Aeternitas: The Shores of Destiny - [An Epic Elemental Magic School Fantasy]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

AETERNITASis a vibrant, character-driven epic academia & action fantasy in the vein of Harry Potter and The Last Airbender, with progression elements and deep worldbuilding. It grapples sincerely with a boy's quest for power and acceptance, and his encounters with love and loss as well as fame and fall, weaving themselves over a backdrop of an ancient and eldritch evil that is battled with high-octane action featuring creative elemental combat.

"Get into Aeternitas, and everything can be yours."Or at least, that's what everyone says.

Ever since little, Elwin wanted to be like the Great Founders – the first humans of myth who discovered how to wield the 4 Elements of nature. His father Carl, one of the greatest explorers of his time, would tell him bedtime stories about how The Founders could sunder the seas, move the continents, and create hurricanes out of nothing but their voices. Elwin was enchanted by their epic myths: how they reclaimed the earth from the primal monsters, ended the tyranny of other species, and rose to become the Sun, the Moon, and the everlasting stars. Their powers still ripple through time ten millenniums on, making themselves known by manifesting in every human child at their first coming of age. Elwin’s father Carl was gifted the power over Air by one of the Founders themselves, and very soon, Elwin would get an Element of his own to wield.

But before Elwin has a chance to learn the secrets of the Founders and the history of the world, his father perishes in a dangerous expedition over the ocean, unfortunately taking with him thirteen-thousand brave voyagers and sailors. Drawing ire and blame from families who lost their members on Carl’s expedition, their flames fanned by a smear campaign organized by Carl’s rivals, Elwin and his mother and little brother quickly become the subject of pointed fingers, turning his life into hell wherever he goes. It doesn’t help that his father’s motives for the expedition were mysterious and the dangers too great.

Little does Elwin know that his father had beenkilled, and that his father’s killers spring from an immortal class of horrific and eldritch beings that has stalked humanity for millenniums, intending to stop Carl dead in his tracks lest he discover a way to vanquish them forever. Pulling the strings of society behind the scenes, his father’s killers ensure that Elwin is forbidden to dream of ever following his father’s footsteps, consigning his family to live hand-to-mouth and compelling them to work as innkeepers. With his world crumbled around him and his dream of becoming great like the Founders ground to dust, Elwin leads an unwelcome and anemic existence at his middle school and spends his evenings helping his mother at their inn, stuck on loop with no hope of a different tomorrow.

But one day, he receives two guests shrouded in secrecy, accompanying with them a mysterious connection to his father’s work. On the same night, a hidden time capsule from his father explodes out from the wall of his house.

Their hints enkindle in Elwin a new hope for his dream: A chance to become the greatest hero that people would ever come to know. But doing so will not be easy, because he first has to enter the greatest Academy to exist in the present which turns away all but the exceptional few – and Elwin knows that he is frankly far from exceptional.

The only way then isto beexceptional; and Elwin isn't going to stop at anything to manifest his dream.

After all, since when wasimpossiblea word?

Especially when becoming the greatest hero the world has ever known means that Elwin will get tohold the very brushes to rewrite theuniverse?

Join Elwin as he embarks from the shores of his destiny into a brave new world, and becomes the center of an epic saga in the World of Aeternitas.

"For when his world crumbled around him,Elwin Eramir never imagined that a new Epic would be written in his name..."

TL;DR:

WhatNOTto expect:

- LitRPG

- Harem

- Isekai

- Overpowered MC

You can expect the following:

- Slower pace progression fantasy, closer in affinity to traditional fiction

- Hard-earned power

- Single POV majority (95%+ is from the MC's POV, others for key context)

- Dynamic character development

- An epic fantasy world, with deep worldbuilding and rich lore

- The 4 Elements; the people of their world built an entire scientific tradition, so the feel of the 4-Elements-system leans towards 'something which can be investigated and improved upon' rather than strictly 'hocus-pocus'

- Action takes time to build up, but it's intense and tied to the story and character growth

- Some wholesome slice-of-life elements

- 1.5k – 4k word chapters; usually around 2k

- Good ol' camaraderie and heroism

- Tournaments, duels, competitions

- Learning and training montages

- Wise mentors

- Kind, scary, and quirky professors

- A Headmaster with mythical abilities

- Eldritch monsters and shambling horrors

- Transcendence

[5 years of labor of love in the making, finally being serialized on RR!]

[Cover design by Toshinori Heiichi. For cover illustration and design requests, please PM me directly through Royalroad.]

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Toshinori Heiichi

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.1/ 5.0
Followers: 1,166
Views: 324,664

Chapters(140 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

imakemusicRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
What can I say about this story? So much that I couldn’t fit in one review, but I’ll try.
The world of Aeternitas is a passion project, clearly, but so much thought and care was put into the story. The characters don’t feel like made up people, but real humans instead with their own thoughts, hopes, and dreams. The main character, Elwin, is not shown as infallible; in fact, we see his problems most clearly. We see all sides of his life rather than omitting worse parts or editorializing them to remove it, and it makes him feel that much more real, to see him struggle.
If you ever wanted an example of a project done out of love and enjoyment for whatever it is, I suggest this story.
GrandstandingTortoiseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A captivating journey deserving of 5 stars. While the initial dramatic tone felt excessive in the first 22 chapters, the narrative's brilliance swiftly overshadowed any concerns. Stellar worldbuilding, precise prose, and remarkably authentic characters make this book a compelling and immersive experience from start to finish. A captivating journey through a meticulously crafted world, leaving an indelible impression. Highly recommended for literary enthusiasts.
IrvinwopRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Aeternitas is a great web serial with lots of descriptions, fleshed out characters and plot, and easy to understand magic system based around the states of matter. Regarding the style, I’m confident that most will enjoy the consistent, well formatted, descriptive writing style author-sama writes with. The details allow for a very crisp and vivid visualization, additionally, the descriptions are very clear, with little to no room to misinterpret. The story is also very self consistent. I have seen no contradictions or lazy retconning so far. The overarching plot isn’t just started and forgotten about either. There’s active development throughout each arc towards it. The mini plots also are what you’d expect to see from an author of this caliber. The characters aren’t two-dimensional either, (minor spoiler)
every other person and their mother is L + ratio + fatherless-ing our MC for a good few dozen chapters, and he didn’t end up as a murder hobo.
They act like real people, the adults with their tired dialogue when necessary, showing their care, and the kids, well acting like kids. Immature, hotheaded, but malleable. Willing to change. And for the grammar? It’s great, lots of variety in sentence length, actually correct semicolon usage—it’s also not used in dialogue, a massive W—and only occasional formatting slip ups. Half of them you wouldn’t even notice unless someone pointed it out to you.
TL;DR:
read the damn book. its good
MavTechRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
No spoilers, just a plea to read this story (I received nothing for this review other than I got to read this remarkable story)
GENERAL THOUGHTS:
I almost never write advanced reviews. But I read a lot of stories. This one is worthy of praise and more readers. There are many metrics of success on Royal Road (Views, Followers, Favorites, etc.) but in my opinion this is still a relatively undiscovered gem. For anyone who wants to read a coming of age, coming into magic and adventure story with a great explanation of the magic system, varying uses of magic and a wonderful understanding of different cultures and magic experiences, then this is one you should read.
I don't know how many chapters you need to fall in love with a story, but I try to give each story I read a chance and get a good number in. This one captured my imagination and heart fairly quickly.
So it is with great pleasure I recommend this story to everyone. And wish the author great success.
STYLE:
the style is one of slowly developing a connection with the main character (MC) and his family. The initial promise of great magic and adventure is kept during the story and grows according to the plot. I disagree with the negative reviews for this story. I found the trials and challenges the MC experienced to be believable, heart-wrenching, yet understandable. The style allowed me, no compelled me to devour this book. I believe the story is over 1000 pages for book one. And I read it in every waking moment of free time I had for about two days. The author has a unique way of revealing more and more while drawing the reader in with excitement for the next event and chapter.
STORY:
The plot is well executed. There were no pacing issues for me. The Story was excellently put together and I never felt myself abruptly disconnected. To the contrary this story pulled me in and I felt deeply for the MC. I am not ashamed to say that there were multiple chapters that drove me to tears. Some tears were with compassion f
Shabang23Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story is set in a world that’s very much alive. The flow is very clear, and the worldbuilding is very good as the same concepts are mentioned or brought up throughout this slow burn very well, so I found myself with a growing familiarity with the world of Aeternitas despite the small number of chapters.
The characters are so lifelike, and although they may seem shallow or typical at first, they have layers and depth to be revealed as the author works his magic, just keep reading. Yes, even the bully from day 1 actually has some depth and his own revelations.
The story itself is wonderful. I think this is the first time I’m writing a review on royal road, but I know that this is definitely the first time I’ve ever cried over a story in many many years. The story feels so human in a world so magical and vibrant, brought to life by good storytelling and planning.
TheGreatPotatoManRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The book had a sort of myth myths? going on with the four elements and their founders and i found that concept to be very interesting. Also we got the most deadly profession in human history here folks and thats being a loving father in a book. The good father here had some real good chemistry with the boy Eldwin and well that was really nice so do give it a read and personally passion projects do tickle my fancy. The characters seem like real people pog.
red_kebabRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I have read all the way to the last published chapter and have to say that this is a story I very much enjoyed. While using some themes that are present throughout other fantasy books (elemental powers, souls, mutated wildlife) it feels new and genuine, with fleshed out characters.
If you are thinking if it is worth it, be assured that I recommend it and have been verh happy to see every time a chapter has been posted! Enjoy, and good readings!
grand_idiotRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Story had me engrossed but I didn't like the style of writing which depended on telling rather than showing. I think writers should be able to convey the intentions and emotions of character without using obvious foreshadowing and capitals in their dialogue. Every instance of it kind of broke me out of my immersion. The writing has potential, and there would be paragraphs that were brilliantly written - allowing me to imagine the scenery and descriptions that the author had in mind.
However, not as much effort was gone into the characters themselves. I think the father was well done. Since we got to experience his intentions and personality through his son. However, the rest of them were just not very well done.
There was no subtlety, dialogue felt stilted at times with lots of use of capitals to "show" their emotions. We would often get third person perspectives of the character monologuing their thoughts, feelings and motivation.
An example would be Lucian who is the standard bully in this book. There was a paragraph dedicated to him monologuing how he hated MC, and how much he wanted to get rid of a competitor to his prospective school and that was why he wants to bad mouth him to the librarians before he did exactly that and framed him as well.
It means readers don't get their own interpretations, which is slowly built upon and instead are forced into seeing the character in a certain way all of a sudden. The character has been set in stone and laid bare, development is much harder to achieve. Personality is very rarely seen within the dialogues as well, not feeling very natural.
I love the world building and story. It has a lot of potential but needs some editing.
spennyreadsRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Honestly the plot is great, but the dialogue just feels so unnatural.
progression seems to be coming along at a reasonable pace, and character choices also feel quite natural. But my goodness is the dialogue disappointing to read. It’s like the author is trying to replicate olden time vibes but doesnt realise that people still can communicate normally and casually. These kids are communicating way too dramatically and every interaction feels incredible with subtext and context but the actual language used is cringe inducing.
In conclusion, genuinely great story well thought out plot, but I’m dropping it here since I find myself repeatedly skipping dialogue hoping to pick up on what was said through context from simply wanting to avoid reading such unnatural lines.
ethelesRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
The story doesn’t do a very good job of showing coherent social dynamics. The main character is bullied viciously but the reasons given are a bit threadbare, and the spectacle of teachers trying (and somewhat failing) to join in and humiliate him is a bit much.
It’s clear that the author is trying to evoke pathos to engender sympathy in the protagonist and to serve as both motive to act and justification for his eventual righteous retribution, but it’s too heavy-handed. His main opponents were written to be hated and have no nuance to them.