Trials of Ru
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
A well-known warrior, a famed scholar, and a beloved artist. The Knight journeyed around the globe in search for something deserving of their status, the path to immortality. Upon arriving at a castle in the middle of the swamp, under the custodianship of Ru. They promised the Knight immortality if they completed the trials within the castles spire. Which will test the Knight's resolve and character, to see if they are worthy for the gift of immortality.-----------------Submitted to the January 2024 contest "Immortality is a myth".
Information
- Status
- Completed
- Year
- 2024
- Author
- Elijah Talbot
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 3.5/ 5.0
- Views
- 665
Chapters(2 total)
Reviews
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Community Reviews(1)
- MoonlightGardensRoyal Road★★★★ 3.5I believe there’s one good way to describe this story: a very interesting concept, but the execution is a bit lacking. I feel like there was a great message in there, it just… was very hard to figure out what it was, amidst all the other issues.
Style (4/5)
This is probably the story’s greatest fault. All dialogue is simply stated through apostrophes rather than quotation marks, making a jarring first impression. Due to some other format issues (I presume due to how it was uploaded), there’s also very little proper paragraph spacing, making it harder to read. It also seems to swap pronouns for the Knight, once using she/her, then mostly they/them, all while the dialogue seems to imply they’re both man and woman. It’s also present with the Custodian, Ru, to a lesser degree, as well as swapping between neutral and male pronouns for a character stated to be a man. I can’t tell if this is something intentional (a character trait, or a part of the way the story is written) or not. Despite all of this, the author describes the characters and their surroundings moderately well.
Story (4/5)
Overall, the premise seems pretty interesting; it reads a bit like a fairytale, with the Knight’s grand heroics and the overall tone. Though the idea is alright, this does lead to unnecessary exposition and it feels like it does more harm than good. I didn’t understand a lot about when or where this was supposed to be happening; there’s references to real places, but not much more than that. It gets especially confusing when more fantastical elements get thrown in. The ending also makes little sense as it stated the Knight (I assume?) stayed at the castle until their death, but the opening implies that the Knight did many adventures after it. Again, I feel like there was a really good message in here, I just… couldn’t really figure out what it was.
Grammar (3.5/5)
Most complaints I have are about the formatting and the other details mentioned in Style. I didn’t see any large spelling err