Shepherds of Haven (WIP) (DEMO UPDATE: 3 Aug 2021)

At the least, we could convince Blade to keep Caine in some ways even for those who have low relationship with Blade though my MC will go after him. I hope the choices are not too hard. :thinking:

Do the Autarchy required the members of the Shepherds to be recorded? Also, I have the feeling that the Autarchy also created the Shepherds to monitor the Diminished as well since they will know who uses magic and if everythings done, they will probably charge the Sherpherds some kind of treason (if we rebel against them) just to give an excuse to sentence us to death. But that’s just my conspiracy theory anyway.

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@rinari so I’m wondering, would going with trouble in the equalists chapter block the Tallys romance? Because I like tallys but I can’t leave my boy Caine high and dry

They do, but Blade stalls/avoids turning in any reports for as long as possible… :sweat_smile: He keeps the details of the Order as vague as he can (something he can be quite good at) and essentially stonewalls Inquisitors who want to know every little detail about, well, everything!

Not at all! :slightly_smiling_face: It would result in a slight decrease in approval from her, but you could easily make it up by spending time with her on your days off and making good decisions with her then. Most story/plot decisions you make (while resulting in differing reactions/relationship stats with the characters) won’t block off romances entirely—there are some exceptions, but unless you’re playing as a psycho/getting everyone killed, I’m not too worried about forcing people to choose between their ROs and their sincere choices in the main plot. :slight_smile: It’s usually mishandling the “day off” interactions and decisions that might cause you to shut down or miss romances, though there are also some romance flags to hit in the main story as well.

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Your Tallys looks amazing @rinari…But I’ll always see her like this

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@Baam who is that? She’s cute!

Also: an idea for a spin-off game came to me in a dream last night, and I’m setting it down here in case I ever want to use it in the future. Soldiers of Hael would be a game where you play as an agent of the Endarkened, sowing as much chaos in Blest as possible; lying, corrupting, seducing, and killing your way through Haven; and trying to orchestrate the fall of those pesky Shepherds—all while avoiding the cruel attentions of your Archdemon. The question is, how evil do people want to be in a CS game?.. :stuck_out_tongue:

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seducing

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Fallen Hero is pretty popular.

I would argue that there’s a rather untapped market for people wanting to play villains. :upside_down_face:

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Even though Fallen Hero put you on the villain’s shoes, I only played a reluctant villain. :joy: I don’t have the heart to be an all out villain in there so I might not play the spin off, unless we are redeemable. But judging from various post from some threads like CCH and FH, there is a market for an all-out villain story.

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Do forgive me if this particular query has been satisfied but are there any other languages in your world? What are they like/how are they regarded? If not I’d still love to know about their literacy and connection to society!

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But is there a market for a game where your goal is to kill your previous companions or MC?.. :wink:

Yes, there are other languages! Before the Castigation, it was common for most people to speak two languages: Common, which is universally-spoken, and often Kettish or Elvish—the Ket and Elves typically being the groups who lived in their own self-enclosed enclaves. After the Castigation, only Common is officially spoken among citizens of the Autarchy (with people becoming quite suspicious of Diminished speaking a language to each other that no one else understands), but of course people do speak their old languages to each other privately. It’s mostly Elvish, though, since the Elves still remember their native tongue—having still been alive since those days—while others like the Ket have forgotten a lot of it.

(Of course, Common itself features a lot of holdovers from the other languages that are still in use: you can find some of those imported words in the game’s glossary. One common phrase that people still use is aya lani, meaning “the gods smile,” said in times of good fortune—“Aya lani, it’s not going to rain today”—and siktir lan, “the gods shit on us.”)

I can go into all the nuances of the Kettish language, but won’t bother for the sake of brevity… let’s just say it focuses a lot on categorization, strange, tangible concepts of honor, virtue, loyalty, etc., and modes of war and weaponry! You can see a little bit of it in Blade’s day off scenes, where he mentions concepts like mythas.

Literacy is common among Norms, who typically go to school unless they’re very poor, but is only at a 50% rate among Diminished, who, eh, often lack the privilege… Yet another tool the Autarchy uses to keep them in check!

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Maybe? I do know some people dislike some characters that they are willing to do some eliminating. ^^;

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Yikes that 50% :sweat_smile: I love little details like these in stories that make them much more believable/alive.

I hope we get a chance to become more wizened or perhaps tutor Caine on something. (Even anything basic, someone educate the boy plz)

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Well there’s at least a market of one: me.

Oh god. If I’m having trouble just choosing who to romance how the hell am I gonna choose which RO to kill first??? I think I would literally die of indecision!

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That’s Ryuu from Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?…the plot is actually better than the title might imply.


All the way.

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Funnily enough Caine does know how to do math and read, making him more educated than even some certain Shepherds (I won’t say who…)! He just lacks education in the ways of the world outside of the Autarchy’s teachings, something the MC may have already started teaching him if they wanted to! :slightly_smiling_face:

I know, I might not even be able to kill any of them and deliberately write an ending where you fail and achieve one of the “good” endings from Shepherds of Haven!:joy:

I remember seeing trailers for that on Crunchyroll! Wow, that was already 3 years ago… I feel old…

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Is it Trouble? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: Will we have to get Caine to teach him to read? :sweat_smile:

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It’s not Trouble, but the idea of a twelve-year-old having to run a schoolroom for illiterate Shepherds is hilarious! :joy:

Summary

Caine: So what do you do next?

Trouble: …carry the three?

Caine: No, that’s for the last problem. This is just subtraction.

Trouble: …carry the minus?

Caine: (sigh) No…

Trouble: [bangs fist on desk] I’M ABOUT TO SHOOT THIS MATH HOMEWORK IN THE FACE.

Caine: :disappointed_relieved:

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This scene is just too perfect!! Do we get some scenes like these in-game or the story has more serious undertones?

=D

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There are some occasional comedic moments, but by and large the story is a dark fantasy that trends a lot towards the grim! :sweat_smile: Maybe someday I’d write silly omake-like side stories as free DLC or something. :slightly_smiling_face:

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…Riel… jk jk pls dont reach across space time to hit me, Riel

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:laughing: It’s not Riel, but that would be hilarious—

Everyone: Damn, how does the leader of the Merchants’ Guild get his profit margins so high each year?

Riel: [is writing down random numbers confidently]

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