The Marked
Those Marked with the gifts of a God are blessed with the power to alter the world around them, yet cursed to follow a predetermined path. Though you master the ability to shape the land’s elements, your fate has been set since the day you were born.
Will you stay the course… or risk all to create your own destiny?
- A fantastical, character-driven story that expands from youth to adulthood.
- Customizable MC.
- Play as non-binary, female, or male.
- Five romance options (all gender selectable).
- An affinity (fire, water, force, air, light and dark) that aligns with your MC's personality and nature.
- 140,121 words currently in the demo.
Leon | Lyra Welling [m/f]
Welling’s friendly demeanor makes friends of near all who meet them. Level headed and reasonable, they are quick to intervene and alleviate tense situations. And though they may not always express it, their dark, cerulean gaze sees much.
Sade | Saria Trivelyn [m/f]
Trapped in an eternal dilemma within themselves, Trivelyn’s words and actions may not always align. They struggle with the unseen pressures of duty and perfection.
Onas | Ori Venali [m/f]
The experiences of their youth have deeply warped the way Venali views the world. Their actions are not led in pursuit of joy or happiness, but in furtherance of a goal no one else is privy to.
Emryr | Emyr [m/f]
One moment they’re mischievously playful and the next a by-the-rules, upstanding member of society. It’s hard to know which part of Em is the true facade.
Aero | Aima Anle [m/f]
Loyal to their country, Anle will do what needs to be done to better the lives of their people. And they’ll get what they want by any means necessary.
Development log
- Update 02/21/2555 days ago
Comments
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I really enjoyed this! I enjoy the worldbuilding and I'm excited to see more
I noticed there was a 7th option on the affinities decision that I couldn't get, is it a secret affinity or maybe a path that's not finished yet?
Hey! It’s an option that allows you to directly choose any of the elemental affinities in a lore-friendly way. To unlock it, you would need to either purchase or steal the destiny potion from the market.
Hi! Is the save system fixed already? I really wanna play but after my first playthrough I lost all the progress I made (I didn't get too far in the story but still it hurt :,d) and I don't wanna play it all just to lose the progress and not know where I am on future updates. Thx! (also first ever comment on Itch.io just so you know how much I liked the concept ;D)
Thank you for your comment! I’m still trying to figure out how to do it. So far, the method I use for compiling the game doesn’t support saves through itch.io. But for now, if you’re okay with using another hosting site, the COGDEMOS demo has a save system.
Ok, Thanks a lot for replying!
Of course!
For some reason, I only got a black screen when I click run game 🥲
Hey. It may take a few seconds to load because of the in-game images. Does it not load up at all for you?
Hello! Apparently it's because of my slow connection, but after using WiFi, it's loading rn! Btw, great story so far! I can't help but falling in love with Leo ❤
Oh good, I’m happy it worked for you! And Welling is definitely a front runner right now lol
Heyo, I think my game sometimes accidentally gives Onas the wrong pronouns. I'm not sure why but I can try to find all the instances for you if you want!![]()
I wouldn’t want you to have to go digging! It’s helpful enough just to know that you saw an issue. Thank you very much! I’ll look through it and figure out what went wrong.
hi Peonyb.
i really liked the game and the story. also i think your writing is quite good. i can really imagaine the scenes in my head. i still have some questions:
1.) so far there are a lot of welling-options and only one trivelyn-option to increase relationship. did i miss some? in the end i had 50% welling and only 5% trivelyn. i usually choose my romance options before playing, so i was a little disappointed, since i really wanted to romance trivelyn, but when the choice came up where you choose with whom you go to the festival trivelyn was greyed out.
=>i was going for the darkness affinity. does this mean that certain romances are locked out depending on your affinity? if so, i suggest mentioning this somewhere.
2.) if you check MC´s stats there are 3 bars affinity aptitude/intellect/strength. i assume that over the story, we will be able to increase them. will the choice for that always be obvious, like "you decide to train X" OR will it be more hidden.?
==> will i be able to increase all of them OR will i have to focus on one/two of them at one point?
3.) after some point during chapter 3(?) the control/wicked/deceitful-bars disappeared and instead a description appeared. does this mean MC´s personality cant change anymore/is locked in? if so i really like it. personally i dont like it if IF´s have personality-bars for the MC, since that would be another thing to look out for (and potential reload) incase i have a specific character in mind. so this method of being able to influence the personality bars up to a certain point and then locking them is something i really like.
4.) how much will the stats (personality and aptitude/intellect/strength) influence the story? will they only be for flavour or can they lock you out of mayor story relevant choices?
again, i really like the story and world, but i also have to admit that i stopped the game when i reached the festival choice, and send this post, just to get an answer for the whole "no relationship with trivelyn"-problem.
PS: this is an bug i encountered. i chose trivelyn to be female, but the last option uses male pronouns. btw. this was the only choice ive encountered, where i could increase the relationship with her by 5%.
Hello! I’ve fixed the variable, thank you for letting me know about it ♡. For your questions:
(1) When deciding who to ask for help with managing your affinity, Triv joins with Venali. So, you’ll need to choose to ask Venali to help instead of Welling if you want to increase your friendship/romance. Triv will not approach the MC for the canterberry festival if they don’t spend time together beforehand.
(1.2) None of the personalities or affinities lock story or relationship options! That would be an awful thing for me to do lol.
(2) They will be fairly obvious. Like: “spend time studying,” or “use your extra time to focus on training.” Most of the scenes to increase these stats will be part of the main story. For example, one scene may give you three ways to improve your affinity. One for +5, another for +10, etc. But there will be the occasional scenario where you’ll have to choose one stat over another. It’s these choices that really show where your MC’s specialties lie.
(3) Yes, they’ll be locked in! The initial balancing of the nature stats is due to the MC’s awakening. It’s the mark determining what affinity they’ll have. Once that’s been selected, there isn’t any need for it. It’s then that aptitude, intellect and strength come more into play.
(4) Mostly flavor. Stats will affect minor outcomes, but I don’t want to completely lock people out/have them auto fail because their MC is more intelligent than strong or has a water affinity instead of an air one. I want choices to determine how the story goes.
thank you for your answers.
to (1): to you mean the scene where you can either go to the professor or go with welling to the training yard? because at this point i could only choose between those two options. i assume it means, i cant choose to attack venali when he talks about the corruption in the kingdom, right? in that case, which other option would lead my MC to the dean?
my small suggestion: it wasnt clear to me, that triv is connected to venali. maybe i missed some passage ingame. so maybe you could add something to the characters description here on itch, e.g. "they are (good) friends with triv/venali". or maybe i was really just blind.
Of course! Anytime you have questions just throw them at me lol. I don’t mind.
(1) Oh, you don’t need to go to the dean! When you’re given the chance to visit different locations in Braum, make sure you go to the town square and see Venali. That’s the first time you really get to speak to them. Then later, when you awaken and need guidance on how to manage it, you will have the options of professor Elanil, Welling, and Venali all unlocked. When you choose to approach Venali, Triv will ask to join. This will later unlock the canterberry festival with Triv.
I know this sounds like a lot, but I wanted the character interactions to feel more organic. Venali is very much in their own bubble and their interest doesn’t peak easily. So, you’ll need to be the first to initiate. Triv is a massive introvert. Their only friend at that point is Venali and so the only way to begin any kind of dynamic with them is when they can first have a friend in proximity for reassurance.
(2) A lot of the narrative is shared through interaction and so I kind’ve liked the idea of people learning with their MC rather than me directly telling them.
since you mentioned triv being an introvert, does this mean their relationship will increase slower? e.g. at the point of the festival i had 50% with welling, will i have around the same % with triv at this point? and yes, i have a bit of FOMO interms of relationships not only in IF´s but also in RPG-games.
I wouldn’t say it’ll increase slower, but rather, it’ll develop differently. All the character’s relationships progress at different rates. Triv is tentative whereas Welling actively pursues a friendship/romance with the MC from the start. I don’t want you to feel FOMO though! However you play the prologue, there will always be opportunities to change dynamics once you reunite at the Golden Academy. People often don’t connect during childhood, but then grow close when they’re older and vice versa.
I got this when my parents were arrested, is this a valid error or just the end? My first time playing and I'm already in love so thank you, truly a impeccable game.
Sorry about that! I had a variable that I guess I randomly decided not to follow through with, haha. It should be fixed now. Please let me know if you have any other problems.
(also thank you so much for your comments! ♡)
the same problem is happening to me. I chose to meet Leon for the party and when I choose to hug him back after telling him about me leaving this pops up
edit: also, the creator says there is supposed to be a save system but when i open the game in the web browser there is nothing there, at least for me + I tried launching the game through itch.io app and its just a white screen, no text or anything but after waiting for a while the title showed up LOL
The error is fixed. I'm still working on the save system and the initial lag is because of the images.
Hii. Love the game. Could you explain how to get light or darkness blessing?
Absolutely!
For light: (virtuous stat)
For dark: (wicked stat)
You only need 65 or more in either stat to unlock the affinity. Randall gives an easy +10 and then you would only need one more. Be careful not to accidentally select its opposed pair.
Enjoying the update so far, but I got this error after the first choice with the affinity trainer that completely crashed my game, leaving me no choice but to restart. My mc isn't a fire affinity despite the error, he's wind if that helps you find what's causing the error.
Thank you for letting me know! It should be fixed now.
The rest of the update was wonderful! I'm a sucker for playful flirty characters so Em is right up my alley.
This is quickly becoming one of my favourite IF, magitech settings are so cool to me and I'm loving all the characters.
I’m so glad to hear that! I never know how characters or themes will be received so it’s really awesome to know that you’re liking them.
Does this game have a save system? Whenever my tab reloads my progress is erased.
Sorry for such a late response! The save system is definitely meant to be there. This weekend I’m planning to fix the image/save system issues.
I'm already so hooked, I look forward to the continuation!
Just a couple of visual issues: None of the pictures were loading (I'm assuming based on their placements that they're graphics), and the stat bars disapeared for me in the stats screen halfway through. I'm on mobile if that helps!
I’m glad to hear that! I noticed the images weren’t showing up on itch.io a bit ago and someone helped me understand what the problem is. I need to compile the game in another way, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll get to it! Thank you for your comment!
This is SO GOOD AAAAA
i NEED more!! RAAAHHH!!!