
by Tim Verner
Shapeshifters were never gone from the Daahrian mountains. People just liked pretending they were. They can creep anywhere. Even into a royal family. And it looks like one actually did just that. The funniest part is he doesn't know it. He doesn't even know what he is. Not far south of the mountains, a mercenary realizes he has a problem with his Order. And with himself, as it turns out. And with an inner voice that sounds like someone else's for some reason. He needs answers. The shifter needs them too. Shame there's no one left to explain everything. The ancient gods are dead. The witches of Nath-Kadah hide in the dark alleys, careful not to draw the attention of the young lord of the Upper Lands. Understandably so. Still, monsters are stubborn things. They'll try to figure things out themselves. Maybe they'll manage—if they can learn how to work together. But that's exactly where the problem is. Monsters don't usually play nice. *** What to expect: • Character-driven dark fantasy with a bit of humor • Monsters, magic, and dead gods (eventually, not quite as dead as they seem) • Two very different protagonists who have to learn to work together • Mystery and slowly revealed identities • A complex world with legends, multiple POVs, and all that good stuff • Political intrigue • Good old fights with mercenaries, monsters, and demons (inner or otherwise) • A story about redemption, identity, and trying to be human (failing, but trying again) *** Book One: The Tower — COMPLETEBook Two: The Others — NOW UPDATING New chapters: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:49 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:49 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.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
2%
Two or more lists
0%
Likely threshold order: Action → Fantasy → Adventure → Main.
Leading bundle: Action (1%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#4839 of 12,148 · 4789 below RS #50
By genre
beats 99% of similar stories
beats 61% of similar stories
beats 28% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 50–149 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.