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historical

Forbidden West: Ballad of Akelldema Miyamoto

Born in late 1864 beneath the cold skies of Hokkaido, Akelldema Miyamoto enters a Japan caught between fading steel and rising industry. His father, Hiroshi—once a formidable samurai—has sheathed his blade to serve as a physician to a powerful lord, walking the narrow path between tradition and survival. Through harsh herbal regimens and disciplined breathwork, he forges his son into something steadier than most boys his age, preparing him for a future neither of them can fully see. By 1879, unrest coils through the country. Old loyalties are hunted. Food grows scarce in certain districts. Rumors move faster than horses. In the lord’s estate, Princess Aiko Takamori stands at the heart of fragile political balance, and Akelldema, still only fifteen, finds himself drawn into her orbit even as the ground shifts beneath them. When violence can no longer be contained, Akelldema—seventeen and nearing manhood—is chosen to escort Aiko and seven loyal companions across the Pacific to California. What awaits them is not only gold and opportunity, but the consequences of ambition unbound. In the American West, the brilliant and obsessive Dr. Nikolai Richtofen has traded provisions to a desperate tribe in exchange for their medicine man, seeking to master life itself. His experiments awaken a corruption that seeps into the blood, spreading by bite and turning the living into something hollow and driven by a darker will. Separated from the princess and believing his duty has failed, Akelldema is cast into a frontier where greed, secrecy, and infection thrive in the shadows of mines and desert laboratories. Armed with his father’s teachings and the discipline to resist the taint in his own veins, he must hunt for the truth, protect what remains of his honor, and confront the man whose curiosity has begun to unravel the boundary between life and something far more dangerous.
Future_Gadget_Labs · 164 Views

Fallen Eagle [Kingdom-Building; Military Strategy]

The year is 1459. Constantinople has fallen, and the Romans are no more. Nearly fifteen hundred years after its founding, the greatest empire the world has known has ceased to exist, swallowed whole by the Great Ottoman tide. In the dying embers of the Byzantine world, its last rump states stand on the brink of collapse. Their fall will mark the end of any remnant of Roman rule. Nestled in the mountains of the Crimean Peninsula, the tiny Greek Principality of Theodoro clings to a desperate existence, living in the shadow of Byzantium's destroyers. Its fall is not a possibility; it is a historical certainty. Dr. Nikos Karagiannis is a History professor ripped across worlds into the body of Theodorus, a bookish third son in a disgraced house with a prophetic name, but little prospects. Nikos has no magic or divine blessings. What he does possess is the knowledge of the political blunders, the shifting alliances, and the military tactics that will lead this land to ruin. "The city is fallen and I am still alive." – Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine Emperor. What to Expect: Historical Kingdom-Building: A gritty, grounded take on rebuilding a nation where logistics are king, supply lines are lifelines, and battles are won with strategy, not superpowers. A Brutally Realistic World: The protagonist is not the center of the universe. Allies and antagonists have their own ambitions and plans, and will act accordingly. Meaningful Character Arcs: A story where characters are forged and broken by the crucible of war and politics. Dramatic and tense character interplay abounds, and no one is safe. You have been warned.
TheodorusSideris · 6.3k Views