Welcome to the Bride of Shadows Patreon!

My intention is to make this an active space where I give regular updates on my progress, poll readers on which personality traits/features/story routes they want in the IF, and develop the Bride of Shadows: Nightborn Edition into something that feels like it was written for you. Here are my plans for the next two months. I'll be posting a more comprehensive roadmap in April.

March 2025

As the Nightborn Edition is still a work-in-progress, I’ll be extending the 7-day early release perk to Shadewalker members for the month of March. The Nightborn Edition will launch with the early release of the Zealot Night V route. The Heretic route is currently closed for construction as I go through to make minor edits and write the Heretic Night V. I anticipate it will be finished and launched on Patreon within the second week of March. Night V is the most choice-heavy night yet, with alternate routes depending on whether you’re aligned +/- 3 with The Weaver. Weaver-aligned players will end the night with an indecent proposition, while unaligned players will seal their night with an impulsive decision, which will vary depending on which RO they’re more closely bonded to.

March—and particularly Night VI—will see the standard Bound mode replaced with a new MFM/MF mode. Play a version of Bride of Shadows where Valdricht and Serax aren’t lovers and will vie for your attention and affection in a poly relationship. Or zero in on the dark and dominant Valdricht for an exclusive MF storyline. I’m sure Serax will be totally fine and not at all jealous.

Late March will bring Night VI and, with it, your MC’s first opportunity to conceive a child, as well as the option to diverge into the MF storyline for Bound mode players.

April 2025 

In April, Night VII will be released. This, in my opinion, is the real start of Bride of Shadows, when you set out with Valdricht and Serax to begin your journey in earnest. Following Night VII, the story will open up in ways that may be familiar to fans of dating sims, with you having the option to choose how to spend your nights. There will be a lot of really cool stuff, much of which will be voted on by patrons in April.

After Night VII, April will have the launch of the edited Nightborn Edition. You'll be able to replay the Prologue to Night VII with a variety of new choices, some of which I previously cut, others that patrons will vote on.

May & Beyond

For now, I can't make any commitments. In late April, I'll have to decide if I'll be returning for the Summer term (yes, our summer break is like two weeks here) or taking another term off. I'll keep you guys in the loop and let you know what I decide and how it will affect my writing schedule. The good(?) news is that I make very little money as a public school teacher, so it shouldn't be too hard to reach a point where I can throw caution into the wind and commit to writing Bride of Shadows full-time. Even if it doesn't happen this summer, it may be possible later in the year. Either way, I'll continue writing. I have no intention of leaving Bride of Shadows incomplete.

My Commitment

On that note, I want to say something that may be perceived as offensive—know that it isn’t my intention. I currently write, draft, and edit six days a week, and I intend to continue doing that for the next two months and, should I leave my teaching job, indefinitely.

I do not have bad mental health months.

Like anyone, I have times when I struggle with difficulties and unexpected calamities, but those things seldom impact my job. While writing this post, my Australian Shepherd figured out that he could scale a tree to bypass the 8-foot fence between my yard and my new neighbor’s, in order to introduce himself to my neighbor’s pug. It was very stressful. I’m pretty sure my neighbor hates me now, and I’m probably going to have to build a new fence around the tree, but everyone is alive, and I’m back here writing because stuff happens, and we move on. My commitment to you is that you won’t get a “Sorry, guys, I can’t write this month because of XYZ” message unless someone in my life has died, I’ve lost a limb, or I create a new human. If any of those events prevents me from creating content, I'll pause your membership.

Part of my responsibility as a creator accepting money in exchange for your support is to deliver you content, regardless of what is happening in my personal life. That isn’t to say I’m going to hyperfixate on writing to the extent that I ignore my mental health and burn out—which I think is another huge tripwire for novelists and IF writers. I know my limits, I have a good support system, and (most importantly) I don’t write anything that I don’t love writing. That’s why Bride of Shadows is fairly linear. You’re never going to see a female Valdricht route (that's just not Valdricht), you’re not going to have a childfree route (I love babies), and there’s no option to be an aggressive, domineering MC who has a whole subplot where she gives the ROs the middle finger, becomes an assassin, and then goes on a girlboss revenge quest against the raider king (sounds cool for a movie, but I’d rather chew glass than write that).

All of that is to say, I know myself, I know what I like, and every time I sit down to write, I am excited because I’m writing exactly what I like. When I do polls for new features or story routes, they’re rigged so that no matter what you choose, I won’t be disappointed because I love all of the options. You’re just helping me narrow my focus so that the things I love to write better align with what you love to read.

Now, as anyone who’s followed my blog knows, there are times when new content takes longer to make than I anticipate. I’m still learning all of this on the fly. Bride of Shadows was a novel series called A Dark Song that I’d been drafting for around half a decade when I spontaneously decided to adapt it into an IF in December 2024. When I uploaded “First Nights” in January, I didn’t even think anyone would find it apart from a handful of Tumblr followers. Coding, writing a branching story, and the whole IF ecosystem are still very new to me, and every day I learn more about how long it will take to produce and edit new content that is satisfying to readers. I hope you’ll bear with me and trust that I am passionate about this story and dedicated to delivering it as quickly as possible.

-Mortish