Sovereign (The Gods' Game, Volume IV)
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Sovereign
The Gods’ Game, Book 4
Sovereign
The Gods’ Game, Book 4
Rohan M. Vider
Copyright
Sovereign (The Gods’ Game, Book 4), a self-published book by Rohan M. Vider.
Copyright © 2020 Rohan M. Vider.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact rohan.vider@gmail.com.
First Edition
Revision 1.0
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
To my readers who have made these stories possible.
Books by Rohan M. Vider
The Gods’ Game (A LitRPG series)
Crota, the Gods’ Game Volume I
The Labyrinth, the Gods’ Game Volume II
Sovereign Rising, the Gods’ Game Volume III
Sovereign, the Gods’ Game, Volume IV
Tales from the Gods’ Game (A LitRPG collection of short stories & novels)
Dungeon Dive (Tales from the Gods’ Game, Book 1)
Chronicles of Myelad (A fantasy version of the Gods’ Game)
Free Agent, Chronicles of Myelad, Book 1
And also coming in 2020 and early 2021:
Overworld, the Dragon Mage Saga, Book 1
Sovereign’s Choice, the Gods’ Game, Volume V
Sovereign
The Gods’ Game, Volume IV
The continuation of the epic LitRPG fantasy saga…
The Game grows complex as more factions reveal their interest in the free agent. Surprised at every turn by unexpected encounters, allies, and foes, Kyran struggles to hold to his carefully laid plans.
How will Kyran navigate the murky waters of the Game? Who can he trust?
Join Kyran and his party in their adventures as he strives to be true to himself, find his purpose, and advance his growth as a player.
Enter the world of Myelad and discover where Kyran’s journey takes him!
A LitRPG novel.
By Rohan M. Vider.
www.rohanvider.com
Author’s Note
Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading The Gods’ Game. It is only through your continued support that this book has been made possible.
To those of you unfamiliar with the genre: this is a LitRPG story and contains elements common to CRPG and MMO computer games, though to enjoy the story, knowledge of such games is not necessary, and every effort has been made to explain crucial game mechanics.
This is a self-published work, and even though great care has been given to the review and editing of this book, some errors may have slipped through. For these, I apologise.
I encourage you to drop me a message on anything related to The Gods’ Game or otherwise. Please also let others know what you think about the book by leaving a review on www.amazon.com and www.goodreads.com.
Most importantly, I hope you enjoy the book!
Best Regards,
Rohan M. Vider
Rohan.vider@gmail.com
The Gods’ Game forum
Contents
Sovereign
Copyright
Dedication
Books by Rohan M. Vider
Sovereign
Author’s Note
Contents
What has come before
List of Key Places
List of Key Gods & People
World Maps
Prologue
Game Data
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Game Data
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Game Data
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
PART TWO
Chapter 9
Game Data
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Game Data
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Game Data
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Game Data
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Game Data
Chapter 19
PART THREE
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Game Data
Afterword
Excerpt from the Dragon Mage saga
What has come before
Book 1 (Crota)
On Earth
Kyran attempts to rescue a woman named Sara Milton and is accidently pulled into the Gods’ Game with her. The Gods’ Game is not so much a game as a prison built by the god Eld to imprison his fellow immortals and free the cosmos from their tyranny. Winning the Game is the only way the gods may escape Myelad.
In Godshome
Sara is chosen as the goddess Iyra’s champion. The gods are prevented from interfering directly in the Game and use the champions as game pieces in a bid to win the Game.
For the crime of being a free agent—possessing no divine spark and being unbeholden to any god—Kyran is sentenced to die in the Labyrinth beneath the abandoned city of Crota.
01 Jul 2603 AB
Kyran enters Myelad through the Crota world portal. His entrance into the Game is sensed by the dragon Yddreinth, who informs the Brotherhood, avowed enemies of the gods. The Brotherhood leader Elasien sends Deegan and Mirien to recruit the free agent.
02 Jul
Kyran’s intrusion is detected by the undead lich king, Zarr Dwamenkor.
03 Jul
Zarr further dispatches the vampires Aveyad and Tyeliss to pursue Kyran. The undead mistakenly believe Kyran is a champion of one of the gods.
05 Jul
Kyran is captured by the undead, but not before reaching level 10 and completing a minor quest. The gods are notified by the Game of Kyran’s quest completion.
Book 2 (The Labyrinth)
06 Jul
Xetil dispatches his champion Lesh to orchestrate Kyran’s death.
Iyra sends Sara to capture Kyran.
07 Aug
Kyran discovers Eld’s Jest, a locked room in the citadel with instructions on how to find the Thirteenth Well.
08 Aug
Kyran and Zarr forge an alliance. The lich king agrees to let Kyran go in exchange for the free agent performing a number of tasks on the undead’s behalf.
Kyran reluctantly agrees to take on the vassals Zarr provides: Adra and Gaesin.
11 Aug
Enroute to escaping the Labyrinth, Kyran’s party find an unexpected prisoner, a jade great bear. The bear Aiken, requests Kyran’s aid in freeing his captured clan.
22 Aug
The party rescues the captured great bears. In thanks, the matriarch of the clan grants Kyran the friend of the bears trait. Aiken chooses Kyran as his companion.
06 Sepa
The Brotherhood ambush Sara and except for Mirien are all killed. She heads south to the dwarven city.
Elasien, in Bein Tor,
finds herself pursued by Iyra’s Hounds and has to flee the city.
20 Sepa
Kyran finds and binds the thirteenth Essence Well, creating a new and hidden domain in the Gods’ Game named Labyrinth Deeps.
08 Octu
While trying to escape the Labyrinth through the dwarven city, Durn Duruhl, Kyran binds the city to his domain and discovers the armoury of the enchanter’s guild, where he activates the obsidian golems.
Thoril, a master enchanter from the exiled dwarven clan, senses the activation of the golems.
Xetil sends his champion-prime Yiralla after Kyran.
The god Kharmadon convenes another god council. During the meeting, the goddess Misteria reveals that Kyran has slain Lesh and that Iyra’s paladins have been ambushed by the Brotherhood.
Book 3 (Sovereign Rising)
08 Octu
Kyran’s party encounters Mirien outside the south gate of Durn Duruhl. He learns that the Brotherhood wants him to join their cause. After a tense standoff Mirien, whose class is revealed as a whiesper, joins the party. Yet Kyran remains mistrustful of her.
Iyra is distracted from matters in Crotana as Kharmadon launches a new offensive against her southern border.
09 Octu
Kyran learns that the pass guarded by Durn Duruhl is infested with gargoyles and is inaccessible to the party.
Zarr traps Sara and the paladin company within a containment ward and stops them from leaving Crota.
Xetil tracks Kyran’s party through Gaesin and Adra’s divine signatures. Yiralla sets off north in pursuit of Kyran.
10 Octu
Adra awakes from her healing sleep and is deeply suspicious of Mirien’s Brotherhood ties. Kyran’s party sets off east with the intent of scaling the Ruiven Escarpment.
Aveyad requests that Lera, a survivor of Crotana’s fall, have her people find Kyran and observe his movements thereafter.
11 Octu
Xetil finds the exiled Balturra ogre tribe in the mountains and tries to convince the chief Wynak to stop Kyran. Wynak refuses, but another ogre, Gnarok, accepts Xetil’s proposal.
15 Octu
Hamen, the dwarven thane’s son, spots Yiralla heading north through the mountains and follows her with his men. Dhoven, the apprentice enchanter, accompanies him.
Gnarok finds Kyran and chases the party through the mountain.
Kyran classes as a wild druid and learns the worg beastform.
16 Octu
Gnarok steals the rope Kyran’s party needs to scale the Ruiven Escarpment, stranding them in the inner mountain with winter fast approaching.
Kyran tells Mirien he will not go with her to the Brotherhood. He informs her that instead the party will head into Crotana to seek out an alliance with Iyra’s champion.
17 Octu
Kyran conceives a plan to retrieve the stolen rope by befriending a nest of wyverns and assaulting Gnarok’s warband.
18 Octu
While Kyran is busy taming the wyverns, Mirien enters the creature’s lair with the intent of killing Kyran—she will not allow him to ally with the gods. But she is stopped by her own sense of honour and Aiken’s intervention.
Adra sees Mirien with a communication crystal and suspects the whiesper of being one of Iyra’s hounds.
19 Octu
The containment field around Sara and the paladins expires, and they head south while stalking Kyran through a tracking crystal.
Kyran’s party, with the wyverns in tow, searches out Gnarok’s warband.
23 Octu
Kyran meets Limeira and Wynak, and together they form an alliance to defeat Gnarok.
24 Octu
Wynak and Kyran’s party slay Gnarok and the demon warlock, Nekuhr.
After the battle, Kyran takes Wynak, Limeira, and a few of the legionnaires on as vassals.
The wyvern mother and Limeira become companions.
To escape reprisals from Xetil, Wynak’s people abandon their camp and head farther east into the mountains.
26 Octu
Kyran’s party reaches the top of the Ruiven Escarpment without incident.
28 Octu
The party traverse the northern foothills and make camp within sight of the Elder Forest.
Mirien shares the truth about events in the wyvern caves and the identity of Iyra’s champion in the Elder Forest.
29 Octu
Sara reaches the northern edge of the forest Heart, and diverts east around it to travel further south.
Misteria’s champion Vyne journeys to the Fellmist dungeon.
Yiralla reaches the abandoned camp of the Balturra ogre tribe as the first storms of winter descend. Xetil orders her into the storm to continue her pursuit of Kyran.
Hamen and his men get ahead of Yiralla and follow on the heels of her forward scouts.
List of Key Places
Aldanna: Central Crotana city built by the elves.
Celne: Southern Crotana city.
Crota: Capital of Crotana.
Crotana: The mountain kingdom.
Deepholm: Capital of Labyrinth Deeps.
Durn Duruhl: Dwarven city.
Elder Forest: Oldest forest in Myelad.
Eldervale: Town in the Elder Forest.
Forest Heart: Centre of the Elder Forest.
Godshome: Gods’ abode in the ether.
Labyrinth: Crotana underworld.
Labyrinth Deeps: Kyran’s domain.
Skarral Mountain: Mountain range encircling Crotana to the north, south, and west.
List of Key Gods & People
Gods
Auriel: Nature, animals, plants.
Balkar: Law, order, justice.
Eld: Empathic, benign (hunting owl banner).
Iyra: Healing, nurturing.
Kharmadon: Monsters, darkness.
Lok: Trickster, prankster.
Misteria: Magic, sorcery.
Succera: Seduction, decadence.
Turon: War, battle, courage, vengeance.
Weeran: Knowledge, wisdom.
Xetil: Domination, slavery (six-clawed-talon banner).
Zarayla: Outcasts, fools, loners, orphans, beggars.
Known Cast of Characters (by faction)
Balturra ogres
Limeira Balturra: Kyran’s vassal, tamer.
Wynak Balturra: Kyran’s vassal, legionnaire.
Brotherhood of mortals
Deegan Jomane: dead.
Elasien: Magister, Brotherhood leader.
Falsin: dead.
Crota undead
Aveyad: Vampire lord.
Tyeliss: Death knight.
Zarr Dwamenkor: Lich king.
Durn Duruhl dwarves
Dhoven: Apprentice enchanter.
Hamen: Thane’s son.
Thoril Steinbear: Master enchanter.
Iyra’s Imperium
The First: Champion-prime.
Sara Milton: Journeyman champion.
Ruben Calistra: Paladin commander.
Kyran’s party
Adra Maeko: Vassal, scout.
Aiken: Companion, jade great bear.
Gaesin Illineiros: Vassal, hydromancer.
Kyran Seversan: Free agent, protagonist.
Mirien Tolyrandil: Norm, whiesper.
Misteria’s Islanders
Vyne: Adept champion.
Xetil’s dominion
Yiralla Sabut: Champion-prime
Dread Spear: Elite company of trolls.
(Faction unknown)
Lera: Elf.
Yddreinth: Elder dragon.
World Maps
Full-sized images of the maps can be found here.
Prologue
29 Octu 2603 AB
Every god has champions bound to their cause, the number of which, varies with the size and advancement of the deity’s domains. Yet always there is a champion who stands first amongst the blessed. A champion who above all others is chosen as the bearer of the Amulet of the Prime. —Jostfyler Graldvir, Game schol
ar.
Hamen and the dwarven squad jogged steadily across the mountain’s rocky slopes, hard on the heels of Yiralla’s two scouts. After only a little while on the chase, it was clear that the trolls pursued their own quarry—the strange party of elves that Hamen had yet to catch sight of.
The scouts gave no thought to concealing their trail and were easy to follow. Hamen, though, was concerned less about the trolls spotting his squad than he was about the weather. He cast another worried eye skywards. Any moment now, he thought, studying the rapidly darkening horizon.
Inevitably, the dwarves were caught in the storm. They were not found unprepared though. Knowing what was to come, Hamen had strung the twelve dwarves in his squad together with sturdy ties of ropes.
When the world turned white, and icicles formed on their beards, the dwarves barely paused in their steps. Leaning forward into the wind, the short, hardy warriors marched stubbornly onwards and defied the weather’s fury.
“Hamen, we will have to take shelter soon,” Benin shouted from behind. “The storm will only get worse.”
Hamen, who was at the head of the column and bearing the brunt of the storm for himself, knew Benin was right, but he wasn’t ready to quit just yet. “We go on for as long as we can,” he called back. “The men are no strangers to snow.”
“What about the apprentice?” Benin shouted.
Hamen glanced behind him. Head bowed and teeth gritted, Dhoven marched in the centre of the column as sturdily as the rest of his men. “He’ll manage.”