The Summoner | Updated Nov. 26th, 2024 (217k words)

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You are a bird in a gilded cage. Fight to help change the world or choose not to. Either way, nothing can stay the same.

Being a young Level 3 summoner means your future was never yours to choose. Drafted into the 1st Battalion, your hand is forced to contract with spirits that will fight for your kingdom—at the expense of your life. Dance to the beat of a drum you don’t hear, to the words of the Creators that decide whether you live or die.

Will you find yourself with the future you always dreamed about, or will you become yet another number in history?

  • Play as male, female, or non-binary.
  • Forge a bond with three other characters who are caught up in the same battle you are.
  • Play as a reluctant character who is Not having a good time.
  • Choose choices that correlate to your character instead of stat checks.
  • Get the opportunity to pet a Spirrebird if you want.
  • Have fun at a festival before unraveling the lies of the past and future.
  • Be confronted by loss and change.

You are lost and adrift, but in the Kingdom of Faolkr, you cannot be lost forever.

Note: Standalone? That's what I intend. Romance focused? I like romance, so I'm pretty sure it is. Action-packed? Ahahaha. No. Thrilling? Uh... if you find pathetic MCs thrilling, then sure.

What’s in the demo is subject to change, but I hope you enjoy what’s currently up! I welcome feedback and suggestions! I can’t decide how the story will end…

ROs (or friends!):

Caine: Enneagram Type 6, The Loyalist
They seem a little too supportive and loyal to someone like you. After all, who could be that devoted to their duties without a reason? And surely that reason isn’t because you’ve got a silver tongue. You really don’t.
Concept art: #1

Rei: Enneagram Type 1, The Reformer
They talk too much and also like they came straight out of the past. Which they did—but that’s irrelevant, isn’t it? What is relevant is that they should really stop blaspheming the Creators…

Jackal: Enneagram Type 3, The Achiever
They’ve got a clear issue with you, but won’t come out and say what it is. If they’d just stop dancing around whatever history you two had, wouldn’t that be way easier?
Concept art: #1

Extra:
The Summoner (you): Enneagram Type 4, The Individualist
Willow: Enneagram Type 2, The Helper
Hoofington: Your Childhoof Friend

Word count w/o code: ~217k (~58k per playthrough)
Content warnings: angsty/depressive content, mentions of self harm, war, death, gore & injuries

Here is the demo link:
Dashingdon: 11/26/2024 (m/d/yr)

Next update:
-Figure out your life…
-& more?

Changelog:

11/26/2024

  • ~217k (~58k per playthrough)
  • chapter three, partial chapter four
  • added some achievements, social/standoffish stat, removed dagger as a weapon choice
  • edited previous chapters

5/2/2024

  • [companion game] HBreaker Hub release

3/31/2024

  • ~411k (~411k per playthrough)
  • added your childhoof friend Hoofington
  • you can have to romance the horse

1/6/2024

  • ~148k (~38k per playthrough)
  • chapter two, partial chapter three
  • added finished path for fes w/ calla
  • edited previous chapters

10/16/2023

  • ~75k (~21k per playthrough)
  • prologue, chapter one, partial chapter two, partial chapter three
Please help me with:

(doesn’t have to be restricted to this list)
  • Any grievous errors whether in the writing, story, or code or things I overlooked
  • Anything you’d like to see or if you think something’s sloppy with the pacing
  • My sanity

Questions I’d love for you to answer:

  • How do you perceive any of the characters?
  • How do you feel about the MC you’re playing?
  • Anything you’re confused about from the writing?
  • Any choices that need improving? How?
  • Which were your favorite scenes? Which could use improving?
  • Where do you think the story is going? How do you think it might end?
  • Did you enjoy it?
Polls:

If you’d like to help me justify spending more time writing instead of living life, I’d sorely appreciate it! I wish I could write full time :sob: ko-fi.com/kezthier

I might have an early access demo thing on kofi if you’re interested in that.

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Wow, that’s a really unique idea. I like it so far and that you can play reluctant grump.

The only thing I missed was appearance customization. I guess I just got so used to it in IF games that not having it felt almost strange xd

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Great stuff here, the writing and atmosphere hooked me right in. Got me wondering about these mysterious ‘Creators’. Looking forward to meeting Rei!

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Good first demo, it’s long so it’s easy to get attached to the character and I’m glad you make the first demo long because usually other people’s make it too short

Pretty nice story in the beginning, it give me the sense the MC will get some tragedy friend death or losing part of his body or something else because the tone of this early chapter portray war without hope but maybe mc will change that and make more bright world so who know

Can’t wait for next update and the summoner battle, stay safe and healthy

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This demo was such a good reading. I loved the setting and I love Caine so much. Their reaction when my MC called them pretty was priceless, they are adorable.. And their POV? OMG, amazing.

Both Caine and MC are in a terrible situation, I am playing a MC who’s very reluctant to fight and just want to live her life in peace. At the same time, she’s happy that she met Caine. I hope there will be some way of “free” Caine for the bond but they are a spirit to that would probably mean that they woud disappear? :weary: It’s conflicting I just want them to be happy

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Thanks for all your feedback everyone :smiley:
I liked reading them and am glad the demo is well received so far!

I really should add at least hair & eye color customization at some point. I was reluctant to because I didn’t know if I could have it matter, but!! I suppose I should!

Heads up, it’s normal for humans on Therra to have some unrealistic hair colors. Jackal literally has red hair and so can you when I get around to it :+1:

There will be sad things happening to characters, but I’m not confident in writing serious moments lol

I hope I can make these moments hit but ahhh, we’ll see

Also just so it’s out there, I wrote different variations for some of the scenes if you have a low affection w/ Caine and you choose friendly/romantic options with them. And vice versa w/ antagonistic options and high affection/like stat! I tried making it angsty c:

It might be hard to meet the threshold if you don’t code dive, though

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@Kezthier a very good demo it has me looking forward to seeing more as well learning more of the world and lore exspecially when it comes to the why of things.

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:eyes:

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I love it when characters have unrealistic appearance features :>

Little pronoun bug (mc is male)

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Btw. Could it be possible to skip some options during the festival?

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Theory about a possible path/ending (or the only one, who knows) based on the card reading: I’m guessing we’ll become a spirit ourself, or at least that’ll be a possibility. Definitely what it sounds like, with the long future but short life with an unexpected end but no death.

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I don’t come out of lurking often, and I haven’t even finished the demo yet, but I can not contain how much I love this. It is my new favorite WIP. This is such an original idea and I have been invested from the first page. You have such a way with words and really make your reader care about the story and characters. Caine in particular is precious and I will do anything for him.
I cannot wait to see where this story leads! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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When i played through i could only do i think maybe four options so should be possible to not so them all allready i think.

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Thanks again for telling me your thoughts about the story, everyone! I really appreciate all the kind words and help, I love reading all your theories and about you getting attached to a character, that’s the best feeling. I hope I’ll deliver a satisfying story to you all!

I’ve updated the demo a bit, no new content yet except for choosing your hair & eye colors and ironing out a few bugs during editing.
I don’t know how much the colors are gonna come up, but enjoy being able to visualize your character more c:
Height might be a future thing you can choose, but that adds a lot of accounting for so I might not reference it much lol

I’ve been currently writing the festival w/ calla, after I finish with that, the plot can finally move on in the next content update! Which will probably take a month or more rip

It’s so easy to get Caine’s affection up :sob:
No need for angst, just shower them with love and be open w/ them, they could use it haha

Thank you!

The attractions are price value based so it depends on what you choose, you can’t see them all. But the shortest path would probably be doing the mask-making booth +the food stalls or fortune telling w/ the possession-based reading!

That’s such a cool idea that I never thought about! But unfortunately your summoner can’t become a spirit–no matter what, your use of the contracts will shorten your lifespan, but depending on the ending you get, you’ll be able to see them get killed as opposed to them dying offscreen due to their shortened lifespan.

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an hearing that about the mc it is kinda sad hope we get to go iut with a bang then and if had my way put some people in there place for forcing things lol

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Wow! I really like the concept and your writing style. Looking forward to seeing more. It seems potentially very angst filled to have a summoner fall for a summon, and I do so love stories with angst.

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Huh, I think I managed to see all :thinking:

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You quite literally had me at the title. I absolutely love the summoner class of magic, and the story of of someone fighting (and likely dying) in a war they couldn’t give two f***s about has me intrigued. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

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@Kezthier currently on my way home from a trip and was thinking about your game lol and have some thoughts for consideration. Yet since will be back to driving again will half to wait until later on before i can try to get them down here. Still loving what i am finding and looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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Aww you guys, stop making me blush haha
You’re all too sweet, this’ a good prescription for my fluctuating ego c:
I wish I could reply to every comment individually, but that would take time from writing and clog up the thread ;; (know that I seriously appreciate and read every comment and this is directed to all of you! Including the lurkers :+1:)

Anyway let me say that coding & testing your work is rlly hard :')
I bring you all another bug fix with a slight bit of content on top! As in, a slight change to Caine’s low affection POV when you brush snow off their head, bc I somehow completely overlooked the differences btwn that and the high affection/like one.

Also edited some scenes/sentences so that they read more smoothly. Nothing much, but there should now be no game/immersion breaking bug. Probably.

I’m not completely sure about my plans for this aspect yet, but what if I told you that you have to betray them to make them want to kill you? Idk who’ll be the one at fault yet lol. Or maybe everyone’s problematic!

Huhh, I couldn’t replicate this so that’s very strange. You saw all 6 options in one playthrough? Please let me know if this happens to anyone else o-o

Forgot to say, I added the characters’ enneagrams to the desc if anyone wants to check them out! I’d say the personalities in the link are pretty accurate give or take a few details, including how their relationship with the summoner will inevitably play out.

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Lol the anwser is all most likely

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