7780, or: Children of a White Rider

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

As one war ends, another begins.

The year Fastidious: 7780 marks deteriorating relations between the Siralians, devout sailors of the Ordos Canticula, and the Ardalians, matchless fire mages ruling neverending farmlands. In the shadows, Ardalian rebels successfully unlock an ancient magical gate. Their desire? A soldier, immutable, unstoppable, and enslaved.

Eli Stuart and his fiancee Patricia Secord find themselves thrown into a strange world. Trapped in a land of hostile magic and alien politics, the two of them must use their newfound powers to make alliances, stop their enemies, and ultimately reunite.

However, something goes wrong. In this chaos, as the world begins to unravel in foul ways, something else stirs.

Something else found its way through.

Author's Note:I will update this story as often as I can. I am quite busy and write this during breaks at work. This is one of those goon-squad stories with a million characters, so "dizzying" might be a good way to describe the energy.

Much of what builds up to the first arc happens in thefirst ten chapters, which are quite long. For that reason, if you have difficulty getting through the story, I understand, though things don't really start happening until Chapter 8-10.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: fknmz

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 33
Views: 17,594

Chapters(28 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

A V DalcourtRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I went in blind and found another fantastic fantasy to add to my list of on-going fiction.
Story: Eli is pulled into a world of war and magic where he is rapidly enslaved and stripped of his free will at a moment’s noticed to serve as a killing machine to a Princess who claims that her uncle (could have been her brother) usurped the Queen throne and that she's only trying to end a war - by any means necessary. Eli is reluctant to aid the deceitful duo, but when he learns that his fiancé Pat may have been pulled into this cruel world with him, he has little choice but to comply.
Grammar: nothing I noticed.
Style: fluidly detailed but not overbearing, that paints a beautiful yet harsh landscape. I find the pacing, prose, and story over all suits my tastes and expectation of a dark fantasy.
Character: There are a lot of names to remember and a lot of characters are introduced in the first 4 chapters. I remember a few names (but that's a me thing), but most of the characters I remember who they are within a few words of meeting them again - which is a good thing because I have gone whole chapters in other books where I was like 'who's this fool?'. I don't get that here. If I'm going to criticize anything it's that some of the same feel a smidge samey-same, leading to some character confusion as to who is who, but again that could be me - names and faces were never my strong suit.
Overall, well worth reading and I'm going to keep up with this one for the long haul. I look forward to seeing what this writer accomplishes with their work.
JMWebbRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Since I am a fan of fknmz's reviews, I'm going to do my best to imitate them, but from a musicology and ethics perspective instead of cultural studies.
"What makes this right?"
This is the question Eli, ourain protagonist who has been isekai'd to a foreign world, asks the man who is tasked to train him. Like the rest of the people in the encampment he lives in, he is a thrall of Liassus, a powerfulage who has made him her slave.
A prevailing theme of the book is to ask the question "are any of these people good?" Lianus, the king, is awful. Liassus is awful. The bandits are appalling (although, less-so), the medicalers definitely don't heal just for the fun of it. This is not a clear book fully of happy sunshines and rainbows. It is a gray mess of uncomfortableness.
Perhaps Liassus's mission is noble, it's hard to say. But, I think her sword might actually serve as an apt metaphor for the conclusions this book is coming (slowly) to, regarding questions of ethics.
The blade is made of cancerous flesh. The sword is the most noble of weapons, but now it is covered in rot and woe. So, perhaps the larger goal, the whole picture, may represent something once noble. But now it has been sullied by ambition and desperation, a festering tumor on a once-good person.
The fact that all of her thralls have similar gem/tumor-lumps embedded into them to enthrall them, continues this theme. I expect this book to end up being a large critique of Utilitarianism. Or maybe I'm just reading it that way because I'm an artistotelian. Either way, I would say that an "means justifies the results" way of thinking is clearly what is at stake morally.
None of these people are virtuous, and perhaps it's not their fault. But one thing is clear is that the people with agency in this world don't care about it, and boy is it going to get dark.
A couple things regarding style: the short perspective jumps in the middle of the chapters were a little jarring. Less of those please. The learning curve of
Andromeda's PrinceRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Story
7780 is a rather grimdark fantasy that pulls the reader into a story about war, exploitation, slavery, and consent. Note, and truly consider this: the story is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. It is well written, incredibly dark, and yet engrossing at the same time. Likewise, if you like seeing politics in action… this story delivers that in spades.
Grammar:
I have very few complaints on this part, everything hits the grammatically correct notes.
Style:
The story's style makes for a rather immersive tale. We get to watch the world in which our protagonist, Eli, is transported into and we see everything unfold. Though a slow burn, the manner in which the action is described makes for a rather graphic, and quite frankly beautiful, rendition of what warfare is like. These descriptions also give us an image of character appearance, and I get a sense of a world much like medieval Europe, but covered in even more shrouds than the actual period.
Very nice. As a history geek, I approve sevenfold.
Characters
Okay. I will say that Eli's reaction to his circumstances are on point and realistic. He is confused, befuddled and even afraid. Trying to keep morals in a dark world he barely knows is not exactly easy, but his efforts to do so are commendable, but the struggle of doing such is never underestimated in the narrative.
I will say, Liarus and Liassus, a prince and princess, truly have a darker ends-justify-the-means attitude toward their enemies. Long story short, they are absolutely ruthless. The narrative opens with Liassus using magic to take Eli as a thrall, a slave meant for battle, and my God… that princess brought chills down my spine. She is not to be messed with, and that is what I love about her. Her morals are highly questionable, and that is what makes her terrifying.
We have monarchs trying to keep the machines of their country still functioning, including the issue of a king nearing his deathbed. The issue of succession is not denied and well wr
Arthur-67Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall, I would say that the story is really good and while we are still 10-11 chapters in the story shows an incredible amount of promise.
Grammar- Spelling seemed perfect as did punctuation. I think I noticed maybe one issue of a missing word in the entire story so great job. Almost flawless work in these aspects.
Story- i do love the opening letter prologue. It feels a great way to introduce us to the world you have built here. From here the story is well written with wide use of imagery and descriptions throughout 'haunted place, a black mass hidden by long threads of ghastly silver. The rocks were sharp as blades, the ground wet and filthy, a mountain that seemed to melt into a network of swamp-like features the higher they went'.
There are some truly magnificent and well-crafted landscapes and descriptions. Eaay to imagine and pictured beautifully. Fantastic work here.
To say, there is a lot of descriptions in the story so, if that's not your thing keep i mind but it shouldn't be a reason to not read this story.
The appendix is another nice touch, we are introduced to a lot of people and places, the reminder is extremely useful in keeping track of where everyone is.
The style is probably the weakest area but that's not saying much given the story quality. While the tense and quality of the story were constant and well written, there is 1-2 very minor issues.
Some sentences feel like they could do with a little change for example ' A part of him tried to shout out, even bleakly, even weakly'. Maybe the 'even bleaky, even weakly' part is a little unnecessary. However this may be a style choice so if the author keeps it, it wouldn't stop me from reading the story.
There are a lot of povs changes throughout, which some may dislike but it does give an in depth look into the variety of characters.
Characters- There are a lot of characters in the story and they all get a fair amount of screen time, although they are all well written and interesting characters. It
BullerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So... the warnings were heard loud and clear. The story doesn't really start until chapters 8-10. Understandable, have a nice day, hope the neighbours are doing fine, nothing bad about it.
Still, I'm just gonna make a review about the first 5 chapters because that's what I read. As the warnings say, this is mostly just set-up on set-up. No real pay-offs felt. I am sure they will come later on but I haven't personally read it. Seems fine for what it is. Style is pretty decent regardless of content.
5/5 from here.
ElyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So, to start off; this story is basically exploring the concept of how a disease from our world would affect another. That's what I've gleaned from the story so far, and though it's interesting in its own right, that's also where it has its one major flaw.
Style: It's definitely passable and has a charm of its own, but it could be improved. Especially in the earlier chapters where there are multiple points of view in gigantic chapters, and it was hard to completely follow all the different POVs while learning about the world. There are also some instances where there are both dialogue tags and action beats, which makes the dialogue harder to get through, but that's majorly present in the earlier chapters. This score lowers by half another star because of a thing that could have been avoided. That thing is the extra chapters inbetween the regular chapters. They're interesting in their own right, but this early in the story, they detract more than they add. I as the reader am still trying to learn about and try to wrap my head around this new, immense world, and adding more information causes some confusion. Perhaps it could be a choice to create a new fiction with a compendium which holds these extra chapters and tidbits?
Grammar: Some small typos here and there, but nothing major from what I could hear/see. More in later chapters, but very few overall. I'm not a native speaker either, though, so there are probably other people more capable than I to comment on this.
Character: Now, to the character score (switching the story to the end). The characters feel very fleshed out with their own personalities, and I enjoy following them around. They're actually quite fantastic, and morally gray, which is something I really like. The reason I took it down half a star will tie in with the story score.
Story: The story is truly of a massive scope and it's clear that the world has been built with great passion, care, and an immense attention to detail. The characters are situa
ANCTRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall: An Iskai story that really explores the concept of living things being grants power for crossing worlds. It is a slow burn and there is a lot to process. I think the writer has the skill to pull off the story.
Style: The author's style of writting is quite smooth in description and action. I can't remember staggered on any of the narration.The one thing that bothered me was that the dialog is often stilted. The characters feel less alive than actors on a stage.
Grammar: There are a few issues, but easily ignorable.
Story: A wonderful world was created for the story to take place in. We are giving a lot of different perspectives on how the crisis in the world is effecting the entirety of it. I am hesitant to even say that there is a main character. Some may be unbothered by it, but I think in this case it goes beyond my comfort zone. We don't stay long enough with one character and worst the perspective jumps are often on the other side of the land. The story would be greatly improved by a stronger spine of one character's story.
Character: There are a lot of charcters. They have all been given interesting backgrounds. The personaities suffer from the dialog being a bit silted, but overall they are interesting.
In conclusion, interesting story and fun read. Only needs a few fixes to be amazing.
poopmanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Impeccable grammar, purple -leaning prose that underlines its otherworldliness, and a strangely matter-of-fact way to describe the magic of this world (perhaps to underline how magic has become a foundation to that world like fossil fuel is to us).
The premise has some great potential: what if an isekai main character brought the plague with him to a world of magic and wonder, like the Spanish to the Americans. Ten chapters in, and the purpose of the plague becomes clear: it is to bring doom upon this other world in order to shed light upon its intricate web of factions and characters.
And it is one that front that I sometimes find a little bit confusing. There are just way too many characters with names I can barely remember, crammed in too little space. 200-ish pages sounds a lot, but there is a lot of back story and character motivations criss-crossing with each other. I was particularly confused at the confrontation in the last lamsmeet(i forgot how to spell it already), sometimes losing track of which lord is which, which side were they taking and why. So, yeah, three cheers for the appendix.
That's the only bone I can find in a great story with even greater promises! I hope they get illustrations in the future so I have a better memory of them.
horizon108Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Disclaimer: I have only read until the end of chapter 4 - Irwin the Soft
Overall score: 4/5 - The author has mentioned that English is his 4th language but it doesn't show in his writing. The flow of the words is for the most part coherent and the story has a good blend between darkness and light.
Style score: 4/5 - The style is shifting from time to time with different pov's serving to introduce the people in the story who are often separated by distance and in some cases, time. It can use a little more polish to flow without a break but if you read carefully, you will not find much to complain about.
Story score: 4/5 - Usually, in most portal-fics, the one summoned is the hero who has the world handed to him/her on a platter. Not so in this case. A unique take on portal fic and magic, I think this has the potential to really develop into a good story.
Grammar score: 3.5/5 - I am not a grammatical expert and focus only on readability. However, as mentioned, there are places where the flow of the story breaks and as such, .5 stars have been knocked off. Spellings are immaculate and it is only the punctuation and tenses that require work.
Character score: 3.5/5 - I'm not particularly enthralled by Eli so far, but Liassus has been quite a favored character of mine since the beginning of the novel. Especially because she breaks the tropes that most women are confined to in these portal-fics, by which I mean that they are weak and unimportant. However, the opposite is the case here. Liassus is powerful, dominant, and independent. A heady mix of qualities that come together to create a good character.
Final verdict: A good read, an extremely good effort by the author, and something that I would recommend with the caveat that it requires careful reading to truly enjoy the novel.
Good luck to the author and happy reading to you, the reader!
Horizon
trianman67Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Very Intense. Get ready for a marathon. Lots of information. characters, and worldbuilding the story will expect you to understand. People who are fans of payoffs when it comes to understanding worldbuilding will have a good time.
Style: I would describe the style as "dense." Not as in, "a lot of words packed into a small amount of space," but the weight of every word and sentence is depending on the last few sentences that you might have just read. Every sentence seems to carry a weight of worldbuilding and story that tries to make sure you're paying attention to what's going on. So, if you miss what happened right before, you may feel completely lost. However, if you like being awarded for your attentiveness, this is the story for you. A different experience compared to the other stories on this website.
Grammar: Perfect, as far as I can tell. Whether or not you can tell what's going on, the sentence will at least always make sense, and you won't be confused by individual lines.
Characters: I think this will be the most divisive. I hope you don't get attached to the characters, or rather, the story will work to build up characters before it chews it up for the sake of the plot. Due to the intensity and pacing of the story and plot, you don't get much time to sit and spend time with the characters. Story and character motivations take precedent over interactions. Characters are very decisive in their actions, and this can be a split for some people. In some cases, characters can appear strong-willed, as you spend more time watching characters make decisions rather than watching them progress to those decisions. This can also make the characters feel incredibly wooden and subject to the whims of the plot. Whether you prefer this or not is up to you.
Story: On a scale of medical fantasy, I would say it's somewhere between "Game of Thrones," and "Lord of the Rings." Characters are very driven, and it's their decisions that drive most of the plot. There is an overarchi