The Aethra Chronicles

Welcome

The Aethra Chronicles, Volume One: Celystra's Bane is one of the finest cRPGs ever made. It was made by Michael Lawrence and released in 1994. The first chapter (The Book of Prophecy) is shareware with a further two chapters (Gems of Power & Demon's Might) only available to those who paid for the registered version. The game is, although dated, still very good and very much worth playing. On this website I share all the information and resources I have on the Aethra Chronicles.

NB: Originally, the Aethra Chronicles were supposed to be a three volume sequel. Unfortunately, the second and third volumes were never released.

Table of Contents

• Teasers & Advertisers
• Reviews
• Faq
• Maps
• Spell lists
• Item database
• Shops
• Downloads
• Game files descriptions
• Scripts
• Links

About the game

The Aethra Chronicles is a shareware fantasy RPG based on the Role-Master system, a Pencil & Paper role playing game system similar to AD&D but based on percentage instead of dice. Players begin by creating 3 characters, choosing their class and various stats such as Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Presence, Memory and Reason. The player then assigns skill proficiencies in a variety of abilities dependant on those stats and their chosen class. Combat is turn-based and the player can recruit an additional 3 characters for a total of 6.

Backstory

You live in a small kingdom known as Celystra. Your home is in the town of Stormhaven which is the capital of the Celystra kingdom. Your father is a Knight Paladin and is the King`s Champion, you family has fulfilled this honor for generations. It is a tradition for the title to be passed down from parent to child and hopefully you will also succeed him in this role. Alas you are an only child. Your mother died when you were a small child. The ship she was traveling on was lost in a storm. Your father never remarried because he refuses to believe she is dead. Her body was not found in the wreckage. Lately events have gone very badly. First the old King "Korros the Wise" died suddenly of a mysterious illness. The wife of the new king, "Lythare" son of Korros, gave birth to a new heir on the new king`s coronation day. This great joy suddenly turned to tragedy when two days later the young infant was kidnapped. No one knows who is responsible for this horrible deed. King Lythare blames your father and has charged him with treason for failing to protect the royal family. King Lythare has also dismissed most of the old king's retainers in retaliation for the failure to protect his son. Your father however has been locked in the dungeons with no hope of release. You know your he is innocent of any wrong doing. You believe the best way to help him is to find the missing child and discover who is responsible. With this in mind you and two of your most trusted friends embark upon your quest of redemption.

Why this website?

I've been playing The Aethra Chronicles for a long time... I first got hold of a shareware version of this game (on a shareware CD, which came with a magazine) around 1996. I then tried to buy a registered copy, but by then all the contact information which came with the game had already gone cold. I later got hold of a copy of the registered version of the Aethra Chronicles through some university's network of shared files. This copy was the registered edition of version 1.0b of the game.

Since then, I've pieced together as much of Aethra's history as I could. This website shares all the information I have on The Aethra Chronicles Volume One: Celystra's Bane. While the information is not complete, I hope it can help others looking for information about this game.

Unfortunately, The Aethra Chronicles have been completely abandoned by its creator, Michael Lawrence. So far, nobody seems to have been able to track him down. Which is a shame really; I would love to ask him some questions about this great game (and pay the well deserved, long overdue, registration fee).