Jango Janigian ’25 Wants to Take You on an Adventure Janigian’s English Honors Program thesis introduces Dungeons & Dragons players to the rich history and mythology of ancient Armenia.
Meredith Fidrocki
Holy Cross Magazine
On a Saturday in February 2025, six professors gathered at Holy Cross and embarked on an epic quest, guided by Jango Janigian ’25, to recover a lost relic stolen from Mayrenik, a matriarchal nation with a rich, ancient history grappling with recent occupation.
The relic was rescued and the adventure was deemed a great success — as was the event itself, which was a playtest of a new Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) original playable created by Janigian for their English Honors Program thesis. The world of Mayrenik — its people, landscape and lore — were all constructed by Janigian, but inspired by Armenian mythology and history.
Janigian, who is Armenian, hopes the playable short story offers a way to access the richness of Armenia through the immersive nature of D&D, a 50-year-old role-playing game in which players improvise a story guided by a dungeon master, or lead narrator.
“The only time Armenia was talked about in my education was a mention of the genocide in passing,” shared Janigian, a double major in English and classics. “That was devastating, because I knew Armenia as one of the oldest civilizations with a vibrant history. There has always been such a focus on Greco-Roman history that often the rest of antiquity gets completely ignored.”
That is where the idea for the thesis started, Janigian explained: “I wanted to tell that story with a vehicle that I believe deserves more recognition in academia — that’s how I landed on D&D.”
Pioneering D&D in academia
The role-playing game was a natural fit for Janigian, who has been a pioneer at Holy Cross in promoting D&D’s academic credibility.
In 2023, Janigian completed a Weiss Summer Research project on “Journeys through the Radiant Citadel,” a book of 13 playable D&D adventures that incorporate folklore, mythology and history of different world cultures, written by authors from those cultures. That project was advised by Jorge Santos, associate professor of multi-ethnic literatures of the United States, and inspired Santos to develop his popular 2023-2024 Montserrat course Dungeons, Dragons & Diversity, now being adapted into a senior seminar and gaining buzz in Santos’ national academic spheres.
“When you do something pop-y, like Dungeons & Dragons, you’re going to have some people who are concerned that this is light, unserious work,” said Santos, co-advisor on Janigian’s honors thesis. “Jango is the one who revealed to me how profound D&D can be as a learning tool. I never believed that D&D could be this academically rich, and I never would have considered it without them.”
Janigian credits Santos (aka “Dr. J,” as he’s known to his students) with opening their mind to D&D’s academic possibilities in the first place: “It all started in the Montserrat course I took with Dr. J – The Origins of Heroic Ambassadors and 21st Century Mythic Revisions. Our topic was graphic novels and comic books and how what was going on when they were written influenced the way that they were written. That taught me that anything can be academic, it’s just a matter of how you think about it.”
Janigian, who has loved playing D&D since high school, said the course showed them intellectual pursuits and joyful pastimes don’t need to be relegated to separate corners: “I love telling stories and creating characters that have to overcome something, and that opportunity keeps me coming back to D&D. People always say your D&D characters are a part of you in some way, so you’re also getting to work through something you’ve experienced — and doing that with people in a safe, fun environment, as well.”
Adventures in Mayrenik
To kick off their Mayrenik adventure, Dungeon Master Janigian gave each professor at the playtest a gazetteer, the term for a detailed sourcebook of a D&D game’s world. Players chose characters and spent the first hour exploring a marketplace known as the Basalt Bazaar. “This lets players understand the cultural aesthetics of the place, warm up and find their character’s voice,” Santos explained.
In the gazetteer, Janigian wrote Armenian history into the world of Mayrenik, putting their own spin along the way.
“The earliest star maps were found in the Armenian highlands, so that field of study is a huge part of my fictional civilization,” Janigian noted. “One of the main changes I’ve made is that the government is a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy. Armenia is known as Hayrenik, which means ‘fatherland,’ but I have named my nation Mayrenik, or ‘motherland.’ There are also Armenian legends that I’m drawing from and adapting into a queer retelling.”
Janigian says their thesis co-advisor, Dominic Machado, associate professor of classics, helped them think through questions like, “How do I imagine antiquity? How do I approach underrepresented history? How do we understand stories of a classical world?”
Janigian’s gazetteer, in turn, encourages players to reflect on several questions: “What stories were you told growing up? Is there a particular myth that stuck with you? Have you been displaced from your ancestral lands?”
“The great thing about D&D is that you get to experience the research of other people,” Janigian said. “And even if you’re not an academic, this is totally accessible to you. You still get to walk away with an understanding of what this ancient world was like.”
‘A destination, but no set path’
Janigian was awarded an Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities grant through the Society for Classical Studies to fund three illustrators, two of which are based in Armenia, to draw the scenes, landscapes and characters of Mayrenik. The ultimate dream, Janigian said, would be to publish the playable, making the richness of Armenian culture accessible to a wide audience to explore through D&D.
Janigian’s thesis is one of nine projects undertaken by students in the English Honors Program this year, said Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities. The program, which Sweeney coordinates, is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the College. “It takes a particular kind of student to want to write an honors thesis,” Sweeney said. “They have to have this mixture of curiosity and passion to investigate on their own.”
Santos reflected, “We all hope to meet that student who alters the trajectory of your career, and that’s Jango for me. If I did anything for Jango, it was encouraging and unlocking their academic creativity. And in turn, that has happened for me, because now I’m coming up with different kinds of classes and assignments for the College’s new Critical Race and Ethnic Studies department. That’s like D&D … you have a destination but no set path, so you have to be open to creative ways of fulfilling what may be your destiny.”
On a Saturday in February 2025, six professors gathered at Holy Cross and embarked on an epic quest, guided by Jango Janigian ’25, to recover a lost relic stolen from Mayrenik, a matriarchal nation with a rich, ancient history grappling with recent occupation.
The relic was rescued and the adventure was deemed a great success — as was the event itself, which was a playtest of a new Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) original playable created by Janigian for their English Honors Program thesis. The world of Mayrenik — its people, landscape and lore — were all constructed by Janigian, but inspired by Armenian mythology and history.
Janigian, who is Armenian, hopes the playable short story offers a way to access the richness of Armenia through the immersive nature of D&D, a 50-year-old role-playing game in which players improvise a story guided by a dungeon master, or lead narrator.
“The only time Armenia was talked about in my education was a mention of the genocide in passing,” shared Janigian, a double major in English and classics. “That was devastating, because I knew Armenia as one of the oldest civilizations with a vibrant history. There has always been such a focus on Greco-Roman history that often the rest of antiquity gets completely ignored.”
That is where the idea for the thesis started, Janigian explained: “I wanted to tell that story with a vehicle that I believe deserves more recognition in academia — that’s how I landed on D&D.”
Pioneering D&D in academia
The role-playing game was a natural fit for Janigian, who has been a pioneer at Holy Cross in promoting D&D’s academic credibility.
In 2023, Janigian completed a Weiss Summer Research project on “Journeys through the Radiant Citadel,” a book of 13 playable D&D adventures that incorporate folklore, mythology and history of different world cultures, written by authors from those cultures. That project was advised by Jorge Santos, associate professor of multi-ethnic literatures of the United States, and inspired Santos to develop his popular 2023-2024 Montserrat course Dungeons, Dragons & Diversity, now being adapted into a senior seminar and gaining buzz in Santos’ national academic spheres.
“When you do something pop-y, like Dungeons & Dragons, you’re going to have some people who are concerned that this is light, unserious work,” said Santos, co-advisor on Janigian’s honors thesis. “Jango is the one who revealed to me how profound D&D can be as a learning tool. I never believed that D&D could be this academically rich, and I never would have considered it without them.”
Janigian credits Santos (aka “Dr. J,” as he’s known to his students) with opening their mind to D&D’s academic possibilities in the first place: “It all started in the Montserrat course I took with Dr. J – The Origins of Heroic Ambassadors and 21st Century Mythic Revisions. Our topic was graphic novels and comic books and how what was going on when they were written influenced the way that they were written. That taught me that anything can be academic, it’s just a matter of how you think about it.”
Janigian, who has loved playing D&D since high school, said the course showed them intellectual pursuits and joyful pastimes don’t need to be relegated to separate corners: “I love telling stories and creating characters that have to overcome something, and that opportunity keeps me coming back to D&D. People always say your D&D characters are a part of you in some way, so you’re also getting to work through something you’ve experienced — and doing that with people in a safe, fun environment, as well.”
Adventures in Mayrenik
To kick off their Mayrenik adventure, Dungeon Master Janigian gave each professor at the playtest a gazetteer, the term for a detailed sourcebook of a D&D game’s world. Players chose characters and spent the first hour exploring a marketplace known as the Basalt Bazaar. “This lets players understand the cultural aesthetics of the place, warm up and find their character’s voice,” Santos explained.
In the gazetteer, Janigian wrote Armenian history into the world of Mayrenik, putting their own spin along the way.
“The earliest star maps were found in the Armenian highlands, so that field of study is a huge part of my fictional civilization,” Janigian noted. “One of the main changes I’ve made is that the government is a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy. Armenia is known as Hayrenik, which means ‘fatherland,’ but I have named my nation Mayrenik, or ‘motherland.’ There are also Armenian legends that I’m drawing from and adapting into a queer retelling.”
Janigian says their thesis co-advisor, Dominic Machado, associate professor of classics, helped them think through questions like, “How do I imagine antiquity? How do I approach underrepresented history? How do we understand stories of a classical world?”
Janigian’s gazetteer, in turn, encourages players to reflect on several questions: “What stories were you told growing up? Is there a particular myth that stuck with you? Have you been displaced from your ancestral lands?”
“The great thing about D&D is that you get to experience the research of other people,” Janigian said. “And even if you’re not an academic, this is totally accessible to you. You still get to walk away with an understanding of what this ancient world was like.”
‘A destination, but no set path’
Janigian was awarded an Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities grant through the Society for Classical Studies to fund three illustrators, two of which are based in Armenia, to draw the scenes, landscapes and characters of Mayrenik. The ultimate dream, Janigian said, would be to publish the playable, making the richness of Armenian culture accessible to a wide audience to explore through D&D.
Janigian’s thesis is one of nine projects undertaken by students in the English Honors Program this year, said Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Humanities. The program, which Sweeney coordinates, is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the College. “It takes a particular kind of student to want to write an honors thesis,” Sweeney said. “They have to have this mixture of curiosity and passion to investigate on their own.”
Santos reflected, “We all hope to meet that student who alters the trajectory of your career, and that’s Jango for me. If I did anything for Jango, it was encouraging and unlocking their academic creativity. And in turn, that has happened for me, because now I’m coming up with different kinds of classes and assignments for the College’s new Critical Race and Ethnic Studies department. That’s like D&D … you have a destination but no set path, so you have to be open to creative ways of fulfilling what may be your destiny.”
