Cadency Fiction

Author of Le Fantôme (demo TBA), an interactive adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera)

[cadencyfiction]

Le Fantôme

Play as an opera singer in 19th century Paris, one who has attracted the attention of a mysterious and terrifying phantom haunting the opera house.

Update Log

Last Updated: Jan 7 2026, Prologue + Chapter 1.1

The backstage world of the Paris Opera is rife with rumours. Rumours about singers and the noblemen they're having affairs with, rumours about which principal dancer will get a featured role in the next ballet...rumours of a phantom haunting the grand opera house.

When bodies start turning up, the Opera Ghost is no longer a harmless rumour. And when your sudden rise to fame in the world of opera seems to draw the Opera Ghost's attention, you must hope that you come out of your next performance alive.

Play as Christine Daaé (gender customisable) in an adaptation of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, and navigate the treacherous and deadly world of music.

genre: gothic romance, gothic horror, romance, historical fiction, suspense, mystery

content warnings: This game has dark and potentially triggering content (see link for full list) and thus is intended for mature audiences (18+)

Features:

Play as M./Mm./Mlle. Daaé, an opera singer in 19th century Paris, one who has attracted the attention of the mysterious and terrifying Opera Ghost, in this adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s famous work, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera)

Customisable protagonist: play as male, female, or nonbinary; choose your pronouns; decide different aspects of your childhood and upbringing; use your personality, skills, and abilities to tackle problems in unique ways

Customise the details of your appearance, choose from a selection of pre-made appearances, randomise your looks, or remove any references to appearance from the story altogether

Character-driven story with a heavy focus on interactions and relationships. Form friendships and romances with four unique romance options. Have casual flings, navigate rivalries, and be the subject of gossip amongst the players and audience members of the opera.

A historical setting grounded in 1880s Paris, La Belle Époque (‘The Beautiful Era’)

A codex keeping track of all the rumours you hear swirling around backstage (however true they may be), both about the mysterious Opera Ghost and about yourself and any scandals you might find yourself embroiled in.

Branching choices that both determine the course of the story and allow for role-playing your character’s unique personality and approach to situations.

Unravel and address the grief over your recently deceased father in the way that works best for you - or choose to cope with it in a less than healthy way, and hope that it doesn’t drag you down.

Solve mysteries, face murders, uncover the truth behind the Opera Ghost

Attend galas and soirées, including getting to choose your costume for the Carnival Masquerade

Perform and develop your skills as a professional opera singer

Explore the Palais Garnier, the grand building that is home to the Paris Opera. Experience the grandeur of the most famous opera house in the world, immerse yourself in the backstage life of the theatre, tread lightly in the nerve-wracking cellars that form the Opera Ghost’s domain, and, if you’re lucky, step out onto the stage yourself.

Character Introductions

The game features four romance options with individual routes, along with a number of other characters who can be pursued as casual flings.

THE VICOMTE(SSE SUO JURE)

Raoul/Rose de Chagny

Gender selectable, he/him or she/her

Description: Your childhood best friend, a vicomte or vicomtesse suo jure who became your dearest friend regardless of the class barriers between you. After years of sporadic communication, they have returned from abroad to rekindle your friendship. Passionate, gentle, loyal, with little care or concern for the society’s expectations of them, they appear to have changed very little from the figure you remember from your childhood.

Appearance: They have fair and sensitive skin, and are average height - the shorter side of average if male and the taller side of average if female - with a shapely figure that could be described as either slightly stocky or voluptuous, with softness on their stomach that covers a layer of hard muscle. Their round blue eyes give them a guileless appearance. They are considered extremely conventionally attractive. They’re the sort of person that smiles with their entire face, with deep dimples usually on display. Despite their squared jaw, the softness in their cheeks gives their face a more rounded oval shape. They have curly golden hair that always seems to want to break free of their hairstyle - for Raoul this is a short, combed-down style parted to one side, while for Raphaelle this is a variety of structured twists and braids. Raphaelle’s hair naturally grows between her shoulder blades and mid-back, and she keeps the hair framing her face cut short in a curly fringe.

THE DAROGA

Mohammed Ismaël Khan/Hamida Hajar Khanum

Gender selectable, he/him or she/her

Description: Once a daroga in the Persian court, now a regular attendee of the Paris Opera, they largely keep to themselves rather than mingling after performances as the other wealthy audience members do. Between their solitary habits and being a fellow immigrant to France, the Persian is someone that you can perhaps relate to a great deal. But is there some truth to the suspicions that they appear to know more about the Opera Ghost than they let on?

Appearance: Their brown skin is rich and warm, and they are statuesque with a regal bearing. Their eyes are a dark shade of hazel-brown, framed by thick brows and smile wrinkles. The most prominent features of their somewhat narrow face are an aquiline nose and a strong jawline. They have thick dark hair streaked with silver. Ismaël keeps his hair cut at an even length and relatively short, though he does not slick it down in the style of westerners, and has a neat, thick beard also flecked with silver. Hamida has heavy hair that reaches her calves, rolled and pinned at the back of her neck; she keeps her hair covered, along with the bottom half of her face, usually with a slightly transparent yashmak style of veil.

THE BALLERINA

Dominique Sorelli

Female, she/they

Description: La Sorelli is the prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet. Beautiful, arrogant, and fierce, she is the self-proclaimed protector of the opera house. With her superstitious nature, she especially takes issue with the Opera Ghost who frightens the younger ballerinas. You and she always seem to be in each other’s orbit, yet you’ve never been able to break through her hard exterior to see the vulnerabilities underneath - until now.

Appearance: She has smooth ivory skin dotted with beauty marks, and a lithe, willowy figure that makes her appear taller than her average height. Her oblique, near-black eyes have a monolid and a sharp glint that hints at her intelligence. Her bone structure is defined and angular, most especially her high cheekbones. She has a swan-like neck, often considered her best feature, which she accentuates by pinning her pin-straight, silky black hair in an elegant pompadour high on the back of her head.

THE VOICE

???

Male, he/it

Description: A mysterious voice that speaks to you when you are alone. Your guardian suggests that they are a spirit sent by your father, an angel who grants you the gift of song. And it is true that your singing has never been as beautiful as it has been with the Voice as your teacher, though the price they demand in return is your total devotion. While there would appear to be no earthly explanation for your new vocal coach, the timing of the Voice’s arrival with the Opera Ghost’s hauntings could suggest a more sinister explanation. After all, what are the odds of two different supernatural beings appearing in the same opera house?

Appearance: ???

Demo Character introductions FAQ Stat guide Report bugs Navigation/tag list Content warnings

@interact-if

[cadencyfiction]

Hey I love the demo so far! Even though it's relatively short so far I've gone back to replay it a bunch. Question though to what extent will queerness be acknowledged in the story?

Thank you! I do want the queerness to be acknowledged - I personally prefer IFs where gender choices matter and are acknowledged more than just swapping around the pronouns, plus it’s a historical setting with strict heteronormative gender roles and I’m trying to keep it relatively historically accurate.

That being said, I’m also queer myself and very aware that many people read IF for escapism (even if this is a gothic historical setting) so like I don’t really want to write a story about homophobia or enbyphobia. I’m trying to balance acknowledging the queerness realistically within the setting while also not having queer players having a radically different experience (I want it slightly different but not too much) to players who aren’t choosing queer options or have to deal with a significant amount of homophobia in a story they may be reading for escapism. I’m honestly using the theatrical setting to handwave away a lot of places where more homophobia/enbyphobia might be expected as “well there’s no homophobia here cause they’re artists!” lmao.

I’ve talked a little bit before here and here about how genders of ROs and being queer will affect the romances of the story, and in future chapters I plan to address Daaé’s gender presentation and especially acknowledge a nonbinary Daaé a bit more.

[philbins]

[cadencyfiction]

For the gender selectable ROs, will their gender make a difference in terms of how they're treated, how they act, etc.?

Yes! Rose and Raoul aren’t 100% completely different characters, and romancing Hamida and Ismaël isn’t two completely different stories, but at the end of the day this is a story set in the 1880s, and there will be slight differences in the romances depending on both their gender and Daaé’s gender. An example is that if rumours of Daaé being R’s lover get spread, R’s family is far more upset with Rose than with Raoul. Another is in the discussions Daaé can have with the Daroga about their religion, as Hamida and Ismaël have some ways of worshipping that differ based on their gender (most notable is the Hamida veils).

[cadencyfiction]

Hello, just played and absolutely adored this game! I was just wondering if it was still being worked on? I hope so, because I'm looking forward to any new updates!

I appreciate the kind words! I very much am still working on the game! I’m in my last year of uni (still one more semester left to go in the fall) and while I am writing where I can, come mid-May I’ll have a lot more time on my hands to dedicate to the game (at which point I’ll probably be able to give a rough estimate of when ch1pt2 will be released). I’m also planning on setting up a patreon once the next part is up, so when I don’t have access to my drafts I’ve been jotting down ideas for that on my phone. At that mid-May point where the semester ends I’ll also just make a bunch of stuff for that, to make sure that when the next semester starts there’ll still be a steady stream of content prepared for the patreon.

[impressionism-art-history]

Orchestra of the Opera (1870) by Edgar Degas

Join Art History Academy for more art!

[ladykatibeth]

Leroux says Christine and Raoul “had the same calm and dreamy cast of mind” and this has to be true because they both know more than everyone else and then decide to explain it in the weirdest confusing terms possible.

[cadencyfiction]

I LOVEDDDD the game omg!!!! Sorelli and R have my whole heart 😭😭

I got 2 questions!!

Have the ROs ever fallen in love/been attracted to someone of the same gender? Since you said R has loved Daaé for a long time, if we chose it to be in a romantic sense, how did they feel about falling in love with someone of the same gender?

Artists have been queer since the beginning of times lollll so I'd think that society is more "whatever" regarding the artists, but for the aristocrats being queer is a bigger "problem" 🤔

And the second question is NSFW!!

I'm playing a male Daaé, but I'm not comfortable reading my MCs bottoming 😫 will we have the option to choose whether Daaé tops or bottoms? If not, it's no problem at all! I'll just skip the spicy scenes and enjoy the rest of the game 🤗

Thank you!!! :)

Thank you for the kind words! The second question is answered first here just because the answer is slightly shorter.

I'm playing a male Daaé, but I'm not comfortable reading my MCs bottoming 😫 will we have the option to choose whether Daaé tops or bottoms? If not, it's no problem at all! I'll just skip the spicy scenes and enjoy the rest of the game 🤗

I still have yet to determine just how detailed the spicier scenes will get (ideally I’d like very detailed but who knows what will be allowed on different platforms for posting by the time I get there). No matter what though I do want to make sure that the sex scenes will have a good degree of variety when it comes to getting to choose how they play out. Either you will get that choice of topping or bottoming, or the scene will be less detailed with more of the vibe described and certain actions implied, in which case it could be interpreted as either person bottoming depending on what the reader prefers.

Have the ROs ever fallen in love/been attracted to someone of the same gender? Since you said R has loved Daaé for a long time, if we chose it to be in a romantic sense, how did they feel about falling in love with someone of the same gender?

Sorelli has had relationships with other women before, you’re on the money about artists being queer (especially in Paris during the Belle Époque time period). The Daroga has been attracted to the same sex before - Hamida has once or twice acted on this in her youth while Ismaël has not.

The Voice is on the spectrum of demisexual - it has never felt sexual attraction towards a specific person before, though it has felt sexual desire and it’s the crush it develops on Daaé that allows it to feel sexual attraction specifically for them. It has been sexually attracted to the idea of certain characters in literature, nearly always women but that’s more due to the character tropes that it’s attracted to in literature almost always fitting the same gendered dynamic. Being attracted to a male Daaé is something that barely fazes it, as you’ll see - it’s got a lot of issues and even I’m not cruel enough to add internalised homophobia to the list!

R on a platonic route struggles a bit with attraction when it comes to Daaé, especially of the opposite gender - normalised heterosexuality combined with objectivity recognising that Daaé can be considered attractive means a platonic R has spent a lot of time prior to the story wondering if they’re in love with Daaé, simply because it’s hard for them to conceptualise that the strong love they feel for an opposite gender Daaé could be anything other than romantic. Same gender platonic R (or platonic R with a nonbinary Daaé) doesn’t struggle with this nearly as much, but they are attracted to multiple genders and when they start to explore that as they get older, they do wonder a bit about their feelings for Daaé, just not to the same extent as opposite gender platonic R.

Romantic R is Daaé-sexual for lack of a better way of phrasing it lmao. Daaé was the first person they were ever attracted to, even when they were too young to really understand what they felt, and every instance of attraction they’ve felt towards others has been because those people remind R of Daaé in some way. I think falling for a Daaé of the same gender doesn’t bother them quite as much as you’d expect, though there is an element of shame when they first start feeling attraction towards Daaé - feeling like they’re taking advantage of the friendship somehow when Daaé doesn’t know how they feel. At the end of the day though, R is expected to marry well and have children, and even a Daaé of the opposite gender is off limits because of their class difference, not to mention Daaé’s an immigrant who was raised Lutheran (regardless of how religious Daaé actually is), and later Daaé’s scandalously an opera performer. Most of what bothers R about Daaé being the same gender is that they can’t get married, but that was always going to be a problem regardless of Daaé’s gender. So the reason that falling for same gender Daaé doesn’t really bother R that much is because society is already looking down on this relationship either way, Daaé and R being queer only exacerbates a situation that already existed.

The exact dynamic and how R feels about it is affected significantly by gender combinations, as that affects how Philippe views it (and R does view Philippe as the main authority figure in their life) - Philippe doesn’t care much if Raoul is attracted to men and has a lover, male or female, provided Raoul is discreet about it and still marries a noblewoman. While on the other hand Rose could be telling Philippe to his face that she’s having sex with a woman (not that she actually would do that lol) and Philippe would still think Rose and fem!Daaé are just good friends. And naturally Rose having a male or male-presenting lover is completely out of the question.

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

Der Maskenball (1949/Öl auf Leinwand) - Arthur Kampf

[cadencyfiction]

Ch1pt2 is currently at just over 12,000 words, not including the code skeleton for the parts of it I haven’t written yet! Slowly but surely it’s all coming together.

[gyrovagi]

there really is something about relationships between two people that are simultaneously relationships between three people (or more). you can interpret that however you want. secret identity love squares. two people but one of them is haunted by another person. two people but both of them are haunted by the same person. someone is possessed. literally just a throuple. when there's just two people in the room but they always carry someone else along with them. Something about it.

[barbwritesstuff]

I genuinely think interactive fiction is an underappreciated art form.

[cosmonautroger]

Edgar Degas, Orchestra Musicians

[the-enchanted-little-star]

[todaysbat]

Image description: an illustration of three black bats in flight on a blue background with leaves, branches, and berries around them. The artist’s signature is in the lower right corner (“Kandice” in cursive)

[cadencyfiction]

ask that had a very mild sort of spoiler below the cut! Started with: “i have a question that i normally would not have about a character pronouns, the voice uses both "he" and "it", is this because they are comfortable with "it" or is it because they dehumanize themselves/have been dehumanized their entire life?”

It certainly doesn’t come from self-loathing on the Voice’s part! The Voice going by it/its pronouns is less a conscious choice than other people applying those pronouns to him and him not minding, though he hasn’t always liked that - it’s a bit like you said with reclaiming something that didn’t start in a benign way.

Other people dehumanised him by calling him “it” and he hated that, however nowadays when people call him that it isn’t to be cruel or deliberately dehumanising, it’s because he’s taken on personas that give off a sense of otherworldly power - The Voice, Angel of Music, Opera Ghost, etc. In his mind at least, if he’s called “it” it’s out of a reverence and fear of his abilities that make him higher and better than humans rather than a monster that’s below them.

His use of it/its pronouns is never really going to be discussed in depth in game, but its relationship with humanity and how it views its own humanity definitely will be. And while I’m not necessarily writing it as having any kind of disassociative disorder, I do pull a little bit from my own experience as someone who has DID and is more comfortable with certain pronouns than other when I switch.

At the end of the day though, when I read the novel I just think he’s one of the most human characters ever written, and something about such a deeply human character using it/its pronouns is something that I really like.

[pomegranateteeth]

Oh I love these new super vibrant coppery greens! I think I will paper over all my walls in this color and fill my wardrobe with these verdant hues

[pomegranateteeth]

It’s just me and Paris Green against the world! #myparisgreen

[pomegranateteeth]

I have contracted a mysterious illness

[womblegrinch]

Jules Cheret (1836-1932) - Les coulisses de l'opera au Musée Grévin

Vintage poster. Printed in 1891 by Chaix, Paris.

96.5 x 34.5 inches, 245 x 88 cm. Estimate: €5,000-6,000.

To be sold Poster Auctions Int'l, Lambertville, N.J., 12 Nov 2024.

A two-sheet poster.