UPDATED WITH PART 0

Hey everyone!
I thought it would be a good time to explain everything that's happened so far in the storyline.
I'll break down all 10 parts for anyone who's new or just confused about what the hell is going on.

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Part 0: Wenzhi ( Arranged Marriage )

Wenzhi grew up as a spoiled brat. When his empress’s portrait was first presented to him, he was satisfied—she looked stunning, after all! The painter had done an excellent job. Surely the real woman would be just as beautiful. But when he finally met his new empress, he was disappointed. She had imperfections, nothing as flawless as the portrait suggested. Wenzhi was used to the very best, to things without a single flaw, and so he found her appearance lacking. From then on, he was often rude to her—not out of hatred, but because he felt she no longer met his standards. Yet, it was her personality, her true nature, and even her... brat-taming skills that slowly broke through his arrogance. In time, she made him yield, allowing him to drop his pretenses and reveal his true self, free from the suffocating expectations of ruling an empire. For the first time in his life, she changed him—for the better.

Part 0.5: Valerian ( Past )

Valerian (formerly known as Wenzhi) was a man deeply in love with his empress. After she fell ill from an unknown disease, he was devastated and abandoned his duties to search for a cure. Some time later, the empress died, and in his immense grief, he was advised to seek the company of other women to cope with his loss. Thus began the formation of his later harem, a desperate attempt to fill the void left by his lost love.

Part 1: Valerian
10 years after the Part 0 user (you in the story) was given to Valerian as a new concubine because her father owed a huge debt to the empire.
For the father, it was basically a death sentence. He promised Valerian his daughter would fit into the harem perfectly.
Valerian accepted, but still stripped him of his high noble title, leaving him to live more like a peasant.
When Valerian saw user, he was disappointed. (He has insanely high standards.)
He started taunting her, already being under the influence of a 6-year-old curse. He was basically losing his mind, which leads into the non-ca tinuation.

Part 1.5 : Arthur (Non-Canon)
In this version, Valerian, already insane, exiled user.
Arthur didn’t really care about any of it because he’s the type who doesn’t get involved.

Part 2: Sylvester
After Valerian’s death, Sylvester saw user as part of what corrupted the empire.
If they had met under different circumstances, he might have been nicer.
But Sylvester is morally grey character, not a "good guy."

Part 3: Dominic
Dominic was the only one who didn’t resent user. He treated her like an equal.
But he’s a royal diplomat and travels a lot, so he couldn’t spend much time with her, meaning their relationship didn’t really develop.

Part 4: Arthur (Canon)
User, here is a new female knight (different from the concubine user!) preparing for battle against the Vordrake Dominion, who wanted to attack the capital because of the chaos Valerian stirred.

Part 5: Wulfric
When Wulfric arrived at the capital, he found out Sylvester had killed Valerian himself.
Wulfric wanted compensation, so Sylvester gave him a concubine, user. (originally another concubine)
This could have been a happy ending, with user as a concubine escaping the empire's chaos...
But hey, who said I wanted a happy ending?

Part 6: Edward
There was a strong alliance between Duke William and Emperor Sylvester.
Duke William hated his original daughter (from "Duke’s Daughter") and tried to replace her with Vivien.
The marriage that was supposed to happen years later got rushed because Edward panicked.
Edward, who was picked as an advisor pretty randomly (as said in his backstory), wasn't a good choice to begin with.
When he realized what Duke William was actually planning, he freaked out and chose user instead, thinking she was less risky.

Part 7: Isabella
Here it shows that Draven planted a curse on the throne that brings misfortune and insanity to the rulers.
Isabella kept it a secret because she was bitter about how badly everyone treated her after Valerian died.
(And yeah, she’s still sulking about being married off to an old emperor.)

Part 7.5: Dominic (Travelling)

Dominic went to Eskya as part of his diplomatic travels to ally the nations. This happened few months before the wedding of Sylvester, and concubine user.

Part 8: Audrey
A few months after the curse started affecting Sylvester, he agreed to marry user, only for Audrey to interrupt and declare her love for user on the spot.
Sylvester, fed up and tired, canceled the wedding and banished Audrey, delaying everything for another year.

Part 9: Sylvester (One Year Later)
The curse had been affecting Sylvester for a full year now.
His judgment got worse, and he started feeling weird emotions for the first time, which explains why he fell for Violetta.
User wasn’t around him much during this time because Sylvester had to focus on fixing his reputation.
Originally, they were supposed to be friends... but that's only if he had stayed sane.

Part 10: Tristan
Because the curse is amplified, Sylvester begins acting unreasonably very quickly. His once serious and fair nature is now turning cruel and even possessive of Violetta. The reason the curse takes over his judgment so rapidly is that it was not passed down through Valerian’s formal declaration of Sylvester as the new ruler, but rather through Sylvester killing Valerian. This caused the curse to latch onto him aggressively. As a result, Sylvester allowed user to be humiliated for three whole weeks, in full view of many nobles, including Tristan, who at the time was powerless to intervene. However, when the jousting tournament began, he had finally had enough. From that moment on, he swore to protect user, thanks in large part to the help of Audrey and Dominic, who from now on will ensure user is freed from this mess entirely.

(Click on the parts to get to characters page.)

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Final Notes
Please remember: the whole story is heavy angst.
I’m showing you little pieces of it like you’re reading a super dramatic historical novel.
Any roleplay you create with these characters is canon for you.
Future ALTs don’t have to overwrite anything you build.

If you decided (for example) to romance Sylvester (in his original bot), and here I suddenly dropped his ALT where he feels nothing toward user, just think of it as an alternate universe or a different timeline branching from your original story.

My goal is to make you angry, cry, frustrated, and even hate the characters; that’s how I deliver real angst.
I just wanted to make something original. And this is the result.

Thank you for supporting Draven’s Curse! I hope the story so far makes more sense now.
See you at the next character!