It Attracts Them

Hail the Trinity: gods of the one true church and governance. Hail the Child: explorer and artist. Hail the Lady: builder and rearer. Hail the Lord: protector and hunter. May His Vanguard defeat the threat of our demonic foes.

You are a member of The Lord’s Vanguard: an arm of the Church of the Trinity that hunts demons to protect its people. After a perilous hunt you receive a letter in a red envelope requesting aid―The capital city of Parish has been beset by vampires. Every skilled hunter who can be spared is summoned to help defend the birthplace of the church, and you are a skilled hunter who can be spared.

Chapter 1 was released as an interactive fiction for the Amare Games Festival 2025. Each further chapter of the visual novel will likely take several months of development.

The first chapter will remain in this state indefinitely, playable in-browser. For the best, and most up-to-date play experience, please download the game below.

Features:

Click an entry to see details.

Current Build: 1.0 (Web build will remain a 1-chapter IF demo indefinitely)

• 1 chapter, totaling ~26k words (~2 hours per playthrough)
• 1 route with branching scenes
• Plentiful choices with branching paths and lasting effects
• Multiple dead ends; tread carefully
• Customizable MC; choose your name, pronouns, and applicable terms
• 12 dynamic traits; characters care what kind of person you are
• NVL formatting; reads like a book
• Original Soundtrack

Next update: 1.1

• Sprites rendered in greyscale with accents of desaturated color

Full Game

• 9 chapters
• 3 routes; meet the potential partners in chapter 2; choose a route in chapter 4.
• 3 endings for each route: Romantic, Trusting, and Adversarial
• Injury system; each injury accrued brings you closer to death

Future Extras

• Potential additional routes, branching off of the main routes in chapter 6
• Side stories told from other perspectives

Content Warnings:

Death

• detailed descriptions of the player character's death
• support character deaths on screen
• background character deaths on and off screen
• death fake outs
• death of named characters at the player character's hands
• frequent death of monsters, often at player character's hands
• frequent discussion of grief/mourning

specific causes of death include:

• bleeding out
• brain trauma
• decapitation
• disembowelment

Violence and body horror

• graphic depictions of extreme violence
• lots of blood and blood-like substances
• various injuries to the player character, both lethal and nonlethal
• various injuries to non-player characters
• various injuries to monsters
• implicit and explicit threats of violence

specific injuries include:

• eye trauma (werewolf)
• throat trauma (human, werewolf)
• rib trauma (human)
• abdominal trauma (human, werewolf)
• hand trauma (human, werewolf)
• ankle trauma (human, werewolf)
• bone breaking (human)
• concussions (human)
• lacerations from claws (human)
• lacerations from bladed weapons (monsters)
• loss of digits, limbs (possessed human)
• burns (human)
• bites (human)

specific body horror includes:

• facial warping
• growth of animal features
• proportion adjustments
• rotting alive
• living hive
• mummification
• tongue replacement

Health/medicine

• self-administered field medicine
• chronic illness
• scenes set in hospice

Violation of rights/agency

• demonic possession
• imprisonment
• vampiric enthrallment
• colonialism

Discrimination

• religious discrimination
  • witch hunting
• gender discrimination

Religious themes

• Catholic allegory
• religious shaming
• forced conversion
• torture and mistreatment of supposed heretics
• off screen crusades
• child kidnapping; similar to residential schools
• curses (witchcraft)
• witch hunting

Sexual themes

• non-consensual flirting
• age gap relationship
• superior/subordinate relationship

Animal cruelty

• kitten trapped in bucket
• horse overworked

Characters:

The Hunter - player character

A hunter of werewolves in the Northern burgh of Etter's Ridge, you are summoned to Parish to assist with the rising threat of a vampire infestation.

Leslie Whiteacre ♡ he/him

After a series of misfortunes that he doesn't want to talk about, Leslie was assigned as the Interim Commander for Parish's chapter of The Lord's Vanguard. Leslie is cold and professional towards his subordinates, but with enough dedication maybe you can get him to warm up.

Alexander Barter ♡ he/him

Alexander is a skilled hunter with an odd philosophy about the job. He won't talk about himself, but he will talk about you―endlessly. There has to be more to him than he's letting you see, but do you have what it takes to find the edges of his mask?

Dee Ambrose ♡ she/her

Dee prefers a quiet, inconspicuous life, but the chaos of recent times have thrust her into early graduation from The Lord's Order and into the Vanguard. She distrusts you on principle, but with patience and experience to offer, you might win her over.

The Lord's Vanguard of Etter's Ridge

Brigid, Cassiel, Clair, and Sebestry: your comrades; your pack. You move as one to defend your home from demonic invasion. You have never had to stand without them…Until now.

Emery Ravenhurst - they/them

One of The Child's Agents, the courier from Parish sent to retrieve skilled hunters from the north. They are young, but already have a grudge to bear against The Lord's Vanguard.

Credits:

• Edges System - Project Lead, Writer (ongoing), Sprite Artist, Programmer
• Feather Boy - Worldbuilder, Writer (ongoing)
• LaterbyeGuy - Writer (ongoing)
• Victoria L. - Writer (ongoing)
• Jenn Endres - Writer (chapter 1)
• el-dritchknight - Writer (chapter 2)
• PhoenixRedd - Writer (chapter 2)
• Rae Machado - Editor
• October - Composer
• Ralph Villegas - Sound Effect Designer (imdb, linkedin)
• Leycalate - GUI Artist (bluesky, twitter)
• g.mikanvaso3o - Sprite Artist
• Skai - Concept Artist
• Millasai - Concept Artist (twitter)
• FOrCE - Concept Artist

Special thanks: Awiola