Other famous, or infamous, projects of his include Raven Squadron, a would-have-been manga series about a fictional fighter pilot squadron fighting in a very different war in Iraq. Its characters were based almost one hundred percent on people and friends he knew from his ROTC class in high school. This began sometime after 9-11 and finally petered out after May 2004. Who knows, it might get revived someday. High school reunions, anyone?

Another, even older project is the Seafoam project, also known by its more official name, The Elemental Masters trilogy. This was originally a near-direct ripoff of Pokémon MASTER: The Dark Pokémon Wars that he found online back in like 1999. This later merged with a minor Seafoam Pokémon League game that a friend of his was running to become the Seafoam known today: a military island archipelago nation led by a group of powerful Pokémon Masters who have control over the Elements. This project is actually still ongoing, though it’s a post-as-you-will RP rather than a story nowadays.

Around the same time as the Raven Squadron project came the Mobile Suit Gundam Forever project. It was an RP/would-have-been-anime series that combined G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and an alternate Gundam Wing with a plethora of new characters and a G-esque plotline that was a milestone in that it was the first of his project’s to have its plot fully developed from the get-go. Sadly, it didn’t last too long, as it involved a mass of players/actors that really didn’t have enough time between them to dedicate to the project.

Next up is his most famous project to date, Liberi Fatali: The Children of Fate. This project was originally created in August 2004 as a Final Fantasy VII-hating guild that came about as a result of a bad Final Fantasy VII vs. Final Fantasy VIII fanfic he read. It soon, however, developed into a Final Fantasy VIII RP, completely ditched its original anti-FFVII roots, and started picking up a plotline as it went. Originally intended to cover four “discs” or mega-storyline arcs (which is the new term for “major collections of plotlines and storyline arcs revolving around a key villain that serves as a megaboss”), Liberi unfortunately never made it past the first disc, as it died out in June 2006 as a result of its core of players drifting away. Liberi had a good run, however, and it is still fondly remembered today as one of the best. Liberi has set a standard for excellence that Kuro Arashi and all projects since have strived to reach.

The Shadows of the Empire duology comes next, beginning in December 2004. While just barely meeting the vague, unspecified minimum for being considered a project, SotE met a couple milestones which have helped to shape the legacy of Kuro Arashi. Shadows was the first venture into the Final Fantasy X setting, the summon and magic system of which, as well as the class system of Final Fantasy X-2, play a major shaping role in Kuro’s system. Shadows was also the first project in which Chris and one of his usual GM/Story-Teller comrades, The Paradox/M/That Bastard, demonstrated they were fully capable of taking an existing world with its own history and backstory, rip out the skeleton of that history, replace it with elements from a different genre entirely (Star Wars, in this case), and make it blend seamlessly without outwardly changing the world at all. It’s that kind of insane revisionism that truly has made Kuro Arashi’s “Kuroverse” possible. And finally, most importantly, the first tale in the Shadows of the Empire duology was the first project ever that Ganale actually completed. Predictably, the sequel, Shadows of the Empire: The Force Wars was abandoned just out of its concept stages in October 2005.

Lastly, just before Kuro itself, came the Star Wars: Chains of Destiny project. The exact date it began has been lost to history, but Chains of Destiny ostensibly began life in March 2006 as Star Wars: Total War, an epic RPing adventure that combined Knights of the Old Republic, the original trilogy, and the prequel trilogy in an alternate setting to Revenge of the Sith. Like Liberi Fatali and Mobile Suit Gundam Forever, the major points in Chains of Destiny’s plot were written and decided on from the getgo, though the plot was kept secret from the players/actors in order to preserve that sense of wonder and suspense that is iconic to the Star Wars universe. To this day, Ganale refuses to divulge any plot details concerning the latter two mega-storyline arcs of the Chains of Destiny trilogy.

And lastly, that brings us to Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm. It all began sometime in May or June of 2006 with a tale known as Heart of Sword. (What the heck has that got to do with Kuro?) Heart of Sword was set after the events of the Love Hina manga and introduced Seno Nakakami as a childhood friend of Keitaro’s and a future love interest of Motoko. Ironically enough, if Ganale had continued with Heart of Sword instead of shelving it in favor of Kuro Arashi, he wouldn’t have had as much negative feedback about the lack of a proper introduction for Seno!

Then, sometime in June 2006, Ganale decided to write a quick little one-shot set at an unspecified time during the Love Hina series, in which Seno went out of the way to hook up Naru and Keitaro, and ended up snagging Motoko for himself. (Hey, it’s Kuro now!) The original title of this one-shot was Routines, because the opening yammered on about the tenants’ nightly routines. With popular demand, Routines was lengthened into a series that dragged on for the first three chapters, and then by the time the fourth chapter came out, Ganale had developed a plot, villains, and had gotten a title from another of his GM/Story-Teller cohorts, J/Dischord/That Heinous Bitch. And with that, Kuro Arashi was truly born!

Since then, there’ve been some headaches and heartaches associated with Kuro, and there was even a scare for a little while there that it had been canceled prematurely and without notice like all of his other projects, but Kuro is now back on its feet and going strong. Hang in there until the end, everybody!