
by Merchant Of Ashes
I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by Sol with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Dominion over lessers, and the pursuit of wealth. -The First Obelisk. In a world of generational debt slavery, where people are treated as commodities and traded like cattle between thirsting Oligarchs, one of their slaves has committed the most unforgivable of all sins. He said no. Unbeknownst to him, this small act of blasphemy will have far more consequences than mere imprisonment and death If he is caught. For Finric is no ordinary slave. Forces both known and unknown want him for their own goals, whether that be money, revenge, twisted love, or some other dark purpose. The race to capture him will set in motion a chain of events that will reignite the fires of war that have long bubbled just beneath the surface of the plane. This is the story of the Seventh Lattice. Ashes and Embers. WHAT TO EXPECT: - Multiple POV characters, each with an important part to play. - Hard Sci-Fi, with fantasy elements, with a world that is internally consistent, and follows specific rules. -No harem, and only the slightest hint of romance. -No lit RPG elements. -Dense, with little to no filler. -AIRSHIP BATTLES WITH RALGUNS -Somewhat consistent uploads every 3 days, with chapters ranging from 3k to 7k words. Cover art provided by Filipe Pinto, Link here for more information. No AI was used in the creation of any part of this work.
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, 06:28 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 06:28 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
33%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Sci-fi → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Sci-fi (31%).
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
#9497 of 12,157 · 9447 below RS #50
By genre
beats 99% of similar stories
beats 13% of similar stories
beats 13% 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 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.