Chronicle of the Dragon Expedition

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In the distant land of Shdustu, a dragon has been seen for the first time in centuries. An expedition is dispatched from the Sanid Empire to find this legendary creature and secure its bounty for the Emperor. Misod, a minor noble with a gift for languages, is chosen as expedition cartographer and chronicler. Joining soldiers, merchants, mystics, and others he records the journey across vast distances and through the realm of alien cultures in pursuit of legend. Trusting only the mysterious sorceress Lady Indili, he must find a way to survive weather, bandits, cultists, monsters, wizards, and ultimately the dragon itself in the hopes of returning home to tell the tale.

A slow burn travelogue set in a low-magic fantasy world with a focus on world-building designed to invoke echoes of historical writings such as the Travels of Marco Polo.

The MC has no magical abilities, but is surrounded by those who do and operates in a position of proximity to high-ranking individuals and powerful events.

This story is now complete! Thanks to all who've been following and welcome anyone new!

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: Mechalich

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 148
Views: 52,642

Chapters(87 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(6)

AppledrinkerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I treated this story like I was reading a history book. It's a little dry in delivery but rich in depth. I read it during bedtime to help myself fall asleep. It's more than interesting enough to keep me engaged but not so emotionally investing that I can't fall asleep. Also, there's the allure of a dragon. Will they find the dragon?? You have to read it to find out.
EmpireofTrustRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Even if the rest of the tale turned out to be terrible(edit it is not) the first chapter is a wonderful artifice of structured and layered depth couched in the gentle arms of loving art.
I only read the first chapter before surfacing to write this review so that it might reach others.
This tale is not something trite written to be easily skimmed but a layered and nuanced ode to the art form that was writing for an audience that is used to the embellishments due to those of an ennobled upbringing used to detailed excellence enhancing all environs.
All those who are involved in the undertaking being justly attributed as are their backers, weaved into providing background to those not used to the specifics of what is being discussed.
It is art committed to a page and I am going to savour the hell out of it
Edit Having read further I can say the story continues in depth but not in density of words.
As an account of a cartographic chronicler the story ignores the innue of travel through vast mediocrity but instead from his detailed notes expounds on points of interest for economic, political, scientific or military interest to the realm while still entertaining.
Great stuff
LostButNotForgottenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is exactly what it says in the description: It's an in-universe travel chronicle. This means there is a focus on the kind of information usually contained in such a document, often o the detriment of the things you would expect from the average story on this site. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This story has an idea of what it wants to be and executes it capably.
Grammar: no issues. 5/5
Style: There are a lot of descriptions and the pace is slow. The narrator's voice is convincingly that of a person living in this world. All of this makes the claim that this is, in fact, an in-universe document very believable and with that makes for great immersion. It takes a few chapters to get used to (and as usual, the style is refined over the course of the story), but it fits what it's trying to achieve very well. 5/5
Characters: This is an area that suffers under the premise of the story, but it does what it needs to and over the course of the story, I had become attached to our main characters, even if it took a while. Since it's a travel chronicle, little focus is placed on characterization. This led to difficulties in connecting with and caring about the characters for me at the beginning, but it fits with the goals of the text. The most important thing in this kind of story is that the characters feel believable, and this is achieved entirely. 4.5/5
Story: The main appeal here is clearly the world the story takes place in. It is beautifully crafted, well researched, creative and believable. I can't think of higher praise for worldbuilding. Of course, the traditional aspects of a story need to be weakened in service of this singular focus, leading to long stretches of little happening and a weaker overall structure. However, that doesn't mean that there is nothing of the sort, it is only less in focus. 4.5/5
MrHrulginRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's an odd duck, feeling very different from the majority of stories on RR, but it's all the better for it. The story is very constrained by its format, but those constraints also show remarkable strength. It's got style in spades, showing the world through the eyes of a singular person, and revealing his character not through his words but through what he finds novel in these strange lands. The character of our narrator and the caravan at large is distinct, but revealed in bits as they make their way through the world. It's truly excellent and subtly done. The only possible critique is some small typos, mostly homophones that slipped through spell checking. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I'm delighted to have found it. A + + +, looking forward to much more of it, given the many travails I'm sure must be ahead. The very nature of the story means that it's going to be intensely episodic, given that what's being recorded is a series of interesting episodes from the travels, and as such is a very different story experience than many on RR. Hopefully people aren't put off by that. It's very well done.
Murk36Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a story in the rare genre of ancient travel report – think Marco Polo or Ibn Battuta. For that alone, it gets some of my respect, but it gets even more of it for executing the concept competently.
Style: The story's style is entirely dependent on its genre. The narrator tells us the story of the expedition in a way that makes it clear it happened in the past. He does not only tell us the events of it, but also the many things he learned about these foreign lands. The story is enormously description-heavy, which isn't always easy to read for readers of modern taste, but is entirely fitting for this story.
Grammar: There are very few errors.
Story: What it says in the title. The dragon doesn't appear until after the point I wrote this review at. Instead, the novel has so far converned itself almost entirely with the journey to find it and the things the narrator learned along the way. In this way, it's very action-light and worldbuilding-heavy. The quality of this worldbuilding is very high. I'd describe the world as low fantasy with high internal consistency and historical inspiration.
Character: There are no enrapturing personalities in this novel, which is fair as this isn't its focus. However, the characters are distinct and act according to their interests and values.
In conclusion, if you like a huge dose of descriptive, almost pure worldbuilding told through the format of an ancient travel report, this is the story for you.
Edit upon finishing the story: The length of the story and its ending generally confirm my previous opinions. I think the length is well chosen. The story doesn't drag on too long, but takes its time to tell us what it wants to. The problems I had with the story are somewhat adressed, as the protagonist gets a bit more characterisation.
TheHuscarlRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
First chapter gives a good indication of the story at large :)
So the short sell is pretty much as mentioned in the synopsis, it's a travel-record written after the expedition (i presume) of the cartographer in it, though some parts are mostly written near in time to when the events happened (i think). Also the setting is some middle-eastern/indian/central-asian + fantasy-variant area, i find it cool.
Pretty unique style, it's pretty much one long exposition/lore-dump ;)
Prose-wise, it's a very descriptive style (wouldn't really say flowery, but kinda).
The format and style influences the story, i feel it's developing at about the pace set in the second chapter in keeping with the style set at the beginning so no complaints there, though i also found the first chapter to be the most compelling.
Grammar, well enough written. A lot of chapters i would say i don't notice any specific errors. Towards the end of book one i felt there was some number of lesser mistakes though they didn't impair readability that much.
Character-wise i don't really find the story that compelling. But it's also not what needs to carry this story for me.
Chapter one has some of the thoughts of the main character bleed through, restricted to the style of the story i could give that chapter 5/5 for character. There are other chapters near that level, but most other "perspective" chapters i don't get it to the same degree.
And there seems to be a fair few "non-perspective" chapters where it's mostly about some notes about the region that isn't anything the MC "sees", and i don't 'feel' any of the MC's emotions about anything in those parts.
Those i kinda understand to be stories/info the MC gathers from locals and just presents in a collected format.
Non-MC characters are not explored that much, but are mostly fine.
Overall, give the first chapter a paragraph or two and it'll be apparent if you like what it has to give:)
(Personal grievance, a lot of places are given names that are so similar, t