Tales from Netheredge

"Stories set in a light fantasy world (Age of Sail + limited magic). Generally queer, generally whumpy, all angst.
Can be read in any order (mostly) see the story notes."
What to be afraid of: Heavy stuff in every story. The series deals with sexual coercion, rape & noncon, homophobia, slavery, violence and other dark things. Check the tags for each part!
Why I love it: Magic, suspense, evil empires, scary elves, relatable characters stuck in difficult situations that leave no room for perfect choices, hot/emotional/both-at-once sex... and personally for me a window into aspects of human condition I haven't considered before, so I'm thankful for that.

Bright Flame
"A ship's pillow boy tries to help a captured freedom fighter and their fates become entwined in a hopeless situation. An epic romance."
What to be afraid of: Rape, legal homophobia, torture
Why I love it: I came to call it "Brokeback Mountain but at sea". Morally grey characters and actions everywhere, unintrusive worldbuilding that leaves plenty of room for the main story, ridiculously well-structured storytelling (the symmetrical situations they end up in! the delicious angst! ahh!), a love triangle that doesn't pull cheap tricks and made me root for everyone involved.

Depravity
"Runi Assam the young High Chancellor of Bow has great plans to transform the kingdom, using the work of the Bow’s mysterious court magician, Myr. But in order to fulfil his plans Myr asks more from him than he ever expected."
What to be afraid of: Sexual coercion, rape, BDSM-verse setting closer to the end
Why I love it: MYR AND RUNI HAVE MY ENTIRE HEART. I didn't expect to want to yell from the rooftops about their dommy-subby adorableness by the end, but here I was. Especially when they start communicating, yes, god, why were you so quiet before. Runi is relatable to me with his impostor syndrome, and Myr has a subtle growth to him too as their bond evolves from lust to fondness. Also the worldbuilding continues to be stellar.

His Tribute
"Twenty years ago, the great warrior Varak saved The Genzies from something unspeakable <...>. In return, Varak was offered anything he wanted from the grateful people of The Genzies. He asked <...> that every year he be given the chance to select any 18 year old man on the islands to be one of his personal slaves.

No one expects Varak to pick out Blue as the only slave he wants to take back to his castle on Salvation this year. <...>

But everyone on The Genzies owe Varak their lives, how can they refuse him if Blue is what he wants?" (whoa this is long)
What to be afraid of: Sex slavery, brainwashing sort of, colonialist bullcrap from the evil empire (again)
Why I love it: Honestly, don't like it as much (mental abuse stories are NOT my cup of tea and the semi-villain gets away with it soooo...). But the mystery of "how did we end up here at all??" is pretty compelling, the setting is refreshingly off the main road of the series, and the background characters are great - I rooted for them even as I continued to not understand them. The ending has gotta be intentionally referencing Ace Attorney or I'll eat my hat.

Jewel of the Harem
"A well connected whore takes a fancy to a naive young Harem Guard."
What to be afraid of: Torture, emotional manipulation, love triangle which idk felt kinda boring, MC being a bit of a plank
Why I love it: There's this guy with barely any boundaries, a mysteeerious pretty royal favourite with superpowers, and also mysteeerious clingy foreign prince with also superpowers. What can possibly go wrong, amirite? Some old characters make an appearance, and seem to be doing well which is awesome. The prince is a sad case, all things considered, and I want him to sort himself out and be happier. (Like that's gonna happen.)
NOTE: Takes place 20 years after the previous stories (which were all around the same time).


P.S. My post including a lament about how few people know it. Thx schneefink for suggesting this very comm in response to that!