Aetherbane: Necrosis is a love letter to video games and the stories that inspired them, crafted as a deconstruction of common fantasy tropes that we all take for granted. With RPG mechanics integrated directly into the storytelling, this first book in a planned quadrilogy serves as a companion piece to an upcoming Tabletop RPG.
Set in a world where all the legends and mythology of the past are historical fact, Aetherbane: Necrosis assembles borrowed concepts and spins them into something wholly original. Imagine if Final Fantasy and God of War had a baby, but after a DNA test, they found out the real father was Metal Gear Solid. Now squint. Can you kinda see it? That’s the basic vision.
In the kingdom of Cyrathea, there are those born with a “spark”—a divine gift inherited from the ancient demigod heroes. But unlike her mother and older sister, Vicella Varenbosch was born a mere mortal.
Not wanting her mundanity to stand in her way, Vicella spent years grinding levels to become an alchemist. Except, just after getting into the alchemy guild of her dreams, she accepts a challenge to survive four months in a job her stats were never cut out for: bounty hunting.
What starts as a childish dare quickly turns deadly as Vicella is forced to participate in a contest to see which of the kingdom's best private detective agencies can apprehend the most criminals. Almost by design, though, there are no rules against infighting between agencies. As Vicella soon discovers, hunting down a scrawny alchemy nerd is a lot easier than catching violent offenders.
In an age of unstable peace, Vicella struggles to maintain her sanity as the realm descends into chaos. Before her four-month stint as a private detective is over, the final mystery she’ll solve is whether the kingdom will be overrun by demons before she’s consumed by her own.