The frost dragon to the south sounds interesting. I gotta wonder if maintaining that ice land is hard. Like, the frost manifests periodically.
Every time summer comes they’re like “oh for fuck’s sake.”
I also love how that Dragon Cult Azgor mentions if you say you’d like to be worshipped is relevant again. They’re still around and have their own city. I gotta wonder how Azgor’ll react to seeing them again.
“Oh good! There’s a city full of gullible minions!”
Sees who they are.
“Oh no, not these people again.”
Hope they’re cool with me marrying into the dynasty he promised them he’d beat.
Also if I read correctly, Grafast claimed the whole kingdom, and Vlorora didn’t bother to partition it. That raises a few pertinent questions about that kingdom’s motivations.
As much as I prefer to establish my own empire (the Draco-Aurelian Imperium), Ecbert’s story sounds interesting. The idea of an army whose nation is thoroughly annexed managing to overthrow the government that conquered it and take over both kingdoms is an entertaining idea. Main issue is that it involves cooperating with Vadis. I’m still pissed at him.
By accepting Azgor’s offer at the end of Chapter 1, the Warden begins down a path of exponentially increasing power—but at the cost of slowly losing their humanity. You can choose to stop partway through, but any physical changes that have already occurred will be permanent. How far these transformations will go is still uncertain—maybe Cassiel could help understand and try to counteract them them over time, who knows. Spoiler for this update bellow.
If you accepted Azgor’s offer, there’s a scene where he reveals that he further modified your body, allowing you to fully transform into a dragon at will. It won’t be anywhere near Azgor’s original size—more in line with the form the MC took at the end of Chapter 1—but this time, it’s a complete dragon. However, using it does come with some mental consequences.
The dragon in the south is one of my favorite plot points, but unfortunately, I’m not sure how deeply I’ll be able to explore it just yet.
And yes—after Emberford fell, Grafast claimed all the territory that was once under its control. Vlorora hasn’t challenged those claims, but since only the MC and their group know about Vlorora’s involvement, no one’s really questioning the situation or the reasons behind it—for now.
In theory, yes—they could, since that magical energy is still within them. The issue is that the heavier the object, the more magic is required to keep it airborne. Having an entire dragon sit on top of a ship to power it would add too much weight, making it impractical.
However, if the dragons are willingly cooperating, it might be far more effective to use them as battle mounts instead—having riders rain down destruction from above, similar to how the flying ships were used in Emberford.
Need to work on wireless connection. Could we do it in human form? We still got the magic. Also some of these cores lift whole islands.
It’s kinda funny how much Azgor hates magic given how ludicrously powerful it would be. Do all dragons hamstring themselves like this?
So hopefully Grafast won’t have any.
I do also have to wonder how freely these dragon cultists are allowed to practice. From what we’ve heard, it’s like, the city’s official (or at least majority) faith. Begs the question of whether anyone’s tried a crusade against them. And is their city independent or officially part of Grafast?
The Warden could serve as the power source for a massive flying ship, but they’d need to remain in the exact spot where the core crystal would normally be in order to keep the ship powered properly. They wouldn’t be able to leave until the ship lands safely—otherwise, it would crash straight out of the sky.
As for the floating islands the Aurelians were so proud of, those stayed airborne thanks to a network of interconnected dragon cores generating enough magical energy to keep them aloft. But it wasn’t effortless—those islands required a great deal of ongoing maintenance to remain stable.
Not at all—most dragons do use magic. The difference is that their vast magical reserves make them lack the control that other races have. When dragons cast magic, it often manifests as raw, explosive power rather than refined spells.
Just like what happens when the Warden attempts to cast magic while training with Cassiel.
Azgor, of course, is a bit of a hypocrite. He looks down on the controlled magic used by mages, calling it a tool for the weak. But his own fire breath is technically a form of magic—he just doesn’t consider it the same because it comes naturally to him.
Laphis is an independent city-state. It doesn’t rule over any vassals or settlements, so it can’t really be called a kingdom, but it also isn’t under the control of any of the four kingdoms of Aurelia. It’s located in the eastern part of the continent, across the sea, in a region commonly known as the Wasteland—or the Dragonfell Mountains, which dominate the area.
This was once the heart of the Aurelian Empire, home to its capital and many major cities. But after Azgor and the empire destroyed one another, the region became a haven for creatures once hunted to near extinction—dragons, griffins, hydras, and other so-called monsters began to thrive there. The land became nearly uninhabitable for normal folk.
The cultists of Laphis, however, found a way to survive and even flourish in this chaos. After Azgor’s fall, the four kingdoms did attempt expeditions to wipe them out once and for all, but constant monster attacks—and the threat of the sea people who targeted ships traveling near the area—made the effort too costly. Eventually, they gave up.
Now, Laphis only interacts with the outside world when the occasional ship docks to resupply or trade—but even that is rare.
(I tried adding the map here but apparently I cant add images in posts).
They build in ruins of an Aurelian city, or they just build a new one?
I have to imagine hunting dragons to near extinction proved to be a tad shortsighted given the need for their cores.
Dungeon Meshi style perhaps? Hydra must be a fantastic source of meat. Gotta get food from somewhere and judging from the description Arael gave, agriculture sounds like it’d be difficult in the current environment. Gotta wonder how long it’ll remain a desert. Or if there’s any strange plants that are better suited to the climate.
Also, how many soldiers are with us? I know Ecbert and Vadis have the bulk of the army, but I don’t think it was said how many were with us.
Hey man really enjoyed the first chapter! So much so infact that you’ve kinda inspired me to start writing my own IF. Just wanted to ask how long it takes to learn to code these sort of games because I got zero experience in coding
Oh no, I explained that part a bit poorly—sorry! Not all of the creatures I mentioned were hunted to near extinction. Dragons and griffins, for example, were fairly abundant. But after the fall of the Aurelian Empire, they began thriving alongside other creatures that had been nearly wiped out. I actually plan to write about some of them in the bestiary soon, especially since they’ll start appearing once the MC reaches that region.
As for Laphis—it wasn’t built on top of any ruins. It already existed before the fall of the empire, though it was a much smaller and more isolated group back then. If you look at the map on the stats page, you’ll see a region called Dragonfell, filled with mountains and mist. That’s where the Aurelian capital once stood. But most of those “mountains” aren’t natural at all—they’re the remains of the Aurelian floating islands, including the capital itself, which was located on one of them.
In the empire’s final battle against Azgor, they pulled out all the stops, gathering nearly all the remaining floating islands into one place for a last stand. That area became the heart of the devastation—and now, it’s where most of the dragons live, along with many other powerful and dangerous creatures. It’s also why the dwarves built Obrolk nearby: to try and excavate the region and uncover what was left behind.
As for life near Laphis—it’s definitely not easy. They don’t call it a wasteland for nothing. But it’s also important to remember that Arael was very young at the time and hasn’t been anywhere near that place since. And as always, life finds a way. I plan to spend some time describing the region and how people manage to survive there once we get there. It’s actually been one of the parts I’ve enjoyed writing the most.
That region was not a priority for Vadis, so Zatus didn’t receive many troops. When the MC left for Emberford, he had around 500 soldiers under his command—but not all of them will accompany the MC. In the next update, Zatus will share the news of what’s been decided, and we’ll see how many choose to follow the MC and how many will remain behind.
Hey! I’m so glad you enjoyed it—and it’s awesome to hear that it inspired you to write too!
This is actually my first time writing an interactive fiction as well, so I’m still very much learning how to use ChoiceScript. When I started, I already had about 60% of Chapter 1 written as a regular story. I initially thought about building something in Unity, but that didn’t work out. So when I moved to ChoiceScript, I had a bit of coding knowledge, but it’s completely different from C# that I was learning at the time.
ChoiceScript is a lot simpler in comparison. Right now, most of my game is still pretty bare-bones on the technical side. I do plan to eventually take time to really study the language and explore all the features it offers. When I started, I just jumped in and made things work using examples I found and the most basic commands. So yeah—you can get started pretty quickly with just the fundamentals.
One big recommendation I have: use the ChoiceScript IDE (CSIDE). Seriously, it makes things so much easier. My first version was written entirely in Visual Studio, and it was a nightmare. Switching to CSIDE made everything smoother—honestly, it’s a game-changer.
I’m probably not the best person to give advice since I’m still learning too, but if you have questions, feel free to ask—I’ll do my best to help out, haha!
I was originally planning for it to only be affected by whether you made them stop fearing you through Zatus’ route—but threatening them not to leave is actually a great idea lol. I’ll try to implement that, along with some consequences too.
“I’m not going to lie to you, soldiers. This is a risky mission and we may not all come back. Those of us who do may not receive a particularly warm welcome. Any who do not wish to accompany us-“
“Will be killed immediately. That’s desertion, you’re not allowed to do that.”
