Vainqueur now has a Webtoon adaptation!

It is now available on Amazon! Book 1 (Audiobook 1), Book 2 (Audiobook 2), Book 3 (Audiobook 3), Book 4.

Vainqueur Knightsbane is your average dragon: a giant, fire-breathing lizard who loves to take naps on his golden hoard, kidnap princesses for fun, and make the life of adventurers miserable. Vainqueur's only pleasure in life is to watch his treasure get bigger, one coin at a time.

So when a would-be thief turned unwilling minion tells him about "classes," "levels," and "quests," Vainqueur wonders if maybe, just maybe, he should consider a career change. 

After all, why bother hunting monsters for free when you can get paid for it?

An irritated Pokemon might tell you to stop what you're doing. An irritated animal will probably just attack you. Pokemon, for all their power, would be open books and a breeze to care for to any competent animal handler on Earth. After a fiery death, a professional zookeeper who never outgrew Pokemon games ends up in the world of Pokemon. The entire world is thrown onto its side.

A man given a new lease on life finds himself amongst pokemon. From his memories of pokemon as a whole, he assumes the power of pokemon and the world around him runs on convenient fate, rule of cool, and cheesy friendship just like any other anime. Unfortunately for everyone else, he's 100% right.

NOTE: If Borne of Caution is an attempt at a coherent and realistic look at pokemon, then, Borne of Desire is the opposite. It's all the mindless indulgence I DONT want in a serious story. It's a very seat-of-my-pants for-fun project and is written with no storyboard. Updates will be inconsistent and quality cannot be assured. Not to be taken too seriously.

The saying goes that when a man is born the Fates weave his destiny and swaddle him in it. Then one day the man dies, and the swaddle becomes a shroud. Heaven moves on.

It is audacity to question the Fates. Olympus is Olympus. The land of men is the land of men. To transgress that, to cross the line of divinity and scale Olympus Mons? To defy the Fates and cast off their threads?

That is hubris. It’s a mark that every philosopher bears plainly on their soul.

[Virtuous Sons updates every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 8pm EST.]

Rare classes and powerful skills are helpful. Too bad the system doesn't seem built to handle them. What even are all these errors? 

Our team of outcasts and adventurers will have to rely on their trust - and the bane of all stories, healthy communication - just to survive, let alone understand what the system is doing. Because they're quickly realizing that not all is as it seems, and it's doing something to people, to monsters, and maybe even to the gods themselves.

And their goal isn't just to survive; it's to make things better. It's a good thing they're not doing it alone.

---

Edge Cases is an attempt to take the LitRPG genre and the overpowered MCs trope and write a story where numbers aren't everything. Sometimes it takes trust, support, and just a touch of being very, very clever.

Expect a mix of action, slice-of-life, friendship, and ominous worldbuilding.

Updates M-W-F at 6pm EST. 

Cover art by Alovck of Artstation, and typesetting by jessessey right here on RoyalRoad.

Once, the sun shone brightly on Azlant. Until came the Whitemoon, to steal mankind's light and condemn it to eternal darkness. 

Valdemar Verney is a sorcerer with a dream: to find a new world for his people to settle, one where the sky isn't a ceiling made of stone. But in the underground empire of Azlant, dissent is never tolerated. Brought before one of the undead Dark Lords, Valdemar is offered a choice he cannot refuse. Meanwhile, the swordswoman Marianne Reynard is given a mission: to investigate a dead cult with a few mysteries left to unravel.

Both are looking for the truth, though they might regret finding it; for many cultists, monsters, and cosmic horrors stand in their way. They'll just have to kill them all.

Cover by Vitaly S. Alexius. 

In the wake of the Battle of Katze Plains, the banner of Ainz Ooal Gown flies proudly over the city of E-Rantel. The Sorcerous Kingdom has entered the world’s stage to the clamour of death and devastation; the surrounding nations fearfully prepare even as they reel from its calamitous debut. Within the borders of the newly annexed realm, its Human subjects cower in their homes as the Undead openly walk the streets and stalk the lands. Yet, when a destitute noble finds herself under the auspices of an unlikely benefactor, events are set into motion that will resound over the world for ages to come.

A kingdom builder based on the events and setting of Kugane Maruyama’s Overlord. In a fantasy world where beings of matchless power are transmigrated from the arbitrary existence of a game, Valkyrie’s Shadow chronicles the lives of the natives whose reality has been turned upside down by their advent. It is the tale of a nation created by the whims of a supreme sovereign, and his unstoppable servants who each have their own, often twisted, interpretations of their Master’s Will. 

There is no victory in strength; no miracles wrought from magic that will save them: only the inexorable advance of a new world order where those who secure a place of service within will find themselves turned against the world that they once knew.

[Slow buildup. Methodical storytelling with a focus on well-rounded kingdom building and character development.]

The king is dead; his heir is too young to assume the throne. Jarl Vale wants to become Lord Protector, spurred by his ambitious brother Konstans. Jarl Isarn likewise seeks this power; he is aided – or thwarted – by the return of his brother, the knight and war hero Athelstan, whose squire, Brand, hopes to restore his family’s fortunes, cost what it may. Through all of this, an enigmatic traveller makes plans with jarls, scribes, and priests for his own purpose. Abroad, powerful forces sense division in the realms of Adalmearc and make their own plans. It is only a matter of time before schemes clash, plots collide, and conflict erupts. War is on the horizon.

Story updates every Wednesday. The first, second and third book can be downloaded as ebooks from my site, where a map of the world or of Middanhal can be viewed. The site also contains other background information such as history of the realms, pantheon and religion, calendar etc.

WELCOME TO THE RETROFUTURE!

The Future That Never Was is an extended universe where Mars was terraformed before the Beatles sang Penny Lane, the Soviets colonized the asteroid belt and pirates plundered the rings of Saturn. In this alternate space age, humankind couldn't dream of a brighter future. Alas, the minute Earth turned into a nuclear wasteland, shadows already conspired from the heart of the Moon to the mysterious Planet Nine—and maybe beyond...

The book series includes numerous R-rated titles. All of them will be uploaded on Royal Road. Check the Index or the list below for the main stories.

🐈  KITTY KITTY - START READING

Join sassy space cat Lee and his Desert Eagle-toting, soda-swigging human partner, Ali, in a future stuck in the late 80s/early 90s. Board the dynamic duo’s ship, the mythical Kitty, as they bounty-hunt their way through a dystopian solar system—so lock and load, and shout Cowabunga! because it’s crime-fightin’ time! 

🪐  PACHINKO BLUES - Fall 2022 - LEARN MORE

Amid the chaos of the Rings Civil War, a disgraced pilot called Miles finds itself tangled in a vast vendetta involving a Lunar corporation, android mercenaries and data-cartels. From Saturn’s Plastic Fields to the fringes of Kuiper, Miles’s violent redemption is an 80s-esthetic space western filled with tears, blood and... ducks?

Other stories related to the first arc of The Future That Never Was:

• RADIO FREAK - Standalone biopunk short story featuring Ali Koviràn, the Data Maiden and Bill Murray

• STELLAR PATRIOTS - Special episodes with Braun Kamirov, linking KITTY KITTY to the upcoming DATA dilogy and CYBER MACHO

• DATA ONE & DATA ZERO - 2023

• CYBER MACHO - TBA

Do you want to support our work or simply read in better condition? Visit our amazon shop and Patreon!

I do not consent, nor give permission for any website to repost this work. If you find this work on any other website not posted by my username (Vera Anne Wolf) please send the link my way. This is an abuse of my rights as the author and creator and I will be reporting all such websites via Google’s DCMA. Including this notice for those websites that think “it's okay to post, but we’ll take it down if the author asks us to”. IT IS NOT OKAY.

**WARNING: The following story contains DARK, TRAUMATIZING elements that may not be appropriate for young viewers or those who struggle from traumatizing events. If you're not good with mature content, regardless of your age, this story is not for you. You have been warned. It's nowhere near as bad as GOT but it has dark shit. Again, you have been WARNED. Plenty of other less dark webnovels to safely read. **

**Additional Warning: A minimal amount of LGBT content is included in this story. There is no TAG for this so I'm including it here. If that makes you uncomfortable, go ahead and give it a pass. **

Previously titled: A Maiden's Frozen Heart.

An Isekai, Fantasy Regency, Thriller with Witches, Gods, and plenty of Drama and Betrayal.

{Book 1: A Den of Wolves} 

What if you knew the future? But what if that future was not yours?

After a gruesome death, Carina was reborn in Lafeara as Lady Maura, the unwanted “half-blood” of an impoverished noble family. The previous Lady Maura was publicly executed as part of a conspiracy to conceal the murder of Queen Eleanora.

With Maura’s memories to guide her, Carina prepares to follow her predecessor’s path into the palace as part of the Selection to become Crown Princess Eleanora’s lady-in-waiting. Her meticulous years of planning and preparation to ensure her survival, fulfill Maura’s revenge, and avert the oncoming Calamity will require every ounce of courage, cunning, and intellect she can muster.

Because Carina has more than one secret which she can not reveal—her true identity among them—but even more treacherous is her frozen heart and the ice magic that comes with it.

After all, they still burn witches in Lafeara.

{Book 2: A Coven of Crows} 

The problem with changing the past is that the future changes with it.

Although Carina survived the Selection and earned a place in the palace beside the Crown Princess, her battle to change the future and protect Lady Hana, the future Queen’s favored lady-in-waiting, is far from over.

As Carina becomes further entwined in the hidden witch covens of Lafeara, their history and magic unravel a dangerous secret long forgotten by most. It is not just Maura’s memories that threaten to shift the balance of Carina’s carefully laid plains but her own forgotten past as well.

And the more mysteries Carina uncovers, the fewer allies she finds standing on her side. Everyone wants something, but the most dangerous players in this game of mortals and witches are the gods themselves, who have their own sordid plans for Carina’s frozen heart.

{Book 3: A Plague of Witches} 

As the annual Royal Hunt approaches, so too does the first signs of the devastating plague Carina foresaw in Maura’s memories. The once lady-in-waiting to the Crown Princess now finds herself in a far better position to steer Lafeara’s future. As allies become enemies and old enemies form alliances for survival, Carina finds herself pulled into the shifting political struggle between Lafeara’s powerful nobles and secret witch covens.

But there is still a chance that Carina and Hana might just make it through the oncoming calamity—that is, if the future doesn’t shift too far from the previous timeline. As the Duchess of Winter dons her armor and prepares for the Crown Prince’s coronation, another attempted assassination, a witch-born plague, and the approaching forces of Pope Jericho and his Witch Hunters, only one thing is certain.

The gods themselves are pulling the strings of fate to force the future Carina has fought so hard to change back towards its inevitable conclusion. Now Carina, like Maura, must face the chains of her own mortality—or completely break free.

Even for a half-blood blessed/cursed with the immortal heart of a god, power comes at a cost.

A puzzling encounter leaves Dimitry a beggar with a strange emblem on his wrist. Around him, people suffer as ruthless organizations, opportunistic nobles, and an overly pious church vie for power in a medieval land under constant siege by stone monstrosities rampaging from the coasts.

Can a kindhearted surgeon aid this ailing world with modern knowledge, resourcefulness, and magic? Or will rival powers crush Dimitry first?

A fiction that starts brutally grim and eventually transitions into technology uplift with a focus on science, magitech, and town building.

Warning: Technical terms abound.

Cover art by AbsolutePower.

Revised version now available! Amazon paperback, ebook, audiobook, Kobo, B&N, Google

In the war-torn land of Cyraveil, four heroes strove to overthrow an empire. By cold steel and elemental sorcery, they brought peace to a warring land on the brink of destruction. As the flames died, the realm needed strong leadership, and who better than the champions who had saved the kingdom? But when the people sought out their saviors... they vanished.

Matt, Blake, Jen, and Carl: the four mysterious companions, who together had deposed an insane ruler and saved countless lives, were gone—spirited back in a whirlwind of magic to a sleepy suburb in Mellbridge, Oregon, never to return. The friends found themselves home in the real world, exactly as they'd been the night they were taken, as if no time had passed... except only three came back.

Hi there! This was my entry for National Novel Writing Month, because why only write one series at a time? The more the merrier! (meanwhile, my keyboard bursts into flames...)

I'm also the writer of The Last Science, an ongoing low-fantasy/speculative sci-fi series. If you're familiar with that, you know what to expect here: lots of character-focused drama and dialogue, not a whole lot of traditional action. However, I'm writing a bit differently than usual here, and in a very different structure, so there should be some surprises for returning readers. I hope you enjoy it!

 [Discord] — for those of you who want to hang out and chat.

Cover art (fullsize): Path of Revelation, by taenaron (Tobias Roetsch), modified by Etzoli. Normally I like to do my own cover art from scratch, but I was in a rush for the contest. Might be replaced down the line if I get time.

[winner of the NaNoWriMo Royal Road 2018 challenge—Most Favorites]

>Read the updated version HERE!<

The land is conquered.

A thief and a demon killer run afoul of its new overlord and the wizard that serves him. Now the wizard seeks his life's ambition, an artifact that will make his word law. Hearing this, the demon killer and thief begin to have ambitions of their own. The race is on for who will reach the artifact first, and an entire barbarian horde is in the running.

Yet the prize lies within the Forest of Giants, grown from the corpse of an empire. 

There are tales of things that stalk the trees. Tales of those that hunger endlessly. Tales of those that feast on human flesh.

Tales of ogres.

A fast paced, dark fantasy adventure!

 Complete.

All stories and characters - including The Ogre's Pendant and The Rat in the Pit - written by Traitorman are created by and are the intellectual property of J.M. Clarke

Life is rough. Jobs are non-existent. And far too many people live in poverty in the real world and can only find work online in VR worlds. And it's getting worse. The old internet is unusable and hacked to pieces. The new system needs AI to run things, but most of them are destroyed. Now everyone is scrambling to get into the GENESIS ENGINE, as it becomes the new global market place

Everyone wants a piece of the new game. The guilds are competing to be the first to find the dungeons and kill the biggest monster. The corporations are claiming land and putting in their online market places. Ozzy and his friends just want a paycheck.

Four friends find they are locked into five year contracts as virtual serfs in a small village, and can't go adventuring at all to gain money and buy their way to freedom. They don't have many choices. They can work as a blacksmith, barmaid and shepherd for all those years....or they can cheat and find ways they can take advantage of the system.

When they give you a mop and not a sword, you have to find the loopholes and change the rules.

This Used to be About Dungeons is a comfy slice-of-life adventuring story that occasionally features dungeons. Updates Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Mostly it's about walking in the woods with a friend, looking for mushrooms to put in your soup, or haggling with the guy selling squash, or taking care of a neglected garden. It's putting some jam on shortbread biscuits. And yes, sometimes you go down into the dungeons with your friends, and you kill monsters there, or disarm traps, but when you come out, you realize you've found the perfect magic item to give to one of the local kids that helped you out when your cat was sick. Look, the dungeons are always going to be there, and sometimes you need to make a journey to one of the Spirit Gates, or make a pilgrimage with the local Cleric of Symmetry to a holy shrine. Your tour through the local dungeons can wait. You'll have rivalries with other groups, and find some dungeon eggs that need to be carefully incubated in case they turn out to be something valuable, and help a friend to build a fishing weir. There's a big world out there, a mostly tame place with lots of magic, and even more to do and see. Join me, won't you?

The cover image is Morning Sunlight Effect, Eragny, by Camille Pissarro.

At the District One Invitational, a rookie eSports team defied all odds and reached the finals. Their underdog story and humble beginnings elevated them to worldwide acclaim. Media corporations dubbed them, The Paragons. With their main competition eliminated from the tournament during the semifinals, the rookie team sailed through the live finals and won by a landslide. Their prize was to become the first ever players in the most exclusive VR game yet, Abidden. 

The Paragons never celebrated that semi-final victory. They lost a friend in that match, who never appeared online again. Ten years later, the gaming landscape has changed and Abidden with it. Helena is the last remaining Paragon. Her team now consists of celebrities, influencers and musicians. Abidden has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory, but is the most streamed and viewed game in the world, despite having only a handful of players.

None of this matters to James Sylvester. Finally out of hospital, things aren't good for James. He's found himself crippled with medical debt, his gaming licence has been revoked and he's permanently lost his place in society. He now spends his days competing in illegal slum arcades to manage the repayments. When a high-profile job comes along, James gets temporary backdoor access to his blacklisted gaming account. After reactivating it for the first time in ten years, James receives an invitation that could change his life forever.

Disclaimer: This story is in no way or form associated with the works of George R. R. Martin and has no link to the popularised series, Wild Cards. This is a LitRPG story of my own creation that shares that name.   

Arael is an otherworldly being from the upper plane, a place similar to Heaven, full of Light. He now dwells on Earth, touched by Darkness, unable to return. When he rescues Sariel, an innocent angel from the clutches of Dark mages, he is no longer alone for the first time in centuries, but knows that he must return her home before she is also stranded on Earth.

The question is, does she wish to go?

(Pure fantasy romance)

- Cover art credit goes to Cassandra DenHartog (www.cassandradenhartog.com)

Valor and Violence is a series of short stories following different, yet all equally colourful, characters set in the same world.

Birth of a Legend, the first short, follows Captain Erskine Erwell, a newly promoted Captain in the Calandorian Royal Navy, charged with protecting his people from all who would do them harm. Great news for the Calandorian citizens, bad news for the Skjar reavers that ravage the shores in search of slaves. But when a small reaver fleet slips the net and escapes to the southern jungles of Marduk, Erwell must fight a war on two fronts; one against the raiders, and a far more difficult war against the hostile landscape. If he can't find allies in this strange land, he may end up being the one in need of saving. 

Story two, The Calling, follows Ferez Ahud, an aspiring young battlemage charged with the unsavoury job of 'terminating' a rogue member of his college. But how this nobody of a mage became a fugitive remains a mystery, and when the answer is discovered, the tables are turned and the hunter becomes the prey.

The coming story follows a young woman named Elizabeth. She's a simple young gal; sweet, charming, and with a heart of gold. She loves her family, she loves fun, and she loves making things and people explode! Watch her work in A Family Dissassemblance, uploads of the six part story will be weekly commencing on the 23rd of July!

Content Guidelines: course language and violence.  

QUICK PSA: I'm gonna be 'out of the office' for a few weeks soon. Chapters have been scheduled for upload so there won't be a disruption to Elizabeth's ongoing story, but if you leave a comment or send me a message, please don't be offended when I don't reply immediately. I'll get back to everyone as soon as I can when I'm back on deck!

Eight Thousand Years after the Glassing of Earth, Terran Descent Humanity has largely become a post-scarcity society based on consent and enjoying life. With the discovery of another ancient race beyond the "Great Gulf", events and history collide to draw the Terran Confederacy into war against a hundred million year old empire that has always won and believes it always will. With allies and enemies of multiple species, the Orion Galactic Arm Spur will be wracked by warfare the likes of which have not been seen. Cracked, harried, wounded, and damaged, Terran Descent Humanity willfully throws itself against the universe itself.

"The universe hates you and will take away everything you love, laughing while it does so." - Terran belief.

A wiki is available (although under construction) at: https://fcgestalt.fandom.com/wiki/First_Contact_Gestalt_Archive_Wiki

Told largely from the viewpoint of other species, the story is currently ongoing. It involves graphic depictions of violence, war, adult language and situations, drug use, and other mature topics.

The story will be updated on weekdays, so keep an eye on this page for more chapters.

The story is 700+ chapters, and repeating characters do not start appearing until the Vuxten chapters. If you're in a hurry for repeating characters then this story will not be enjoyable to you. The interwoven plot is not based on a single person but the entire war, with its effects upon multiple people.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge for April 2022]