Who is Grindan?

This colorful fantasy landscape met the world in 1996; to me that is mind-blowing...

The game it comes from is called Heroes of Might and Magic 3. It has a lot of roots in my life, including the selection of my screen name on Hive! In 1996 I was a kid, and I had my own PC computer. Back then, the monitors were nearly as big as I was.

It wasn't that I come from some moneybags family or something, I had a computer because my dad is a nerd.

When he replaced his computer, I received his old one. I can only assume that his hope in setting me up a desk next to his was more gaming time.

He played Heroes tournaments with people from around the world, and I celebrated each battle I won offline on easy mode.


I guess it was destiny that I'd grow up to be a big ole dork too.At that age I liked the Rampart faction, whose armies are populated by Elves, Unicorns, and Centaurs.

I almost exclusively played as this town for many years. I liked to read fantasy books, to follow the hero as they slay monsters and demons.

HMM3 let me play those ideas out, vanquishing skeletons and manticores across Erathia.

I didn't keep playing computer games as I grew up. I began to prefer tabletop games and console gaming, but I've always returned to Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

As time went on, I branched out into other factions. I began to like The Conflux town the most. Shown in my first photo, it is a city of elementals. Here you will find everything from slithering water elementals, to psychic elementals who strike out with their minds.



The Conflux is also the home of Grindan, a clever Dwarven mage. Maybe Grindan is the reason I've often played Dwarves throughout the years. I had a D&D character for a long while that was not unlike him, that fella carried an enchanted sword and called lightning from the sky too.

He's not much to look at, but this is the guy himself. Why is he so small?! Cut me some slack, he's traveled all the way from 1996 to say hi to you, and he's doing his best! Heh, and also if I make it any larger, he will just be pixels. Nostolgia 😂


Admittedly, Grindan wasn't my first choice. (Sorry bud...)

Some slacker took the name gelu in 2017 though, and never used the dang account! Gelu is an archer from HMM3 that trains a special troop called sharpshooters, and was the first name I tried. The second name I tried was @grindan, and here I am!



There are so many times in my life that I wandered with no plan, little to no funds in my pockets. Somehow, I was always able to find just what I needed when I needed it in those times. I had faith in the universe, and the universe always pulled through.

I relate to Grindan in this way, because one of his special skills is that he finds a small amount of gold everyday. This is possible because of his connection to the earth.

He communes with the ground to slow his enemies, pulls matter together to implode foes, teleports across the earth to hasten travel... I can do none of that obviously, but I like to think I have a similar amount of gumption when facing life's issues. I find "gold" all the time in harmony with nature.


This is from a recent game, roughly from the halfway point. Here I've beefed Grindan up. He's learned a town portal spell, and thanks to his expert earth magic, he's skating across the map shredding folks with just those phoenixes.

I downloaded the game from the GoG site several weeks back for the grand sum for 2$, and I've been enjoying revisiting it yet again. The last time I had much time to play was roughly 2 years ago, when my son was still a little guy.



This snap is from two winters ago. Emory still liked to sleep on me for several hours of the day back then, so I'd play HMM3 on my laptop while he slept.

From my childhood to the birth of my own children, this game is laced into my memories in one way or another. It was fun to reminisce on the ways this game impacted my life in a small way, and to share the story behind the name Grindan!

^{Photos are my own. Screenshots come from the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3, made by 3DO.}