Back in 2004, I first began my venture into the online world with a fansite. In those days, 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 and how incredibly cool it was to design something yourself for your own use... but honestly, the deciding factor was because I really wanted to use certain images in layouts. Gotta hand it to stubbornness. Once I had that first layout down, webdesign was something I kept doing until the layouts for my fansite were self-made; it was several months after that when 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, 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. nevarra.org was next in line, opening almost ten years later on 17th August 2015. As interests are wont to do, they shifted, and I truly thought I would never move domains again. And then I played Shadowbringers.
As you might have guessed if you've played the (ahem) critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with a free trial up to level 70 and no restrictions on playtime, Norvrandt is named for the fictional continent in which its third expansion, Shadowbringers, takes place. Novrandt is literally worlds away from the residing Eorzea, and the moment I set foot there with my miqo'te I was in awe. All the zones are beautiful, the music - yes, even the infamous lahee - makes my soul soar, and there is something about Shadowbringers that has left a mark on me that, even several years on, has not faded. It's quite possibly one of my favourite pieces of media ever, like. Honouring it as a place for my primary domain to migrate to from another fictional place just makes sense. A friend (hi Larissa) recommended FFXIV and specifically Shadowbringers to me back in 2020 like hey, you'll love this. She was not wrong. It also still fits my unintended naming theme with my other domains (death and the undead)... I'm great at naming things, apparently.
At the moment, I currently own five domains (norvrandt.org, cieth.org, deadlockrebel.org, palaven.org, and farron.net) (technically six as of writing this since nevarra has yet to expire), because I have a problem. Norvrandt was opened on 10th October 2023. Stand tall, my friend. May our journey never end.
So, what about the current layout? The second version of Norvrandt is once more lazily lifted from the first version, and last that was on Nevarra (and the one before that...) because once you get a certain level of presentation down for your main domain, you don't really want to keep changing it up other than giving it a visual refresh every now and again. I absolute refuse to let go of this hobby entirely. This is my space, on the internet. It's mine to do with as I please.
I tried really really hard to do something else with a second layout - by which I mean, something that didn't feature Ashe. I weighed this against the fact I had just recently opened Deadlock Rebel and the next project I was planning to work on was an ode to my wols... where Ashe would again heavily feature. I made three other concepts for this layout that I rejected and on the fourth succumbed to my fate quite happily of spreading the Ashe Overwatch gospel. Listen: I don't know what else to say. Ashe is my girl. They keep making outfits she looks sublime in - the bouncer set was made for her. I tried pairing her cut-out with a few different backgrounds, mostly places in Norvrandt, which again didn't work - so I pulled out the Deadlock Gorge in desperation and was like 'oh, it looks good'. And here we are. The crown is a testament to the fact she is the queen of my heart.
Will I make more layouts featuring Ashe. Find out next time (spoilers: the answer is yes).
