Ran: The Billow Maidens started as a Celestia Add-On sometime in 2003. Version 2, released in november 2004 was basically an expansion, with no content other than a few nice places to visit, wrapped in a rudimentary story outline.

It began as my personal sandbox for exploring Celestia design techniques. It was all about putting together and render a series of interesting landscapes, then create 2D artwork out of it. The appeal, of course, being that one could actually visit these depictions and explore them in full 3D, too.

However, after some success with the Journey through Planetary Space eBook project, i decided to produce the Ran scenario as a science-fiction story that could be experienced entirely inside the program. I have tinkered with it on and off for the last five years, and have had a lot of help and support from the Celestia community. Memory of the Waves is the result.

The star system data was generated with StarGen, while data for moons and asteroids are modelled after the setup of our own solar system (though a few liberties with orbital mechanics are taken to enhance visual effects). Furthermore, all technologies depicted in the Ran scenario are theoretically possible. The Rootax post-singularity scenes are necessarily fantasy.

• Christophe Campos modelled the valley of the Hroenn Ruins, as well as several asteroids
• Martin Charest created the animated chromosphere of Ran, together with several contributions to the Rootax star field
• Ulrich Dickmann and Harald Schmidt created most of the CELX code wrapped around the CELscripts
• Rassilon (of the Shatters.net forums) scetched out the Rootax star system concept and created many of its textures, though the development and implementation is mine
• Don. Edwards created the map the clouds of Hroenn (and in part) Himinglaeva are based on
• Frank Gregorio is responsible for almost all the Cel://Urls of the Encyclopaedia, as well as for proofing the texts. He has also been an invaluable help in smoothing out the scenario

• The word Wub comes from a Philip K. Dick short story about a particularly sneaky alien - Beyond lies the Wub
• The Wubs themselves are renderings of a speculation by Carl Sagan on possible life forms on gas giants.
• The nomenclature of Ran is derived from the Edda. In nordic mythology, the Billow Maidens was the daughters of Ran - the Godess of drowned souls - and the Sea God Aegir. Each of them represents a mood of the sea, and their names are ancient norwegian words for different kinds of waves. (In the myth, the Nine Waves combined is the mother of humankind, while Odin is the father).