This is goodbye. I have been living a lie for quite a while and it has caught up with me. I am a 60-year-old guy with a wonderful wife who I had promised several years ago that I would not engage in the kind of activity that I've been doing here. It has given me great pleasure to create this stuff but it is at a cost I cannot bear. I have jeopardized not only my marriage but my job but who knows what else. I recognize now that I have an addiction and am going to seek help. It seems very unlikely that I will return.

I have destroyed all my original drawings and wiped the computer files. The ones here will be deleted shortly. All the writing, drawing, etc.is ephemeral anyway, creatable by any number of talented people. The community I've enjoyed here is much harder to let go. I know there are real people behind those avatars and screen names. Like finishing a good book, I will miss you and all those wonderful OCs you've created. In this case, the book will be closed and locked away forever, so the loss is more keenly felt.

My enjoyment of this fantasy world has almost certainly cost me untold real life relationships over the last 40+ years. As I realize how pervasive it has been, I teeter on the brink of despair. I admit now I have a problem, and I don't know what the future will look like as I move away from this part of my life. I have to trust in God, my loving wife, and people yet unknown.