They gathered before the Adjudicator to hear his official verdict.
Yeoric stood, head hanging, hands on his hips, occasionally shaking his head as if in reluctant refutation of what had just transpired. Lucine had ceased hissing at him, and Derrick looked green in the gills. Only Gazurn remained stoic, but the one time he met Harald’s gaze, he frowned and looked away.
Harald felt tremulous, relieved, thrilled, yet still seized by disbelief. It was over. The threat that had hung ...
2024-05-17 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Harald, Vic, Nessa, and Sam arrived at the Dueling Circles well before Eighth Bell. The morning was dark and damp, dawn having broken imperceptibly behind dour clouds. A constant drizzle misted down from the sky, soaking into everything. Colors were darkened, sounds muffled. The air had a mineral tang laced with smoke.
The Dueling Circles was a great circular building without a roof. Four stories tall, it took up an entire city block where the Angelic Quarter met the Merchant’s Quarte...
2024-05-16 13:00:14 +0000 UTC
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His three friends simply stared at him.
Vic recovered first. “Wait. You’re telling me that you’re voluntarily giving up six hundred thousand scales?”
“Investing,” corrected Harald.
Vic pressed the tips of his fingers against his temples. “My mind. It hurts. I can’t understand anyone being so selfless.”
Nessa’s eyes were shining. “He has his reasons, Vic. Recall his father’s advice?”
“Harald.” Sam had placed her hand over her mouth. ...
2024-05-15 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Created with MidJourney for reference purposes.
2024-05-15 01:35:22 +0000 UTC
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Sam didn’t return until three days later.
Harald ignored Vic’s badgering, Nessa’s pointed stares. Other than entering the secret room one more time in order to put into motion his plan, he refused to discuss the treasures within and instead threw himself completely into his training. It still felt strange to tackle his morning runs alone, to work on the weights without Sam’s encouragement, analysis, and feedback.
The very next morning, he returned from his run to find a co...
2024-05-14 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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A Twilight Infinitum.
Heart pounding, Harald reached into the chest and took up the scale. It was light, almost insubstantial. He held it up and drank in its nebulous beauty, feeling as if he held a fragment of the heavens themselves between his fingers.
“Wow,” breathed Nessa, fingers covering her mouth. “An actual Infinitum.”
“Options,” said Vic, rubbing his hands together in glee. “That’s what you suddenly have, Harry-boy. Options. Wealth equals power, and ...
2024-05-13 13:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Overwhelmed, furious, Harald glared at the four handwritten pages. The walls of the small cellar room were pressing in on him. He was having trouble catching his breath.
The very idea that Vorakhar had been so intimately intertwined with his mother and father made him nauseous.
Unable to remain in the room, Harald fled back up the stairs, letter in hand, then quit the gym for the manor. He rushed to the kitchen, and there chugged a large glass of cold water. In the gloom, he stood...
2024-05-12 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Created with MidJourney.
2024-05-11 21:14:35 +0000 UTC
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Vic left that evening on undisclosed business.
Nessa was long gone by that point.
Sam had departed without saying another word.
Harald had spent the day training as best he could. Come dusk, he fixed himself a bowl of leftovers, poured himself a glass of water from the bucket he fetched from the well, and sat before the parlor fire, slowly shoveling food into his mouth.
He wasn’t hungry, but he knew he needed to eat. To consume fuel for his body.
The house was ...
2024-05-11 13:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Furthak’s Smithy was a rambling series of connected buildings, workshops, and storage chambers. It looked disreputable at a glance if you were just striding down Fire Lane; a mass of low roofed, ad hoc construction that appeared cobbled together over time, expanding to fill a whole city block just as flotsam might accrue on the shore after a wreck at sea.
Smoke rose from dozens of chimneys, and the clatter of hammers formed a constant din. There was no inviting entrance, no polished s...
2024-05-10 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The Aura of the Aching Depths expanded from Harald’s core. The air around him grew subtly shadowed, sound growing muffled, the temperature dropping. Harald felt his Throne of Harmony pouring its strength into the Passive, fueling its enervating expansion, and saw the moment his aura washed over Nessa.
Her reaction was subtle.
He’d have missed it if he weren’t watching carefully.
Her knuckles whitened on the hilt of her practice blade, her eyes narrowed a fract...
2024-05-09 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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An amalgam of Midjourney with some Witcher 3 concept art by Klaus Whitman. Used a reference piece only.
2024-05-08 15:23:23 +0000 UTC
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Harald woke just before Sixth Bell, ready and alert and unable to stay in bed. Refreshed, he got up, cracked open his door, and peered out into the dark hallway.
Silence. Darkness.
Time for a quick run, then.
He quickly donned his exercise gear, smirking as he was forced to use a higher notch up his belt. Looked like he’d lost a little more weight.
That caused him to turn to his full length mirror before donning his tunic. In the dim scale lantern light that he’d s...
2024-05-08 13:00:14 +0000 UTC
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I often generate images via Midjourney for inspiration. I used to trawl the web back in the day for concept art, but now I can make my own. And while I firmly believe in hiring real artists for commercial work, I've nothing against playing with AI for the sake of generating all manner of interesting or thought provoking images.
So, my question to you all: would you like me to occasionally share portraits, landscapes, or other images that have helped inspire Thrones of the Fallen?
2024-05-07 18:16:52 +0000 UTC
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"Well,” said Vic, staring at Nessa in dissatisfaction, “that’s a negative lesson we could learn from this, I suppose. I prefer to focus on the positive.” He raised his glass of wine. “Which is that Sam and Harald both emerged victorious from the dungeon, replete with new Classes and a drive to conquer the peaks of notoriety.”
Harald raised his glass with a grimace and finally took a sip. The wine was sublime. Smooth at first and then blooming with all manner of exqu...
2024-05-07 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Harald rose from his crouch when Vic stepped out through the portal, lantern raised, rapier in hand.
“Hello, Vic,” he said, trying to disguise his relief. It was impossible to tell for how long he’d been waiting since leaving the hall with the angelic visitor - six hours? Ten?
Time got funny in the dungeons.
Nessa emerged next, longsword at the ready, and then Sam stepped through, her eyes widening with relief at the sight of him.
“You,” said Vic, raising his...
2024-05-06 13:00:17 +0000 UTC
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The last of the stolen energy from Abyssal Attunement drained away, and Harald felt his legs grow shaky. Taking deep, steadying breaths he strode over to the first step that rose to the elevated first half of the hall, and sat heavily.
He just sat there shivering. He wasn’t cold. Wasn’t wounded. But his hands shook, his jaw felt jittery, and he couldn’t quite catch his breath. He observed himself dispassionately even as he felt his emotions roil and peak within him.
2024-05-05 13:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The ashen walkers were patient.
They shifted, swayed, clearly paid close attention to Harald, but they didn’t make a move.
Instead, they formed their horrific wall of half-slurried paper flesh, malformed heads twisting to and fro as if listening for the sound of his heart, and waited.
“Well then,” said Harald, propping his blade upon his shoulder. “It looks like we’re at a stalemate, gentlemen. The ten of you, myself, and our haunt. Whatever shall we do?”
T...
2024-05-04 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone, thanks for reading and giving Thrones a chance. It's great to have you all on board, and I'm hoping this story only continues to grow.
Toward that end, I'd really appreciate it if you hopped over to Royal Road to give Thrones an honest review or rating. I'm slowly wrestling my way up the Rising Stars list (!), and with a few more ratings and reviews ...
2024-05-03 17:32:37 +0000 UTC
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“All right,” said Sam hours later, stepping up to the portal. “You’re going to stay close by?”
“We’ve had our fun,” allowed Harald. “We’re thirty Copper Crescents the richer, and I’ve no desire to be swarmed. I’ll stay close until you come back with Vic and Nessa.”
Sam hesitated.
“What?” Harald matched her stare. “After that last encounter, you think I’m going to go haring off into the dark by myself?”
“You’ve got enough scales o...
2024-05-03 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The rocks sailed down to crack into the ashen walkers. One hit a shoulder, the other a back.
Their reaction was immediate.
The walkers jerked around soundlessly, arms flailing. A moment later, one of them noticed Harald and Sam high above on their landing and the knowledge seemed to pass to the other three, who oriented on them a second later.
But they didn’t immediately rush up the dozen broad steps that divided the hall into two. Instead they peered up at them, disfigure...
2024-05-02 13:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Divinity is received, not taken.
So had Harald been taught by Seraphite Japhina at a young age. He’d been entranced by her wrinkled visage, her humble piety, struck more by her quiet sincerity than her words.
But now that dictum returned to him as he sank into his own spiritual depths, his Cosmos, which opened before him like the cloths of heaven.
Divinity is received, not taken. Within each of us burns a Cosmos granted by the Fallen Angel, and this is her gif...
2024-05-01 13:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Harald blinked.
All was still.
So, he’d survived Eclavistra’s attack. She’d been honest about that much, at any rate.
Groaning, he put his hand to his head and sat up. The demon was gone, and the air was clear and crisp and smelled of nothing more than the orchard.
Sam lay outflung beside him, unconscious in her ruined armor.
She was alive though. That’s what mattered.
Harald thought of how she’d stood up to the demon. How Sam had challenged her, ...
2024-04-30 13:00:11 +0000 UTC
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“Go out wide!” barked Harald, trying to find stable footing amongst the flagstones. “Sam, other side of the street!”
The statue was barreling down on them, fast, too fast. Sam darted across the narrow street, blade held down and low, and then the statue was upon them.
Any hope of fighting the fiend was immediately ended by its first blow. The burning blade came sweeping around with a roar and passed clear through Harald’s desperate parry. Then the golden flames swept thr...
2024-04-29 13:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Vorakhar dominated the warren, his form somehow more real than everyone else in it, as if he were made of more compelling flesh, the light forming a purple nimbus around him.
Harald, mouth dry, felt as if he were wading in honey. The demon’s burning gaze had him frozen in place, his presence so commanding, his features so strong and haughty, that it felt as if they were all reduced to children in his presence.
Nessa tore herself free of the demon’s influence and raised her shi...
2024-04-28 13:00:37 +0000 UTC
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The ashen walkers rushed toward Nessa and Vic, both of whom stepped out wide and then struck as one.
Vic lunged with his rapier, its long, lethal blade sliding effortlessly into his walker’s head, piercing clear through with unerring accuracy.
Nessa, mindful of the close quarters, swept her blade up from the Tail Stance, slicing off both outstretched hands. This didn’t stop the walker. It barreled in, but only for a second longer. Nessa’s blade rose, twirled on the upswing, ...
2024-04-27 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Both groups oriented on each other.
Derrick rested an elbow on Yeoric’s shoulder and lowered his tinted glasses. “Oh, hey! Is that Samantha? Yeoric, Harald’s recruited his maid to go delving with him. And found more scales from somewhere to dress her up like an actual warrior.”
Lucine grinned in scandalized delight. “You can’t be serious.”
“It’s not safe in the dungeon,” said Yeoric gravely. “You should know better, Harald. Taking your maid is ...
2024-04-26 13:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Harald forced himself to breathe easy, to remain calm, shoulders back, blade steady. The scale-light gleamed down the length of his wooden longsword. It was ridiculous to stand against Nessa, a Level 4 Bladeweaver.
But he didn’t step aside.
She approached him with furious directness, goaded now into finally raising her blade, and when she came in range, she thrust.
It was easy to parry, but then her sword swirled around his, guiding it effortlessly away, and stabbed into h...
2024-04-25 13:39:28 +0000 UTC
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The announcement that they were going to raid the dungeon coincided with a steady deluge of rain as a heavy storm front moved in across the city and drowned the world in the continuous rumbling of thunder.
Harald insisted on continuing the morning runs, but they were miserable affairs. Sam was game. They ran for an hour, but by the fourth day, their sodden shoes began to raise blisters, so he was forced to concede.
Life was simple.
Everything was reduced to training, eating,...
2024-04-24 13:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Harald awoke before Sixth Bell, before Sam had even entered his room. He rose in the dark and dressed.
Today felt different.
It wasn’t that he felt numb, but rather hardened. He didn’t linger in bed, didn’t wrestle with the temptation of enjoying the warmth.
He simply opened his eyes, realized that he was awake, and got the hell up.
When Sam opened his door, he was dressed and lacing up his running leather shoes.
“You’re awake.”
“That I am. Le...
2024-04-23 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
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