RomanPunks is a retrofuturistic, cyberpunk derivative world-building project inspired by fine art, history and the cryptopunk movement.
A total of 1,000 RomanPunk characters have been frozen in time and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum, WAX, Polygon and Algorand blockchains.
RomanPunk characters are comprised of commoners and famous individuals based on Roman history, art history and pop culture.
The basis for RomanPunk lore and backstories is exhaustively researched by history/sci-fi buff and co-founder, Punktavian.
All images are drawn by hand by woman artist and co-founder, Cleopunktra, without the aid of AI or generative tools.
RomanPunks came into existence through early minting on OpenSea, promoting on Twitter and building a Discord community through giveaways and engagement. The idea of a cyberpunk-derivative ‘RomanPunk’ theme was in our heads for years, but it was the success of the Cryptopunks that became the catalyst for project conception and launch.
After a hard working first 60 days spent networking and attracting new collectors to RomanPunks, our community had begun to flourish and sales increased. We began to offer our collectors an opportunity to battle their NFTs in a tournament bracket powered by dice rolls.
Encouraged by the tight knit community and the carbon-neutral blockchain with lightning fast and low cost transactions, we launched 'romanpunksio' collection on WAX Blockchain as the first step to expand the backstories of our RomanPunk characters and the baseline for future development of a card game.
RomanPunks integrated with Chainlink Labs to utilize VRF (Verified Randomness Function) to host a giveaway raffle for our holders. We developed a smart contract on Ethereum which guarantees true random number selection on chain and can be used for a wide range of functions that require random selection.
After much anticipation in the community, we released our first WAX NFT card 'pack' through the Neftyblocks platform, which sold out in less than a week.
We launched our Twitch channel and begun building an audience by offering numerous giveaways of WAX NFTs from our collection, as well as giving participants a chance to win RomanPunk ETH NFT airdrops for taking top spot at the end of the 'season'.
As firm believers in a metaverse future and land owners in The Sandbox, we undertook to build the RomanPunk Colosseum on 1x1 land and entered our experience "Gladiator Bloodsport" into a GameJam contest. We will continue to build the Colosseum into a PVP arena and social hub once The Sandbox offers creators the ability to do so.
Thanks to the user friendly tools offered by NeftyBlocks, we launched a comprehensive blending system on WAX, allowing our collectors to blend the common NFTs they earn in our Discord RPG up into Legendary famous NFTs through the use of blending 'coins' that can also be earned on the Discord as reward for helping to promote the RomanPunks project.
We launched the VX collection on Polygon. Each owner of an ETH NFT gets their voxel equivalent airdropped to them, and these NFTs can be redeemed for official NFTs on The Sandbox Marketplace once available.
All 1,000 original, unique 1:1 RomanPunk characters hand drawn by Cleopunktra and minted on OpenSea.
The RomanPunk WAX NFT Trading Card Fighter Pack Series II consists of 3 NFTs randomly selected from over 236 characters.
Upcoming plans for RomanPunks include:
Below is a comprehensive and searchable directory of all 1,000 RomanPunk Characters.
Born in 132 BC in Cirta, North Africa, Izara came from a tribe of futuristic warrior women who traveled through a dimensional portal in Egypt to change the course of history by tipping the balance against Gaius Marius and his Roman legion in the Jugurthine Wars.
Born 315 AD in Aksum, Zosimus was cast into an interdimensional portal as a child sacrifice to the gods. Now he resides on the Roman Exocolony Proxima Centauri where his athletic prowess have allowed him to catapult to the top of the Celestial Badminton League (CBL) standings where he remains undefeated after seven hundred sanctioned singles matches.
Born in 349 AD in Ephesus, Dag lived his life plundering cities and towns across Asia, so it was only natural that he continue his reign of terror after falling through a crevasse and portaling to a distant future alternate dimension.
Born 61 AD in Fife, Mac was captured by Agricola’s troops at the Battle of Mons Graupius and dispatched to Mauritania by Emperor Domitian as a slave farmer. While toiling in the fields, he discovered an interdimensional portal which he used to escape to an alternate 20th century in which the Roman Empire remains unvanquished. Now he operates a chariot harvester on a commercial wheat farm.
Born 389 BC in Sparta, Sisko was an unfortunate Spartan warrior captured by time traffickers from a dystopian Romanesque 20th century AD alternate dimension to compete in a gladiator arena at a shopping mall.
Born 130 BC in Cirta, Afer is a grain farming pleb who was visited by a clone of himself from the future and given the recipe for sour mash whiskey, the mass production of which made him rich and famous and provided the liquid courage needed for the Roman legions to triumph in countless battles.
Born in 201 AD in Valentia, Bern, a friend & guard of Emperor Severus Alexander, traveled through a dimensional portal to gain intel on German invaders, but was lost in time and the delay resulted in the assassination of Severus by his own troops.
Born 207 BC in the port city of Apollonia, Suma was a servant woman caught stealing from a wealthy Roman merchant. For this, she lost her right hand and was pressed into service as a scissor class gladiator in Rome.
Born 702 AD in Glasgow, Gwyn Der Fyn, daughter of a tapestry dealer, travels across space and time in search of the hottest shopping malls with the best deals on interstellar jewelry.
Born in 131 BC in Jutland, Storm was a blacksmith in the disastrous war against the Roman forces of Gaius Marius. After their defeat, his wife, Oda, was enslaved as Marius’ concubine and he was cast into a dimensional portal to serve as a gladiator in a parallel universe of a Roman atomic age.
Born in 260 AD in Palmyra, Elysia is the daughter of a wealthy priest of Sol Invictus and was advisor to Queen Zenobia. She rose to become a preeminent chronocartographer, a specialized navigator who maps the pathways between dimensions. Upon Aurelian’s invasion, Elysia charmed the emperor, offering her temporal services to immortalize him through time. But hubris brought his end, as a time assassin intervened to stop Aurelian’s power grab.
Born in 116 BC in Tarsus, Levona is a lover and lieutenant of Pompey the Great who helped pacify Cilicia for the Romans. Levona traveled through the interdimensional portal in the Temple of Tarsus, seeking futuristic weapons and intel that could support Pompey in his civil war against Julius Caesar.
Born 379 BC in Pella, Electra taught Alexander the Great about killing and lovemaking until his jealous mother, Polyxena, had her cast into a pit of vipers and erased from history. Legend has it that she escaped through a subterranean interdimensional portal.
Born 2205 AD on a large family estate near Viminacium, Lexia ascended to prominence as the senator instrumental in ending the cyborg wars. She also leads a dual life in the narcotic-fueled underworld of interdimensional cyber raves. By day, the diligent diplomat and servant of Rome; by night, the pursuit of ecstasy among a coterie of anti-imperial aliens, vampires and time travelers.
Born 733 BC in Neapolis, Bardash was captured and enslaved by King Midas after an unsuccessful raid into his Kingdom of Phrygia. Known for his knowledge of and resistance to poisons, Bardash became an alchemist and food taster for the king.
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romanpunks@protonmail.ch
Registered in Ontario, Canada
