Stygian Eye Stories

About me:

Hello! I'm stygianeyedev, an indie dev who has had the pleasure of working with some lovely individuals to begin putting all the stories in my head out into the world.

Please note I am not a studio. I am a single individual who works with a mixture of wonderful volunteers and contractors to get the job done.

Ask Box Rules:

Misgendering in asks will result in the ask being deleted. Most of the time this is just auto-correct or people not knowing, so first offense will just be the ask being deleted. Multiple repeat offenses will result in the user being blocked.

Any ask that is deemed as suspicious/bait will be deleted.

Bigotry of any kind will result in the ask being deleted & the user banned.

Please only send the exact same ask a maximum of twice to ensure it wasn't eaten by Tumblr. If I don't answer it after it's been submitted twice, please assume I either do not wish to answer/have already answered a very similar ask in the past.

Can I make X?

Rules of thumb:

Don't try to make money off it (fanart of someone's OC x LI you're commissioned to do is fine. I more so mean don't do things like make a comic for the series and exclusively paywall it on patreon or something).

Don't claim that my stuff is your stuff. Don't claim that the wonderful assets my lovely artists have made is yours either. Credit appropriately!

Don't feed it to an A.I. generator - period. The art, the music, the writing. Do not put it in anything AI.

Don't use my brand to promote things like racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophbia, etc etc.

Don't claim to speak on behalf of me or my games.

Specific Notes:

Fanart - yes, so long as it is not hateful nor behind a paywall. Obviously, if someone commissions you to draw one of my characters with their PC or to make a one off item like a mug or t-shirt, that is fine. Just don't make anything mass produced to sell (like prints, mugs, etc).

Fanfic - SFW/NSFW are perfectly fine. No money exchange allowed, as that begins to put us in a legal gray zone I do not want to have to navigate.

Fangames - Not allowed to prevent brand confusion. I'm not a AAA studio like Nintendo, so confusion is far more likely.

Characters:

Heimos (He/Him) - Main love interest within Sacrarium Gelus.

Violo (He/Him) - Half of the poly love interest pair within Sacrarium Pario.

Vivere (He/She/They) - Half of the poly love interest pair within Sacrarium Pario.

Necare (She/Her) - Main love interest within Sacrarium Contego (WIP).

Amare (They/Them) - Main love interest within Sacrarium Resisco (WIP).

Yukimura Hisashi (He/Him) - One of the two love interests within The Woeful Rose & The Bitter Crow.

Zahir of Verdayne (He/Him) - One of the two love interests within The Woeful Rose & The Bitter Crow.

Fahima (She/Her) - One of the love interests within The Grinning Spider & The Lone Hound (WIP).

Noelani (She/Her) - One of the love interests within The Grinning Spider & The Lone Hound (WIP). (Note you may also see a old WIP name for her on the blog).

Game Statuses:

Sacrarium Gelus - Completed with Final Patch Released

Sacrarium Pario - Week 2 Released. Read This Devlog For Critical Information: https://www.tumblr.com/stygian-eye-stories/779581667676438528/stygian-devlog-03312025?source=share

The Woeful Rose & The Bitter Crow - Version Version 1.1 released with all CGs included.

Sacrarium Contego - Around halfway written. Artists secured for sprites and CGs.

Sacrarium Rescisco - Actively outlining. Mechanics ironed out. Sprite artist secured.

The Grinning Spider & The Lone Hound - Formatting debate ongoing.

Project I.C. - Artist attained, some WIPs produced, some systems developed and rough outlines and GDDs in development.

So no master post, but I did select a web version layout that should now have a search feature, and I plan on slowly crawling through the blog updating tags, removing low-effort (on my end, not y'alls) posts, and just over all trying to neaten up things around here. I am currently still trapped in 2023 posts. I imagine this is going to be a few weeks of work.

Hellloo, LuLu here, dropping some fanart!

Despite me not really being really active with sacrarium in a while, it's just one those games that always comes to mind every like week or month.

While scrolling on tiktok and getting hyped about the new atla movie, these two kept occupying my mind. Soo I decided to finally draw them! (Toph, from avatar the last airbender)

I just thought they had a lot of similarities and kept thinking about how would they react to eachother :3

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Oh god Violo & Toph would be a menace pair together. Two defectors from decadence that are obscenely skilled at fighting? They'd cause problems. Violo would absolutely find her delightful.

I'm curious which vn out of the three so far is players' favourite, for players who have played all three! Can you share some stats if you're okay with it?

Don't worry. GSLH isn't that far into the future. It's just that Fahima is a Spider and thus knows a lot more about the future compared to everyone else, and she's more chatty than Amare is.

As for stats, I don't really know how to interpret itch's dashboard. Don't forget these games have had demos + multiple updates, and I don't actually know if a download is only calculated by individual person downloading it once or if each time someone downloads the game it raises the number. For example, I know something has happened with Gelus because the numbers jumped up to 10+ downloads these last few days. What happened? I dunno, but something.

My numbers are probably pretty abysmal for a series that's been out since 2023, but I don't mind. I genuinely just have no idea how to read them/what to compare them to. I use Sacrarium to experiment with different things, so it's less about the games getting big and more about be trying new formats/codes/systems and seeing what feedback I get on them. I also just generally like making diverse casts, but I know some archetypes are less popular than others.

As for the numbers.

To no one's surprise, Sacrarium Pario is the most successful at 13.5k downloads. It also has 319 ratings and is in 2,992 collections.

Sacrarium Gelus is at a comfy second place with 11.4k downloads. 380 ratings and is in 3,497 collections.

Both of them have almost always abysmal CTR after their jams ended though, not even 1%. I don't always know directly about fanart/videos/etc, but I can always tell when someone/something has put Sac back in the public view because I'll see an uptick in downloads.

Still, I don't think either of them have ever had a day where at least one of them wasn't downloaded. Which is why I am curious about how people are finding them. It's not like I market them (baby devs, do not model me in my awful marketing. I know I might be able to get more downloads if I marketed more. I just don't have the energy).

Oh, and of course The Woeful Rose & The Bitter Crow is dead last by a mile lol. It currently has 1,991 downloads, 39 ratings, and is in 740 collections. It's was part of a much smaller jam however, so I'm not surprised. Winter VN Jam and Yandere Jam are big jams to begin with, so the two mainline games had an easier way for people to find them. Also, old men are popular with some but not others. I'm just glad it's finally nearly reaching 2,000 downloads.

To be honest, I'm always happy when I see these numbers at all. When we released Gelus, I remember Rian and I being floored by getting even 100 downloads. Now it's broken 10k. I'm glad that people have been interested enough to give a try. Though I doubt everyone of those downloads played the game/finished it. No game is everyone's jam after all. That's fine by me though.

So out of curiosity, would they be able to make some some sort of trinket pair(likely with the help of Vivere, who understands Violo's telepathy firsthand), that may work as an accessibility aid via sentimentalism for them and Violo, so he wouldn't have to rely on the air elementals to interact with them, letting him get their words and emotions more directly than through the elementals? Or would it not be possible/something that would be too direct/overstimulating for him?

Either way, thank you for putting out these games and the amazing setting the take place in! It's such a great series to enjoy either standalones or watch as the greater world develops!

Thank you so much! I always love learning how people stumbled into this series (after all my marketing is nonexistent).

As for such a device, yes one could, but there is a catch. Directly pushing your emotions into someone is a form of telepathy, which most cultures find high invasive and unwelcome. Thus, this isn't something that would work for most people. Think about it, you'd have a direct line of contact from your heart to theirs, and such a device probably wouldn't be reciprocal.

Most people would refuse to use it.

Mr. I Would Let You Crawl Into My Skin wouldn't give a damn and would happily take it on. Though do note that the device would cease functioning if he got so emotional his own sentimentalism disrupted the link, so you'd need air elementals again. He may also at any point in time disrupt the link himself if he needs a moment.

And on the same note is it possible for Voidlight and/or the other mcs to become wardens or temporary wardens when that happens?

Wish I could but I only really scratched out bits and pieces of the concept of Sanctum.

I knew part of it was going to be twisting the personalities a bit (Heimos is more antagonistic/ hard to deal with, VV are more timid and scared, Necare has a lot more to lose and thus more irritable and less stoic, and Amare is more visibly shaken because Sanctum!Amare is like 59 years old and doesn't have thousands of years to figure out how to handle things).

I know the MCs were going to be called Handlers except for maybe Heimos's who was also a 50/50 on being government or a lost soul.

Do sex slaves exist in the Sacrarium Universe? Also, sex workers too because both of them are HUGELY different.

Studying women's history throughout the world makes me feel nothing but emotions for all the slaves and workers.

Yes to both.

Just as there are underground rings for pit fighting, there are underground exchanges of flesh.

The difference between the two is basic. Consent.

There are some legitimate fighting pits that only have mercenaries chasing a high in them. There are also dens of depravity like where Zahir & Yukimura met where the fighters are not willing participants.

Same applies to sex work.

Each nation has its own laws on it. Some places disallow it entirely. Some see it as a legitimate form of work. Just depends on where you are.

And of course, the Tourmaline Ring and its sick members are hunted to extinction wherever they are found. The issue is that like cockroaches they pop back up again. Which is why every period where the Ring doesn't exist still has tension regarding when it will be started back up again.

The fastest way to get yourself killed in this universe is being a Ring member. Honestly, it's a horrible existence in general, living in constant fear of Spring. Still, some of them love the thrill of it and all of them get off on power and just assume that they'll be the exception and won't get caught. No Ring member has ever lived longer than three years. Any families found to be perpetuating it are erased.

It is too diverse to describe them. They have indeed all changed depending on where they are.

Big thing is no hair on any of them. Humanoid Leviathans are slimey in texture with thick skin. Mermaids have Predator style mouths, thick scales on their back and arms, and sharp claws. Both are capable of growing fins/similar things in a way that mimics hair but no real hair.

From there it depends on where the are.

Zahir would be translator who specializes in medical translation. Yukimura would be an overtired surgeon who works in the same hospital as Zahir.

Depends. Warning, mentions of human consumption below. Can't call it cannibalism technically, but if the idea of mermaids/sea folks eating people and people eating them bothers you, do not click keeping reading.

He'd keep pretending to avoid upsetting his child. Viv likes a veneer of normalcy to a degree, so as weird as Matthias can get, he does his best to play the part of doting father-in-law no matter what.

A living one? No.

He's just single. There's no equivalent to the Gods in a Modern Actual!AU, so there's no Life equivalent for him to meet.