Unsanctioned

On a dark winter’s night, a child signs a contract with a man dead to the world.

Promised an upbringing filled with forbidden knowledge, the two enter a strange and isolated existence together.

After nineteen years, the sanctuary and prison you have come to know as your home is discovered, and the land finally learns that the villain they believed to have perished a century prior has merely been in hiding…and that he isn’t alone.

Separated and forced to flee, you’re once again released into the world without your master’s hand to guide you. Only now, he is no longer the only one adept at the unsanctioned arcane arts.

“Unsanctioned” is a 170k word 17+ interactive novel where you play as the apprentice of an ostracized sorcerer. It’s set in a dark fantasy world where magic is simultaneously a symbol of status and strictly supervised.

The demo currently covers the first part of the prologue, which features three different backgrounds to choose from, the second part of the prologue and the beginning of chapter one.

✢ Three backgrounds to choose from which will shape your MC and their relationship with the world, impact their pool of knowledge, their countenance, and how others might react to them.

✢ Three races to choose from: elf, human or the shunned cryn.

✢ A complicated parental relationship at the heart of the narrative.

✢ A cast of potential – and not entirely lawful – companions who you can forge various relationships with.

✢ Around five full-fledged romances, along with casual flings you may try to pursue along the way.

✢ Choices that shape your MC’s personality as well as the world around them to a lesser or bigger degree and narrative branching based on certain choices.

✢ A game of truth and deceit with you as one of the main players. You've been taught to keep your identity and abilities a secret from others, but is secrecy what you truly want?

✢ A magic system of both legal and illegal spells at your disposal. Use them wisely, or you might attract unwanted attention...

Cirern Avari (elven). If the stories are to be trusted, he is the last surviving member of the group of sorcerers unceremoniously named the “Pentagon order”. He is your master and your caretaker, your mentor and your jailor.

Knowledgeable and lonesome, he often seems to be pondering the world which he has now become a reclused observer of. When you first meet him, he is calm and distant, impatient and thoughtful.

Whether you consider him family or a brute who took you away from the life you were meant to live, it can’t be argued that the nineteen years the two of you have spent together has shaped you into the person you are today.

How your presence has affected him, you cannot confidently say. His mind remains as closed off to you now as it did on that snowy winter’s night so long ago.

Perhaps leaving his side is what will finally allow you to learn the truth about him.

Muir (Romance Option, ???). As a being born from the very essence of sorcery, Muir’s existence threads a thin line between mortality and something wholly other. All spellweavers rely on the energy of their magiramús to cast their spells; you rely on this hoary eyed young man to do the same. Aside from his direct and stubborn disposition, he possesses both a palpable kindness and a sense of unmotivated ruthlessness. When you first meet him, he is a dreamy child with curious eyes that seem to hold the universe itself. But as Muir settles into his skin those qualities begin to dim, and his strange sense of wonder turns into awkwardness and uncertainty, eventually hardening him into a stoic and quiet adult.

You don’t know what he is, yet you know him better than anyone. You left your home together; now you must learn to navigate the world together.

Something that’s much easier said than done when your very existence marks you as outlaws.

Wren Parr (Romance Option, elven).  One need only look at Wren to know that they’re an agent of the Institute of Arcane Arts. If the robes didn’t give it away, their demeanour certainly would. Arrogance lies deeply embedded in their eyes, and they seem convinced that anyone who looks their way does so with envy. Beneath the exterior they present is a deeply passionate - and occasionally awkward - person.

When you encounter them in the troubled town of Kelmerth during their Practice of Passing, you get to witness firsthand what a student of the most distinguished academy on the continent can do, and what being a product of its teachings really means. 

Azora (Romance Option, human). Hailing from the southern land of Ciralor, one of the few human-ruled countries on the continent, Azora is less attuned to the laws of the arcane than a native of Aíos would be. Instead, she tends to rely on the inventions her homeland is both renowned and feared for. She is eloquent and straight-forward and impulsive to a fault – but it is all, according to her, to reclaim her rightful place as Ciralor’s leader. A task that proves difficult when every day is a battle to stay in control of her own body.

Astra (Romance Option, vampiric, formerly human). Astra's gaze always appears to wander, searching for something in the crowds she often surrounds herself with, occasionally locking on to someone who just so happens to catch her interest. Although her muscular stature points to a life of strife, the poise she displays is more befitting of a high born than that of a common thug. Astra can be described as having little regard for mortal lives, and it’s not beyond her to manipulate and scheme to nudge things in the direction she wants them to go. Sometimes that means feasting on the blood of the unsuspecting, and sometimes that is extended to a grander vision and goal. Although she can be cruel, she is also fiercely loyal to those she’s close with and trusts. Beneath her exterior, something darker and more unpredictable simmers, though she rarely allows that side of her to show. 

As a vampire, she has little choice but to shun the light of day and seek the comfort that lies in the shadows. Representing the part of her people that refuse to conform to the rules set in place by the less potent, she operates outside of the law, following instead the self-made rules of her Coven.

 Kirin (Romance Option, cryn). The order of The Aelesh is enveloped in mystery. Worshipping the world of the unknown, they have chosen to cast aside the Faith in favour of the Truth – and in their eyes, the truth lies beyond that which mortals can comprehend and perceive with their senses. With the simple mask he insists on wearing, your only clue as to Kirin’s true character lies in his voice and body language. Each sparse movement has a purpose, every phrase a veiled meaning. He’s vowed to express his beliefs by following in the footsteps of the Pentagons and to serve them in any way he can. In his opinion, this is currently best done by aiding you.

Kirin is quiet as a shadow and moves much like one, too, walking in and out of your life as he pleases. He is devoted to his beliefs and for all intents and purposes, he seems devoted to serve you, as well. He is practical but also idealistic when it comes to his faith and what he does for that faith. But the nature of his order is vague and difficult to grasp for someone not directly linked to them. Kirin’s personality is hard to pin down since he seems to hide much of it beneath his purpose, just like how he hides his face behind his mask. He is calm, though; sometimes eerily so, and often finds amusement in situations where people might find such amusement distasteful. 

Credits

Twine Template: Vahnya

Template Design: Beloved friend no.1

Cover Image: cyanide-chicken

Background Image: cyanide-chicken

Character Portraits (screenshots): holyantenna and cyanide-chicken

Character Portraits (description): holyantenna and mooreaux

Logo Text Creation: kathaeris

Images used in-game: Canva

Created with Twine 

Development blog for this project