The Books — a visual novel
A soldier who will not stop. A healer who was left to burn. The Mire between them. Three books, thirty-six chapters, and seven endings — all written and playable end to end.
3 books36 chapters7 endingskeyboard play
Two games · one world · free to play
Aethelgard
The Books & Chronicles of Fate
A visual novel in three books, and a deep fantasy role-playing game — built with nothing but HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No install, no account, no build step. Just open and play.
Two games share a single world. The Books is a visual novel in three books and thirty-six chapters, where every choice moves four hidden counters and the ending is their shape, not a score. Chronicles of Fate is a turn-based fantasy RPG with eight classes, eight races, a branching story, crafting, a settlement you grow and an underworld of crime. Both run entirely in the browser — even the music is synthesised on the page.
2 games
No install
Works offline
What is in the world
Two games, built with care
Everything below is drawn from the games' own documentation. No frameworks, no dependencies, no server — plain files you can serve from anywhere.
Free & fully offline — nothing to install. The Android .apk is sideload-only (allow installs from unknown sources).
Chronicles of Fate — an RPG
A deep, single-player, text-based fantasy RPG. Turn-based combat against one or several foes, six elements, statuses and telegraphed attacks that make Defend matter.
8 classes8 races6 bosses38 achievements
Two campaigns, two sides
Play the hero's Chronicles, or cross to the villain's The Crown's Shadow — a five-chapter reversal where you play one of the five bosses. The two keep separate saves and separate content.
hero campaignvillain campaignseparate saves
More than fighting
Fishing, foraging, farming, cooking, gambling, mining and the Arena. A live market and a black market, a settlement you grow with seven building types, and an underworld of nerve-powered crime.
craftingsettlementunderworld7 regions
Runs in the browser, offline
Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No server, no framework, no dependencies — and no account. Both games work offline once loaded, and the RPG installs to your home screen as an app.
vanilla JSofflineinstallable PWA
Mods, and open engines
Drop a file into mods/ and the game finds it — new chapters, classes, quests, art packs and whole new game modes. Both games run on small, MIT-licensed engines you can build with.
mod supportSaga engineAethelgard engineMIT code
How it works
From page to play in a moment
Nothing to sign up for and nothing to install. Four short steps and you are in the world.
Open the page
Follow any Play link. The games are static files served by GitHub Pages — they load in any modern browser, on desktop or mobile.
Choose a game
Pick The Books for the visual novel, or Chronicles of Fate for the RPG. Both live under one hub you can return to at any time.
Play your way
Read and choose in the novel; create a hero and quest in the RPG. In the RPG you can also pick a graphics pack and toggle mods before you begin.
Return where you left
Progress saves automatically. The novel exports a save file you can carry to another device; the RPG keeps three slots with export and import.
Demo
A look inside the world
Two previews of the real interface — a story passage from the novel, and the hero's sheet from the RPG. Both are illustrations of the live games; open one to play it.
Aethelgard — The Books
Open the novel
Aethelgard: Chronicles of Fate
Enter the world
These previews illustrate the games' interface. Open either game to play the real thing.
Get started
Play now, or run it yourself
Play straight from the hosted hub — or clone the repo and serve the folder locally. There is no build step in either case.
Play in the browser
Both games are hosted on GitHub Pages. Pick one and you are playing within a second.
Prefer one hub? Open the original two-game page.
Run it locally
Each game reads its own files over http, so serve the folder rather than opening the file directly.
# clone the deployment repo
git clone https://github.com/drsamonline/aethelgard-games.git
cd aethelgard-games
# the visual novel
python3 -m http.server 8000 --directory books
# -> http://localhost:8000
# the RPG
python3 -m http.server 8001 --directory chronicles
# -> http://localhost:8001
Any static server works. The code is MIT-licensed; the story and artwork are the author's own — free to play, not for resale.
Questions
Frequently asked
Are the games really free?
Yes. Both games are free to play, with no account and no purchase. The engines are released under the MIT licence, while the story, characters and artwork are © Dr. Sohil Momin, all rights reserved — free to play, not for resale.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Both are plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no server, framework or dependencies. They load in any modern browser on desktop or mobile. The RPG can optionally install to your home screen as an offline app when served over http or https.
What is the difference between the two games?
The Books is a visual novel — you read and make choices, and four hidden counters (Mercy, Truth, Bonds and Conviction) shape which of seven endings you reach. Chronicles of Fate is a turn-based fantasy RPG with classes, races, combat, crafting, settlement building and an underworld. They share a world but play very differently.
How long is each game?
The novel is complete at thirty-six chapters across three books, with seven endings. The RPG has a five-chapter main storyline with a choice in every chapter, sixteen side quests, class missions and endless bounties — plus a second, villain-side campaign, The Crown's Shadow.
Do they work offline?
Yes. Once loaded, both games run without a connection — even the music is synthesised in the browser. The RPG registers a service worker and caches its app shell so it opens offline like an installed app.
Can I add my own content?
Yes. Both games have a mod system: drop a folder or a file into mods/ and the game finds it. The novel accepts new chapters, characters and regions; the RPG accepts new enemies, classes, quests, art packs and even whole new game modes. Mods that conflict are refused with the reason shown rather than breaking a save.
Are the engines available separately?
Yes. The Books runs on Saga, a visual-novel engine, and Chronicles of Fate runs on the Aethelgard browser RPG engine. Both are released on their own so you can build something else with them — see AethelgardVN and Aethelgard-Engine.
Where do I find the source?
The playable builds are hosted from this repository and its /docs folder. The full source, issues and releases are on GitHub.