Gilded Rose
by squidpizza is a Web Serial Novel focusing on Will, an autistic man summoned to a fantasy universe to save it.
Long ago in a magical fantasy realm with no stated name, seven heroes slayed the gods, who had kept the world in Medieval Stasis for centuries. The upending of the status quo had innumerable ripple effects on the world, most notably giving everyone Resurrective Immortality. While handy, something has been corrupting this magic, causing people to respawn slightly different; less in control, more dangerous. These changes add up, and eventually what comes back to life is no longer a person.
Enter Will Terronson, summoned from earth by a new band of heroes on the assumption that he is the person most likely to fix everything. Will is initially unhappy to be brought here, but slowly warms up, if only because it's the only way he'll get back home. Things only seem to go downhill from there, though, when Will makes an unexpected discovery: His new class uniform is nothing but leather harnesses and a biker cap. This world isn't the generic fantasy setting Will had anticipated; all of it bends inexplicably towards "gay parody of a generic fantasy setting..."
... And Will isn't gay.
Gilded Rose was launched in 2023 and updates weekly on Mondays.
Gilded Rose provides examples of:
- Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: Fossil fuels were bypassed as a major energy source due to an abundance of geothermal power (sourced from all those convenient hot springs.)
- Another Dimension
- Autism in Media: Will, the main character, is autistic.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Will's defining trait is his constant drive to investigate and understand things, which does help him solve problems.
- Big First Choice: Will's first major decision is choosing his class, which he agonizes over for several hours. He's also not terribly happy with the result.
- Big Red Devil: Rex the tiefling is purple, but close enough.
- Born of Heaven and Hell: Glorious Purpose is actually the son of both the lord of angels and king of demons, but isn't thrilled about his parentage.
- Cast Full of Gay
- Celibate Hero: Will, obviously, isn't gay, and so rebuffs all perceived advances.
- Character Class System
- City with No Name
- Covert Pervert: Virgil sometimes sneaks in comments about how much he likes Will's lack of shirts.
- Draconic Humanoid: Dio is an earth dragon who spends most of his time as a hulking, scaly humanoid.
- Enforced Technology Levels: The gods refused to let society progress beyond their liking. After their destruction, this has been reversed, and technology has begun to progress.
- Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Will's whip is magical and intangible, slicing through people without physically damaging them.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Much to Will's chagrin.
- Faceless Eye: Glorious Purpose has a floating eye in place of a head.
- Fauns and Satyrs: The process of transporting Will necessitated reconstructing his body into that of a satyr.
- Forced Transformation: Downplayed. Will's still mostly-human.
- Gayborhood: Taken to its Logical Extreme with the entire world.
- Guardian Angel: Glorious Purpose serves as this to Virgil, and to the rest of the party. He takes the position seriously, though it's considered somewhat beneath him.
- Healing Spring: Commonly spread throughout the world. Virgil's estate is built upon one, and Will studies the effects the healing waters may have on the freshwater ecosystem.
- Hobbits: Virgil is a halfling, though unusually he possesses horns and a long tail.
- Hopeless Suitor: Virgil is hopelessly infatuated with Will, though they both acknowledge it's not ever going to work out.
- Horned Humanoid: Will, Virgil, and Rex all have horns of various sizes.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: A warp flower is a rare, single-use plant capable of transporting people across dimensions.
- Leatherman: The class Will selects, Soulmaster, is a combination of this and Necromancer.
- Magical Land
- Medieval Stasis
- Non-Heteronormative Society
- Our Angels Are Different: Glory's body is an inorganic construct he uses to interface with the world.
- Resurrective Immortality: People return to life a few hours or a day after death. This beginning to fail is what sparked the decision to summon Will.
- Society of Immortals
- Speculative Fiction LGBT
- Summon Everyman Hero: Virgil's spell specifically targeted the person most likely to succeed, ignoring every other factor, including how excited Will would be at the prospect.
- Summon Magic: Virgil is a summoner. In addition to his unique connection to Glory, he can conjure other creatures or objects.
- The Blacksmith: Rex is a blacksmith, allowing him to reshape metal on the fly.
- The Corruption: Death and resurrection spreads something called "the Taint," which slowly degrades minds and bodies. Eventually, the Tainted are little more than mindless machines of violence and chaos who tear themselves to shreds within hours of revival.
- The Multiverse
- The Quest
- The Smart Guy
- The Speechless: Rex is completely mute. It's brought up by Will that magic could cure this, but Rex isn't interested.
- Trapped in Another World: Will specifically refers to it as kidnapping, though he softens on this.
- Waistcoat of Style: Virgil wears a rather dapper waistcoat.
- Whip of Dominance: Will's signature weapon is a whip, fitting his leather daddy attire.
- Wing Shield: Glory's wings are solid, and he routinely uses them to shield others.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Will wakes up in a bed, naked, with no idea where he is.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: A benevolent example from Will, courtesy of his Soulmaster class. He can temporarily borrow the powers of people who die around him.
