
by James_Gaffy
In a world where evidence of his god’s existence orbits the planet in the form of a cosmic sheet, 18-year-old Mark Weeder, the son of a missing explorer, has never questioned his faith. That is until he is attacked one night by a damning abomination, branded as ‘inefficient’, and sentenced to death by his theocratic government. In his first act of blasphemy, Mark escapes his execution, desperate to find a way to clear his name. As he sneaks across the country to reach his grandfather’s home in the capital, he begins to notice the contradictions in his people’s dogma. Outside the capital, Mark saves a fellow inefficient named Ben Cooper, a man with a mysterious past and a kind smile, and the two agree to travel together. A budding relationship forms, but both are forced to hide their feelings and their faces for fear of persecution and execution. When Mark and Ben are recaptured by the daughter of a powerful executive in need of henchmen, they are given an offer for freedom: complete Mark’s father’s impossible expedition to the north pole or die trying. With his trust in his god failing, Mark must decide between reintegrating into a fanatical society or revolting against everything he knows.
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, 08:09 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 08:09 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
4%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Sci-fi → Romance → Action → Adventure → Main.
Leading bundle: Sci-fi (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
#7946 of 12,176 · 7896 below RS #50
By genre
beats 18% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 17% 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 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.