The Wyrms of &alon

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A fungal plague of apocalyptic proportions has come to Dr. GennethHowle's world, and he and his colleagues at the West Elpeck Medical Center are duty-bound to fight it till the end. But how does medical science combat a disease that defies the laws of nature? How do you treat a plague that slowly transforms some of the infected into psychokinetic lindwurms? And how does Genneth hold true to his principles when he, too, begins to undergo the change?

As Genneth wrestles with these horrors, he is visited by an amnesiac spirit who no one else seems to see. She's come to save the people of Genneth's world, before the darkness destroys them all.

And she needs his help.

Patreon:Click herefor more chapters, or if you just want to support the author!

Discord: The Exarium omniverse now has aDiscord Server! Come if you wanna chat with me or other fans this is the place to go. I also help with math homework.

Or, you know, we can just want to hang out.

How to tell if you will enjoy this story: Do you want to watch a guy slowly transform into a magical fungal lindwurm while the world meets its end? Have you ever watched a medical drama on TV and thought, "boy, this could sure use demons, a magic sword, and cosmic horror?" If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", thenThe Wyrms of &alonis right up your alley!

What you can expect:

• Somethingcompletelydifferent.

• A literary (science-)fantasy story with high quality prose that defiesallthe genres.

• A story that gradually gets more and more (and more!) fantastical as it plays out. Take a glance atChapter 63.1for an example, to see what I mean; no need to worry about spoilers here. And that's barely the tip of the fantasy iceberg.

• World-building, magic systems, and deep lore over a decade in the making. (This is the first story in a grand, interconnected series of stories.)

• Transformation & body horror.

• Hospital medical drama (as seen on TV), with lots of scientific details.

• SLOW BURN—but the temperature only rises.

• The MC is a dorky, 40-something-year-old neuropsychiatrist / struggling family man. He's obsessed with manga, loves pangolins, plays the clarinet, and has strong opinions about action RPGs vs. turn-based RPGs.

• A fictional world inspired by mid-20th century USA retrofuturism (kinda like pre-apocalypseFallout).

Release Schedule: My chapters range from 5k to 10k words, but I will be posting them in 1.5k ~ 2.5k-long pieces here on RR.

I post full story chapters (three to five RR chapters' worth of content) onMondaysandThursdays.

Note: All the tags are relevant, though they may take a while for them to appear in the story.

Other Note: The cover is by the lovely, spectacularly talentedKittraMcBriar.

Other Other Note: TheContent Warningsfor this story include (but are not necessarily limited to, because there's a lot, and I might forget): people being sedated/drugged against their will, predatory religious organizations, religious fundamentalism, terrorism (particularly of the kind induced by religious fundamentalism), cannibalism, extreme gore; at one point, a guy's head explodes; body horror, a lengthy discussion of nematodes, abortion, autopsies, suicide & self-harm, smoking, animals being harmed, the Japanese language, video games, spell slots, manga/anime; satire of US politics, particularly circa 2020; LGBTQ+ content, hummingbird-related violence, pangolin-related violence, voxel graphics,somuch body horror, cults, fictional Christianity (especiallyfictional Catholicism), the melody of the song "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes", atheism, death, death of loved ones, death of children, death of old people, death of young people, extreme violence, lobotomies, yet more body horror, the eating of plastic, the eating of furniture, the eating of biomedical waste, the eating of ice cream sandwiches, and the eating of protein bars. Vast quantities of (liquid) ammonia. Sexual violence is mentioned at one point, but never shown or described. (I will add more if I can think of any.)

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: M.C. Siegel

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 330
Views: 685,046

Reviews

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Community Reviews(9)

BlueRaven889Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a review of the whole of part 1, which I obtained by contributing to the author's patreon.
I very much enjoyed this story. I've never read a serialized work of fiction before, and frankly, I was reluctant to start one. However, there's nothing to fear with this story. In almost every way it's as solid as a genuine novel you can find at a book store - likely better than a lot of things you'd find in there, in fact.
Firstly, I'll sing the story's praises: The Wyrms of &alon (TWo&) is endlessly fascinating. There's worldbuilding presented at every corner, and almost all of it is interesting and makes the world feel bustling and alive. The different countries, ethnicities, politics, debates, and other details feel very in-depth and well thought out.
The characters, too, feel interesting. There's tons of them; towards the beginning it feels like there's at least one character introduced every page. While some might find this to be a con, I certainly don't; almost every single one of these characters are relevant to the story, even if it can be a bit difficult to keep them all straight in your head.
The story is fascinating. It's 90% medical drama and 10% weird stuff happening to the main character, Genneth Howle. I've never read a medical drama before, but this one easily captured my attention. The details of a hospital workplace are very interesting and feel realistic, from my non-professional opinion. The story is always twisting and turning, and though it can sometimes feel like it's not going somewhere: don't worry. It is.
Lastly, the details: the grammer is perfect and there's very few mistakes that I could spot throughout the story (minus a few very, very minor nitpicky things, like missing periods or "s).
Then there's the cons. I, personally, don't have too many of these, and almost all of them can probably be summed up to one thing: The story takes a while. It's a slow burn for sure. There's a lot of characters, and as it slowly ramps up you might be left
Second_SolRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The main plot of Wyrms so far depicts how an advanced society deals with a sudden introduction of supernatural elements, something I enjoy very much.
The story does tend to tell more than it shows, though this is due to the sheer amount of lore there is. The pacing can be slow, and sometimes it can feel like an info-dump, but there's clearly a very intricately designed world with a rich history. The author has clearly done a ridiculous amount of research and planning, something reflected in the history, science (mostly medical), and the culture of the world.
I should note that the POV does sometimes shift between chapters, and that can make it a little difficult to get your bearings.
The grammar is just about impeccable. No faults here.
There is a huge cast of characters, many with their own motivations and desires. A few of the minor ones can feel more like archetypes than characters, but that's not exactly unrealistic either.
The main character is a kind-hearted guy who doesn't make the best decisions, but it makes sense given the ridiculous amount of stress he's under.
Overall review: the start is quite slow, but things get more and more bizarre at a steady rate. It started very grounded, but currently depicts many supernatural things. I imagine by the end this story will be a large scale fantasy world, with a side of science. I'm very much looking to the latter chapters, where I know things will get really crazy.
On a personal note: Religion is a huge part of this story, and it serves the plot very well. It's not something I usually enjoy, but it's done very well and the other aspects make it very much worth reading.
randominspirationRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
There’s no shortage of fantastical stories on royalroad, but this fic has to take the cake. The author has a pretty neat knack for taking the wildest concepts and bringing them to life in a fun way. Whether it’s in the well polished hospital halls of West Elpeck or the distant references of the world’s history, there’s never a shortage of energy that breathes life into this futuristic world.
The best part, however, is probably in the fic’s strong writing style. The prose isn’t just free of spelling and grammar mistakes, it’s immersive, almost peeling off the page. Every scene feels real, legitimate, and inviting enough to bring the reader into the story, experiencing every part of the world as one of the characters.
And make no mistake, these characters feel completely authentic, complete with loveable quirks and intricately built personalities. Each interaction and comment is carefully thought and planned out, with none of the cookie cutter dialogue that we all dread. All of this makes the plot’s development just that much more gripping as we slowly see the clock tick down to the end of the world.
It’s a slow burn for sure, but the plot only gets wider and better over time. There’s no shortage of new and interesting twists, from apocalyptic plagues to time travelers, and of course– the book’s namesake wyrms.
If you ever grow bored of monotonous fics, I’d highly recommend you give this one a try. Writing quality is stellar, and I’ve blasted all the way up to part III as a beta reader in only a few weeks. Maybe this isn’t for everyone, but it was certainly one of my personal favorites!
ColdbringerRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Disclaimer: Am beta reader.
You can just tell when a story has been written ad-hoc and thoughtlessly, and similarly, you can tell when a story has been percolating for years, written and rewritten and revised until everything just clicks and ties together. Wyrms of Andalon (or &alon, now) is strongly in the second camp.
The story focuses on neuropsychiatrist Genneth Howle, as a hospital drama with light progression fantasy elements set during the opening days of an extinction-level pandemic apocalypse. A plague come from beyond the stars, magical in nature, that infects a world where magic is more myth than fact or memory. Civilization collapses within days, and Genneth, as a high ranking doctor in the world's premier corporate hospital, is in the front lines of that battle and all the suffering and glory that implies. The worldbuilding and characters are more vivid than I've seen in any recent web serial, the plot is thoroughly considered and well paced, and the mysteries are deep and multilayered.
It's very rare to see a story at this level. It's not a normal or typical story for Royal Road, or anywhere, and I say that in the best way possible. Highly recommended.
GGOAPRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Like the start isn't that good, for me it was even a bit of a slog but after that the story picks up speed and gets amazing, like really amazing.
I absolutely love the body horror of this story, there is just so much dread. The characters don't feel 2 dimensional and the grammar is great.
Overall the story is truly deserving of 5 stars.
MarbleDragonRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story contains a few elements that may bother some readers and if they do I don't suggest reading it.
The story contains body horror and lots of scenes of people dying in particularly gruesome ways. The main themes for the story is faith, good and evil, and the will to (attempt to) overcome terrible situations. It does take heavy inspiration from covid given the nature of it being about an apocalyptic disease outbreak. The main religion of the world is a reflection of christianity if viewed through a broken mirror.
The story takes quite a long time to get rolling, with the prologue and history of the world taking up a significant amount of content in the book. These scenes seem sort of irrelevant to the overall story, but are not. The story sets us in an earthlike world that's slightly more technologically developed, but simultaneously just reached the end of the crusades and religious wars. The world building is fantastic and extremely in depth, and takes us to a dystopian world just close enough to reality to feel it could have been the set of a black mirror episode.
The plot focuses on a neuropsychiatrist who is forced to slowly adapt to a crisis outside his wheelhouse, while coming to realize he has been infected by a second strain of the disease. The regular strain quickly melts people from the inside regardless of efforts taken to halt it, while the second variant slowly turns the host into a monsters with magic abilities. Additionally, these events begin to take a picture similar to this world's judgment day causing pandemonium as the order of the world comes to a stop.
The author does a great job of explaining things in a reasonable fashion, showing the mounting horror and panic as all efforts taken progressively fail, and the main characters slipping mental state between his transformation and ongoing events. Our main character Dr. Howle begins to make progressively poorer decisions throughout the story as the stress and hopelessness of the sit
MekanipRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Disclaimer: This is part of a review swap, but all of my thoughts are my honest opinions on this work. I do not hand out free 5/5s.
At first, I was not sure what to think of this story. When I started reading it, I got this surreal, uncanny valley vibe from its opening chapters. But the more I read, the more the author pulled me into the world he had meticulously constructed. This is not an out-of-the-gates action story, it takes a while...and I mean a long time for stuff to go down. But once it does, it is a wild, grotesque ride.
Story/character: This is a slow-burning, medical drama/fantasy horror. The story starts off with Dr. Genneth Howle seeing a patient who demonstrates puzzling symptoms. She is convinced she is dead, despite talking and breathing. She is not the only one who is exhibiting strange behavior like this. Soon, more people begin to demonstrate bizarre, psychological symptoms. Dr. Howle is fully realized, and believable. He has a life of his own, a family to care about, etc.
The prose M.C. Siegel utilizes is absolutely fantastic, some of the best that I’ve seen on this website. His sentences flow smoothly and naturally, and he paints a very good picture of the scenes he is trying to convey. He delivers his story in an almost dreamlike fashion...I can’t quite describe it. His approach reminds me a little bit of Peter Straub’s approach in Ghost Story, (incidentally, one of the scariest horrors I've ever read.). He does not get to the horror elements right away. Instead, they are happening in the background, hinted at very subtly.
Grammar: I honestly could not find anything wrong in all of the chapters I’ve read. Maybe 2 or three things. The grammar is spotless. (In fact, the author has been helping me with my gaffes in my own work.)
Style: I really was not sure how to judge this. The author is very intentional in his slow-build approach, so it could be very well a matter of taste. I like slow builds, I like immersing myself into the world, but I thin
BookwormSophieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This story absolutely nails the feeling of the desperate rush to finish your essay an hour before the deadline, and will stick in your mind just as much.
The worldbuilding is pretty interesting so far, featuring a fairly heavily religious setting which seems to be built on Christianity cranked up to 11, which gives it a disctinct vibe despite it's modern setting.
The general flow of the story seems to be rushing from one fire to another while not really knowing whats going on. A desperate scramble that gives the story a great dramatic feeling, while still feeling grounded.
My one issue with the story is unfortunately, the main character. Not that he's poorly written per se, his characterization is fairly consistent. My issue with him is mostly based on the choices he makes. To put it simply, he keeps making decisions to avoid short term social consequences, even if it's pretty much guaranteed to screw him over later. A good example is the constant lying to his wife and kids about the fact that things are really bad, despite him already being on thin ice with them for being so flakey with them. It occassionally makes him really unlikeable which is unfortunate because the rest of his character is pretty solid.
JeSper537Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
If you find yourself bored with the world building or detailed medical talk just keep reading dialogue only, it's worth staying for the story.
And if you have some medical knowledge or are curious about it then this story will be a treat for you.
Review has to be 50 words long.