moorcock, Zelazny, etc. So I ended up creating a world and writing two short books and lots of notes. They aren't very good -- I wasn't descriptive enough, and around the same time I got into programming and designing video games, being inspired ultimately by Ultima II which I encountered in Junior High.
Anyway, one of the chief characters in one of the books is named Aramith Half-Elven. His father, a ranger named Aradune Mithara. When I started playing MUDs in the early 90s I first started a Paladin (my favorite class I always chose in AD&D) and called him Aramith. Then I discovered that I liked to play Rangers better, and wanted to link the two characters, so Aradune became the character I played the most. Then in 96 when I started working on EQ, I had already played MUDs so many crazy hours, that I'd grown fond and sentimental about the name Aradune and so I named my GM character Aradune (never my actual play characters, because I wanted to be anonymous when I was *really* playing the game).
I also put up the first EQ web site back when we had no marketing for the game and I'm pretty sure I used Aradune as my screen name. So between the GM Character and screen names, people started to remember the name and associate it with me. I then took Aradune to VG, and now he's appeared on Terminus... but this time he's a WarWizard :)
When JP and I were discussing how a WarWizard would look I basically described in as much detail how I envisioned Aradune to look, so this image is actually both representative of a Pantheon WarWizard as well as Aradune Mithara specifically.
I had a really good shot of Aradune in VG but it's lost somewhere on one of my PCs. :(
Another question that is sometimes asked: Why did Aradune the Ranger in EQ wield a two-handed flaming sword called the Fiery Avenger. Well, the first weapon we successfully attached particle effects to was that two-handed sword. And I of course wanted to show it off in screenshots. I had to make it Rangerable. Kinda lame, I know. In VG and Pantheon he is dual-wielding like a proper ranger/WarWizard. And the green platemail is now green chainmail, also more appropriate IMHO.
BloodbeardBattlecaster said:
I remember the first time I saw 'Aradune is stinky'. I knew it had to mean something being down there on that wall. I wondered who had ticked off some developer. haha!
That was Bill Trost giving me a hard time :) I thought it was pretty funny when I accidentally ran across it, and apparently so have many others :) One should never take oneself too seriously :)
Freyja said:
With my head lowered in shame I admit I didn't know of his in game characters until recently LOL I am however a big fan of the man himself and of his games . He looks studly by that motorcycle don't you think ?
*blush*
Aradune said:
Here's a pic of Aradune, EQ era, drawn by Jim Lee -- I have the original framed on my wall.
Thats pretty awesome actually.
Aradune said:
So the origin of the name Aradune Mithara.
When I was a teenager/early adult I wanted to be a fantasy author -- I'm a huge fan, of course, of Tolkien, CS Lewis, Feist, Moorcock, Zelazny, etc. So I ended up creating a world and writing two short books and lots of notes. They aren't very good -- I wasn't descriptive enough, and around the same time I got into programming and designing video games, being inspired ultimately by Ultima II which I encountered in Junior High.
Anyway, one of the chief characters in one of the books is named Aramith Half-Elven. His father, a ranger named Aradune Mithara. When I started playing MUDs in the early 90s I first started a Paladin (my favorite class I always chose in AD&D) and called him Aramith. Then I discovered that I liked to play Rangers better, and wanted to link the two characters, so Aradune became the character I played the most. Then in 96 when I started working on EQ, I had already played MUDs so many crazy hours, that I'd grown fond and sentimental about the name Aradune and so I named my GM character Aradune (never my actual play characters, because I wanted to be anonymous when I was *really* playing the game).
I also put up the first EQ web site back when we had no marketing for the game and I'm pretty sure I used Aradune as my screen name. So between the GM Character and screen names, people started to remember the name and associate it with me. I then took Aradune to VG, and now he's appeared on Terminus... but this time he's a WarWizard :)
When JP and I were discussing how a WarWizard would look I basically described in as much detail how I envisioned Aradune to look, so this image is actually both representative of a Pantheon WarWizard as well as Aradune Mithara specifically.
I had a really good shot of Aradune in VG but it's lost somewhere on one of my PCs. :(
Another question that is sometimes asked: Why did Aradune the Ranger in EQ wield a two-handed flaming sword called the Fiery Avenger. Well, the first weapon we successfully attached particle effects to was that two-handed sword. And I of course wanted to show it off in screenshots. I had to make it Rangerable. Kinda lame, I know. In VG and Pantheon he is dual-wielding like a proper ranger/WarWizard. And the green platemail is now green chainmail, also more appropriate IMHO.
Dang. I just had a nerdgasm LOL Thanks for all that killer info . I never knew any of that .
Kyndread said:
Aradune said:
Here's a pic of Aradune, EQ era, drawn by Jim Lee -- I have the original framed on my wall.Thats pretty awesome actually.
I agree, that's way awesome.
Finally found a pic of Aradune the ranger. Will search for more.
I also found a rare pic of a pally being able to feign death LOL :
Kazingathi said:
Yeah there's a couple of spots in Az to hit the dunes in. Hey Brad ever chase rabbits at night in the dunes with your head lights, lol lot of fun till I tore through a couple of mesquite trees.
Yes, but I felt kinda guilty afterwards, heh.
Jason said:
Finally found a pic of Aradune the ranger. Will search for more.
Can anyone find a higher rez version of this image? Would personally appreciate it.
thanks.
Wow, this was a lot of very cool info! :)
I had seen Aradune in both EQ and VG (and VGOEmu lol :P) but I had never taken a screenshot of him, I was probably star struck and trying to hide my sharpened and bloody daggers so I didn't scare him away! ;)
