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

Does she dye it purple? Would she dye MCs hair for him if they wanted to when she’s dating him lol?

Yes, she dyes it pale lavender, and yes, becoming friends or lovers with her means you’ll have access to her makeover resources! XD

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Umm hello, this is the first time I’ve commented on the thread but I gave a few asks on your Tumblr, like maid ask (and a few others)… I hope that didn’t sound weird or creepy and I’m terribly sorry if it did.

I’ve been fallowing this WIP since it was first posted on the forums and I’ve been enjoying so far! It’s very easy to see that alot of heart has gone into this, like the world building and the characters. I really like most of characters we’ve met so far and I can’t wait to meet the rest.

I hope no one minds but I made my MC with one of these avatar maker games, I hope you guys like her…

Summary

From here : https://picrew.me/image_maker/3595
[Be careful, everything is in Japanese but I feel it’s easy enough to get round.]

Her name is Rui Ravenwood, with Vale as her childhood home and a Circle-trained education, she has chosen to wield daggers and mostly uses Astral magic (she wanted to specialization healing magic) for when a battle comes up. A total sweetheart to (mostly) everyone and doesn’t want to hurt (or kill) anyone if she doesn’t have too.

Will try to befriend everyone in the order but will most likely be close friends with Trouble, Shery, and Mimir (well I hope anyway). Will romance the heck out of Blade, even if it take me 50 playthroughs, it will happen whether he likes it or not! >:o

Also, I put in a maid outfit since it’s cute and it’s based on one of my asks. :>

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Hi there @ShySnow! You didn’t sound creepy at all, I loved your questions!

Thank you so much for your kind comments! :sob: It really means a lot! :heartpulse:

I love your Rui!! She seems so cute and like a total sweetheart and I know Blade and everybody will love her! :wink: Thanks for sharing your MC, I hope anyone else who does theirs will share theirs too!

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@rinari I’ve so glad you like Rui (and my silly little asks) and thank very much for kind words as well. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I was very nervous about sharing my opinions on the game, especially since I’m not very good at wording things (and I have a fear of angering people so that makes things worse) and I didn’t want to come off as a butt kisser or something.

Umm, anyway here’s something I always wanted to share but didn’t have the means to (Tumblr ask limits are the worst) so I hope everyone likes it! :blush:

Also I’m not a good writer, so please don’t mind the awfulness of the format and well awful everything.

Summary

It’s Name Day! Specifically a certain commander’s Name Day, let’s see how our gang of heroes handles it…

The MC holding a a specially tailored sword (that says ‘I <3 Blade’ on the …blade), “Happy Name Day, I hope you like it!” with a big dumb smile on the MC’s face while handing it to Blade. “Than- Who’s Blake?” The MC then squints “What? No, it’s suppose say Bla-” then everything made sense to the MC while Blade stands there a little confused.

[A few weeks ago…]

“No no, I swear that’s his real name!” The blacksmith still looks unconvinced and little annoyed, “Yeah okay, sure… Are you sure it’s not Blake or something?” “Of course, I’m sure!” yells the MC annoyed.

“Can you spell it for me?” the blacksmith says. “Blade.” “All right, spell it again.” the MC looking confused “Huh? But wh-” “Just do it, …please.” “Blake.” “What? Don’t you mea-” “No, it’s Blake!”

The blacksmith smiles with a bit of a sly grin and continues, “All right and thank you, I’ve have done soon.”, the MC looking proud “Thank you very much.” while leaving the shop after paying.

[Back to now…]

The MC falls to floor and cries in shame, in remembering that horrible event and… remembering that everyone in order was in the same room as well. “Blade, please just kill me” “Wait, don’t you mean Blake?” Chase helpfully points out while the MC gives Chase a death glare.

Then a giant demon goose comes out of the window and kidnaps the MC.

tobe

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:joy: geese are the epitome of demons in animal form

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seen bunny demon , rat demon and goat demon this going be lough if boss is geese in this story

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I hope you feel less nervous, @ShySnow: I love hearing everyone’s opinion no matter what it is, and you will not come off any bad way or look rude or sycophantic for sharing it!! Thanks for coming here and sharing your thoughts, MC, and…

LMAOOOOO this is hilarious! Poor MC… are they illiterate in this scenario? :rofl::rofl:

Regardless, I’m sure Blade would take the Blake sword out of politeness, despite the constant ribbing of, well, everyone that’s not Shery! XD Thanks for sharing that hilarious excerpt, feel free to post more if you have any!

Also, I encounter a flock of geese on my morning walks through the park, and all of this demon talk has made me kind of scared of them…

Warning: Scary Goose Picture

Also, more character pictures!

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@rinari Thank you very much for your kind words. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I will admit that I’m naturally a very nervous person so I get that way fairly often and I have a bad habit of saying things that make things seem worse then they are.

Also, I’m glad you guys liked my excerpt!! I’m not good at writing things with other people’s characters (I always make them out of character for reason when I don’t mean too) and I didn’t want to seem biased about or against any characters.

Ahh nah, that MC isn’t illiterate or anything. Just had a long day of arguing with the blacksmith and such but who knows, maybe they were and no one knew this whole time. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

I’ve got more excerpts in the making so (please) look forward to them! (ง’̀-'́)ง

Also, these character pics are so cute (and the ones form an earlier post as well)! They’re MC from the original novel, Helak, and Croelle? :thinking:

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Ahhh I remember ye old geese horror stories in this thread :rofl:

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I’m definitely looking forward to them! :hugs::pray:

Thank you!! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: Yep, there’s novel MC and Croelle: the middle one’s supposed to be Blade but he looks both surly and boyish, oh well :joy:

This will be this WIP’s legacy long after it’s gone

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Scary goose is scary indeed :joy: all those character pictures made up for it though as they’re lovely and awesome!

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Updated the fan art, character art, and character profiles in the original post of this thread! :slight_smile:

As for Shepherds of Haven (and for any alpha testers out there who are reading this), I know it’s taking a while to get the alpha up and running! I want to thank you for your patience, as everyone’s been very understanding and kind about the delay. I only want to open the thread when I have a big, juicy, substantial update to give you to sink your teeth into. I do think the foundational groundwork for the game has finally been all laid out, but things have been busier than I anticipated with studying for law school and various social events (a string of birthdays, holidays, out-of-town visits, and sicknesses all packed together). I also needed more of a break than I anticipated to get me out of the headspace of We Have Always Been Here and back into Blest!

I did write out a lot of Chapter 1 of the game, but at the moment I’m just not happy with it. It’s hard to write a chapter that propels the story forward but has lots of choices that don’t either derail the narrative or feel like filler: I want every choice and scene to be meaningful, but also not so off-the-tracks that I lose grasp of the plot in my desire to give you as many options as possible.

What this means is that 1) I probably need to rein in the ‘filler’ choices and stick to more major ones that will alter the plot in huge ways, maybe going back in and adding the minor stuff after the fact. It also probably means that 2) I’ll most likely set aside Chapter 1 for now and come back to it when I have fresh eyes.

That means I’ve moved on to Chapter 2 (meeting Chase and Riel) and will hopefully have more success at getting it finished. But that also means that when I do have material to show you, it’ll be out of order! Would you rather:

  • wait longer to have a complete update of chapter 1 and 2 in order
  • get updates faster, even though they’ll be out of order

0 voters

This applies to demo readers as well as alpha testers, since the demo will probably go on til around chapter 6 (the chapter after everyone has finally been recruited). I also think I may add another chapter/mission or two to the main story, so hooray for more content?

Thank you everybody for your thoughts and your patience, and Happy Valentine’s Day!

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I say to take your time and do it at your own pace. Post when things are more complete.

People need to learn patience, and I think waiting until you’re more satisfied with what you are creating and then releasing that would be more beneficial and representative of what you are building than pushing things out just because people feel they need to know right this second.

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to me it up to writer how do it :thinking:

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Don’t pressure yourself too much, just do what you plan to do for now. We will wait patiently for it. =)

I hope you have a lovely day!

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As happy as I’d be reading new Shepherds content sooner, do what you think will be more helpful for you! If you think the feedback on chapter 2 would be more useful with chapter 1 there as context, wait for that; if you want to get eyeballs and thoughts about chapter 2 ASAP, release out of order!

Either way, I think it’s safe to say everyone here has confidence in you and will be happy to help whenever you’re ready for the alpha and updated demo!

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Do what works for you best! Don’t feel ‘pressurised’ in any way to push out content for your fans :slight_smile: take your time and we’ll be glad to wait!

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I had always been under the impression that Tallys was blonde. Personal opinion of course since I don’t remember anything about that but I haven’t played in a while so maybe that changed in some later update where you closed in on character appearance.
And I had imagined Blade to be more muscular but alas, I suppose one cannot expect reality to conform with one’s imagination

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Thank you so much for the encouraging words, @spunkycatninja, @Smol_Tatortot, @resuri08, @JMH, and @Cheion! spunkycatninja especially, you always have words of wisdom and you are always right, haha! I’ll wait until I can present the story the way I want to: coherent and as it’s meant to be given. :slight_smile:

I’ve added a new chapter to ShoH, splitting up Lavinet and Mimir’s introductions: instead of being introduced at the same time (and being pitted in conflict with each other), Lavinet is introduced first and Mimir is encountered on a separate mission later!

Tallys was always described as a brunette (having nut brown hair), but it was one line in like 30,000 words, so it may have been easy to miss!

And Blade is quite muscular (at least in my opinion :stuck_out_tongue:) but not bulky, but it’s hard to depict either with premade character generators!

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