The New Dark Lord

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Paladins summoned Silenos because they wanted the world saved, what he’s decided it needs is ruling.

After a deal with a demon goes wrong, Master Silenos, esteemed Fleshcrafter of House Shaiagrazni, keeper of the Auburn Flame, Conductor of Arts most Ancient and Lord of Hara’lguanta is cast into a primitive world of magic and steel.

There are two problems that loom over him.

One, an ancient evil Dark Caster who seeks to pillage and destroy all that this world holds dear.

Secondly, a populace that does not recognise him as their superior.

Silenos will fix both of these issues by becoming theNew Dark Lord.

What to expect:A powerful Villainous Necromancer.

Progression, Dark Comedy, Action, Highly competent Villain Mc.

Note:The Mc is a support type which over the course of the story will be adjusting to one on one combat.This is not a story where you can or should expect to see the MC immediately taking over the entire world. It explores the trials, progression and obstacles that come with cultures, ideologies and foreign magics clashing.

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Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2024
Author: Of Rantings and Ramblings

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 3.7/ 5.0
Followers: 1,687
Views: 135,930

Chapters(13 total)

What readers say about The New Dark Lord

“Loving it so far, and while - like many other reviews mentioned - the mc is extremely arrogant. It isn't actually baseless and entirely makes sense from a culture perspective. Even seeming mellow at times compared to my expectations, given his previous soci…”
AutophagiaRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“The characters and world building are very fun. Silenos comes from a technologically advanced magical meritocracy. He is then swept away to a medieval world with superstitious and primitive cultures. There, people are afraid of things like flesh crafting an…”
Joey MacaroniRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

AutophagiaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Loving it so far, and while - like many other reviews mentioned - the mc is extremely arrogant. It isn't actually baseless and entirely makes sense from a culture perspective. Even seeming mellow at times compared to my expectations, given his previous society.
Although yeah. The synopsis is misleading and while I still enjoy the story, it isn't what's advertised. Rather then kingdom building or conquest, we're only now seeing more use of necromancy . . . on the 60th chapter. I won't go into the specifics, but theres always one reason or another as to why he can't leverage it. With multiple plot holes that could've exponentially increased his power.
Nonetheless it's a good read for anyone who enjoys grim dark worlds, and edgy anti-heroes.
_____
So far I have noticed few, if any grammar errors - none appearing consistently.
The author has a unique and more formal(?) writing style, which fit's well with the protagonist. Although it also bleeds into POV's of other characters, breaking immersion a bit.
Character wise, the protagonist has plenty of depth and some amount of change throughout the story. While side characters feel unique and thought out, with POV passages proving interesting.
Story wise, I like the world building and how our protagonist progresses through the story. Although locations and different events feel a bit disconnected in hindsight.
Joey MacaroniRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The characters and world building are very fun. Silenos comes from a technologically advanced magical meritocracy. He is then swept away to a medieval world with superstitious and primitive cultures. There, people are afraid of things like flesh crafting and necromancy (what a bunch of wimps amirite). Most of Silenos' 'kit' is hampered by the locals as they would lynch him for using most of his abilities. This inspires no shortage of contempt in him. It's really fun to read how the characters rub off on each other.
BombertreborRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I love the premisse and the execution the way the main character is written makes me wish there where less thangents to other characters perspective and im reading everyday so if you have no problem with a little gore get into it it is a lot of fun to read.
EmpireofTrustRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Follow the Tale of the Dark Saviour, a mage brought down by his own hubris and dumped in a world lacking adequate sanitation or order.
It flows nicely with great fight scenes and snarls at people not doing the right thing(according to MC).
Big fish out of water crushing the helpless guppies in the puddle.
NameChosenWiselyRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Characters
In my opinion, the greatest part of the webnovel. Every character feels unique, and while there are a few stereotypes present, even they're executed in a way so that nothing feels stagnant. Members of Silenos's entourage are particularly well written, with their own thoughts and motivations. But I do have to admit that I have a few characters which I don't quite like.
Speaking of Silenos, the titular protagonist. I've seen a lot of hate thrown towards him for being arrogant, and I find that critique somewhat misplaced. He's not being arrogant, he's just that good (given enough prep time). He does get surprises here and there, but very few things can properly be a match to him. I do occasionally disagree with his actions, but the outcome is more or less interesting, so I don't mind. Glad that later chapters actually show that him being so brutal and being evil has its pros.
World
Imagine a generic isekai world, but its misogyny is obvious and there's a Dark Lord on the rise. Silenos's world isn't explored much, but the general jist of it is known.
Story
As the novel description depicts, the story is about Silenos and him bringing civilization to some barbaric and savage land. Exaggerated? Yes. Partly true? Also yes. What I can say without truly spoiling much is that, first book was more like a prologue to me, second is the process and the third would probably be the outcome (haven't got to that part yet) I really liked that character's actions have consequences, and they affect the story in some way. Pacing isn't too slow, but it does take a bit to get things going.
Writing
It's filled with pretty words, yes, and has very few mistakes. But if I'm being honest, it's also pretentious. I get it if it's Silenos speaking and the narration is following him, but having that many words just to describe a characters current predicament when fewer would suffice? Eh, overly flowery words are not my thing. Chapters are decent in length, though the frequent pov changes
WhitemanRoyal Road
★★★★ 3.5
Goated book love the evil mc I love the setting and the character only issue is the pov changes way to much and at some point makes it feel like the mc is not the main character that's my only dislike about this book it kinda feels like the mc doesn't exist for large parts of this book or feels as if he isn't central to what's happening in his life witch reads really really weird and the massive gaps were there is no view from his perspective is kinda bad in my opion but I hope the author makes more chapters from the mcs veiw
luminariumRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Story:
Story starts off great, however it does not quite fulfill the premise in the summary, which was that the protagonist would become the dark lord (or at least take actions that clearly indicate that he's on the path to becoming one).
Going off the premise, I thought this would be a story where the protagonist completely one-sidedly crushes all opposition, sets himself up as dictator within the first ten chapters, and then proceeds from there, changing his realm to fit his fancies. But he doesn't do any of that.
Instead, for some reason he's off on a hunt to collect allies, on a bunch of thriller-style quests/encounters. Even though per the premise, he's supposed to be way more powerful than everyone else in the setting, and so you'd think that shouldn't be necessary. Especially if he's going to become the dark lord, which is not supposed to have equals or even companions. Yet he's doing this. Why? The story doesn't really explain this, which inadvertently makes the protagonist look foolish.
Furthermore, for some reason the enemies he faces are as powerful or even more powerful than he is, which contradicts the premise, and makes it so that he can't really shine.
Character:
Considering how the protagonist keeps getting one-upped by his opponents, his hubris makes no sense. You'd think he'd change to be more humble after getting defeated several times in a row but nope, not a chance.
The other characters have good interpersonal chemistry and feel distinctive, so in that sense it's well done.
Style:
The story goes deep into the specifics / theorycrafting of the magic that the protagonist uses (fleshcrafting), which is interesting, as I've not seen any other story go this deep into fleshcrafting theorycrafting. However, it's only interesting up to a point. However this story goes way beyond that, so that it doesn't quite seem like fleshcrafting any more (it's not plausible to get cannons out of fleshcrafting no matter how you spin it). It becomes way too carried aw
EshmatarelRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
The first thing that needs to be said is that the story doesn’t seem to be true to the synopsis, in several senses - The MC is more selfish neutral in disposition than evil, and he makes no attempt at kingdom building.
The first, I don’t think is a big problem, except for the lack of follow through. MC doesn’t care for human life and seems to look down upon others. Yet it seems that circumstances always lead to him not actually doing anything evil in practice, just necromancy which is considered dark.
There are only so many times that he can “be one moment away from simply doing away with the fool in front of him” before the never-fulfilled threat loses its purpose. Maybe a few dead innocent guards would hammer home that the MC is evil, rather than us being told that through narration and internal monologue.
The second point is… disappointing. The story itself isn’t bad, it’s well written and interesting, it just isn’t what I thought I would read based on what was advertised. Take from that what you will, but it’s still enjoyable.
The supporting characters are a mixed bag, the slowly spiraling paladin is a highlight. On the other end of the spectrum, the first companion they recruit is insufferable to the point of being unreadable.
The world is misogynistic to the extreme, and women aren’t allowed to be spellcasters.
When they recruit a mage, he remains obtusely misogynistic beyond any sense. After weeks of travel together and exposure to the world outside of the mage city, he can only refer to the female paladin as Bitch or Whore.
For being smart, he sure isn’t learning, and the MC who is usually quick to correct misconceptions seems to let the mage keep believing that women are worthless, even though the MC himself explicitly disagrees.
I’m unsure whether it’s supposed to be played for laughs, or some sort of shock value, or the brutal reality of having to cooperate with bad people. The bottom line though is that it quickly becomes agonizing to read his PoV and le
PlatiusmanRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I think I'm most disappointed with how this doesn't live up to what the synopsis explicitly states to expect.
His fleshcrafting never makes him strong enough to go to toe-to-toe with the real strong ones. What's even the point of fleshcrafting himself when strengthening magic apparently blows it out if the park. It just makes his avenue of magic seem weaker than others and his supposed "powerful magic power" seem impotent.
His necromancy is often ignored, especially during his down time when he should have time to prepare.
If his strength is being a prepared unit commander and not what he has been doing, then fuck the hero list, he should be preparing. I see 0 reasons he should feel compelled to go on a hero hunting race instead of building strength and insurances in this brand new world he's stuck in.
Dude could literally walk into most cities, kill the people in charge and resurrect them to give a facade of normalcy, and then begin his preparations. These are all things already shown to be possible in-story. Instead he's convinced he needs to help find heroes for some bum kingdom to fight the dark lord that he has no reason to be in conflict with. He has not shown strong necromancy since the very first creation, he spends half his time getting ambushed or retreating, and has made 0 decisions that paint him as the "real dark lord", someone that haa altered their brain for enhanced cognition, or even someone that has survived 150 years in a competitive environment.
There has been no "teaching everyone the true meaning of evil one step at a time" unless that meaning happens to be getting your ass handed to you everywhere you go, and there is definitely no "unchecked ego" when his ego is quite literally checked constantly and then he makes excuses to back down. If this novel was focused on an arrogant apprentice of his House, then I could see a talented but inexperienced caster from a much stronger world acting like this, instead it's the disappointing performance of
BenubirdRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
As of chapter 22, it's become pretty clear that the protagonist's whole thing of coming from a superior society, is entirely in his head; he's actually about on par with the locals, maybe a little weaker, and his original home is only a slightly more advanced.
Which is an interesting take and might be a good story, but it's not the one the description lead me to expect. I suspect the whole thing is meant to be a sort of unreliable-narrator art piece, which is cool but not what I want to read, so I'm only giving 3 stars for the good writing. The description is not the place for fancy fakery; keep it to the story.