The Lanternbound Oath

No heart belongs to an equation.

The last train home takes Ren Arata somewhere no map can reach. Above a sea of clouds, the islands of Asterfall are falling—and the Regent already has a plan for everyone he needs to save them.

A sky held together by borrowed hearts

A surveyor from our world, Ren is handed a compass and four names. Veyr’s Beacon needs bonds to hold the sky together, and he expects Ren to make four strangers care for him on command. But the people at the ends of those roads have crises, convictions, and choices of their own.

Travel from a fortress with a closed gate to an archive whose maps contradict the official sky, through a forest watched by hunters, and up to an observatory ruled by a prediction. Listen carefully. Decide how to help. Find out what a bond can mean when no one is forced to make it.

What awaits

- Seven chapters across the floating islands of Asterfall.

- 32 choice points that affect trust, later dialogue, relationships, and arriving allies.

- Four optional romances between adult characters, with friendship choices throughout.

- Honesty matters in consensual relationships with more than one companion.

- Seven endings, including friendship and the choice of where to call home.

- Illustrated characters, changing expressions, fantasy locations, and story CGs.

- Save/load slots, chapter autosaves, quick save/load, a backlog, and an unlockable gallery.

- Auto-advance, read-text skip, text-size controls, and readable or dyslexia-friendly dialogue fonts.

Meet your companions

Mira Vale — A knight of the Dawn Bastion. Direct, exhausted, and fiercely protective, Mira must weigh her orders against the people waiting outside her gate.

Selene Aster — An elven astronomer at the Root Archive. Selene is stubborn, curious, and delighted by a good question—even when the answer threatens an official certainty.

Kaia Thorn — Warden of Thornhollow in the Moonwood. Kaia watches actions more closely than promises, and will not let anyone treat her home as cargo to be moved.

Nyra Vesper — A seer at Starfall Observatory. Quiet and unexpectedly wry, Nyra has spent years living inside someone else’s interpretation of her future.

The roads you draw

Read the story as Ren, choose what he says and does, and watch those decisions return in later conversations. Everyone travels through the same central journey; your choices shape relationships and consequences within it. Romance is optional. Friendship is a complete path, and choosing multiple romances calls for honesty with your partners.

Inside Asterfall

Controls and saves

Click, Space, or Enter to advance. Click a choice or press 1–9. Esc or right-click opens pause; L or mouse-wheel up opens the backlog. A toggles auto, S toggles skip, H hides the interface. F5/F9 quick-save/load. Menus also expose the reading and save controls.

Browser saves use local browser storage. Use the same browser and keep site data to retain them; clearing site data may remove saves. Cross-browser or desktop/browser save transfer is not promised. A published browser build runs directly on the itch.io page without installation. Native installation instructions will be added only with a verified native build.

Content notes

Fantasy disaster and threatened loss of life; refugee displacement; coercion and controlling authority; prolonged isolation; bereavement and grief; armed intimidation, traps, injury, and brief descriptions of blood; relationship conflict and dishonesty. Optional consensual adult romance includes kissing and non-explicit intimacy. No explicit sexual scenes.

Credits

Story, art, and design: The Lanternbound team. Studio: TentCity Studio. Engine: Unity. Game artwork was created with AI image-generation tools and curated for this project; these promotional compositions use that existing artwork. Storefront copy and layout were prepared with AI assistance.

Typography: the Cinzel Project Authors, the Alegreya Project Authors, and Adobe (Source Sans 3). The game also includes Atkinson Hyperlegible by Braille Institute and OpenDyslexic by Abbie Gonzalez. These fonts use SIL Open Font License 1.1; the storefront’s bundled font files include their license texts.

Feedback

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