This is not the world you know. This is a kingdom a dream away from your reality. It sits between folklore and truth, between warm hearths and the creeping chill, between monstrous men and creatures of such horrors to make wicked souls weep.
Upon two lonely islands clings a town, filled with folk who make their memories upon the edge of the mighty Mire, a marshland whose depths only the foolhardy and the mad dare enter. Here they find themselves, a traveller, a weary wanderer of the webbing roads that criss-cross the country. Work brings you to this place, the promise of it at least, and the security to see out the coming winter in relative comfort.
They are not alone. Small fingers flex in a childish fidget as their charge walks beside them. The child is seven, they will be eight soon.
Details
One day, whilst making their way back to the town from the wherry landings, the child tugs the traveller aside, having spotted a strange shape tangled in the matted reeds below the causeway. As the pair near, they discover a body, half drowned it seems, sprawled out upon the slick and stinking mud.
What they do, and how they approach, are up to you.
This is not the first, neither is it the last of the strange occurrences around town. Plants are wilting, the fish have all but fled, the landed beasts are sparse along the shores, and the waters that touch them all have started to grow muddy and dark.
Friends and foes await the pairâs return in town, the afternoonâs shadows are growing long, and the meagre warmth of the low sun lumbers on towards the eveningâs early chill. Itâs time to get moving again.
Itâs time to find out what you can, learn what youâre able, bear what you must, and help your two charges survive the crawling mists as they draw ever closer to them and their family.
Myrk Mire is a story about families, both found and by blood depending on the choices you the reader make. It is a mild horror story, in the veins of gothic horror, where the scares are slow, creeping, and you are never quite sure whether what you just saw out of the corner of your eye was a shadow, or something far, far worse.
The Main Character in the story should be considered a seperate entity to you the reader. This is not a direct reader insert story. You are a puppet master, a guide, perhaps a little bit of the Main Characterâs subconcious nudging them towards a descision. There will be times where the Main Character does something you disagree with, there will be times where you want to scream at them to take the other path at a fork in the road, or refuse the hand that offers to pull them to their feet in the dark. You have the ability to dramatically and irrevocably change their life, but that might not be obvious to begin with.
Initial Choices
You may determine the following about the Main Character:
Name (given and family/first and last)
Gender Presentation - Male, Female, Nonbinary (There will be no outing of Trans Characters)
Sexual orientation - Gay, Straight, Bisexual
Hair Colour - Pre-determined list plus custom text
Hair Style and Length - Pre-determined list plus custom text
Relationship to Child - Biological parent, Adopted parent, Aunt/Uncle/Pibling, Sibling
Childâs Name (given and family/first and last)
Childâs Gender - Male, Female, Nonbinary
Childâs Hair Colour - Pre-determined list plus custom text
Childâs Hair Style and Length - Pre-determined list plus custom text
There are many other choices throughout the prologue and first chapter that will develop your characters, but for the sake of simplicity I wonât post them all up here.
Romance
There are currently four romancible options open to the player regardless of gender.
Each of the Romantic or Platonic Optionsâ gender will be determined when you pick the Main Characterâs Sexual Orientation, with randomised options available as well as fixed presets.
Male/Female
Peyton/Peidyn
Land@{pg lord|lady} of the Common Lodging House.
${pn}'s always been good to you.
Finding clothing and toys for ${chn}, forgiving you a day or two on the rent, sharing a quiet evening with
you both beside the kitchen range, telling such wonderful stories that make $!{chn}'s eyes sparkle.
You say a blessing everyday for the good fortune that first brought you to @{pg his|her} door.
Louis/Leila
@!{lg brother|sister} to Lars, resident of the Common Lodging house, and alongside @{lg his|her} brother stand out town clowns.
${ln} is as much a new face as you are in the town. @!{lg he|she} and Lars had arrived only two months
before you did. They are fisherfolk, down from the northern coast, far beyond where you have ever
travelled. The youngest siblings of an enormous clan of a family. ${ln} often jokes there wasn't enough
room for a flea in the house, let alone two strapping young fishers like themselves.
So they'd left for warmer waters, tracking the coastline down, stumbling into the mouth of the river that
drains the Mire, then following it till the local fisherfolk saw them shivering out in the frindges, and brought
them back to town.
It's still debated to this day which sibling got them lost in the first place, but they're both secretly glad for
the accident.
Abelyn/Anadora
Apprentice to Erda Lynn, resident Cunningwoman.
${an} came to Aldmirham not that much before you. Born and raised in the grand city far upriver by @{ag
his|her} father, @{ag he|she} was plucked from the role of an apothecaries assistant by a visiting Erda to
become the old woman's apprentice.
@!{ag he|she} has dark hair, olive skin, and heterochromic eyes, with one green and one blue.
Keldan/Kelda
???
Now that would be telling wouldnât it? 
Content Warning
Whilst I aim to make the story as inclusive as possible, and therefore as accessible as possible for the majority of readers, do be aware of the following topics which will be discussed within the text:
- Birth and Birth Complications (This is very dependent apon the route the player takes through the story, please read the spoilers below for a more indepth explanation)
If the player chooses to follow the biological parent route (regardless of the gender of the Main Character or their partner) they have the possibility of witnessing a flashback of the childâs birth. This is for the most part described in the abstract in terms of pain, sensation, and sound. I do not wish to perpetuate uninformed and harmful fears about pregnancy and labour, nor do I want to take the joy away from those currently pregnant or who wish to have children in the future. I have, and will continue to research the topic of labour and complications during labour throughout the writing of the story, and will do my best to include as much material as I can across all my social media platforms that provide accurate and empathetic information about the topics.
If the player does not wittness the above incident by choosing alternative routes they will still come to a scene of labour and childbirth. This scene is a stressful experience for the main character and cast, but it is guided within the narrative and will have a positive outcome.
If you have any concerns or questions about this topic please do contact me either publicly through this forum or using the websites private messaging.
- Problematic masculine behaviour in relation to the objectification of others
(Players will have the opportunity to call this out and react to it.)
For the first interaction with this character the reader will have a variety of choices ranging from the most verbally passive end of the scale, causing the Main Character to laugh along with what is said, at the most verbally active end of the scale the Main Character can be directed to tell the character to never say such things again, and at the most physically active the Main Character will remain stoically silent.
Please note that this is only the first meeting with said character, Iâm not going to give you the opportunity to have the Main Character punch them right out of the gate, no matter how much you might or might not wish to.
As the story progresses and events move forwards you will have the opportunity to direct the Main Character into a more proactive role. Whether this does any good or not is dependent on the individual choice.
I hope that adds more clarity for people who are cautious about this particular topic.
- Unwanted romantic attention (Players will have the opportunity to have the Main Character call this out and react to it)
- Sexual Assault (a kiss without consent)
This will be addressed by the core cast and will not be romanticised, glorified, or ignored. It will be called out for what it is, assault.
-
Community based panic and mob hysteria (Players will have the opportunity to have the Main Character call this out and react to it)
-
Mild body and gore horror (dependent on the situation you may have the opportunity to look away, otherwise I will attempt to describe the events in a non-viceral manner)
-
Attachment stress in relation to the child If youâre the type to get overly protective of dependents in interactive media (I certainly am) be wary
Things that will not be included in the story:
-
Risk of PC death/ wrong choice = early ending This story will be long. Very long. I want to respect your time. There is no guarantee I will be able to implement a save system in the final game, and to ask you to re-read very large sections of text that could range from 250,000 to over 700,000 words and still remain as emotionally invested in the story as you were the first time round is I believe unreasonable.
-
You will not have the ability to direct the Main Character to abuse the Child character Not to say you canât have them be apathetic to their existence, but you canât actively harm them.
-
Depictions of sexual violence (Be it in a Physical or Emotional sense)
-
Racist, Homophobic, or Gender Identity based bigotry My world (kinda) my rules, I think these are societal problems the characters can happily live without. And I want everyone to find a place of acceptance in this world regardless of who they are. There may be mentions of societies where this is not the case, but these will be fleeting and will never directly attack the main character or their identity.
-
Modern Religion or Discussion of Pagan Religions vs Christianity - There may be a discussion of organised religion vs philosophy and disorganised religion, but this will not be a central theme of the story.
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Witches I know, this is an odd one to tack on the end of the list, considering the other entries. But Iâm kinda tired of witches and hearing about the persecution of them, also allot of the modern and historical discussion of witchcraft is wrapped up in religion. So there will be no witches mentioned in the story.
Source Material and English Folklore
So, I imagine this wonât be the most clicked on category of this post, but itâs here for the folks who are curious.
The initial idea for this story came from wanting to write a story set in a marsh. Glamorous, I know. You see, I live in a National Park in the UK called the Broads, and while it can be glorious and sunny during the summer, I think the place is at itâs richest in the gloomy grey winter months, when all the tourists have fled and the murky mists reclaim the waterways. Call me an old style gothic romantic but an environment like that is made for ghost stories.
I knew I wanted the story to have low fantasy elements, but firmly set in place. I also knew that I found the idea of relying on the Celtic folklore mainstays of Fey, Elves, etc, or the Hellenic folklore of Satyrs, Dryads, Harpies, Centaurs, etc, unappealing. So, I brought a wonderful little book titled The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore and started building from there.
The world of Myrk Mire is firmly based within the local folk histories and first hand research of the languages of the Northern European Dark Age languages, but all of it should be considered history and folklore adjacent. The monsters and creatures featured in the story are inspired by and adapted from living and ancient folklore, and historical texts, but do not take anything in this story as anything more than a story. This is not a historical text book, this is not a work of acedemia, this is fiction, but it is fiction inspired by elements of Northern European history.
Prepare to meet monsters and mythical creatures with a distinctly different twist to them.
One last note in this section to bear in mind though. There are many Old English, Old High German, and a few Middle Welsh, and Old Norse words used within the story. Iâm research all of these elements to the best of my abilities, but once again, this is not academia. Do not take anything I put into the story as coming from any sort of authority on the subject.
Current Sources:
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The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore
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Beowulf
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Ecclesiastical History of the English People and The Reckoning of Time Bede
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Glossary of the Norfolk Dialect I might have lived here for the better part of twenty eight years but heck if I know what half the bred and born folk are saying
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Folk Tales of Britain Katharine Briggs
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Tales from the Lincolnshire Carrs Mary Balfour
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A Dictionary of Plant Lore Roy Vickery
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Discovering the Folklore of Plants Margaret Baker
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Witchâs Garden Sandra Lawrence, Publish by the Royal Bontanic Gardens Kew
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A Consise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary J.R. Clark-Hall
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Physica Hildegard von Bingen
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Culpepperâs Complete Herbal Nicholas Culpepper
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Medieval Medicine Toni Mount
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Popular Magic Cunning-folk in English History Owen Davies
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A Grim Almanac of Norfolk Neil. R. Story
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Too many historical documents to count but Iâll try and compile them into a full list at some point.
Current Status and Updates
The first part of Chapter 2 is due to go up on the 25th of April. Itâll be around 14,000 words and will be the first real oppertunity to get a feel for K.
The current word counts are as follows (this includes all routes collectively and command lines):
Prologue - 43,123
Chapter 1 Aldmirham - 173,921
Chapter 2 Rising Lights - 118,745
Chapter 3 - 1,298
Chapter 4 - 1,177
Chapter 5 - 21,878
Chapter 6 - 15,341
Chapter 7 - 2,948
Chapter 8 -
Chapter 9 - 26
Chapter 10 - 3,574
Chapter 11 -
Epilogue - 3,956
Stats Screen - 15,327
Total - 401,314
Upcoming
Chapter 2 Demo - Part 3 Mid July 2022 (hopefully)
Changelog
4.0.0 - 16/05/2022
Chapter 2 Part 2 uploaded.
Minor Formatting changes throughout, tweaks to system variables.
3.0.0 - 24/04/2022
Chapter 2 Part 1 uploaded.
Adjustments made to introduction to reflect the Main Character being a separate entity to the reader.
Minor formatting adjustments throughout.
2.0.0 - 14/02/2022
Rewrite of Chapter 1 with full systems intergrations.
Mild to Moderate changes to most scenes within the story.
Lots of tweaks to subroutines and systems that effect better choice recall within the game.
1.0.1 - 29/03/2021
Major spelling update to prologue.
Minor changes to some terms and labels in attempt to help with intial choices.
Bug fix on available choices at the end of section.
Good luck with your game progressâ:smiley:
