Storms of the Blood Nation

Storms of the Blood Nation is a Western-style fantasy web novel by Weijian Ke, about 980,000 characters long and 392 chapters in total. The story takes place on an alternate continent where humanity is ruled by demons: the blood empire of Brod, conquering countless with ten thousand, establishes hegemony across the continent, and humans are reduced to slaves who farm, serve, and donate blood; werewolves, centaurs, and other races each hold their own territory and maneuver within the imperial order. The novel begins with the human youth Ricava Aetius. He was originally a young hunter in a lone tower in the forest who made a living by hunting centaurs, and later becomes entangled in the conflicts of Count Selins's domain and the struggle between blood clans and humans, rising step by step from an unknown retainer to conqueror of Tolmach and commander of the punitive army of Saint Dante's Fortress. The work opens with an in-media-res scene: Ricava leads a hundred thousand troops to the blood clan's eastern imperial capital, Saint Dante's Fortress, and lights a cross beneath the walls, then flashes back to many years earlier. Several other threads run in parallel: the campaigns of the human warlord Sharpe Aetius and his undead legion, the rise and fall of the eastern general Josiah Selins's faction, and the maneuvering among blood clan lords, the centaur khanate, and church forces. The author's main attractions are battle scenes, intertwined factions, and a cast of characters; the book ends with the chapter "An Early Curtain, an Unfinished Fate," the story incomplete, and the author has said the follow-up will be launched as a new work.