Don't Cultivate

gdlizy | tragedy | Complete

A man who accomplished his promise, who also failed. A man who forgot his purpose, who also remembered. A man who sowed, who also reaped. This is the story about the tragedy caused by the flow of Time.

0.58 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 17:49

Black Tears

Airam Zenemijil | tragedy | Complete

Senza is an assassin who is mentoring a young girl to become his successor by the time he dies. Khali is a teenage girl who is raised since birth to become worthy to inherit her master's name.

6.92 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 17:53

To Forge a New Dawn

vsphelix | tragedy | Complete

Rot festers beneath a nation's glory, unheeded by those who rule. In the humble halls of the Archives, one scribe cannot stay silent in the face of corruption. One spark ignites the flame that will consume the world. As the scribe unites an army to topple an empire, he gains followers whose loyalty and ambition will outlast his own. This is a tale not only of ascension, but of the order and turmoil that flourish in the wake of a revolutionary. Five paths intersect under the scribe's vision of a new order, driving the ebb and flow of power throughout the land. Ver. 20221222. Cover art by Fuyu Dust.

55.97 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 12:46

ONCE

Andre Forbay | tragedy | Complete

A teenage boy retreats into a fantasy world with his idea of the perfect girlfriend when his family starts falling apart.

13.36 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 11:12

Sparrow's Flight

NotALawyer | tragedy | Complete

An experimental slice-of-life, low-fantasy creation with the narrative revealed through single moments of time, crystallised into hyper-sensory reality fragments of perfect clarity.

1.56 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 17:53

Never to return

The Last Tavern Open | tragedy | Complete

I wrote this piece after listening to a song by Deep Forest called Sweet Lullaby Ambient Mix (1992 version)It might be worth looking it up and having a listen to the song before reading...or not.I felt it and wrote it. I hope you enjoy it.

0.12 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 17:50

Kid Amnesia

Maiku_Senpai | tragedy | Complete

Just a short Radiohead story I made about the Kid A and Amnesiac universe...

0.32 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-25 17:50

Nothing Beside Remains

WhiteRose-BlueSpace | tragedy | Complete

Time takes everything. Nothing can beat it, nothing can change it, entropy will always take its course but there are always those who try to resist it, to try and immortalise themselves in one way or another. There is never a question of whether they will succeed, but of how many will be dragged down in the attempt and just how long it will take for time to wipe the slate clean. For there is no such thing as immortality. [Joint 4th runner up in the January 2024 RR Community Magazine Contestant "Immortality is a Myth" with also the highest prompt adherence score]

4.47 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 15:05

Cages

Shanidar Man 8 | tragedy | Complete

Stuart, a capuchin monkey, longs for the jungle. The iron bars of his cage sap his sanity day by day. The other animals around him have already slipped away, caught in their own misattributed hopes. But, when escape becomes possible, does the jungle grow closer or farther away? In this story inspired by the horrors of the primate pet trade, Stuart searches for solace amongst the madness.

2.69 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-22 17:47

Flowers Rain Upon Them (Tragic High Fantasy)

Lack of Poochline | tragedy | Complete

Terus doesn't exist. He breathes, speaks, and walks. He learns. He thinks. Yet he is not. Dreamed to life by a slumbering dragon, Terus and the rest of Cirruin's dreams inhabit Ludlun, a settlement that shares their nature. They exist solely for the old dragon to destroy the town and revive his glory days, again and again. Yet, one day, an unusual man arrives to the town, igniting Terus' desire to know more about the people that "move like pebbles rolling down a hillside", leading him to venture outside of the dream-town and into a city that couldn't be more real. In this city, he will try to become a bit more like the man he is supposed to incarnate and less like the dragon that dreams about him. This, of course, without forgetting that he should always care not to turn Cirruin's dreams into nightmares, and that the dreams of a dragon's dream are a dragon's dream all the same...[This fiction participates in the Royal Road Writathon challenge of April, 2023] (A milliard thanks to DragonOfRochester for the new cover! The aforementioned created the typography and applied it to a base image made with the Midjourney software.)

30.30 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-04-02 15:05

Winds Of Fate

Sosin | tragedy | Complete

Wind brushes against our will and pushes us in the direction it travels. Most people control the flow of its current, even if it stems from the eye of a hurricane. As for the rest of us, we grew tired of trying.  Edited by RedPandaChickAlso posted on Scribble Hub, Neovel, and Webnovel

0.95 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 13:51

Caledon's Fall

TG Parsons | tragedy | Complete

Caledon was in ruins. The dukedom had fallen, pillaged by its enemies and the incompetence of the former Duke. Kal, inheriting a world left in shambles, struggles to regain what was lost. To return to the halcyon days of his past. Artwork by Tan Ho Sim www.Patreon.com/TGParsons for additionalcontent.

164.14 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 17:55

Continue Online

FrustratedEgo | tragedy | Complete

Follow Grant Legate's trials and tribulations through:Memories, Made, Realities, Crash, Together. Memories: A man broken by despair and depression, Grant Legate finds himself in a once-in-a-lifetime situation after receiving an Ultimate Edition copy of Continue Online. All hewishes foris a distraction from the thoughts plaguing his waking hours. He dives in headfirst, unknowing of the AIs intentions. They offer him the chance to play as one of their own, a NPC deserving of a proper send off. What he discovers during the journey shakes Grant to his very core. Made: No longer playing as a Local from the world of Continue Online, Grant Legate's adventure can begin.The Voices offer him a unique title along with a test and reward.To starthe'll have to survive underground horrors, old girlfriends, become a warrior.To winhe must become an imp familiar and kill another player, one with a dozen tricks up his sleeve. Realities: Worried for his sanity after poor in-game choices, Grant Legate's sister, Liz, blocks access to Continue Online. With no way around the restriction, he ventures into a new worlda VRMMO game based in spacecalled Advance Online. There he must help his companion AI, Hal Pal, overcome an identity crisis, race to the center of the universe to bring back his true love, and figure out where he stands on the scariest implication of all; AIs are bringing the dead to life. Crash: Grant's prior adventures tie together and he finds himself back in Continue Online, as Hermesin jail. He's forced to experience life as a digital convict and earn redemption points to gain his freedom. Each in-game death pushes his goal of helping his friends out of reach. The AIs Grant's grown to love, trustand sometimes fearare facing extinction, he holds the key to their survival. Together: The game is no longer about adventures in a new world or exploring fantasy lands. Grant's digital wife faces deletion, along with everyone else he cares for. He, and those who know this is more than a game event, search for clues to salvation left behind by the game's creators. Even if he finds them all, the Voices have one last task for their messenger. A sacrifice.

380.09 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:22

Respawn Condition: Trash Mob

Razzmatazz | tragedy | Complete

[Every time I die, I respawn as a trash-mob at the very bottom of the dungeon. It's a rather troublesome existence, but honestly, I think I've managed to adapt, guy.] A lost soul is trapped at the bottom of what may be the world's deepest and darkest dungeon, constantly being reborn into the bodies of new monsters over and over again after every time it is forced to fight and die against the human incursion into the underbelly of the world, which is led by the unbeatable hero-party' who has never lost a single fight. However, unlike all of its other monster brethren, who suffer the same fate, this unnamed soul alone seems to remember each and every lost life and also each death in excruciating, painful detail. After an eternity of this cycle of violent reincarnation, something changes. The soul discovers a secret passage that it has never seen or heard of before in all of its hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Making a desperate bid to fight against the crushing weight of continual death, it pushes out through this new way, climbing up to a higher floor of the dungeon for the first time, fostering hopes of an escape from this torture as it navigates the dungeon from the bottom up, using trickery, guile, and the capabilities of many wildly different bodies and repeating timelines to outsmart the dominating hero-party and the dungeon itself, which seems all too unwilling to let this trapped soul escape from its belly, deep in the underworld. What is the secret of the dungeon and the forced cycle of reincarnation? Will the soul be able to break free from this arduous, slow grind that is existence, or will it be crushed into madness from the pressure finally beginning to break its fragile mind? Find out in this ultra slow burning, litRPG inspired fantasy novel by renowned dark fantasy author D.M. Rhodes!

235.73 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-27 18:15

Seeker

sarvashaktimaan | tragedy | Complete

This is an older story which I do not think is up to my current writing abilities. Read at your own risk. The Gods are dead As they bled dry, so did the magic which gave them birth. In the new era of technology, its pathetic remnants must hide in the shadows or be locked away. In the ancient era of magic two beings often stood out: Galileo, an immortal scholar obsessed with knowledge and Angelica, the most loyal servant of the greatest among the now dead Gods. But why are they worthy of mention? Because after millennia of isolation, the two emerge in the new world beyond their reckoning. The entire story is told from the third person, however, each chapter will be told from the perspective of only one of the characters. This will be signified by the first letter of their names after the chapter number to avoid confusion. I submitted this fiction as a[participant in theRoyal RoadWritathon challenge] as well as a participant in National Novel Writing Month. The original challenge had been to finish this entire faction within the month of November reaching the 55.5k word minimum. This goal had been achieved. I do not own the cover picture

33.88 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-13 16:06

Sprig

hueyhare | tragedy | Complete

A seed of hope in a world of hate War rages as land runs out. Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and other races fight for control of the limited space they have. When a land mass suddenly appears out of nowhere, people flock to it, only to be caught up in its mysteries. Kaia, one of the last living members of the Treek race, heads to the new land to find others like herself and escape the war that surrounds her. With conflict at her back, and untamed wilderness ahead, she and the companions she makes discover the truths of the new land and themselves. Sprig was completed in November of 2022 and is now also available in Paperback, Hardcover, and eBook.

168.84 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:40

Rakshasha's Heart - Prologue

Erykon | tragedy | Complete

Adventurers - They posses immense strength and courage, as they delve into mysterious dungeons and ancient ruins. They pioneer unexplored lands, and defeat mythical creatures. When the world awaits its destruction by evil, they step forth to vanquish it. Or do they? A hunter boy from the countryside has a cynical view of adventurers contrary to normal beliefs. When destiny takes a turn for the worse, what choices will he make, after his hidden potential bursts forth?

42.46 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:31

New Game (Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord, Book 1)

TitusGM | tragedy | Complete

Portal Fantasy. Isekai. A daydream of nerds everywhere, leaving behind their boring world and living in a fantasy one that is full of adventure. A daydream that became a reality for me and 1000 other Comic-Con attendees. Except for me, it was more of a nightmare. Wanting nothing more than to find a way home, and also saddled with being the world's new [Demon Lord], I found myself trapped in a gamelike world and also somehow a part of the [Hero's] party. So join me as I tell the tale of my struggles. A tale of levels and skills. A tale of cagey game admins and bugs. And a tale of our party's grand quest to defeat... Well... Me. ---- What to expect from this book? 1. A main character who is not overpowered (and instead has to go fromnear-useless to strong. Not just weak to strong). If you are looking for an OP [Demon Lord] who laughs at his weakling enemies... This isn't for you. 2. A meandering pace as the characters aren't told how a lot of the world works and have to figure it out themselves. (And because there are a lot of characters. Whose idea was it to have a party of 9? I blame Jake) 3. A tragedy. A lot of things arenot going to go well for the protagonist. (Not that everything is tragedy all the time. There is humor, laughter, friendship, and even a mascot monster character who got way more popular than I expected. But this is not a story that will leave you uplifted and inspired after every time you read it). ---- Release Schedule and publishing information: Book 1 is complete! I will include a link to book 2 once it has been started. Feel free to give feedback, positive or negative. ---- Other notes Book 1? Yes, this says Book 1. There are probably going to be 3 books. No, the plot as you can guess is not going to be tortured to drag out all the way to book 3. That would be ridiculous. If you can guess the plot of books 2 or 3 at any point before the last chapter of book 1, please use your clairvoyant powers for something more productive. TitusGM? This story is intentionally told under the username TitusGM because the idea is that he was the one actually writing everything down what happened after it all is over. I initially planned to answer everything in character on this site, but that just really didn't work out. If you want an in character response to a comment, simply prefix it with IC: (I also try to leave that as a reminder in the author's note after each new chapter) Cover art? Made by a friend who shall remain nameless at this time by his request

212.00 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:40

Flight of Icarus

DarkSun | tragedy | Complete

Most stories are about accidental heroes, people who save the world without even meaning to, but not this one. There was once a person with a name Kirin. He was tired of people looking at him with admiration and trying to win his favour. He hated them for making him act nicely all the time and testing his patience every day. So, when he finally got the newly come out game called Regal Dream, he entered without a dream to become the strongest of them all. He didn't want a legend shared with many. He wanted one of his own.

307.76 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:46

Another Day

vagen | tragedy | Complete

New day shall come, again and again. Some will see it, some won't. And that is what I have been telling myself for quite some time... One more day. Just one more day. 18+ Extreme profanity, violence and gore. Size of chapters grow a 'bit'. [Chapter 4 - 2000 words.] [Chapter 20 - 15000 words.] This project was caused by huge amount of fantasy stories I have read on royalroad, and the issues I had, and still have with them. Don't like, make your own. Right? Anyway, please read the tags carefully, each one of them is there for a reason. This is my first story so don't expect too much.

175.07 Ten thousand words | Updated at 2024-03-29 15:45