
by korifantasy1919
Fifty years ago, a great evil rose to consume the world. The prophecy spoke of legendary heroes summoned to save humanity. They gathered, they fought... and they died horribly. The world stayed shit. Today, the sky is permanently dark, monsters roam the ash-choked ruins, and nobody is coming to save you. Enter a group of mismatched outcasts just trying to scrape together enough coin to survive another day. They aren't the chosen ones. They are flawed, cynical, and pushed to their absolute psychological and physical limits. But in a world this broken, finding something worth fighting for might be the most dangerous thing they can do. From a paladin fighting to hold onto his holy vows to a volatile witch who becomes his anchor; from a paranoid rogue who trusts absolutely no one to the noble-born ranger who slowly steals his heart—this is their story. They start as strangers forced together by circumstance. They grow into a found family, finding love and loyalty in the darkest corners of the earth. But in a world where actions have brutal, permanent consequences, not everyone makes it out alive. 🟢 SERIES STATUS: BOOK 1: Fully Complete! (Perfect for binging)BOOK 2: Actively Releasing Now! ⚔️ WHAT TO EXPECT: Multi-POV Ensemble Cast: Every character gets their own chunk of main character energy. No single hero carries the plot.High Emotional Stakes & Real Consequences: Genuine, slow-burn romance forged in the fires of survival, contrasted by the constant threat of tragic, permanent death. No plot armor.Grimdark High Fantasy: Born from the gritty, unforgiving aftermath of a failed fantasy campaign. Actions have weight, Based on a dnd campaign that failed. And so full of spite I wrote this, with a few tweaks!
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 4 Oct 2026, 18:58 UTC
Entry forecast updated 4 Oct 2026, 18:58 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: Romance → Drama → Adventure → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Romance (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
#10528 of 12,437 · 10478 below RS #50
By genre
beats 18% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 22% 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.