Last updated: 22/06/2025 (hotfix)

Wordcount: 120,000+ (prologue, codex contents and combat system)

Story

In the corrupt city of Wyldern, the Blackthorns carry out their master's wishes from behind the scenes. You, the protagonist, have been recruited to this shadowy organisation, where you are expected to leave your morality behind in order to do your job to the best of your ability.

Your master, Moloch-Krongr, the dictator of Wyldern, has ruled the city with an iron fist for years. It's your job to ensure he has many more to come by any means necessary... that is, if you stay loyal to him.

A mere pawn in a game of control between the Krongr and the Captain and unable to break free of their hold, who will you stand beside?  Will you support the established system or will you try to change it from within? Do you make your choice to make it better or for your own benefit?

Survive in a grimdark fantasy world at all costs or try to retain your humanity in a regime that equates kindness with weakness.

Content warnings!

This story is intended for mature audiences. Playing through this game, you will encounter blood and gore, violence, death (murder, suicide and euthanasia), racism (not towards skin colour but race), torture (towards the protagonist in the prologue), explicit and degrading language, drug and alcohol use and more to come with each update.

This is a game meant to highlight the horrific nature of dictatorships and other corrupt people in positions of power, the people who uphold this power and those trapped in systems they despise but have no choice but to support.

Characters

Your Superiors

Your Support Roots



Your Fellow Thorns




Features

To make the game accessible for those with different needs, there is a dark and light mode, 4 different fonts, 4 font size settings and 4 settings for the spacing between lines.

Custom made battle system

Rested and tired status that influences scenes and results.

Semi customisable character

Choose from four different backgrounds which influence your skill levels and gets referenced within the story and unlock special choices.

Many, many bad ends.


I am not a professional writer or artist and only dabble for my own enjoyment, but I always want to improve. As such, any feedback is welcome! I'd be particularly grateful for reports of bugs, spacing issues and typos. This is my first IF, and I'm learning how to code just for this game. I'm also bug testing and editing by myself, so there's likely something or other that's fallen through the cracks.

Resources Used

Custom Macros by Chapel (Used: Message-macro, Notify-macro, Speech-macro, Mouseover-macro, Fairmath Dice System)

Title Page Template by manonamora

Sugarcube Settings Template by manonamora

Font: Open Dyslexic v.0.91.12

More information

Development log