The Dragon's Covenant

Hello everyone! I finally decided to make a Tumblr for my WIP, The Dragon’s Covenant!

I’ll admit, I don’t fully understand how Tumblr works yet, I’m still figuring things out since I never used it before hehe, but I noticed that so many other authors use it as a way to share updates and interact with readers, and people recommended that I make one too, so I thought I’d give it a try as well. My hope is that this blog will serve as a more direct way to connect with all of you outside of the Choice of Games forum, where conversations can sometimes get buried or hard to follow.

I plan on posting here updates on the progress of the game, development notes, little lore tidbits, character insights, and possibly even some teasers or snippets. I’d also love for this to be a place where you all can ask whatever questions you want. About the story, the worldbuilding, the characters, or anything else.

Here’s a little Synopsis for the story:

You were forged to be the perfect weapon. But whose war will you fight?

For three centuries, Emberford pursued a singular, dangerous dream: to create an invincible warrior capable of shielding the kingdom from any threat. Their answer lay in the corpse of the greatest evil the world had ever known, Azgor, the Black Dragon of Calamity, whose rampage shattered the mighty Aurelian Empire three hundred years ago.

You are the Warden of Emberford, the culmination of ruthless experimentation, molded since childhood to embody the dragon’s might. Your mind conditioned to obey and protect the kingdom. And tethered to your soul lies a presence that never sleeps: Azgor’s consciousness, whispering in the shadows of your thoughts.

Feared and revered, you stand as something beyond human. But as rebellion brews, kingdoms fracture, and foreign powers march to war, you are caught in a storm of ambition and betrayal.

In a world of shifting allegiances and hidden agendas, who will you become? Will you remain the loyal protector you were engineered to be? Will you seize the dragon’s fury and carve your own empire from ash?

The Dragon’s Covenant is a character-driven interactive fantasy novel where your choices shape not only the fate of kingdoms, but the person you will become.

Features:

Play as male, female, or nonbinary.

Pursue romance, or walk your path alone.

Forge bonds or ignite rivalries with a diverse cast of allies and enemies.

Navigate court intrigue, rebellion, and battlefields scarred by past wars.

Wield Azgor’s power with ruthless fury or careful restraint.

Define your relationship with the ancient dragon bound to your soul, mentor, adversary, or ally.

Face moral dilemmas, betrayal, and the fragile question of your own humanity.

The city burns. Empires crumble. Whispers fill your mind. Will you rise as savior, conqueror, or harbinger of ruin?

Link for the WIP:

Link to the forum:

Higher quality map:

Thank you all for reading, and feel free to drop any questions or thoughts you might have! Also bellow is a brief look into all the possible ROs.

Hello! I'm really sorry it took me so long to reply. I've been working day and night this past month. But yes, for now whenever you choose a romance option, you're locked into that character's route (unless you mess it up and they cut things off with you).

Hello! You mean what other experiments they carried out before trying to create the warden and the others? None, really. Emberford had been trying to retrieve the core ever since the Empire fell, but every expedition they sent ended in failure.

It was only after Idius joined them that they finally managed to reach the core and bring it back. After that, Idius swore loyalty to Emberford and was put in charge of researching it, trying to find ways to safely extract and make use of its power. There were plenty of possible applications for the core. If the Aurelians had possessed it, it could have powered an entire floating continent. It could also have been used to create a magical nuke of sorts, or simply provide an almost endless supply of magic for whatever purpose they wanted. Of course, all of that depended on finding a safe way to extract its power.

But Idius' goal was always to create soldiers capable of wielding the dragon's power. He never even considered any of those other ideas.

The first experiments were performed on elite soldiers, all of whom volunteered for the program. Every single one died agonizing deaths. After that, no one else was willing to volunteer, and with Vadis convincing the king to forbid forcing soldiers into the experiments, they had to look elsewhere.

Using prisoners or random civilians was out of the question since they needed subjects who would be absolutely loyal. So they turned to children instead, since they could groom them into loyal servants of the king. The first few batches consisted of babies and young children offered by their families, including a few from noble houses. But after every one of them died, that stopped as well.

Not during the story, no. At most, maybe in a sequel for some of them.

I just noticed it because when we came back to defend the castle with Arael, Ruby didn't seem "jealous" a bit even if we did previously flirt, and obviously Ruby has a crush on MC. Even the forest scene with Walls, Ruby and Arael (after MC went back to semi-human form from big dragon form), the conversation with Ruby felt too friendly, like she wasn't just blushing and getting flustered with MC in the early games 😂

I also can't seem to romance Lyra... But that's just me because I haven't finished the game yet.

But yes, just wanted to double-check the early lock-ins. (I don't mind, because I love Arael, but it'd be nice to see some rivalry or jealousy 😂)

Hello! Yeah, Arael and Zatus lock into their routes pretty early if you decide to pursue them. This was a bit tricky for me to handle. I wanted each romance to feel natural and develop at their own pace throughout the story, instead of feeling like some reward you only get at the end. But adding variations that would allow every romance to start later, even if it might be better overall, would end up being too much work to be worth it I think, since I’d have to create alternate situations to push the same character and relationship development that would’ve already happened if the romance had started earlier.

So I ended up going with this approach. Most people’s first RO will probably end up being Arael or Zatus since their routes lock earlier, and then during that playthrough you can get to know the rest of the cast better and choose someone else next time if you want.

As for the jealousy, both Ruby and Walls have a crush on the MC, but much like the MC, they have no experience or real understanding of romance. They don’t even consider the possibility that they could actually end up with someone someday given the life they live, much less with the MC. So when the MC reunites with them after all those years, Ruby kind of forgets herself and rushes in for a hug, just like Walls does. The difference is that Ruby is much more shy and reserved, so afterward she gets embarrassed and starts blushing because of her outburst, while Walls is just more open and expressive than her with things like this, so it doesn’t faze him.

Later on, if the MC returns already together with Arael, they mostly just accept it since they never really expected anything to come from those feelings in the first place. It will depend on you following their routes for these feelings they’ve buried to really develop.

The main way nobles and armies communicate is through familiars. These are animals (usually birds) raised by a noble or mage and exposed to their magic over long periods while growing up. That magic seeps into them and becomes part of their being, creating a connection that allows the owner to give very precise commands to the animal. More skilled mages can even see through the familiar’s eyes.

Is this dragon experiment only special to emberford? No other nation pursuing this knowledge?

What kind of weapon count as superweapon in this world? Flying dreadnought of old empire? How about telic weapon of forgotten era? Is such technology even survive intact?

Hello! So, dragons don’t die of old age. Instead, they reach a point where they can’t grow any further, and their bodies start slowing down. They sleep more and more, waking up only after long periods, and those intervals keep getting longer as they age. At that stage, nothing really wakes them. You could attack one in its sleep and even kill it, and it still wouldn’t wake up unless it was the time, but this takes tens of thousands of years.

Azgor, however, is a Great Dragon, an entirely different kind of being, so he doesn’t have that drawback.

As for the experimented kids, they’ll all live much longer than normal humans, but how long depends on how much of Azgor’s power they inherited. Some might barely make it past 200, while others could outlive elves. The Warden is a special case, though, since Azgor is actually inside them. They’ll definitely live longer than the others, but how much longer is still a mistery. Maybe Cassiel can help figure that out in the future.

Regarding the experiments, after the fall, each kingdom was looking for its own advantage. Grafast allied with the dwarves of Obrolk and the orcs, Vlorora with the dwarves of Oregate and focused on producing powerful mage lords, and Akastin allied with the elves. Emberford, on the other hand, chose to pursue Azgor’s core, not specifically for this experiment at first, but because of the immense, near-limitless magic it contained.

They failed to recover it for a long time, until Idius came along. He helped them secure the core and introduced the idea of actually harnessing its power by creating modified humans empowered by it. The entire concept and research came from him, which is why no one else could replicate it. Not only that, but up until about 20 years ago, the whole project was seen by others as a complete waste of resources since it had always failed.

Oh, good question. There are basically two kinds of “gods” in this universe, I recently updated the codex with a timeline section that touches on this. I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll get a pretty good answer there.

Will it be possible to send missionaries of Azgor to the middle kingdom?

Are the believes in the middle kingdom like slave, people with no magic and non humans?

Is there a way to convince the public that the Warden can speak with Azgor and take power away from the high priest?

Will we be able to use the fact that they believed in a false chosen one of Azgor "Ashen" and that he was a coward as leverage in negotiations with the high priest and the noble houses?

Yeah, these will be explored more in Chapter 3, so I’ll keep it brief to avoid spoilers hehe.

1: You’ll get opportunities to try spreading the religion if you choose the option where you want people to worship you. Otherwise, the cult will take more of a backseat.

2: Outside of Laphis, everyone believes in the Aurelian gods, even if they don’t actively worship them (with the exception of the orcs, who had to rebuild their culture from scratch). The Aurelians made sure to erase the original culture and beliefs of everyone else a long time ago, and the people of Laphis are generally seen as evil zealots by everyone else.

3: There will definitely be ways to undermine the High Priest, but I won’t go into detail since it’s an important part of Chapter 3.

The reasons way my Warden think it better to become ruler

The Warden does not want to place Arael in danger because of her last name because even if people believe she is not a true Empyrean as long as she has the power it does not matter she is a bigger threat then the Warden. Noble houses can surrender and claim that they are simply rejoining the empire instead of being cowards or bending the knee to a evil dragon. After the noble houses lore was released I am convinced that it was the right thing to do. For example houses Carviel,Korthane,Morcantis,Arfgaed,Noctaris,Venmora,Bredwit,Ostevane,Virekhaal they have the potential to be powerful assassins.

I believe that the worshipers of Azgor will have a easier time getting used to Arael if the Warden becomes ruler instead of out right taking it for a Aurelians especially if it is a Empyrean.

The religion of Azgor has a lot of potential to grow for example the Aurelians haed slavery and believed that they were literally above everyone and if you had more magic you we're better than others. Azgor can be a liberator, equalizer because he hates magic. I feel that Arael would not like a religion about the guy who killed her father and destroyed her civilization to become the most popular religion. The religion of Azgor can stabilize and increase the power of the crown or "horns".

1. To actually rebuild the Aurelian Empire, Arael needs to be the one in charge. Her name carries a lot of weight, even being the daughter of a concubine, her Empyrean lineage and unique magic give her a level of legitimacy nothing else can match. Even if the Warden were to marry her, uphold the empire’s values, and recruit more Aurelians, they would still be seen as a “freakish monster” born from the Black Dragon, a power-hungry being trying to take over the land. With Arael as the face of it (even if only on paper), it becomes a very different story, especially since to everyone else, she may well be the last Empyrean alive.

You can still form an empire either way, but using the old empire or Arael’s name as the basis for your claim will only be possible if you make her Empress, even if you marry her. She needs to be the face of it. But like you said, that does put a massive target on her back, so there's that to consider.

2. Oh, definitely, they’ll hate Arael and Cassiel regardless. But if you try to make Arael queen, there will be a lot to deal with in Laphis before even thinking about conquering other places. And if you’re in a relationship with one of them, that just makes things worse.

Got this error while going through the Empyrean Dynasty part of the timeline.

Will we be able to convince some to believe in Azgor and speak of his good faith?

Noble Bloodfang family have the most accurate description of Azgor for his POV because he was made to survive, hunt what the other gods made and to dominate the world. So what are there views on the Aurelians?

That’s a good question. Let’s go one by one

Ruby War: She’s been going into battle since she was 15. She doesn’t enjoy it, but she doesn’t really hate it either, it’s just something she’s always had to do. The experiments were kept so isolated from normal society that she never really thought about the broader consequences of war, like its impact on civilians.

Slavery: She hates it. Even though slavery is still technically legal for orcs, beastfolk, and Aurelians, it was forbidden to happen in Emberford by House Ragnail. Her only real exposure to it was during the war against Grafast. It reminded her too much of her own situation, seeing underfed, poorly equipped slaves being used for labor and then discarded on the battlefield. The look in their eyes stayed with her long after her first mission.

Religion: She received a basic education about the gods and their teachings, but she doesn’t really care for it. She feels like she, and the other children in the lab. were abandoned by them.

Walls War: Walls hates war and violence, and the fact that he’s so good at it only makes it worse for him. Still, he had no choice but to fight, so he chose to take on a more protective role whenever he could, focusing on keeping his friends alive. Like Ruby, he doesn’t fully grasp the broader impact of war on society, but he’s very sensitive to seeing others suffer.

Slavery: He despises it. Like Ruby, his only exposure was seeing the slaves used by Grafast during the war. Being naturally kind, witnessing their condition and how poorly they were treated deeply affected him.

Religion: Like Ruby, he was taught the basics of religion by Idius and the researchers, but he doesn’t feel strongly about it either way.

Zatus War: Zatus was born into a family whose entire purpose revolved around war. He genuinely enjoys studying it and planning strategies, but war itself is not something he can bring himself to enjoy. If it were just battles between armies, that would be one thing, but seeing farmers, villagers, and innocent people who can’t even afford to flee being slaughtered will never not anger him. You can see that in how concerned he was about the villages when the Warden first joined him.

Slavery: He hates it, always has. Zatus grew up in Grafast, where slavery is more accepted, and many enslaved orcs are used for heavy labor. It never sat right with him, but as a child, he was taught it was necessary, so he kept quiet. After leaving his family, joining Emberford, and seeing that they functioned just fine without slaves, his resentment toward his old home only grew.

Religion: Zatus is a devout follower of Bellador. The only thing he received from his father after joining the army was a blessed amulet of Bellador, which he still carries at all times. Before any battle, or any difficult decision, he makes a quick prayer to the god of war, asking for him to clear his mind, and guide his hand.

Arael War: She enjoys it, not so much the deeper implications or consequences, but the act of fighting itself. Having spent most of her life in isolation, she doesn’t fully understand the broader impact of war yet. But she loves the thrill of battle. She’s always been an exceptionally talented warrior, even by Aurelian standards, and despite years in hiding, she never neglected her training, refusing to let her instincts dull or her body weaken.

Slavery: She grew up in the empire, where slavery of the “weaker races” was the norm. That’s what she was taught from a young age. She doesn’t particularly enjoy it, but she doesn’t strongly oppose it either, it’s simply how things were.

Religion: Like most Aurelians, Arael is quite devout, especially toward Aethernus and Elyndra, who were the favored gods of her father and mother.

Lyra War: She hates it. Lyra isn’t unfamiliar with war, she’s been caught up in several conflicts while working as a diplomat for her father, but she always tries to avoid it whenever possible. In her view, all wars eventually end the same way: one side realizes they can’t win and surrenders. It might take time, the death of a ruler, even the fall of a house, but there’s always someone left to sign that surrender. She’s never seen a side so completely destroyed that no one remains to yield. So she can’t understand why so many choose to prolong the suffering even in situations where defeat is inevitable.

Slavery: When it comes to orcs and Aurelians, she hates it and sees it as unfair and unacceptable. But when it comes to beastfolk, like most elves, she doesn’t feel strongly about it and wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

Religion: Like most elves of the forest, she is a devout follower of Verdanir, doing her best to live according to his teachings.

Cassiel War: He dislikes it. War creates extra work and forces his research to shift away from his personal interests and toward the war effort. To him, it’s a massive waste of time, time that could be spent on something far more meaningful. That said, if necessary, he’ll do his part without hesitation or any real moral conflict.

Slavery: He sees it as useful. Like Arael, he lived in the empire, but for much longer, where slavery was completely normalized. He often used orcs as labor for his experiments or even as test subjects.

Religion: Like most Aurelians, Cassiel is devoted to the gods, especially Zephiron, whom he often prayed to for guidance and blessings in his research.

That’s it for now. I’ll leave Ecbert and Theresa for you all to discover in the next updates, getting to know them more gradually through the story should be more fun.

As for your second question: you won’t be able to convince any of the companions that Azgor is an actual god. At most, you might convince some of them to pretend and help spread that idea, but they already know Azgor is inside the MC. So he wouldn’t be able to hear any prayers, let alone answer them.

And for the last question: the Bloodfang family, like the others in Laphis, has always been taught that the Aurelians are the enemy and must be exterminated for what they did to Azgor. They, in particular, are among the most radical in that belief.

The emperor or empress always had a spouse, the consort, who was always a noble. Beyond that, they could take concubines. These concubines lived in the palace with their children, and their only duty was to entertain the emperor or empress when called upon. They were usually kept separate from the consort and their children. Although some might act or feel superior to the others, there was no defined hierarchy amongst them.

Children born from concubines were considered bastards. Even though they were raised with excellent education and living conditions, they weren’t recognized as nobles and had no claim to any inheritance, let alone the throne. That’s one of the reasons many surviving Aurelians opposed what Arael’s mother tried to do after the fall. Other noble house leaders were also allowed to keep concubines.

While emperors and empresses could take concubines regardless of gender, it was very poorly viewed if an empress became pregnant with a bastard, mainly because of how long it takes for Aurelians to be able to have children again. Because of that, it was usually avoided, or they found other ways to entertain themselves that didn’t risk pregnancy.

The other races had their cultures and values heavily influenced by the Aurelians, so many of these traditions carried over. Kings, queens, and heads of noble houses, regardless of gender, are still allowed by law and the gods to have concubines. However, this practice is much rarer now. Humans don’t have the same absolute authority and power the Aurelians once did, so alliances and political ties matter much more. Consorts are almost always chosen from powerful houses, and taking even a single concubine can be seen as a serious insult to the consort’s family. Because of that, only kings or queens tend to risk it, and even then, it’s frowned upon.

Poly romance wasn’t originally in the plans, but after a lot of people asked for it, and after thinking more about the characters and their personalities, I thought it would be interesting to try a poly route with Arael and Lyra to see if I can make it work without feeling shallow or forced.

Would it possible to turn into a dragon before the parley with the elder of the temple to convince some the the people in the city that you are the chosen one and to lessen the dead in the battle?

If we are able to make a sword from Azgor bones is it possible to gift or make two so we can use one to propose to Arael?

Sorry again for bothering you . I love and injoy the story and hope you continue.

Hello! Don’t worry, questions never bother me lol, I love answering them.

So, it would be possible to turn into a dragon at the start, but turning back isn’t exactly pleasant and leaves the Warden vulnerable for a while. Doing it that early would mean staying in that form for the entire battle, and fighting like that would cause way too much damage to the city they’re trying to take, not to mention potential danger to allies too due top the scale, turning some people from the enemy side wouldn't be worth the risk. That’s why I kept it as more of a last-resort option.