Soulbound: A Ghost Story (WIP) [Updated March 20, 2026]

One of the best parts of any new WIP is watching the audience immediately latch on to the most hostile, destructive, toxic, logistically inaccessible character and demand to romance them.

Author: This is Callum. He betrayed his country and you personally, slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of former comrades, murdered several of your friends and you yourself, did it all out of either contempt for you, lust for power, or the sinister influence of an unidentified artifact, and had been dead for 800 years.

Forum: CAN I HAVE HIS BABIES

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i’m a simple man. i see an irredeemable asshole with questionable intentions and i 45a3354c-1ff1-487a-9034-138f05b69a7a

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If anyone on this forum ever asks me out I’m turning myself in to the cops.

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Yes! Own it, my man. We love our toxic characters and give them a chance to redeem themselves.

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What’s funny about all this is that when I first conceived of Callum, I was actually afraid he would come across as cartoonishly evil and not at all nuanced or worth examining.

Silly me.

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This was a really fun read. So much so, that it lead me to the realization that these demos/wips on the forum have turned me into an impatient content goon. So, thanks for that. In all seriousness, this was one of my favorite reads on the forum. I eagerly await its full release, whenever it may be.

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lol Apparently not. Seems like half of us want to marry Callum and the other half want to give him a beat down.

I personally love him. But in the way where I’d gleefully run across a crowd, leap into the air and yell, “SUCKER PUNCH!”

He’s pretty much my favorite enemy.

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I think part of the reason there’s such a Thirst for villains on the forums is that IF is a safe place to explore that tendency to romanticize violent men that’s been encourage by many of our cultures or to indulge unrealistic fantasies of being able to help change or redeem a bad person.

With Callum in particular, I chose to be an ex-lover, so there’s that added Feeling about getting back together.

As much as I’m a sucker for a bad guy in fiction, you did a really good job of conveying just how terrible a betrayal he put us through. Even if he turns out to be an RO somehow at some point, I’ll have to think pretty hard about if my MC could ever forgive him. But she’ll definitely be blindsided and heartbroken by his initial betrayal.

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The only reason why i don’t want to date Callum is because he’s a man and I’m straight.
Damn sexuality.

Quick progress update. I’m making slow but reasonably steady headway (which is to say, I haven’t yet burned out and given up). Currently gunning for releasing the next update on February 12, to coincide with a certain character’s birthday. (Hint: it’s Valerie.) I guess I’m immortalizing this for no reason other than so I can feel really ashamed when I inevitably miss this deadline.

In the meantime, this talk about Callum has got me curious about what backstories everyone picked. I knew going into this that there would be a lot of people going for the “in love” option, but I’m a little surprised how wide the gap seems to be. I don’t think anyone’s even mentioned the rival path, though that might just be because it’s not as inherently tragic as the other two.

Actually, since I’m on this track, let’s go ahead and make this official.

What was your relationship with Callum?

  • Brother; tried to stop Callum
  • Brother; helped get revenge
  • Brother; walked away
  • In love; didn’t give a shit about Charlotte
  • In love; couldn’t be with Callum
  • In love; was conflicted
  • Rival; warmed up quickly
  • Rival; stayed frosty
  • Rival; had mixed feelings

0 voters

As I mentioned, I think I have a decent sense of where people will fall on this, but I’d be interested to see if the silent majority differ in any way from the more vocal Callum apologists fans! Also looking forward to the total lack of people who actually sympathized with Charlotte, AKA the character you haven’t even met yet! This whole thing is definitely out of genuine interest and not to distract people from the update projection I just made.

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My MC’s relationship with Callum is rival and had mixed feelings, though I picked love initially but I don’t wanna involve Charlotte.

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I’ve actually tried a couple of different backgrounds with Callum. I tend to be a sucker for serious betrayals though. So, brother/helped him & lover/didn’t care about Charlotte are my favorite two. I like to keep it interesting. Drama ftw I guess? lol It makes any following conflict that much more interesting.

But seriously… We haven’t even met Charlotte and I already don’t like her. That’s pretty great, since that means there was enough personality in the tiny amount of info given to form an impression. For me at least. Maybe that’ll change though.

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Charlotte is an…interesting character. I am genuinely not sure how she’ll be received, when you all eventually get to know her.

If I say any more than that I think I’d risk spoiling key details about her role in the game, but suffice it to say I am very interested to see if people’s minds are, in fact, changed as the story progresses.

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I’d like to pick one of the in love options but the thing is… I don’t do men. Still, I’m feeling a little left out here. Is it at all possible I could maybe be a rival with Callum for Charlotte’s affection. I was thinking Callum could save my life, or maybe something else if that’s too cliche, which would help him edge out in front. My responses might be to ‘Accept defeat and stay friendly’, ‘Become bitter and distant over my own failure’, ‘Conflicted, thankfull Callum saved me but sadened I didn’t win over Charlotte’.

My reasoning for doing it this way is so it’s not an obvious reason for Callum’s betrayal, since I didn’t win her over. So I can’t point a finger at Charlotte and say “It’s all about her, Callum betrayed me over her.” Now that I think about it, maybe it is all about her but in a different way. Still, I’m clearly not supposed to know that. Keep his motivations somewhat secret so I’m still forced to spend the next 800 years never knowing why.

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This is a difficult topic for me to talk about without spoiling things, because your relationships with both Callum and Charlotte are highly variable and potentially very complex. But here are my best attempts:

The short answer

The short answer is that I won’t be adding any more variations of the backstories available in the prologue, because I already have nine of them to contend with and they already all have significant impacts on the flashback chapters. However, the flashback chapters themselves miiiiight provide opportunities to play out scenarios kinda-sorta similar to what you’re suggesting. Maybe.

The long answer

The long answer is that it’s complicated. Charlotte is not one of the revealed ROs, which means the only way an MC can canonically be with her is if she’s the secret RO (which, of course, she’s not, because the secret RO is definitely the Clumsy ArcherTM from the prologue).

If you’re specifically asking if the MC can have feelings for her…maybe? If so, that would be a thing that would hypothetically play out through the flashback chapters themselves, not the predefined backstories described in the prologue (which are more about Callum than Charlotte, anyway).

The specific scenario you lay out about being a rival for Charlotte’s affections and ‘losing’ to Callum, though, would never actually play out that way, because Callum was already with Charlotte by the time the MC even met her. I would maybe consider an “in love with your brother/friend/ally’s girlfriend” scenario, but even then there wouldn’t be much of an overt struggle over Charlotte’s affections, because Charlotte would never cheat on Callum (not to mention she doesn’t even like you, at least at first). Callum, meanwhile, wouldn’t particularly care how you felt about her as long as there was no chance of him losing her, which—for the duration of time in which they’re together—there wouldn’t be.

That all being said: it’s worth noting that Callum’s breakup with Charlotte is unavoidable and will happen regardless of the specific backstory you choose with him—it’s given special focus in the “in love with Callum” versions of your backstory simply because it’s most relevant there, but it will definitely occur whether you play a part in it or not. So in the event that Charlotte does somehow end up being the secret RO, you’d potentially have a chance with her after said breakup.

A lot of this is in vague, hypothetical terms because I don’t want to reveal what is, in fact, possible or impossible, but I hope you understand the gist of what I’m saying—the specific scenario you’re proposing is impossible, but there might be other possibilities that could interest you later on.

In any event: regardless of what ends up happening with Charlotte, don’t worry too much about being left out—your relationship with Callum is significant, but it’s not the sole defining element of your character’s backstory. There will also be other opportunities to pursue romantic interests who aren’t male, if that’s something you’re worried about. (There’s a list in the OP, if you haven’t checked it out.)

Edit: wait why do you want to be with Charlotte when you don’t even know her yet?

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This is the Choice of games forum where people are pining after the person that killed you do you think not knowing the person will stop them from trying to romance them?

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And why not pine after her. She sounds like she has opinions and is not afraid to voice them. She sounds like she’d be a constant source of frustration. She sounds just like my type. Or at least the type I like in fiction.

I should maybe point out I’m also female, throw in my wierd tastes and my options are whittled down to one. The verdict is still our on Kira though. If she’s the brooding type I’m not going to be interested but if she has opinions and/or likes to dish out snarky comments we’ll get along just fine.

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Callum best be ready to catch these bands if he thinks about showing his face after what he’s done :triumph::triumph: I’m mad that I kind of love him though…

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Fair enough! I can tell you without spoilers that Charlotte does, in fact, have opinions and is not, in fact, afraid to voice them. Unfortunately for you (or maybe fortunately, if you’re into this?), one of those opinions right off the bat is that she doesn’t like you at all, so…that would be an obstacle if you were hoping for something more than just pining.

Kira might be a mixed bag for you. Brooding, for her, is a state of existence that she expresses by having strong opinions and dishing out snarky comments, so she kinda fits…all the profiles you just described. Might be interesting to see which side of the scales she’ll ultimately fall on for you.

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It’s great so far but 800 years seems too short for magic to be forgotten