Welcome to your one-way ticket to never-ending rollercoaster—story with twists and turns, emotional ups and down, drama and angst and laughing and crying and everything in between.
Empress of Self-Ruin is a story born through my years of experience as an avid reader of Korean web novels and manhwas. So if you're into an isekai, reincarnation, and regression story but tired of reading the same kind of overused tropes or characters over and over again and want relatable and realistic characters and a storyline for once, you're in the right place.
But since this story is also quite dark and matures with lots of heavy topics such as traumas, mental health issues, etc, it's definitely not for the faint-hearted or queasy. You've been warned!
To tell you the truth, this story is inspired by a Korean manhwa. I'm not gonna mention the original title in this story, but you are free to ask me in the comment. I will answer.
The thing is, this story bothered me so much to the point that I decided to write this novel. It was literally my first time reading manhwa that made me hate the female lead so much.
When I read the mahwa I was like, what the hell is so special about this heroine that every male character seems to be enamored with her?
I personally don't believe in using the term "mary-sue" because I think it diminishes a woman's place in a story, but this is agonizing to read. It's like the author is telling us why we should like her by saying, "Oh, look at her! She's so pretty and pitiful. We should all protect her!" yet making her character into the most annoying heroine ever. Not to mention, the author literally forgot to mention the suffering of countless extras due to her actions, yet she was easily forgiven by the readers just because she was pitiful.
Normally, I don't judge manhwa based on one aspect but when your main character fails in being someone I actually want to root for and see succeed, then that's a very intense failing. Reading about this heroine is already a pain in itself, then add in the bizarre aspect of this story that you'll eventually find out later, and now the manhwa becomes completely unreadable.
The setting itself has the potential to be interesting but is very poorly used with so many strange details and annoying characters. In the end, I dropped it after twenty chapters.
But well, that's how the idea of this story was born. I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of an extra whose existence everyone probably forgot about. Someone who wasn't born a heroine but tries her best to live in this f*cked-up world anyway.
Oh, and before I forget. Please do keep in mind that even though this story was inspired by that novel, this isn't fanfiction.
Last but not least, I hope everyone will enjoy this story. I've been wanting to write an angsty story for a while now. So here it is.
Trigger Warning: depression, abuse, mentions of rape, torture, suicidal thought, mental health issues.
General disclaimer: I'm not actually a native speaker, and since every part of writing, editing, and noticing issues before I post will be done by me, myself, and I, all mistakes made and posted are my bad and I'm hoping to minimize any error or typo as much as I can as I read through it again and again and again until my eyes bleed.
Side notes: I was also inspired by the drama Mr.Queen and the execution of Anne Boleyn when I wrote this. So there were a few scenes that were a bit similar to those movies.
Awards and achievement:
1st place: The Rising Star Awards by Crystal-Biblio-Com (fantasy genre)
1st place: The Golden Cobra Awards by K_Evans89 (fantasy genre)
1st place: The Wonder Awards by Mariya_Evans (best character)
2nd place: Gloria Regali Awards by AdrielleReina (fantasy genre)
2nd place: The Rhapsody in Blue Mini Awards by TheSarnaiCommunity (best protagonist)
2nd place: The Wonder Awards by Mariya_Evans (best insults)
2nd place: Starlight Mini Awards 2023 by _abhipreeti_ (best chapter names)
2nd place: Hallow's Eve | Astania Awards by AstaniaCommunity (fantasy)
Best ranks:
#1 in "extra" (12/01/23)
#1 in "tragedy" (12/01/23)
#1 in "ongoing" (21/02/23)
#1 in "villain" (15/04/23)
#4 in "duke" (29/05/23)
#2 in "darkromance" (08/05/23)
#2 in "manhwa" (18/04/23)
#2 in "isekai" (07/04/23)
#2 in "regression" (21/02/23)
#6 in "empress" (29/01/23)
#8 in "historical" (15/03/23)
#26 in "fantasy-romance" (21/02/23)
#36 in "villainess" (18/01/23)
YOU ARE READING
Empress of Self-Ruin
Fantasy[10x times featured] Countless people have suffered tragedy simply for a protagonist to shine and rise as heroes. But are they really heroes if they ruin everyone else's stories for the sake of their own? Ever since Empress Calypso Berenice nearly d...
