
by firnament
[READ]: This book contains strong language and mentions of violence. Suitable for a 16+ demographic. The book cover is originally drawn by the author themselves, too. The debut installment of the HYDRA web novel series. With the passage of time, the empty seat of the Director of the Sombre Arts remains void of any of the art's successors sitting on it for years. Its recent possessor of both seat and title mysteriously vanished and was presumed dead due to extensive searches throughout the continent of Agmadoren with no leads. However, instances of chaos began appearing without reason throughout the entire nation of Galamona; the balance of natural law descended into madness, as if foul play was involved. Would our protagonist, a champion of the Maidens of Darkness, find the source of the blight that begins to seep its mayhem throughout the peaceful nation? Set in a fusion of a steampunk world filled with European-Asian inspirations, read more as you delve into this whimsical, fantasy web novel with political play, as well as an extremely detailed look at the various creatures, magic, and locations scattered in the Path of Cathedra.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 5 Oct 2026, 04:48 UTC
Entry forecast updated 5 Oct 2026, 04:48 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Rising Stars history is uncertain, so no precise projection is shown.
beats 33% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 5% of similar stories
Both levers trail the field
Traffic and conversion are both below comparable stories. Cadence is the first lever — stories posting near-daily reached 25 followers 17% of the time; stories posting every few days almost never did. Get the flow going, then re-check conversion.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.