"you are sick to your stomach. it does not matter. you cannot apologize to a corpse." || WIP dark colonial era fantasy IF written by Azrael (any except she). demo out now. currently accepting asks. || official/tracked tag is #a firsthand murder ballad if || @this-insidious-dawn
AFHMB is a dark fantasy, colonial era WIP IF with some historical inspiration and intended for a ~16+ audience. It is hosted on Itch.io, made with Twine, and will be free start-to-finish.
Demo here.
Warnings for general death, very briefly mentioned infant death, war, and disease, amongst others.
The war’s victory was not a joyous affair. There was no celebration when the encroaching forces were routed from the land. No drinking. No parties. No cheering or tearful greetings from spouses who had not seen one another in nearly a decade.
The silence was unmistakable. Loud. Overwhelming.
There was no joy to be found in it.
The removal of enemy soldiers from Herritus was instead met by one of the bleakest seasons to have ever settled over the country’s south. Crops and livestock died of the cold, infants were unable to be roused from their frigid sleep, and chromatia returned from its grave with wretched determination.
The streets are deserted- not a soul travels the worn roads. The homeless freeze to death and community shelters across the nation are wrung dry. Not even a noble such as yourself is safe from the cold’s grip.
It seeps in through the cracked windows, through the gaps under the doors. Your fire cannot douse it. No matter how many lanterns you light, the shudders will not be dispelled. You don a dozen layers; it finds a way through each.
When you are diagnosed with the grey ruin and made to realise you may have only a few months left to live, you must take it upon yourself to remove any remaining loose ends- before the sickness takes you.
And yet...something is wrong in the town of Nērisk. Something impossible is happening. And someway, somehow, it all ties back in to your brother’s murder twenty years prior.
Reminder that everything here is subject to change. It is a WIP for a reason.
- Customize your MC, including their gender (with options for women, men, and nonbinary MCs, plus enby men and women) and pronouns (supports multiple sets and custom input), appearance, and skills.
- MC’s personality is semi-set. You can shift the way they develop and how they react to some situations, but some facets of themself will always be set.
- Optionally romance any of 9 options, with 10 poly routes available, including one quad (four person) option.
- Discover that not everything in Nērisk is as it seems, and that you cannot put your past behind you quite so easily...
- You are not the hero of this story. Rediscover old friends, and with them, old vices you thought you’d overcome.
Florain Vettikar [M/F]: An individual from your past you held dear (ex-best friend or ex-lover), taken from you too soon as karmic retribution. They’re long dead...but that doesn’t mean they’re gone.
Aviri von Jhersten [NB]: Someone you knew long ago. Their hands and yours are stained with the same blood, yet they were the one to claim guilt for the fresh grave. Now, they return, with new money and old vendettas.
Cillian Rittaker [M/NB/F]: You had seen Cillian once in passing as a child, a poor orphan your mother had shooed you away from. Nowadays, ze’s a powerful healer...and Nērisk’s final bastion against the chromatia.
Liel Amorson [M/F]: A childhood friend. You haven’t seen them in the decades since their family was forced to flee Nērisk, but now they return. You’d think they hadn’t changed at all if not for the emptiness in their eyes.
Acrocantus vel Yurius [M]: A son of the king of a distant country, who ran to Nērisk to escape his father and his homeland. He’s completely out of his depth...and is paying you to let him stay in your manor.
Ueryphus el Lirisis [NB]: Vel Yurius’ personal guard. They don’t trust you, and maybe they’re right not to. Still, they manage being unhappily polite, if only due to your extended grace when it comes to housing them.
Niphiles Ivares [F]: A wanderer, constantly coming and going. You’ve seen her around a few times, maybe even had a chat or two. Now, though, she’s trapped here in Nērisk, and growing increasingly paranoid…
Micah Kirrest [NB]: An annoyingly kind and persistent barkeep- and perhaps the only person you can call friend. Recently, you’d been separated, and now ey refuse to leave your side...no matter the circumstances.
Allifair ve Ketimnar [M/F]: As a child, they were forced to train under the same church authority you were, and now, they’re a priest with that same church. They hide their guilt well with jokes and snark. Too well.
[Poly routes are Florain/Aviri, Florain/Liel, Florain/Micah, Aviri/Micah, Cillian/Niphiles, Cillian/Aviri, Cillian/Allifair, Liel/Micah, and Acrocantus/Ueryphus.]
[The four-person poly route is Florain/Liel/Micah.]
i am going to be so real with you guys. ever since that migraine i got, i have NOT been back to writing lmfao. i've been stewing and feeling bad about not writing, mostly.
part of the issue here, i think, is that none of my current interests are in the fantasy genre. both of my projects are fantasies. but because i'm just not super into the genre right now, i'm not getting inspiration. i'm not feeling the urge to write them.
so. hear me out. i know i have two neglected projects already, and a third isn't directly going to fix the problem. BUT. i think having something in a different genre that i can switch gears into when i'm just not feeling TID or AFHMB will help. because the problem isn't burnout. the problem is a lack of interest.
no decisions are being made now, but i have some ideas. and i think i'd like to share them eventually.
so sorry guys but i will not be getting any work done today or probably tomorrow. i currently have a pretty gnarly migraine :') here's hoping it fucks off merrily away
i am still kickin' i prommy. these projects are and always will be hobbies of mine but, because they're hobbies, they're just as quick to come and go as my interest in anything else lmfao. i still rotate those little guys in my head but combine writer's block and ADHD and you get Purgatory :-)
i'll be back on it at some point, but for my own sake, im gonna say that both AFHMB and TID are effectively on hiatus. not REALLY, but if i dont say it, im gonna keep stressing about not updating you guys </3 here's to my brain finally swinging back around to working on one of these at some point
Honestly was obsessed with this when I read it first and moved. So moved. I can't even explain how Honestly good it was and I just stumbled onto the tumblr page lol l was like ooooh sounds cool lemme read the demo.. only to find put not only am I Following the project on itchio already but I also commented and rated it. So you got me twice.
you can't see it but i just fell to my knees and am sobbing tysm.
im so glad it affected you so much!! and also that's so funny to me im sorry 😭😭
(i promise im still working on this project im just trying to kick my mental disorders into cooperating)
happy birthday to everyone's favorite traumatized priest 🎉 (well, they haven't met you yet, but you'll probably be their favorite, right?) (besides, they'll meet you soon :) just as soon as i get into gear)
if that didn't give it away, today (November 13th) is Allifair's birthday. yippee! except i forgot about it and didn't make anything. whoops? maybe i'll be able to crunch out a short story...we'll see. all the well wishes to our martyr-complex-having little guy. sure hope nothing horrible happens to you before the next one <3
hey just wanted to let yall know that i'm still around and i still care abt these stories i prommy!! long story short the Mental Illness That Affects All of My Life, did, in fact, Affect All of My Life so i've been working on taking care of that. these things aren't abandoned!! i'm just taking a teensy little step back but i hope to get back to it soon.
After trying to replicate it, I think it my phone problem, the last line gets hidden by the homescreen button and I can't get it out of the way, Not something you can fix. Maybe you could put some blank scrolling space? (Not sure if that's doable.)
Also I meant atmosphere! Not closet in French, damn autocorrect.
ahh, yeah, i can see how that'd be an issue :') i kind of assumed after trying it on three devices that it was a user end thing. i've went in and uploaded a new file with a few extra empty lines at the bottom of each page + a typo fix ^^ it's good that this issue came up here, at least, since now i know i should probably do the same for my other WIP (different template, but i'd rather be safe)
autocorrect my beloathed
-- as with any mini update, saves should be perfectly fine ^^
Love the demo! It sets such armoire such a short time. Really excited to see it evolve.
Btw I couldn't get past the first page on mobile browser, the screen cut right before the last line where the highlighted word for the next page is. Had to use desktop option to play.
ty anon!
i can't seem to replicate your issue, though :(
i *am* seeing that if you set your font size too high, then you can't pass the startup screen on mobile, but that seems like a template issue that i'm not equipped to deal with right now, but i had no issues with text cutoff when going through the prologue in any font or text size. i honestly don't know how your issue was caused or how to fix it. you can try to provide further details but i really don't know if i'll be able to solve it (<- coding baby). i'm glad you got to play anyways and enjoyed it, though '^^
(for anyone else struggling with mobile, if you're on chrome -- i don't know about other browsers srry </3 - you can tap on the three dots in the top right and checkmark 'desktop site'. it'll be ugly but it'll run)
i need to show you guys what the crazy difference in branching looks like between these two WIPs.
:')
(for those of you who don't know twine, each colored dot represents a different passage in the story. i use vertical separation for chronological ordering like 1-2-3 and horizonal separation for different branches in the narrative like 4a-4b-4c)
also peep the passage count. i've hardly even started writing TID and it also has less UI/coding passages (the clusters in the top left of each) than AFHMB yet it has. that many overall already. help.
