I do not remember how or when I acquired this shareware game, but when I briefly lost internet access in '96 I play a lot of it. I have been trying to remember the name of the game for years, this weekend I found the manual in storage.

Time to try getting it to run again and see if it is as good as I remember it being.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aethra_Chronicles

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-aethra-chronicles-volume-one-celystra-s-bane-31i

Update: after reading the Wikipedia entry, I likely got the shareware version via a magazine in '94-96, then mailed away for the full version in '96.