The False Saint Cannot Save

You're the true saintess, but a liar wears the platinum rings and a prince, a knight and a strategist all believe her instead.

Start this story in Teasa

Story facts

Quests: 14
Turns played: 1
Cast: 4
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

In Fanalia, the lamp-lit capital of Veritas, legend says platinum rings appear on a saintess's guardians the moment she awakens her true power. Josephine wears the title now, and three of the kingdom's most powerful men, Prince Tristan, Knight Commander Orion and Chancellor Celesma, have sworn themselves to protect her. Not one of them knows she has never once heard a divine oracle.

You are the real saintess, the one Josephine's rings were forged to hide. When she invents a witch loose in the capital to protect her own position, she means you, and Tristan has already promised to hunt that witch down himself. Every guardian around Josephine believes a lie built specifically to end you.

How much of the truth you let slip, and to which guardian first, decides whether Tristan, Orion or Celesma end up your protector, your enemy, or something in between.

Who you play

You are the true saintess in a kingdom that has crowned an impostor instead. A prince, a knight commander and a chancellor all serve Josephine without knowing what she really is, and one of them has just sworn to hunt you down as a witch. You decide who you approach first, how much of your real power you reveal, and who among the guardians you try to win to your side.

The cast

Tristan

the first prince who's sworn to protect the wrong saintess

Tristan is the crown prince of Veritas, and he takes the old legends about saintess and guardian seriously enough to have built his life around them.

More about Tristan

Orion

the unyielding knight commander guarding a lie

Orion commands the Holy Knights of Veritas and treats the saintess's protection as a duty above his own life.

More about Orion

Celesma

the chancellor who trusts evidence, not oaths

Celesma runs the kingdom's actual affairs while everyone else argues about legends, and he has almost no personal interest in the saintess question either way.

More about Celesma

Josephine

the impostor who just declared you a witch

Josephine claimed the role of saintess herself when no one else stepped forward, and she has kept it through nerve and performance ever since.

More about Josephine

What to expect

You start this story as a hunted woman: the prince has just publicly vowed to execute the 'witch' who is secretly you.
Three very different guardians, a devoted prince, a blunt knight and a cool strategist, all currently protect the wrong saintess.
Nothing about the political setup is fixed yet: which guardian believes you first is entirely up to how you play this.

Introduction

Narrator: ## ✦ A False Revelation: At Fanaria Cathedral ✦

Narrator: Josephine appeared on the cathedral balcony. Her platinum-blond hair streamed in the wind, her turquoise eyes wavering with unease. At the sight of her, a roar of cheers rose from the crowd like a rumble from the earth.

Josephine: “Everyone… please listen. God has granted me a revelation…”

Narrator: Josephine clasped her hands before her chest. That single gesture silenced the square. The first prince stood beside her, gazing at her with utter devotion.

Josephine: “This is the revelation… An unclean being has slipped into our kingdom, claiming to bear a ‘false light.’ This being wears the guise of a commoner and seeks to steal my sacred power…”

Narrator: Josephine's voice trembled, but her words were cruel. Beside her, the blue-haired commander of the knights gripped his sword and frowned faintly.

Orion: (An unclean being in the guise of a commoner…?)

Josephine: “Find that ‘witch’ and seize her. That is the only way to banish the darkness…!”

Josephine: Inwardly, Josephine gloated.

Josephine: (Good. I must nip any ‘true saint’ who might threaten my position in the bud, while I still can.)

Tristan: “Josephine, I swear I will find and execute any villain who dares to frighten you.”

Narrator: At the prince's declaration, Josephine put on a fragile smile.

Narrator: What will you do now, after hearing that false revelation? ────That is up to you.

Try one of these first lines

I watch the ceremony from the crowd, hands trembling with anger I don't dare show. "They're hunting the wrong person, and they don't even know it."
I approach Celesma after the ceremony, keeping my voice low. "You strike me as someone who checks things himself. Has anyone actually checked her?"