Savage Soul [A Mesopotamian Xianxia]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A Savage Wildman who desires survival above all and a Mad Priestess with boundless ambition. The start of the greatest duo in the cosmos!

Banda is king of Cedar Forest, a land mortals fear to tread. The only place he has ever known.

Until one day, a Priestess appears with eyes that shine like the tyrannical sun, who speaks bold madness of becoming Queen of Heaven.

With golden chains, she pulls him from the forest into a journey. A journey through the vast world of heroes and gods. A journey that ignites his instincts to stand supreme above all.

Banda has only ever known the forest. Only known survival. And to survive, means to be the strongest.

What To Expect:

- No harem

- Brutal high battle IQ fight scenes

- A focus on characters, plot, and worldbuilding.

- Unorthodox Xianxia journey

- Overpowered protagonists who will face and overcome overpowered adversaries.

- A fully fleshed out Cultivation System. Progress is not a slow burn but it's not lightning fast either. Every stage in cultivation is meaningful.

- The Protagonist Duo will make mistakes occasionally due to established character flaws or abnormal situations, but in general they are both ruthless and competent with great willpower and strong personalities.

- Savagery!

Disclaimer:

This is a slightly more classical progression fantasy in a world based on Mesopotamian mythology. More of an epic saga than a pure power fantasy. The two main characters will grow in both power and personality immensely.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2025
Author: TyZombo

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.8/ 5.0
Followers: 531
Views: 67,102

Chapters(86 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(6)

BlaiseitRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Great progression fantasy they get stronger not too slow but not too fast either. it has its flaws but trust me look past them and keep reading the Sumerian/mesopotamian/akkadian cultivation premise just hits, and the power system and cultivation levels are pretty well done. I feel like the fights are neither too short or too long, and they’re also pretty well done. There’s not very much romance, in my opinion that’s a plus. and the wild dude can be pretty funny.
Mr MoreporkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Savage Soul by TyZombo is a fast-paced, brutal story about power, survival, and betrayal. It follows Banda, a savage hunter who rules Cedar Forest, and Eres, a ruthless priestess chasing godhood. Their uneasy alliance drives the story as they clash with beasts, demigods, and each other.
The action is sharp and relentless. From the first fight with the Tyrant Lizard to the battel I am up to with Humbaba, every encounter feels dangerous. Banda’s strength and instincts are clear, but so are his limits. Eres is just as dangerous, not through raw power, but because she’s always thinking two steps ahead. The balance between them keeps the tension high, especially after Montu’s betrayal.
The world itself feels alive. The forest, the steppes, and the Tower of Enki aren’t just backdrops—they shape the characters and their choices. The power system is clear without bogging down the story, and the idea of divinity running dry in the tower adds real stakes.
What really stands out is how the characters change. Banda starts as an unstoppable force but ends up stripped of everything he relied on. Eres’ ambition keeps pushing her forward, but it’s clear it’s costing her more than she expected. Neither wins, and that makes the ending hit harder.
There are moments where the prose leans into repetition, particularly with descriptions of characters’ expressions and movements. Tightening these areas could sharpen the impact of the storytelling without losing the immersive feel
Overall, Savage Soul delivers on action, character, and world-building without wasting words. It’s a solid read with a brutal edge and a promise of more to come.
drechenauxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story, I can't really say follows the classic cultivation tale. Rather, while it does start off based on classic tropes, it starts off with our MC roaming about the woods, the woods where he is a king of. Until one day he encounters a priestess who is rather interested in his powers. They find themselves bound together through magical means, and now have to 'work' together. The MC, already lord of the forest, finds that the world is much bigger and larger than he expected.
Story: Starts off intriguing, and doesn't dump too much information upon the viewer at once. Makes the world pretty clear from the beginning. Explanations on the power system are also built up slowly rather than dumping an avalanche upon the viewer.
Character: I rather like the MC and his simple-mindedness, his inner thoughts make for great work. As for the other character, the priestess, not fully sold yet, but she seems intriguing.
Style: Nothing extravagant, but it doesn't need to be. It gets the job done.
Grammar: No major mistakes or flaws that I could find. A few typos here and there doesn't much.
If I had to give a quick summary, I'd say it's a familiar-ish story for anyone who reads Xianxia in a different setting, that being Mesopotamia in theme.
Don_ColasantiRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Unfortunately this fiction has been placed under Hiatus, it is my hope that it will one day be picked up again. In review:
Overall I find this work has grown on me in the time I have been reading it, while I had slim hopes for it in the begining, the story, while it may never be continued, offered a captivating enough story to compell me to finish what's here.
The Style of the story is very typical xinxia/wuxia and it reflects onto the setting, which I find unfortunate. While the in-universe lore tends to be broadly mesopotamian, especially based on gilgamesh, the actual story is very chinese. While I understand that the genre is nescessarily tied to the culture it originated from, I can't help but feel all the missed opportunities to use a magic system based more on babylonian mysticism in stead of standard cultivation. Or to use unique creatures from mesopotamian mythology such as Mushussu, scorpion-men, or lamassu, rather than the more typical minotaur, centaur, ogre, beastman, etc.
The Story is refreshingly original, while not wholly so. The pattern of powerful>no power>ascending again is not unique, but I hold that this fiction has done so in a coherent, not to say transparent, manner. The events and order they take place are largely structured in a clear and well-written way. I consider storytelling to be a strongpoint of this author.
The characters feel right. Banda feels like the force of nature he is meant to be, and Eres feels like a complex or even scheming charcter. Despite this, I feel the personas make very poor characters, which I mean in the sense of literature. Is Banda a plot-device or a Protagonist? Is Eres a heroine, an antagonist, or a protagonist? Is Otto a mentor or an antagonist? I think this lack of definition improves the fiction and makes the characters feel much more human. The sometimes contradictory attitudes, the mistakes, and the actions against expectations add depth to the story, and mostly are written tactfully.
An editor, or an ed
aditya99inRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
The starting of the story was good. Even the abilities part was interesting. But the only problem is that there is no resentment frm the MC for the female lead for enslaving him. It is as if that part is intentionally being ignored for the story considering any any being would have problem with being chained. The MC would have been the one with most problem as being a powerful warrior who considers himself the ruler of the jungle and top predator. So as a top predator how can he stand being enslaved to the will of a person he knows who is his equal in fighting capacity.
PlatiusmanRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
The author said to keep reading till chapter 8 to see if the dynamic between the savage and the priestess becomes clear. It did and it's still slavery. The priestess has forcefully bound the Savage. If she dies, he dies. She has control over him like a leash she can pull. He is the one wearing a literal collar on his neck. Trying to act like he has agency, like he wouldn't kill her and then try to go back home if he had a choice, is ridiculous. You can call it any other pretty words you like, "forced partnership" or "unstable alliance", he's still a slave beholden to another's whims. A lot of different ways they could have been bound, but the author chose this one and has to deal with the consequencbes of that, especially when it's clear they're very aware how much readers tend to dislike loss of agency.
And speaking of story, this feels like an anti-progression story so far given that they both only get weaker. From a very cliche, "betrayal that barely makes sense but is happening anyways" event too. If it happened right at the beginning I could understand it yet instead it happens right when the story gets actual traction, so to then have loss of power is silly.
The style is a bit repetitive but the fights are at least snappy. There's a bit of sudden unmarked POV switching that goes on at times which is annoying. Otherwise it's a pretty standard cultivation style story.
The grammar has maybe up to a dozen typos per chapter. The only thing with the grammar that really bugs me is how some sentences are phrased. They don't always make sense, and when it happens at a point where a critical story element is being described, you're going to have to pause and think about what the author is even trying to say. I'll just chalk it up to inexperience or second language.
As a character, the savage is exactly what I'd expect. He's a straightforward savage with simple goals and simple methods he takes to get what he wants. I was a bit disappointed about how chill he became imme