The Thirteenth God

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Taking down a god isn’t easy… In order to escape a prison at the edge of the world, con artist Kalsis Chiroptera agrees to do the impossible: overthrow the Princeps, the immortal ruler of all mankind. What? It seemed like a good idea at the time! With only a handful of survivors by his side (plus a cheerfully murderous golem girl), Kal has a long way to go before he’s ready to challenge an empire. He’ll need allies, weapons, and warships to start a revolution, plus an ancient mecha that feeds on the very bones of the world to grow stronger. Together, it might be enough to give Kal a chance against the mighty battleships of the imperial navy. But Kal isn’t the only one with access to legendary war machines…Final FantasymeetsMad Maxin a military progression fantasy for fans ofDungeon Crawler CarlandGurren Lagann. What to expect:-Murder!-military/group progression (i.e. a group of losers go from dodging cannibal bikers to building a fleet of starships to kill God by series end)-magitech, sandships, guns and explosions-mecha action and progression (starting about halfway through book one)-Dark comedy-Giant insects-Down with the empire-Murder!-Gooey bio-magic-Talking skulls-Light romance-No harem-Murder! Chapters 1,000-2,000 words. First 20k words dropping throughout the day on January 13th! New chapter daily Jan 14th-Feb 13th at 12:13 PM EST. MWF schedule starts Feb 16th.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2026
Author: Django Wexler

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 1,529
Views: 129,904

What readers say about The Thirteenth God

“One of the most underrated stories on RR these days. Style: Very well written, extremely fun, short chapters that pack a punch thrice a week, this has been a series I'm constantly looking forward to getting another fix of. Story: A city-born trickster prota…”
ahasversRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“For the 20ish chapters I have read the story is griping me and the characters are fun. The world seems to have been built out but we still don't have much information about it which I think is intentional by the author. I am eagerly awaiting to come back to…”
VevericARoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(9)

ahasversRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of the most underrated stories on RR these days.
Style: Very well written, extremely fun, short chapters that pack a punch thrice a week, this has been a series I'm constantly looking forward to getting another fix of.
Story: A city-born trickster protagonist conning and heisting his way through a desert full of cannibals, and getting caught in all sorts of plots that he ends up working through by sheer audacity and bluster, totally confusing the masterminds of Byzantine court schemes happening a continent away?
Quirky worldbuilding where technology is largely based on beetles and magic water, with prisons jutting out the side of the world (which is obviously flat)?
That all makes for a fun, not-too-tropey mix of concepts that are rarely seen together, and I'm all for it.
Characters: Not one of those weak to strong protagonists, just figuring out how to always confuse people and Summon Bigger Fish (or cute little murderbots) to deal with his problems, but doing so with great aplomb. The secondary cast is a lovely gallery of weirdos.
Grammar: Yes.
Summary: This for me hits the same spot as a few other excellent underdogs on this website, such as Infernal Investigations -- professional-level, fun, creative stories that deserve all your attention. Maybe not as ambitious as my "god tier" RR favorites (Peculiar Soul, Pale Lights...), but excellent in its category, and rated accordingly.
VevericARoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
For the 20ish chapters I have read the story is griping me and the characters are fun. The world seems to have been built out but we still don't have much information about it which I think is intentional by the author. I am eagerly awaiting to come back to thisnpiece once it has more chapters as I find the chapters too short for my liking to keep up with it on a chapter to chapter basis.
CognosticonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Reviewed at chapter 22; there's about a quarter of a novel finished, so this is a good time for an early review. Ratings are preliminary, as properly judging characterization and story requires more time, but I'd expect good things based on this start.
Story: The story description clearly lays out what it is and isn't, and the execution is a fun post-apocalyptic romp. Depending on your tastes in pacing, it may take a while for the hook and the protagonist to come into his own, but if you're charmed by the humor and the flair for the dramatic, you'll be in good hands from the start.
Character: The protagonist is a rogue who's entertaining on his own, but gets even more so once he meets a talking skull and a cheerful murder golem. There's a lot of fun banter in this one before they get engaged in their first major conflict (with cannibal raiders, naturally). The number of characters explodes at a certain point, but that seems about right for juggling a larger cast over the course of a novel.
Style: Smoothly-written and fast-paced in general. Worldbuilding isn't a category here, but the story deserves credit for fleshing out its setting without clumsy exposition.
Grammar: Strong, as you'd expect from a professional author.
In conclusion, murder!
LydiebirdRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
TLDR: Came here on the recommendation of mecanimus, I am not disappointed. Will be adding this to my RR rotation.
Style:
Excellent. I love dark humor and dry wit. Kals POV is entertaining and a good entry to the world. No info dumping, relevant details are given as needed as we are introduced to the world.
Story:
This is honestly on me for not reading the synopsis closely but I thought it was a magic kind of progression and kinda disappointed.
Otherwise, the story so far is excellent. Probably will be seeing this on rising stars in a bit and top rated not too long after.
World building is fun and fresh and I am excited to learn more.
Grammar:
Excellent.
Character:
My only note is that the characters are a bit too chill about dying and getting eaten by cannibals, but what do I know.
Kal our main guy is a trust fund baby con artist with a penchant for danger who definitely did not deserve jail for a piano.
Mercy is the cutest and most innocent character and definitely has done nothing bad her entire life.
Too soon to judge about the other characters but they seemed too cooperative for a supposed bunch of criminals. We shall see how it shapes out.
MateuszRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I bounce off a lot of stories in the first few chapters, but this one held my attention all the way through the current content. The story doesn't have a ton of tropes typical of Royal Road fics, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you're looking for. For me, at least, it's refreshing, even if I also like OP archmages. The tags and summary are a pretty accurate representation of what the story is like so far.
Right away, we get desert-y Mad Max action with a bit of mysterious ancient magic thrown in. The pacing is fast, but the author is really adept at character voice and weaving in setting details amidst all the action, so it never feels like the pacing comes at the cost of anything. An early reviewer said this story is in media res, but it's really not, at least not in the "I bet you're wondering how I ended up in this situation" rewind sense. So if you dislike that storytelling device, don't worry about it.
Kal is a likeable main character so far, and there's lots of room for further development. I'm curious to see where the story will go with it. Other characters also manage to be very memorable, like Grey and Mercy and Agni and Theo, which is impressive considering the word count is pretty small right now.
The setting is a plus. It's bizarre in the best way, with sandships and night-suns and shapeshifting murder statues. But none of it feels thrown in thoughtlessly, and even though the setting has an unpredictable element to it, it's handled in a very grounded and logical way. It's the kind of place that makes you curious enough to want to explore.
PotassiumRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I have previously read other, traditionally published, books from this author, so when I saw this fiction, I was willing to give it a try. We start the story in the middle of action, with no info dumps giving us context, but gradually, things are revealed to the reader. The plot appears interesting, the MC is compelling. As expected of a professional author, the grammar is excellent.
TarantianRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I nearly missed this before Sarah Lin gave it a recommendation, then when I gave it a second shot, I blitzed through it. There's a lot to like and it gets better as more characters show up.
There are some things I'm not sure about, so I'll revisit this review later. 5 stars for now, good start.
FaercesRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
I will admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the opening chapters. I was debating on putting this down (sue me yeah whatever goldfish attention span yadda yadda yadda), but I'm beyond glad I pushed through!
The quality in this absolutely shines, the dialogue is so snappy and the banter back and forth has a level of wit you rarely see in this space. You could definitely just get lost in just the character interactions alone.
The comedy may or may not land, it really depends on how you can tolerate the style of writing. I don't really have a word to describe it, it's quite loose and conversational, which isn't necessarily a bad thing until you see a quip or two that just kind of makes your eyes roll a bit.
I wouldn't say the concept is the most unique thing I've ever seen, but it's executed really well and definitely stands out on RR!
Despite being relatively short, I would argue that this is already one of the better sci-fi works on this site to be honest. Everything just feels like it wants to explode out of the page; we got sand ships, raids and camps, post-apocalyptic confusion of modern technology, disembodied voices telling you that there are far greater things at play, and a character named erasmusz who talks with a permanent lisp with s' and z' in a quirky homage to his name. It's a very mad-maxish kind of take on fleetbuilding, which honestly isn't my cup of tea, but I really can't argue against how much I enjoyed reading this lol.
Other than that my only major complaint is the chapter length being the equivalent of a sneeze, like ooh! a new chapter! aaand.. it's done.
JuneauRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Ok, firstly, the world, the idea and the story are great.
The world feels relatively fresh and where we are has the feels of Mad Max, borders civilisation.
The characters all feel unique, well written and thought out.
There hasn't been any silly plot armour says XYX, everything feels well thought out.
But, for a site like RR, the chapter length is a genuine negative that pulls you away.
Sometimes it feels like what should be a single scene, is split over multiple chapters, but then we have multiple chapters which cover a lot of ground very quickly. In one scenario it felt like a conversation had just started, and then... we had to wait for the next chapter for the conversion to end.
But then you get the most recent chapter at time of writing, the interlude, which actually covers a full scene and feels like a chapter with a decent length.
Admittedly I am a fan of Chapters having weight, and a decent amount of content.
So if youre like me, and would except anything from 10 to 30 chapters in a book, then give this one a delay. Becaise it feels like well be a hundred chapters in and half way through a book.