The Golden Rose: Book One by Ana Ventura

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I came for the alternate history but I think I’ll stay for @Anathema writing. If that intro had been in my old dnd group it would have sounded like this

DM: you’re lost in a maze
dice rolling
DM: You’re still lost
more dice rolling
DM: You found a big room
rolls dice
DM: it’s mostly empty

I think I’d rather dungeon crawl in @Anathema world.

But getting back to the alternate part of this history, just how different is it? If Rome fell at the time of Nero I’m a little surprised to see the Catholic Church without Emperor Constantine’s endorsement. Did the eastern half of the Empire survive as Byzantium in this reality also? Not that 99% of readers will notice or care, I’m just curious what your thoughts are and how influential history will be in this story.

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10 Romance interest ?? Wow !!!

But can we have romantic interaction with multiple RO ?? Won’t it consider as a Sin if we are not faithful to our loved one ? :-):thinking:

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@SeventhJackel Ah! Hopefully, my writing is a little more engaging than the prose of your old Dungeon Master. :grinning: And don’t worry, this won’t be a dungeon crawling game, I’m in the midst of writing a scene where the bright blue sky shines on the MC.

Also, I’m kinda jealous of you. I wish I could find people to play dnd with :sleepy: But no one plays it in my country.

I’m sorry this reply is so late btw, but I just now got home and I wanted to answer this from my computer.

Under details, because it got lengthy (and it's kinda rambling so I apologize beforehand).

I was actually hoping someone like you would eventually comment on this thread because I’m kinda struggling with this very same issue. I’ll admit - I don’t know much about the Eastern Roman Empire since I always focused more on the western one because it was a direct part of my country’s history. And I’m biased that way :slight_smile:

Anyway, I’ve been going back and forth on this. When I first wrote the main post, I wanted to present a Europe vastly different than it was - even create some new kingdoms and a new ruling religion. However, I quickly realized that would involve A LOT of research and as I’m writing this on my free time, I don’t want to spend it researching when I could be writing - I like history, but it’s the actual writing that makes me happy.

So what I came up with was this: When Nero died, the Julian-Claudian dynasty died with him - and pretty much all of the western empire. But Byzantine was spared from the slaughter and future Emperor Otho fled there. It never became Constantinople, however, since Constantine The Great never came to be.

Instead, it kept it’s Roman traditions to this day - and it’s currently in war with the Christian Church. There are secret holy crusades going on, and it’s why the Church hunts down any remnants of the Roman empire so viciously in the west. And denies they ever existed. This is the part that it’s actually relevant for the plot.

There weren’t any civil wars after Nero’s death to fight, and chaos spread throughout the land. That’s why the current nobility is so weakened. Christianity - that was being persecuted by the Roman Emperors, especially Nero - rose quickly from the empire’s ashes (because of very spoilery reasons), and now holds an even bigger power now than it did in the Middle Ages. It’s almost absolute - no monarch dears to even speak a whisper against it.

Is this plausible? Or just a bunch of BS? It seems like you have some knowledge on this subject so I would really appreciate any feedback you’re willing to give :smile:

Maybe I should change the first post. Instead of saying that History was changed, maybe just mention that the Church doesn’t acknowledge Roman history. Not so dramatic but more accurate lol.

You can do what you want to do. But every action has a consequence - even if it’s just a guilty conscience. :slight_smile:

Adultery is considered a sin, yes, but since your MC is not married, I don’t think any priest is going to smack them on the head :laughing: So don’t worry about that.

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I used to do tabletop RPGs, but people moved and I moved and no there is none nearby these days. I have yet to find anything remotely RPGish online, as well. MMO’s sure aren’t. Heck, even ‘RPG focused’ MMO-ish games tend not to be, only in brief instances. Meh. So, I stick to single-player games (rare as they are, as I want character creation in there) and also CYOA style ones these days.

That last part if is why games like your are lovely to find. :relaxed:

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I’m not sure what to make of Alessa.

She saves me from drowning and tends to my wounds, at first I thought she was someone decent. Two minutes later she’s acting like one of those trying-too-hard-to-be-mysterious types with a b****y attitude and throwing threats out of nowhere. I don’t know if it’s an inconsistency or not but it would be nice to have some kind of preemptive background story on our partners, nothing too big or complicated, so we can a feeling on what they’re like. Or at least make it so in our introduction she reveals her true colors more openly.

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To be fair , way of speech or communication doesn’t determine whether a person is good or decent…

Sometimes , a person could be good at heart and with an intention of helping other… but that person could also be an honest blunt with an attitude ( uncompromisingly forthright.)

It is not necessary that only polite speaking individual will genuinely want to help or save people, a blunt person may have a good heart and sincerely want to do good things, but could be lacking in term of communicating with other people :slight_smile:

For my playthrough, Alessa was decent and polite enough when i speak to her in a sincere manner … However , i also can see some choices are actually in a “cheesy” manner when responding to her, it is perfectly logical that when we ourselves approach other people with a “cheesy” manner, the blunt recipient will respond in a similar fashion :slight_smile:

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Alessa will not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’m well aware of that. Any character really is subjected to that, but someone like Alessa doubly so. Whether she is a decent person or not, she often acts a certain way and that way can be sour or cold at times.

If you interpret her as bitchy, then that is perfectly valid. I’ve tried to add options for the MC to express that - having an antagonistic relationship with Alessa is absolutely possible (and one I’m excited to write!)

But I agree with @Eric_knight in the sense that someone with good intentions doesn’t always act polite, just like someone with bad intentions often doesn’t act rude.

About the threat, Alessa is blaming herself pretty hard right now for slipping up. Which happens very rarely. She’s highly stressed and reacted the way she did - you’ll get to talk with her (or confront her) about it later if you wish.

But if you think she is inconsistent, I’ll read through all her interactions and see if anything pops up.

Thank you for the feedback!

Here I am feeling jealous again :smile: You see, I never had that whole tabletop RPG experience. I’ve only relatively recently got into dnd because of Critical Role. So yeah, single players RPG’s and CYOA are all I have really. I still remember when I first played Dragon age origins and it was like a revelation.

"Wait, so I can play as a woman?? And make decisions that affect the world!? And romance a sexy-accented elf assassin?:exploding_head:

Now I can’t go back lol.

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Ah yes, the best one of the lot, Origins. I even enjoy the more realistic, slower paced combat to the ‘teleport around the battlefield’ of the later games. Those have a few interesting characters, I’ll give them that, but the story is superior in the first. Had a play-through with a Dalish elf, oh goodness, everything clicked for ‘an epic tale of triumph and tragedy’… :sweat_smile:

Also, I am very picky (and poor), so that part about playing as a woman is a deciding factor for me these days. Especially with RPGs.

Er, enough side-tracking! Back to taking wrong turns and water over our heads! :grimacing:

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Yeah I did a lot of good dnd and other table top games back in college, even DMing a few campaigns, but since entering “adult” life have had rather poor luck. Crap in my life after college had me loosing contact with those guys, and every group I’ve tried since has been terrible.

warning, historical ranting ahead

I’m not really an expert on the eastern empire, in fact I suspect there aren’t that many considering most histories I’ve read gloss over it entirely. Or focus only on it’s dysfunction and slow decline in the face of various Islamic states, culminating in the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. But the fact that the Empire outlived the fall of Rome in 410 to the Visigoths by an impressive 1000 years is telling.

If we remove the city of Constantinople however that would completely change everything. A non Christian empire without the city of Constantinople would most likely have felt much less Roman, perhaps falling back into the Persian and Greek patterns that influenced it so much. Maybe even a resurgent Egypt.

That being said your alternative history could still be plausible, if a bit unlikely. History is of course a string of unlikely events so don’t let that stop you. The reason Nero and those like him dislike Christianity was the fact that it was based on a Jewish criminal who was executed for fostering rebellion. That’s why the plaque on his cross that would normally state his name and crime said “Jesus, King of the Jews.” Those living in the ruins of the collapsed empire, how ever, would probably be much more receptive to a cult that had opposed it, so I can see that happening. Particularly with your additional spoiler reasons.

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Hey! Appreciate your thoughts very much. Also, I love historical rantings, no need to warn me. :blush:

I really like your idea of a resurging Egypt. But that could mean opening a whole new can of worms since I’m more familiar with Egypt’s history in the context of the Greek and Roman empires (and judging from your icon picture, you’re very much the opposite). To be honest, I don’t even know what happened to Egypt after the fall of Rome.

But having a pharaoh pissing off the Vatican would be pretty awesome lol (especially since I’d probably make her a female pharaoh).

For now, however, I think I’ll keep the world as it is. I’ve never claimed historical accuracy, and if people complain then… Honestly, they would be right. It would be a legit criticism. But hopefully, enough people can look past it.

Edit: @Taylor_Enean My god, don’t get me started on the decline of the DA series. I could vent about it for ages.

Me too about the gender part. I don’t mind playing games with male protags if they are especially good - like The Last of Us, but if you’re advertising a role playing experience, then I want to roleplay as my gender.

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Don’t worry about historic accuracy, because all story is with respect to alternate universe anyway… :wink:
If you wish, you could decide not following the name of every faction and country as well, instead of vatican , name it as another title like Prime Order or something else, and the inquisition could happen in a fictional country :slight_smile:

And with respect to the original inquisation , i found that it was inquiry towards those people who converted to christian from another religion … but you could redefine it in an alternate universe … :slight_smile:

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That would be pretty epic. Pope Urban vs Cleopatra would be an awesome tale in its own right.

And yeah I tend to be focused on older history. When I was part of an archeological dig in Syria we used to joke that Roman ruins were the best place to dig because there was probably something actually old underneath. Then 9/11 effectively shut down the dig. 15 years later Syrian rebels blew up the Temple of Bhaal we had been researching. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve shed tears, that’s two of them.

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Thank you, Eric. For now, I’ll focus on writing chapter two and lock this doubts in a drawer for a later time. I want to share what I’ve been working on! :smiley:

Oh my god, don’t tempt me. :laughing:

But I didn’t know I was talking to an actual archeologist (if that is what you are). That’s so badass! Before I decided to pursue biology, I seriously considered archeology. Fell in love with it since I saw Jurassic Park for the first time as a little kid lol.

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Lol I was the exact opposite, I was all about dinosaurs until I saw Raiders of the Ark. :sauropod:Unfortunately that was my last dig as an archeologist. Issues in my personal life flushed the next few years away so now I’m just an amateur historian with better than average stories.

Also @Eric_knight is right. For this story historical accuracy is fairly unimportant. I only asked for my own curiosity and I’m confident you can write an amazing story with whatever background you feel fits best.

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@SeventhJackel Haha yeah… especially with the inquisition , which i found is very complicated :-):joy:

By the way, raider of the lost ark right?? I am curious where is the actual Arc of Covenant ? I thought it should be the size of a small box ?? Any idea where it is kept now ? :-):yum:

And @Anathema, the templar seems live a very rigid strict life, you really don’t want to follow their historic background , they even have a strict diet like 3 of the weekdays cannot consume meat and they were not allow to speak to women :-):astonished: they were nothing like our cute Hadrian :-):sweat_smile: so better forget about the actual history :-):laughing:

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Size wise the movie got it about right (assuming the dimensions in the bible are accurate.) Being made from cedar and coated in gold it would be heavy as fuck. As for the location, while there are lots of crazy and fun theories, it would take an actual act of God for that much gold to not have been stripped down and recast by any of the numerous nonbelievers who captured its supposed locations. And the wood would have rotten to nothing long before Rome.

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Had you play a game call Dominion iv ?? Some under rated pc game where we play as a pretender god aim to compete with other gods to dominate the world … if we choose profession of Archmage , we could craft multiple artifact and relic … one of them is the Ark of Covenant :-):laughing: and i let my prophetess carry it to battle field … it was such a sight to behold :-):grin:

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Haven’t played that one. What genre is it? Rpg, simulation, etc?

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Like @Eric_knight said, don’t worry about that too much. I’m happy as long as I get to smooch Adrian :kissing_heart:

Oh and what sexualities are the 10 ro? are they all playersexual?

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Oh it is a strategy game , turn based, armu building :slight_smile: with rich background for every faction …

The manner of the god we choose also different, got Archmage, Druid, vampire, dragon, titan , etc…
The most interesting ones are fountain, blood fountain and even a stone :slight_smile:
@Baepsae… the RO , i remember the author said 5 males 5 females :slight_smile: