#tbobc

Day one is officially uploaded. Play it here

This is 7k words of the first day of MC's life in Vodon. It contains the introduction, some lore, and most of the MC customization. It also introduces two of the male ROs, Day and Night.

Keep in mind this is a first draft and incomplete. There's no intro page like I'll intend for the first full demo release. Stat changes are not final (and won't be even when the first full demo is released) and the stat page is not final either, you're going to notice a lot of blank sections if you open it at the start. The code should work (I hope) but I did not give more than a cursory glance over the text so there may be spelling and grammar mistakes.

(This is only the MC and the ROs, additional characters to be decided as the book develops)

MC:

Customizable. Human (for now?) They were caught in their pursuit of Forbidden Knowledge and sentenced to execution, however their affluential mother was able to get their sentenced reduced to exile. Thus they arrived to the city of Vodon in handcuffs. But at least they've managed to escape their mother.

Day:

Family name: Daiya.

He/Him. Vesani. A stoic, generally unfriendly man with the misfortune of being responsible for MC now. Due to an incident with his brother, he was sentenced to prison, but managed to negotiate rehabilitation by way of working for the City Guard; the likely source of his grumpiness. He has two dogs, Skoll and Hati.

He is 6'5 with a somewhat lean and toned body. Short black hair. Red eyes. Pale skin. Black nails. His markings consist of two slashes one after the other on his cheeks below each eye, one black and the other red.

Night:

Family name: Novah.

He/Him. Vesani? A maskingly bright, friendly, and rather bawdy man. Not much is known about him, except he does tend to inexplicably be around at opportune times. Also frequently seen with Day. No relation, however.

He is 6'5 with a fit body and toned arms from archery. Short, white hair. Blue eyes. Pale skin. Blue nails. His markings consist of two slashes one after the other on his cheeks below each eye, one black and the other blue.

Bat:

Family name: Baiyan.

He/Him. Canii. An easygoing, gentle, albeit slightly withdrawn man. A former courtesan, he now lives off of his savings as well as being a part-time waiter at a bar in the low end of town. Prone to insomnia and difficulty feeling anything emotionally, but has a hyper sensitive body.

He is tall with a strong body and several vulgar tattoos. Medium-length, maroon hair. One gray eye with a dark undereye circle, the other covered by a chained eyepatch. Tan skin. His markings consist of something jagged and purple beneath his eyepatch, and a gray circle right below each ear, with a slash following the border beneath his jaw.

Myra:

Family name: Mirin.

She/Her. Canii. A low energy, blunt woman with poor social awareness, although she tries to be nice. At night, she's a gambler and an underground fighter. During the day, she works as Dominya's assistant. Struggles to feel anything, physically, and is frequently sleepy.

She is somewhat short with a toned body. Long, grey hair (usually in a bun.) Purple eyes. Pale skin. Her markings consist of random dots like constellations under her eyes, and shapes like sickles with round handles on either shoulder.

Dominya:

Family name: ?

She/Her. Dolumni. A very kind and empathic woman. Living up to her clan's reputation as inventors, she founded Delphi ThinkTank, a business responsible for many of Vodon's recent modern advances. Estranged from her family, she works hard to support herself and bring her ideas to life.

The Vulks (or the Vulkillian People) are an underpopulated species descended from a race of cannibalistic, unholy wolves.

For their crimes against the world, the wolves were Damned by the God of Death to all seven Hells.

As the wolves evolved into humanoid beings near indistinguishable from humans and adopted the name Vulk, they split off into three clans who bear traits both gifted and cursed from their respective Hells and markings to denote their existence as Damned.

Culturally, Vulks do not go by forenames and surnames like most of the world, but they do have two names: Their common name, the one they will be referred by most, and their family name. This is a name used by individuals who are very close to the Vulk as to be considered, in some way, family.

Clan #1:

Dolumni, the Clan of Invention.

Damned by the Hells of Superbia and Invidia. Pride and Envy. Their colors are blue and orange.

The most populated clan, as the clan most welcome in society. They are the scholars and inventors of their kind. Very intelligent, as gifted by Superbia, yet secretly suffering from crippling self-esteem issues, as cursed by Invidia.

Their physical traits include brown skin, orange hair, and blue eyes. Their markings can be orange and/or blue.

Clan #2:

Vesani, the Clan of Insanity.

Damned by the Hells of Gula and Ira. Gluttony and Wrath. Their colors are black and red.

An endangered clan, as so few exist to this day. They are reclusive by choice, but the most shunned of any of the clans. Gifted with immense strength and Black Flame magic by Ira, they are also cursed by Gula to never taste anything that isn't sickeningly sweet or painfully spicy. Inexplicably, and the so-called signature trait of the Vesani, they also suffer from mental health issues, ranging from mild depression to severe catatonia. They frequently experience hallucinations of many kinds and dissociation.

Their physical traits include pale skin, black hair, red eyes, and black nails. Their markings can be black and/or red.

Clan #3:

Canii, the Clan of Luck.

Damned by the Hells of Luxuria, Acedia, and Avaritia. Lust, Sloth, and Greed. Their colors are purple, gray, and maroon.

The most unusual clan, as their traits are not set one way the way the other two are. They are gifted by the Hell of Avaritia with abstract luck, but cursed in different ways by Luxuria and Acedia. Physically and emotionally, they can suffer from either feeling too much or not feeling enough. They also suffer from either chronic fatigue or insomnia. A strange coin toss for their fate.

I can't go into specifics entirely because a lot of this will be revealed as the story goes on, but I'll answer to the best of my ability.

MC... didn't have a great childhood, particularly after they lost their father. Their mother doesn't love them and she's proved it again and again throughout their whole life. That's largely the reason why they felt trapped; because they were.

As for the book, what was in it will come up later in the story, particularly if you work to raise MC's Awareness stat. I don't think I've had a chance to bring this up yet, but I'm not keeping it hidden so I'll say it here: The backstory of the book is that no one wrote it. It appeared suddenly one day a long, long time ago with a title in a language that theoretically doesn't exist but written in a different language that could be understood, and all who've read it from start to finish (MC did not do that) has lost their mind, so once the authorities caught wind of it, it was contained and (until recently) resided in Okverd's Historical Library for protection.

And for my birthday, I'm giving in to my urge to never keep anything to myself, so here's a four more Day teasers

Moments to give you Tension (between different choices). These count as hand-holding, right?

Hi! I'm doing good now. I think my brain broke last week from the heat and sleep deprivation. I used my two days off to decompress and catch up on sleep, the weather cooled down again, and I think I've leveled out to something normal. Mercifully, I got off work early today, too.

Anyway, with one exception, the jobs won't technically affect stats. I'll go into that in a bit, but I'd like to take this opportunity to talk a little about the stats and then answer your question.

The Book of Broken Candles has a small amount of stats. The first of which are three simple stats which will combine to change MC's speech patterns outside of choices. You will still have many opportunities to choose MC's dialogue and you will always have the choice during important moments. But I think this will inject some more variety into scenes as MC comes into themself over the course of the book.

The latter of the stats are Awareness and Coping. As per usual with all of the characters I write, the MC is Not Okay. Several months ago, they snapped, they pursued something they should have long stayed away from, they imploded their home life and, more than anything, they learned things they never should have. And yet, this new low they've landed in may very well have not extinguished their thirst for more knowledge of the realms beyond. But their mortal mind may not be able to handle what they find. In other words, if you wish to pursue eldritch knowledge, it'll be hard to balance your awareness and ability to cope. The more you learn, the more you lose. The less you'll be able to get back.

Now, with that set up:

All jobs will have their own unique storyline opportunities (meaning you can choose to not pursue these threads) and will offer unique situations. There's no Greater Plot these need to tie into, so I'm choosing to have some fun and come up with a variety of ideas that can be explored during the course of a playthrough.

The City Guard job will offer more romantic opportunities with Day and Night, but even if you choose not to pursue these, it will still open the opportunity to get a closer look at the city on a ground level. Maybe that knowledge MC had gained in the past will allow them to look at it from a new perspective, see things others don't.

The Assistant job will offer more romantic opportunities with Dominya and Myra, but even if you choose not to pursue these, it will still open the opportunity to explore the state of technology at this point in the world's era. And perhaps you can even, say... show Dominya the light, the vast world of knowledge she can take for her inventions to make them unlike anything the world has seen.

As chapter 1's outline is nearing completion, I wanted to talk about these early, so people had a chance to bow out sooner than later. (Also why I put it in big letters aha)

The Book of Broken Candles deals with pretty dark topics and occasionally uncomfortable themes, so please engage at your own discretion.

This is a non-exhaustive list. These are only the ones I know for sure will be in the game right now in its early stages.

Unavoidable Content

Explicit memories and discussions of child abuse - physical and mental

Themes of trauma and mental health

Themes of horror

Other characters dissociating

Sexual content in the form of dialogue

Technically Avoidable Content

Non-explicit discussions of child sexual abuse or assault (Two ROs' backstories feature this and, if pursuing these ROs, this content in unavoidable)

Themes of unreality and dissociation (This might be hard to avoid, given the mechanics of the game, but not impossible)

Discussions of sex work (One of the ROs is a former sex worker and, if pursuing this RO, this content is unavoidable)

Death (might actually be unavoidable. Currently only unavoidable in the mortuary job (naturally))

Romance (it’s a romance slice of life game, the character and romantic interactions are basically the entire plot. However, there is one (1) storyline that hinges on pursuing no romance)

Completely Avoidable Content

Sexual content in the form of sex scenes (Completely optional to engage in these. I'm also thinking carefully about allowing the option for MC to be asexual and how I'd implement it)