Firstly, I have checked the status of all the links - I've changed those that needed changing and deleted those that appear to have really vanished. Amongst the disappeared links, the most painful losses are Jeremiah Genest's pages: De Mirabilibus Mundi and Secretum Secretorum (possibly the removal of this material is related to the publication of The Mysteries?), John Kasab's pages: Sources of Commercial Goods in Mythic Europe, Ars Magica Names Database and Real People for Real Titles, and Russia Mythica (author unknown). If anyone knows of either a working link for these articles, or if they have a backup on file, please contact webmaster at durenmar nospam dot de. It would be a shame if this material was lost to the Ars Magica community forever. I have added approximately 70 new links, which I have been collecting (mostly from the mailing list) over the last couple of years.
About the links... It is not intended to duplicate the role of Project Redcap - which already does a fine job of linking to all known Ars Magica sites. At its heart, Durenmar is really designed to answer the question "I wonder if anyone has already written an article about X, Y or Z?", so I have tried to provide links to Ars-related or Ars-relevant articles (which often appear somewhere within the bowels of Ars Magica sites listed by the Redcap) in suitable places. Although there is some small overlap, this is mostly a different (and lesser) function to that performed by Project Redcap.
The link to Mythic Perspectives (the former Ars Magica fanzine) was out of date and has been replaced by a link to the new fanzine Hermes Portal.
The contact info for the contributors on the front page has been removed, as I know at least some of it was horribly out of date. If you are one of the contributors and wish to have your current email address and/or homepage and/or a short biography of yourself appear here, please email webmaster at durenmar nospam dot de.
And lastly some important news! It hardly needs to be said that, what with this being the first site update in over two years, I haven't really had the time to do justice to Durenmar. So consider this my resignation statement as webmaster... But do not fear - I have been exceedingly fortunate in that a certain well-known Ars Magica personage has stepped forward and very kindly volunteered to take over the hard work of keeping the site up to scratch! I will not reveal his identity just yet, but he will make himself known in due course... I plan to only have a very minor role in this site's continuation, but will continue paying for its upkeep, at least.
The site reopening will likely be announced in a month or two, so stay tuned. Amongst other changes, there will be a new name, new look, and new organisation of material... And more articles of course! (Including some of which I have kept on file for a while.) Hopefully it will not be long before we have 100 Ars Magica articles here - a milestone I had hoped to achieve under my own stewardship, but it will nevertheless be achieved, I am sure. Of course, if you have an article of your own you wish to contribute, feel free to send it along to webmaster at durenmar nospam dot de. (But please also consider supporting Hermes Portal.)
So, this is the last bit where I get all whimsical and misty-eyed... Despite the stasis over the last couple of years, I have nurtured this place from absolutely nothing to being the most comprehensive archive of Ars Magica fan material that exists, comprising (at the time of writing) 81 articles (and 155 links to articles). Of that, at least, I can be proud. I must admit that I feel a bit of a wrench, handing over my pet project to someone else. But I am very confident that the new caretaker of this site will do an excellent job. All things must change, and hopefully Durenmar will go on to bigger and better things... - Terminate remainder of melodramatic waffle
Thanks to all who have contributed to the site over the past almost four years, and helped make it what it is today.
Finally, special thanks to site co-founder Mark Shirley - without his prolific output of material, this site would never have existed in the first place!
- Andrew Smith (Site founder, designer and maintainer, August 1998 - May 2002)