I gave this game a second shot and I really enjoy it! I’ll just have to be mindful of my mental health while playing. Quick question, do you think we could date Lazaro (I think that’s his name? I don’t remember it exactly lmao) in the future?
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I’m glad you’re enjoying it! (:
Yes, please! You make sure to take care of yourself – one’s mental health is more important than me retaining readership.
You remembered it right!
EDIT: I was a little wrong – you forgot an accent over the first “A” in his name, lol.
I guess that depends on how you mean “date”… MC1 can go on a little “date” with him if you choose to attend Gensburg College, go to Belvidere’s party, look for others at the party, and accept his invitation to go for a walk. MC2 gets a similar “alone time” experience with him if you choose to have them stay with the radicals during the summer after the expedition. If you’re just talking about him being a(n) (a)romantic interest in general, though, then the answer is “yes” for both main characters! (:
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Notice About the Frequency of Future Updates
So, some of you may know that I was working on Years while trying to find another job. This week, that finally happened! And while that means a more stable life for me, it also means that I will have less time to work on personal projects. I’m not going to stop writing Years or go on hiatus or anything, but I wanted to let people know that updates will be slower than they have in the past.
I will, of course, still be (inter)active with everyone on the forum thread, Tumblr, and Patreon. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day! (:
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First, congratulation on finding a job! 
Second, sorry for taking so long to play this update, I had a backlog and I’m also busy with a move 
Now, with that being said, cool update, and I’m so thrilled about the Heroes being revealed!
At this point, I’m mostly curious about what will happen next, really!
The one small issue I had (nothing much):
If both MCs are with the Radicals (or well, at least if MC2 is with them) and I talk to Laz, the “What do you think about the Heroics?” and the “What do you suppose the Heroics want to talk about?” options don’t disappear once selected.
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Thank you! (:
Haha, it’s fine! I hope everything went well with moving!
Lots and lots of drama!
Got it! It should be fixed in the next update. (:
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So, in this wip I can make my two mc´s romance eachother? 10/10
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That’s right!
Thank you! (:
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Hi! So first, I love this story. It’s fun jumping back and forth between two MCs and I love making them opposites of each other all the time.
Second, I don’t know if this is just an oops or something else, but on my current playthrough MC1 was a female and MC2 was a male, but my male MC kept being referred to as female? Also at the part where MC1 gets called in to speak to the guard, MC2 gets threatened even though MC2 isn’t with MC1 and stayed with the frontierpeople so it doesn’t seem to make sense to me that MC2 is threatened when there is currently no connection between them as far as other people know?
And then the fact that while MC1 has a high society reputation stat I feel it’s unfair for the guard to accuse MC1 of whatevering with radicals when MC1 has never done anything to lead to a belief that MC1 is against the Natural Order and stuff?
Just my take on things that I’ve noticed at the moment and obviously maybe there’s rhyme and reason for some of it that we’ve yet to see.
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Thank you! (:
I probably made a typo in the pronoun variables somewhere. Do you happen to remember where this occurred?
This was originally a consequence of me forgetting that MC2 had the option to stay with either the radicals or the Frontiersmen, but I fixed it and kept some of the dialogue in to hint that the Faceless Guard (and consequently the Sovereignty) sees no distinction between purposefully meeting up with MC2 and MC1 and MC2 accidentally running into each other in the middle of nowhere. In their religion/according to the “Natural Order”, if something happens then it is justifiable as something that was “meant to happen”, so they really don’t care about the circumstances of their meeting and/or relationship – it is reason enough to watch them simply because they were in the same place at the same time.
You’re right – it is unfair, and you can call out the First Guard when they start making veiled threats (“oh yeah by the way we’re totally keeping an eye on you…”). They say they aren’t threatening you and that the Faceless Guard is just offering a gentle warning to “do better” in the future, but it’s totally an unsubtle accusation of being radical-adjacent, even if MC1’s only real association with “radical” ideals is their Grandfather (and even then they don’t even have to like him for the Guard to get suspicious).
For some things, certainly, but a lot of the nonsensical actions that the Sovereignty (or anyone, really) takes are borne from their hyper-vigilance (read: paranoia) surrounding any perceived threats to those in power that don’t want their ivory tower to start crumbling underfoot, so to speak.
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I was curious about something about MC1: can he be some kind of traditionalist (not like 80%, but like 55%-60%) and be religious and still be able to side with the radicals? I mean, I´m doing that playtrough right now, with a kind MC1, it would be interesting how would that play out in the end. Im curious about how a cruel MC1 would interact, but I don´t wanna hurt the characters 
. I also like it when you mention to Lazaro that the heroics would accept a student from the fellowship academy. Also, it is kinda cute when the MC1 and MC2 interact in a romantic way, please add more of that 
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Yes, even if you are 80% traditionalist. The radicals will accept you regardless of your political affiliation before the Wrought Count’s Sail explosion, though it’s up to you if you think it would be realistic for your character to go with them or not. Now, a traditionalist MC1 among the radicals will be heavily scrutinized (and even mocked), but they’ll still be permitted to help.
Even the traditionalists/Sovereignty will accept a radical-leaning MC1 (the cut-off stat for rejection is tied to MC1’s personal relationship with Blythe).
In the specific route you mentioned? As I recall, there are some opportunities to use MC1’s unique perspective as a Fellow-in-training, but it’s mostly informative text (i.e. “oh we learned about that in the academy” or “the Fellowship teaches X, not Y” kind of dialogue).
Don’t worry, there’ll be more of that, soon! (;
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This is one of my favorite WIPs I’ve played so far! I want to try to avoid spoilers, but here’s my thoughts:
Firstly, I love all the care and detail that goes into your worldbuilding and lore, it makes the world feel so complex and real. It’s really immersive. Every character has their own personalities and opinions, the groups of people who populate the world are unique in their appearance, culture, traditions and lifestyles, and even their language. It was very cool to have a conversation between two characters who speak different languages and see how that would work. The world has its own history and politics that can be difficult to keep track of but is always interesting to learn about. I appreciate that details about the world and its history and culture are never given in a huge lore dump but are naturally sprinkled throughout the story so you can learn as you experience it without being overwhelmed. It’s pretty easy to understand how this world works, but you still want to know more about it. The conflict is so tense and it’s obvious that the stakes are high - being a revolutionary is not fun or easy! But siding with the Sovereignty isn’t easy, either, having to walk on eggshells to avoid being accused of not following the “Natural Order” under the constant threat of punishment - there’s no security for you, either.
I like the idea of having relationship “stats” instead of normal stats. Firstly, it’s kind of nice to not have normal stats to have to keep track of, and feels more natural. But it also forces the player to pay close attention to how they treat others, what they say around certain people, who they interact with, etc. It adds to the tension very nicely, knowing that not great things might happen to you if you don’t have good relationships with certain characters - made worse by the fear of knowing that you can’t please everyone and will inevitably upset somebody no matter what you do.
I absolutely love the concept of two playable characters, it’s something I rarely see but I really enjoy. I especially like that the two characters come from different backgrounds, giving them different perspectives. There’s a “you can’t choose who you’re born as, but you can choose your actions” element to it. It might be controversial or understandably triggering to some but I really appreciate that you don’t shy away from including dark themes, even making them major points in the story. It feels like a realistically gritty and complicated world. I had to think hard about how I felt about things, or how much I should tell someone about it, and it felt like my choices actually had a lot of weight. I appreciated being given a lot of time to learn about the world and the political situation and being given the option to say “I don’t know yet” before I had to choose a side. It’s nice that there’s usually quite a few options to choose from, especially in dialogue options, that allow me to take a more nuanced stance on issues than just “yes”, “no”, or “I don’t care”. And I appreciate allowing the player to form their own beliefs about the systems and people in the world, but adequately punishing the player for being prejudiced or cruel.
I couldn’t give any more specific examples, but there were some situations where I was confused why certain options were greyed out. For example, from what I remember, if in MC2’s introduction you choose to be kind to your brother, you can’t later on be mean to him, or vice versa. I feel like whether I want to be rude or kind to another character depends more on a particular situation than on how I behaved towards them in the past, if that makes sense. Or if I establish my character as a kind person, I can’t choose any cruel or violent options later on, whereas I might just feel that choosing peace or violence depends on the situation. Maybe MC is usually kind but feels that there are certain situations that justify violence? I’d rather not be automatically locked out of those options, even if it’s an “out of character” thing for MC to do.
On a different note, I understand it could be triggering but I liked your approach to playing as a trans character. Living in a world that’s biased against anyone different would probably cause most people to misgender and mistreat you, unfortunately. It was uncomfortable but realistic and reminded me a lot of my own experiences. People reacting to you with discomfort or misgendering feels as depressing as it does in real life and gives me an immediate indicator of how much I can trust that person. On the other hand, it’s surprising but nice to find people who will respect your identity. It always breaks my connection with a story when characters act out of character just to avoid misgendering you when they’d realistically probably be transphobic. I could see an argument for an option allowing players to censor the misgendering, but personally it would feel inauthentic and ruin the dark realism of the story for me. I did appreciate the content warnings for those who may need them, though. Anyways, I thought that it was handled very well!
I’m extremely impressed by the amount of content so far - it felt like I was already halfway through the story when I reached “Chapter One”! That was all just the beginning?! Crazy. It’s the best feeling, knowing that you’ve gotten to immerse yourself in a good story so much already and you’ve barely just begun! I love it.
I can’t wait to see where this story goes, I’m extremely excited! Thank you for all the effort you’ve been putting into this game!
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Thank you very much! (:
Yes, I agree! It’s also fun to try and construct plausible languages for people to speak (though sometimes I just throw real-world Greek or Latin in there and call it “Ald Mainlander” haha).
Part of me thought that information should be presented this way in order to reflect the game’s theme(s) of the dangers of misinformation/disinformation – in the Colonies, knowledge is a very tightly-regulated resource, so I thought having your character(s) learn things as they go along their journey would make sense.
Yes – there are no “easy roads”, so to speak. Even if you’re an aristocratic non-“deviant”, you will have inevitably stepped on people to secure favor with the Sovereignty, meaning that there is very intentionally no route where you can coast into power without consequence.
It’s a personal preference, but I’ve always really liked writing about people and how they interact in a given situation rather than one person’s (one’s MC) individual growth and how they may succeed and/or fail. I enjoy reading story-games with those mechanics, but prefer to keep them either as entirely cosmetic (a certain personality stat “unlocks” a flavor dialogue option or something) or just a fun add-on that players can use if they want to (in Too Different, for example, whoever your mother is determines certain player characteristics and abilities, but there is always a different way to do things other than relying on personal skills) in my own writing.
You’ve got it! That’s a big theme in all of my games, but Years especially.
While it’s never been my intention to deliberately make people upset, I also don’t think that I should ignore or otherwise downplay/obfuscate the hate that is still very much alive in the present day (racism, sexism, slavery, homo-/transphobia, to name a few). A lot of people have messaged me: “games should be a form of escapism, so why make things depressing all the time?” I might reply to them: “well, are you so reactive to what I’ve written purely because you are seeking escapism (and I acknowledge that this is true for a lot of people), or because you don’t like being confronted with difficult truths?”
Thank you! I believe I said something earlier in the thread like: you can be as hateful, bigoted, and cruel as you want, but you also can’t expect people to not avoid you or otherwise not want to be around/help the dangerous a**hole who makes life miserable for everyone. What goes around, comes around, as they say.
Some of this is a consequence of rising stakes – as the story progresses, your actions influence more people and you have the opportunity to do more impactful things. This, coupled with stats tending to just naturally get higher in either direction as the game goes on, means that some options are inaccessible to more moderate personalities (for example, it doesn’t make sense to get the option to kill all of the Heroics if your character has 45 kindness – an action that monstrous basically ensures that you have previously perpetuated the hateful status quo of the Sovereignty by requiring such a low kindness). I intentionally try to always include at least one option that’s “neutral” or “none of the above” to have more than one path open to players, though.
Thanks!
Ahaha! Yeah, I’m about 500,000 words in at the moment, and it’s looking like the final word count will be at least 150,000 more than that. I’ve got quite a long way to go!
And thank you for the kind words! (:
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You know I’m curious to know what you went through to build this world? Although most of them seem obvious, I would like to expose what I can find as an analogy with reality. The colonial system reminds me a lot of the Viceroyalty system of the Spanish empire in America as well as finding heresy different interpretations of the scriptures as well as other different beliefs in this new land. Also the theme of mixing reminded me a lot of the Spanish caste system in which people are classified according to their ancestry and social function. I say this because of the so-called mestizos and mulattoes (both being the product of a fusion of white European people with indigenous people and Afro-Americans) that’s how it was on the continent. And seeing how Machiavellian this distant empire is for colonization, a plan that could be inspired by the Spanish notion is that a racial fusion be colonized and harmonized in order to have and forge biological and family ties with the locals. Such are the cases of privileged indigenous people who helped in the conquest or the Peruvian indigenous nobility following the fall of the Incas. A colonial identity product of hybridization as well as a kind of contempt for its indigenous roots as well as a kind of admiration for white European men.
Another thing that I find associated is that it is the paternalistic vision of this official religion with other peoples to spread their “justice” as well as deception to delude their lackeys who justify their closed research methodology and attached to intellectual notions with many limits. I say this because I am studying anthropology and review a little the history of it in its Darwinian origins of Taylor as well as the evolution of this discipline to lead to new ethnographic, anthropological and sociological knowledge to also promote social transformation and others to maintain the status quo as in the two academies mentioned in your story. As a reader of narrative stories and a future anthropologist, they captured my genuine attention and I wish this project to go well for this year as well as other successes for you.
Sorry for the long text but my mind does not stop working when a work captures its attention)
I have a doubt, does the printing press exist in this world? I made my wilderness report scientific in tone and hoped to spread my observations with other radical anti-sovereignty thoughts. Also, will the events of the continental empire affect the colonies for the development of history as well as with the Napoleonic wars or the dying decline of the Ottoman empire?
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Wow. It would be a crime not to see this IF published 
I’ll leave the constructive criticism and recommendation thingies to our expert beta testers- I just wanna say how I thoroughly enjoyed playing with two MCs and interacting with such likable characters (made it hard to choose which ROs to focus on lmao).
Also, it’s truly a breath of fresh air how, as stated in the intro, this game is more about relationships (and I’m all in for that!). Not once did I restart my playthrough just because I didn’t have a dozen or so required stats just to get favorable outcomes. And I love it 
Thanks for creating such a fantastic IF
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Good eye! I’m more familiar with the Americas, which is why there are a lot of (intentionally) obvious parallels with the real world. Other than what you pointed out, much of the (economic and social in particular) strife in Years is very loosely based on occurrences within imperial Russia.
Yes! It’s basically an entire religion based on “mudsill theory”, and I’ve been intentionally writing it to be as paradoxical and circular-logic-having as possible. Science (or “naturalism” as they call it) exists to justify the preconceived notions of the ruling few, even though that’s blatantly not even what the definition of “science” (or, like, even learning in general) is. The people at the top aren’t stupid – they know that there’s a demonstrable counter to their biases, but they would rather ignore the suffering their privilege facilitates.
I actually have a degree in anthropology, so I am admittedly very biased in finding all this analysis fascinating, like I suspect you do.
Thank you very much! I wish you luck on your degree! (:
It’s fine – I welcome any and all analysis, no matter the length!
The printing press exists, but “press” itself…? There are periodicals and “scientific journals” that might claim to be truthful, but at the end of the day any newsman knows that the Faceless Guard might be watching. Any sort of written word produced in the Mainland or the Colonies is incredibly propagandized, and literature in general is inextricably linked with the religious ideas of “canon” and “apocryphal”.
Yes, though as of the current level of technology in the game, it will take a long time for anything to happen. The Colonies are a months-long voyage by ship, and just far enough away to give the radicals time to act while the Sovereign might be waiting on news (this is one of the reasons why the current Mayhew decided “screw it I’ll fight this war without Mainland resources”).
Let’s see… do I romance myself or myself…?
You’re very welcome, and I’m so happy that you enjoyed my game! (:
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Yes, I also felt many parallels between the Spanish empire and the Ottoman empire as well as their liberal era prior to the colonial crisis as well as their exclusion of American or Arab Creoles from the Ottoman empire.
It is incredible to meet a colleague with the same type of anthropological study, that is why it is always good to give constructive criticism from our own knowledge, in my case it is a criticism from an anthropological perspective. While others give constructive narrative and linguistic criticism to enrich your own stories.
Right now I am watching a series of documentaries called The American Empire (I clarify that I use the American term for the American continent and not for the United States of America)
In which I can find historical parallels of this great story with the Spanish empire. And now new information to expose for the contribution of us readers.
How is the issue of the spread of religion in the colony?
What traditionalist exponents are important, there are some of these more progressive traditionalists, I mean keep the evangelization of the colony more inclusive of the natives and deer and seal people? Moral and philosophical debates about the humanity of beast people
Do they have a soul? are they able to venerate our god? Do they have humanity? What about the natives already living in the colonies, or the general condition of beastmen like the ones who worked on the family farm?
Did they originally have an administrative system similar to the Spanish encomiendas, I mean a feudal system where the administrators are the conquerors like our grandfather?
Are there religious capable of even questioning the cruelty of the colony as well as its departure from the original harmony of the monotheistic religion of the continental kingdom?
An example of this reformist traditionalist idea is found in Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Dominican monk who was one of the voices denouncing the cruelty of the encomienda system in defense of the indigenous people, or Joseph Conrad writing Heart of Darkness when he visited the Belgian Congo.
A theological, philosophical and intellectual denunciation Does our kingdom have the right to the colony? could he treat the natives as they did? What is the point of finding a new continent if we don’t follow our original principles of the continental kingdom?
In a moderate traditionalist sense it is to denounce the mistreatment but to be in favor of the domination and spread of the dominant religion of the empire. A moral and religious obligation to humanely treat the natives and give what is necessary to be initiated into the “true faith”. Natives and beasts recognized as subjects of the crown, trustworthy and entitled.
In real life, the so-called “New Laws” were proposed where they abolished the encomienda system and that did not keep the conquerors happy.
The parallel is in the antagonistic debate between Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginéz de Sepúlveda (official historian of the empire, curiously enough)
“The Indians are Barbarians, environmentalists and servants by nature. We owe them nothing, they are here to obey us like slaves, so something of our virtue will come to them and that is worth more than all the gold in the world”
Controversial statements by Sepulveda today. This contentious issue endangered the integrity of the empire by denying allegiance to the king if such laws were enacted.
Later there was a debate between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginéz de Sepúlveda with arguments such as the following:
“The natives are primitive civilizations like the Greeks and Romans but they have the potential of humanity like us”
"Well, if they are so civilized, how do you explain that they are so barbaric as to practice human sacrifice and cannibalism?
"Because fate took them away from God but in their soul the tendency towards the almighty persists, that’s why they give them the most valuable thing that is life, their disposition is amazing and it’s up to us to guide them towards morality "
“We bring them civilization, they owe us everything”
“They already had civilizations like the Aztec or the Inca, we have no right to impose”
“They are barbarian peoples destined to serve as Aristotle says”
“Aristotle also speaks of a natural law that makes us equal, there is no proof of barbarism among Americans according to the classical canon”
The Spaniards were supposed to only be an example of virtue without the famous Deus Vault, but the reality is that Sepulveda’s vision was deeply rooted among the continental settlers, perhaps the Creoles were the most empathic with the natives, but even so, it did not improve much.
I also have questions regarding the language barrier in your story. Are native languages learned in the colony or are the natives the ones who have to learn our language?
I don’t know what would be your opinion about it?
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The more “progressive traditionalists” like the Order of Missionaries exist in a semi-legitimized limbo where they’re generally regarded as religious representatives by the populace while not being explicitly sanctioned by the central religious authority. They’re able to get away with interacting with native peoples only under the pretext of evangelization, but interaction regardless of context has of course given rise to the sorts of questions you’ve posed.
I would say that religious efforts in the Colonies are explicitly less about “saving their souls” and more about enforcing the Sovereignty’s/Hierarchy’s quasi-divine mandate to “show all those other people that they’re inferior and that it is good and just that we invade them”, so to speak, though there are certainly some in the holy orders that intend to be soul saviors. The questions about their personhood are only raised in hushed whispers at secret underground radical meetings like the Goldendoors’ – people are (unfortunately justifiably) all too aware that the secret police are lurking nearly everywhere. Among those groups, though, the prevailing hypothesis is likely dictated by the twins’ leadership, meaning that they regard slavery as a moral and ethical abomination over any deep desire to advocate for social/racial justice.
Yes, though it is somewhat decentralized – i.e. there was no board of Colonial affairs or governor granting land permits when Abner Senior got there. In their religion, the societal upper class (always the nobility) are entirely justified in whatever they want to do by virtue of their birth, and so most “original” landholders used the feudal/serfdom system currently in use by the Mainland and just transplanted it to suit the needs of a rapidly-developing and resource-rich economy (with all the abuses that implies). So you have agricultural serfdom with the nobility able to buy/sell/trade peasant farmers as part of their land holdings alongside corporate slavery in the big city, where laborers are owned by the factory, corporation, etc.
Yes, though “capable of questioning” and “willing to do/say something about it” are two entirely different hurdles for the average Colonial. If John Q. Public is walking down the streets of Gensburg and witnesses the Faceless Guard beating someone to death in an alley, then he (and most people, I think) would recognize that as a bad thing to do. But if he says something, then they might come for him or his family, next, and so he does nothing.
Here is where the parallels with the real world end, somewhat. The Sovereignty never really had even a little bit of a religious mandate to even pretend to “uplift the savages” or even “be a decent person” like many real-world religions – those that do so are still interpreting their religious right to impose their will upon their “inferiors”, just in a slightly more benign way than “kill them all”.
It’s a little of both, but more so the latter. The Exiles in Muirhallr are probably able to somewhat communicate with their dock workers with a few local words they’ve picked up over the centuries. Forcing the native populace to comply with the conqueror’s language is just another tool of cultural genocide.
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I also think about how the colony is organized after the liberation of the ties with the mainland empire. You already know new codes of coexistence, restriction of certain groups that attempt against the new state, etc.
It could start first with reconciling the hierarchical faith with that of the exiled natives as it was originally before that great religious schism and include the savage rites and reform of the original religion as part of our new collective identity in the colony, and since we harmonize again with the natives we can lay the foundations for inclusion, integration or healthy coexistence with the beastmen of the south and exiled natives and lay the foundations for this New state.
A kind of federal system where each province has autonomy to reconcile local customs with the new reforms made by the radical movement from its new base of operations
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This is where I think radical efforts will lie, logistically. Laz is principled and knows what he wants to do and how he wants to do it, but he’s not necessarily good at all the planning that funding and feeding a rebellion requires, so I think he’ll be content to more or less just let people try to reorganize into their own nations, again. Though that’s not to say that that’d be the course of action with the fewest headaches…
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