I did more or less the exact same thing except I released Xiaoyu with conditions and those condition related to her retracting her magic and leaving the realm, I could then choose the leader. They wanted me, I said nah fam and it let me choose Durreya.
I don’t think that’s completely necessary, since basically at first opportunity I told Jaafar that I wasn’t gonna tattle on the others and left the palace. Once I found a new place I went out to find the dragon with some intel from Parveen and I still could end up with Iskander.
Did you still go in to talk to Jaafar? Both times I chose to leave the palace without entering (and didn’t talk to Jaafar at all), and I didn’t get the option to go find Iskander.
e: Please ignore the above. Did some code diving, and I think the reason I wasn’t able to romance/find Iskander is specifically due to 1) choosing to help/support Murad without betraying him or switching sides, and 2) choosing the leave the palace. If I choose the option to leave the palace (choice spoilers), it brings me to meet up with Aziza and Murad, which leads to meeting the dragon. However, if you’re working with Parveen, or neither Murad or Parveen, the game will have you meet up with Parveen instead, and from there you can rescue Iskander.
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Hi, hello! I’m Athar, the author of this nonsense behemoth of a game, and thank you all for such a wonderful response. I won’t intrude for long, I just wanted to pop in to help clarify some things:
Yes, as Elysian mentioned, Yusr is trans, as is Sayyid Yehya and a few other passing side characters. As for the djinn, Kh does present as the player’s gender, but if you get to know them or learn some of their background, they have presented as female and male in the past as well, and will likely present differently in the future. In my head I think of them as genderfluid or some form of “I don’t care, I do what I feel like” nonbinary who has the power of shapeshifting on their side. Which, honestly, #goals. I would imagine djinn think of this differently but this isn’t common to all djinn, per se. Xiaoyu, for instance, has always been a woman.
Also, re: the ROs, only Murad and Parveen have specific gender preferences, both of them being very, very gay.
I was absolutely chuffed to see this bit because yes! Exactly! You’re speaking Arabic (well…Tirami, but yknow. It’s Arabic) throughout, and Arabic is a very gendered language. I can’t say, “I’m tired,” without gendering myself in “tired” and so I was trying to envision what that would look like if the language had room for other forms of gender as well. I get that it can come across as trite or a bit much but, frankly, it’s purely self-indulgence on my part.
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Thank you for stopping by! As a huge fan of this game, I’d like to thank you for this beautiful story you’ve given us. And I’m always excited for a glimpse behind the scenes, as it were, into the author’s intent and creative process. I know a lot of authors prefer not to hang out here on the forums, and I definitely understand, but I can’t help hoping you’ll stick around a bit. 
I actually really enjoyed the way you got into the linguistic aspects of gender. I don’t know Arabic - aside from a word or two I picked up from the 1001 Nights (like “shams” 
) but I’ve studied a few heavily gendered languages, and I have long wondered how linguistic gender subtly influences how speakers of a language perceive sex/gender issues in society, so it was fascinating to me to watch you explore what a highly gendered language might be like in a culture that takes a relatively fluid approach to gender identity.
If you don’t mind my asking, do you have any favorite scenes or characters in this game? And what surprised you the most in the process of developing and writing it?
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VERY excited about the game and the world it’s set in, absolutely wonderful. However, I think I may have encountered a bug that’s preventing me from moving forward in the way I’d like.
I’m supporting Parveen; during the march on the palace I successfully negotiated a truce between her and Yusr. BUT when I go to her the next time I can, the game tells me I left her side to speak against her wishes in public and they basically throw me out? It doesn’t feel like it should be the consequence of a peaceful palace outcome?
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Honestly, I’m not sure how other authors feel about it, but for me it’s just that combination of a) I came up in fandom spaces and part of me always feels that creator and fan spaces are better separated, and b) I’m just. so bad at public spaces in general xD as my twitter will attest. I’ll do my best to flit in and out though!
Favourite scenes: I’m very fond of Xiaoyu’s tower. Any Xiaoyu encounter, honestly, was always a blast to write, but that one especially, as a purely magical space with an underlying creep of the unsettling, was just very fun to build.
Favourite characters: I am unabashedly very fond of Yusr and Aziza. Kh also shares some DNA with an rpg character of mine so they’re always fun to write. Edited to add: and YEHYA how could I forget Yehya, he’s one of those NPCs I didn’t think much of and then he just steamrolled into the game.
As for what surprised me…welp, aside from the uh. absurd word count. -stares at the abyss made by my hubris and also scope creep- it’s been interesting to see how my writing process has changed as a result. I have to write linearly when I’m writing pure prose, just because a lot of writing for me depends on the flow of language and ideas, meanwhile I was hopping all over the place for the game. I still had to write the chapters in a largely linear fashion, mind - I write and code at the same time, choices come up organically, etc - but I could skip sequences and come back to them later and so on. Meanwhile going back to linear prose writing now has been…interesting. I’ve found myself faced with a story that I want to have two variants and I can’t because it’s not IF, so now I’m writing a diptych 
It’s the worst.
Edited to add, bec I forgot the first time: Also thank you for your kind words, your help beta testing, and your support now that the game is out!
Hi! Thank you for giving the game a try!
I think that might not be a bug - Parveen wanted a riot, Yusr wanted peace, and you brokered peace so Parveen is very disgruntled. I fully understand if you feel that wasn’t signposted enough, though. If you feel that isn’t the case and you might have tripped another variable, please send us a bug report letting us know your path to that point so I can hunt it down. Thanks!
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I remember the same thing happening in beta testing: I thought Parveen would be glad I’d worked out a compromise that got quite a bit of what she wanted, and then the next time I went to see her she acted as if I’d thrown her under the bus completely. I was confused and a little hurt, but Parveen is an intense person, passionate to a fault, so I figured it was very much in character for her. If I had it to do over again I’d probably recommend making it a little clearer - maybe the PC could say something like “I thought I was helping you!” and Parveen could explain where she’s coming from.
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That’s very fair! I can have a gander at it again later and if nothing else, see if I can’t signpost things more. Parveen is very all-or-nothing and unlikely to explain herself but a PC that’s followed her might have a good idea of that, I’d imagine.
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Is the consort achievement only available for non-straight MC?
And is Aziza the only cis women available for a male MC?
“Explain” wasn’t really the right word there - I was definitely thinking more in terms of a big old “reason you suck” rant than a calm and rational argument.
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Yep, in both cases.
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Thx for the answer.
One more question, for a straight male MC who would want to take the throne, who would make a better consort politically speaking Aziza or Yusr?
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I don’t know that there’s a difference, honestly. Your path to the throne isn’t usually determined by your choice of partner, and how things go in the epilogue also largely depends on your own stats and choices. They may have different responses to how you choose to get there (so yknow if you killed the dragon to get there, Aziza isn’t likely to be a fan) but that’s about it, I think.
But this may be a question better answered by other players who also aimed for the throne. It’s hard for me to compare when they all exist sort of simultaneously in my head xD So, if anyone else would like to weigh in?
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I very much liked KH romance. As soon as I freed him I was like welp this is my play through now. Lol I wish to be a dijnn please so I can travel the world.
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Just replayed the game and it’s really quite fun seeing how dense this book is, and how the smallest of different choices can lead to completely different scenes and outcomes (Though I can’t not romance Iskander and help Parveen as gay lesbian solidarity)
Also, i just really appreciate all the characters, especially because none of them are completely altruistic. Even the best have their foibles, and attempting to placate everyone does not and cannot work, which is, somewhat refreshing, even though I love to play the all loving diplomatic hero.
Also everyone is extremely sassy, which is great. Definitely one of my new fave CoGs!
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How old are the ROs?
It seems the MC is in their late teens or early 20’s, so it would make them younger than the rest of the cast, who are now notorious and experienced.
After my first playthrough I have mixed feelings about this game. The beginning of the story was very interesting. I liked how the characters seemed lively and diverse. I adore the way the gender of the characters was mentioned in the story. The pace of the narration seemed flawless, but somewhere in the middle I noticed that I was starting to get confused in the narration. Especially I stopped understanding the consequences of the actions of the character I was controlling.
I had a choice of how my character wanted to deal with the dragon. Since even in the text it was said that the opinion could be changed later, I was not worried about the consequences of the course of action. Of course, mc preferred to just get rid of the dragon by any mean , since from the outside it looked like the creature was destroying the city for no reason. But after my character realized that the dragon was sentient and had once been human , I could not influence further events in any way in preferred direction. Even at trial/meeting with influential people , I had the choice only to discredit Murad , although I changed my opinion about the dragon. Not to mention the strange antics of the main character during the battle. Mc did not want to put his sister in danger in any way, so he seems to have flown alone to the dragon. He protected the dragon, stole the sword and found out the truth , but he was still aiming to kill it . It seemed at least illogical.
I would like more interaction with romance options at least as friends because I don’t feel like that I really know them. It felt more like… a surface acquaintance. At least if the player doesn’t romance anyone. This is especially noticeable when you are making plans with Iskander , and you have already agreed, but this scene is simply missing, as if nothing ever happened. I don’t see any interaction between them as friends after that. Maybe it’s because my character agreed to spend time with his sister, but again, I didn’t think it would cancel a meeting with another person.
I would also really like to get to know djinn better first and not release them after the first meeting. Because this decision extremaly stupid for main character. He maybe naive in some aspect, but certainly not dumb. Because djinn, it is impossible to argue with this, is dangerous and spiteful after it is unclear how many years of imprisonment . I don’t know what he can do without supervision, but I rather not risk it. Not to mention the reaction of others.
Among the advantages, I can note that statistics are actually easy to manage and I didn’t suffer from them. Oh, I especially liked the fact that my character doesn’t always manage to do something successfully , even if he has this skill. This adds reality to the written world. I still don’t regret that I went through this game to the end, because I still got some emotions, although not necessarily positive.
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Does anyone know how to get the greatest magician destiny? My magic skill is 76 but it seems like I fail most magic skill checks, or at least come out even on them.
Actually those achievements don’t look at skill stats.
I always get greatest poet despite my skills being in magic and skullduggery.
It looks at your destiny stats, and your destiny stats are dependent on your behavior, not your skills.
Like for example to be the greatest magician you’d need to be power hungry. You can find the link to your destiny page at the bottom of the stats screen and it explains which behaviors get you which destiny.
I find it non intuitive myself,
The game could have at least given us separate achievements for high skill, it took me a minute to figure out why my magical thief was being celebrated for poetry instead of his actual skills and achievements.
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