Mortish

Bride of Shadows Rework - First Look

As promised, here is a first look at the new and (hopefully) improved Bride of Shadows. Before you check it out, keep in mind it's a very short preview. It covers the events of what we would formerly consider Night I: your MC waking up in Kalat and getting rescued from the sithrak.

However, you'll notice several key differences. I've discussed them at length in other posts, so I'll summarize them here, as well as provide additional details we haven't yet gone over. I'm going to include ...

Intro to the Fated Mates Route

Yesterday we discussed the new Dark Maiden Route (DMR) and today I'll be breaking down the new Fated Mates Route (FMR) for players who want a monogamous romance with Valdricht. This route will also be exclusive to The Nightborn Edition. I'm going to keep this one short, since you'll be able to play the intro to FMR very soon.

Core Distinctions

✧ Divergent storyline with fewer choices.

✧ Options for traditional fated mates or sub kink.

✧ Strong mate bond drives ...

New MC, New Body, New Interactivity

The body customization is something that I did a really crappy job of coding-wise last time. As frustrated as I feel at times, I'm significantly better at coding than I was when I started earlier this year and I now have a good system in place to make characters feel truly unique depending on your choices.

Rather than just slapping in the same adjective to describe your hair color every chapter or two, I'll have a more dynamic manner in which to reflect your physical traits in ...

Intro to the Dark Maiden Route + Excerpt

In my last post I mentioned the new Dark Maiden Route. I've gotten a lot of questions about it and figured I'd just wait and answer them all in a dedicated post.

First off, I want to thank the readers who reached out to me about the color schemes and accessibility issues. I've updated both light and dark mode's colors and added a glow & pulse effect to the cycle options so they'll pop out at you and you won't overlook them. These are desktop screenshots, I posted mobile ones on Tumb...

Week One | Changes & Adjustments

Here is the first open breakdown of the changes coming to Bride of Shadows next month. Some of it will be things we've already discussed in the Darksinger/Duskweaver posts and some will be new stuff I'm sharing for the first time. Feel free to leave feedback, I'm free all evening to answer questions. Only the things I've marked as ★ Debatable ★ are things I'm interested in changing, however I will make a note of any other changes requested or things you think I overlooked...

Night VI - Standard Heretic - Part One

The first half of the Standard Heretic Route is available. If you went to Meyrrvik instead of to woodland sexytimes, this update is for you. The Standard Heretic route is very similar to the Standard/Aligned Zealot so if you already played that one then there wont be too many differences apart from minor personality nuances. However, if you accepted Valdricht's offer then you'll be able to have an extended episode. Similar to the Unaligned Zealot, you'll have a longer, out-on-the-town scene.<...

MMF vs MFM + Bride of Shadows MMF Tropes

My ask box is full of questions regarding this again this morning, so I'm going to write an official explanation of both what the distinction between MMF and MFM is in general, as well as how I personally write MMF. Obviously this is all based on my view of the niche and your definition may vary. You're welcome to post your definition or points of disagreement in the comments. I'll be posting this on Patreon and Tumblr. I think it reads better on Tumblr with the additional formatting options,...

Provisional Opposed Pairs

I've been working on the opposed pairs off and on for the past couple of weeks and I'm ready to share the provisional list I have. It's a mix of the original traits, our poll winners, and also logical pairs. I've designed it on an axis system, meaning that each pair will represent an axis of your MC's personality. Six opposed pairs is at the upper limit of what I'm comfortable adding, but I'm absolutely open to suggestions for tweaking/changing them to better suit the story.

1. Daring...

2025-05-11 05:32:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Aligned Zealot Bug Fix & Story Route Poll

First and foremost, this is to let you know that I've fixed a bug where the Aligned Zealot was routing onto the Unaligned Zealot's ending. In simple terms, if you ended Night V opting to consider Valdricht's offer and then you ended the first part of Night VI in a teahouse, you were affected. To make things easier, I've added a link to the ending landing page which will route you back to right before you go outside with Valdricht and onto the correct route.

This might come as a disappoi...

[EP:04] Tairen (Serax POV | Night I | Unbound Mode)

Hey Darksingers and Duskweavers! Today's alternate POV MC is Lydie, crafted by Ayesleigh, which I always read as "I slay" so hopefully that's canon. Here's Lydie's wonderfully detailed backstory.

Episode 04: Tairen

Tairen (verb)
/TIE-ren/

1. To cross the space between oneself and another with intent.
2. To mark a boundary by the act ...

2025-05-06 21:07:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Night VI - Aligned Heretic Route - Part One

The Aligned Heretic route, also known as the NSFW Heretic route where you sleep with Valdricht and Serax in Night IV, is now updated!

The Nightborn Edition: LINK

May Password: nytharadidit

I should have the next alternate POV scene ready tomorrow evening, and then I'll be working on the standard Heretic update which shouldn't take more than a few days. As I mentioned in Apr...

[May Password] & Night VI - Unaligned Zealot - Valdricht Route

The Nightborn Edition has a new update for Night VI. If you are a Zealot who hasn't chosen to bend to The Weaver's will and happened to be kissed by Valdricht on Night V, then you can look forward to a steamy interlude, a fresh helping of lore & backstory, and a very different post-fitting scene. While this route, and really this whole night, is fairly Valdricht-focused, rest assured that the second half of Night VI and/or Night VII will open the door (re...

Night VI - Aligned Zealot Route - Part I

The first half of the Aligned Zealot route is available on The Nightborn Edition now. What is the Aligned Zealot route? If you ended Night V as a Zealot with an offer from Valdricht to become his lover, you're on it! Whether you said yes or no, you can go read the continuation of your storyline now. It's currently only available in the browser, the downloadab...

Night VI Heretic Excerpt | NSFW Route [Clean]

[Context] These are the starting passages of the Night VI NSFW route, should the MC decline to immediately forgive Valdricht. Takes place shortly after the end of Night V.

Excerpt:

“Usually, Kerach will feed himself out on the snow plains,” Serax says, hacking at a brick of frozen meat with a sharp-looking hatchet. “But Valdricht won’t let him hunt in the forest. When he can’t hunt, you’ll be responsible for feeding him. He isn’t allowed to get it himself. H...

Tendencies, What are they for?

With the last couple of polls I've realized that not everyone understands what the purpose of the tendencies are apart from unlocking choices sometimes. Which as the writer/developer is totally my fault so let's demystify them.

Tendencies are personality traits that will add shades of distinction to your MC. Apart from merely unlocking different options, I want tendencies to also be hidden in the narrative, changing details within your scenes. With the Week One update, most of the tende...

New Tendency Poll & Upcoming Changes

All right, so I said we'd be doing a makeup poll for the tendencies that didn't make the cut, but I want to do one more new tendency poll first. While I was in the weeds with Night VI today, it occurred to me that instead of doing the fabled Week One update after Night VII, I'm just going to do it after Night VI.

Night VI is going to be much bigger than Night VII, since the latter is more of a holy-crap-so-much-happened-yesterday-let's-just-take-a-breath-and-chill night. So what I'm go...

[EP:03] Synara (Valdricht POV | Night I | Bound Mode)

Our third alternate POV scene takes place shortly after the second. Valdricht and Serax have stopped for the night to set up the tent and prepare to retire with the MC. Our MC is Guinevere, graciously offered up by Lummex! Sadly, she will still be asleep in this scene, but she will be the object of Valdricht's obsession which I hope will be enjoyable. Since it's easy to miss in the story, nyrvehn is the Wyransith word for Shadewalker. Valdricht will use it a lot in this passa...

Night VI Excerpt | Unaligned Zealot [Steamy]

Okay, so I said no more Zealot but indulge me one more. It occurred to me that a lot of readers haven't played the unaligned Zealot route and aren't aware that it has a different ending than the main routes for Heretic & Zealot. Basically, your MC has a bit of a breakdown in the bath and, depending on which RO she has the highest bond with, she'll seek comfort from either Valdricht or Serax. I'll post the end of that scene to orient you, along with the subsequent Night VI passage. Since w...

Tendency Poll #2

Erudite was a clear winner in the first poll. This time, we're going to have three new tendencies to choose from. The ones that aren't picked will be shuffled into the next poll with the two from last time. Erudite won't be making an appearance in Night VI, it's already filled with a bazillion different choices, but it will probably be my favorite to retroactively write when I do the Week One update. Readers have been likening an erudite MC to Hermione Granger and I think that's accurate. 2025-04-12 21:03:43 +0000 UTC View Post

[EP:02] Drezhal (Serax POV | Night I | Zealot | Unbound Mode)

I'll start by apologizing for the awkward spacing. I started this in one word processor and finished in another and my patience with coding and interfaces is at its limit today. If it's really annoying, I'll come back and update it.

This POV scene reveals several things I'd planned to reveal later in the IF, but I think it'll make for a more intriguing replay and puts an interesting spin on some choices you'll have going into Night VI. This excerpt is from Unbound mode and contains some...

Night VI Excerpt | Weaver-Aligned Zealot (Part II)

Here is our next excerpt from the Weaver-Aligned Night VI, picking up right where we left off last time. I've included the final paragraph and choice as a reference. I chose some answers with the Zealot being extra Zealot-y, but your scene will play out differently depending on what you choose!

[[All Zealot-y opinions are the opinions of the Zealot and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Mortish. Mortish is merely a vessel drawing from the wellspring that is the collective un...