LINK or LINK | 8 chapters, ~510K words (last updated 22/02/26)
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In the underworld kingdom, where demons fight for survival against the abyssal monsters, you are just an Oracle. In the distant past the Oracles were at the top of the demonic hierarchy, but those golden days are long gone. You did what you were most afraid to do and now sit under arrest in the royal palace.
When the Abyss sends you a vision of a terrible disaster that will happen in the future, you make an inevitable “deal” with the Sovereign to try to change the future and improve your abilities, not only to become stronger and learn more about the coming disaster, but also in an attempt to achieve mind stability.
However, what has been happening to you since you received the vision makes you think that you are already slowly but surely losing your mind.
Will you be able to maintain your sanity and help others protect the kingdom, or will you become just another name in the long list of Oracles gone mad?
This is a free to play interactive fantasy story with a heavy focus on friendship and romance (with strangers to lovers or enemies dynamic). The story is rated 18+.
Content warnings: violence, death, loss of sanity, trauma, avoidable sexually suggestive/sexual content, and more (the full list is in the demo).
Customize your Oracle: pronouns, traits, and appearance. Choose your full ✨ demonic form. ✨
Build friendship or romance with five different characters. (Allosexual and asexual routes are available.)
Learn more about the Oracles’ past and what truly drove their royal clan into ruin. Uncover the secrets of your abilities. Chat with the Abyss?
Decide what you do for fun. Do you sing, dance, paint, play a musical instrument, or write?
What you did cannot be undone. Your reputation forever ruined, how will you handle the public’s new attitude toward you?
Maintain your sanity. Depending on your choices, you’ll either move closer to loss of control and madness or further away from it.
Decide what fate awaits you. You’ll have to make an important decision that will open two very different paths for you, influence the plot’s progression, and your relationships.
Will the victory be sweet?
✨ Vezriel, The Sovereign (m / f)
Vezriel seems a perfect ruler: they’re smart, calm, patient, know moderation, and always put demons’ well-being first. But you’re not so naive as to think this is their real face—many secrets lurk under the golden shell of the nobility. You never thought of meeting them in the past, but now spending some time with them is inevitable. Perhaps you will find out what lies beneath their mask?
They have dark brown skin, long curly black hair, and black eyes with pale white flecks. Tall and of strong build, Vezriel cuts a robust but elegant figure, usually dressed in beautiful robes.
✨ Osara / Osaron, The Heir (f / m)
Vezriel’s only child and heir, O is their Chief Counselor, and they have a consistently good reputation. Their character reminds of their parent, though O is much more cold and reticent. Nothing seems to touch or shake their emotions, despite the known long list of ex-lovers. You don’t need their attention, but the circumstances have put you right under it. What will you make of this opportunity?
They have warm brown skin, long wavy black hair, and silver, almost white eyes. O is tall and strong, their expression impassive most of the time, which makes them rather intimidating and unapproachable to some demons.
✨ Lazarus / Lazaris, the General (m / f)
L rose from the bottom of the ladder and made a name for themselves, though judging by old rumors, their clean background wasn’t always so clean. They’re charismatic and popular but keep others at a distance—everyone except their friends… and you. L treats you especially well, but you’re not foolish enough to blindly play their game. What do they want from you?
They have beige skin, short/medium-length wavy blond hair, and golden eyes. Many small and big scars can be seen on their hands. L is tall and has a strong build. Despite their high station, they seem friendly and laid-back.
✨ Ashmedai, the Royal Healer (f / m)
Ashmedai was sent to observe your condition after the incident and to help you with mind stability if needed. They performed their duties without showing any displeasure or impatience no matter how you behaved. Ash is secretive and reserved, and you guess their restrained temper is connected to the dark rumors surrounding them. Will they open up to you?
They have pale skin, long straight black hair, and bright red eyes. A large scar runs on the left side of their face, from their forehead along their eye and to their chin. Ash is tall and slender.
✨ Azarias / Azaria, the Royal Musician (m / f)
Ash’s younger sibling, Az somewhat resembles them in appearance, but their characters couldn’t be more different. Az is bold, humorous, and fickle. They know everyone—and everything about everyone—and enjoy a special favor from the Sovereign, which has allowed them to retain their place in the royal palace for many years. You’re concerned about their peculiar attention to you because there’s no reason for it—you two have never met before. Or… is there a reason after all?
They have pale skin, long white hair, and black eyes with narrow silver pupils. A tattoo of a snake with flowers curves around their neck. Az is tall and lean.
There is a world hidden within your world.
A world of magic that exists only for the blessed ones.
You do not rank amongst them. You never will.
Serve, and their ways will be revealed to you.
Keep the secret of the Pact.
Obey our will in all things.
Serve, and a new life will be allotted to you.
Then you shall walk beside the chosen in their halls of learning.
Not as their equal, but as their better.
INTRODUCTION
Pactbinder is a WiP dark fantasy interactive fiction university novel set in an alt-history England, where you play as a once-ordinary person who has struck a bargain with an eldritch force in order to gain the gift of magic and walk in the hidden world of mages.
Word count is currently ~292k, which covers the game's prologue and first three chapters.
My inspirations are too numerous to do them all real justice, but Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and R.F Kuang’s Babel often find themselves on my mind as I write, as do many of the stories about students attending magical schools that I read growing up.
Outside of literature, I hope that anybody who has enjoyed DMing for or roleplaying a Warlock in a darker Dungeons & Dragons campaign will find something to enjoy in Pactbinder.
Please see below for a more detailed synopsis, a list of features planned to be in the final game and details on the main cast.
SYNOPSIS
Aspiring mages flock to the halls of Hightower to pursue the best arcane education in England, perhaps the world. For those blessed with the Gift of magic, there is no nobler dream than to study beneath the university’s elegant arches and develop skills and connections that will serve one for a lifetime.
However, the Gift is a rare privilege that is almost solely the birthright of the nobly born. This is the way things have been for as long as anybody at Hightower can remember. This year will be different, for rumours abound of a new student born Gifted but raised ignorant of the existence of magic; an oddity anywhere in this world, but particularly scandalous at elitist Hightower.
You are not that student. You’re just the person who stole their life.
As the Pactbinder, a once-ordinary person whose path to Hightower was paved by a bargain struck with an enigmatic entity of unspeakable power, you must fight and scheme to carve out a new life for yourself during your first year at Hightower whilst working to master your stolen magic, serve your patron and discover the university’s secrets without compromising your own.
Ultimately, it will fall on you to answer one question: What price would you pay for the life of your dreams?
CORE CAST
Note that with the exception of the Pactbinder (the MC) and the Entity (their eldritch patron), the core cast are the game’s primary ROs. RO genders are fixed, though all of them can be romanced by male, female and non-binary characters.
The Pactbinder (MC).
Gender: M/F/NB
Appearance: Player determined.
Description: A mysterious individual who stole the gift of magic from an unwary victim who was set to be the first mage born outside of magical society to attend Hightower in decades. Now impersonating that victim to take their place as a student, the Pactbinder must master their stolen magic whilst serving their Patron. How they feel about all this and what they plan to do about it is up to you, as is everything that they do next.
The Entity
Gender: N/A
Appearance: An empty space in misty skies, its outline barely suggestive of a humanoid form. Though its appearance is ever-shifting, it is always crowned by a halo of six red stars.
Mastery: Wields unknowable power over reality far in excess of the works of mortal mages, if indeed it can be compared to them at all.
Description: An enigmatic being who struck a bargain with the Pactbinder in their dreams, granting them power and access to the hidden world of magic in exchange for a lifetime of service. Its nature, true goals and desires are as yet wholly unknowable to the Pactbinder.
Alice Mortimer / Adelais De Mortemer: The Witch
Gender: F
Appearance: Tall, slender and very pale, with aristocratic features, silver-grey eyes and long white hair.
Description: One of the Pactbinder’s collegemates. An inscrutable first-year student with a troubled background and a fearsome reputation, Alice’s customary apathy isn’t quite enough to mask her fiercely intelligent mind, nor the quiet intensity that lurks beneath her listless demeanour. Seemingly the only first year to have already awakened her Gift before joining the university, something considered dangerous and foolhardy by most mages.
Eleanor Whitworth: The Scholar
Gender: F
Appearance: Very short, with braided dirty-blonde hair, a heart-shaped face and warm brown eyes behind round spectacles.
Description: One of the Pactbinder’s collegemates. An academic young woman from a well-respected family of mages recently struck by misfortune, Eleanor seems fixated on restarting the long-banned Hightower Expedition Society, a group dedicated to exploring the ruins beneath the university town. A hard worker and fierce friend who can nevertheless come across a little bossy at times.
Finlay Stuart: The Prince
Gender: M
Appearance: Very tall and thin, almost gangly. Freckled, with short reddish-brown hair and green eyes.
Description: One of the Pactbinder’s collegemates. The second son of the Queen of Scotland, a country which seems to be an entirely independent power in magical society. Finlay himself seems like an affable young man, if a little homesick and uncomfortable with the attention his presence inevitably attracts. However, the circumstances surrounding his arrival to Hightower, which is in England remain shrouded in mystery, particularly given the apparent longstanding enmity between the two countries.
Layla Farouk: The Traveler
Gender: F
Appearance: Average height, lean and fit. Olive skin, hazel eyes and long brown hair that’s often in a ponytail. Constantly on the move.
Description: One of the Pactbinder’s collegemates. The only international student in Hightower’s first-year class, Layla is indelibly marked as an outsider from her very first day. The enthusiastic young woman seems determined to meet this challenge with fierce pride and make her mark on Hightower all the same, whether the university likes it or not.
Marcus Elmgrove: The Rebel
Gender: M
Appearance: Tall, dark-skinned and broad-shouldered. Striking features marked by a scar on his lip. Dark hair and eyes.
Description: One of the Pactbinder’s collegemates. Brooding and cynical, Marcus is the mixed-race son of an influential noble father and a foreign-born mother. As such, he walks the uneasy line between barely-tolerated outsider and accepted member of high society. Though a fierce friend, Marcus struggles to manage the conflict between his resentment of magical society and his desire to fly under the radar.
FEATURES
Master your stolen power as you learn to call spirits, shape the elements, nurture life and / or meddle with minds.
Romance a secretive witch, a homesick prince, a timid would-be explorer, an excitable traveller, or a brooding rebel - or nobody at all - whilst navigating an increasingly complex social life burdened by a secret that you quite literally cannot share.
Embrace or rage against the university’s colonial legacy or work to turn it to your own ends.
Make a name for yourself in one of the university’s Societies, where you can demonstrate your prowess in activities including duelling, exploration and sky-sailing, or dedicate your free time to more secretive goals.
Begin your delve into the endless dungeons beneath the university in search of fortune, power and the answers to the mysteries that haunt you.
Fight, charm, scheme, steal and even kill as you strive to balance your obligations to your Patron with the demands of student life. Pray that the two never come into conflict.
The Lost Bride is a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s iconic novel Dracula, where you have full control over the story.
Play as Mina and shape her fate. Customize her name, sexuality, personality, and relationships with everyone you meet.
Patreon Update! Chapter 5 part 1 is now out for patreon! (Full demo at around 305K- May 1 /2026)
Huge thank you for all my patreon supporters as always. I wouldn't have been able to do it without of you. If you do like my work, then pls do consider supporting me, as it helps me with getting updates out faster.
(Currently part 1 is out and I'm now working on part 2)
Discord server.
Patreon demo (305k)
Patreon Demo update! (305k) by The Lost Bride IF on Patreon. Join The Lost Bride IF's community for exclusive content and updates.
Public Demo. (250k)
There will be four romance options for you to choose.
Lucy Westenra (F): Your once childhood best friend whom you share a past with. (Can be extremely jealous and clingy)
Jonathan Harker (M): Your sweet fiancé who is currently in a land far away from that of your own.
Van Helsing (M/F): An experienced and knowledgeable Dutch hunter with a wide range of expertise.
Dracula (M/F): A mysterious Transylvanian noble with dark secrets.
