Melbourne, the 1980s
Athmyra began with beer and Dungeons & Dragons in Melbourne in the 1980s. Around the table were Will's father Jukka and his brothers, and their friends Tim (Will's mother's older brother) and Tom. Fantasy stayed with all of them into adulthood. Tim and Tom kept making things: maps, places, creatures and campaigns, with no particular plan to publish them.
An early draft
In the early 2020s, Will started writing a fantasy novel. He had grown up on Conan, The Lord of the Rings and Deltora Quest, along with countless films and video games. When he sent an early draft to Tim for proofreading, Tim suggested setting it in Enarth, the world he had been developing. That conversation changed the book considerably.
Enarth and The First Dreamer
Tom joined the project later. He had first designed Enarth and the Draugrim before 2000, and was still drawing while living in Prague, Czechia. Much of what became Athmyra came from the maps and concepts he and Tim had worked on over the decades.
Will then learned about a Dungeons & Dragons campaign the older group had created. The story changed again, this time using that campaign as the basis for the debut novel, The First Dreamer.
Still building
Today, Will, Tim and Tom each work on their own projects within Athmyra. They collaborate regularly, adding to a world that has been taking shape for around forty years.