The Lich Queen [Empire Builder]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Lich Queen When Sepharin K. Vrost awakens in an unfamiliar world, she’s no longer the ruler of Necron’s eternal night—but the Warden of a crumbling northern border in a frozen land besieged by monsters. Burdened with a new mortal body, Sepharin must wield forbidden necromancy and frost magic to resurrect the fallen as her undead soldiers. But enemies press against the Wall, her people despise her methods, and her estranged brother—devout and disgusted by her power—demands she relinquish it. Sepharin has only one option: conquer death itself and defend her realm. After all, true queens never rest in peace. Updates twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: YoruTsubasa

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 1,944
Views: 285,355

What readers say about The Lich Queen [Empire Builder]

“To preface this is the first review I am dedicating time to, of hopefully more to come across Royal Road. I am not a professional, and so I have highlighted below 4 sections important to me when I read fiction. Story: The story is not groundbreaking, it doe…”
Chapter1KingRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Very immersive dark fantasy. Love the snowflake separators and the banner header. I don't really get why there's a game system, but it's still the very beginning (when I'm writing this) so that doesn't influence this review yet. Overall I'm looking forward…”
Hey kiddoRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

Chapter1KingRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
To preface this is the first review I am dedicating time to, of hopefully more to come across Royal Road.
I am not a professional, and so I have highlighted below 4 sections important to me when I read fiction.
Story: The story is not groundbreaking, it doesn't reinvent the wheel, and in my opinion it doesn't have to. It has elements everyone in the genre loves: castles, fighting, swords, monsters, etc. The fact I binge-read this from 23:00 pm till 4am its clear to say its something that captivates and sucks you in. To that conclusion dear Author: whatever you're doing, keep at it!
Characters: Interesting characters, the MC is enjoyable (and thankfully not jarring). The side characters are fine - and most importantly it wasn't hard to make their names memorable, something I struggled with when reading other novels, meaning, the story is interesting enough for me to remember. So again, great work!
Enjoyability: Personally, it scratches the itch for 'kingdom-building' and fantasy. So for me, this has been a 10/10 so far!
Readability: No issues at all. Reads well, the author clearly puts effort in their writing, even the presentation of the chapter is great.
All in all, thank you for your effort. I once tried to write something myself and I know how challenging, and time consuming it is. So keep it up!
Hey kiddoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Very immersive dark fantasy. Love the snowflake separators and the banner header. I don't really get why there's a game system, but it's still the very beginning (when I'm writing this) so that doesn't influence this review yet.
Overall I'm looking forward to getting to know the lore and seeing the size of her army. I just wish the autor picks up the pace and writes faster.😂
Kha'SziaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Really enjoyable read all-around. Great characters MC in particular is very likable, the power system seems to be quite good and the writing is pretty good too.
I really hope this story continues since it looks like the author tends to drop stories quite a bit. So please write more of this one, I really like it
Logan HailRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Still early into the story, but so far everything is interesting. I like that the Mc isn't overpowered in the beginning not that I have anything against overpowered Mcs. So far the setting of the story is very interesting, a very powerful being gets transmigrated into another world with now moderate a power level.
Seriously RR should seriously make it that you can write a shorter review cause sometimes I just don't have 50 words prepared for the review.
Anyway it's a must read novel and I hope the novel gets a good audience so come read the story.
NightshadeBlossomRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
My overall score for this work is 5/5. There is a lot of promising build up, but also some stumbles here and there.
In terms of style, this book has a lot. The frozen north is a classic trope and for good reason, anyone familiar with it can practically feel the cold. Enough detail is given to allow the reader to imagine a detailed duchy, but without tedious description. Also, despite my initial worries, this story has yet to borrow from either Warcraft or Game of Thrones and instead creates a new world.
With respect to the story and its stumbles. Let me first say, as much as I find the world well realized, the original Necron world seems significantly more interesting. I would love to see more of the original world either in a rewrite or in flashbacks. I found it a little dissonant that a world/maybe space conquering empress would have so much difficulty adjusting to the position of Warden. It's intimated that her husband was familiar with this world as well, so I didnt expect her to be completely lost. MC reads much more like an earthling experiencing isekai than a ruthless and alien queen. This is my biggest gripe, but there are a couple of other minor issues. Namely, some of the awkward combat/sparring scenes in the later chapters. They were pretty forced when the MC has bigger things to worry about.
The second biggest stumbling block is with the magic system, even the MC calls it out. What point does the system serve in the story? At the moment it is basically useless outside of nonspecifically upgrading her undead units. The descriptors in the system dont accurately describe her capabilities, and she isnt using it to upgrade herself either. Not to mention, didn't she have a way to improve her minions without the system in her previous life? Hoping some of this can get smoothed out.
Grammar, its acceptable, there is not much to say here. I noticed a few awkward phrases out of 19 chapters which is plenty accurate.
Character, its a little flat, but could improve
TwinkieMcGooRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was a huge fan of this when i first read it a little under a year ago and was sad when it was on hiatus, and now that this title is back, I feel comfortable enough to say this series is 1000% percent worth reading, all the characters are deep and feel incredibly distinct and are very well written, as is the entire book! I TRULY cannot recommend this book enough to any fan of fantasy. I think this book and writer are so good, and I felt incredibly when they were on hiatus and have been eagerly awaiting this series return 😊
JagernachtRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So far a very interesting concept done rather well. The pacing is fluid without rushing, and the story is fleshing out superbly. The writing is also excellent and I find myself unable to stop reading. A very gripping, yet easy to ease into story that leaves the reader wanting more. I would love to see this as a TV series! (Just in case Amazon and/or Netflix is paying attention...)
Justin alexanderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Very interesting. MC is at first very shallow, but it is hidden within a very depth of character. Haven't read a MC like this in a long time. Very hypnotic and tantalizing. Story flows fast, but doesn't seem to skip or miss. Very good writing flow. This is going to be a very good story to continue to read. Excellent set ups and opposing views, keeps ones opinions thinking. Looking forward to character development and seeing where the aurthor is taking us.
gln9Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Still very early in the story, given that the story is only eleven chapters deep by now, but I sure like what I am seeing thus far.
So far we have seen little of the setting and characters, being concerned with more immediately pressing matters, but what little there has been was pretty interesting. A (formerly) overpowered MC getting transmigrated with a power reset is not all that uncommon, and a lot of the story's attractiveness for me in the future will depend on her not becoming so stupidly OP that most challenges get trivialised, but frost and necromancy are an interesting powerset and I am looking forward to where she takes those abilities. I like the MC so far - she's treading a good line, neither being an unfeeling lord of undeath nor just a normal lass who just happens to have frost and necro powers, neither being too overpowered nor being weak at the outset. Will be interesting to see how she deals with the moral rejection of her powers by her surroundings.
No real empire-building this early in, but some social dynamics are already being established. Those foundations look fine to me so far, but the real litmus test is yet to come. Many empire builders fail my expectations by having to cheat to explain their MC's success, either making them overpowered or turning everyone else into idiots so that the MC is the one-eyed amongst the blind. So far I am not seeing hints of either, which bodes well.
Oh yeah, and the story is well written, too, in every respect. Grammar, word choice, whatever, nothing to complain. Combat depiction, dialogue, internal monologue, all holds up well.
Now stop reading my yapping and read the story instead!
HollexRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
This story is good in itself, with a good plot, good events and a very good cast of characters, and if it weren't for the betrayed expectations, it would probably be a 4 or 5-star story for me.
But that's the problem: betrayed expectations, and on top of that, it's double. The first is that this story is NOT an empire builder type, at least not yet in chapter 48. It's simply a disparate group of heroes on various adventures with the protagonist being a necromancer/ice mage. In this case, I was expecting more empire management events, gathering armies, conquests, politics, conspiracies... etc.
The other thing that disappointed me is the protagonist and how the world reacts to her. The protagonist is a lich queen who has turned her former world into a tomb where only the dead walk (for decades and possibly centuries), but are you telling me that on the first day after her reincarnation, after her first battle, she starts comforting a girl for losing her family? Or that her brother, who was very opposed to the protagonist using necromancy, changes his mind in less than 10 chapters and accepts it as a necessary evil to save lives?
I expected more: like a lich who reincarnates as a human and has trouble acting and understanding the feelings of the living, trying to solve the problems of her territory with the undead (hunger? The dead don't need to eat. Disease? The dead don't get sick). A more fanatical brother who strongly opposes the use of necromancy, and much more story that is focused empire building.
But even so, the story is quite solid and I would recommend it, just don't expect a protagonist with a Litch personality or a story that is focused (so far as I've read) on empire building.