The Empress of Aeser
A downloadable game
The Empress' Shadow is determined to resurrect the dead empire...
Will you stop her?
You play as Tetrine Reish. Tetrine must find a way to lift the curse plaguing her employer's sister, the Empress' Shadow, before the Shadow succeeds in restoring the old dread empire and crowning herself the next Empress of Aeser.
- Solve puzzles and learn magic in the quest to lift the curse
- Choices have lasting consequences and can lead to one of several endings
- Other choices affect Tetrine's personality over time
- Develop relationships, both friendships and romantic, and make Tetrine to grow as a person
- Or play to Tetrine's flaws and see what happens
The Empress of Aeser is currently in development.
Other Stories
Interested in the story that came before this one? Check out Asher. It's available for free.
Both games are fairly different. Asher is interactive fiction written in Twine. The Empress of Aeser is a 2D puzzle-adventure visual novel.
Development
The Empress of Aeser is currently in active development. More behind-the-scenes updates are available on Patreon, which you can find here (there are also many public posts).
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
The Empress of Aeser is dark fantasy story leaning on gothic tropes. There is no gore and violence is not usually illustrated. See more details below. (Contains spoilers).
- Gothic Tropes (such as but not limited to madness)
- Violence
- Mention of alcohol
- Discussion of mental illness
- Illicit (fictional) drug use
- Wayy too much lore
Development log
- Empress of Aeser, Act I Now AvailableOct 09, 2023
- Act 1 Now Available to All Patreon SubscribersAug 06, 2023
- Will you step into the world of Aeser? | Announcement TrailerDec 20, 2022
- Animated Sprites in Our VN | "Mm. A sacrifice for my altar."Jun 02, 2022
- “I imagined that our love was like a weedy garden: poisonous plants hid among...May 08, 2022
- “I hate prophetic dreams. I say this as someone about to have one.”Apr 21, 2022
- The fictional library you didn't know you wanted...Jul 17, 2021
Comments
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I enjoyed Asher and proceeded to this game but got stuck. In the library, I found the key, but using it on the drawer gets me nowhere - it's still stuck and won't move more than an inch. Is it a bug or am I doing something wrong? (I'm playing the Windows version.) I've tried all actions available in the room, and I can't leave it or use the phone.
Hello! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Asher.
There are a few things Tetrine wants to do before she will try the drawer again. When you first opened the drawer, Tetrine found the newspaper. If you haven't read it, you will need to go to the card catalog (Tetrine archived it as something important) and read some of the articles. The ones that are important to the story will probably stand out to you.
Thank you! That did the job. I reached what looks like the end - for now. It says more chapters are coming in Spring 2024, and I'll definitely stay tuned for them. From what I see, that's going to be an even more amazing adventure than Asher!
Can you tell me how many chapters it is going to have? And how many endings?
Yay, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :)
There will be about 6-8 episodes (each having about three chapters each) or about 45 minutes of content each (not including puzzles, just story content). About six endings are set in stone, but there may be more. The next couple of episodes require me to make a lot of the background art that will be used in the latter parts of the game, so these episodes will take longer than the rest of the episodes to release.
The gameplay so far has been fantastic, except I have one teeny tiny question.
I'm supposed to read Kalavel's note, except I can't. Maybe I'm dumb or just plain tired, but I tried clicking every button, whether it made sense or not, especially the sturdy table and the desk. Is my game lagging or am I supposed to do something else?
Thank you!
Did you try right-clicking on it when it's in your inventory? I think it's one of the few cases in the game where you have to right-click on something, which is probably confusing.
Thank you for the advice but yes, I have. It says "I don't know what to do with that" and then tells me to read the note. I've tried every painting, the window, the phone, the door, the bookshelves, everything on the desk, the table, the urn, the fireplace, the vinyl, the vinyl player and read every book
All right, that's a little odd. I'm sorry for the frustration; I'll look at it today to see where the problem may be and whether or not it's a bug. Which operating system are you using?
Windows, though it's probably a problem on my end of things... thanks for helping, bdw, it's nice to know that the developer cares about these things. The next paragraph will be written after I check my side of things.
Yep, the problem was with my mouse. I feel silly now. But, again, thanks for helping me.
You're welcome and so glad it is resolved! :)
This looks exciting. I may have to play the 1st one again. It's been YEARS.
Wow, thank you! :)
😉😉😉