Kaelon

Hello, My World!

Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

On June 2, 1989, my family moved across the State of Florida and in an instant, my world was rocked. As a nine year old now living in Tampa in the middle of the rainy Floridian Summer, I quickly found myself at ‘ground-zero’ - a creative loner who was friendless and forlorn. So, I did something creatively spontaneous: I created a fantasy world online and invited anyone who wanted to join me in writing collaborative stories to do so.

At the time, the ‘Internet’ didn’t exist, and getting ‘online’ was limited to local dial-up bulletin board systems, or BBS’es, or one of a small number of proprietary services. One of those services was Prodigy, a nascent partnership between IBM and Sears to create a sort of online shopping mall with news and games - and much has been written about just how far ahead of its time this service was (check out this Flickr album for incredible screenshots of what this place was like). But an unexpected side effect of offering its approximately 6 million members dozens of bulletin boards for discussion is that it created a ripe environment for the creation of massive online communities. And so, I started posting notes to create a fantasy world where I, a nine-year-old boy, was really a magical king and invited anyone who wanted to join me in a game of text-based narrative make-believe to join my fictional kingdom.

Thus my world was born.

Gen. 1: Origins (1989)

It was a free-form, fantastic, and farcical creation where all of us would post locations and then write stories about how we would interact with one another in these places. And it was incredibly popular. Within a month, dozens of people had become dukes and duchesses, knights and pirates, witches and wizards, and adventurers all telling stories and building an epic saga of how this make-believe kingdom arose from nothing. I was genuinely taken aback at how truly un-alone I was: there were tons of people just like me - creative writers, role players, and gamers just looking for a place to express themselves and make friends.

All of us were on the bleeding-edge of what it meant to create content over an electronic medium. Sure, people had been playing games like these - from the childhood games of make-believe to the rule-bound table-top role playing games that prevailed among nerds in the 1970s and early 1980s. But it seemed like we had struck magic, and everyone wanted to be a part of this adventure. We were repurposing subjects (collections of notes) to serve as historic landmarks in an ever-evolving shared-creation, and when stories across these locations were written and read, it was as if a new reality was being imprinted in realtime. We even were awarded our own ‘Topic,’ a prized top-level discussion area for the thousands of posts we were all making every month. It was an incredible achievement when access to the service had an hourly charge; people were hooked on this experiment.

And just like every social experiment, it was filled with the messiness of the drama of its participants. From adolescent angst-filled romances to hyper-competitive squabbles, and pretty soon, the story of Aelyria / Alleria - even if it wasn’t called that yet - was a political one, complete with systems of government and dramatic warfare since, after all, everyone wanted to be king, and I was certainly not going to give up the throne without a fight. But how exactly could people ‘fight’ over bulletin boards, where there weren’t armies or resources or even ‘land’ to conquer and hold? We used our imaginations and, even amidst the raucous tangle of rambunctious teenagers, still maintained a sense of decorum that we could only write about what the characters and places that we each controlled could do. This growing system was quickly given a name, to contrast it to the lengthy and slow turn-based dungeons-and-dragons sessions played over e-mail (the so-called “play-by-email.” It was termed Play by Post.

Gen. 2: The World Wide Web (1996)

By 1995, with many services like AOL (America Online), CompuServe, and GEnie connecting to the Internet, Prodigy followed suit beginning with email and UseNet newsgroups (and Aelyria even had some early alt.rpg newsgroups to organize posts), but the experience was still anchored in the visual of the post-and-response system that members had created on the bulletin boards. So when Prodigy finally connected to the World Wide Web, the system of hypertext markup lent itself perfectly to what we needed to introduce Play by Post gaming to the entire world. Within a couple of years, I had taught myself HTML and Perl - a scripting language to make the static pages truly interact-able - all in the service of bringing this world of make-believe to larger audiences.

Matt Wright’s WWWBoard and later Darryl Bergdorf’s WebBBS were easily modified to support a post-and-response dynamic, with each instance of the entire bulletin board used to represent a major location (cities, palaces, the countryside, etc.). The game world amounted to dozens of fantasy realms and thematic regions. On the web, formalized rules started to emerge so that the community could manage thousands of new participants that started to overwhelm the previously informal methodology. Key contributors started to volunteer to run these rules and we called them Game Masters. GMs formed an essential backbone that opened the door to skill-based character development, formalized systems for advancement, and the development of extremely detailed, intricate storylines that would rival any fantasy epic.

Gen. 3: Newfound Fame (1997)

In 1997, MSNBC’s Soledad O’Brien featured the website and its thousands of players on her cable television digital culture show, The Site. In 1999, Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote a few blurbs about the site and both Yahoo! and Netscape featured it on its hot site listings.

Web 1.0 was still in full swing, but with now over a hundred in-game locations and hundreds of thousands of posts, the website’s ad-hoc infrastructure strained under the demand. I migrated Aelyria from the many threaded-nested webboards to the classic linear Ultimate Bulletin Board by Infopop (later Madrona Park), and this scale allowed the Play by Post movement to lay out a template that would be imitated by countless other communities seeking to emulate their own worlds, design their own games, and write their collaborative fictions. The upgraded interface allowed for increasingly complex and intertwined storylines, rich and immersive world-building, and a truly thriving community.

Gen. 4: Nu-Alleria (2000)

A recurring theme would start to express itself: Aelyria would become a victim of its own success. While I was a life-long computer-addict (a consequence of having grown up in a 1980s household as a child of two computer programmers!), I had reluctantly become a full-time engineer on the bleeding-edge of technology. From shared hosting to fully dedicated servers, the “cloud” of server-farms and third-party platforms would be many years away, and so, one layer of technology would show its obsolescence as our community would break through barriers: concurrent users, simultaneous posts, real-time content submissions.

Fans were devoted to this creation, and a lonely childhood escape was now truly a shared creation. When one website would crash, members would dive into creating a fan site and its extended community of volunteers and contributors would keep the dream alive. Continuing storylines and tangential plots could be improvised as hundreds of players started building extensive character histories and founded guilds to their collectives of players. The Nu-Alleria website, in particular, hosted on the ezBoards, was one such continuation, affording us a collective breather to build a platform that was more sustainable. World-building was more than just creative-writing and role-playing; it was platform-engineering to sustain a community that depended upon this framework for an emotional, intellectual creative outlet.

Gen. 5: Web 2.0 (2001)

Websites across the globe started rethinking their information architecture, from page layout to underlying infrastructure, and the era of Web 2.0 was upon us by 2001. I built a new website powered on a robust PHP front-end with a dynamic MySQL backend, and it allowed our community to feature in-game events, world information, and relevant plot lines presented contextually to players based upon their interests. I inaugurated the use of vBulletin from Jelsoft at this time, layering different dynamic layouts for distinct pieces of content: from world information to character sheets.

Publishing Workflows

By 2005, Massively multiplayer online games had proliferated in the years earlier, from Verant’s EverQuest to Funcom’s Anarchy Online. So, too, did a dramatic interest surge among writers, artists, and musicians in genuine collaborative world-building. There was an enduring demand for Aelyria and Play by Post gaming in general, and so we deployed Drupal on top of the forums to better facilitate authoring and publishing workflows. Contributor teams now extended beyond game masters, and moderation included every facet of the creative process and community engagement continuum. Thousands of team members specialized in developing polished, detailed, authoritative works. Collective content creation standards reached new heights, with an increasing emphasis on professionalism through research and creative dedication.

The community spearheaded the creation of a conceptual design studio, the Worldforge, that truly democratized the creative development process. Just as social media truly began to take off, Aelyria began to see an increasing need for more mobility and varied forms of expression among its increasingly diverse and cross-generational userbase. What had started as a digitized game of make-believe among kids and young adults had flourished into a community of thousands, all sharing in the joy of building something that had endured for decades.

Gen. 6: Engines of Creation (2007)

In 2007, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relaunch Aelyria as a self-sustaining business. The heyday of Internet advertising was among us, and investors from every corner wanted in on any website that even remotely resembled a winning proposition. You’d hear the phrase “content is king” often muttered, and I was introduced in my then-hometown of Boston to a ragtag bunch of venture capitalists who essentially encouraged me to turn my passion into my full-time job. It was an irresistible lure, and I took it.

Relaunching Aelyria on an upgraded version of the vBulletin forum system with layers of modifications and hooked-on extensions allowed me to extend the community on the same database that had been powering our contributions for the past couple of website generations. Instituting Web 2.0 conventions, emphasizing social networking, sharing of content, profile pages, and search engine optimization, Aelyria became more relevant and actionable for each member. But, like all boom-and-bust cycles, the Internet advertising age collapsed in 2009. Fortunately, member-contributed paid-subscriptions (again, years before services like Patreon would ever go mainstream) ensured the website could be ad-free and self-sustaining. And while there were never more than a couple hundred such patrons (or "Companions," as I called them), it was enough to allow me with a mixture of regret and relief to push back from my life’s creative passion and realized it should no longer be a veritable enterprise.

The Future

Aelyria had been on the same infrastructure for over twelve years with really minimal modification. Upgrades of vBulletin long ran their course, and the website's runway for using this system reached a critical fault in 2019 when new software publishers end-of-life'ed the platform. By then, there were millions of pieces of content contributed across engines, and when the last PHP version was depricated, much of the site's functionality became obsolete and non-functional. This generation had run its course and went offline for now.

Aelyria began as my creation long ago, ostensibly when the first friends that I sought to make back in between school years in 1989 hopped online on Prodigy and joined me on the Games BB (and later, the Role Playing BB) to tell stories. Someone once described our fiction as “the Princess Bride meets Red Dwarf,” as the content was always inspired by popular culture and highly derivative, but it was arranged with the right mixture of comedy, drama, irreverence, and wit to be relevant and compelling. I maintained the creation's craft by conducting the orchestra of the cosmos that was everyone who ever had and ever would be a part of its unfolding story. Because of my stewardship, it has also been, and will continue to be, incredibly long-lived.

While I know that I have never been alone in this passion, I am uniquely responsible as the Creator for building a future that holds an endless quest with infinite rewards as we traverse the tales we weave together. And in that spirit, it is and always will be a labor of love that is to be continued.

Darth Kaelon

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Darth Kaelon is a Dark Lord of the Sith who rules the Empire as one of the twelve members of the feared Dark Council during the era of the Old Republic. A powerful Sith Sorcerer and master of the Dark Side of the Force, Kaelon’s reign of tyranny throughout the galaxy have earned him the moniker Darth Nox as he and his companions on his starship Interminable, a Fury-class Imperial Interceptor, scortch a trail of terror blazing across the stars.

Origins

Born on Alderaan during the harsh winter of 3669 BBY, Kaelon Andropos Xerxentis had a childhood of innocence and privilege growing up in the Royal Court of House Panteer. When Queen Silara Panteer was killed in 3653 BBY, his family fled the looming civil war on the planet. His father, Andropon, had been a sentinel guardian to the royal family and his mother, Marlena, a gifted scribe and artist; neither were especially suited to prevent the entire family’s inevitable subjugation at the hands of Sith slavers. And yet his enslavement as a young boy awakened within him a vast reservoir of hate from which he would draw incredible power. After nearly a decade in captivity, his unleashing of force powers compelled the Sith Empire to relocate him to Korriban where he would endure trials designed to end his existence. Instead, he destroyed all of the other initiates by outmaneuvering them in pursuit of ancient artifacts.

Early Conquests

After graduating from the Sith Academy, Kaelon served as apprentice to the scheming Lady Zash and was plunged into the treacherous field of imperial politics and began to intervene across the galaxy on behalf of the Sith Empire. His earliest exploits earned Kaelon various terrifying accolades:

Butcher of Balmorra: Kaelon spearheaded the Sith Empire’s annexation of the newly-independent planet of Balmorra and thwarted the Republic’s efforts to keep Balmorra within its orbit.
Ruler of the Sith Cult on Nar Shaddaa: While securing the Empire’s interests on the Hutt world of Nar Shaddaa, Kaelon established a cult of followers and destroyed a rival Sith archaeologist to seize control of all force-users on the planet.
Architect of Tatooine: Securing the Czerka weapons facilities for the Empire, Kaelon was captured in the process by a band of pirates, whom he later force-persuaded to serving him as their new captain.

Conquest of Alderaan

With a secure powerbase that spanned the stars, Kaelon had to prove himself to become a Dark Lord of the Sith, and decided to return home to Alderaan to intervene in the Civil War among the great houses. Initially supporting the Empire’s House Thul, Kaelon took command of imperial forces on the planet and raised his own army from feudal levies that he terrorized and threatened into compliance. In the course of a violent subjugation of the planet that included the destruction of Castle Organa and the assassination of the pretender Ulgo, Kaelon discovered the Resplendent Crown of the Panteer. Rather than bestow the Crown - and thus legitimacy to rule Alderaan - onto a favored house, Kaelon crowned himself King, ushering a new era of Imperial Domination on the planet. Filled with joyous rage brought on by this delicious treachery, Kaelon returned to the Imperial Capital of Dromund Kaas and promptly killed Darth Zash to become a Dark Lord of the Sith.

Dark Lord of the Sith

Delivering vengeance for his family’s enslavement out of Alderaan, Lord Kaelon manipulated Grand Moff Kilran and Darth Malgus into ceding control of the Thrakath, an Imperial Vindicator-Class Star Destroyer, along with a supporting fleet. He led a vicious military campaign designed to build his power under the veneer of expanding the empire so that he could acquire the necessary relics and force-artifacts to secure his place on the Dark Council to lead the Sith Empire. His achievements as a Dark Lord included:

Destroyer of Taris: Lord Kaelon took control of imperial operations on the doomed world of Taris and strode through the charred remains of every single city and settlement on the planet.
Redeemer of Hoth: On the ice-world of Hoth, Lord Kaelon advanced imperial objectives on Hoth through the empire’s ally, the Chiss Ascendancy, while consuming the power of various ancient artifacts.
Liberator of Belsavis: Plundering the Republic prison-world of Belsavis, Lord Kaelon freed the Dread Masters, extremely powerful Sith. When they tried to control Kaelon, he resisted their influence and asserted his supremacy.
Legate of Voss: Lord Kaelon secured the imperial stratagem by negotiating a complex and intricate treaty with the Voss. One of the provisions yielded Voss’ military forces to his personal control.

Seduction of Ashara

While on Taris, Lord Kaelon encountered the beautiful and young Togruta Jedi Padawan, Ashara Zavros. Ashara, long considered the best duelist ever to enter the Jedi Academy, was intensely passionate in violation of the strict dictates of the Jedi Order, an attribute the Lord Kaelon ravenously devoured. Manipulating her to submit to her passions, the Dark Lord of the Sith convinced Ashara to assist him which resulted in the deaths of her masters. Inevitably, Ashara became a willing pawn in assisting Kaelon to consume the powerful souls of Jedi and Sith spirits.

After she joined his crew aboard the Interminable, Ashara became mesmerized by the Dark Lord’s decisiveness. More than simply ruthless, Kaelon’s choices reflected a calculating strategy towards building a terrifying new organization of power. Shunned by her order, she began to question the Jedi Code and turned to the Sith Code as a remedy for her conflicted mind. She submitted completely to Lord Kaelon’s teachings and became both his apprentice and mistress soon thereafter. Their romance was built upon passion as its touchstone.

Ashara and Kaelon married in secret, ca. 3641 BBY.
House Xerxentis was proclaimed a Legacy, with the children of their union destined to rule the galaxy.
Together they built separate powerbases across the Republic and Empire to lay the foundation of a New Order.

Darth and Dark Council

Secure in his powerbase with followers in dozens of star systems and three separate interstellar powers, Kaelon Xerxentis made a triumphant return to Dromund Kaas with a vast fleet and large army at his disposal. Intending on occupying the Imperial Seat, the Emperor instead challenged the Dark Lord to display the full measure of his power by defeating Darth Thanaton, arguably the most powerful member of the Dark Council. The two agreed to a Kaggath and chose Correlia as their battlefield.

Governor of Correlia: Kaelon seized the upper hand against Darth Thanaton and in the process took control of Correlia. Rather than install an imperial puppet (whom Kaelon had killed instead), the Lord was proclaimed Governor and Ruler of Correlia in a glorious tribute parade before Coronet City.

As Darth Thanaton fled to Korriban, Lord Kaelon pursued and faced him in a duel on the floor of the Dark Council Chambers, force-deflecting Thanaton’s repeated attacks until finally killing him. In response, the Emperor instructed Darth Marr to award Thanaton’s seat on the Council to Kaelon, who was subsequently named Darth. Darth Kaelon took control of the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge to command the Imperial Reclamation Service, and through it, unlock the secrets of the galaxy.

Plunderer of Makeb: Darth Kaelon led imperial forces with Darth Marr to expel the Republic from the planet Makeb and in doing so secure the galaxy’s only known source of Isotope-5, an incredibly rare mineral with powerful warping effects on electromagnetic and gravitational fields.

Role Playing

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

In the Summer of 1989, I invented a fantasy world online as a way of making friends and influencing people. It became a run-away success and, with the advent of the web, flourished into a global phenomenon. With this, I created the Play by Post gaming platform, formalizing core rules for the post-and-response dynamic used on electronic bulletin boards and forums. Since then, millions of people have played my role playing games.

Featured:

MSNBC's The Site with Soledad O'Brien
Electronic Gaming Monthly, Oct. 1997: "Editor's Web Picks"
Netscape.com Front Page

Games

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I'm a Gamer. As an avid and hyper-engaged gamer, I relish the spirit of teamwork and competition that massively multiplayer online games have to offer. I am "hardcore casual" in the sense that I have limited playtime but I am serious about progression and celebrate excellence in gaming. Principally a PC gamer, I also periodically stream on Twitch and create role playing games. On all platforms, I am known as "Kaelon."

Current Titles

World of Warcraft
In Warcraft, since launch in 2004, I have continually played Archmage Kaelon, a Gnome Arcane Mage who enjoys challenging dungeons, raids, scenarios, and outdoor content at max level.
Sea of Thieves
The Epic Pirate Legend, Captain Kaelon, is feared and admired across the high seas. Open world treasure-hunting since launch, with regular crews and alliances.
Overwatch
Original League competitive Overwatch player. Pharah / D.va main, Bastion alt.; enjoys mostly Quick Play and following the eSports scene in support of the Boston Uprising.

Legacy Titles

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Darth Kaelon is a top-tier end-game Sith Sorcerer. Herein, I chronicle his rise to power in narrative detail suiting an arch-villain of the fine space opera.

Robots

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Every capable villain and resourceful tyrant employs key henchmen to lord over the countless minions that carry out his ruthless bidding. In my case, I construct technological wonders: computers of terrifying efficiency and horrific power singularly focused upon their primary missions. I collectively call these my "robots," which I list here for posterity.

Deployed
- Aeon
- Meta
- Palpatine
- Woz
- Quixote
- Jobs
- Enterprise
- Pullo
- Tolkien
- House González
Delegated
- Epoch
- Carlexgon
- Starmoon
Decommissioned
- Napoleon
- Caesar
- Crazy Cellar
- Cicero
- Kaelon

Deployed

Aeon

Primary Gaming

Commissioned: June 2025
Mission: Grand Strategy
Refits: None
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System

Case: ASUS ROG Hyperion GR701 eATX Full Tower
Motherboard: ASUS X-870-E ROG Crosshair Hero AMD AM5 ATX
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Granite Ridge AM5 4.30 Ghz 16-Core 32-Thread
- Cooler: ASUS ROG Ryujin III ARGB Extreme 360mm AiO Liquid CPU Cooler
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z6 Neo RGB 64 Gb RAM DDR5-6000+ CL30
Graphics: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Astral OC Liquid Cooled 32 Gb GDDR7
Storage Arrays:
- Samsung 9100 Pro 2 Tb V Nand TLD v8 PCIe Gen5 x4 NVMe M.2
- Samsung 990 Pro 4 Tb V Nand PCIe Gen 4 x 4 NVMe M.2
Power Supply: MSI MEG Ai 1600T PCIE 1600 Watt Titanium ATX Modular

Monitor

Samsung Odyssey G9 C49RG9 49" Curved 120 Hz FreeSync HDR LCD

Peripherals

ASUS ROG Strix Scope II Wired Full Size Gaming Keyboard
ASUS ROG Gladius III Wireless AimPoint Gaming Mouse
Corsair ST100 RGB LED Headset Stand with 7.1 Surround Sound
Razer Tartarus Pro v2 Mechanical Gaming Pad
Sea of Thieves Limited Edition Wireless X-Box Controller
TC-Helicon Go-XLR 4-Channel Streaming Mixer
Samson G Track Pro Cardioid USB Condenser Microphone, with Pop Filter and Boom Stand for Streaming and Broadcasting
Astro A40 Pro Headset with Mixamp and Cloudlifter
Corsair CA-9011180 Virtuoso RGB Wireless Gaming Headset in White
Bose Companion 3 Series II Speakers with Subwoofer
Roland MT-32 Multi Timbre Sound Module

Corsair ST100 RGB LED Headset Stand with 7.1 Surround Sound

Razer Tartarus Pro v2 Mechanical Gaming Pad

Sea of Thieves Limited Edition Wireless X-Box Controller

TC-Helicon Go-XLR 4-Channel Streaming Mixer

Samson G Track Pro Cardioid USB Condenser Microphone, with Pop Filter and Boom Stand for Streaming and Broadcasting

Astro A40 Pro Headset with Mixamp and Cloudlifter

Corsair CA-9011180 Virtuoso RGB Wireless Gaming Headset in White

Bose Companion 3 Series II Speakers with Subwoofer

Roland MT-32 Multi Timbre Sound Module

Palpatine

Player Two

Commissioned: December 2016
Mission: Command and Control
Refits: None
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

System

Case: NZXT Noctis 450 Mid-Tower Black and Red LED Case
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero ATX
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K Unlocked LGA 1151 4.0 Ghz Octo-Core
- Cooler: Corsair H115i Extreme Performance 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3400 64 Gb RAM
Graphics: ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 8 Gb GDDR5 Enhanced Edition
Storage: Samsung NVMe SSD 960 EVO M.2 1 Tb Drive
Power Supply: EVGA Supernova Platinum-2 1210-Watt PSU

Monitor

ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQR 27" 4K UHD 160 Hz FreeSync Premium Monitor

Peripherals

Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Mechanical Keyboard, Cherry MX RGB Brown
ASUS ROG Gladius 12000 DPI Optical Gaming Mouse
Razer Orbweaver Mechanical Gaming Pad
Elgato Stream Deck and Stream Deck XL
Roland SC-55 Sound Canvas MIDI Sound Generator
Razer Kiyo Pro UHD Webcam

Corsair Vengeance K70 Cherry MX Red Gaming Keyboard, Red LED

ASUS ROG Gladius II 12000 DPI Optical Gaming Mouse

Razer Orbweaver Mechanical Gaming Pad

Woz

Productivity

Commissioned: February 2026
Refits: None
Mission: Strategic Operations
OS: MacOS Sonoma 14

System

Desktop: MacMini (Late 2018) in Space Gray
Processor: Intel Core i7 8th Gen 3.2 Ghz 8-Core 4.6 Ghz Turbo with 16MB Shared L3 Cache
Memory: 64 Gb 2666 Mhz DDR4 Onboard RAM
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630
Storage: 2 Tb SSD

Monitor

ASUS ROG Swift Curved PG348Q Curved 34" G-SYNC Gaming Monitor

Peripherals

External GPU Enclosure
- Razer Core X Chroma Aluminum eGPU with 700W Power Supply Unit
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 16 Gb GDDR6 Graphics Card
"Tatooine" - NK87 Aluminum Edition Cosmic Purple TKL Keyboard with Hotswap PCB with SA Tatooine ABS Double-Shot Keycaps Limited Edition, Drop + Invyr Holy Panda Mechanical Switches, Krytox 205g0 Linear Lubricant
"Stargazer" - Glorious Gaming Modular Keyboard GMMK-RGB with Drop DSA Astrolokeys Keycaps, Everglide Dark Jade Mechanical Switches
Corsair Sabre RGB 10,000 DPI Gaming Mouse
Logitech Z533 Speaker System with Subwoofer
Samson G Track Pro Cardioid USB Condenser Microphone
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones
Logitech for Creators Litra Glow Premium LED Stream Light

Razer Core X Chroma Aluminum eGPU with 700W Power Supply Unit

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 16 Gb GDDR6 Graphics Card

NK87 Aluminum Edition Cosmic Purple TKL Keyboard with Hotswap PCB with SA Tatooine ABS Double-Shot Keycaps Limited Edition, Drop + Invyr Holy Panda Mechanical Switches, Krytox 205g0 Linear Lubricant

Glorious Gaming Modular Keyboard GMMK-RGB with Drop DSA Astrolokeys Keycaps, Everglide Dark Jade Mechanical Switches

Corsair Sabre RGB 10,000 DPI Gaming Mouse

Samson G Track Pro Cardioid USB Condenser Microphone

Logitech Z533 Speaker System with Subwoofer

Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones

Logitech for Creators Litra Glow Premium LED Stream Light

Quixote

Imagineering

Commissioned: April 2024
Refits: None
Mission: Extra-Territorial
OS: MacOS Tahoe 26

System

Laptop: MacBook Air M3 (13-inch, 2024)
Processor: Apple M3 (8-Core CPU)
Memory: 16 Gb Unified Memory
Graphics: Apple M3 (10-Core GPU)
Storage: 500 Gb SSD

Jobs

Research and Development

Commissioned: December 2019
Refits: None
Mission: Tactical Interdiction
OS: MacOS Tahoe 26

System

Laptop: MacBook Pro (16-inch, Late 2019) in Space Gray
Processor: Intel Core i9 9th Gen 2.4 Ghz 8-Core 5.0 Ghz Turbo with 16MB Shared L3 Cache
Memory: 64 Gb 2666 Mhz DDR4 Onboard RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5600M with 8 Gb of HBM2 Memory
Storage: 8 Tb SSD

Enterprise

Esports

Commissioned: May 2021
Mission: First Strike
Refits: None
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

System

Laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 15.6" QHD Gaming Laptop
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900 HS
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
Memory: 32 Gb DDR4-3200 RAM
Storage: 2 Tb SSD

Peripherals

Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse in Mercury White
Razer Orbweaver Mechanical Gaming Pad
Steel Series Arctis Pro Gaming Headset

Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse in Mercury White

Razer Orbweaver Mechanical Gaming Pad

Steel Series Arctis Pro Gaming Headset

Pullo

The Centurion

Commissioned: March 2024
Mission: Expeditionary
Refits: None
OS: Windows 11 64-Bit

System

Device: Lenovo Legion Go
Processor: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Memory: 16 Gb LPDDR5X 7500 Mhz RAM
Display: 8.8" QHD (2560 x 1600) IPS 144 Hz Touch Screen
Graphics: AMD RDNA Graphics
Storage: 1 Tb PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2242

Tolkien

The Un-Laptop

Commissioned: January 2016
Refits: None
Mission: Tactical Warfare
OS: Windows 10 64-Bit

System

Laptop: ASUS ROG G752VY-DH72
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6 Ghz
Memory: 32 Gb DDR4-2133 RAM
Graphics: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 4Gb GDDR5 with G-SYNC
Storage: PCIeG3x4 256 GB SSD + 1 Tb 7200 RFM Western Digital Slim
Drive: Blu-Ray Burner

Monitor

ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQR 27" 4K UHD 160 Hz FreeSync Premium Monitor

Peripherals

AULA F2088 Gray Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Black Tactile Switches
ASUS ROG Gladius II Aura Sync USB Wired Optical 12,000 DPI Gaming Mouse
Logitech C920S HD Pro Webcam with Privacy Shutter

AULA F2088 Gray Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Black Tactile Switches

ASUS ROG Gladius II Aura Sync USB Wired Optical 12,000 DPI Gaming Mouse

Logitech C920S HD Pro Webcam with Privacy Shutter

House González

Media Server

Commissioned: March 2025
Refits: April 2025
Mission: Intelligence
OS: Linux QuTS Hero 5.2

System

NAS: QNAP TVS-h874x
Processor: Intel Core i9 16-Core (8P+8E) 24-Thread Processor
Memory: 64 Gb SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 32 Gb)
Networking: 2 x 10 Gb LAN Ports / 2 x 2.5 Gb LAN Ports
Storage: 256 Tb
- WD Red 8 Tb NAS Hard Drives x 8 in RAID-5 Configuration (64 Tb)
- Seagate Ironwolf NAS 16 Tb NAS Hard Drives x 12 in a RAID Extension (192 Tb) via QNAP TL-D1600S JBOD Enclosure

QNAP TL-D1600S JBOD Enclosure

Delegated

Epoch

The G.O.A.T.

Commissioned: June 2025
Mission: Tour of Duty
Refits: None
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System

Case: Corsair FRAME 4000D RS ARGB Modular Tempered Glass ATX Mid-Tower
Motherboard: ASUS B650-A ROG Strix Gaming WiFi AMD AM5 ATX Motherboard
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D AM5 4.2 Ghz 8-Core Processor
- Cooler: Corsair TITAN 360 RX LCD 360mm All in One Liquid CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair VENGEANCE RGB 32 Gb DDR5-6000 PC5-48000 CL36 Dual
Graphics: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 TUF Gaming OC 16 Gb GDDR7
Storage: Samsung 990 PRO 2 Tb V NAND 3-Bit MLC PCIe Gen4 x4 NBME M.2
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000X 1000 Watt Cybernetics Gold ATX Modular PSU
Fans: Corsair LX 120 RGB in Black

Monitor

HP Pavilion 32" LED QHD Monitor

Peripherals

Corsair K70 Mk.2 SE Mechanical Rapid Fire Gaming Keyboard RGB LED Cherry MX Speed
Corsair M65 RGB Ultra Wired Optical Gaming Mouse with Adjustable Weights
Astro Gaming A40 TR Wired Gaming Headset with Detachable Mic
HyperX HP QuadCast Rouge Microphone
PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for Cloud Gaming - Fortnite Edition
Creative Labs v3 Minimalistic 2 Channel Speakers

Corsair K70 Mk.2 SE Mechanical Rapid Fire Gaming Keyboard RGB LED Cherry MX Speed

Corsair M65 RGB Ultra Wired Optical Gaming Mouse with Adjustable Weights

Astro Gaming A40 TR Wired Gaming Headset with Detachable Mic

HyperX HP QuadCast Rouge Microphone

PowerA OPS v1 Wireless Controller for Cloud Gaming - Fortnite Edition

Creative Labs v3 Minimalistic 2 Channel Speakers

Carlexgon

The Zephyr

Commissioned: July 2020
Mission: Tour of Duty
Refits: June 2023
OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System

Laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14" GA401IV-BR9N6 Gaming Laptop
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS 2.3 Ghz Octo-Core Processor
Memory: 16 Gb DDR4-3200 RAM
Graphics: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q 8 Gb GDDR5
Storage: 1 Tb SSD Hard Drive Storage
Screen: 14" 120 Hz G-SYNC LED Display FHD

Peripherals

Corsair Vengeance K70 Cherry MX Red Gaming Keyboard, Red LED
Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE Wireless Optical Gaming Mouse
Harmon Kardon Rev A00 Stereo Speakers
Logitech G430 Surrounding Gaming Headset
Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick
Logitech F310 Gamepad

Corsair Vengeance K70 Cherry MX Red Gaming Keyboard, Red LED

Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE Wireless Optical Gaming Mouse

Harmon Kardon Rev A00 Stereo Speakers

Logitech G430 Surrounding Gaming Headset

Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick

Logitech F310 Gamepad

Starmoon

The Dark Faerie

Commissioned: June 2018
Refits: December 2023
Mission: Tour of Duty
OS: Windows 10 64-Bit

System

Laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501GS-XS74
Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H 3.9 Ghz
Memory: 16 Gb DDR4-2666 RAM
Graphics: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 Gb GDDR5 with G-SYNC
Storage: PCIeG3x4 256 Gb SSD + 1 Tb FireCuda
Screen: 15.6" G-SYNC IPS 144 Hz IPS-Type LED Display

Peripherals

Sunffice Cute Hamster Mouse, Wireless 2.4 Ghz 1,200 DPI

Decommissioned

Napoleon

L'Empereur

Commissioned: October 2011
Refits: June 2017
Mission: Command and Control
Decomissioned: August 2019
OS: Ubuntu Linux 64-Bit

System

Case: Antec Three Hundred
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-880GB-D2H ATX
Processor: AMD AM3 Phenom II x6 Hex-Core 1055T
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1333/1600 RAM
Graphics: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 4Gb 256-Bit GDDR5
Storage: Western Digital Caviar 7200 RPM, 500 Gb
Power: MK Power MKX-850 Watts PSU
Optical: LG Super Multi 24x DVD+/- RW

Monitor

Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch UHD LED-Lit Monitor

Peripherals

Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Edition Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Razer DeathAdder Chromo 10,000 DPI Gaming Mouse
Razer Nostromo Gaming Keypad

Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Edition Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Razer DeathAdder Chromo 10,000 DPI Gaming Mouse

Razer Nostromo Gaming Keypad

Caesar

Imperator

Commissioned: December 2006
Refits: 2007, 2010-2011, 2014
Decommissioned: October 2017
Mission: Strategic Operations
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit

System

Case: Thermaltake Armor MX
Motherboard: EVGA nForce 790i SLI 775 ATX
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1333/1600 RAM
Graphics: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1 Gb
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM, 300 Gb
Backup: Western Digital Caviar 7,200 RPM, 500 Gb
Power: EVGA Supernova Platinum-2 1210-Watt PSU
Optical: Mad Dog LightScribe Triple Format 9.4 Gb 18x DVD+/- RW

Peripherals

Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Razer Lachesis 5,600 DPI Gaming Mouse

Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard

Razer Lachesis 5,600 DPI Gaming Mouse

Crazy Cellar

The Broadcaster

Commissioned: July 2013
Refits: 2017
Mission: Propaganda and Indoctrination
Decommissioned: October 2017
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit

System

Case: nMedia Home Theater PC Chassis 5000B
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-M mATX
Processor: Intel Core i3 3245
- Arctic Alpine 11 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16 GB DDR3-1600/1866 RAM
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7,200 RPM, 4 Tb x 3 (12 Tb)
Power: Modular 650 Watts PSU
Optical: Pioneer 15x BDR, DVDR, CDR 4Mb Buffer BDR 208DBK

Cicero

The Voice

Commissioned: January 2012
Retrofitted: January 2022, December 2023
Decommissioned: December 2019, Museum Candidate
Mission: Consultative Legation
OS: Elementary OS 7.1

System

Laptop: Apple MacBook Pro 17", Late 2011 - HW-Probe
Processor: Intel Core i7 2.4 Ghz Quad-Core
Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM (two 4 GB SO-DIMMs)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6770M
Storage: 750 Gb Serial ATA, 5,400 RPM
Screen: 17-inch high-resolution LED backlit glossy, 1920x1200 resolution

Kaelon

Media Server

Commissioned: October 2017
Refits: March 2021
Mission: Intelligence
OS: Linux QTS 4.3
Decommissioned: March 2025

System

NAS: QNAP TVS-873
Processor: AMD R-Series RX-421BD Quad-Core 2.1 Ghz APU
Memory: 16 Gb Dual Channel DDR4 RAM
Networking: Four Gigabit LAN Ports
Storage: WD Red 8 Tb NAS Hard Drive x 8 in a RAID-5 Configuration (64 Tb accessible, 56 Tb usable)

About

Sun, 26 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I, Kaelon.

Greetings! In the cosmic tapestry of digital realms, where technology collides with imagination, shall you find me, Kaelon, a tyrannical powermonger with faerie tale dreams of a glorious future.

I am a Gamer.

As an avid and hyper-engaged gamer, I relish the spirit of teamwork and competition that massively multiplayer online games offer. I am “hardcore casual,” in the sense that I have limited playtime but I am serious about progression and celebrate excellence in gaming. I also periodically stream on Twitch. On all platforms, I am known as “Kaelon.”

I am a Role Player.

I am a Game Master with decades of experience in producing and directing interactive role playing games and collaborative storytelling experiences. I use the name "Kaelon" in my role playing game design and development activities, and have been featured in numerous industry publications.

I am a Technologist.

I grew up at the dawn of the personal computing age and became an adult through the birth of the Internet. Raised by computer scientists, I have long held a life-long adoration of technology and its capacity to be both radically disruptive and incomparably redefining of the human experience. As a digital futurist, I actively write about tech and social media.

Kaelon

Hello, My World!

Gen. 1: Origins (1989)

Gen. 2: The World Wide Web (1996)

Gen. 3: Newfound Fame (1997)

Gen. 4: Nu-Alleria (2000)

Gen. 5: Web 2.0 (2001)

Publishing Workflows

Gen. 6: Engines of Creation (2007)

The Future

Darth Kaelon

Role Playing

Games

Robots

Table of Contents

Deployed

Aeon

Meta

Palpatine

Woz

Quixote

Jobs

Enterprise

Pullo

Tolkien

House González

Delegated

Epoch

Carlexgon

Starmoon

Decommissioned

Napoleon

Caesar

Crazy Cellar

Cicero

Kaelon

About

I, Kaelon.