[WIP] Virtue's End, a dark fantasy novel (Patreon demo updated October 9th 2024)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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✧ Play Virtue’s End

The public version was last updated on June 24th (2024), and is currently around ~51k words. The Patreon demo was last updated on October 9th 2024.

✧ Description

In a dark world overrun by monsters from the shadow plane, you exist as a hybrid monster hunter called a helvling, a human whose very soul has been Bound to one such entity. Travelling from warded settlement to warded settlement with your surly human Keeper, Shea, you have the thankless task of defending the common folk against these unimaginable horrors from Hel.

Usually, a fate such as yours is only reserved for the lowest of criminals, as penance for their loathsome deeds… You wouldn’t know if your fate has been deserved, however, since upon completion of your Binding seven years ago, all former memories of your human life have been lost.

You’ve been moulded into a weapon by the Virtuous Order, trained to be an unfeeling and ruthlessly efficient hunter… But is that who you truly are?

Who are you?

Virtue’s End is an interactive dark fantasy story set in a gritty, medieval world. It is tentatively rated 18+ due to its depiction of violence, strong language, explicit sexual content, and mature themes. Additionally, the story prominently features religious undertones. A comprehensive list of content warnings is available at the start of the game.*

✧ Features

✦ Customise your helvling, including pronouns, gender identity, physical appearance, personality, etc.

✦ Be magickally Bound to one of four different helspawn entities, all of which have their own unique appearance and abilities: the deadly basilisk, the mighty sylvan, the alluring nokken, or the terrifying barghest.

✦ Find your way in a world that treats you with scorn whilst trying to retain what’s left of your humanity, or embrace the monster within.

✦ Build bonds with a variety of characters that you will meet in your travels: your stern-faced Keeper, a compassionate Knight-Templar, an enigmatic Empire agent, or a mysterious Magicker on the run.

✦ Combat terrifying creatures and entities from the distorted shadow plane known as Hel… or negotiate with them.

✦ Uncover clues to the mysterious origins of a world-breaking event known as the Catastrophe, which ushered in an era of darkness hundreds of years ago.

✦ And perhaps finally discover the truth of your forgotten past…

Characters ✦ FAQ ✦ Adult thread

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I really enjoyed your demo! Will the circumstances that brought us to the Virtuous Order be explored at some point in the game? Or will that be up to individual head canon?

The writing is really clear and strong. Also I already love Shea. Maybe Elexis, but definitely Shea.

I will be very hopefully watching for more information and updates. :slight_smile:

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To Valhalla

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Great start so far. Interested on where it’s going.

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Ooh I love what you have so far! The writing is immersive and the character interactions are extremely fun to read. I can’t help but find myself loving Shea and Elexis already haha! :joy:

Some suggestions:

The part where you chose your skin color was a bit off in terms of transitioning into the choice. Might I suggest rephrasing the lead-up sentences into something like “You stare down at your emaciated body clad only in a plain brown shift. A film of sweat and grime accompanies a sickly tinge to your… [insert choice]”?

I also noticed that there was a pov change after choosing your subject of binding. Maybe it would be good to add a quick little transition blurb such as mc losing consciousness or something so that the change in perspective is a bit less jarring?

Other than those small suggestions, I’m really excited to see what else you have in store for this game! :star_struck:

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I enjoy this so far! I did notice, however, I chose to set all ROs to male yet still had to choose if Shea and Elexis male or female. I’m assuming this is because they’re not planned as full ROs, so if that’s the case, then I understand! Either way, I look forward to updates. Your writing is very smooth and easy to understand, so yay!

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That was awesome!! I’m loving everything from the setting to characters to personality/customization options, you’ve definitely hooked me and I’m looking forward to more! (Also Shea already has me like :pleading_face: :heart:)

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@Crimsis This looks really interesting. I felt a little confused by the descriptions of the demons though, particularly how they relate to the stats. I picked the purple one and it increased my intelligence… and my charm? I thought the blue demon was charm.

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I love it!

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Waaaaaaahh, it’s so gooooood!!! Can’t wait for more!

Oh, oh! I have a question!! Does Elexis know that Clane is Shea’s surname? I think it’d be cool if Elexis reacted when you take on Shea’s surname(or not !!)

That is all, lovely author, take care!

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Will the circumstances that brought us to the Virtuous Order be explored at some point in the game? Or will that be up to individual head canon?

There’s definitely history there that will be explored further on in the story!

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I definitely can see what you mean regarding the character customisation and POV change! Thanks so much for your feedback, I’ll edit it a bit in the next update.

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Regarding your spoiler text:

You’re correct that Shea and Elexis technically aren’t ‘full’ ROs at this point in the game. They currently fulfill a different role in the story and I really liked the idea of, for example, being able to somewhat customise your relationship to and the identity of your keeper/mentor (e.g. seeing them in a motherly/fatherly or big bro/sis role), seeing as that they’re the one you’re currently the most close to, whether your character wants to or not. Now, Elexis is a whole different ball game, haha.

Anyway, thanks so much for playing! :star_struck:

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Hi! Thanks for playing.

I felt a little confused by the descriptions of the demons though, particularly how they relate to the stats.

All of the entities have a ‘main’ stat which receives the greatest boost, and then two of your other stats will also receive a big/minor boost. The mara (the purple one), for example, receives a major boost in intellect, a big boost in charisma, and finally a smaller boost in strength. The reason I coded it this way is that I didn’t want them to just be defined to a single stat increase— they all have areas in which they excel and some of them overlap a bit.

I’ll be adding some text to the next update to hopefully make it a bit more clearer for the player!

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Does Elexis know that Clane is Shea’s surname?

They do know, actually! That’s actually a really nice idea— the game does track if the player has chosen Shea’s surname. I’ll see if I can add something like it in the next update! :blush:

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the story looks very promising and i’m in love with your writing style. good luck! (:

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chapter1 line 73: It is illegal to fall out of a *choice statement; you must *goto or *finish before the end of the indented block.

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I’m sorry, I haven’t been able to reproduce that error. Does it occur when you’re specifying your relationship with Shea?

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I love the game . I want to offer a few suggestions
1.The description on the page breaks may be too long and may appear funny on mobile devices.
2.I set Shea as a female ; all is right except her gender.I’ll attach a screenshot.

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It keeps telling me I “can’t embed media in a post” . The main thing is that I described Shea to be a woman and it described her as one but her gender says female . Maybe you set her gender as male instead of female

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