Visual Novel / My Vow To My Liege

(from left) Chenfeng, Zheng Dan, Shi Yiguang, King Goujian of Yue, and Wu Zixu

In the waning years of the Spring and Autumn Period (771-476BC), the young king Fuchai comes to the throne of Ng. Aided by his able Prime Minister Wu Zixu, he avenges his father's death at the hands of the kingdom of Yue, capturing its king Goujian, and even turns his gaze northward with the ambition to establish hegemony over all of China.

Only, the real Fuchai is dead. Impersonating him is his younger sister, Ji Tengyu, the Sole Survivor of the royal family after her father's attempt to break their Hereditary Curse went horribly wrong. She's on a secret quest to finish what he started and slay the vengeful dragon god bound to their kingdom...before it eats her soul next.

Four men's fates intertwine with hers:

• Her disappeared childhood friend Shi Yiguang (also known as Xi Shi), son of the high priests of Ng, whose family died at her father's hands.
• Her enemy Goujian, torn between his thirst for vengeance and his genuine attachment to her.
• Her minister and mentor Wu Zixu, as overbearing and abrasive as he is fiercely loyal.
• Her bodyguard since childhood, Chenfeng, determined to protect the girl he grew up with at any cost.

In a time of war and chaos, who can Fuchai trust? How will she reconcile the girl she was with the king she's become? What is she willing to sacrifice for a nebulous greater good? How far will she go for revenge? Her life and her kingdom depend on her choices.

My Vow to My Liege is a historical fantasy otome game released on September 22, 2020 on Steam. A mobile release is in the works, as well as potentially a Zheng Dan DLC route.

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This series provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Fuchai can swing a sword.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Wu Zixu will pat Fuchai on the head in private in his gentler moments, and Fuchai gets to do it back in the dream sequence in his route. Yiguang also gives her a playful forehead poke or two.
• Age-Gap Romance: Wu Zixu is nearly twice Fuchai's age, and doesn't even consider himself to be a potential romantic partner for her outside of his own route. Fuchai has to be noticeably more aggressive and forthright in pursuing him compared to her romances with her other love interests.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The dragon god makes Chenfeng beg for the privilege of escorting Fuchai back to her room after her failed escape attempt.
• Altar Diplomacy: Lots of this, as is fitting for the setting of warring kingdoms.
  • Happens in Goujian's ending, where Fuchai marries him and unites their kingdoms peacefully.
  • Invoked by Fuchai, who suggests marrying Wu Zixu in order to protect him from his enemies, to his outrage.
  • Shao Jiang, as the sister of the Duke of Qi, is a politically valuable target of this. Fuchai is engaged to her, Tian Heng tries to forcibly marry her, and she ends up with Gucao in the endings where he becomes king after you retire.
• Anger Born of Worry: A defining trope of Fuchai and Wu Zixu's fraught relationship.
• Arranged Marriage: Shao Jiang is Fuchai's betrothed, since the other states don't know that Fuchai is a girl.
• Babies Ever After: With Wu Zixu, of all people! Also suggested as a future possibility in Yiguang and Goujian's good endings.
• Badass Normal: Wu Zixu has no magic whatsoever, but his martial skills, sharp mind, and experience at court make him a formidable protector.
• Befriending the Enemy: Fuchai and Goujian start off doing this accidentally...but end up hitting it off too well to stop even when they've realized each other's true identities.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Chenfeng, though not willingly.
• Best Served Cold: The king of Chu killed Wu Zixu's family...so he spent nearly his entire adult life manipulating the politics in a neighboring kingdom to gain the power he needed to sack his own homeland, dig out the king's corpse, and whip it three hundred times. This is also Goujian's thinking on his bad ending.
• Bifauxnen: Fuchai.
• Big Damn Heroes: Wu Zixu shows up with the cavalry at some point in every single route.
  • Fuchai needs to do this for Goujian to get his good ending.
• Blood from the Mouth: No Chinese historical fantasy is complete without a whole lot of this!
• Blood Magic: Fuchai has to donate a whole lot of blood to the cause. The Dragon God has his own blood magic powers too.
• Blue Is Calm: The imperturbable Yiguang has a blue color motif and is associated with water.
• Bodyguard Crush: Chenfeng.
• Cast from Hit Points: What happens if Fuchai tries to use the Body of the Ding without getting it to accept her as its master first.
• Childhood Friend Romance: You can romance both Yiguang and Chenfeng in the game.
• The Coup: Attempted by Fuchai's uncle Fugai in the backstory. Also happens in the Chenfeng and Yiguang routes.
• Cycle of Revenge: the conflict between Ng and Yue.
• Dead All Along: The real Zheng Dan.
• Damsel in Distress: Shao Jiang at first, although she can hold her own once you save her.
• Damsel out of Distress: Fuchai makes a valiant escape attempt when she's imprisoned by Chenfeng.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Literally everyone in the main cast is an orphan. This is pretty fitting, historically speaking—the Chinese first person pronoun for a king translates to "I, the orphan".
• Defeat as Backstory: Goujian.
• Deity of Human Origin: True to history, Wu Zixu is worshiped as a god of tides in some of the epilogues.
• Disease Bleach: Wu Zixu's hair turned white in his youth after he lost his family.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Wu Zixu repaid the murder of his family by his original ruler by sacking his own homeland.
• Distressed Dude: Fuchai has to come to the rescue of all her love interests at least once, although her saving them can take very different forms.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Yiguang, which is fitting, given the historical figure he's based on is female.
• Dub Name Change: Strangely, this applies to a place. Specifically, the kingdom which most of the game's scene are unfolded is pronounced "Wú", which is a different character (吳) from the "Wu" in Wu Zixu (伍/Wǔ). "Ng," the substitute, is the local pronunciation of this character in modern Suzhou (i.e. the historic Gusu) in Wu Chinese, the modern descendent of the language most likely to be spoken by Fuchai.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Fuchai goes through a lot in this game, which makes the happy route endings all the more touching.
• Elemental Powers: Yiguang has water-themed powers, and Shao Jiang has fire-themed powers.
• Enemy Mine: Fuchai wants to pull this off with Goujian against the invading Qi army. Whether she succeeds is up to her choices.
• Evil Uncle: Fuchai's uncle Fugai, who attempts a coup, kills her would-be husband, badly injures Chenfeng, and assaults her in her backstory.
• Face–Heel Turn: Zheng Dan, Chenfeng, and Goujian.
• The Faceless: Basically everyone outside the main cast is this.
• Faking the Dead: Wu Zixu does this with Fuchai's help in his route. Fuchai herself also does this in her good endings with Chenfeng and Yiguang in order to "retire" from kingship.
• Fighting from the Inside: With your help, Chenfeng can break the Dragon God's mind control in his good ending.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Most notably in the character routes.
  • A major motif in Wu Zixu's route is the Young Reeds Before Flowering (蒹葭) poem from the Book of Odes, about searching for someone in a river: going upstream in search, the way is difficult and long, but going downstream in search, you find them right before your eyes. This is relevant to his relationship with Fuchai: both are burdened with a harsh, violent, and painful history, to the point where they're not sure they have anything to live for once their duty is done...and they have to realize they have something worth living for right in front of their eyes the whole time, in each other. It's also reflected in his dream sequence: going upstream the river of time, you're faced with an absolute blizzard of choices, more than in any other route, but the way through is also easier than you might think.
  • Both Yiguang's and Goujian's routes have surprisingly few choices. You know the right thing to do—actually committing to doing it is the real challenge.
• Gender Reveal: Fuchai has one forced upon her in Goujian's route by a mind-controlled Chenfeng in order to discredit her. Your previous choices determine whether Goujian will shield her or shame her.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted with Zheng Dan, the pure and kind-hearted high priest who causes death and destruction on a massive scale.
• Heel–Face Turn: Chenfeng and Goujian in their good endings. In fact according to Word of God the latter was primed to pull this in every route, even if you didn't build support with him earlier in the game...and then Wu Zixu tries to assassinate him behind Fuchai's back, which he takes very badly, and in the other routes Fuchai doesn't have the opportunity to clear things up with him.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Fuchai wields a sword, as do most of the other major characters in this game.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Wu Zixu does this in multiple routes.
• Historical Domain Character: The protagonist is this, in both her King Fuchai and Princess Tengyu identities. So are Goujian, Wu Zixu, Shi Yiguang, and Zheng Dan.
• Historical Gender Flip: The protagonist Fuchai is not actually a genderflip of the historical King Fuchai of Wu—she's actually his sister Tengyu, an obscure princess who gets exactly one line of mention in the history books for having committed suicide in a rage at the insult of her father offering her a fish dish he'd already eaten half of. In the game, however, it's the original Fuchai who's dead, forcing Tengyu, the Sole Survivor of her siblings, to inherit the throne under his identity. Shi Yiguang (better known as Xi Shi, the chronologically first of the Four Beauties of Ancient China) and Zheng Dan are genderflips of Fuchai's historical lovers, however.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Most historical fiction set in this era has Goujian as the protagonist and Fuchai as the antagonist, a foolish, lustful, gullible king who was responsible for his own downfall. Fuchai is a lot more heroic here than in most adaptations, with a tragic past, a strong sense of duty, and understandable motivations behind even her more questionable decisions. Then again, she's not in fact the historical Fuchai.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Downplayed with Wu Zixu. He's not a villain by any means, but while the historical Wu Zixu is generally considered a noble tragic loyal minister saddled with an ungrateful ruler, this game really shows you why Fuchai might grow to hate his guts.
  • Played straight with Zheng Dan, who's secretly an evil dragon god. Historically, Zheng Dan was one of the beautiful ladies, alongside Xi Shi, sent by Goujian to seduce Fuchai and weaken him so Goujian could retake his Yue state. In most historical fictions that are pro-Goujian, Zheng Dan would look more like a Heroic Seductress.
• High Priest: Yiguang's parents were this, and Zheng Dan took up the mantle after their deaths. Yiguang himself takes up the job after Zheng Dan reveals his true identity.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Wu Zixu's route, he sharply reminds Shi Yiguang to call the protagonist by her title...only to call her Ah-Yu once they're alone.
• Implausible Hair Color: Almost everyone has a biologically plausible, if unlikely, hair color. The one exception is Yiguang with his light blue hair.
• King Incognito: This is how Goujian and Fuchai end up as friends.
• Lap Pillow: Chenfeng lies down in Fuchai's lap in a CG.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Yiguang.
• The Lost Lenore: Goujian never quite gets over Fuchai in any ending where he doesn't end up with her.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Goujian befriended and fell in love with Ah-Yu...only to find out that she's the King of Wu, who took him prisoner and made him a slave. How well he deals with this depends on the route.
  • Somewhat similarly, Chenfeng is desperately protective of "Ah-Yu", the sweet, rowdy girl the protagonist used to be, and once the Dragon God starts playing with his mind, he blames "Fuchai" for destroying her and taking her place.
• Made a Slave: Fuchai does this to Goujian instead of killing him.
• Meaningful Name: Chenfeng shares his name with a poem from the Book of Odes about a woman despairing that her husband has forgotten and abandoned her.
• Mellow Fellow: Yiguang, especially in comparison to all the vengeance- and duty-bound characters around him.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Wu Zixu is explicitly dead in 5 out of 8 endings, and it's hard to imagine he survived in a 6th.
• Metaphorical Marriage: Fuchai and Yiguang marry informally, knowing she might not have much time left.
• More than Mind Control: The Dragon God preys on Chenfeng's feelings of insecurity and helplessness to control him.
• Mutual Kill: Chenfeng and Fuchai in his bad ending.
• Not So Above It All: While Yiguang can outwardly seem inhumanly tranquil, he admits that he's not as free of fear as he looks, especially when it comes to the protagonist. He stayed in hiding for five years because he was afraid he'd find that she'd changed into someone unrecognizable in that time.
• Not What It Looks Like: Goujian insists this when he's caught with the Vermillion Bird swords hidden in his shirt in his route.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It takes a lot to make Yiguang speak harshly or raise his voice.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: The trials of Yiguang's clan's secret lair.
• Opinion-Changing Dream: Appears in several of the character routes. Justified in that they draw on the magic of the Ding of Virtue.
• Ordered to Die: Wu Zixu in Chenfeng and Yiguang's routes.
• Papa Bear: Wu Zixu is incredibly protective of his young liege, even when she doesn't want him to be. Every time they head into danger he puts himself in front of her automatically. He's not her biological or legal father, but it's notable that in multiple routes he sends her off to Qi with the Qi envoy(s) while himself returning to Gusu to be killed by the fake Fuchai...which has clear parallels with what he did historically with his own son.
• Perpetual Frowner: Wu Zixu's default expression is a scowl. His few smiles are reserved for Fuchai.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Chenfeng asks this of Fuchai as his fears of being useless and discarded grow worse.
• Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Inverted with Wu Zixu, who demands repeatedly that Fuchai kill Goujian.
• Possessive Wrist Grab: Goujian does this to Fuchai in a CG.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Fuchai has sex with Wu Zixu in his route on the eve of the big battle.
• Properly Paranoid: Played with. Wu Zixu is suspicious of Yiguang and Goujian from the start, and historically speaking, he would be right. Goujian would eventually come to conquer Fuchai's kingdom, and he presented Yiguang to Fuchai as a honeypot trap. However, the situation in the game is more complicated: He's right that Goujian was working with the dragon god, and Fuchai's unquestioning trust in Yiguang allows the dragon god to trick her into freeing him. But according to Word of God, Goujian would have honored his promise to Fuchai and become her ally if Wu Zixu hadn't tried to assassinate him right after, and the real Yiguang is perfectly trustworthy. Moreover, he fails to anticipate Zheng Dan and Chenfeng's betrayals.
• Protective Charm: The jade fish that Yiguang gives Fuchai when they're children.
• Psychotic Smirk: Chenfeng does this while he's under mind control.
• Punch a Wall: Wu Zixu drives Fuchai to do this.
• Race Against the Clock: Fuchai has to defeat the dragon god before all five petals of the seal on her chest turn black, or she'll die and he'll eat her soul.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Fuchai grows increasingly fed up with Wu Zixu's paranoia, second-guessing, and overbearing tendencies.
• Rape as Backstory: Fuchai was assaulted by her own uncle during a palace coup, from which Wi Zixu saved her. Attempted and threatened rape also come up in Goujian and Wu Zixu's backstories.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Goujian, who historically conquers Ng and drives Fuchai to suicide.
• Revenge Before Reason: Several characters have a case of this going on, as is true to history, and it tends to end badly.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Fuchai is an effective king. It's telling that in every route she defeats the dragon god even if she dies in the process. Goujian is no slouch either.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The dragon god.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Mage Yang.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: How the scene between Fuchai and Wu Zixu ends up going.
• She Is the King: Fuchai, of the woman-in-disguise variety.
• Silver Fox: Wu Zixu is relatively young for one, being in his thirties. But he has the silver part down thanks to Disease Bleach, the fox part down too, and he's still significantly older than the rest of the main cast, who are all in their late teens to early twenties.
• Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: Character-wise, Wu Zixu is far on the cynicism side, understandable given his horrific backstory. Fuchai herself is fairly pragmatic, but holds on to a spark of idealism and hope for human connection, and Goujian is similarly torn between the two. Which he ultimately chooses depends on your own choices: if you commit to reckless idealism, he will too, enabling the happiest of the game's endings, but anything short of that and he'll do what he did in history.
• Spiteful Suicide: Fuchai allows Goujian to stab her in his bad ending rather than letting her curse finish her off.
• Stern Teacher: Wu Zixu drove Fuchai hard to turn a sheltered princess into a capable king in two years.
• Swapped Roles: In Goujian's dream sequence, you experience your past interactions with him through his eyes, and are asked whether you could have let love overcome your desire for revenge in his shoes.
  • Wu Zixu's route is a subtler example. You get to be there for him in the worst moments of his life, just like he was there for you.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Fuchai, although all her love interests know her true gender at the time of the game.
• Sweet Tooth: Chenfeng keeps yoinking the sweets sent as tribute from Yue under the pretense of "testing for poison".
• Sexy Mentor: Wu Zixu, whom you can romance.
• Taking the Bullet: Goujian takes a sword for Fuchai while they're facing down Zheng Dan.
• Tap on the Head: Gongsun Yi manages to pull this off against Chenfeng while Fuchai distracts him.
• Together in Death: Chenfeng, Yiguang, and Wu Zixu's bad endings.
• Trauma Conga Line: Fuchai has lost her entire family and her childhood best friend by the start of the story, and that's not even getting into everything that's happened to her personally.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Yiguang sees no point in pursuing vengeance for the death of his family at Fuchai's father's hands. Wu Zixu has a very hard time believing this.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Wu Zixu spent nearly his entire adult life pursuing vengeance for his murdered family, and now that he has it, he's left aging and alone in a foreign land with nothing left to live for. Fuchai is the one spark of meaning left in his life.
  • In his bad ending, Goujian gets to live another sixty years while never quite getting over the woman he betrayed.
• Warrior Prince: Both Fuchai and Goujian lead armies on the battlefield.
• Wartime Wedding: Fuchai and Yiguang get married on the eve of the battle to retake Gusu.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted. Wu Zixu is the most ruthless and paranoid of Fuchai's allies, and has an immense amount of blood on his hands, but underneath his Tough Love, he's also utterly loyal to Fuchai, and truly wants her to be a strong, capable king who can stand on her own.
• White Mage: Yiguang's abilities revolve around water^note As a nod to Xi Shi's anecdote that she was so beautiful that fishes in ponds forgot their abilities to swim and drown a bit whenever her reflection appeared in the pond's surface., healing, and protection.
• Why Can't I Hate You?: Goujian is torn between his love and hate for Fuchai, and in his route Fuchai struggles with the same.
• Worth Living For: Fuchai is this for Wu Zixu. Wu Zixu serves as this for Fuchai in turn in his good ending.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Goujian is a master at this.
• Yandere: Chenfeng and to some extent Goujian.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Wu Zixu and Fuchai rigorously address each other by title, and the first time they call each other anything else it's in his route and they think he's about to die.
• You Killed My Father: Goujian is responsible for the death of Fuchai's father during an invasion of Yue.