I first began my venture into the online world in 2004 with a fansite. Back in 2004, social media wasn't really yet a thing; if you wanted your own corner of the internet, you had to make it for yourself, and I filled mine with my interests and hobbies. At the backend of the year, I moved away from pagebuilders and took the plunge into teaching myself how to code in HTML and CSS for a blog. This choice was partly inspired by what my friends were making... but honestly, it was largely because I really wanted to use certain images in layouts. Gotta hand it to stubborness. Once I had that first layout down, it was something I kept doing until the layouts for my fansite were self-made; it was several months after that I entered the world of fanlistings, now equipped with the tools in order to create them. Spoilers: there's no exit, I'm still there.
My first domain, lost-legends.com, was for my defunct fansite. It was my second that became the centre of my online presence for the next decade - fractured-memories.net. Fractured was purchased on the 24th August 2005 and was online within a few days, with thanks to summer vacation. It had its own hosting package, which meant I could use FTP, make databases, and all that good stuff. Over the years as I branched out with fandom domains (keyofdestiny.org, florete.org, taguel.org, to name a few!), Fractured became my network hub. Though it was a little strange to having let it go after so long, Nevarra is picking up the slack and taking over where it left off... hopefully, to bigger and brighter cyber pastures. This is where the magic (and the cost) happens!
Nevarra is named for a fictional country in Dragon Age. A lot of information about it is only known through ambient dialogue and what Cassandra Pentaghast, seeker of truth (and my heart) has to say about her homeland (nothing good, she hates it), but Nevarra is a morbidly fascinating place. For context, it's a kingdom known for their dragon slayers and for reanimating their dead in a great necropolis. There's a whole array of reasons why I choose Nevarra as a replacement for Fractured: it flows nicely, I was toying with fictional countries and titles and this one wasn't taken, and it falls into an unintended naming theme with my other domains (death and the undead)... I'm great at naming things, apparently.
At the moment, I currently own three domains (nevarra.org, cieth.org, and farron.net), because I have a problem. Nevarra was opened on August 17th, 2015 - just a week shy of Fractured's tenth birthday, actually. Long may the Pentaghast family reign?
So, what about the current layout? The sixth version of Nevarra is lazily lifted from the prior, because it's still extremely serviceable and I have done very little this past year on my domain, but this just revealed (at the time) artwork of Max and Chloe for the remastered version of Life is Strange sent me reeling and apparently 2021 is the year of my 2015 hyperfixations coming back in full force.
I love Life is Strange, and a big part of that is Max and Chloe as characters, but the other significant part of it is their relationship. Let's say Pricefield was a very eye-opening experience for me and that I was, as the people say, shook. Episode 1 is a slow easing but it's when Max teams up with Chloe properly that the game really begins, because it's equally about her; and whilst I am very much a Max, Chloe is extremely dear to me. I am to a degree always thinking about them and the impact they had on me and my life, and that's the sort of thing I love to get out of the media I engage with, because it lasts, and because they have (and did!) impact me so much I guess they're relatable as characters that you might associate with me. In retrospect I'm rather surprised they didn't feature at the time, but Nevarra was recently registered and it was Commander Shepard that took that spotlight, because again, 2015 hyperfixations.
There's not much else to say. Maybe I'll eventually make something I like for Jane Doe more than the ever present Lucina layout. It is not this day.
