Red Wishes Black Ink

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Once a year, differences between the world's many factions are decided during the week-long fight to the death known as The Granting. The champions who survive will secure a wish for their people. While some merely wish for a bountiful harvest, others seek to expand their borders, change the tides, or annihilate their neighbors.

The[Hammer Master]Cortland Finiron has just survived his tenth Granting, but at great cost. His mentor is dead, murdered by an assassin who suggests a greater game is afoot in the pyramidal city of Infinzel. Now, as Infinzel teeters on the brink of change, Cortland must balance his quest for vengeance with the demands of his ageless king.

As a new champion of Infinzel, the ambitious[Logician]Carina Goldstone finds herself under Cortland’s tutelage. Carina is a fast learner—perhaps too fast for her own good—and her rise upsets many within the pyramidal city. Soon, Carina finds herself in a desperate sprint to stay one step ahead of her complicated past.

Meanwhile, on the sea, the mermaid outlaw Red Tide is offered a deal: become an[Enchantress], survive the next Granting, and receive clemency for her crimes. But, in a contest where her people are hunted like animals, Red Tide will need more than an enchanted harp to escape alive.

And, in the sleepy farm town of Ambergran, young Uicha de Orak learns firsthand the devastating power of wishes. When the leader of a death cult takes an interest in Uicha, he’s forced to go on the run, bringing with him a powerful spirit the gods wish forgotten.

These characters, and others, will have their fates intersect at the 62nd Granting, where their desires come at the cost of blood.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2024
Author: It's Hart

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 486
Views: 109,863

Chapters(109 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

sparkcRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It’s been a long while since I’ve read so proper epic fantasy and I didn’t expect to find it on Royal Road
Great character writing, all immediately distinct and interesting in their own ways.
The most seamless and naturalistic integration of a system I’ve seen. You could feed this to r/fantasy readers who look down their noses at gamelit and they’d be none the wiser.
A wonderful world, varied and unique and all its factions introduced so elegantly and without overindulging in exposition or throwing too much too quick at the reader.
One of the very best stories I’ve read on here and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy, progression, mystery and a story with scope beyond just a single vehicle of power fantasy (though there’s competence porn and power fantasy to be found here too).
some further notes to make up the min words:
-> solid prose though by the standards of RR it’s excellent
-> great use of interludes and chapter forewords/flashbacks - manage to not ruin the pace or feel like a burden
-> pacing in general is top notch
-> world feels alive and vibrant
-> the premise is a great tool for naturally bringing about conflict
-> the “intelligent” pov actually feels intelligent, we’re not just told she is
Ellen TaylorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A map means fantasy. I like fantasy books with maps. :)
This was a fascinating world to dive into, and I enjoyed it.
Grammar is an easy five from me. I'm not a stickler when it comes to grammar. As long as it doesn't pull me from the story, it's fine by me.
Style was good. There are some POV shifts, but it's clearly marked and I never got lost. The author does a great job immersing the reader where we are by great descriptions that really shine. It grounded me as to where we were, which is a great skill to have.
Story was excellent. The magic system was fascinating, and the author carefully fed us the information well. It was interesting to learn about ink, about the gods, about the wish. The author is carefully building up the tension to an all out battle, and is doing an excellent job doing it!
The characters were fantastic. At first I was sad to leave Cortland's POV, but I quickly found Uicha's just as wonderful. Both had compelling motivations and gave a glimpse into a deeper part of the world, and according to the synopsis there's a third character I have yet to meet, but I'm sure they will be just as interesting. It's a slow build to get to know the characters before the conflict, and it is a satisfying journey.
Overall, a great read!
ZentoyoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Each civilization of sorts is well differentiated from the rest, unique in not only culture and values but what they got from the gods. The world feels alive, vibrant and wondorous, a world with a past that still echoes to this day in more ways than expected.
Theres conflict of interest, interpersonal drama and even internal political issues; all building up until it explodes during the next year.
There is even numbers going up for those of you who can not handle not having numbers.
I could sing its praises to no end, but I shan't waste your time, just read it bruh.
PD: if Uchia's chaps bore you just skim them lmao
iridium248Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Who'd have thought that the build-up to a round of Battle Royale would be so fun?
That's the premise of Red Wishes Black Ink, in a nutshell. After an intervention by the Gods, violence between nations has become impossible...With the exception of the annual Granting, where four-man teams of Champions (chosen from each nation) do battle for a single reality-changing wish.
That was more than six decades ago. As you may have guessed, things have changed a lot since then.
As premises go, it's a really solid one by itself. What makes RWBI excellent is in its execution, which really explores how thoroughly alien (and potentially deformed) the fantasy world has become through the arbitration of the Gods.
The story starts off from the end of the previous granting (i.e. With a year to go before the next one) and follows the tales of four very different individuals:
a) Cortland, grizzled veteran, one of the champions of the magitek city of Infinzel;
b) Uicha de Orak, a humble farmboy who finds himself in a world of shit after his parents die and half his village gets wiped out;
c) Carina, a new champion of Infinzel who volunteered herself for the role;
d) Red Tide, a murderous, human-hating mermaid bandit who's given a choice between hard time and joining some kind of...Suicide Squad.
It's a fascinatingly diverse cast, made more so by how we know these are going to be at odds with one another by the end of things.
The story's solidly written, the characters are interesting (Though I personally find Carina's viewpoint to be the least entertaining of all four characters, and Red Tide the most) and the ticking clock lends a certain urgency to the whole story.
It's still early days yet, at least from when I'm writing this review, but I would definitely recommend RWBI for the sheer novelty of its premise. It reminds me of a proppa grimdark fantasy series in the vein of The First Law or Malazan: Book of the Fallen, which is definitely a plus.
The LitRPG elements to the whole thing
DruryLaneRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A fantastic world ruled by petty gods and brimming with potential. Red Wishes Black Ink manages the difficult feat of enrapturing me in not just one story but many. Each character feels real and the contrasting nature of the protagonists makes each perspective shift exciting. The individual paths they tread will all wind together into fight bloody enough to entertain even the gods.
MojnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Thank you for this story.
The Malazan writing style is like catnip for me. I just love being thrown into an interesting world and left to figure out, through contextual clues, what is going on. This story provides that.
There's interesting characters, the style is great and the grammar is on point. Love it.
SlappaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I mean, medieval battle royale to determine the fate of the entire world, more or less, is fucking insane. How has no one thought of that before? If they have, kudos to the author for making this feel like the most original concept and story ever. I truly am amazed it hasn't got a ton more followers and appreciation. Maybe it's the switching perspectives?
LazieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This crab is put in the mood to see a fight, and this story is doing a good job at building up to one. This story is a battle royale story, one where the strongest or the cleverest will with the day out of the multiple characters that the reader will be introduced to. While the fight has not taken off as of this writing, this crab thinks the story is doing a good job of building character and tension before the kick-off to the fights will inevitably happen.
The grammar of the story is on point, and this crab has yet to be stopped with anything that would require a major correction.
The world as it is right now feels properly grimdark and maybe even dystopian. Pitting people against each other in fights with their homes on the line creates both terrifying and compelling stakes. When the fights kick-off, this crab knows that there will be many tears to be shed because only one person can emerge a victor from a battle. This author clearly knows that a fight is only as good as the reasons behind it.
A lot of the beginning of this story is dedicated to worldbuilding and tension-building. Be aware of that going in. I'll come back at some point and review the story once the fights start kicking off to give a comment on how well the author writes battles, but the battles aren't really here yet.
Characters are still being made and built. Right now. we are at three characters, but there are more on the way. Each chapter is labelled with which character the perspective is written from, so you can easily check and make a list of which characters are involved in the story so far.
This story is a LitRPG, but the focus is not on stats, but skills. There are the appropriate tables that appeal to that crowd, but they are not intrusive to the story so far. It will be interesting to see how the skills escalate through the story as it goes along.
Samot0423Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Truly interesting world building and magic system. So far, it's well written without too many grammar and spelling mistakes, and the story feels like it does a good job of moving along while still making the characters expand as characters.
Eager to see how it all turns out, and hopefully doesn't get dropped like some other good stories I find on here.
Honestly, I don't normally write reviews but this story feels small enough and a lot like a hidden gem so I figure it could use it.
mousehowlRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Well written, intriguing plots, unique distinct characters, neat litrpg mechanics, but I can't get over the premise.
War and murder across factions is banned and enforced by the gods, but all the behavior that leads to those actions is still allowed (torture, theft, kidnapping, etc). Since these things do happen within the story, I'm regularly irritated by the storytelling. So far they've been minor events that might not be critical to the story, but these interactions always interrupt any enjoyment.
Suspension of disbelief and it might be an exceptional story. Considering how the world and rules would play out, it's frustrating and I just can't stick with it.