The Anvil of the Heartlands

Four kingdoms, three Crusades, and countless lives lost… the troglin hordes have a lot to answer for—But why areyouthe one called upon to do the asking?

In the six decades since the appearance of the troglin swarm, the House of the Nine Virtues has launched three separate Crusades in an attempt to reclaim the now trog-infested lands of the erstwhile Southern Suzerainties. They have all failed. For the last fifty years, the only thing preventing the swarm's further northward expansion has been the fortified mountain passes into the Heartlands Kingdoms.

Now, a mysterious organization and their 'Emissaries' are trying to unite the troglin chieftains and spark an organized invasion by gifting them the means to breach these fortifications. But as political turmoil across human civilization continues to escalate, it falls to a single freshly-rebuilt adventurer guild to stand in the way of the Emissaries and their goal of a united troglin horde.

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

What To Expect:• Fantasy, magic, adventurers, lots of unique monsters, and too much worldbuilding.• GameLit—Presents as a game with dialogue options and RPG elements.Slowly spins up into a LitRPG, but maybe not really a traditional one?(there's no System, everything is justified in-universe)• Long-form roster building with lots of characters and team-oriented battles.• A smattering of comedy and romance.• Mature characters. But also silliness.• Occasional polls for small things like pet names, investigation options…• A grounded fantasy universe that can be explored through a variety of additional materials.

Author's note:This work was built around the roster-building aspect—getting to know your adventurers and staff, watching them grow in both strength and character, and seeing them come together in both team battles and in their relationships outside of their assignments. In that sense it is very much inspired by games like Fire Emblem.But my vision for developing that to its fullest also demanded that I start at theverybeginning, and it is taking alongtime for the main plot to kick in. That said, even these early chapters are meant to be enjoyable and filled with their own appeal—lightweight humor and fun character interactions, and for those paying attention there's plenty of plot setup, minor intrigue, and curious worldbuilding going on. But that is where ymmv the most—whether or not this work is enjoyable on a chapter-to-chapter basis. So if you get to Scena 1.07 and find yourself enjoying the writing and the characters and all the dialogue, you have alotto look forward to. But if you find it to be a drag, then the eventual plot isn't going to be able to save it for you, and for that I apologize.Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

P.S. The prelude is in fact story-critical, you're just not expected to knowwhyuntil the end.

P.P.S. Vote in the darn polls, some of the investigation options can open up side plots!