On the Road to Elspar (Book 1) Fantasy Action Adventure Wuxia Drama School Life
The year is 1329. The Huntress' War has entered its tenth year, inflaming competing nationalisms and pitting the Confederacy of Caldrein against one of the continent's superpowers, the Tenereian Union. Desperately outnumbered, the Confederacy has relied on the prowess of its famed Caldran mercenaries, with highly-trained and experienced warbands returning from foreign conflicts to the defense of their homeland, and it is on their backs that Caldrein has successfully mounted a valiant defense for a decade. But they are losing, and day by day, with all the grace of a sledgehammer, the vast Tenereian armies take one more bit of Caldran territory, one footstep at a time.
Sixteen-year-old Neianne from the village of Caelon has submitted herself to Faulkren Academy, one of the centuries-old institutions established to train the next generation of Caldrein's elite soldiers of fortune, to learn the ways of wars for three years before embarking upon the defense of her country. Her dryad family once hailed from reclusive woodland communes isolated from Caldrein's complicated mainstream society, and her upbringing leaves the shy village girl unprepared to suddenly train alongside other apprentices from backgrounds as low as the dirty slums of Caldrein's cities and as high as the halls of aristocratic power.
Yet the war is eroding the norms and traditions that the Caldran people have long considered part of their national mythos, and the tensions within the confederacy that have long simmered under the surface - race, class, community, identity - are slowly but surely dividing its people, and Neianne must grow and discover who she really is, even as the war that she is steadfastly training for comes to its inexorable end...
On the Road to Elspar is a fantasy quest - a work of interactive fiction wherein readers get to vote on what happens next at critical junctures - that is the first entry in a story that follows Neianne of Caelon, which first began on July 20, 2016. Originally a three-part in medias res prologue to a larger story titled On the Elsparian Road, it was eventually decided that this section - which covers Neianne's three years at Faulkren Academy - become its own independent story due to length, structural, and accessibility reasons.
Despite this being a reader interactive work of fiction, due to logistical and verification concerns, voting will only be counted on its thread on the forum Sufficient Velocity, where this story originally began. As such, the content here on Royal Road serves as a story-only archive. You are, of course, entirely welcome to enjoy On the Road to Elspar as a conventional work of fiction, just as you are welcome to comment, discuss, and provide critique. But if you would like to participate in the voting, then I would be honored to welcome you on Sufficient Velocity.
To facilitate accessibility and to ensure the best reading experience, this story-only version of On the Road to Elspar will be updated at a periodic pace, even though further content exists, so as to not overwhelm new readers on Royal Road. If you enjoy this story, wish to binge it, and/or want to participate in voting immediately, you may of course read all additional content via the link provided above. This paragraph will be removed once the content on Royal Road catches up with what has already been posted in its original thread.
Cover artwork by DreamSyndd.
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Chapter Selections
1. 1.1 In Medias Res
2. 1.2 The Great Hall
3. 1.3 The First Acquaintances
4. 1.4 The Prodigy, the Roommate, and the First Weeks
5. 1.5 Squad Four
6. 1.6 The Roldharen Field Exercise
7. 1.7 Improvised Hunting
8. 1.8 A Walk in the Woods
9. 1.9 Worse Than Bears
10. 1.10 The Wyvern
11. 1.11 Midwinter's Feast
12. 1.12.1 Festivities (Part 1)
13. 1.12.2 Festivities (Part 2)
14. 1.12.3 Festivities (Part 3)
15. 1.13.1 The Attack on Faulkren (Part 1)
16. 1.13.2 The Attack on Faulkren (Part 2)
17. 1.14 Life and Death
18. 1.15 It Gets Easier
19. 1.16 The Aftermath at Faulkren
20. 1.17 A Bathtime Decompression
I Became A God Of A Microscopic World
As the world began to recover, mysterious energy appeared along with it.
8 848The Demon Lord Among Heroes
Shin is surrounded by friends and is cared by many, but he feels cold and empty. He considered nobody as true friend. Except there was one, but it broke him. Ever since the tragedy, Shin's heart became even colder. However one morning when he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a foreign scene. A king, a princess and priest-like people surrounded him and three other classmates of his. They were told three things:1) This is a world of fantasy with unlimited opportunities2) Currently, human kind is threatened by the advances of the demon-kind and the revival of the Demon Lord3) They are summoned as heroes to save humanityThe other three were expected to be heroes in this world. However, Shin was slightly different.
8 191Ashes and Cinders
In a small neighborhood, a young man dreaming of peace and financial prosperity finds the adventure he never wanted. And it all starts with his death. Now in a new world, he wakes up to find the freedom he always wanted, and oh, so much more. With his new foster brother, Cinder the fox, he is determined to make a difference in the world with his new chance. But in order to acquire power, he must face against trials incomprehensible to simple mortals. Luckily, He's not alone. The story of Ashes and Cinders -Hey, Disclaimer: I'm a new author and this is a trial run. I'm super psyched about this story and am just writing it for fun. There's not really a schedule, although I do post somewhere around once every two days, maybe more if I have free time. I have no plan, no plot, no lore. Just figuring stuff out along the way. I hope you like it, and please give me comments and criticism if you find mistakes. It's what trial runs are for! :P ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you're wondering where I got my cover, check out This Guy From Fiverr They're really good.
8 56The Price of Power
Payten is an outcast, harassed and bullied at every turn. However, everything changes when a powerful necromancer offers him the chance to escape his miserable life. But is he willing to pay the price for power? *On hiatus*
8 105Reincarnated Hero Kills The Summoner
When Glaze Lockhart was summoned to another world to save it from the Demon King , he had no intention to save the world and work as a minion for the King and plots to kill him and take control of the Everheart Kingdom , here begins his story of becoming the villain himself that the world needs to be saved from.. Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/pratikapte.Discord : http://discord.gg/7E3UpWm . .I do not own the cover art, if you want me take it down send me a message and I will take will down.
8 354It's Not The Cost Of The Money, But It's The Cost Of Your Body~ (Discontinued)
hey I'm new. My grammar is a bit off sometimes or all the time,
8 180