Empyrean

Empyrean is a text-based interactive novel about piloting a secret experimental fighter plane to challenge your father’s regime and defend the city of Actorius. Its 325,000-word story has no graphics or sound effects; your choices shape what happens as you navigate the conflict between the government, the Revolution, foreign invaders and the Deep Tech.

Actorius and the Deep Tech

Actorius rises above a mysterious world called the Deep Tech, where plants and creatures are both living and mechanical, powered by forces no one understands. Your father harvests the Deep Tech to build experimental airships, while the Revolution races to use it for its own purposes. The Empyrean, your father’s experimental aero, runs on Deep Tech dynamics that even he cannot explain.

The city’s gleaming towers stand over downtrodden laborers, and its skies are crossed by aeros and deadly rooftop duels. You can explore the Deep Tech, a savage mechanical ecosystem, and decide whether to use its power and your political authority to improve and protect Actorius.

Fly and choose sides

You are the only person who can fly the Empyrean. In the air, you fight the city’s enemies and match wits with ruthless oligarchs and devious spies, while deciding who those enemies really are. You can support the Revolution, the government, foreign powers or the Deep Tech itself.

Your choices also determine how you handle your identity and relationships. You can conceal who you are from your family and the secret police, and befriend Wesh, a denizen of the Deep Tech who is both human and machine.

Character and encounters

You can play as a man, a woman or a nonbinary character, and romance men or women. Encounters include sword fights in top-secret research facilities and elegant cafés, as well as duels atop airplanes in flight.