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10-23-2006, 10:03 AM

I first heard the name Thoreandan way back in the early 1980s. I heard it while sitting drinking in a tavern. Some rowdy, inebriated adventurers beside me were singing songs of their past battles, treasures, and places they had visited. Then one of them started singing this song, and pretty soon they all joined in...

"Let me tell you about Thoreandan, the man who bit off the dragon's hand. No blows from his sword ever did land, so he bit off the dragon's hand."

There were more verses to it, but that was the line that stuck with me the most. The tavern I was in was the Green Dragon tavern, in the City of Xebec's Demise. The City was unlike any place you could imagine. We had all been kidnapped by aliens and brought to this place that they had prepared for us, kind of like a bloddsports arena. It was a kill-or-be-killed place that the aliens populated with their latest abductees to watch us battle it out, often to the death.

By now you're all probably thinking "what is this guy smoking?" Let me explain. The City was the first part of a series of Computer Role PLaying Games (CRPG's) called Alternate Reality, produced by Datasoft, and written by Phillip Price of Paradise Programming in Honolulu. It was first released in 1982 (I think) for the old 8-bit Atari computers. It was the predecessor of all CRPG games, and was around long before Castle Wolfenstein or the Ultima series was created.

When I read the Tolkien books beginning in January this year (2006), having recently watched the PJ movies, I met up with the Dúnedain Rangers, who reminded me so much of the Adventurers I had met in Alternate Reality. I decided therefore to start writing fan fiction, and specifically to write the story of this Thoreandan (to whom I added the é to make it sound more Elvish), putting him into Middle Earth. So, that is how I became Thoréandan.

The Silverleaf part was added much later, in my role-playing on the LOTR Fanatics Plaza website. We have "Plaza Families" there, and I was adopted into the very large and very active Silverleaf family, hence the last name.

10-23-2006, 10:03 AM	#296
ThoréandanSilverleaf Guest Posts: n/a	The meaning behind Thoréandan's name... I first heard the name Thoreandan way back in the early 1980s. I heard it while sitting drinking in a tavern. Some rowdy, inebriated adventurers beside me were singing songs of their past battles, treasures, and places they had visited. Then one of them started singing this song, and pretty soon they all joined in... "Let me tell you about Thoreandan, the man who bit off the dragon's hand. No blows from his sword ever did land, so he bit off the dragon's hand." There were more verses to it, but that was the line that stuck with me the most. The tavern I was in was the Green Dragon tavern, in the City of Xebec's Demise. The City was unlike any place you could imagine. We had all been kidnapped by aliens and brought to this place that they had prepared for us, kind of like a bloddsports arena. It was a kill-or-be-killed place that the aliens populated with their latest abductees to watch us battle it out, often to the death. By now you're all probably thinking "what is this guy smoking?" Let me explain. The City was the first part of a series of Computer Role PLaying Games (CRPG's) called Alternate Reality, produced by Datasoft, and written by Phillip Price of Paradise Programming in Honolulu. It was first released in 1982 (I think) for the old 8-bit Atari computers. It was the predecessor of all CRPG games, and was around long before Castle Wolfenstein or the Ultima series was created. When I read the Tolkien books beginning in January this year (2006), having recently watched the PJ movies, I met up with the Dúnedain Rangers, who reminded me so much of the Adventurers I had met in Alternate Reality. I decided therefore to start writing fan fiction, and specifically to write the story of this Thoreandan (to whom I added the é to make it sound more Elvish), putting him into Middle Earth. So, that is how I became Thoréandan. The Silverleaf part was added much later, in my role-playing on the LOTR Fanatics Plaza website. We have "Plaza Families" there, and I was adopted into the very large and very active Silverleaf family, hence the last name.