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Shepherds of Haven is a dark fantasy interactive fiction game. In it, you play as a Mage living in a world where magic is outlawed and your people—those possessing supernatural powers—are oppressed and reviled. The world is ruled by humans who believe in science, technology, and industry: at best, you and your kind are nothing more than a fairytale, and at worst you are the state’s greatest threat. 

Thus, using magic has been illegal for centuries. But after years of persecution, you are suddenly offered an opportunity to use your powers for good: demons are now returning, and the world needs fighters like you to protect the population from their invasion. Guns and bullets do no good against monsters pulled from primeval nightmares; only your people and your supernatural powers have the ability to fight fire with fire. 

So you join the Shepherds: an order of elite heroes and fighters comprised of the very people the world once feared more than the demons themselves. As a Shepherd, you’ll solve magical crimes, slay demons to protect the citizens of Haven, and build your reputation throughout the capital. Explore the world of Blest, recruit allies and factions to join the Shepherds’ cause, find romance and companionship, investigate mysteries, lead rebellions and exorcisms, and uncover answers to the crises plaguing the world. Where are the demons coming from? Where have the gods or God gone, if they ever existed? Who are you, really? 

And will you be the world’s true savior… or will you be its ultimate downfall?

Customize your protagonist: choose names, gender, sexuality, appearance, weapon, magic specialization, educational background, racial heritage, and much more

Play as male, female, or non-binary; straight, gay, bisexual, or pansexual; as well as aromantic, asexual, aro-ace, or allo

Thousands of choices and role-playing variations: build your character’s personality and worldview from the ground up, test your loyalties and morals in every chapter, and make meaningful decisions that will change the story and world of the game in large and small ways

15 companions to recruit and befriend, each with their own unique story

10 romance options (5 male, 5 female) and 2 one-night stands/flings

Fulfilling friendship and romance routes, culminating in dozens of different possible endings for each major character, as well as diverse endings for the protagonist, their relationships, and the state of the world

An ever-changing codex, character guide, journal, inventory, and stats page that grows and adjusts as you play

A hubworld-style exploration system between chapters: interact with the city and explore the world on your days off; take quests or side jobs; train; shop; gamble; pray; read; and spend time with or date companions between story missions

Dozens of mechanical secrets to reward your playthrough: achievements, a new game+ system, a save system, unlockable art, collectible trading cards, room decorations and souvenirs, a planned “stupid mode,” and planned DLC

Much more!

✨ Play Here ✨

Completed Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

Approx. 270,000 words

Last Updated: August 2021

FAQ

⭐️ Play here ⭐️

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 [In Progress]

Approx. 1,009,000 words without code

Last Updated: August 2023

Currently only available to testers and Patrons until the beta build

Somethings never change.

Place after place you've been shunned, attacked or hunted. All for the blood that drips from your mouth. From the pain of a curse that was forced upon you. Only in a twin flame, someone just like you, have you ever found peace. Decades turned to two centuries as you travelled the world together, sharing the same burden.

Then they were gone. Dead? Alive? It didn't matter because you were alone.

Soon came the High Council. Older and stronger, they thrust you into a position you didn't want, forced to adapt to a new life while still grieving the one you lost. Overwhelmed and tired, you created your own brand of sanctuary, a safe place to drown out your feelings and numb the pain that never really left. 

Now the very same people who pushed you into this position of power have come to reap what they feel is owed: End the vampire that threatens their power. Kill the Insurgent.

Who can you trust? Have you ever been more than a pawn? Does any of it even matter?

Water to Blood will be an 18+ game for drugs, alcohol, violence, gore, optional sexual content and other adult themes.

WHO YOU'VE MET:

Arlo/Aida Martin Moreno [m/f]- RO- The vampire from your past. Chance had you encounter each other not once, not twice, but in a series of meetings throughout time. Begrudgingly or not, you stayed side by side for decades until one day they abruptly left. After years of absence, they once again appear in your life. Define your history together, build something new.

Edwin/Edith "Eddie" Reagan [m/f]- RO - The werewolf business partner. For the past decade, the two of you built a night time kingdom from the ground up. Below the board agreements and possible unscrupulous deals have elevated your business into something untouchable. Recently having left their pack, these past few years you've seen more of them than you ever had before. Shape your relationship and strengthen your bond.

Amelie Cadman [f]- RO - The hunter, the human. The two of you have had many run ins in the past. Determined to fix the marred relationship between supernaturals and hunters, she always wears a big smile when faced with your suspicion. Her presence in your life lately has been up more than ever. How could you trust her? A hunter who's oath is not to protect you, but to kill you. And when the time comes... will you? Create a relationship or let it crumble before it even starts.

Halley and Kade Timmons [f&m] - Twin telepathic bartenders at your club.

The Insurgent [m]- ROish- Not much is known about him. Presumptuously strong and influential enough to threaten the council. Wanted for treason but still remains at large. It’s your job to find him.

WHAT YOU'LL EXPERIENCE:

Play as the reluctant high vampire of the city.

Customize your character and your club.

Decide which path is right for you as you are pressured to act: the vampires, the werewolves or the humans.

Define your relationships with those you know and try to build new ones with others.

Develop a romance with one of the three main characters. Or try your chances at someone else. (Romances will not be locked out based on the path you choose.)

Explore the interworkings of supernatural and human organizations.

Attend a gala.

Attend a coup?

--

Hello everyone... it's here. It's finally here! Chapter 5, pt. 2 is now out, and is 250k words of new content, meaning The Exile is now over 1 million words!

This release was... rough, to say the least, but it's all in the rear-view mirror now, thankfully. As some of you may know, this is the final chapter of the public demo. I'll make a post later on detailing what the future development of The Exile will be, but for now I just want to take in a deep breath and relax (as I fix what inevitable bugs pop up with release, that is).

Avg. Play length: 114k -> 135k Total Wordcount: 818k -> 1 mil

Some Notes:

You have to replay the entire game. Your old saves won't work. Please, for the love of the gods, do not use them. I know it's tedious to replay the entire demo sometimes, but the new release will not work properly otherwise.

I HIGHLY recommend saving at the beginning of when Esmerelda goes to visit Marcelle, or where the old demo ended. This is because when I do bug fixes (and I will have to do bug fixes), all saves that were on the file I updated cease to work properly. Saving at the scene with Esmerelda is the closest to the new content that you can save w/o having to worry about losing your save progress frequently near release. (Though I will update Chapter 5, pt. 1 at some point)

DO NOT spread info you got by code diving. Please and thank you! :)

Preferably send bugs + typos to the Discord. Otherwise, feel free to send them here! Also, keep an eye out for broken symbols next to choices! (It would help if you tell me what chapter it's in as well :))

There are two versions of The Exile on Dashingdon. The right one has [Current] next to it. The reason there are two is b/c for some reason or another, I couldn't get into my old account, and I couldn't reset the password, and it was just... a whole mess. So I couldn't delete the old demo when I uploaded the new one on my new account. Just keep this in mind if you're trying to look The Exile up right into a search engine as opposed to going through links on the Tumblr or Forum!

Humans quickly get a reputation among the interplanetry alliance and the reputation is this: when going somewhere dangerous, take a human.

Humans are tough. Humans can last days without food. Humans heal so fast they pierce holes in themselves or inject ink for fun. Humans will walk for days on broken bones in order to make it to safety. Humans will literally cut off bits of themselves if trapped by a disaster.

You would be amazed what humans will do to survive. Or to ensure the survival of others they feel responsible for.

That’s the other thing. Humans pack-bond, and they spill their pack-bonding instincts everywhere. Sure it’s weird when they talk sympathetically to broken spaceships or try to pet every lifeform that scans as non-toxic. It’s even a little weird that just existing in the same place as them for long enough seems to make them care about you. But if you’re hurt, if you’re trapped, if you need someone to fetch help?

Oh god, now I’m imagining sapient species with lifetimes of, like, a year, and there’s one family that’s been attached to, like, a pirate since she rescued the doll-sized matriarch.  She was 23 and just getting command of her first space cruiser, and because she rescued the matriach, the entire family regards her as their protector, they literally live in her bedroom until they reproduce too much (They have a litter every month), then they start traveling around her ship, and there’s entire societies all throughout the ship after, like, 5 years.

She goes down to the engine room for the first time in a decade because she has to find the head engineer for reasons, and there are literal little beasties down there who hail her as the “First guardian” and are so astonished to see her, and they want to come with her to the promised land, and she’s just like “Where?”  They describe a luxurious land of softness, and she realizes they mean her bedroom.

And mostly we’re just seen as the cute mascot. But then every now and then the shit hits the impeller. And that’s when you get stories like “he jammed our sonar, and he had a gun on us and we thought we were done for! But, I guess he’d forgotten how flexible humans are. Our ship’s human had crawled out of her nest and behind the console, you know, in that wiring gap? She jumped on his back and ripped his antennae out! With her bare hands! He threw her into the console and she just got right back up and kept fighting, smashed her upper joints into his flaps over and over again, and she didn’t stop until he quit moving, even though she was leaking everywhere and we could see a piece of her inner skeleton! We rushed her to the med techs but we were sure she was done for. But, did you know, humans can reattach their skeleton parts?? She gets around just fine now, says it doesn’t bother her. She saved all of us. She could have just stayed in her nest and been fine, but she defended us and saved the ship. I’m never serving on a crew without a human ever again.”

“Yeah, did you hear about the crew from over Ktl'ree way? They had a gas leak in the middle of that awful nebula they’ve got, took out everyone but their humans. Turns out, their humans rewired their wormhole drive so they could get the ship home in time to get everyone medical attention. Said they figured they’d either all survive or they’d all go together. Now that’s loyalty. Can you imagine?”

“I’ve heard they’re even more fierce about defending the ship if you have a bonded pair. We’ve just had the one, since we’re short haul, but we’re looking for another one after that incident. It’s hard to find one the right age who doesn’t have a ship, though, never mind one she likes. There was one attached to another ship, they actually did bond for a bit, and the other ship offered to pay for our search for a new pair if she’d come with them. We talked to her about it—but she refused to leave us. She said ‘girlfriends come and go but we’re family.’ Can you believe that?”

“They’re amazing. I don’t understand ships who don’t have at least one. I served on a luxury cruiser that had a whole bunch, five or six families. Have you seen their young? They’re so adorable!”

Cut to an alien and xer human companion getting into all sorts of crazy shenanigans because the human won’t! fucking! back! down! And it’s just things like,

 “Please Danny, this one is four times my size! It would crush you in an instant!”

“I’m gonna fight it!”

“WHY?”

“…It looked at me funny.”

So there has been a bit of “what if humans were the weird ones?” going around tumblr at the moment and Earth Day got me thinking. Earth is a wonky place, the axis tilts, the orbit wobbles, and the ground spews molten rock for goodness sakes. What if what makes humans weird is just our capacity to survive? What if all the other life bearing planets are these mild, Mediterranean climates with no seasons, no tectonic plates, and no intense weather? 

Human: “Honestly we can tolerate anywhere from -40 to 50 Celcius, but we prefer the 0 to 30 range.”

Alien: “……. I’m sorry, did you just list temperatures below freezing?”

Human: “Yeah, but most of us prefer to throw on scarves or jackets at those temperatures it can be a bit nippy.” 

Other human: “Nah mate, I knew this guy in college who refused to wear anything past his knees and elbows until it was -20 at least.”

Human: “Heh. Yeah everybody knows someone like that.”

Alien: “……. And did you also say 50 Celcius? As in, half way to boiling?”

Human: “Eugh. Yes. It sucks, we sweat everywhere, and god help you if you touch a seatbelt buckle, but yes.” 

“Yup, with blizzards you cant see through every other day just about.”

“Amazing! when did you manage to send drones that could survive such temperatures?”

“… well, actually…”

“… what?”

“…we kinda……. sent……….. people…..”

“…”

“…”

“…what?”

“we sent-”

“no yeah I heard you I just- what? You sent… HUMANS… to a place one hundred degrees below freezing?”

“y-yeah”

“and they didn’t… die?”

“Well the first few did”

“PEOPLE DIED OF THE COLD AND YOUR SOLUTION WAS TO SEND MORE PEOPLE?”

aka The History of Russia

aka Arctic Exploration

‘Yep.  Pompeii is legendary.  Entire cities went. Towns buried under lava, peoples’ brains boiled in the first rush of heat, loads more killed by falling pumice.’

‘ah, good, they learned their lesson and didn’t build there again.’

‘…well…’

‘Are you seriously telling me this volcano is legendary for killing several urban conurbations and you built on top of it AGAIN?’

‘In our defence it hasn’t actually done it since.’ 

‘What about earthquake-prone areas? Tell me you’re at least vaguely sensible about those.’

The aliens cower from extreme temperatures and natural disaters and the like. They understand the flow of their worlds and seek to go along with it as to not get drowned in its waves. They go to warmer and cooler places as the seasons change and evacuate places that are under threat of natural disasters. They take what the world gives as hunter-gatherers.

But humans?

Oh humans.

We fight back against the flow of the universe and stand stiff arms crossed. We don’t move constantly and instead stay in one place and build things to keep us warm and cool. We build walls and better buildings and warning systems instead of leaving in an earthquake prone area and we rebuild time after time of disasters leaving nothing but dust. We grow and raise things at our leisure. Instead of hiding we count the seconds between flashes and throw snowballs and swim near active volcanoes. We brave the -100 degree temperature even when people have died. 

Humanity is standing stiff even as the wind blows.

For easy and quick access, here is a compiled list of every Wayhaven guide we have completed so far! 

Book One

The Slayer, they called me then. The Monster of Sentan. I’d killed nineteen people… I remember that number because I was so furious that they stopped me so close to my goal of twenty-one. And I didn’t just kill ordinary people, no, but the Chosen of the Gods. The Great and Good. They were terrified of me. So they locked me away, to die forgotten.

It had been a little less than a hundred years when the king died without heir, and a civil war tore the country apart. When the fighting was all over, the losers were dragged down to the deepest cells under the castle, and the new king and his soldiers stopped and stared at me. “Who… who is this?” he asked, frowning. “Some victim of the usurper?”

People like cooks and jailers and scrubbers don’t change as easily as kings. The same man who’d been bringing me my meals since there was still brown in his hair and beard shuffled forward, hunched and grey now. “No, yer majesty,” he said humbly. “That be a special prisoner, from before the old king died.”

“Special? Special how?” He frowned, moving closer to my cell. “The old king died more than ten years ago. This woman must have been a child then. What could she have done to - “

“Don’t get too close, yer majesty,” the old man said sharply. “That’s the Monster of Sentan… an’ she bites.”

That was true. I do bite.

secondly, I’ve said it before, but 

this is exactly what the Old World was. Off shore there was Ocean, and inland there was Forrest

Here’s an Old World tree still surviving in a modern forrest of “large” trees

That’s just what trees used to be like.

And wandering among those trees, one might have encountered, yes, deer larger than a modern moose, but also, depending on what year, pigs bigger than grizzly bears, beavers the size of modern wolves, ground sloths the size of modern elephants, and bears nearly that big. Not to mention the insects and snakes and shit.

I could keep going, like, you might have crossed paths with a whole herd of these

or a family of these.

Like, 29,000 years ago, the last of the Neanderthal had just died out. Humans and this thing definitely lived at the same time.

And they didn’t live in the Forest, but there is one ice age creature that’s still alive, if you want to see what life was like back in the day. We used to think the Musk Ox was a type of bovine, or cow, which is how it got it’s name. BUT. See this?

that, my friends, is an ice age GOAT. That’s right, that’s a 900 pound GOAT. Here, take another look

I see many Winnie the Poohs at the hospital (aka Winnie aka Pooh aka Pooh Bear), as you may guess.  Many look like this, a bit flat and with small wounds, designed to have a removable shirt:

They come for spas:

New hearts and stuffing:

And plumping up so they have a proper belly again:

Sometimes they look like this:

A bit more loved… or as his person said, in more “desperate condition”.

He also had a spa (not everyone does):

As you may’ve noticed, he needed a new nose and there were several options:

His heart had a pooh on it as well as some magic from a heffalump:

And after a bit of arm and smile surgery, soon he was healthy and ready to fly home:

His person wrote “He looks wonderful!”

The final Pooh I’m going to show you today just flew home yesterday.  He is always called Pooh Bear.  He is 14 years old and showed every year of hugs.  

Here are the photos his person’s mom sent for diagnosis:

As you can see, Pooh Bear was a bit flat and a bit gray.  He came in for a spa:

Got new stuffing and a magical Heffalump heart to preserve a bit of his original stuffing:

And finally was clean and plump and fluffy and ready to fly home: