The Abyss beckons you once more.
You're dead. But don't worry, the end has no end. Welcome to the ethereal realms of the afterlife. Sign your contract, manage this lonely bar on the Abyss for a year, and claim your limitless wish from the gods themselves.
Well, if you manage to finish that year.
༻ THE BAR ON THE ABYSS 3.0 IS FINALLY HERE
Play WIP at: Itch.io | CoGDemos
(Current demo: 410k words!!!)
What started as a 2.5 update two and a half years ago grew into something I could no longer call anything but a new version entirely.
✬ Almost 200,000 words of overhauled and brand-new content for the current 5 chapters of the game.
✬ Brand new, restructured main plot arc.
✬ New mechanics that will carry the whole game forward.
✬ Characters who are more alive (well, you know) and more complicated than they've ever been.
I won't pretend this one was easy to ship, but I'm so glad it's finally in your hands.
(And if you're willing to help this little game grow, here's how! 🖤)
✬ Leave a comment on the COG game thread!
✬ Reblog this post before you start!
✬ Talk about it on r/hostedgames!
✬ Add it to your collection on itch.io!
✬ And most importantly, please send me your thoughts via ask here, or on COG, during or after your playthrough. I genuinely want to read every single one!
It would mean the world and beyond. Truly.
And now, here's everything that's new. Grab a drink! We earned it:
༻ A WHOLE NEW MAIN PLOT
The story of your afterlife journey has changed.
From the moment you sign your new contract, presented to you by none other than the Grim Reaper, the main arc of TBOTA changes from the ground up.
Pick your limitless wish, learn about your new employer: the Council of Nine, and discover what truly lies beneath this contract: a binding to something… else.
And this time, you have far greater agency to act on your own behalf and for your staff.
Should you choose to share what you've learned with them, of course.
If you've played before, you'll recognise the bones. But the story has grown around them into something ready to carry the full weight of what TBOTA is building toward.
༻ YOUR SPIRIT GIFT
The Spirit Gift system has been completely reworked. Not as a shortcut or as a glorified stat check, but as a new lens through which you experience the entire story. Each gift opens unique scenes, unique ways to act, gather information, or stumble into something just effing strange. Think of them less as abilities and more as a personality trait that the bar decided you really needed.
Ring of Chronos: stolen from Itot, the glass-spider god of time. Click your fingers, stop the world, and what you do with those stolen seconds is yours to decide: help your staff, or punch a nightlife critic in the face.
Lens of Daezur: contraband from a mage who wanted to know too much. Point it at anything, and get your own secret encyclopedia. Learn how old the Raven is, who made the gates to Limbo, and what the bathroom fog is really made of.
Mask of Shapeless Visage: previously worn by the actors-assassins of Teatru Mischak. Wear the face of everyone around you. But will you remember how to be yourself?
The Necklace of Murmurs: hear the thoughts of inanimate objects around you, and more so, their opinions. Your bedroom table, the jukebox downstairs, a letter from Pyriphlegethon, or even your own cash register.
Voidcutter: a sword forged to kill gods, carrying the memories of the civilization destroyed for making it. Fight like a spirit-warrior when the opportunity presents itself. And who knows… maybe one day, you’ll kill a god too.
Navia's Earring: the mad prophet heard what the gods meant to keep hidden. Now you do too! Just remember: some things, once heard, are very hard to unknow.
༻ RANDOM PATRONS ENCOUNTERS
No two playthroughs of the game will be the same! Each run gives you two out of five possible patron encounters, one in Chapter 1, one in Chapter 4.
In the future, these encounters will be chosen from a pool of 20 patrons. So, who walks through your door tonight?
Meet Zilas, God of Revelry, and he is very good at his job.
Meet Perpetiel, an Ophanim Angel, drinking a mimosa from a straw. Be not afraid.
Meet Laura, an astronaut who died during a research mission into a black hole, with one terrifying tale.
Meet Xochitl, Trade Ambassador of Clan Roh'els of the Undead City of Necropolis. A vampiress in your humble abode, coming with an interesting offer for you.
Tomas, a mortal painter. Quiet, unassuming. That’s all.
༻ LOVE AFTER DEATH
Romance has been overhauled from scratch. Be flirtatious or be a complete disaster about it. Choose monogamy, polyamory, or an ace playthrough. Build something slow and tender, or burn bright and chaotic.
And if you want things a little spicier with a certain devilish friend of yours... well. The content is there. You'll find it, I’m sure.
And random patrons are fair game, too! if you're the type to shoot your shot with someone who walked through your door an hour ago, and might be a vampire or an angel.
No judgment here.
༻ WHO ARE YOU IN THIS AFTERLIFE?
Introducing a 30-trait personality system. Every choice you make, every option you pick, every response you give quietly builds a psychological profile of your MC.
Not to gate content or to judge you! Just to reflect who you are becoming in your ethereal form, one decision at a time.
New grief path content is also woven throughout the game. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance, each path surfaces in new places, in new ways.
You'll also find tons of new career options throughout the game. Some of them can even replace certain skill checks!
The Abyss is watching, and it finds you fascinating.
༻ CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION AND DEATH SCARS
Choose from a vastly expanded range of career backgrounds, add an honorific, and find a few other surprises waiting in the menu.
Your career also has a greater presence throughout the game now: more moments where who you were in life shapes who you're becoming in death.
And by popular demand, choose a death scar. After all, you died, and you probably have the marks to prove it.
During character customization, you can now choose your death scars, currently cosmic in nature. Full in-game integration is coming in future updates, but they're yours to wear now.
༻ EVERYTHING ELSE
Almost every scene in the existing game has been touched (gently, consensually): Prose, character voices, pacing, and choices.
If something felt off before, there's a good chance it doesn't anymore! (HOPING) And also, made an absolute thorough bugs & typos sweep. Some of them were present from day one! But I FINALLY SQUISHED THEM!
That's it, for now. I think! Might be others I forgot about, lol. After all, it’s been two and a half years of work just for this update. More love and labour than I can ever put into a release post, but alas.
Thank you for waiting. Thank you for asking after this game during the long silences.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Read on Wattpad | Tapas | Royal Road
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
Nine years ago, the stars fell on the lost city of New Babylon.
Molly and Ethan Sparrow barely escaped that night, saved by their aunt who drove them through mists until the road led somewhere else entirely—to another world, to Earth.
Now, nine years later in New York, Molly can't forget the voice that spoke to her from the dark sea on the night their city burned. Something ancient watched her with crimson eyes from the depths of her dreams. At seventeen, the voice is calling again: the tide is rising.
Ethan buried himself in normalcy-he's a journalist now, raising his sister alone since their aunt vanished. But he can't shake the memories of a city that supposedly never existed. An impossible metropolis rising from endless shores. No maps show it. No records remain. No one believes.
But New Babylon endured.
And from there, forces are hunting them:
A corporation with divine ambitions. The city's monstrous theocracy. A mysterious cult. Even the cosmic overseers of reality itself—all converging on two siblings they believe are supposed vessels for powers so terrible they might tear reality apart.
Powers who call them back home, to the edge of existence.
To awaken once more.
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
DIVINIUM is a dark modern fantasy, told through dual first-person POVs of the Sparrow siblings.
An epic genre-bending narrative that includes themes of cosmic horror, soft sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, action-packed mysteries with slow-burn romance arcs, LGBTQ+ themes, and complex family dynamics, as well as immersive worldbuilding and lore.
Content Notes: Violence, strong language, death/grief, religious trauma, substance abuse (fictional), and horror elements.
Part of the Realms of Kiyum series, which shares a universe with the WIP interactive fiction game The Bar on the Abyss.
Liked what you read? Leave a comment or send an ask my way—I'd love to hear your feedback!
(Warning! The Following segment contains spoilers for future chapters. )
Protagonists:
Molly Sparrow (She/her) - A 17-year-old artist obsessed with finding her lost homeland of New Babylon, painting her dreams of an entity in the dark waters.
Ethan Sparrow (He/him) - A 29-year-old journalist raising his younger sister alone, desperately trying to maintain a normal life while suppressing memories of their catastrophic escape from their childhood home.
Core Cast:
Alyx Mars (She/her) - A lethal agent of the Prometheus Corporation, equipped with superhuman abilities and deep knowledge of the siblings' past.
Lin Doan (She/her) - Ethan's fearless and outgoing best friend and docu-filmmaker who refuses to let him face the unknown alone.
Vincent Gills (He/him) - Ethan's childhood best friend who survived the starfall to become a detective in New Babylon, now struggling with addiction to the divine drug Magnum.
Steven Main (He/him) - Ethan's first love, who chose safety over their relationship, now works as Vincent's partner-detective while maintaining a devout Chapel marriage to Lucia.
Pazu (He/him) - The prodigal son of the Adamants' spiritual leader, who left his people's forest sanctuary to join the criminal underground of New Babylon and the Burning Foxes gang.
Supporting Cast:
The Tachav (They/them) - The spiritual leader of the Adamants, the indigenous people of New Babylon who retreated to the Endless Forest after being driven from their lands by the Chapel of the People.
Angelica Weld (She/her) - A trans woman who leads the Burning Foxes crime syndicate with ice-cold efficiency and sharp intelligence.
Sam Balov (He/him) - The muscles and enforcer of the Burning Foxes and Angelica's devoted boyfriend.
Hermes (They/them) - The tech-savvy hacker of the Burning Foxes who navigates New Babylon's digital underground.
Emir Jev (He/him) - The enigmatic CEO of Prometheus Corporation, who's locked in a cold power struggle with the Chapel's Zealots.
Sacred Naomi (She/her) - The mutilated prophet of the Chapel of the People, shaping New Babylon's oppressive theocracy from the insides of an iron maiden.
Mike Levi "Elder Zion" (He/him) - A former rabbi turned crime boss who survived the starfall by playing all sides in New Babylon's power struggles.
The Tattooist (?) - A mysterious serial killer targeting authority figures across New Babylon, leaving cryptic messages carved into their victims.
"Some people carry the sword. Some carry the shield.
Some change the course of history with these.
But you...
You might be the first to change everything with only words and a drink in your hand."
That's it, everyone, we can call a date.
Next Thursday, March 19th, the overhauled, updated TBOTA is coming out!
With almost 200,000 words of additional content.
A whole new main plotline.
New spirit gifts, overhauled romance system, random patron encounters, a personality system of 30 traits, and so much more.
I'll go into all of it properly in the release post, but OMFG, we are finally here.
Spending the next week finishing the last file and doing thorough playtests, and then that's it :)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
*This post is a run-of-the-mill “Sorry I’ve been gone, here’s a crazy thing that happened to me” Tumblr post.
So let's stick to the format: Sorry I’ve been gone!!!!
It's just that, three months ago, my life took an unexpected turn, as life often does.
The details are bizarre, melodramatic, and somewhat reminiscent of a very cliché Reddit post.
In short, my 12-year relationship fell apart due to an affair (not mine! I’m a loyal bitch, thank you very much), which inevitably led to a breakup, a forever home gone forever, and my three pets becoming children of divorce.
So, unfortunately, my plans to complete the 3.0 update by Halloween were less successful than I had hoped.
I’m in London now, visiting a friend, and after contemplating for some time on what to write here, I just said fuck it and decided to share with you things as they stand.
So hear, hear!
Love comes and goes, but stories last forever. And this story will reach its end.
My afterlife starts, and so my work continues. Don't have a date yet, but hoping it won’t be long until the new version of The Bar on the Abyss will be released 🙂
So 3.0 is finally, fully OUT. Now it's time to move to Chapter 5: Conspiracy.
Instead of dropping a whole chapter at once, Chapter 5 will be released one encounter per update.
Which means the game is about to update a LOT in the coming months!
Here's everything that's coming 👀
✬ Chapter 5, Part 1: The Quiet Days
The bar is settling, the Abyss is still, and your Proprietor can go on small quests and encounters with the cast. Enjoy the peace while it lasts…
✬ UPDATE 1: Meet Death in Limbo: It's time to confront the Grim Reaper. Maybe on a date, maybe with Morgan/a tagging along. But how will you get answers from a god who forgot them?
✬ UPDATE 2: A date with a Devil: If romanced, you can finally get some one-on-one time with Lilith/Damian. Re-visit Château Hinnom, and maybe spend the night there as well. And this time, properly meet the one who raised your Devilish lover: Anaat, the matriarch of the house. But don't worry: if you're not romancing Lilith/Damian, prepare for a surprise visit from Anaat at the bar!
✬ UPDATE 3: Small conversation hub: Talk to Yaga about what happened in Hell, hear about Peisinoe's latest project, and talk with the Raven about your little interrogation. If you're poly-romancing Death, Morgan/a and Lilith/Damian, meet all three at the bar for a special night together.
✬ UPDATE 4: Join Hastur, Cassy, Shelly, and He Without Name for a trip to a celestial zoo: Cassy needs a bit of a change of scenery, and this is a perfect time to help Hastur bond with his demigod daughter. Of course, for the interested proprietors, it's also the time to get closer with Hastur.
✬ UPDATE 5: Join Shelly and Cahira on a double date to Arcadia. You can pick a your plus one from the cast (or the Raven, if you’re not romancing anyone) and help the knight and the barmaid fall in love. But just a warning: this realm has teeth.
✬ Chapter 5, Part 2: The Delegation (Update 6)
The Council of Nine has chosen the bar as neutral ground for a peace summit between Hell, Heaven, and the Malakim: Heaven's renegade angels, waging eternal war.
Meet with Seraph Alpha, the Emissary of The Malkut, and Asmodeus, the 7th Prince of Hell, accompanied by your scheming friend, Lilith/Damian, and plan a party where all factions can negotiate a ceasefire.
The dress code: Heavenly Virtue. Asmodeus proposed it.
But remember: if violence breaks, if one single angel or devil gets hurt under the flag of truce, Heaven might join the Malakim's side in total cosmic war.
And you're hosting it.
No pressure.
✬ Chapter 5, Part 3: The Masquerade (Update 7)
The Seven Princes of Hell. The Malkut, the rulers of Heaven. And the Malakim delegation, led by Archangel Michael himself.
All meet at your bar, which, for the night, transformed into a mock-celestial ballroom.
Talk to all guests and the cast in a night full of confrontations.
