A SHRIEK OF ASH AND FIRE 1(WIP) [approx 70K UPDATE, 2.07 Million TOTAL-26th April 2026] (2.21 Million on Patreon)

[Ice2]

While I was playing as a dwarf legionnaire I got to a certain part in the book where every time I click next, the page will just constantly load and not show anything new. Was wondering if this was a path ending so I can no longer progress, or if it’s a bug. Since I cannot upload a photo, hopefully if I give the specific text to the page, maybe that can help. The text shown below to the specific path I’m playing will show the page that I’m having difficulty with.

Amidst the huddle on the back, another legionnaire raises her voice. “Right, some of you know me, Favoured Ironwill, of the 4th Century. Keep alert and cover yourselves with glory.”

[NumberedEntity]

Thanks. Having a look. I can’t see the problem, but it may be an issue with the way I uploaded the scenes? You should find a page break, and then, upon clicking it, a new scene loads. I am changing the *goto_scene to a *goto_scene label and adding an extra label. I will quickly test this and upload it to Cog Demos.

EDIT: Tested it in cogdemos and it works! I don’t think it will have messed with your save game, as I didn’t change any variables. Please try again and let me know if the problem persists.

[Ice2]

It managed to let me move on after the fix. I was able to progress further into the story. Must’ve been a bug, thanks for the fix.

[BismDweller]

Stumbled on what I'm assuming is a pronoun mix-up in Brakka.

*label shotmantil

"Oi, let me see, " says one of the brothers, pushing you aside.
*if (male)
“The bitch got him! Oh, I was looking forward to that.”
*if (female)
“The bastard got him! Oh, I was looking forward to that.”

Head shot error in carriergunnar?

*else
*comment)fsnipe

*if (dexterity >50)
*rand die_roll 1 10
*if (die_roll =1)

You ready your farsnipe and set your sights on your foe. CRACK! Your shot blasts a hole into your foe’s head, sending their ride into an uncontrollable spin. The vehicle tips and smashes into the rocky ground.
*set foehp -0

Pretty sure I was right about a bug in the Blackwood encounter.

#Investigate the underdecks.
*set investtime +1
*set underdecktimer 0
*if not ((blackwoodrev) and not (blackwoodrevfail)) and (blackwoodspoke)
#See if you can find ‘Lord’ Blackwood somewhere in all this steam.
*if (underdecktimer =0)

The dim orbs flicker, casting long shadows as you search for ‘Lord’ Blackwood, the silver-tongued manling known for his poisonous whispers. You approach a group of halfling swabs, their hands busy scrubbing grime from the deck. Their eyes dart nervously as you ask about Blackwood’s whereabouts.

“Blackwood? Ain’t seen 'im,” one mutters, avoiding your gaze. The others nod in quick agreement, their movements hurried, as if eager to return to their work. You press, but they shake their heads, lips sealed while throwing themselves into their work harder than before.

The upper decks might have a similar issue if I’m reading the code correctly.

Repeated word before we attacked New Yeirshee: By the gods, this is really happening. Half of you you wants to run, to shove back through the mob.

Keep up the good work!

[NumberedEntity]

@BismDweller

Hi, mate. You are really helping me with this and with the offer messages. If you like, I want to give you a credit, perhaps as a playtester or something. Up to you. If so, just let me know what name you would like to use.

I am cloudy from celebrations and am so eager to continue the story. I want to get to the end now, but I will not rush it, so I feel a little like the Sword of Damocles is hanging over me, and I’m currently getting mental knots looking at the coding. (Not one of my skill sets).

I’m going to DM you, and if you have time, would you be able to explain the issue with Blackwood and the upper deck? There is no obligation on you; I place no expectation on your time, and you are free to say you are too busy. Regardless of that, I would still like to offer you a credit. Really, I am looking to just cut down the time I take trying to find something I am a bit lost with.

Massive thanks.

[NumberedEntity]

scene westward

line 1575 (*set underdecktimer 0)

line 2235 (*set upperdecktimer 0)

The issue is that these lines constantly reset the variable to 0 in an event dependent on the variable changing. I assume it is a leftover from testing, a failsafe, or something used to test a particular part of the following event.

These lines are involved in the investigation into the plot on the king’s life in the Royalists’ path.

I have commented out the lines to remove functionality. If anyone is playing/testing the Royalist path and the king’s investigation, particularly if they are pursuing Blackwood, please let me know how it goes and if any problems present themselves. I will be testing too. Quicktest and Randomtest present no errors, but these can never match personal playthroughs.

EDIT: As far as my personal testing goes, the scene works as intended. Let me know if anything crops up!

[AlexHaydenX]

I just finished the Green Journey and really loved it! From what I’ve read so far of this demo I think I would love this as well.

My question is, would this game have only one predetermined canon of the fate of the Orcs or in the final version of the game can we transfer our saves from the Green Journey to this one as to determine what happened to the orcs?

[NumberedEntity]

Hi Alex,

Massive thanks for playing my games! And welcome back!

Your question is a good one that has been asked before. For this game, I have taken a canon version of our MC from the first game, that of a Green Emperor.

There is a lot of freedom within this canon – history is hazy, and things are never remembered correctly. Apart from the fact of the Green Emperor, I have taken the friendship between the Emperor and Merchadi, the Scorned Elf, as canon, with the Emperor granting the scorned elves a small homeland in the hills. Or, if your orc did not do this, perhaps a successor did…

In A Shriek of Ash and Fire, we exist in a world that does not have perfect recall of past events, and the Green Empire is steeped in exaggerations, lies, falsehoods and propaganda. I think this makes sense in regard to orcs being bad at record-keeping, but it is also a convenient trope to allow players to insert their orc MC into a past that is somewhat blurred by the fog of legend. Memories of the entire Green Empire, as the world remembers it, can be considered unreliable. Some feats may be given to the Green Emperor that should be given to his successors, and vice versa.

If you became an old, non-emperor or non-demon, orc, we can assume the Green Emperor rose after our orc’s life, and he may have been our MC’s protégé (in Green, an old orc can, in fact, raise the future Green Emperor). The only endings which fail to completely match any part of the Green Emperor canon are the Shaman Path and the Demon Path – here, we can conjure up a multiverse (which will never be referenced in the story) and a splitting of time and space due to vast abyssal or ethereal powers. I happily bow to player headcanon.

Importing such a vast amount of save data into an already huge game would, sadly, make it unworkable for me. This is not to say that I wouldn’t do this in the future, if this game does well, but it would be too much right now. I would drown. Sometimes, I feel like I am already drowning because this game keeps getting bigger, although we are closing in on the concluding section

Ideally, I would love to have carried over save data, but it is beyond my bandwidth. The ripples of our legendary orc’s achievements will have faded and, apart from adding flavour text, not affect the story. Yet, the world is indeed the product of the Green Empire; it is the pivotal event in the breaking of the old ways.

[AlexHaydenX]

Thank you so much for responding! You already did a lot with Green Journey and this one that I understand importing world saves of such massive games would be tenous. But hey I had to ask. Still it wouldn’t deter me from enjoying this new IF at all, especially that you’ve also provided suitable explanations for how the other end states would work.

I was just shocked that everything went to shit for the orcs after 400 years especially when my peace-loving King Orc made friends with everyone and died fighting the Cyclops. Still, a sequel wouldn’t exist in a perfect ending no?

But anyway, I can’t wait to read this in its full release. For now I’ll sink my fangs to this demo and give my thoughts as best as I can. Green Journey was the one that brought me back to this community and what a baller move on my part for choosing your story to do so.

[NumberedEntity]

Haha, I am honoured Green brought you back!

I know many have lamented that the orc empire fell, but they got a good innings – 400 odd years is pretty amazing by anyone’s metric. But it simply couldn’t last forever. Orcs are not built that way, the average one being short-lived, a bit stupid and exceedingly brutal. No matter how great our Green Emperor was, the natural gittiness of orcs would eventually make itself known. Your MC was an absolute exception, the greatest orc in history. I haven’t detailed the whole history of the Green Empire, but the last emperor let it all go to pot after his predecessor managed to claw back the decline a bit.

I put one of my Patreon lore posts on Tumblr about the death of Krogus Disgustus (the Last Emperor), free for anyone to read. Here’s the link, just in case you want to see… It is very inglorious (actually, it is probably available to read on one of the in-game stat menus. I have included a few pieces of relevant lore: Tumblr)

Yeah. A Shriek of Ash and Fire is a risky follow-up, as you are not an orc, and it, while being extremely choice-heavy, is not a sandbox. Its size is due to many paths and choices, though, so I haven’t skimped. Tonally, it is very different. But, mostly, I hope folks enjoy it and explore. It is designed for many replays.

Thanks, mate, for giving it a go!

[Sujan_Dhakal]

In the end, every Empire Falls, it’s just a fact of basic history, the question isn’t if, but when, and how long you can make it stick, and when the green empire seems to have been their version of the Roman Empire, I’d say they left a mark

[Patrick_Cody02]

@NumberedEntity

Ideally, I would love to have carried over save data, but it is beyond my bandwidth. The ripples of our legendary orc’s achievements will have faded and, apart from adding flavour text, not affect the story. Yet, the world is indeed the product of the Green Empire; it is the pivotal event in the breaking of the old ways.

A lot of coding is required to program something like that, and unless the MC’s Achievements are stored on the Archives of Grandardgard (Humans), as well as Archives from other Races (Elves, Dwarves, Halflings), then yes, it won’t last forever

[Denzil_Melgior_Nagel]

Well, long time no post. I must say, I have silently read some of what you have already written, and so far it’s a masterpiece. I am also on team cheats. To be brutally honest, I went back to retro games just for those god mode runs. The Game Genie, Pro Action Replay and the GameShark are absolutely savage especially when using an emulator. I tend to lose interest when I fail back to back. In any case, I’m slowly getting back into things. You can expect me to start giving proper feedback soon.

[NumberedEntity]

@Sujan_Dhakal @Patrick_Cody02

I understand the desire for the Green Empire to last forever. It is proper orcy thinking. Alas, orcs are far too volatile for that. Rise, decline and fall – we just can’t escape these laws of history. Perhaps magic can make an eternal empire more likely, but then again, it would also make it less likely if magic were turned against your empire. In Ash and Fire, the Basilisk is about making this ‘forever nation/empire’, though it relies on technology (yes, I know, fantasy tech, which is basically another form of magic, but let’s go with the flow). Such a reality seems a bit grim

*I bought a game called Shadow of Forbidden Gods, all about taking down the nation and heroes of the ‘old world’. A sort of ‘evil’ CK3, but fantasy. Rough around the edges, but I love it!!!

@Denzil_Melgior_Nagel

Hey bro, good to see you. Haha, those names really take me back, ‘Game Genie,’ and ‘Action Replay’. I proudly say I use Cheat Engine these days!!!

Yep, I will add a ‘cheat mode’, although it is less needed for this game, since we also have skills as well as stats. I would not add skills to a cheat mode, as it would really mess things up, but I’ll let us set the stats. I have made this game much more forgiving than Green. You can still die, but once you’ve passed the 1/3 of the way through mark, it is rare.

Cheers for playing one of my projects again, mate, and Happy New Year to all of you!

[NumberedEntity]

POLL: Important. Considering a title change.

This is a very crude, simplified route map. Within each route is a load of paths and possibilities.

A Shriek of Ash and Fire is a large game. The title is a play on A Song of Ice and Fire, since some routes in the game have you scheming with royalty.

But this game is basically a ‘Heroic Origins’ simulator, raising our hero from the grimy streets of Grandardgard into someone who will, one day, reshape the world. It is extremely choice-heavy, and although large in total, the value of the game is in repeated replays. Here, we can have many vastly different experiences, rather than a single, long, massive story. It is designed to replay and explore, which I know not every IF player does. Not just IF players, but players for most games.

To fit various storefronts, the game’s title can’t be longer than 29 characters, including spaces. As I start to formulate how to best market my game, I feel this will reflect the player’s experience better. The new title implies that a sequel is forthcoming, without having to stick a number on the game

So, I propose: Risen from Ashes: Origins.

EDIT: I suppose the sequel could be, Risen From Ashes: Legend.

EDITEDIT: The subtitle could be A Shriek of Ash and Fire, carried over all the games.

• Risen From Ashes: Origins. I approve.
• I prefer A Shriek of Ash and Fire
• Well… I have my own ideas. Please leave a message or dm me.

EDIT x a million: So, a bit late after the poll. About half and half. My Patreon poll was not as close as this. Almost 70% liked the idea of the title change. I’d be happy to hear why folks who have played this think the way they do.

A mockup of the proposed new title:

Note: The lettering is filled with an array of ‘yellow lava’ tiles from Inkarnate, slightly darkened at the base to give the hint of ‘ash’ with the fire ‘rising’.

[Patrick_Cody02]

@NumberedEntity

So, I propose: Risen from Ashes: Origins.

EDIT: I suppose the sequel could be, Risen From Ashes: Legend.

Something tells me that “Half-Blood: Ashes to Glory” fits the theme and story of the MC better.

Then I think “Half-Blood: Legends of Glory” as the sequel title.

It is just my suggestion.

[a_shoggoth]

So ive only played the game a couple of times so i dont think i can comment on which title fit the story better. But just looking from a marketing perspective, the old title was more unique and eye-catching. Shriek is an uncommon word, and if i see the old title on a bookshelf it would make me pause and pique my interest even for a second.
Whereas the new title, no offense, looks and sound really generic. If i see it, my firat impression would be some sort of cheap shovelware book and i would pass right by it. Just my 2 cents.

[NumberedEntity]

@a_shoggoth I find that I agree with your assessment of the wording, not so much with the look of the title, as I am very limited with what I can do, being no graphic designer. I have to rely on my own eyes D: Keeping the word ‘Shriek’ and having that word in a more shrieky font will help the whole title stand out more.

@Patrick_Cody02 I like that ‘half-blood’ emphasises something which stands out about our MC, but it would lead the reader to think the story focuses on fantasy racial issues, which are mostly only in the background. Granted, in some routes this plays more of a role, but it is not consistent enough. Good idea, but I need to choose something that clicks, even if it is misguided.

This is ridiculously tricky. My thoughts have gone back and forth. I like the idea of having a shorter title… But I am now leaning toward keeping the old title. Risen from Ashes/From Ashes has a nice ring, but I think this is born from familiarity with the genre.

‘A Shriek of Ash and Fire’ stands out, much to do with the word ‘shriek’. This title may not roll off the tongue as easily, but it may cause a potential player to linger longer (this is fun to say). This means I will have to use some of the storefront text to emphasise the nature of the game, being a ‘heroic origin’ simulator, as the title may give the impression of a single huge, epic-length story rather than a very reactive game that allows you to craft very different, novel-length stories if replayed. You would have to go out of your way to get the same story.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll and offered opinions. I have thought about this for some time, but the issue came to the top of my mind after reading Cata’s post-mortem on his last game, reflecting on many things, one being the total length of the game versus the length of single playable routes through the game. This is often something players criticise, so I wanted to try and frame expectations about the ‘philosophy’ behind this game, being highly reactive and broad rather than more linear with greater depth. This echoes the design of Green Journey.

Cheers

[Augusto_Sampaio]

Hello everyone, i would like to know how to romance the sniper, and from which path she/he is from…

[NumberedEntity]

Hi, @Augusto_Sampaio

The sniper is the only gender-variable character. If your MC is female, the sniper is male; if your MC is male, the sniper is female. The male and female versions do have different personalities, reflecting the society they come from, which is matriarchal. The choice of gender is deliberate to reflect a certain background scheme. (All other RO encounters are of fixed gender. All are, if you hit it off, ‘playersexual’.

Go to New Yeirshee (escape the train and go south). You will have to prove yourself as a road warrior by bounty hunting or learning snake magic if you are a mage (chancermancer). Then, you’ll hunt down the gangs of the wastes to make it safe to establish the Free Country.

Just keep following this path through – without dying – and the sniper will always attack your new city. Just make sure not to kill him/her!

Be warned, during this path, before you reach the Cold Pact Crawler Pale Lady, if you fail, you will, more than likely, find yourself enslaved aboard the Grey Torment crawler.

EDIT: Btw, mate, after next month, I will be starting the concluding segments of this game. Before things go wild, we get a bit of quiet time. If our MC hits the requirements, we’ll be able to enjoy an encounter with Sera and Coireal.