Hello there, welcome to the WIP thread for the demo of Shattered.
Content Warning
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This game features very graphic scenes of murder, expect detailed fight scenes and depictions of the consequences of said fighting.
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The Main Character of this story is a very powerful dark mage, expect spells with gruesome effects. Here is a list of what you might see done to your enemies: Flayed alive by flesh magic, bursting into boiling eruptions of blood, cut cleanly in half, burnt to a bubbling crisp with fire, forced to take oneās own life through illusions, poisoning from various substancesā¦
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The story contains romance and explicit sexual content, obviously all characters are of legal age relative to their species and fully consent to the act.
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This story has an overall dark tone and dark themes, some scenes are meant to unsettle you or make you uncomfortable. I wonāt turn away anyone or say this story is not for you, but do remember my warning.
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There is now a content skip mode that lets you skip some of the more gruesome parts of the story, if you feel so inclined. To that purpose hereās a list of some of the scenes it will hide, that I will expand over time : Foiled sexual abuse during a torture scene.
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If you feel like a scene should fall under the above category, and currently doesnāt, donāt hesitate to contact me, here or privately.
This is a work in progress, and as such subject to change as the story progresses and the kinks get worked out. I encourage you to voice your thoughts on the writing, the characters, the scenario, every single thing that comes to your mind would be a great help.
Whatās Shattered? :
Some things simply refuse to stay dead. The Shattered, you, are an amnesiac elven sorcerer, found on the verge of death at the shores of a freezing river. Even as your rescuers nurse you back to health, all you can feel is the terrible absence of all you have lost. Memories, powers and possessions gone. That is, for all but a ritual dagger, a grimoire and the nightmares that plague your aching mind.
There begins a quest to reclaim all youāve lost and forgotten. Most of all the dark powers that once inhabited you, but to revel in their awesome might once more may reopen the terrible scars they left behind.
Hounded by a past that simply refuses to stay behind you, you will have to deal with your old demons, and an ever-increasing list of threats. Old enemies move in the shadows, truths once buried are coming back to haunt you and those unfortunate enough to cross your path, or worse, follow in your wake. But to a genius warlock, there is little to fearā¦ is there?
This story happens 300 years before my other game The Wight King. You can check it out with this link if youāre interested.
Features
- Play as a dark elf or high elf, a master of magic on a quest to reclaim their power and discover the truth behind your close brush with death, your amnesia and the reason your powers were sealed.
- Master dark magic and smite your foes with the awesome and destructive power of sorcery, flesh and blood manipulation of sarkothurgy, mastery of illusions and mind manipulation of phasmiurgy, the occult powers and demonic summoning of witchcraft, or the infinite potential of alchemy.
- Battle against the forces of the inquisition, hounding you at every step, hungry for secrets even you have forgotten, your own kin seeking you for their own nebulous goals, wizards of every horizon, demons and all else foolish enough to get in your way.
Dramatis personƦ
The protagonist:
- The Warlock: The subject of the matter. Once powerful, now brought low. Amnesiac and lost, saved by the kindness of stranger. The Shattered Warlock now faces the challenge of reclaiming their identity and their power both, despite the dangers that lurk beneath memories.
Friends:
- The Veteran: Orion Sten, stoic and stone-faced mayor and doctor at once. His demeanor hides a good heart, but he might share more with the warlock than he is willing to tell.
- The Huntress: Loran Sten, young and plucky huntress that saved the warlockās life. Kind and bold she may be, the magnitude of the darkness and dangers that now face her daunts and tests her limits.
Foes:
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The Inquisitor: Dour-faced zealot, the inquisitor seeks the warlockās knowledge and will stop at nothing to obtain it.
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The Fallen Cleric: Unwilling shadow behind the inquisitor, the scarred womanās eyes betray knowledge that has gnawed at her mind and reduced her to this sorry stateā¦ what could she know of the warlock that inspires such dread?
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The Disgraced Commander: Old and weary the elf is nonetheless a fearsome adversary. The Senate has sent him for the warlock, though the doubt in his eyes echoes the reluctance with which he pursues his quarry.
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The Wild Warrior: Collared and chained, she seems to care nothing for the chase except for the end of her bondage. The towering warrior though seems not to care in what manner she reclaims her freedom.
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The Hero:
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The Apprentice:
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The Rival:
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Updates
08/31/2023 : Chapter 3 added, a few revisions to the prologue, notably to the gender and sex selection.
15/03/2024 : Small chapter three update
01/04/2024 : Big chapter 4 update!
Lore Dumps
The Inquisition
I said before on another thread that the current Aquilean inquisition is kind of a travesty of what the Inquisition was before. Hereās a little more information on how and what it has become.
The Old Inquisiton:
Inquisitors were people of a particular sect of the Aquilean order, but they werenāt particularly hellbent on religion. They were people who willingly chose to inflict stigma on themselves to become wandering instruments of justice.
A stigma is sort of a āholy curseā that you can inflcit upon yourself. Sacrificing something of yours to gain great power, at another added cost that, should you stray from your path you would lose those abilities.
Itās permanent. Nothing can heal or replace what youāve given. Ever. And this made this order particularly principled, because only a selfless and devoted person would ever willingly go through using the stigma.
Some would sacrifice their sight for the ability to tell lie from truth absolutely. To āseeā the truth of people and things. For example. But that inquisition was taken over, the true inquisitors were declared heretics and the institution seized by the radical conservative movement of Aquilea. And that became the new inquisition.
The New Inquisition:
The Inquisition is an entire branch of the Church now but it almost functions independently.
The grandmaster inquisitor oversees seven domini, responsible for the seven branches of the inquisition. Executioners, purgators, confessors, redemptors, custiodians, evangelists and inquisitors.
Then within each of these branches there will be Magisters which lead the members of each branchā¦ Below inquisitors there are the knight-templars which are basically champion enforcers. And then the templars which are grunt enforcers. And finally the acolytes who are either templars or inquisitors in training. Templars arenāt considered as part of the inquisition, but a number of its members are commanded directly by it.
Some orders are also indepedent cells that are directly under the command of a branch, but rather commissioned by the grandmaster or a dominus. Like the Ordo Obscurum we see in Shattered. Which is a secret service division, mostly used for assassination and other dealings the inquisition doesnāt want staining its direct reputation. And soon the Ordo Goetia, which is specifically geared towards hunting and killing dark mages
- Ordo Carnificum: The order of executioners is responsible for carrying out the sentence of criminals of all kind. But as an inquisitorial subsection, their main targets are religious criminals, heathens, heretics, witches and traitors. Their role has alway been terror, they exist to strike fear into the heart of those who would think of Rebellion.
- Ordo Purificatorum: The order of purgators is responsible for large scale extermination of enemies of the church. Specialized in brutal, uncompromising and devastating tactics. What remains of their assaults paint a grim portrait of their methods.
- Ordo Custodum: The order of custodians is tasked with the inside surveillance and the protection of Aquileaās social, religious and political order.
- Ordo Evangelicum: The order of evangelists observes the zealous following of the Saviorās teachings and determines whether ideas, people, items, etc. stray from the righteous path. They are both preachers and chaplains tasked with preserving the good faith at any cost.
- Ordo Redemptorum: The order of redemptors has the singular task of rehabilitating enemies of the faith, using any method necessary. Their methods of conversion are kept secret, but what remains of their subject leaves a clear and terrifying impression of what exactly they go through to be redeemed.
- Ordo Confessorum: The order of confessors are expert interrogators, torturers and manipulators, they obtain confessions from religious criminals and information on the enemies of the faith. They are the shadow of the Ordo Carnificum, secret in their dealings while the executioners are very much public.
- Ordo Inquisitorum: The order of inquisitors, of seekers, was the basis the Inquisition expanded from. Their objective in this day and age is to be the long arm of the inquisition, to investigate and pursue the enemies of the faith wherever they may hide. They are investigators, hunters and clerics all at once.
Not all orders of the inquisition are militant, but all inquisitors must develop thaumaturgic powers.
A short expose on the origins of the elves
Lore: The elves, masters of seas and magic ā @nocifer on Tumblr
Among the many mortal species of this world, the elves have always been the wheel around which the rest turn. Or so they would like to believe. They elves are and have been many thing, heirs of true magic, prime servants of the dragons, scourge of the central continentā¦ scattered, divided, broken.
The origins: The first age of the elves is shrouded in mystery even to the oldest remnants of their kind, whether through ignorance or hubris few records were made of their true origins. What remains, distorted, biased or entirely undecipherable, leaves place only to speculation or superstition.
Some believe the first elves were scions of the fae world, conquerors from beyond the veil who entered the material plane to seize it from undeserving mortals. In truth, it would be more likely that the elves were weak fae, too close to mortality for the realms of the fae and therefore rejected for their weakness were exiled into this plane. Or that the first elves were mortals touched by the powers of the fae, or taken by them and warped into beings half-mortal and half-fae. Regardless of lowly or lofty origins, the elves are a pale shadow of this supposed original glory, while innate sorcerers they possess nary a trickle of the font of power of a true fae.
But if there is any truth to the old stories, the first elves were the stuff of legend. Gods in their own right. Tales speak of kin born attuned to the elements, treading the world light as a feather, blades carving empires from nothing, wielders of the primal flame, dancers within the winds, favored of the lands and seas. Wherever this almighty elven empire is now, what we know of it is a sad and withered parody.
Dragon Worship: In the ancient times of draconic dominion over the world, the elves were the first among the mortal races that bent to them. Worshiped them even, for the dragons were as gods to them, incarnations of the true flame of chaos, the raw might of the elements, older even than the elves.
But when the end of dragons came, the Dracomachia, the elves stood powerless as fellow mortals, even some of their own, betrayed the dragons and took to them with sword and sorcery, with vile technology brought about to shatter their wings and pierce their hearts. āTyrantsā the dragonslayers called them, āmonstersā, āslaversā, few other mortal races shared the elven love of dragons.
And when the dragonslayersā dark deeds were done, the old hunters gorged on the blood of the old dragons were rejected in turn by other mortals, driven away for their cruelty and never-ending thirst for more of the primeval power of dragon blood, slaughtering even the most benign or youthful dragon and leaving their broken and drained bodies in their wake. In a way that none but them could bear to watch. The last dragons were allowed to flee beyond the ocean, to reach more peaceful lands of their own.
But the fall of the dragonslayers brought no comfort to the elves who remained loyal and saw their wise masters dethroned and broken before them. Nourishing a lasting and venomous flame of hatred against the mortals who betrayed them.
Dominion: Their kind did at several points come close to dominating the West, during the Age of Sorcery they swept across the world, tide of blades and flames, stopped only as they crashed into the hordes of the orks and the sorcerer-kings of mankind. Their chance at absolute control swept from below them as the sorcerer-kings were slain by the champions of mankind, and the age of sorcery left in the dust for the Age of Might.
The end of rule through sorcery was replaced by the Sword Rule of the True Kings, and so were the elves pushed back to their islands
Reckoning: The long lived elves feed their grudges for millenia, generation after generation inspired by the outrage of their ancestors at the mortal betrayal of their draconic masters, the arrogance of other mortals who denied the elves rightful rule of the world, who denied their power and wisdom, their knowledge far superior to any of the primitive, disgusting lesser races that kept pushing them away.
āNo more.ā so spoke the Bearer of the Eternal Flame, he who drove his brethren to one final war against the lesser races, this time not for domination, but for extermination. They carved a trail of ash and blood across the coasts and drove their swords deep into the hearts of the realm of men, but through alliance of men and orks were once again broken and humbled, their mighty god-king shattered upon the knee of the Warlord Gor Surāataruk, shaman leader of the Eastern Horde.
Blame fell on all but the leaders of the suicidal invasion, as all those who opposed the war were branded as traitors and exiled into the wild deep woods of the western shores, making up the first wild elf in history.
Yet time erodes all, the genocidal leaders of the War of Reckoning were soon replaced by wiser rulers, recognizing that any chance at elven dominion had long since passed them by.
Irrelevance: With the fall into irrelevance of the most xenophobic parties of elven politics came a new regime, no more kings, no more sole rulers driving their kin to insane wars. The Republic was born, the Senate of the elves made great strides towards mending relationships with the realms of men and orks, but the rift seemed impossible to crossā¦ yet.
Elves had all the time in the world and they were ready to accept a momentary setback, if they could not triumph through might, they would exploit other, more insidious means.
Divinity
Lore Dump the Second: Divinity ā @nocifer on Tumblr
Divinity : First of all, the concept of divinity, the true nature and the essence of the gods. Sometimes it may seem matter of fact on the surface, yet divinity is a bit stranger than what it appears to be.
What makes a god divine? At which point can you consider a being is divine? Are the heroes of this world divine? Are the mighty dragons divine, masters of their form and immortal as they are?
Itās rare that all are in accordance on the definition of the word, or what entities can truly be considered gods. But all those who are broadly accepted as deities have one thing in common. They have transcended mortality and stepped into a realm of being wholly of their own, both physically and spiritually. Some from birth, other through ascension.
A god is a manifestation, or an incarnation, of forces or concepts of the universe. This influence gives them āDomainā over these things they manifest, but they are nothing so grand as the source of these things. They are much like us, pawns in a vaster game, invested with a certain amount of power but lacking for purpose except that theyāve taken for themselves.
Especially in the case of mortals who have found their own way to godhood, in which case theyāve grasped their domains for themselves, wrested them from the universe to claim dominion over them.
There can be many gods of the same domains, sometimes allied, sometimes opposed. Which often leads gods to unite in Pantheons, or mortals to lump them in together into them.
Orders: While gods take many different forms. There are three broad categories that gods existing within the realm of mortal perception may fall into.
- First Order: Gods of the first order are also sometimes called āThe Primordial Onesā or āCosmic Godsā. They are the eldest and strangest of the gods, the least well known, if known at all. Or ever worshiped, for they were there long before there were mortals. Their domains are often wide-reaching concepts, like Death, Time, Chaos, Change, and other such vast and absolute concepts.
- Second Order: Sometimes colloquially and somewhat ironically called āOld Godsā by the followers of Third Order gods and other recent forms of religion like Aquilean belief. Though a more appropriate name may be āThe Primeval Onesā. It is said that they were first born with this world, spawning from the roiling seas, howling winds and scalding magma. But at first nothing more than powerful spirits, they watched the world that unfolded before them and slowly found their place within it. Some through nature, others through civilization. Many of them have domain on the Sea, Forests, Mountains, Plagues, and other natural things or sometimes, essential parts of civilization like Weaving, Smithing or Agriculture.
- Third Order: Gods said to be of the Third Order are by far and large āThe Ascended Onesā. For the most part, former mortals who have reached divinity through ascension, one way or another. Most of the time, not by design. They are the most relatable to mortals, and most known and worshiped by them. Their domains tend to include things that are essential and unique to mortal society. War, Authority, Law, Travel, Artsā¦
Ascension: The Path of Ascension might be one of the most coveted yet misunderstood process there is. Throughout mortal history, people of all kind and all horizons have sought it, in every single way possible, from magic to artistry, from battle to philosophy, infinite pathways to a goal that always seems out of reach.
There is no shortcut. The truth is, the road to enlightenment is paved with suffering. Every path untrodden, every step a trial, every turn another chance to fail. Shall you be found wanting, you will be broken. And join the legions of martyred and failed vessels piled along the way.
Godhood is seldom given, it is claimed, torn from the cold, uncaring grasp of the universe. Reach enlightenment through suffering.
Demo content: Five chapters including the prologue. About 96k words.
Here is the link of the demo. Have fun, and tell me what you thought about it. Any feedback is welcome. 
P.S. : Despite the warning, the content in the demo as of now is pretty light, nothing really disturbing. (Gruesome deaths in battle aside) (BUT, it will get way worse in the next chapter) Weāre getting there. We got there.
P.P.S : And there are no real stats yet, so the stat screen wonāt work. It does now.
SHATTERED DEMO HERE
By the way, if you liked the demo, you might also like another of my game, itās over there:
You may also find me, and keep up with updates at:
