Greetings to one and all within this abysmally-named congregate of adventure-loving souls! I am Finland's answer to the question: "What do you get when you mix together boredom towards the mundane, disdain towards the apathy-ridden society of tomorrow, interest towards the worlds of myth, legend and lore, and naught but unrequited love towards loquaciousness!" A question which, to this day, no one has yet to ask! Lock-On is my name, and flashy tricks are my game! Come for the loud man yelling funny words, stay for the awareness-increasing attributes of my voice, my mannerisms, and the substances that shall remain nameless that I burn within the central air system!

I first witnessed the Arneson-Gygax masterpiece thirteen years ago, when I witnessed two teenage not-so-gentlemen I had the mixed pleasure of associating with play a game with nothing but pencils, erasers, sheets of paper, and shapes of dice I'd never seen before! Curious towards everything new and interesting as I was, I joined in. To this day, I remember weeping when my elven cleric, after exhausting all her spells to bolster the health of my more abrasive comrades, fell upon the pack of black-clad assassins out for her blood. I could only stand by and watch as she courageously unleashed Flame Strike after Flame Strike after Flame Strike, until she had nothing left and those fiends, they... They...

Graarhhhh!!! They tore her apart, the poor thing. With conviction in her heart, she had left on her journey, and they had the GALL to take everything away from her! I hope they BURN!

huff... huff...

OK, I'm good.

Even with my tragic first foray into the world of D & D, the game had already become a part of my very soul. Even though I haven't truly had a chance to play in quite a while, for a single day I haven't forgotten the thrill of the die roll.

I enter this site with hope in my heart that my new characters, varying from noble saints to heartless sinners, will have the joy of venturing out to the world and learning truths about life, camaraderie, true joy and perhaps, even something about themselves.

Whenever I create a new character, I'm reminded of a quote from a certain TV show that has been close to my heart for as long as I can remember; "I only remember one story told me when I was young. It was about two orphans who decided to search the world for their families. And it's all about their adventures, and how they kept searching. But the part I remember most is the end. And when the first man... Reached the end of his journey, he found himself at the beginning. The family he had sought had traveled the world with him. The only family he'd ever known, ever needed, was standing right beside him." It may feel slightly out of place, but that particular episode has always felt important to me. Stories are what we both remember and create whenever life gives us something to work with. They soothe us when we're worried, motivate us when we're depressed, and excite us when we're down. And, in the end, it doesn't truly matter if the journey we've walked was long and arduous or not. It was the friends we walked it with, the people we met while walking, and the knowledge that new road is always ahead.

The people we've created ourselves in our minds have influenced us from the very beginning of our adolescence. The brave warriors struggling against evil where-ever they saw it, the blazing youths rebelling against the injustice of the system, the wise old men guiding our path, the pure souls that gave their everything to protect the world. Even the villains, from the most unforgivable to the most heart-shatteringly tragic, have shaped our minds to both remind us of the sorrows that must never be repeated, and the joys that must never be forgotten.

Right now Utada Hikaru's "Hikari" is playing through my headphones, reminding me of a phrase of a certain different game than the one the song plays in, but has always given a feel of synergy that just feels perfect;

"The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today. Just, one more thing... the people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded... Never forget them."

-Lock-On, game lover, self-announced philosopher and deep thinker, 

July 9th, 2012