Nedueb is a happily married family man living in Surrey who often indulges that part of him that is still a young south London boy who picked up his first Fighting Fantasy book in 1984 and has been exploring the world of Titan ever since.
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The Introduction
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On a 1984 family holiday to Whitby on the Yorkshire coast, a far cry from his native south London, Nedueb was pulled into a small bookshop. There, he was drawn to the artwork of Fighting Fantasy. Spotting the opportunity to keep a little boy quietly entertained for large segments of the remaining holiday, his aunt (his mother’s best friend in fact) asked him to choose which of the seven books he wanted. His first Fighting Fantasy related choice lay before him and after his aunt firmly established that he could have “only one”, he plumped for Deathtrap Dungeon. He wasn’t disappointed, and resolved that he would collect the rest. Little did he know that “the rest” would expand well beyond a further six books. The cartography of Leo Hartas was a passion for the young Nedueb and he enjoyed piecing together the various maps from different titles. He continued to collect the books, and related titles buying them as soon as they hit the shelves, but if the truth be told, he didn’t play the books much past book 36 (Armies of Death), instead buying them to continue his collection. Somewhat incongruously, Nedueb never played Dungeons & Dragons (although he loved the cartoon!), but Talisman was a firm though occasional favourite.
The Hiatus and the RenaissanceEdit
After buying book 50, Return to Firetop Mountain, the great hiatus began. Not only was there no more room on the bookshelves but the latter teenage years came with many other distractions. It was only in 2001, close to a decade after buying book 50, that Nedueb entered the words “Fighting Fantasy” into an internet search engine and the renaissance began. From a collector’s point of view, Nedueb found that he had frustratingly ceased to buy the books with only 9 remaining. He found out for the first time about Warlock, Battlecards, Fighting Fantasy Computer Games and incredibly about Casket of Souls, which must have passed unnoticed in the golden years. From a fan’s point of view he came across an active fan-community whose enthusiasm and enjoyment of the genre he found alluring. He soon joined Rebuilding Titan whose vision resonated with the passion he had had over fifteen years previous.
Creativity IndulgedEdit
The discussions on Rebuilding Titan, and subsequently Titan Rebuilding, addressed many issues, tackled many inconsistencies and often displayed a deep appreciation of the Fighting Fantasy canon. They also enticed from Nedueb the reemergence of that part of him that as a little boy would draw maps of Allansia. Nedueb’s first foray was a Theology Encyclopaedia fusing his passion for Greek mythology with that for Fighting Fantasy. This indulgence of his creative side, that was largely left to sit in the corner of his mind in his day job, led further. He created a map of eastern Allansia for Dave Holt who incorporated it into his map of Allansia. He went on to try to map Sword of the Samurai, and created a huge map in Adobe Photoshop of Hachiman. He then decided to expand this to Khul, thinking it would be a small exercise. He was wrong. He then started Fang’s Finest Emporium, initially to showcase the maps. The site became an attempt at being another repository of Fighting Fantasy information, whilst staying in the character of a Fang-based shop-owner (called "Enkyn"). Nedueb found that by the time he had mapped Khul, he had largely catalogued the Khulian books. A spark light a fire in his mind that he tried to suppress, but the inferno spread, and soon he was creating the Khulian Encyclopaedia which found its home on the Emporium. Nedueb soon got a better appreciation of the task facing webmasters who try to single handedly maintain interesting and up to date websites.
A Quest to Create a Vessel of KnowledgeEdit
Nedueb had long felt that much of the discussions and excellent theories expounded on the Titan Rebuilding and Rebuilding Titan sites would be lost in the depths of the archives as time marched inexorably onward. He had similar concerns for the information on The Shrine of Hamaskis and Fang’s Finest Emporium. In the few years he had been part of the community, he had witnessed the departure or gradual fading contributions of many great and passionate Titanorians, such as, but not limited to, Daniel Williams, Doug Riddell, Daniel Flanders and Alaric. Similarly, sites such as the original Fightingfantay.com ("The Scrolls of Titan”), The Shrine of Hamaskis, and Advancedfightingfantasy.com had suffered the curse of having only one webmaster who was unable to maintain the content. Nedueb himself often left great stretches of time between contributions. Whilst browsing wikipedia one day, Nedueb came across Memory Alpha and Wookipedia. These wiki sites, dedicated to specific franchises, were inspirational and led him to an almost inevitable conclusion that this could be the answer to the problem of avoiding losing the work so painstakingly pieced together by the Fighting Fantasy fan-base. It could also unite the various interest groups of Fighting Fantasy fans, be they rebuilders of Titan, collectors of merchandise, afficionados of the artwork, or historians of the franchise. He put the idea to his fellows at Titan Rebuilding, the last bastion of the community, and then went about building the blocks of the wiki that would be called Titannica.
FavouritesEdit
Nedueb’s favourite books are the Sorcery! epic, (particularly Kharé - Cityport of Traps), and Caverns of the Snow Witch. Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World also has a special place. His favourite character is Nicodemus and his favourite illustration is that of Kharé on the inside over of the A4 version of Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World, in which he has spotted the window to his residence, should he have had one in Titan.
Titannica ActivityEdit
- User:Nedueb/Mini Projects
- You can view his contributions here
Nedueb loves to bring to light facets of Fighting Fantasy that have hitherto been unexplored or lightly touched. His initial drive was to create a solid basis for Titannica upon which others could easily build. This involved the creation of a name, logo, basic rules and certain policy articles. He also transferred over much of the content of Fang’s Finest Emporium and a Category Structure to get Titannica off to a running start. It seemed to work, with the site being upgraded by Wikia within a month to a full wiki. Nedueb has a habit of distracting himself continuously from focusing on one project to the next. For instance, writing a user page was an early item on his to-do list and has taken seven months. He thinks a project page would be a good idea, but has distracted himself from creating one. He would rather write articles on Titan itself, such as Shazâar, but has felt a need to clarify a number of "meta" areas over which there has been much confusion (or lack of information) elsewhere on the web (such as BattleCards, Fighting Fantasy Miniatures and other collectible related items).