I’m playing a woman, yeah, but she’s not very knightly and it’s pissing Arch off. Come on, Arch, fall for the charming, roguish, morally ambiguous rake…
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Lol all I can say is good luck! I hope you didn’t kill Prince Geb at the very least.
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Actually I think he liked my character’s little defiance more than she did.
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Oh, he fully did. He thinks the world is in its death spiral and doesn’t see the point of carrying on beyond entertainment of taking anything seriously.
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I liked this, it felt kind of clever. Personally I was never a fan of the souls games, but the theme fits really well in this format along with the surrealist stuff.
I like that of the choices and decisions you get to make feel really natural and fitting.
I liked that one of the options for naming your horse is ‘Glueboy’. and the gunslinger achievement, mwah, beautiful.
Glad I got to read it.
Ending stats stuff
Westbound: 59 Knightly: 54 Chulainnlike: 10 Noemi regard: 9 Styx regard: 30 Arch regard: 11 Passerine and Newt regard: 12 Path: west Arch or Passerine: Passerine Angelic’s regard: 5 Prophetic’s regard: 9 How you left Dridgen: violence
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I’m honestly immensely grateful for this comment. I had gotten distracted by other writing projects and somewhat despirited in this project. And your comment really inspired me to write a bunch today, so thank you, seriously!
Also, yay! I was worried very few people would choose Passerine and I am glad someone did
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No worries. Honestly I had a whole bunch of thoughts about it but I’m not even sure how to start talking about them. The writing was good though and I had to say something.
Passerine actually survived because I rolled the dice on that fight, but I was curious about them anyway so no complaints lol.
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Oh, yeah, there is legit a random chance element that only comes up if you don’t intervene in the fight. Thank you so much for the comment!
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9/1/25 Minor Update: Apologies for the delay, and for this being smaller than anticipated! About 32,000 words, detailing both the search for the Sword of Five and what happens if you don’t look for it. And a village on the other side. Next update planned to, again, be rather large, perhaps 60,000 words, consisting of four different chapters, each one personally related to each of the four characters traveling with the MC (Arch and Passerine will have variants on the same chapter), as you engage with their personal quests and foibles. Each chapter dangerous but optional, approachable in any order, although if you don’t save your companions don’t expect to see them again!
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Finally gotten around to playing the post-Gamma chapters - atmosphere is still amazing for both Geb’s castle, Dridgen and Respite, and Styx is also a really nice contrast to the characters of the Knowable World. I can also definitely see the Soulsborne inspiration for Arch (let’s go Dragon Communion) and Passerine.
..I’ve still not been able to figure out how to prevent Dridgen from ending in violence - no matter what I try to do, the it always seems to end the same. Arch stealing the book was definitely a dick move.
I’m also wondering if it’s possible for the MC to find out they had been lying to the stranger - i.e. acting like a westbound knight the whole time because that’s what they remembered saying, but then figuring out they were actually some sort of common thief.
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Wait, how do you see your ending stats?
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they were on the ending screen along with the contact info I think. just plain text
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Thank you for the atmosphere compliments, I really liked writing Geb’s Castle (curious if you spent time there as a guest or a prisoner) and I do have a huge soft spot for Styx.
As for Dridgen: There are two hidden stats tracking how much the angelics and prophetics like you, with the prophetics starting high and the angelics low. You need to raise the angelics stat without losing too much support with the prophetics, and then choose the “try to placate them both” option when it comes up. After choosing that the game checks those stats and if they are both high enough you successfully defuse the situation. It’s one of the most complicated stat checks in the game so far, though, influenced by everything from what questions you ask in the opening dinner to who your date to the ball is, though, so I may adjust the check to be slightly less restrictive.
Also, as for lying to the stranger and the identity of the MC, I’m not gonna go into too much other than saying there will be an option, when the MC finally reaches the gates of the Westerne City to declare an identity for the MC, and at least in some of those there are absolutely some lies between stranger and MC.
@Andraoise I took the stats view off the latest update’s ending screen, but may add them back later.
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My MC was initially forcefully brought to the castle and locked up by Arch after escaping to Gamma, though the group was eventually given free reign of the castle. Would you enter as a guest if you just went with Arch during chapter 3?
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A little more complicated, but in short, yes! You can only be welcomed as a guest if you travel with Arch during the city chapter, although you need to make sure she at least gives you a modicum of respect as well. It’s also possible to be imprisoned both nights in the castle, so congrats on avoiding that!
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How do I unlock the selection to steal the water and leave the quest for good? I have Hesitating at 77, does it have to be 80? (If so, maybe lower the requirement since I picked nothing but anti-West decisions my whole playthrough)
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You need to have not affirmed the westward journey, yes, but other than that it’s not actually checking Hesitating. There’s a hidden stat measuring how much water you have, and that needs to be maxed out. Essentially you need to have not picked up the sword (which even if you turn away immediately will consume extra water) and you also, if you didn’t get the sword, need to have navigated the encounter with the people in the desert so that you didn’t lose any water. Then, don’t give water to the Masterless Knight or anyone else in Dridgen, and also be willing to steal the remaining water from your companions. It’s a fringe option that most people won’t be able to unlock, but I’m sort of okay with that since it’s an early game over.
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I’ve tried like every combination of with choices the desert people, option is still greyed out. What’s the correct choice? I didn’t give water to anyone, I genuinely don’t know what else to do.
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Hmmm, you didn’t give any water to the Masterless Knight or anyone in respite and the people in the desert didn’t take any? I’ll check cause that may be a code error then, I’ll check
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10/3/25 Major Update! Numerous tweaks, typo fixes, bug fixes. Fixed a major bug that was accidentally causing large amount of Arch/Passerine’s dialogue to not display after their duel and choosing which of them will travel with you. Added 60,000 words across all companion quest chapters, bringing the word total to about 272,000 words. To do: Next update will be, again, a major update, with perhaps around 70,000 words, including the Sunset Paths’ chapter, the first chapter of the Westerne City, deciding the MC’s past, a split of the path that occurs if you have six wounds of more, and a bossfight at the foot of the Numinous Throne. I may potentially also rewrite some chunks of the first few chapters as my ideas have shifted and changed since I wrote those, but mostly changing some tone, dialogue, and exposition, no major plot changes. That update will, if all goes according to plan, be the last major update, with the ends of the companion plots and the end of the main plot left for a closed beta.
Updated the content warning as well, to better reflect some new themes. Thanks for playing! 
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