The Tower That Grishny Built

You're probably wondering, "What kind of a name for a web site is 'Grishny's Tower,'?" If you're not wondering that, then why did you click on the link to this page? If you are asking that question, then you're in the right place. Because I'm going to tell you all about it.

I purchased my first computer in 1994. One of the first things I did with it was install one of my favorite PC games called Warlords II Deluxe. My buddies and I used to spend hours upon hours playing this turn-based strategy game whenever we could get together. W2D came with a separate scenario builder program that you could use to create your own maps and armies, and being the creative person that I am, I spent many hours carefully crafting my own worlds and sets of creatures with which to conquer them.

Whenever I played W2D with my buddy Gordon, we always renamed the default teams to our own liking, and one name that he used frequently was "Chilce." Eventually, I decided to create a scenario just for Chilce. I put a lot of time and thought into each scenario I built, loading them up with hints and references to invented history and folklore of that particular world. The Chilce scenario was no exception. Each of the eight nations had its own back story, and each of the ruins and temple sites in the game had the most detailed description that character limits would allow. I even put in several lengthy series of "historical markers" in the form of road signs, one of which eventually formed the basis for my 2004 NaNoWriMo novel, Helec.

Grishny's Tower was the name I gave one of the ruins in this scenario. It was supposed to have once been the home of an orcish wizard or "orcmage" who earned his living by placing curses upon the surrounding villages. (Just who it was who paid Grishny for these services was never really made clear.) The name "Grishny" was derived from the character Grishnakh in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers.

Coinciding with my first computer purchase was my introduction to the internet and the world wide web. I signed up for a Prodigy account using the pre-installed software on my PC, and went through several nickname changes in Prodigy chat before settling on "Grishny," taking the name from my W2D scenario and turning it into my on-line identity.

The Grishny character evolved further in the spring of 2000 when I was introduced to the reader community of RinkWorks and became an active participant in the chat and message forum there. It was during those first few months on RinkChat that "Grishny" developed into the distinguished, monocle-wearing gentle-orc that he is today. Interestingly, it was around the same timeframe that I began to learn the rudiments of web design and HTML coding, and the beginnings of an idea for this web site began to take shape.

I knew from the start that this was going to be a somewhat oddball collection of the various odds and ends that I felt like showing to the world. By the middle of 2000, "Grishny" was firmly cemented as my on-line identity, and I think the idea to call my eventual site "Grishny's Tower" came back then. It just took me a few years to get a round tuit and get this thing off the ground.

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