I will admit that I have always had a fascination with dymensional plane world-building and questing, though I never took my own interest seriously in that regard until I met Ivella Ogden in person. Even during my high school years, she was a long-time celebrity, remembered as the founder of the Third Level Society, the first Dungeonmaster of the organization, and a mentor to many subsequent Dungeonmasters, especially during the Ceri Mains crisis of 1281 and the Peter Crane crisis of 1282.
I graduated high school back in 1299, driven by my father at the time to enroll in the Three Points Academy to train as a Federal Reserve Officer. Candidates to that Academy each got only one lifetime chance to pass the Entrance Exam, which I failed. My father was disappointed in me but told me that I could still get into the Reserve Officer Training curriculum at Cabotton University, whose Entrance Exam allowed multiple attempts. I tried for this Program the following year, 1300, and failed. However, I tried again in 1301, and was accepted. And as all Cabotton University students in the Program were required, I enrolled as a Psychology major and was made to take their core classes.
So it seemed as if I was destined to leave behind my dymensional planecrafting interest in pursuit of the career path expected of my father. In one of those core Psychology classes, I became acquainted with a group of classmates who encouraged me to join the Third Level Society. I did so, initially intending this to be a hobby and extracurricular, but I was again immersed in the interest, particularly in the story of Ceri Mains. It was here where I began to question what was taught to me by my parents and teachers back in Gymia on the moral standing of darkfire. I had believed, initially that darkfire was dangerous and morally corrupt. But Ceri Mains' darkfire dymensional plane ideas and the ideas shared by the Finzi Community led me to begin questioning everything. At the end of it all, I wanted to put some of Mains' ideas to the test; I just did not have the time or resources.
So came Foundation Day for the Society, 13 September; and that year, they were marking its 68th Anniversary. Ivella Ogden showed up at the Podium of the Caucus Chamber and gave quite a speech of encouragement and inspiration. I felt suddenly compelled to seek her out and have a one-on-one conversation with her but was unable to do so. I found her contact on the OCEA platform and sent her a direct message about my feelings with my career versus my interests.
I did not expect her to respond, so when she did I was elated. She advised me to drop out of the Reserve Training Corps program, since that was only something my father wanted me to do, but told me to continue studying Psychology. She furthermore suggested I enrolled in the Hobbes School as a graduate student in the future to study Dymensional Planecrafting.
I did just that and never looked back. I finished my Psychology degree in 1305 and re-enrolled as a grad student. Usually a Master's study takes two years, but I took three years only because of the extra field work. I grew quite close with Ivella and the other world-building greats like Cray Fenton and Meona Bell. And in the spring of 1308, I went to the Basin District where I attended a lecture given by a representative of the Leyeasah Maritime Council, who claimed that the Universe we live in is, in fact, a Multi-verse consisting of multiple dimensions, very similar to our structure of dymensions for our world, and that those very well-trained in the craft can indulge in substances, particularly hallucinogens, and access the other dimensions within our Multi-verse.
I was, needless to say, very much fascinated by this, and wanted money and resources to put this concept to the test with dymensional planecrafting using a method suggested by Ceri Mains of creating a dymensional plane with algorithms made by special darkfire scripts. It was a method known as "darkfire-script-infusion," which involved inserting darkfire scripts into an algorithms book in order to create algorithms and edit existing ones in a controlled fashion. This method, in theory, would enhance both speed and quality of dymensional-plane world-building.
It was hard for me to be taken seriously when asking for funding. But Ivella Ogden stepped in and convinced Representative John Hartman, a deep sympathizer for Ogden, to work Basin District politics and give me the much-needed funding. And so, with cooperation from Holz Finzi, I assembled my project at the summit of Mount Carris and utilized scripts from a darkfire discharge to build and run a dymensional plane, which was done so successfully and lasted 7.12 seconds.
I was excited to continue with more testing, but there came politics. There was, of course, Kara Martins. But then there was also Ted Mundson, who was a passionate dymensional plane crafter but did not like the idea of darkfire assisting in the craft for fear of taking away a line of work for fellow planecrafters. He had convinced Cassandra North, a darkfire conjurer confined to the Mount Carris Perimeter, to oppose my project as well, as I remember.
I have come to understand Cassandra and her reasoning. She had been cast out by the North family, not only because of her lack of freedom of movement, thus her inability to attend family traditions, but because of the North family's resentment against darkfire. In fact, that was a very important factor triggering their feud with the Weynes thirty years ago. And Cassandra was in league with Ceri Mains, campaigning for the full legalization of darkfire and the opening of Mount Carris Perimeter to allow for freedom of movement.
But Cassandra also shared some sentiment with the remaining Norths, particularly with dymensional planecrafting. She actually agreed with them in their resentment, their belief that world-building apparently had "witchcraft" vibes. Though Cassandra did not insist that dymensionalism was morally wrong, she still believed that it was dangerous to "meddle with existing Multi-verse dimensions and their sub-dymensions." That alone was enough to undermine community confidence in my experiment, especially when it came to standing against Walter Scott Mason and the Knights of the Common Good. So my 1308 Project was done then and there. And so, as I thought, was my career.
But then Ivella Ogden intervened again.
Though she could not sway Cassandra North and her allies, she acquainted me with who would become a close friend of mine: Colin Madrey, hailing from Combria. She tasked me to mentor him in a new project to construct an inter-global dymensional plane linking each world being built by other emerging dymensional plane projects in the Lake Maern Reserve, ones spawned by Ogden herself, as well as links to the Arturian Realm for the Third Level Society. She gave us a deadline of November 15, 1311, and promised at the end a boost in funding, through someone apparently named Greycloak, for a repeat of the 1308 experiment.
It was during this new chapter in my life that Colin and I would achieve more than what was expected of us. By 1311, we decided that instead of doing a repetition of 1308, we would try to use darkfire-infusion in a controlled fashion to re-create the land and society of all of Remikra. That, of course, would require even more funding, which again was a struggle but Ivella obliged to help. I had been in awe of the work accomplished by Cray Fenton, thus the reason I wished to integrate everything to create a dymensional plane copy of Remikra. I had been getting partial funding through numerous donations at that point, with much thanks to Ivella, but I wanted to accomplish this feat. It was also at this point when I began having ambition to have built dymensional planes encompassing all of Circlaria and Ancondria as well.
All of this, of course, led struggles to attaining trust for public funding, which I so badly needed, but Ivella Ogden was with me all throughout. And it is thanks to her help that earlier this year, I finally got the full funding from Prime Minister Holz Finzi's Administration to begin the big Project in South Masonia.
It was interesting learning about her life today. She was born back in 1217, grew up in the present-day province of Ereautea, primarily in the town of the Three Points. She moved in with her granduncle, Merlin Kent Ogden, and observed him convening with future University Headmasters Tom Snow and Martin Cross in their 1231 Dymensional Plane Project. Ivella was given Merlin's house, 124 West Mason Street, upon Uncle Merlin's death in 1235; and Ivella was destined to obtain an education at neighboring Cabotton University, though she dropped out after her freshman year. Her cousin, Glenda Browen, convened with her to start a TableQuest business, which succeeded until the 1243 incident, which kicked off the agenda to found the Third Level Society.
That, I knew about. What I did not know was that she had previously been raised, like myself, to believe darkfire morally corrupt. But then she traveled to Mount Carris in 1237 to study Holz Finzi, who had fled there the previous year from institutionalization. It was the darkfire discharge incident of 1237 that led Ivella to begin questioning what she was taught and finally to realize that darkfire was a morally neutral force and one with more benefits than risk.
It was remarkable, then, her relationship with Daniel Orville Carter. Though she worked with him occasionally, she started the first of many "darkfire sanctuaries" in the years to come to serve as a safe space for those with Involuntary Darkfire Conjuration, winning against numerous lawsuits that came up over the years. She was also instrumental in getting Carter to agree to her darkfire stance following the 1281 Ceri Mains crisis. Then during the persecutions of the Darkfire Community that arose in 1308, Ivella relocated herself to within the Mount Carris Perimeter and collaborated with Finzi in carrying out what would be the 1309 Revolution.
My last time seeing her in person was at her speech for Foundation Day, 13 September, marking the 75th anniversary of the Third Level Society.
I write this, of course, because I have just been informed of Ivella Marie Ogden's passing earlier today. I will sorely miss her, without a doubt. But I know in my heart that she would want me to remain strong and carry on in my cause. So that I will do, in her memory.