forkingandcountry-if

[forkingandcountry-if]

thought about your IF again and I hope you’ve been enjoying your break! lots been happening and the weather’s too hot but I hope you’ve had fun and rested well :]

I'm having a great time, thank you!

As much as I told myself I wouldn't do much work this summer I've found that I actually have done more work than previous months combined 😅 turns out writing flows much easier when you aren't stressing over it.

I've also been reading the advice some anons have sent about descriptions and choices and it's helped, chapter 2 is going to be a shorter chapter but also hopefully one that drives the story forward more concisely and is part of a continuous climb in my writing ability.

As it stands chapter 2 is at 16k words.

[forkingandcountry-if]

forking and country

Guards, it's happening again.

[forkingandcountry-if]

I just wanted to pop in and say I hope you have a good break! there’s already so so much demo to play that’s just mind-blowing with how extensive and rich the world building is. The pace of updates is obviously up to how you’re feeling so I hope you enjoy your break and all the musicals and plays you can see.

thank you for writing this story and take care!

Thank you!!!

[forkingandcountry-if]

I'm planning to see a few Off West End plays and musicals :) Little Shop of Horrors supremacy!

Just a quick note: I will be taking a break from writing during the summer months (July through August). Lately, the process has felt more like a slog than a joy, and I’d like to step back, clear my head, and reconnect with why I started this in the first place. Writing should be a labour of love, and I want to keep it that way.

That said, The Demo isn’t officially on hiatus. I’ll still pop in occasionally to answer asks, but overall, things will likely move a bit slower through the summer.

Thanks for your patience and support.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Just a quick note: I will be taking a break from writing during the summer months (July through August). Lately, the process has felt more like a slog than a joy, and I’d like to step back, clear my head, and reconnect with why I started this in the first place. Writing should be a labour of love, and I want to keep it that way.

That said, The Demo isn’t officially on hiatus. I’ll still pop in occasionally to answer asks, but overall, things will likely move a bit slower through the summer.

Thanks for your patience and support.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Writing is continuing. Slowly.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Welcome, I am really fond of this IF, definitely one of the best there are. I would like to ask some questions, specifically -

Before asking, thank you for adding asexual option! - Now to the question about it - what does the sexual innuendo/intention from MC refer to? Is it refering to dialogue choice when talking to RO? I believe I have seen that any sexual scenes under asexual option are not canonical (does that mean they still had happened?/I have seen asks about possible children so maybe you can try for a child but there is not sexual scene though I have also seen that asexual option is celibate option too so I do not know how to interpret it).

This is just confirmation but I researched this page and it seems we must marry one RO (well, logical considering we are the Heir) but I happened upon ask about poly(romantic/sexual? - my apologies, I am not well versed in such matters) route between MC and Edmund and Veronica and they (the ROs) stay married - does it mean our MC will not marry when playing this route? Considering betraying all of the ROs could be difficult. (Very selfish ask for my aromantic self, sorry)

I had to make tumblr account just to ask as I really enjoyed this IF. I am sorry if formatting of my questions was odd/uncomfortable to read, though! Thank you for your time!

It's really not an issue, I'm actually very flattered that you made an tumblr account to ask your question so I'll attempt to answer it as best I can.

1. If you choose the asexual path, any sexual encounters involving the MC will not occur and will not be referenced in the text. I’m committed to including emotionally intimate, non-sexual scenes that allow an asexual MC to build meaningful relationships with their chosen RO or partner. These scenes will be designed to reflect emotional closeness without turning sexual. The asexual path is also celibate by default, any references to the MC conceiving a child will be entirely skippable although just as a matter of the MC’s position discussion of the matter should he expected. That said, under the current planned scope of the game, such topics are unlikely to arise at all.

2. The Veronica/Edmund polyamorous route is unique in that the MC remains canonically unmarried. Publicly, Edmund and Veronica are still seen as an exclusively married couple, with the MC portrayed as a close and trusted friend. However, for players pursuing this route who would prefer the option of formal recognition, I’ve planned for the epilogue to include flavour text which mentions Edmund petitions the Church to revise its stance on monogamous marriage. The implication is that he succeeds, allowing for legally recognized polyamorous relationships.

I hope that explains it all.

[forkingandcountry-if]

What is our relationship with family after the reveal (our succession as Heir)? I have to say I did not see it coming and was incredibly angry with whole family after the incident and deep down still hold contempt for them as my MC wanted chill, slow life without responsibilities. Is the relationship fixed (canon) with all family members or do we have a choice how we see them after the incident (and the time skip)?

Yes, to some extent just as a matter of the MC’s character they don't actively hold their family in extreme contempt despite the forced nature of their inheritance but it is already noted in my planned revisions for Chapter 1 to add more opportunities for the MC to express both explicitly and implicitly their unenthusiasm, anger and dissatisfaction regarding their role and to that extent more opportunities to be frosty with their family.

Hope that helps!

[forkingandcountry-if]

What time period is this set in

The equivalent period we decided on was the high medieval period so between 11 and 13 century though the setting is rather syncretic in terms of its inspiration and so it takes aspects from all the way up to the 14th century and all the way back to the 9th.

[forkingandcountry-if]

What would the ROs reaction be to an extremely doting MC (ie. someone who constantly tries to make things easier for them and take care of them i guess)? Have a nice day 💖

Fran: suspicious but she comes to enjoy being pampered though she’ll never admit it as a matter of pride.

Lorn: unused to it and slightly freaked out, he’d come around to it eventually but he'd spend some time wondering if there's some string, if they want something for him or if they've gone just slightly insane.

Dean: oh she revels in it, she finds it fun and nice though she’d want to make sure it's reciprocal.

Kent: He’d start off enjoying it as just the state of things but as it continued he’d begin to feel uncomfortable with the MC doing so much for him and him doing nothing back so if not going to the lengths the MC is, he’ll atleast pull out their chair for them.

Walthe: Rather naturally, learning to rely on other people is a skill he's well learnt after years and he’d be plainly appreciative and verbally make clear as much before telling the MC to direct him to any way he can help them in return.

Arfryn: Oh she just finds it fun, or amusing is a better word. They’d get lots of verbal praise atleast along the lines of 'my hero' and 'what would I do without my knight in shining armour'.

Edmund: too close to dynamics he has with literally everyone as King and probably would be somewhat uncomfortable with the MC tripping over themselves to help him hand and foot, 100% tries to convince the MC he doesn't need it and just wants their affection.

Veronica: Making yourself useful she sees she’d see it and silently allow it to continue if she sees evidence that suggests the MC enjoys doing so and doesn't see it as an obligation, happy to let the MC pull out her chairs if it pleases them.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Good evening! What would you say the education level of the world is? like is literacy and knowledge widespread or more contained to richer echelons of society? Is there a lot of crime or is it on the safer side?

Education and literacy would vary region-by-region within the setting but my general understanding of it is that the ability to read would be rather limited as a result of the period and the societal system and yet somewhat more advanced than how many people were literate at a comparable irl time.

Those who grow up in rural areas would likely still be illiterate besides what numbers and words they’d have been taught by their parents or at a cottage school to recognise due to utility and relevance to their lives and expected livelihoods.

Those who grew up in urban areas are more likely to be literate simply because they’re more exposed on the daily to written letters, words and numbers and would need more reliably to be able to recognise and read to some extent in order to get a career or apprenticeship. There's also the fact that most of the large churches and education institutions are in major urban settlements and they are the institutions most likely to teach some level of reading and writing especially the Church because there's some encouragement to regularly read the Words of their faith if possible.

The reason why I say there’d be a generally higher level of literacy however is because unlike in real life, there is the factor of Galder and those children and adults with a high innate affinity for magick are likely to have been taught to read and write because it's imminently useful for teaching them to do Galder well and guilds, mentors, schools and employers have an explicit reason to ensure they are literate. The near universal literacy amongst those with a high affinity likely boosts the stats greatly.

In terms of crime, I’d say there's a fair amount though most of it isn't large scale, in smaller communities someone might steal a sheep from your herd but generally not very crime ridden. In urban areas that is different, there are people forging coin and shaving it down, a fair bit of theft and all the rest of it.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Excuse my French but oh my fucking god this was so good

Consider your French pardoned.

This is how it feels every time I get a submission like that.

[forkingandcountry-if]

Hi! I have a few questions regarding the mechanics of the story: At what what percentage would someone be considered a friend? Are there negative friendship/romance percentages? or is the lowest zero? Also, when playing, I noticed that the moment we meet Dean, the romance is at 3%, while friendship is at 0%, is that intentional? Finally, How does having high percentages for multiple characters work? like friendship i think should be fine, but romance, outside of Edmund and Veronica, would there be some sort of romance-lock in the future? Or will it affect in-game interactions? Thank you for answering, and feel free to ignore any questions as you like.

Hey, no problem!

I don't think there's an exact percentage at which a character could be considered a friend in mind currently but if I have to quantify it I'd likely break it into stages, so by 15% you could consider a character to be a distant friend.

There shouldn't be negative percentages as the lowest each character’s friendship could be able to get is 0%.

Yes, it is intentional that a character can have a different romance and friendship, really they're misnomers as friendship as far as I'm concerned as the author they’re just ways for me to eventually begin restricting certain routes that’ll need certain percentages and giving player interactions a little more variation based on past interactions.

As of now, my plan is eventually to do a romance-lock but there’ll be plenty of time to build up romance and friendship with the ROs before such a time especially as the next chapter will be dedicated to building interpersonal relationships. A romance-lock later on will just make it easier to tell the different interpersonal stories that will go on (eg. Someone on the Kent romantic route will have a drastically different experience than someone romancing Dean for example in terms of where they’ll be and who they’ll be interacting with and what choices they’ll face).

I hope that answers all your questions as coherently as possible 😅

[forkingandcountry-if]

For the religion of the world, would you say that Aquellian faith is the "correct" religion in universe (as in the worshipped deity does indeed exist and the doctrine is from them), or perhaps the deity is real but the doctrine has changed or is no longer reflective of the deity's wishes, or is the deity not actually real at all, and this was just a faith from man, or do you prefer to leave it more ambiguous? (if this is a spoiler, feel free to ignore this question haha) Also, any specifics for the religion? is it monotheistic/polytheistic for example? If so, what are the deity(s) characteristics? Also, regarding the non nobility of this world, how does the majority of them feel about the nobility? Or is it a case by case basis where they like some houses and not others? Will MC have a chance to interact with them? Also, would you say the Empire is doing well? like are its people mainly above the poverty line, or are only nobles doing well enough while most commoners have a lot more harshness to deal with? Sorry for all of these questions, especially if they're already been answered in prologue/chapter 1! I haven't played through all possible routes and its just the lore in this story is super interesting, and I can't wait to find out more! Have a wonderful day! :3

Thank you so much for your thoughtful questions, I love getting to dive into the lore like this, so no worries at all about asking a bunch! I haven’t answered all of this directly in the early chapters, so I’m happy to elaborate a bit here.

Definite spoilers under the cut.

As for the religion of the world: I intentionally keep it ambiguous whether the faith of the Empire is objectively correct in-universe. To me, part of what makes faith faith is that it can’t be fully proven or disproven. Even something that might seem like ‘proof’ (like the glowing arc-cross when the MC prays) could easily be interpreted by someone of another faith as a manifestation of their god, or just a magical enchantment placed by a priest. So, no easy answers there. And that’s by design.

You mentioned the Aquellian Faith, originally, that was the name of the Empire’s religion, but it’s since been reworked and updated into what’s now the Luternian Church. That said, most of your questions still apply just as well, so let’s talk about it!

The Luternian Faith is polytheistic with monotheistic leanings. There’s a full Pantheon of gods, and different Houses often revere different deities more personally. However, the dominant narrative of the faith centers around Luterne, a god who saw the chaos caused by the other gods (who were more human-like than divine in the old days and constantly warred and pillaged and acted according to their whims), and made a covenant with humanity. After that, Luterne sealed himself, and the rest of the Pantheon, off from the mortal world, which is the Church’s explanation for why gods don’t visibly walk among people anymore.

Nowadays, most people just worship Luterne and the rest of the Pantheon-worship is entirely done by the specific cults of those gods and some Houses think Pantheon-worship is heretical and should be banned. The Church portrays him as a benevolent, almost messianic figure, he’s tied to domains like dreams, sleep, and peace. Over time, he’s come to be seen as infallible and omnibenevolent, although that wasn’t always the case back when he was just one god among many in the Pantheon.

Now, about how the non-nobility feel toward the noble class—that’s a bit of a mixed bag. There’s definitely class resentment, especially given the massive wealth disparity between the Great Houses and the common folk. But there’s also genuine affection and loyalty in some areas, especially among those who’ve benefited from noble patronage or lived on noble-maintained lands. The mercantile class tends to be more skeptical, seeing nobles as out of touch or undeserving, though many of them aspire to join the nobility themselves. The MC will get to interact with people outside the noble class, and trust me, those folks will absolutely let their opinions be known.

As for the state of the Empire itself, it's in a period of relative recovery. There’s been a lot of recent upheaval: the old ruling dynasty was overthrown, then a conqueror established a new dynasty, a usurper briefly claimed the throne and then finally, currently it somewhat stabilised relatively recently with the imprisonment of the usurper. Edmund, the current ruler, is broadly popular, mainly because he was a child during all the chaos and isn’t seen as responsible for any of it. His regency, managed by technocrats like Courtney, Caldwell and his elder brother Cassian, has actually done a decent job of stabilizing things. They've curbed corruption, offered some representation to the lower classes, and avoided the worst of the unrest that plagued the Empire before. That said, poverty absolutely still exists, and the MC will come face to face with it during the story.

Again, I genuinely enjoy answering these kinds of questions, so don’t feel bad about asking.

[forkingandcountry-if]

How do I get higher affinity? I got the lowest for that test for when you're chosen to become the heir or w.e it's called and they test you 😭 should I not spread out my skills or does it have to do with my personality

You're able to spread out your skills and get high affinity though you do necessarily have to invest some of the stat boosts you get in the prologue in your affinity for galder and typically that means you have to neglect atleast one other skill if you want a high affinity. In the second chapter, you'll want to do the explicitly affinity-based route where you go to Argall and choose to boost your stats in affinity and generally take any opportunity to use Galder that you see because it usually comes with a small stat boost.

Overall, it's just trial and error though the amount of people who've ended up with the lowest level suggests to me I should make it slightly easier to get a higher level 😅

It's duly noted.

[forkingandcountry-if]

I don't know if this has been asked before/if its spoilers, but what are the LIs like when they like someone? Also, how would they feel about a totally oblivious MC when it comes to any romantic attention/hints, theirs or otherwise? I love your story so far, and I'm super excited and looking forward to more!! Thank you for making it <3 Have a nice day!! :D

I don't think it's too spoilery to lightly detail what each RO is like when they like someone and how they'd hypothetically feel regarding an MC who is oblivious to their advances but if anyone doesn't want to know, it will be under the cut.

Edmund: Actually too spoilery

Veronica: Actually too spoilery

Walthe: has never had a great amount of tact, would likely just plainly say it to the MC though the initial issue may be that he, so unused to romantic love, would not recognise his romantic affection as romantic affection and would instead believe he just holds the MC in particularly high regard or that they are a particularly important mentee to him. Once he realises though, it'd be extremely obvious.

Like I said, the oblivious MC would just get the shock of their lifetime because once Walthe realized that the MC was like himself, terrible at romantic things, he’d not wait around still trying to hint, he’ll just say it.

Lorn: is likely the least dramatic of all of these in that his love language is already acts of service and so the MC may notice that he takes an extra level of care when dealing with them (eg. Bringing their favourite flowers in a small container each day when/if he comes to help them dress or do their hair) but besides that, he likely equates romantic affection with comfortability and so, as inverse to traditional logic as it may seem, he is more willing to argue, disobey or otherwise be unservile towards an MC that he genuinely feels some affection for.

Lorn would likely just silently get frustrated in all likelihood, he isn't the type of person to just say it frankly at first and so the MC failing to pick up on the subtle ways in which he's declaring his undying love (😅) would begin to irritate him.

Arfryn: is the most obviously flirtatious, she’d give the MC her usual smiles and glances and ask them if they aren't going to ask a lady to dance and all the usual will-they-won't-they but behind the scenes she’d also be very protective of the MC and particularly their reputation at court so expect rumours to start circulating about how the MC is the most eligible bachelor/bachelorette/unmarried noble in the Empire.

She wonders if she’s being too subtle or the MC is just dense, she lands on the MC is dense but she's both too stubborn and it'd be a critical hit to her self-identity to be unsubtle so she just continues hinting and flirting.

Kent: was raised a particular sort of way and thus his views of courtship are similarly strange and even by the standards of the Empire rather formal and archaic and so it'd definitely be the most dramatic change in terms of behaviour. He'd goes from treating the MC as at worse an irritation and at best, a curiosity who may be on his side when his war of destiny comes to asking the MC if they’d like a turn about the room and escorting them to their carriage. All the chivalrous stuff that was drilled into him as a child rears its head much to his chagrin as he’d characterise his own behaviour as embarrassing.

He’d get irritated, quickly, and likely would end up confessing in something that is halfway between a rant and a castigation of the MC for not seeing what is so clearly in front of them.

Dean: is the mother of Dramatics and is similar in a way to Kent in that she’d be doing chivalrous things but she’d be doing them very publicly and likely more flirtatiously than most of the other ROs. She’d ask the MC for a favour before she goes into a tourney and if she won she’d ensure her first bow was to the MC even before she bowed to the King’s box and revelled in the thrill of winning.

She’d find it funny if the MC was so oblivious because she’d just increasingly escalate her romantic escapades until it was impossible to ignore.

Fran: is rather lowkey about it but she'd be more open towards the MC about her thoughts and particularly her whims, which she usually keeps private and to herself. She’d also assume a more, and I hesitate to use the word, servile posture towards the MC simply because it's the only way she knows how to express her love and gratitude towards people is by doing stuff for them. The peak of her love would be mentioning the MC in the same sentence as her brother and liege lord.

She 100% writes home to request help but she’d 100% be confounded by the MC’s ability to not pick up what she's putting down, but would otherwise find it sweet if a bit annoying that they aren't getting it.

[forkingandcountry-if]

I reread the intro post and found it incredibly funny how one of Lorn's tropes is "Black cat", cause I quite instantly latched onto him as my favorite LI out of all of them like instantly after going in prologue and chapter 1 blind, and I'm literally the biggest cat person that me and my loved ones know- ofc i end up liking the cat personality LI adjgfsadfgefr- 🙂‍↕️ Anyways, thank you for such a lovely story, and take care! :D

Ol’ Lorn Greenspan seems to have the most admirers, I'm not sure if he'd be flattered or if he'd go into hiding.

Anywho, thank you for the lovely ask.