Chronicon Apocalyptica — Save medieval England from an ancient evil!

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We’re proud to announce that Chronicon Apocalyptica, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, Android, and on iOS in the Choice of Games Omnibus app. It’s 33% off until January 18th!

Battle Norse raiders, ghosts, and changelings to save medieval England! But beware, if the elves can capture the Book you hold, the world will end.

Chronicon Apocalyptica is a 250,000-word interactive medieval fantasy novel by Robert Davis. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

You are an Anglo-Saxon scribe in the year 1000. You hold a Book of secrets written generations ago, including this prophecy: “When Æthelred II is King, he shall not be King, but there shall be an elven changeling in his stead. Should it gain this book and its ink, the world he shall rend asunder.”

The witan advisors to Æthelred have tasked you with a secret mission to research whether the Book is true. Build an unlikely party of adventurers: a nun, a holy warrior, a bard, a beekeeper, and his bee, each with a mysterious past. Judge a witch trial, infiltrate the magical land of the elves, and even travel through time on your quest to extract fact from fiction.

Lovers of England’s mythic history will delight as you meet Excalibur, the Green Children of Woolpit, and the Tremulous Hand, a creepy disembodied hand with a predilection for parchment. Put your analytical, investigative, and storytelling skills to the test as you decide where your loyalties lie: to the church, the crown, or the people of England.

Will you uncover the secret at the heart of English history, or succumb to the evil of the most deadly book ever created?

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual.
• Discover rare sources, excavate ruins, and collect local legends.
• Fight the forces of darkness, or outwit them with your sharp intelligence.
• Explore decaying strongholds, funeral barrows, and even time itself.
• Choose romance or rivalry with your greatest foe.
• Determine who sits on the English throne.

We hope you enjoy playing Chronicon Apocalyptica. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

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I like the insinuation here that his singular bee is so important that it’s basically it’s own character. Bee for the English throne.

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it is. Sorta. but play for yourself =D

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Can I just say I love how the art piece with the nun and hand is like “Bitch please, get back in the box. I ain’t got time for this.”

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I am loving this so far! I mentioned it before on the Lords of Aswick WIP, but I am fascinated by nuns (both Christian and Buddhist) and am thrilled to have the option to play one- even though a novice. :grin:

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@Phoenix_Wolf This is my favorite response ANYONE has had to the game! I adore that image.
@mistylavenda You can move up to Abbess (or Abbex) if you play it right!

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My character is very much inspired by Juana Inés de la Cruz! While she wasn’t from medieval times (1600s instead), she was definitely a scholarly nun. :smiley:

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I ADORE Sor Juana!!! Good luck!

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I just finished the game. It was very stats based which I always hate. The characters were pretty diverse and interesting but the interactions with them were rather limited and it didn’t make them justice. Blaedswith was my favorite. Apparently there was romance? Aside from one scene with Lioba (in which I didn’t do anything cause I was not interested in her) I couldn’t seem to find any potential RO (females RO mind you). Now to the plot. It was well written but I found it utterly boring. I like medieval fantasy but to play it as scribe felt dull. Our journey to our goal was interesting in some parts (ghost, witch) but felt lacking in others (when we became prisoners I had to stop the urge to just stop reading altogether). The Elves were somewhat interesting but I felt they needed more background for us to actually care.
Overall I’d give it 5/10.

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I just think of Eric the Half a Bee.

I purchased the game as soon as it was available, but I’m just now getting around to it. I’m sure it’ll be great, if the subtle humor of the first chapters is anything to go by :slight_smile:

ETA: The only big issue I’ve had so far is that my name isn’t in the stats screen. 99.9% of the time, I choose a name from the list of available ones, to be more roleplay-y, and I hardly ever remember it. It would be great to have your name listed somewhere.

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What i like most is the romance with Lioba, which is so well done and develop, in the spirit of “true love” … the interaction with her is refreshing with multiple option on how i want to continue my romance with a “nun” , the idea of love in term of spiritual interaction is a bold and innovative venture, not many readers will agree on such "romantic " interaction … although i am so glad and happy in the end, i still manage to stay close with her… i can only imagine the aftermath of such romantic reunion will be both Scandalous and adventurous … The Romance between the Queen and her loyal Lord Chancellor should surely deserve a story of their own :wink: :-):kissing_heart:

Edit : Personally, i think This title should be market under the term Old England , rather than Medieval England , because Old England under Anglo Saxons was much much more mysterious and different from the England most of us accustom to , it could ignite the curiousity of many towards those era and avoid readers to compare that era with the world of Robin Hood and King Richard :slight_smile:

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This sounds like an interesting title. It is one i will be getting. I buy all the titles from choice of games and hosted games because as a visually impaired player of games I find text games easier so I like to support the owners and developers of these titles. Hopefully one day I hope to have a go at writing one myself maybe.

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“Old England” isn’t really a term that people in the Old England biz use. At least, I’ve never heard anyone use it.

“Anglo-Saxon England” would work but lots of people wouldn’t know what that means. “Medieval” includes a lot of time, which is a little annoying, but it’s accurate and has the advantage of being well known even if, yeah, it stretches from Cædmon to John Skelton. And my students still insist that Shakespeare is written in Old English.

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Haha… i am just curious by doing research about it, is it Anglo saxon period is called old English, while after the Normans defeat the saxon , it was called Middle English… the old and middle english text are the same ?? :slight_smile:

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The language of the Anglo-Saxon period is called either Anglo-Saxon or Old English; somewhere around 1100 we can start talking about Middle English. The two are pretty different. When I teach Old English it takes a full semester of hard work to teach students to read simple prose texts; when I teach Middle English, they can pick it up in 2-3 weeks.

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Sorry to go off topic here, but funny you should say that. I once read Merchant of Venice as part of my literature class. Whilst reading it, I notice the riddles in the scene were written in plain English. My literature teacher at the time told me that in actuality, people were speaking normally in those times, but Shakespeare opted with this Old English for his plays. Of course, my memory is a tad hazy and I’m no expert.

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Definitely there’s a difference between the way Shakespeare wrote his plays (mostly in verse!) and the way people spoke, but that’s true of any time period’s difference between its regular talking and its verse. Or between its regular talking and its prose too!

We call Shakespeare’s language “Early Modern English”; you can pick it up and read it with a few day’s practice. The language of the time period in Chronicon (bringing this back on topic!) is Old English, which we have to study now like a foreign language, with cases, a robust subjunctive, irregular strong verbs and all.

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Chronicon Apocalyptica is the main reason i reach out and watch the tv series Viking, because i want to get a better idea of the culture , the living, the armies and the history during that era …

Well… i know the tv series may not be historical accurate but it still manage to capture my imagination of the story, especially the struggle with the viking …

Supposingly East Anglia is the modern day London which was given by King Alfred to his ally viking … I am curious whether King Aetherald here is the same as King Alfted brother who was killed in battle ?

I do like the Alternate reality of Lioba be the Queen in the end , even as her Lord Chancelor , i think she will have a difficult time against the viking too :slight_smile:

@r_davis, perhaps you would consider writing your next story based in the same era , but concentrate more on battle and political struggle ? :slight_smile: It would be fun to be a British MC who can gain allies from viking characters too :-):grin:

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Pretty much summed up how I felt there. I had to push through in the end and, alas, did not much care then. Which is a shame, the setting and some characters were interesting, but min-maxing of stats, no. In addition a lot of the time I could quite figure out what stat was being referenced either, so I went with what felt right for the character I decided to play, which often did not - evidently - match the stat checks. :disappointed:

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I just can gather my strength to read further I ended asleep. It is well written, It is well researched. And is slow and for me a stat heavy chores with a character I can’t relate in the slightest Pc is a goodie boring grey figure just carried away by the plot. Maybe later I try replay the game as follow the very stayfoward path of stats as this is not a game for role playersIf I would have rate this in base my enjoyment it would be like a 4/10. However Being fair objective it deserve like a 7. It is clear there is work and love and good atmosphere and secondary characters. Still the Stat system that is or follow 100% a metagamer mathematical formula or LOST each single stat check. Still I will try to restart and try to end the game to give further opinion. Still I have give my five star rating in Google to help and support as always.

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