Acacia Chronicle

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Elena de L'Enfer is a Lich, an eternal, ancient and bloodless fiend. Once an elven teenager, she is an immortal sorcerer ascended from the invocation of dark magics from another era, by the blessing of gods long dead to the world. She is now, like many before her, a Vizier of the Eye in service to her enigmatic (and sometimesverywhimsical) mistress, Nhaka Mezalune.

It is the duty of a Vizier of the Eye to do battle against the enemies of the Empire, be they humans, elves, or eldritch horrors far beyond even the darkest fathoms of the gods. That by her hand, the world of Melodia and the Empire of Arcadia might endure.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2019
Author: Kyshies

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.1/ 5.0
Followers: 578
Views: 192,440

Chapters(103 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

Camille d'irithylRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's a world of high dark fantasy. With dragons, elves, undead, slaves, cruelty, real deities, and an immortal protagonist who somehow manages to right the wrongs, and acts as a kind of light beam to dispel the darkness that roams in this world in which they live, and transform it into a better place.
Elena, however, despite being the main character, is not omnipresent on the screen, as we follow many different characters, in order to be able to explore the world. The story is somehow constructed as separate episodic sequences, even if they follow each other, but are autonomous. There is a very slice of life that is enjoyable and refreshing, but also intrigue and adventure.
The prose is beautiful and full of imagery, and the style of the story and characters seems to have a strong manga cultural influence. It's as if the world of manga met Lovecraft and Tolkien, and together they made a child.
All aspects of storytelling contribute to creating an immersive and dreamy atmosphere. Almost like a story told in poetry. It is a valid and wonderful stylistic choice, although it slows down or weighs down the narrative, but it is an inevitable consequence of this style.
Typical of what an omniscient, well-controlled style of narration allows. It allows one to create a world that is at once complex, rich and deep, with the help of descriptions, or by exploring it through the perceptions and feelings of the different characters.
This novel is a pleasure to read for its old-fashioned universe and style. If you haven't read it yet, then you should.
You should read it.
DeadLeavesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A story that doesnt follow normal conventions. The prose is beautiful and full of imagery, a bit like reading a tolkien book. It tells the story of Elena and her close compatriots. It is not a single narrator and some people dislike that, but give it a shot, it is done in a tasteful way and is clearly written by someone who knows what they're doing.
The characters are all well written and you quickly come to love them all in their own way.
Spoiler: Spoiler
Elena & Claire OTP
The only real issues I have with it are two minor things.
1. The pacing is a little slow but not to the point that it's unbearable.
2. Is a spoiler, not a major one, nor one that even affects how the characters act.
Spoiler: Spoiler
The fact that souls are destroyed in suffering when people die makes everything feel a tad futile.
Dr.4CRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: The word overwrought comes to mind. Really good command over the language so the descriptions are really good but they are on the verge of going from flowery to purple. I skipped quite a bit of the description at times.
There is a tendency of action scenes to be bogged down by excessive descriptions and exposition. An example of this is the second chapter where we supposedly follow a blood crazed vampire but he has enough sanity left to explain the setting of the world and the overall heirarchy of the church.
Grammar: No problems there.
Story: Really rich world, a bit too much exposition at the start but nothing that overtly detracts from the story. Reads like an urban fantasy in a fantasy setting if that makes any sense.
Characters: Very well done characters. Nice sense of mystery, but it is taken out quickly by the introduction of the God and slight over explaining at the start about the heirarchy of the church.
I feel my immersion ruined by the way a x-years old archmage + lich reacts and speaks. She feels like a human teenager which I think is because of the rewrite but I'm not sure.
TLDR: Too much description impeding action scenes.
Repetitive phrases.
Sentences are a bit too tedious too read, needs to be toned down a bit.
Speech style of the protagonist feels off to me.
Overall 5 stars because it's just so well written.
aralbairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Elves, half-dragons, demonic Hellbourne who have been brought to heel by the living god of the humans. The world building is fantastic, clearly well-thought out, and comes across through imagery and characters rather than exposition dumps.
It gets off to a slightly awkward start, with unclear character motives and some bouncing around POVs, but it picks up a lot around chapter 5 and 6. Not that the pace needs to be picked up -- even watching the characters go through their normal routines is a joy to read when Kyshies writes it.
And it indeed feels like watching.
Whatever additional effort is required to parse Kyshie’s style is more than offset by the powerful imagery. In so many other RR stories, the bare-bones descriptions often leave me struggling to piece together who’s where and what’s what. There’s a cognitive load in trying to get a grasp on the setting.
Kyshies does all the work painting this world for you, and this world is beautiful.
The prose itself has its ups and downs. The diction is much better than RoyalRoad norms, but there is some fat that could be cut in editing. Mostly sentences that are wordier than they need to be. However, I'd take strong imagery at the cost of a few extra words any day.
As for the plot, what tropes are used are used well. The world-building is original and strong enough to make the plot feel fresh. The main character Elena is pragmatic and refreshingly not dense, yet has an arrogant streak that is a delight to follow. I’ve never been bored, and a lot of interactions and encounters have played out differently from what I’ve expected.
Like another reviewer mentioned, there is anime-ish fanservice with how the authorial "camera" views scenes. That didn't bother me, although the one torture scene did.
Final note on the setting: given the appearance of pistols, the world seems to be Renaissance or nearly Industrial age fantasy rather than medieval fantasy, which always feels much fresher to me, especially in an urban setting. Sort
PauliukRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is story is a fantastic and interesting experience. The beginning arc Into the Dragon's Lair is a mystery story except the detective is an overpowered lich instead of a Holmes. The world that is being developed is both interesting and organic which also draws the reader in.
Style:
The story is always told in the third person but it follows different characters. This allows us to see into the minds of the characters we are following and get their internal thoughts. It's also written with a lot of descriptive words to help us get a feel for what the characters are sensing. From the aromas that surround them to the touch of the snow on their skin.
Grammar:
The grammar in the story is beautiful and descriptive. I could see no obvious spelling or grammar errors and if I did it was so minor that it didn't ruin my experience in any way.
Story:
The beginning of the story is a mystery trying to find a missing woman. The main character uses strong-arm tactics to get the information she wants and then proceeds to her next objective. A cult devoted to dragons is revealed to be the source of the kidnapping and the reason why they are doing it is explained.
Character:
The main character is Elena de L'Enfer or simply known as Elena. She is an elven lich who follows the mortal god of this story. During this arc, we are also following a pair of sisters. One sister is desired by a dying dragon for very unsavoury reasons whereas the other sister was simply used as bait to get the other one. The dying dragon itself is extremely powerful as well and is a master of illusions though you wouldn't know that is you based his power off of his useless child.
Anyway, it's a good read and is very worthy of all the praise the other reviewers have given it.
D.N. NewynRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Unlike other more straightforward stories in the genre, Acacia Chronicle is very meticulous in its flow, inner thoughts, and storytelling. I start with Into the Dragon's Lair arc, which I am fairly sure isn't the beginning of the story. However, it is listed at the beginning and I don't know where else to start.
Humans, elves, dragons—this story has them all! The author manages to weave in many different elements into a story, and make them seem seamless as if they'd belonged all along. Budding romance turns into war and bloodshed, hope turns to despair, heaven turns to hell. But in the end, justice shall prevail. Magic is a common thing in this world, something that is very much to my liking. All the aspects of the book so far has been great, making me eager for more.
The descriptions make the book great. I sometimes stop to read some of the descriptions twice because they're worth a second glance. It's vivid, it's detailed, and it works for both high and low fantasy elements. There are lots of inner thoughts and inner dialogs in the right places, which makes for a rich and flavorful reading experience.
The characters in the story are well fleshed-out, but a bit typical. Maybe it's because the arc I read is a rather short one, so I can more or less figure out what type of person the characters might be when they're introduced. It can be a good thing though, as it leaves the stage for the plot and world-building to shine!
XafairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
So what should is say, i really like the story.
The one downside to this is some of the chapters a writen as some kind of report and I personaly think it disrupts the flow of the story. That is the reason for 4 stars for style.
Besides that I can not fault this story and I'm really looking forward for more form Elena and crew.
MejiroRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
(Written as of the end of the first arc)
This is a fairly densely written, light-novel style story, with a powerful protaganist who has few bones about holding back, and will likely unveil more trump cards in arcs to come. It's mostly a character piece, with the fights being largely for the sake of form, but done with a lot of flair and style. There's some ongoing suggestions of worldbuilding and history slowly getting teased out and unveiled, and some rather wonderful overwrought and old-school fantasy names. There's a decent amount of, uh, anime-ish fan service, for want of a better term (various powerful beings lounging around in lingerie, that sort of thing) which might not be to everyone's taste, but it's relatively unobtrusive as such things go.
The grammar is functional - it could do with another go-through and tidying, but it's fairly readable and conveys what's going on OK. (Personally, I'd say that 'hellbourne' should be capitallised to make it stand out more, but I tend to try and make things proper nouns fairly often, it makes things easier to read)
Strif3Royal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Keep in mind as I review that I read the rewritten first arc. This stuff may not apply to the non-revised arcs after this.
This is old school fantasy. Anyone who's read Tolkien or the Belgariad knows what this means. High prose, vivid descriptions, less focus on the nitty-gritty of the action and more on the overall flow of battle.
The style tends to tell more than show, and I don't really mind, as a fan of old school fantasy myself, but I suggest Kyshies switch it up every now and again. Luckily the prose more than makes up for it and even with the countless descriptions, Kyshies creates an engaging narrative. The few first person POV chapters are a little jarring but I have no problem with the rest.
The story is wild lol there's everything here. Every single fantasy element has been crammed into this story from immortal undead liches to living gods walking the earth and ruling their own nations. It's pretty sick and it makes you look forward to what else you'll see in this stitched-together world.
No problems with grammar, if there was a way to give more than five stars I would, just because of Kyshies masterful use of the english language.
The characters are fine on the whole, but they tend to fit into tropes. Shadowy mastermind pulling the strings from behind the scenes, grizzled no-nonsense investigator, etc though the tropes are subverted somewhat as they tend not to look the way you'd expect. Nothing egregious.
All in all, definite read. The slightly episodic style lends well to reading it in chunks at a time. I suggest binging this.
Trip GrahamRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Its a well written story and a really fun read if i have one complaint it would be that its kinda hard to tell how much time has passed but that doesnt really end up mattering its in a nice format and you actually get to find out a bit of what happened to the side characters after they showed up unlike alot of storys where they just dissapear so i definitely suggest reading it