Legend of the Red Dragon was created by Seth Robinson in 1989. Here is what his website says about it:

Question: What is LORD, LORD2 or TEOS? Answer: LORD stands for "Legend Of the Red Dragon" (yeah, I realize the T doesn't fit in, but would LOTRD really sound cool? No) and is an old BBS game I (Seth Robinson) created in 1989. It's been ported to several OS's and several BBS types including DOS, Worldgroup, Wildcat etc. BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) are what we had before we could get on the Internet. Now we no longer use them. The Internet is much better overall, but some people miss the atmosphere of using a small, local system where you can meet people.

The Legend of the Red Dragon has had no "splits" or "forks" to my knowledge, but has been passed from Seth to a company called "Metropolis Gameport", who are continuing work on the LORD program. The lead programmer is currently Michael Preslar, who is active on many fronts in the current BBS world.