Dominion [Book 1 complete]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Aldevari Dominion has come to Earth. They need warriors for their galaxy-spanning war, so they've turned Earth into a hellish training ground. Civilization is gone in an instant. Everything Mankind has built is overturned and scattered. The world is full of monsters and mutated animals. Video Game screens, leveling, and magic are the new way of life. Charlotte "Char" Adair, truck driver and widow, is determined to survive, get stronger, and prove to the Aldevari that she's nobody's conscript. With wit, grit, determination, and the help of a pit bull named Lulu, she's going to fight her way to the top, or die trying. -------------------------- LitRPG and gritty survival. No romance. No harems. Chapters 36-38 dip briefly into horror territory, but it's mostly dark fantasy. On a between-books hiatus until January. See you in 2026 :)

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Dawnstrider

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 900
Views: 179,967

What readers say about Dominion [Book 1 complete]

“... Or Lulu's. Either is alright by me. This story has everything great LitRPG should have: an MC that's fighting to survive, struggling to adapt to a terrifying and upended world, getting stronger through trial, error, and force of will. Char isn't power l…”
RS_AveryRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“The characters feel real! Like I could have met these people! The MC while being a bit of a bad-ass, is not this over-the-top cookie-cutter hero. She has flaws and makes human mistakes and she acknowledges those flaws and works to improve. The world buildin…”
SarenAspireRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(8)

RS_AveryRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
... Or Lulu's. Either is alright by me.
This story has everything great LitRPG should have: an MC that's fighting to survive, struggling to adapt to a terrifying and upended world, getting stronger through trial, error, and force of will. Char isn't power levelling, she isn't suddenly super OP. She's growing and gritting her teeth, working hard and paying with pain and blood.
If you're looking for a cardboard cutout of a power fantasy, you won't find it here. Char (and Lulu, omg, I want a Lulu) is very human - she feels grief and rage and shows it on the page. She makes mistakes, she doesn't trip into massive power spikes.
Lulu is the bestest girl. And she's more than Char's pet and companion - she's an anchor keeping her human grounded, aware, and pushing forward even if Char is wiped.
The grammar is excellent, style is great, world building stellar (the brief snippets from Zell give us insight into the wider 'verse without stealing momentum or focus from what "Dominion" is: Char's story). Read this. You won't regret it.
SarenAspireRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The characters feel real! Like I could have met these people! The MC while being a bit of a bad-ass, is not this over-the-top cookie-cutter hero. She has flaws and makes human mistakes and she acknowledges those flaws and works to improve. The world building is necessarily eclectic, but you get a feel for each location. I especially appreciate how the ecology seems to change at the borders of regions. I am looking forward to more of this one.
GhostcatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's got crunch AND smart writing. The main character, Char, happened to be in an ideal situation when the Aldevari Dominion's plans were enacted. Everything unfolds from there. The character building in the first chapters are purposeful, and the action comes on with brutal force. The System is logical, and so far everything is falling together to be a long, interesting ride. Absolutely worth a read.
KaelithRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Aldevari Dominion doesn’t just invade Earth—it kicks it in the teeth, and Charlotte “Char” Adair kicks back harder.
This story is a wild, emotionally charged ride through a post-apocalyptic Earth turned RPG-style death world. The premise grabs you immediately: aliens hijack Earth for a galaxy-spanning war, turning the planet into a monstrous training ground with stats, skills, and sudden death. But what makes this tale stand out is its protagonist—Char. She’s not a chosen one or a teenage prodigy. She’s a widowed trucker in her 30s with a pit bull named Lulu, a life of practical experience, and the stubborn will to survive. And it works—brilliantly.
The author writes with polish, heart, and a solid understanding of pacing and tension. The action scenes are intense and cinematic (the truck-versus-monster moment is especially unforgettable), but what truly elevates this story is its emotional core. Char’s grief, resilience, and dry humor ground the story in realism, even as the world descends into magical chaos.
The progression is well-balanced: familiar game mechanics and status windows are used cleverly without turning the story into a spreadsheet simulator. Every stat boost and item matters. There’s no easy power fantasy here—Char earns every inch of progress through grit, creativity, and sheer determination. The supporting cast—especially Lulu—is memorable, and there’s a sense of rising stakes as the alien threat deepens beyond the immediate chaos.
You’ll also appreciate the layered worldbuilding. The perspective of Zell, an alien with his own agenda, adds a larger galactic context and hints at far deeper conflicts to come. There’s political intrigue simmering beneath the carnage, and that makes the story more than just survival—it’s about resistance, rebellion, and hope.
Verdict: If you're looking for a LitRPG with strong writing, a grounded and mature protagonist, a believable apocalypse, and heart behind the bloodshed, The Aldevari Dominion delivers. This i
NunyaBizznessRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
34 chapters in and by God is it magnificent. I honestly just hope to see it on Kindle Unlimited in the future when I remember it exists, because it is quite frankly a diamond.
Character development is good, even with the side characters. Even Lulu has some character development, and she's a doggo. I also love her sense of humor that's slowly starting to emerge again with human interaction. Char is by far my favorite character, though there isn't much competition.
The scope of the story, as well, tells you it's going to be a long and bumpy ride for Char. It sticks to the trope of aliens wanting to make use of Earth, yet there are some humans that say "no" to that. In this case, the one leading the charge is Char.
What I like most about it, though, is the fact that Char herself was originally nothing special. She acknowledges that her life before was heading towards a path of stagnation, and that she never found something that felt truly right to her despite all of the things she has done. The way she started her journey was pure luck, yet she makes use of that to charge in like a maniac because it's her only route to survival.
The OxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Dominion in a nutshell is a pretty standard system apocalypse story, albeit an extremely well written one. Char, our tough trucker chic MC, is already a loner. And sys-apoc novels love their loners.
In terms of the nuts and bolts of the apocalypse itself, it seems fairly standard. Evil, ill intentioned space baddies integrate Earth into a System, chaos and death ensues with all survivors learning to live tooth and claw via video game rules.
The two things that set Dominion apart are how well written and clear the descriptions are, especially the action scenes, and how well developed and human Char and some of the other side characters are.
Char is human, not just self insert character, but an extremely believable human being, who reacts to the apocalypse in a reasonably believable way vs instantly basking in the joy of carnage-based leveling the way so many Sys-apoc protagonists do.
She also has a dog for a team mate and found fam, which gives extra points.
Since its a litRPG, its got lots of numbers go up, and all kinds of named skills etc. I usually scroll right past that stuff, and I judge a story on how well the crunchy stuff can be ignored and still be a good tale. Dominion is holding up in that regard, but if you like the numbers, there's lots of panels of them to read.
Coffee FocusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I want to preface this by saying that (so far) this story has a lot going for it: Strongly defined and interesting characters, good writing, good pacing, and a well thought out story. If any of those appeal to you, then you should check it out.
My only caveat has to do with the tags used to describe the story, because this is more horror than a lot of the stories on this site that are tagged horror. (Yes, it has the grim dark tag, and yes it qualifies, but there are a lot of grim dark fictions that don't tip over into horror.) This has traditional horror tropes (zombies anyone?), disturbing body horror elements, and even more disturbing horror tropes around mental illness with a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane...
Without the tag, a lot of horror fans are going to miss out on a good story. And, if horror is *not* your thing?
Well, it turns out I'm too squeamish for most horror, and I'm definitely too squeamish for this story, so I'm out. But if horror is your jam then this story is worth checking out.
Story: Disturbing elements but well plotted.
Grammer: Excellent
Characters: Excellent
DogreaderRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I am a dog person so I had great expectations for this one.
There are some parts that I really like, especially the worldbuilding. While I feel the System has been mostly mixed from different stories I had read before, the history of the galaxy and the evil aliens concept was quite refreshing and interesting.
The only problem with that is the fact that many concepts don't work the way the author explains them.
What I certainly did not like were the characters. They are designed quite well but badly executed.
For example - the MC is a woman and written by a female author so I had big expectations but the character is written like a male - truck driver, game addict, hiding her emotions etc. The most important people in her life were her husband and father. Mother is not really mentioned and while other female secondary character exist, they are mostly just a background.
Another example is the dog - it just doesn't behave like a dog. The dog that has just lost his owner obviously feels no emotions and immediately obeys the MC. Yes, that can be explained by the System but it doesn't really work with the explanation at the end of the first book where we get to know how the system works. In my opinion it was just lazy writing.
Storytelling is probably the best part. The pace is quite good although many secondary characters and places would deserve more development. The only problem I have with the storytelling is the flow of time - it seems too many things happen in very short time.