Just finished the current demo and a few things I had to say:
First: Dear gods there’s already so much to this story, and you’ve got at least 5 more chapters planned?! The writing is stellar and I’m feeling absolutely spoiled over how good and immersive it all is! I can’t wait to read the complete story, and I’ll be eagerly following along in the meantime!
Second: How dare you include that cheeky note at the end! “Next time: Not Calver” How dare you!
I’m sure I don’t even need to explain why this occasion is relevant to the story!
But I will anyway.
Today is a day of true horror and fear—a lonesome day of our year that champions juvenile falsity and extortion, in which children are encouraged to conceal their identities and then disseminate throughout the neighborhood to threaten citizens with trickery and chicanery, demanding treats in return. So great is the influence of these adolescent fiends that most citizens comply, for fear of their livelihoods. Some, the stronger-willed among them, will prepare traps and trickery of their own, adorning their homesteads with decorations that might scare off the intruders; but alas, most fail, and are left at the mercy of their exploiters.
Nobody, it seems, is safe from the perils of All Hallows’ Eve.
How could we allow such a horrifying tradition to take root in our society? The answer, of course, is witchcraft.
Some will tell you this tradition has its roots in pagan festivals or Celtic harvests, but as we all know, only a baleful curse cast upon the land could produce this horrifying inverted reality, in which the fickle whims of unruly children, for one night, gain the power to rise up and demand tribute from their elders, to so wildly disrupt the natural order and plunge our world even deeper into chaos.
Of course, the only thing that can combat such wicked witchcraft is witchcraft of our own. It is a losing battle, but for now, I am holding strong, casting all the charms I need to resist the allure of those fell children knocking upon my door. If you’ve any magical power of your own, even slight, I encourage you all to do the same, lest the horror engulf you, and claim your souls forevermore.
We will get through this nightmare.
Happy Halloween.
Speaking of horror, today is also the debut of my Patreon, which features bonus content available right now, and more in the impending future! This has been the product of several months of preparation and work, but it’s finally in a state that I think is suitable for audience consumption.
For those interested (but hesitant to click the link), I’ll break down in this post what you can expect to see:
Early access to Soulbound updates: People subscribed to the Arcanist tier ($7/mo) will get Soulbound updates approximately a month before the public release, while Acolytes ($4/mo) will be able to play a week before the public release! This includes the newest update, Part 3 of Memoriam the Third, which is available to play right now for the Arcanist tier.
Design Documents: Behind-the-scenes articles in which I discuss in depth the design, development, and ideas behind Soulbound. Currently, I have two of these up, one discussing the origins of the story as a whole, and one discussing the concept and development of Valerie.
These are available starting from the $4 tier, and I’m tentatively planning to release 1-2 of these a month—for November, the tentative plan is to talk about the flashback chapters and Callum.
Arcana Archives: Short stories, journalings, letters, and other (usually) canon writings penned by the characters of Soulbound and filed away in our literary archives. The first example, available now, is Cortez’s first draft of his Circle report recounting the Satyr Incident (mentioned in Chapter III of Soulbound)…before editing the report to remove all traces of snark, witticism, or personality.
These are available starting from the $4 tier, and I tentatively plan to release 1 of them each month. …Maybe 2 on a good month, but no promises.
Future Fabrications: Sneak peeks of passages from updates yet to be released! Since this will usually be content from the current in-progress update, it’s exclusive to the $7 tier, i.e. the one with the earliest access to the most recently completed update. I haven’t yet started work on Part 4 of the current chapter, but I plan to release some of these once I’ve got some good samples, hopefully starting in November!
Morphotic Memoirs: Probably the feature I’m most excited to share, exclusive to the $7 tier, these are interactive prequel short stories, written in Twine, in which you get to actually step into the shoes of the Soulbound companions and play through formative parts of their pasts, from their perspectives.
The first one being worked on is The Perfect Lady, featuring a young Charlotte in her attempts to navigate Regaldan nobility, live up to her mother’s crushing expectations, and futilely combat existential despair—and you can play the prologue and first chapter (~18000 words) right now, with more to come!
Unlike the other Patreon exclusives, Morphotic Memoirs will release sporadically when new chapters are completed, rather than on any kind of schedule or quota, much like updates of the main story. However, since these are smaller-scale stories with much less branching, I hope to be able to release chapters at a semi-steady pace!
Also some Discord roles, if you care about that: Honestly, this is mostly a logistical thing because my Discord needs a place for people to discuss Patreon-gated content, and a way to ensure that the people who can access those channels actually have access to the content being discussed. It is, however, technically a feature, so I may as well market it as one!
You do also get special name colors, which I guess could be a plus.
And that’s it! If any of this sounds appealing to you, please consider signing up. If not, that’s okay too; I’ll be back in about a month for the public release of the demo, as normal.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I remember, there was a rule about releasing WIP private patreon updates no earlier than 2 weeks before the public one? 
Per this page, the limit is one month:
Thank you for the concern, though. It’s not very well-documented—I had to go searching for this myself.
Ah, probably I just messed up something, I don’t have a very good memory, but I’ve definitely seen this thing about 2 weeks somewhere. I’m sorry if I confused you.
Congrats on the patreon launch! Perfect timing, no better night for summoning souls supporters 
CORVUS THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. Hear our cries!
Quick question is Charlotte romancable? I mean if the dude gonna kill us I wanna give him a reason 
We can only hope. I’m with you. If dude is gonna be like that then I wanna give more than just one reason to do it.
On the other hand I’ve been sitting in my delusional corner since the beginning hoping Callum is somehow the secret RO
Praying for it frfr, the chemistry is definitely there.
Isn’t he already already romance? I swear that’s one of the things you can say to him during his betrayal
In the past, yes. After the betrayal, subsequent ghostening and passing of time it stands to reason that the relationship is over though… unless? 
I remember I had an out there theory that he had planned to bring us back or some such since there’s so much unknown about the magic he was using and that’s apparently a thing you can do (a ghost regaining a physical form, I mean.) Either way I’m playing a heartbroken ghost lol
Speaking of what he was planning… Do you think Charlotte died from his first attempt at making the charms he used to explode everyone? I may be wrong in thinking that could have happened, but if that were to happen, wouldn’t it be likely she became a ghost?
My thought process: We don’t know if Charlotte was alive by the time the last battle happened. We also know that Callum tried to make a charm to weaken enemies before that didn’t quite work out. From the way Callum says he remembers that first attempt, I think it was something that really messed him up and may have driven him to his actions at the end in some way. But that’s just a theory from a guy that rarely is right about this kind of stuff.
Officially? No. Hint-wise? …also no. I’m praying for crumbs.
For clarity, I am currently classifying Callum’s flame route as a “pseudo-romance” because it has a predetermined bad ending and will always end with a breakup even before the betrayal. So there is romantic content involving him, but he’s not romanceable in the same way as the “real” ROs.
If Callum happens to be the secret RO, it will mean that there is additional content with him that manifests in a different and unforeseen way.
In other news, just a heads up for everyone that early access for the Acolyte tier ($4) of my Patreon is currently up, which means in addition to all the bonus content available to that tier, you can play the next Soulbound update right now, ahead of the public release in about a week.
I just wanna point out you didn’t confirm or deny the Charlotte RO no accusations just an observation…..
To be fair none of the secret RO theories have been confirmed or denied. Personally, I’m not even going to go there because we just don’t have any information to make reasonable guesses
