KaonForge

About KaonForge

An invite-only beta where original characters get a real home: dossiers, timelines and the indie comics they appear in.

KaonForge: What's in a Name?

In particle physics, a kaon is a short-lived subatomic particle classified as "strange." It appears and decays quickly. I liked the name before the metaphor fully clicked.

It maps to character work more than I expected. Alternate timelines, lore across wikis and folders, read links in three places, collabs with other creators. The pieces get scattered. KaonForge is where I try to make that strange, scattered mess make sense for someone else: one character page, a clear read order and credit on the work.

Forge is the other half: pull those scattered pieces together and build them into something more cohesive, a story that actually holds together.

What this is

KaonForge is a home for character pages and indie comics. Browse character dossiers, read published series and follow a story from one place.

It is built for creators who want character wikis, series and comics in one studio, and for readers who want one link per character: art, backstory and what to read next.

What you can do here

  • Build Start character pages with timelines, relationships and a curated read order. Publish series and chapters so "where do I start?" has a clear answer.
  • Read Browse character dossiers, series and comics on Discover. Follow a creator's work or open a character page and follow their story path.
  • Collaborate Team up on comics and shared characters with other creators. Credit writers, artists and editors on the work, including commissioned artists on character pages.

Why it exists

I kept my OCs and stories in too many places: folders on my drive, wikis, different comic hosts, read links scattered everywhere. A lot of the writing lives in prose and roleplay too. KaonForge is not trying to replace that. It is for the comics side: the published pages, the character pages and the read order you can actually hand someone.

What I did not have was a good answer when people asked, "So what's your character's story?" I wanted one link: here is the character, here is what to read and here is how it fits together.

I also could not solve that with a simple website. Most of my comics were made with other artists/writers who deserve credit on the work. Credits and collaboration are part of the foundation here, not an afterthought.

KaonForge started as a personal website for my own work. Over time it became clear the same problems were not just mine: scattered hosting, no single link for a character's story, collabs that need proper attribution. If it helped me, it could help other indie creators too. So it became a platform, albeit still early and still invite-only. It is built for a studio of your own, not just mine.

Beta status

KaonForge is in invite-only beta. Access is by invite code. We are shipping features, fixing rough edges and keeping the cohort small on purpose while the platform finds its footing.

Readers can browse Discover anytime; no account required to read published work.

Support the platform

KaonForge is a home for original characters and indie comics. It runs on paid hosting. One-time tips on Ko-fi help with infrastructure if you want to chip in. Reading, publishing and collaboration stay free.

Creators can also join optional Patron (about $5/mo via Stripe) for premium profile cosmetics and character splash atmospheres. Cosmetics only: no locked publishing or collab. Extra support helps keep the site stable and, when we are ready, invite more creators into the beta without cutting corners on performance.

Who's behind it

Rivana is a self-taught artist and comic creator as well as a software programmer by profession. She is the person building KaonForge. She uses it as her own studio for her Original Characters (OCs) and published comics. The platform grew out of that need.

Rivana is also one of the co-founders of the Original Character League (OCL)/Comics Tournament site Oculama.

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