by BrosKrynn
There was a time, many eons ago when barbarism and the sword ruled, a time of shadows and tragedy when the greatest of empires and kingdoms teetered on the brink of collapse. Into this age of savage infighting strode mighty Lachlan; prone to the greatest outbursts of passion… and melancholia. His was the mightiest of sword-arms among the races of Men, and the most ambitious of those to ever walk the shores of Ifriquya. Orissia once one of the two mightiest of Empires in the dreaming Occident, the dominant force in Ifriquya has faltered and is on the cusp of collapse. Who else to make her great once more, and restore her to her prior glory than the mightiest of the pirates and brigands to ever undermine her? A Prequel Anthology to our Empire of Shadows novel that stars Lachlan as the lead. This is the greatest Sword & Sorcery stories on Substack, now hereon Royal Road. Combo of Berserk and Orphen animes melded together.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 8 Oct 2026, 04:41 UTC
Entry forecast updated 8 Oct 2026, 04:41 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.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 61% of similar stories
not enough data yet
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 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
