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 395 AD in Rome, Louisa Capitolinus, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Theodosius I and the last Vestal Virgin, was raised in secrecy at the Temple of Jupiter. During the sack of Rome in 410 AD, Louisa escaped through an interdimensional portal where she served as a centurion in a alternate matriarchal timeline.
Born in 242 AD in Mediolanum, Alexa Servilianus quickly rose through the ranks of Emperor Aurelian’s legion in Germany after stepping into a dimension portal in Lake Como and returning equipped and skilled with the lightsaber.
Born in 168 BC in Myra, Cagla is a brainwashed soldier subservient to the alien and cyborg invaders who established a secret foothold in Lycia during they heyday of the Roman Republic.
Born 2190 AD in Naissus, Varik rose to prominence as the head of an interdimensional conglomerate specializing in nano processors for A.I. star freighters. Secretly harbouring a licentious penchant for cyborg supermodels, he turns a blind eye to his wife Lexia’s nocturnal indulgences, as the two maintain an unblemished public facade for the good of the company and the empire.
Born in 259 AD in Sarmizegetusa, Wynni was a soldier in the Vandal army that lost to Probus at the Lech river and were exiled to Britain. Seeking revenge, she entered an interdimensional portal at Stonehenge and returned decades later with advanced tactics and equipment to defeat the Roman imperialists once and for all.
Born in 2162 AD in Petra, Zalika hails from an ancient Nabataean lineage renowned for its mastery of trade, finance, and subterfuge. As a plenipotentiary representative of the Crimson Oasis Bank, she holds immense influence within the Red Sands Syndicate, a financial empire that discreetly controls the flow of wealth and power across continents. In a world dominated by RomAngloGallic rulers with ancient minds reanimated in synthetic bodies, Zalika’s current mission is to finance the clone of Hannibal Barca in his revolutionary campaign against Neo-Carthage’s corrupt governor and the cyborg Emperor Caligula.
Born 311 AD in Mediolanum, in a steampunk parallel universe, Gnaeus is a wealthy industrialist who schemes to undermine the corrupt Emperor Constantius II by providing dirigibles and steam chariots to the burgeoning Aztec Empire so that they may reclaim the western hemisphere from the grip of Roman hegemony.
Born 1915 AD in Flavia Solva within an atompunk alternate dimension under Roman global hegemony, Maccus is a criminologist working for the Empire to root out communist infiltrators, employing cybernetic torture techniques to extract confessions; meanwhile, he secretly engages in necrophilic reanimation experiments with the undead.
Born 2161 AD in Tingis, Sabria was sold into servitude to a Roman senator obsessed with ancient Numidian texts. He gave her a gold monocle to read for him—she used it to learn for herself. In Neo-Carthage, she moves through elite circles unnoticed, feeding intelligence to the resistance. At a cursed relic auction, she drew in Velia Vulfric—the flippant socialite with a taste for the macabre—whose curiosity she gradually turned into complicity, and perhaps something more…
Born 275 AD in Amaseia, Thom discovered an interdimensional portal while exploring the caves behind his village. He passed to a war ravaged 42nd century Earth and was pressed into service by alien cyborg overlords.
Born 2112 AD in Neo-Galway, Lorc is a prominent spaceshipping magnate whose daughter was kidnapped by time traffickers and enslaved in the interdimensional metaverse. Now, Lorc spends countless hours plugged into the immersive darknet, financing a brigade of mercenary hackers and cyber investigators while forging a criminal empire of his own; all for the purpose of recovering his child and annihilating those responsible for the abduction.
Born 1 AD in Rome, Larry is a crypt keeper who sometimes takes a little extra liking to a corpse.
Born in 111 BC in Amaseia, Strata was a concubine of Mithridates the Great who, upon capture by the Romans, refused to prostitute herself, instead opting to fight as a gladiator where she caught the eye of a dimension hopping patrician who provided her with advanced equipment and tactical training.
Born 2175 AD in Alexandria, Aker is a clerical assistant at the Library of Alexandria Innovation Hub where researchers have developed the “Giza Glasses”, a groundbreaking AR technology that enables wearers to temporarily inhabit bodies across dimensions. Night after night, Aker sneaks into the library’s vault to use the glasses, immersing himself in the lives of ancient pharaohs to experience firsthand the splendor and challenges of divine rule.
Born 341 AD in Kobe, Ken is a disgraced samurai who traveled to Rome seeking new combatants, hoping to die with glorious honour in a crowded colosseum.
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romanpunks@protonmail.ch
Registered in Ontario, Canada
