Do the stones have to be made like one specific way? And can other stones be used to destroy them? Could Manerkol or Anyone Actually Handle multiple stones? What was Manerkol like Before his stone? 
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Apologies if these are also too spoilery… 
Or annoying.
not to be dramatic but that artwork is everything my morkai-appreciating self has ever and could ever dream, come true 
.
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I also want Manerkol drawing! I’m so curious to know how you imagined him! Unfortunately I can’t draw even a line right…T_T
Just played the game for the first time yesterday and replayed it today, thought I’d get my thoughts down while they were still fresh
My thoughts
The good:
The romances/characters: They all felt like they could possibly exist as real people and we’re all very sweet in their own ways. Even Mornie and Manerkol (who are absolutely insane by the way) were compelling, Mornie especially being someone I loved to hate. I do wish we’d gotten a bit more on Manerkol and his motivations, but I can look past that since this is the first book.
The plot: It starts off rather slow, not really picking up until about a fourth of the way through, but boy does it get good. The whole “The Lord of All wants to see you” scene was intriguing and really added quite a bit of tension.
The humor: A minor point but still great nonetheless. I had points where I was genuinely trying not to laugh out loud because there were people around me. It added some levity to the tense scenes as well.
The not so good:
The pacing: As I said before, the game starts off rather slow and doesn’t really go anywhere until a fourth of the way through. There were also some issues with the way traveling was handled, for example when the party goes to the Elf village for the torc. I feel that the time on the road could have been used to explore some of the characters more, such as Manerkol or allowed for the MC to raise their stats a bit
The MC: While I can understand that the MC is significantly less powerful and has less experience than the rest of the party, the MC felt incredibly useless. There were maybe 2 scenes where I found the MC to actually make a difference, those being the troll scene and the scene where Eledwen is harassed by the villagers. I’ll be honest, I feel like the whole story could have been the same without the MC and with Manerkol invading the dreams of another one of the party members.
Agency: The MC has little to no agency in this book, with most of the heavy lifting and decision making being done by everyone else. I found the best example of this to be when Mornie kidnaps the MC. MC can do almost nothing to escape Mornie and almost gets assaulted while they’re kidnapped. Again, MC always has to be saved by other party members, and is never able to save themselves.
Impact: The players choices have little to no impact on the story. The player isn’t even offered choices sometimes. For example, with the soul stones, it seems that the stone we end up with doesn’t matter. We also aren’t given the choice to accept the stone, even though my MC would most definitely accept the stone if it meant being able to save their friends from Manerkol and defend themself. The only choices that seemed to impact the story were the romance choices.
TLDR: A solid 7.5/10, compelling characters and a fascinating plot but hampered by pacing issues, lack of world building and little to no player agency. I am still eagerly waiting for the sequel though.
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Isn’t there one on the tumblr that Morgan reblogged?
Definitely will be playing this multiple times I didn’t realise this was out facepalm as I remember reading the demo and at that point deciding for Morkai but all the RO’s are so good. I feel like I should start with someone other than the secret RO but I’m so tempted. I like the villains-which I can’t help. If anyone reads YA books I’m a fan of the Darkling in the Grisha Trilogy and especially Malachiasz in Wicked Saints
I think those are the options for the scene if you don’t go in the kobold cave with Daelynn, Straasa, and Morkai. So to get them, you just need to choose the one that’s like “I’m not going in there! Persuade them to let me stay out here” to have your character stay outside.
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@Bookz23 I love your curiosity, but some of your questions are soooo spoilery 
I can answer some of them, though: Yes, they are made in a specific way. That’s it, that’s all I can answer fxkfkxfgcc 
My excuses 
@Luana_Bellotti There is actually a portrait gallery that you can access in-game. You can see the portraits of all the characters there. They are made in a different style than tjis ine, but I will get them all done in this style too because I love it. Manerkol is next 
@Lola_Lastin The first three happen if you choose to play it smart and stay close to the others. And the last 2 happen if you choose that you’re not afraid of combat 
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Can someone tell me in the battle to get your own stone which option is for Persuasion\wit?
@Fiona I believe the “team up with someone” option is persuasion and the “create a window of opportunity” option is wits
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Okay I thought of more stuff to say!
So a short one: you mentioned elved don’t deal with being underground well. So is it specifically being ‘underground’ as in below sea level or just being in the dark? If so do they require sunlight to function? what happens at night when there’s no light? Do they photosynthesize? Is it about how they don’t like being ‘below the earth’ under rocks and soil? Do rocks and soil block off some stuff they need? If it’s below sea level how does that work? Are they cursed to be overground? So does that also mean they can’t live in housed carved in mountains? or enjoy a Hobbit Hole? Am I being annoying with these questions?
I’m probably just realllly overthinking this but it’s kinda fun to think about XD.
Anyway, have a nice morning/afternoon/night! 
I know about the portrait gallery and I’ve loved the pictures! Unfortunately there isn’t Manerkol, so I was curious! But, if you say his portrait is next, I will wait patiently! 
I just finished my first playthrough. I really enjoyed it. Picked this one up blind without having played the demo, and not knowing anything else about it. After that cliffhanger ending, though, I had to come straight to the forums to check if this was a series with sequels planned. So I’m relieved to find out it is! 
Anyway, some thoughts. I wanted to say I appreciated all of the different modes and nuances to the RO choices. I know this must have been difficult to implement and a lot of work in general… and while it was a little confusing at first, the added guide in the stat page did help me a lot.
I ended up friendmancing Straasa, as I was hoping for something a little more subtle and slow burn for my MC, who I didn’t imagine was at a place in their lives where they would be particularly open or interested in romance. But Straasa’s friendmance route was perfect for that. It was just very supportive and sweet and didn’t move too fast.
I enjoyed the little roleplaying touches as well, like being able to name our mule, picking our MC’s home village, preferred drink, hobbies, etc.
Loved the whole soul stone bonding scene at the end. My MC was a mage from Shadow’s End, and she eventually ended up with Bloodstone. The scene was well written… It really felt like they underwent an intense transformation there, shedding their old self, that was both terrifying but also powerful at the end when they finally stopped resisting. Will be interesting now to see how the MC develops after these changes.
I’m curious, for those who accepted the Torc deal, what was your motivation for your MC making that choice? Do you think this will turn out to be an evil and/or bad choice? Or could it have its own advantages?
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My thoughts were “This is the right choice, right? After all we have gone through… I mean, there is a reason why this appeared, right? And we just went through so much… I can’t simply be like “Eh, suddenly I feel like saying no, guys” and forget. Don’t want to disappoint them”.
Then I felt like I made a HUGE mistake. Hahaha
And I thought I had definitely doomed myself and lost the game hahahaa
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From my MC’s perspective at that point in time—that particular MC, at any rate----their intuition was something they rarely used in the first place, and the situation was dire. From their perspective, they just lost their best friend recently because they didn’t do enough. And though ripping away a part of themselves felt entirely wrong, even a part they weren’t fully aware of----saving that vague part of themselves isn’t worth the horror of seeing their friends dying AGAIN after having gone through so much to get a connection to people back, this time directly because of the MC’s existence. The method with which they were endangering their friends has to be cut off, no matter what the risks are to the MC or to the MC’s ability to help their friends in the future. The future is later. The threat of Manerkol reading their plans is here and now. Torc accepted.
I HAVE A FEELING MY MC WOULD BE ENTIRELY WRONG AND IT WOULD END UP CATASTROPHIC, but that’s where the fun of these things are, isn’t it?
I don’t think it’d be an EVIL choice, but it sounds like something the MC would regret down the line. I’m quite, quite up for that lol. I hate it when narratives punish MCs for being dumb, but this kind of sacrifice/double-bladed trade under duress…yeah, I live for that.
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I have tried both approaches.
The first time intuition was nothing that character used, ever, quite the opposite, so it was no big deal. I was sort of surprised at how big a deal it seemed, wondering where that light, child, part even came from. So, I doubt the character would miss it there, as such. Game-wise, only @Morgan_V knows. 
Since then I have played a highly intuitive character (a few times, ha!) and to them it would to too much and they end up feeling guilty over come to pass mere moments after they refuse it.
The whole deal with the soul stone, in fact, is another such thing in the mind of that character – if it was at all possible, the attitude would be that it was something stolen, taken without permission and if it could be done, would want to get rid of the soul stone, for ever, especially seeing how it changed our bewinged friend (she also says it is no worth giving up yourself, but again, what choice do we get? None.).
So it is all in the character build for me. Other characters (for I play many) would not really fight the soul stone at all and embrace it, as opposed to some that really would rather pass on it, regardless if they have things they would like to forget or not. So, I will be curious to see if we can hold resentment towards the soul stone, and to what degree if so. 
Time - and @Morgan_V’s writing - shall tell. 
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As individual freedom is something that I always so desperately defend and revere, I chose not to accept the deal. But in one of my playthroughs my character was very pragmatic, so I decided to go for it. I thought my stat bar would go full red but it didn’t.
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Interesting, my MC’s motivation for accepting the Torc deal was similar to yours, except that they did give up quite a bit of intuition for it. But by that point in the game I was mostly seeing how this MC seemed very out of touch. Disconnected from other people, isolated, spaced out/fainting a lot, having anxiety attacks, and just in general not very practical…in part because of this gift. So while they were sacrificing a part of themselves, I saw how the Torc could be a benefit at the time for them to grow (actually seeing and knowing versus having just vague impulses and impressions like before). And that reasoning definitely seemed to fit the narrative when they received the Bloodstone from the dragon/snake god in the end, who basically told her she needed to grow up and accept responsibility choosing her own fate. The inner child dies…but it was also maybe a part of themselves that was clinging too much to the past? Snakes are meant to shed their skins, so I dunno, I guess we will see if it turns out to be a fatal mistake, lol.
I could definitely see how those romancing Manerkol would probably want to avoid accepting the Torc, though. My MC, fortunately, hates him… so anything that can possibly be done to weaken their connection was worth doing.
But I’ll have to consider more before book 2 comes out. This was one of the major choices I found to be the hardest because I could see both sides!
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One of the weapons you can get are dual daggers?!? I think I’m going to replay the game again so I can be a certain hero of justice…
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