
by A Dreamer of Worlds
Lucas enters his academy’s tournament expecting nothing more than competition and pride. Instead, he meets rivals who speak in warnings, teammates who will shape his fate, and shadows of a past no one dares to name. When Lucas and four companions are quietly declared dead and sent beyond the kingdom’s borders, their journey becomes a descent into the forgotten corners of the world. Ruined cities, silent villages, skyborne nations, and drowned realms all bear the same marks — traces of ancient beings who no longer walk upon this world… or so the stories claim. As Lucas follows the fading trail of the elves, he uncovers remnants of a history that was never taught, a war that was never recorded, and a truth the Council has buried for generations. Something is stirring beneath the continents, something that has waited through centuries of silence, and its shadow reaches farther than any kingdom realizes. The deeper Lucas travels, the more the world begins to unravel — allies falter, loyalties fracture, and the line between myth and memory blurs. Every answer leads to another question, every victory reveals another lie, and every step draws him closer to a force that has been watching him since the day he first touched magic. Those who have faded have not faded. They are only waiting. And Lucas is walking straight into their design.
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, 02:38 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 02:38 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
22%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Mystery → Action → Adventure → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Mystery (21%).
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
#8065 of 12,418 · 8015 below RS #50
By genre
beats 94% of similar stories
beats 77% of similar stories
beats 39% of similar stories
Mid-pack, room on both levers
Traffic and conversion both sit mid-field for a story this size. Growth here compounds from consistency: steady cadence feeds traffic, and a sharper hook lifts what each view is worth.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.