Tears of Tianchao
Chapter 2 Part 2: June 30, 2024
Patreon / Discord
Chapter 2 Part 2 Release Date: June 30, 2024
After a decade from your home nation of Tianchao, you become Xiaowei Mao in the army involved in the intranational civil war called "DaiZai-Yige." You are sent by the Emperor of Zhongguog to another emperor to restore an ancient power from the late god Heibao. Your mission: kill the Holder of the Mark of Heibao. When caught in an unplanned, "attempted" assassination of the prince, you are thrown into a fight for life and death, traversing through the treacheries of civil war, betrayal, and honor. What was a simple assassination had only turned more sinister. Met in the face of human trafficking, political agendas, and with no one to trust, you uncover the untold lies of those involved in the fight. Will you be able to survive the wrath of the Holder of the Mark of Heibao till you earn his trust, or will you fall into the pits of death?
Tears of Tianchao is an ongoing interactive fiction with over 161,000+ words (excluding code) with tons of flavor text, 5 distinct personalities, and 6 ROs to choose from. Following the war as a Xiaowei, a high-positioned commander of an army and influential court official, every decision you make holds weight, and nothing is as it seems.
This is an 18+ interactive fiction containing graphic violence, gray morality, abuse, drugs, sexual content, and many more triggering content. Please proceed with caution and read the trigger/content warnings in the start menu of the game. Thank you.
Features
- Choose to be a female or male Xiaowei.
- Have any sexuality: gay, lesbian, straight, ace, or bi
- Choose to romance the elites of the war or share an unforgettable friendship.
- Navigate between two sides of a civil war and use wits to satisfy both sides in favor of the one you choose: Empire and Rebel
- Subdue the prince's suspicion or face the consequences.
- Master martial arts, keen perception, and charisma to influence major decisions.
- Gather information and learn about the nation of eternal spring, Tianchao, and deal with the corruption that plagues the dying land.
Character list
List of short stories and drabbles
Lore Compilation
(Click the link above)
Romances
Ji Qiangxin (he/him)
[only romanceable with an MMC + special route available if fmc (not romance)]
character official portrait/art
Known as: Heibao prince; exiled low-born; The Jian of XueHua
"This was not spoken by this prince as of yet, but before you leave, know this: betray me once, and not even Ji Yang-Guang can save your throat."
As the current holder of the Mark of Heibao, Ji Qiangxin was the next crown prince of Tianchao before his uncle took the throne. Fueled by his thirst for vengeance and the prosperity of his nation, the cold and intimidating prince believes that the imperial family of Tianchao must fall, and nothing will get in his way. He will use all means, even killing, if that is what it takes to restore peace, and that includes you—a Xiaowei sent as an assassin of Zhongguog. No one can temper the burning iron heart, and he never believes any can.
Ji Shenglian (she/her)
character official portrait/art
[only romanceable with an fmc]
Known as: Lotus Princess; Grand Keeper of the South
"As the only princess of Tianchao, I have a duty, but sometimes, I do wonder if my birth was a mistake, just as Zhongguog and the current imperial family believe."
Benevolent and strikingly beautiful, Ji Shenglian is the only living princess with the blood of the imperial family in both Zhongguog and Tianchao. As the head magician of the rebel forces, she plays an integral role in the war in secrecy, and foes tremble under her powerful manipulation of soul energy. Under the guise of the lychee eyes and delicate smile, she holds a fervent spirit and utmost loyalty to her brother, but even behind the shadows of him, a most humane and sincere desire burns brights.
Wu Shen (he/him)
character official art/portrait
Known as: Green Snake; Peddler
"Yeah, I don't give a shit as long as I'm paid. If that prince can pay, that's all. Hmm? Don't I feel guilty for ditching others? Hahaha! You sure are funny."
Snarky and charming with skills of disguise, Wu Shen uses his looks and slippery tricks to get what he wants. Being the main spy of the rebel forces, he knows all the right places and people, and every dirty secret never escapes his ears. With a great lust for money and luxuries, he will willingly betray others if the price is right, but when he truly opens his heart, not even the world is enough for him to sacrifice those that he loves.
Fu Xiuying (she/her)
Character official portrait/art
Known as: Pinnacle lady; woman with a golden tongue
"Do I really look that sly? Hehe, you haven't seen the worst. Or...do you want to see it? I may be intelligent and elegant, but don't let it fool you, little fox."
Bold like a cat with a spiked tongue, Fu Xiuying is a woman of little words but many schemes. Born into a famed clan of scholars and poets, her skills in politics are unrivaled more so after serving as the handmaiden of the current empress. She keeps her friends close, and her enemies at her fingertips. As the main intelligence gatherer of the rebellion, she is fiercely loyal to her nation and wishes to see a better world. Outside, she appears to be as lovely as a flower, but under her elegant nature, a beast lies dormant.
Mo Ge (he/him)
character profilecharacter art/official portrait
Known as: Scholar of a thousand years; Favored of Highest
"It's been too long, old friend. You've grown, just as I did, and we're no longer kids. I hope to form a diplomatic relationship, no matter what our past was."
Upright and soft-hearted, Mo Ge is the tutor of the imperial prince of the current family. Well-spoken and skilled in all areas of philosophy, science, and arts, he is one of the most skilled men in the history of Tianchao, and the youngest to be an imperial tutor and imperial secretary. People around him comment about the dried mandarin peels he carries in a small box. He is diplomatic and kind, and he is willing to sacrifice himself for the one he loves most.
Luo Ying (she/her)
[only romanceable with an mmc]
Character official portrait/art
Known as: Scorpion Courtesan; Lady Misfortune
"So you are the Xiaowei. I don't know what I expected, but aren't you a bit too stupid to be one? I heard that Xiaowei Mao was smart, but if so, how come you don't know me?"
Uncouth, violent, and rude. Hostile towards anyone, and unforgiving to enemies, she relishes to see them in pain. Despite all this, she is a vulnerable spirit. Easily flustered, a classic tsundere, and a bit heartless with words, she easily falls for candid people and lets her guard down when faced with such a pure, unfiltered person.
Development log
- As the Green Willow Wilts Ep1 Public ReleaseJul 24, 2024
- Patreon + Exclusive Content Now AvailableJul 13, 2024
- HOT FIX ahhhhhhhhJul 03, 2024
- Demo Update Chapter 2 Part 2Jun 29, 2024
- JQX Mini Update + Route SelectionMay 17, 2024
- Demo Update Chapter 2 Part 1May 07, 2024
- Special Short Stories, Drabbles + PollsMay 01, 2024
- Discord ServerApr 20, 2024
Comments
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Hi, your cover art is missing a “n” in Tianchao. Good luck with the project. :)
thank you for letting me know. I unfortunately lost the original file while transferring to a new device...so I, uhh, might have to leave it as be until I find a solution. T_T
Good luck with your projects too. ❤️❤️
Hey, I'm getting an error message every time I want to respond "Absolutely" to taking the chic
Hello! Thank you for letting me know. The bug was patched and will be released with the next update. <3
Rip my Xiaowei. You would've loved walks of shame, girly girl productions, charlie xcx, and brat summers.
It's never too late... :)
I’m sorry, but this ended up changing the beginning or many parts of the MC’s story?? because I remember it having different scenes.
Hello! There was a major update with the prologue a year ago, but the story remains largely the same. A few things were added for clarity and a cohesive storyline. This includes both prologue and Chapter 1.
Loving this so much. My Xiaowei is going down hard for the prince. Lol. Question is, can said prince handle the epitome of a wiseass, smiling to hide his trauma MC with the fighting spirit of a Chihuahua that doesn't realize it's in over it's head? Lol
God, I hope my Yufei gets a chance at petty, semi-evil revenge on the puppies. Just one friendly spar with his spear, please. I want him to take the whole group down in one-v-group battle and then lecture them with a smirk on proper military discipline and combat. (How has my MC lived as long as he has with such a mouth. Lol.)
mc:
(Don't worry...you'll get your chance :))
Hahaha. 🤣 My Yufei is really that way when it comes to a fight. In fact, he already wants a rematch with Qiangxin because he doesn't want the Prince to think he's weak and is determined to prove he can hold his own against the man. He's the type to get his ass handed to him repeatedly, yet still come running back for round two.
Also, he wants to get Qiangxin to laugh again. It's now a silent obsession. I just imagine my MCs three main go-to expressions around the prince are completely enthralled, playful grinning, or angry pouting. Lol.
And yesssss, those pups have no idea what a beat down they are going to get. MC is a Xiaowei after all, and I'd say for being unarmed and unarmored, to hold his own as long as he did with Qiangxin is impressive. They are getting a big reality check if they think my Yufei is weak.
You'll definitely get your chance soon, hehe.
Your MC is such a menace to society, and I love it. 🤣🤣 He will be the biggest prince's headache, without a doubt. He already has two gremlins; now a third joined in lmfao
Those soldiers are going to piss their pants if they have to fight Yufei. 🤣🤣 Especially because he sounds like he has sadistic tendencies.
Sadistic? Naaah... Justifiably petty after that bag on head treatment? Definitely. He's got issues about being looked down on. But Qiangxin just needs to give him some head pats and protect him from his trauma, and he'll be the most loyal and loving companion. He needs someone to be loyal to, cause he sure isn't loyal to the Emperor or his dear parents.
Hmmm, true, true. It is definitely justified considering how the soldiers treated Yufei. I honestly think anyone would be pissed in his situation, but those with pride and dignity...even more so.
Yufei is about to have a field day with Qiangxin in Chapter 3, goddamn. ;-;
Side note, I read the Qiangxin mini story of yours. Its the best. The way you wrote the Xiaowei perfectly aligns with my Yufei, and now I can't wait for all the chances for Yufei to flirt himself into a corner with Qiangxin. Cause he will 100% do that, then gay panic when Qiang pulls the uno reverse card on him. xD
Need Mo Ge expeditiously, mark my words thats the only route im going down
This Mo Ge love is absolutely amazing, and I honestly am wondering where it's coming from. 😭 (So many players love him!)
I'm surprised the father didn't execute the mom and protag.
Really enjoyed the update! Saw a couple errors here, but looking forward to more! Can't wait to see when the first opportunity to flirt with the prince will pop up, that will be fun!
Thank you so much for enjoying the update <3 I fixed the errors in the hotfix before, but for some reason, GitHub was giving me an issue. In the end, I had to debug all over again. ;-; If you play it again, it should have no problems now. Hopefully...
Feel free to let me know if there are any recurring issues in the game file. (๑>◡<๑)
Awww Lin is not romance able made me sad lol.
😞😞 Sorry. She's happily married...(and loyal)
“Use your mouth and not your damn sword.”
An error pops up when choosing this
The issues have been fixed. I'll upload the hotfix later. ☺️
Yeah, Many of the charming choices so far seem to be geared towards the intimidation stat. Honestly, A good few of the choices seem to be connected to the wrong stats in general.
I love this game so freaking much but boy oh boy, that always throws me off lol. I always end up having to play a cold intimidating character, to avoid confusion when trying to play a charming one. 😭
--
Also this page seems to repeat text or includes text that I think you meant to remove or edit idk. MC swivels on their heel and leaves twice.
--
“Ah, you’re so young,” she says with a smile. “Well then, you may go along.”
I nod my head and go my way. I wish silently in my heart that she lives a peaceful life. I swivel on my heel and go to the Westside of Lingxi, crossing across the village paths. There is an extra skip in my step, and I make sure that my body holds the chick warmly, but not suffocating it with rough hands.
“Oh?” Her closed eyes open in shock. “You are not as young as you look. What a handsome young man. But, given your appearance, you are not from Tianchao or Zhongguog, are you?”
Shoot. I can’t allow my identity to be given away. I shake my head. “No, I am from Zhongguog. I moved to Tianchao with a few of my family.”
She watches me for a few seconds. I would be lying if I say that I’m not feeling a bit nervous, but I am trained to speak in this kind of situation; more so, keep my composure.
“I wonder what made your family move here,” she says with a weary tone. She turns around as she shakes her head, her back hunched from the many years of her life. “Tianchao is suffering far too much. The land cries from the blood spilled.
“Perhaps.” I don’t say anything more and bow my head. “I’ll take my leave then.”
She beams, the wrinkles on her cheeks stretching her smile. “Take care, little one.”
I swivel on my heel and go to the Westside of Lingxi, crossing across the village paths. There is an extra skip in my step, and I make sure that my body holds the chick warmly, but not suffocating it with rough hands.
Thank you for all the lo e and support. ❤️ onto the various various. I think a few of them are in the wrong stat. I'll have to check them out personally.
Also thank you for highlighting the repeating text. I'll fix it up as soon as possible.
I feel like I could get really into this but the story is in need of an editor or some kind of proofreading. There's definitely a good story happening but the prose is somewhat clumsy at times and it takes me out of the experience.
Hello! Thank you for checking it out. As for an editor, that's something that I'm considering; however, it is also difficult to find said editor at the moment. For now, I'll just have to proofread when I have the time. I hope you'll be able to enjoy the IF after it goes through the first round of line editing/proofreading. ❤️❤️
Definitely know the difficulty of finding an editor and I wish you the best with it! I'll keep an eye on this for sure, I just am particularly sensitive to small details. Will give it another shot sometime ^^
I love it!! 👺🔥 (Your sense of humor is gold, I've never laughed so hard reading an IF before 😭😂 p.s. Ji Qiangxin, I'm so sorry for my mmc...) Great job!
LMAO. Thank you for laughjnf so hard. I also did, cause my humor is broken. 😭 so glad that there are others like me. I hope you'll enjoy the next update toi, eheh.
I literally gave the prince a human Chihuahua with snark and said "good luck"!
Loved the new update! Such an interesting story, I can't wait to see how it all plays out!
Awww, thank you so much. <3 I really appreciate it. I hope you will enjoy the upcoming mini update next week before the story branches into major routes <3
OMG WOHOOOOOOO IM SO HAPPY
I hope you enjoyed the update! You can e,pect a mini update + hot fix soon. ❤️
Love the new update! Your writing is amazing and I can't wait to play a gentle giant MC romancing the prince! THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!!! :D
Hehe. Thank you for such a strong support for a long time. 💓 I really apprecuate all the love and care towards the project. I also can't wait for you to enjoy the next update eheh..
Aaaw! I love ittt!! And it has the chinese names writen downnn!! Ahem- I like the aesthetic too!
thanks you for the love. ❤️
And uhm...thank you for liking the aesthetics. I'll make sure to get better versions after I get a bigger budget and hire a professional to do it for me instead. But thank you so much for liking it. ❤️❤️
You got the characters' names written in Chinese? Cause I myself being Chinese, I really wanna know which exact character (the Chinese Hanzi I mean) they're using haha (and also what in the world is Da Zai-Yi Ge???)
If you don't know Chinese or haven't thought about that, don't mind me.
I do have the Chinese characters if you want see them for the character names! But they're buried somewhere, which I will find (hopefully). About that last one, it was a complete mistranslation which I didn't fix, but I just left at this point, because yeah, nah...I will probably fix it when there is the next overhaul for the update, but too far in at the moment.
Ooohh I'd like to see them very much :D
I found the post for the five ROs on My Tumblr page; however, I'll have to find that missing Google docs file with all of my characters and the place.
I only have five for now (I have six, one who is a new addition).
墨 葛
符 秀英
伍 神
姬 聲蓮
姬 強心
Slightly unexpected (we usually don't have names like this, like Wu Shen's name literally means 'Five Gods') but they look great & match the settings＜3
Lmaoo!! Yes, Wu Shen'e name was very intentional, which i matched to his character. >:3 it was originally a running inside joke which actually turned to his name.
More
And more you shall receive in the first week of May!
THIS IS AMAZING like please IF’s like this make me wanna go bonkers
Haha, I'm sorry for the late reply. You can look forward to the update next month (first week of May)!
OMG? IM SO EXCITED I HONESTLY THOUGHT THE NEXT UPDATE WOULD TAKE A LITTLE LONGER
It actually took wayyy too long at this point! 😭I'm glad you picked it up at just the right time >:3
I mean some IF’s take even longer 2 years is pretty understandable it takes a lot of time and work!^3^
Forget the threat to the emperor WHO'S GONNA MAKE SURE MY BABY CHICKEN IS OKAY!? THOSE MAIDS BETTER KEEP MY BABY SAFE
The palace maids will take extra care for your baby chick, fear not! >:D
excited for more , really good writing and story building
Was it abandoned?🥹
I apologize for the lack of activity and update about the IF. It isn't abandoned. But there are a lot of coding, design, and overall UI changes that are taking a while, as well state changes, and a lot more content in chapter 1 and prologue, and as well as a very long Chapter 2.
I'm glad you didn't abandon the story, I liked her a lot, and thank you so much for responding 🩷.
Woah starting this was... alooot... bt its honestly so good and i am so glad to see in the comments you are still continuing the project. You are doing a wonderful job at portraying so many emotions it's insanely good. I hope you are doing well tho and thank you for sharing your art. ♥️
Hi! I'm wondering how are things for you, and how goes the writing for this story as of late? It's just it's been so long since the last message here, so I'm just checking if you, the author, are doing OK. That said, this was a really intriguing read! I really love the dynamic between my character and the royal siblings so far. I sort of regret binge-reading it all, I feel like I just devoured my favourite desert too fast and I'm disappointed that my plate is empty now haha. Regardless, I'll be patiently waiting for more! Thanks for sharing online something you clearly put so much time and thoughts into.
Thank you for playing! I am glad you are enjoying the story! We are working on revamping some parts of the story but chapter 2 will still come out fully before we do so
Hello, author here! Thank you so much for enjoying the story <3. It makes me so happy that you still have interest in it. I will be finished writing chapter 2 by May, and early by late April. I have a lot in store for Chapter 2, so thank you again so much for enjoying the story. Have a wonderful day. :3
Is MC's hairtype locked to curly or am I just blind and missed the option to change it?
Hello! Sorry for the late reply, but it hasn't been coded in, yet. The coder is very busy, so she says she will do it later (around tonight at my place).
Alright, i thought it was locked because it was the MC's father hairstyle lmao
after the most recent update(demo bug fixes and prologue overhaul) i cant access prologue if i enter a custom name
Hi! I went through it, and I'm not very sure what the problem is. Can you please elaborate so I can rectify the issue? ^^
prior there was a popup which basically indicated the inexistence of the prologue- i assume it's been worked out now with the page content update
The statistics of cruel and compassionate are interchanged.
Apart of that the demo is great, good job!
Hello! Thank you for telling me that. ^^
I want to ask, what exactly do you mean by interchanged? I would like to rectify it with my coder if possible.
Examples: “Lin, shut up for one minute!” a roar broke out my dry throat. "Can't you just leave alone for one minute?" (increases timid over brave); I glare. “First of all, I don't want to sound like this, but why did you ask me so late at night? Yes, I was also wrong for accepting your request, but then, you should've also remembered that the emperor would've been long asleep before I returned. If you want something, be more responsible and ask me earlier.” (increases compassionate over cruel); “Good evening, Madame Liang,” I say, smiling softly. “How are you today? (increases stoic over friendly). English is not my original language, sorry if some words are weird or not understandable
Thank you very much for telling me. I'll inform my coder. Have a wonderful day. ^^
I already love Ji Qiangxin, Can't wait for more!!
I'm really happy that you love him, too! I will be able to release Chapter 2 pretty soon, too, so do look out for the update. ^^
lucky me I just found the game and it was barely updated a few hours ago can't wait I'm already so excited for this <3
Thank you so much! I really hope that you enjoyed it. ^^
Love the story and writing! Even though we haven't gotten far into the game, I can tell that it has potential. ^^ Looking forward to further progress!
Thank you so much! We will do our best as well. The next chapter will be releasing around next week. We hope that you can also enjoy that when the time comes. ^^