The following is the story of the origin of E’thia as told by the original creator Graham Benjamin
“As a child I loved playing all type of board games. My favorite part has always been setting them up, placing the pieces on the board, and building the world.
However once that process had been completed, I would quickly lose interest or get bored. Each game would have one or two things I loved but somehow seemed to fall short at some point. I loved chess, but people would take it too seriously removing the fun of playing. Large scale role play games were fun, but the complicated rules and lag time in games made playing frustrating. Being a huge fan of snap together building toys and other mini figures, I began playing around with my own versions of games. Cutting and pasting the things I liked or disliked about all of the them for years while adding my own twists.
Then in high school, born out of a desire to have a more creative outlet, my friends and I started working on game ideas I had been developing. We created a massively intense super complex game that seemed to have no end to its growth. Years went by as I tried to dial the rules and charterers down into something that could be easily taught and kept up the fast pace I loved in games.
The flash of brilliance came revealing what was needed — remove all the extra stuff that had been clogging up game play, and break it down into its most elemental form. Once people became familiar with the rules and game play, then we could release the deluge of extra content so the game continues to expand infinitely. I went to work on hacking and slashing the game until I had something truly unique to the gaming world. A system designed to be so simple it can be played in sand with rocks and sticks. That allows people to create their own armies, build their own worlds, find their own truths, and share them with their friends.
After flushing out the rules through extensive trial and error I hit another major road block in development. Why? Why are our charterers in E’thia fighting each other? What makes this world special and drives the leaders into battle. Then it all came at once, it’s for the same reason I wanted to create this game (Truths). Truths are an ethos or idea that have been proved to you through experience. One of my main truths states that the universe is in constant conflict between opposing forces, and through this conflict these forces strengthen each other. Because of this truth we have decided to use the four elements to represent these opposing forces as the foundation of E’thia. Gaming provides a perfect example of this truth as we improve ourselves through playing them, becoming smarter and better at communicating our ideas.
Through this process E’thia has become more than just a game. It has become an artistic and philosophical platform for the sharing of ideas and the development of imagination and creativity.
-Graham B.”
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