The Four Horsemen

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Four resurrected souls. One Devil’s Pact. One final chance.

Famine, known as Petor in his previous life, joins forces with the legendary figures of Conquest, Death, and War.

Together, they form the resurrected Four Horsemen, their lives reignited by a devil’s pact. Resurrected in the bowels of a forgotten temple, buried under a city in the midst of a siege, they’ll have to find a way out.

The devil’s deals are always double edged, while they breathe once more their cultivation is gone. To recover it, they’ll have to use all of their skills to craft and fight.

Beyond the city’s walls the devil’s contracts await them. Promising gold and access to their devil’s wares. Gear that could change their fates.

If they fail, there is no devil waiting to snatch up their souls—no chance for them to rewrite the last line in their stories.

We have all the things your good parents warned you about; combat, swearing, associates to friends, crafting, multiple worlds, multiple cities, multiple planes, non-human races. This is going to be a LONG series and our characters are moving around a lot, so some characters we will only see once or twice. I'm known for my short cast... ahem..

This book is a fantasy RPG. There is leveling up, though as you know me, it's got that good ole cultivation twist.

We're putting this out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays at a minimum! We'll be publishing the rough draft here on Royal Road. We do several passes and well I might change around whole sections of the thing before it comes out on Ream (our subscription platform) or on bookstores.

Hope you enjoy the book, the characters and your adventures! If you could, please leave a rating, or a review, I really appreciate it! Now stop reading this and get into the story dang it!!

Interested in audio? Can grab it over on Audible!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Four-Horsemen-Audiobook/B0D6ZDR5J2

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Michael Chatfield

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 681
Views: 90,670

What readers say about The Four Horsemen

“Are you looking for a decent combat-heavy story featuring interesting & powerful characters spiced with a bit of smithing, trading, and magic? If yes, then this story might be a pick for you, provided you are willing to overlook some issues. Let's address t…”
Reader1587Royal Road5.0 / 5
“A Paladin, a Pirate, a Suit of Armor, and a Merchant walk into the Underworld. Stop me if you've heard this joke before. So let's talk about the story: We are only 7 chapters in and I can already tell that the story setup is made for a good time. Take four…”
SnappyDragonRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(4)

Reader1587Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Are you looking for a decent combat-heavy story featuring interesting & powerful characters spiced with a bit of smithing, trading, and magic?
If yes, then this story might be a pick for you, provided you are willing to overlook some issues.
Let's address the weakest point first.
Grammar: noticeably lacking in some chapters, and typos in roughly 10% of chapters give you a pause to think twice about the context. I guess the necessary editing must have been done in the commercially available Kindle version.
Style: the author is mixing Xianxia, RPG, DnD, and a tiny bit of MtG elements together, so the result was at first quite confusing to me. Characters power is ranked by the subjective color of their core, but adventurers rank on a metal scale (copper, iron, etc.), and items have their own attribute-based ranking. The author appeared to have lost track of a power scale at times and incorrectly ranked his characters in a few chapters at the beginning. Also, trading and haggling could be done a bit better, but they are slowly improving in subsequent chapters.
Story: a classical conflict of a person against the god(s) with revenge motives. Four notorious characters get a new chance at life with a little catch. Bound by a contract with a shady interplanar trader, they are to become his personal troubleshooters in the known universe. He named the party after the Apocalypse Riders, but that moniker is unknown in the storyverse yet, so it is up to our four heroes and heroines to give it a meaning. I am very much looking forward to where their epic adventures will lead them in the future.
Characters: All the characters are very competent, seasoned fighters and mages, possessing storage items loaded with weapons, artifacts, and materials for various campaigns. Obviously, this is not enough to get back at the gods who wronged them, so they are very dedicated to growth and mutual teamwork. It was very pleasant to see the trust issues resolved very effectively at the beginning.
SnappyDragonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A Paladin, a Pirate, a Suit of Armor, and a Merchant walk into the Underworld. Stop me if you've heard this joke before.
So let's talk about the story:
We are only 7 chapters in and I can already tell that the story setup is made for a good time. Take four different heroes, from four different worlds, each with a bone to pick with the gods. Start them off with some resources, but the ability to return to their old heights of power and beyond. Send them to various worlds across the multiverse.
The story setup is familiar, think Stargate, Star Trek, Sliders. You have a team of people that get to go to new worlds each episode. But, the twist is, instead of Sci-Fi, it’s Fantasy, and these are each the epic hero (Or antihero) of their own story, driven by vengeance or purpose. Add in a power progression element and boom, you have a heck of a lot of potential.
It's early yet to judge the story as a whole, but the story setup makes this story worth watching.
Characters:
Yes. This story has set up four interesting characters, hinting at their past and why they interact with the world in the way they do. This story promises the reader that we will find out more about their past and goals as we go.
Also, Mya is the best character. I will fight you! And so will she!
Style:
The Worldbuilding is fun, there are some cool gimmicks in the magic and cultures that I really want to see further explored. Especially where it comes to characters, The magic utilized by Valter and Mya in particular makes me sit up and wonder where it came from and what they will do with it.
Prose, the voice is unique but there is definitely an element of personal preference for me. At times I’ll look at a sentence and think, “Hey I might like it better if it's phrased differently.
Grammar:
Overall, good. There is the occasional error which I’ll chalk up to the serialization writing and release speed. I expect these mistakes to disappear eventually, the author has responded to feedback positively, so this s
Frozen sunRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is a good story that has a balance between slice of life and adventures/ action as It has times where both where needed to make this book feel like I am not just reading it but experiencing it with the characters.
I know this is my personal preference but I feel like Petor is missing something unique that all other characters seem to have, maybe a surviving a friend or family member that would paint a picture of who Petor was as a person before the spear and shield...
nzswc3iRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I really like this story, the storytelling, the world, the characters... There are some imperfections, but I really like the story.
I think the litrpg tag should not be applied to it tho, it's more of a gamelit story, unless this point will be expanded later.
Let's start with the negative point. The style. It's a bit unclear sometimes if there's a cut, a shift in point of view or a time-skip. Other than that, for the most part, the sentences reads smoothly. It's a bit rough sometimes tho (some sentences should be rephrased for clarity). The point of view change (it's a third person story) is well done and not intrusive.
For me tho, it's not a deal breaker and would gladly continue reading the story, as it reads nicely most of the time and the positive points largely outweigh the negatives of this.
The grammar is ok. Not perfect, a few mistakes here and there, but not that much.
The characters. So far, it's an easy 5 out of 5. I like their personalities, how their backgrounds slowly unfold and give more flesh to their personalities or goals. The story is really about the 4 mc, and this point is so far really well done.
The story and world are interesting. A lot of unknowns and mystery still, but it seems well fleshed-out and compelling.
I'll probably do a second pass on that review, as it's pretty late and I cannot think straight anymore...