2023-02-25 17:30
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description
<p>Trapped in a foreign realm, where reality and the supernatural are blended into a game-like trial all for the amusement of some absurd Deity, Aomori Aiko has to battle with her missing memories and the many previous lives she has lived within this strange realm. She struggles greatly to come to terms with being well-known and renowned under the moniker "Raven-Black", despite having zero memories of what actions led to this.</p> <p>Aiko quickly finds herself facing a sadistically-designed trial that punishes its 'players' in countless ways, such as robbing memories and abilities if they are gravely injured, but she has to continue to rise and rise again, because only by progressing can she regain her past and figure out how to escape the Exiled Realm.</p> <p>As she advances through the Stages of the first World, The Forlorn Kingdom, and uncovers its story, she encounters people who idolise the person she was in the past, but also people who wish to harm her for simply trying to progress. Despite her lone-wolf nature, she makes some friends along the way, who teach her about her past self and her famous exploits.</p> <p>I have been writing on this story for about 4½ years, and thus have roughly 1400 pages' worth of material (though most of it needs proofing). I plan to release the first World all in one go, and then the second World not too long after, but that only covers about the first 400 pages or so, and the rest is in need of extensive rewriting before being released, but as I work through them, I will be releasing a chapter at a time at roughly the pace of one-or-two per week.This story is my baby that I have been raising for many years and is what originally brought me to RoyalRoad in the first place. It took the release and success of my other story "Father of Monstrosity" to make me finally decide to put this story out on here. I have tried for all of 2021 and 2022 to find a publisher for this story, and though I got far with a few publishers, it was deemed "too dark" to be released by them, so, I thought, "Oh well, I'll do it myself". Given that FoM is waaaay darker than Exiled Realm, my hope is that the audience here will enjoy it and prove the publishers mistaken about the following such a story can garner.</p> <p>I use Footnotes extensively in this story to convey a fourth-wall-breaking commentary by Aiko, as well as explanations of many elements in the story that require explanations (such as the extensive segments about language, culture, and weapons). I wish I could add more genre tags, as the story has elements of Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Psychological, a sprinkling of Romance, and, lastly, Tragedy. For now, I believe "Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, and Psychological" play the biggest roles, but I may change it later if I come to a different conclusion.</p> <p>The cover was made by the amazing @panjoool (please look him up on DeviantArt and other art-sites: he's very talented and his style and method of 3d-render mixed with traditional painting is really fascinating). I commissioned the cover from him back in 2021, as a treat to myself for sticking to the story despite some setbacks (treats are important!) and it depicts the The Forlorn Kingdom, which is the first World in Exiled Realm. I have plans to get covers for the other Worlds, as they are all visually distinct, but this is what I have for now.</p> <p>The second chapter will be released on March 1st, since I have to do a bit on-site editing to fix the assorted formatting stuff that didn't carry-over properly. After that, it'll be a chapter per day until the first world is completed. Then a break of about a month or so will interrupt the release of chapters, before the 2nd world will have a similar release. Together, world 1 and 2 are one novel of approx. 160k words (a bit under 600 pages by RR's estimate).</p>
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