The Adventures of Rania Mortal the Perfectly Normal Elf

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

“I am legally required to inform you that she is a Perfectly Normal Elf,” the devil said.

Rania Mortal would have told you that herself. She was never sure why her normalcy was subject of debate in the first place.

Sure, she knows very little about how society works and treats a painted pebble as a treasured companion. She also bases an alarming number of decisions on what would look the coolest in a book. But she has perfectly logical explanations for all of those things! Her fellow adventurers agree that she is probably just eccentric. Perfectly ordinary behavior for a shaman. Those are always a little off.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the god of stories has taken a personal interest in their mission, and Rania is certainly not helping on that front.

The setting is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, with several unusual twists. For example:

- Necromancy is widely used for manual labor

- Paladins work as mercenaries for whichever god pays best

- The goddess of entropy does not care about killing, because everyone dies eventually anyway

Writing style note:Some chapters spend significant time exploring how and why this world works. The rules are strange, but they are not arbitrary, and the explanations matter. Readers who enjoy deep, internally consistent worldbuilding tend to love this; others may find it slower.

Content warnings:

- A shapeshifting character who changes sex; social norms around gender and relationships are more flexible due to magic and history

- One (mostly comedic) panic attack scene

- Arachnophobia — not spiders themselves, but prejudice against them. This makes Rania very sad, because her pet spider is adorable.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2022
Author: WittyPseudonym

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 1,443
Views: 524,365

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

Temaki-donoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Advwntures of Rania is, at its heart, a story about stories. It is very metatextual and does things with its narrative that are less winks at the reader and more throwing hammers at them. And it works.
The style is precisely the sort of zanny that works for a meta story that is not trying to take itself too seriously. The tone is light and the mood is chipper, in a way that calls to mind Terry Pratchett.
The story itself is simple, but well executed, with enough mystery to keep interest going even as the narration becomes more and more meta—though I must admit it began to flag near the end, as a lot had been revealed and one could already see the shape of the metanarrative.
On the grammar side, no complaints, which is great news. No mistakes I remember strongly—not even the more common ones, like dangling participles.
The characters are great, too! In fact, they are perhaps the best bit. Genre savvy meets realism in a way that makes the characters believable even as they are obviously also characters. In a way, the story itself is the main character of the metanarrative.
And, as I said above, it works. The Adventures of Rania is effective, pleasant to read, and does not overstay its welcome overmuch. I greatly recommend giving it a try. It may not be for everyone, but those who like it will really enjoy it!
VireVeonixRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Great humor, good characters and in universe reasons for stuff to happen!
The characters also have a very detailed backstory.
Can recommend to anyone who understands humor.
Anyway, I gotta write something for the review to hit the 50 word mark.
Uhh, Pebble is peak.
Also love to spiders!
Who needs arachnophobia when you can have arachnophilia, amirite?
ElorieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just the first half of the first chapter, and I'm laughing.
I'm going to assume it only gets better, or at least maintains quality, given the generally high marks.
Might update with more insight later.
Reviews must be at least 50 words long
Reviews must be at least 50 words long
Makel GraxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Really comedic series where the characters act in a room with mirrors. This is to say, they don't just break the fourth wall; they check it out to look beyond, and hilarity ensues.
(Walls one, two, and three are mirrors because the builders ran out of concrete.)
Also, the epilogues are amazing.
ipavel83Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
As far as of Chapter 3 it best of stories of that kind, if there is such kind. Characters have actual depth behind them. Change of views that for me is often not interesting(because most authors have trouble to understand even one their character) is not irritating, but even good. There are jokes in story, a lot.
Entropy godness is the best for me so far.
NotVeryAnonymousNotVeryWriterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A nice, mostly laidback story about a Perfectly Normal Elf (the caps are important), doing Perfectly Normal Adventure Things. Also, absolutely hilarious. Go read it, it's great!
how many more words do I need to reach 50? Will this do? Nope. Words words words words words. My words are boring. Read WittyPsuedonym's words instead
Xest3Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This was thoroughly fun to read. And had me laughing out loud throughout the book. Usually when authors start combining ridiculous things together in an effort to trick the reader that they are being original it comes off like an edgy teenager who just picked up a pen. But this story was able to keep itself as original and fun to read
Patryk RysRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Bruh literally took concepts of concepts of idea of definition of personification of story and made that into a story.
Absolute madlad. Whats even more amazing that at the top everything still have in-universe explainations for everything that make sense and didn't break my suspense of disbelief. Marvelous.
Definitely gem. Not hidden mind you. Completely ordinary, perfectly normal gem. With perfectly normal backstory. That you should have no obligation to expect anything more from this perfectly normal gem.
Still, you should check it, just to be sure, you never know!
Random Dude 454Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Rania Mortal is a Perfectly Normal Elf. She set out to become an adventurer because of story books, and seems to think her reality works on narrative causality. Other than that, I have no clue what's going on with her, except being a Perfectly Normal Elf, right down to her 1.5 siblings. The story is mostly told from the perspective of the people that have to deal with Rania on a day to day basis.
AtroRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Largely I enjoyed this story. It has a lot more of a comical bent than anything else but it keeps moving and has a good sense of humor about it.
It’s very very meta, to the point that I consider it a problem with the story. It’s not enough to lampshade a trope, we have to reference it, then reflect on it, then explain it, then show it in use, then bring it all up again and repeat everything the next time it comes up. And sense most of the book seems to be in some way related to a trope in one way or the other it quickly becomes the entire story. It’s largely fun to read, but is definitely a lot much at times.
There’s a bit more but that’s spoiler territory. Worth saying that I still rated it well even with those issues.
Additionally the author eventually explains what’s going on. In far too much detail. It feels like it removes any urgency, any uncertainty and any mystery. It was an interesting background story, but I don’t think it was right for this story. I think they realized that needs some work and will likely remove or rework that section eventually.
The only other problem is a lot of Mary Sue characters. Really a lot of them.
There is a literal country that is as far as I can tell is a Mary Sue by being the best at everything with all problems solved with simple easy solutions. The number of improbably skilled entities cannot be overstated. But to a point it works, because the story never indicates that there should be much danger or drama anyway.
I’d suggest giving it a go. I’m not sure how long it’ll continue to be funny to me, but it is now and it’s well written so why not give it a shot and see how you feel.