History Literature / Noob

* EnoughToGoAround: Played straight and lampshaded in the first novel.

* ActorAllusion: Generally speaking, anyone who was in one of Fabien Fournier's previous creations (e.g. around half the cast) have something carry on from their previous character(s). The elements from ''Lost Levels'' tend to be the most obvious due to ''Noob'' being its SpiritualSuccessor.
** Jibédix and Rubis are played by the ''Audioplay/RefletsDAcide'' creator and his girlfriend. In French "Jibédix" sounds just like "JB-10" and Rubis's background is managing a guild named Trichelieu on a game called "RDA online".

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the third novel, a series of DisasterDominoes makes the Empire disappearing as a faction entirely a very real possibility. Someone speculates that ''Horizon'''s FactionCalculus would be maintained via the Coalition splitting between its "technology is bad" crowd and its "want to steal technology and combine it with magic" crowd. While taking in all the bad things that the Empire's disappearance would entail, Omega Zell's two main worries are what would happen to Centralis once it was invaded and the colors that would be used for the cursors of the hypothetical "split Coalition".

** In the second novel, it's repeated several times that Sin, at the time assumed to be some kind of ancient artifact, is supposed to be stronger than Lys and Ark'hen taken to together. [[spoiler:Not only are the two basically his parents, but the fourth novel reveals that Dortös pitched in for his "conception" also.]]

* NotSoDifferent:
** In the third novel, Ystos, Saphir and Heimdäl meet a NonPlayerCharacter that complains about the Coalition being full of magic fanatics... while making it quite clear the he himself considers technology to be the only right path to follow.
** The fourth has Lorth Kordigän experiment on Empire and Order prisoners. Gameplay-wise, this causes the Noob guild to get captured along with other Empire and Order players. They are then set free by an Empire NPC that has teleporting powers and get teleported inside Centralis, with the Order prisoners nowhere to be seen. The narration points out that the Empire has a thing for experimenting on enemy prisoners as well, so bringing the Order players inside Centralis would have been a dumb move coming from their liberator, who seeks peace between the factions.

* DownerBeginning: The third novel, that straight up reveals that [[spoiler:Fantöm got kicked out of the game and had his gaming history earased for cheating he wasn't aware of]].

** The third novel had a potion that disguised the Noob guild into Coalition players by turning their cursors red. [[spoiler:Gaea's cursor turned red for real between the third and fourth novel]].

** The fourth novel has Mist hesitate to join Justice without Saphir's explict approval. [[spoiler:The webseries and comic have revealed that they are sisters since the publication of the novel in question.]]

* GodsHandsAreTied: Remember that powerful artifact that exploded in Lys and Ark'hen's faces a few millennia ago? They are still recovering from that and had to seal up a couple of other Sources in the meantime, so it may be a smart move to not rely on them helping out outside of sending their servants in.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: [[ExploitedTrope Exploited]]. While in Coalition prison, the protagonists run into a NonPlayerCharacter that can make everyone invisible without using magic (that can't be used in the prison in question). That's nice, but how does it actually help the players get out? Simple: wait for the guards to panic at all the prisoners suddenly vanishing, open the prison gates to let reinforcements inside and take advantage of that to escape without being seen. The worse part is that the guy with the invisibility powder actually expects this to happen.

* LawOfCartographicalElegance: Justified due to the fact that a genre in which that trope is expected is being depicted. The nature of the borders remains unknwon so far.
* LooseLips: Golgotha. She and Gaea met on another MMO before finding each other on ''Horizon'' again. Gaea had to leave it because Golgotha couldn't keep her mouth shut about her scams, that obviously relied on people not figuring out what was going on.

* MrExposition: Arthéon. A lot of it is drifting further and further away from the original conversation matter until Omega Zell stops him. Milder versions include Couette and Ivy.
* MurderSimulators: Mid-way through the third novel, Stanislas (Arthéon's player) ends up missing his first class so he can take part in an extremly important battleground in the {{MMORPG}} in which most of the story is set. His boarding school principal walks in on him and is understandably furious at him. She immediately assumes he's playing a war game, which is understandable given he ''was'' in the middle of a battle, but doesn't listen to him when he tries telling her that battles aren't the only aspect of the game. In the middle of chewing him out, she mentions the school shootings in which the perpetrators were (allegedly) video game players. She also makes clear that she considers {{Geek}} culture in general to be responsible for all sort of evils related to the younger generation, all while not giving Stanislas a chance to explain any of it (which he's clearly more than willing to do).

* WhodunnitToMe: In the third novel, a FrameUp puts Gaea in very real danger of losing her avatar. [[TheCracker Tenshirock]] buys her some time, but she knows it's not unlimited. She decides to spend the time she has left figuring out who's the real guilty party of the crime of which she's accused. Fortunately, the guilty party in question couldn't wait to boast about it to the Noob guild first chance it got and Gaea has a habit of recording things.

* WhodunnitToMe: In the third novel, a FrameUp puts Gaea in very real danger of losing her avatar. [[TheCracker Tenshirock]] buys her some time, but she knows it's not unlimited. She decides to spend the time she has left figuring out who's the real guilty party of the crime of which she's accused. Fortunately, the guilty party in question couldn't wait to boast about it to the Noob guild first chance it got and Gaea has a habit of recording things.

The novels from the eponymous [[Series/{{Noob}} web/TV series]], that were the first step towards making ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' a multimedia franchise. Each novel takes place between two of the webserie's seasons, that being also the time at which Fabien Fournier, the creator of the series, wrote them.

The story follows a {{MMORPG}} guild that plays the FictionalVideoGame ''Horizon'', with an upcoming or recent update of the game's universe as a frequent driver of the plot. Said guild is however a RagtagBunchOfMisfits that only stays together because ''Horizon's'' too extreme SocializationBonus keeps anyone from playing alone and has to put up with an actual {{Noob}} that happens to be their healer. While still centered around the Noob guild, the novels are the media that paints the most complete picture of Olydri, the world in which ''Horizon'' takes place. They notably introduce elements and [[NonPlayerCharacter non-player characters]] that were later used in spin-offs such as ''Literature/{{Neogicia}}''.

The novels are written as if they were TheMovie to the preceding season from the series and tend to turn into an ProlongedPrologue for the following one, yet come together as a storyline that is both independent and compelmentary to the series.

* AdvancedAncientHumans: Considering they are supposed to be several millenia late on the Empire and Coalition, Syriallians seem to have quite decent {{Magitek}}. The royal palace elevator and the flying palace hint that they may have come up with some form of technology on their own long before Baron Oldrek Lucans got his hands on the ImportedAlienPhlebotinum that eventually gave birth to the Empire's technology.
** According to the official wiki's timeline, Saryahblööd, who's about twenty, was born at the beginning of the second age, which means Syrial was frozen in time around that period. The third age started when when Tabris 1.0 was destroyed and Lys and Ark'hen accepted technology in the world. "Ages" are several millenia long.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the third novel, a series of DisasterDominoes makes the Empire disappearing as a faction entireley a very real possibility. Someone speculates that ''Horizon'''s FactionCalculus would be maintained via the Coalition splitting between its "technology is bad" crowd and its "want to steal technology and combine it with magic" crowd. While taking in all the bad things that the Empire's disappearance would entail, Omega Zell's two main worries are what would happen to Centralis once it was invaded and the colors that would be used for the cursors of the hypothetical "split Coalition".

** Sin: "Hey, was freezing an entire continent in time for several millenia ''really'' necessary to cover up my existence? I get why it inhabitants are mad at you guys and I'll make sure this is the last time you meddle with their lives." Also basically the Order's side of the conflict.

* DoNotSpoilThisEnding: The fourth novel has a major twist ''and'' has a longer gap between its release and that of the following season of the series than previous ones. For that reason, Fabien Fournier asked people to not mention anything what happens in it on the Internet before the episodes mentioning it got realeased (which happened in April and May 2013).

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Done at the end of the first novel with the signature black cloaks of the Soulless. The second half of the third novel has this also, but all the tranformation potion does is change the Noob guild's cursor's from yellow to red and give them a SdrawkcabAlias. Sparadrap and Gaea have Coalition players that would be able to spot them in a crowd by then.

* FictionalDocument: A couple of ''Horizon''-realted magazine articles.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: All the Syrial continent.

* GodsHandsAreTied: Remember that powerful artifact that exploded in Lys and Ark'hen's faces a few millenia ago? They are still recovering from that and had to seal up a couple of other Sources in the meantime, so it may be a smart move to not rely on them helping out outside of sending their servants in.

** The third novel's cover shows the Noob guild with two extra members, which were intoduced as temporary teammates in the second novel.

* MediumAwareness: The serum that "disguises" the Noob guild into Coalition members relies entirely on this. It changes the color of their cursors from yellow to red and gives them a SdrawkcabAlias. That's it. In adddition, a following scene shows that this intended to hide only from Coalition ''players'', as Sparadrap gets interrogated by a [=NPC=] solider that asks him his name.

* MurderSimulators: Mid-way through the third novel, Stanislas (Arthéon's player) ends up missing his first class so he can take part in an extremly important battleground in the {{MMORPG}} in which most of the story is set. His boarding school principal walks in on him and is understandably furious at him. She immediately assumes he's playing a war game, which is understandable given he ''was'' in the middle of a battle, but does'nt listen to him when he tries telling her that battles aren't the only aspect of the game. In the middle of chewing him out, she mentions the school shootings in which the perpetrators were (allegedly) video game players. She also makes clear that she considers {{Geek}} culture in general to be responsible for all sort of evils related to the younger generation, all while not giving Stanislas a chance to explain any of it (which he's clearly more than willing to do).
* MyBelovedSmother: Arthéon's mother [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the idea of a current-day {{Geek}} having such a mother. He was initially interested in sports and other social activities, but his mother would be so vocal about encouraging him that it broke his concentration, giving her the impression he wasn't made for such activities. He ended up having to give them up altogether and turned to activities he could do from home, including playing the {{MMORPG}} in which most of the story is set and ending up in the game's top guild before it actually became the top guild. His mother, however, convinced that NewMediaAreEvil, forced him to stop playing at 8 P.M. every night (he was just turning twenty around then), forcing him to resort to RealMoneyTrade to keep up with his guildmates. His avatar got banned by Game Masters because of it and the geunine depression that ensued was a wake up call for his mother, who finally decided to get him a new computer and tell him she was okay with him playing. And thanks to the adaptation of a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot from the original webseries (the actor playing Arthéon became less available for Season 3), the third novel has her send him to boarding school.

** Omega Zell once mentioned that he wouldn't be suprised if Golgotha and Master Zen turned out to be related. The actors playing Golgotha and Master Zen in the series are siblings.

** In the third novel, Ystos, Saphir and Heimdäl meet a NonPlayerCharacter that complains about the Coalition being full of magic fanactics... while making it quite clear the he himself considers technology to be the only right path to follow.
** The fourth has Lorth Kordigän experiment on Empire and Order prisoners. Gameplay-wise, this causes the Noob guild to get captured along with other Empire and Order players. They are then set free by an Empire NPC that has teleporting powers and get teleported inside Centralis, with the Order prisoners nohere to be seen. The narration points out that the Empire has a thing for experimenting on enemy prisoners as well, so briging the Order players inside Centralis would have been a dumb move coming from their liberator, who seeks peace between the factions.
* OddlyCommonRarity: The Sources. There is supposed to be only one Source per "world" (which seems to mean "habitable celestial body" in the present case). Lys and Ark'hen are co-ruling Olydri, after basically taking it away from it previous owner, Dortös, who's sealed away somewhere [[spoiler:until the end of the first novel]]. Then Sin somehow comes into existence [[spoiler:via being generated by all three of them]]. Then a Soulless named Saralzar manages to make himself into a Source. Oh, and guess where the remanents of Fargöth have been hiding all this time, when he could have literally chosen to hide anywhere else in the universe. In case you've lost count, that's six of something that Olydri should normally have only one of.

** Some of the aliases are obviously dileberately misspelled and incorrectly accented words or names of more or less known fictional characters that imply that the correctly-spelled version was already taken when the players signed up. Most of the main characters however seem to have been able to pick the original spelling for what they wanted ([[Characters/{{Noob}} see for yourself]]).
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Sparadrap has "Flan", the French word for his [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Tademark Favorite Dessert]].
* PerpetualPoverty: Sums up the Nood guild's finances quite well. Gaea never contributes, Omega Zell is apprently not much better and Sparadrap is willing but lousy at managing his money in addition to having pets to feed. To top it off, Arthéon set the minimal contribution quite low, presumably either to stave off complaints of it being too high or as incentive for people to join ([[spoiler:a minimum of 30 credits per person when equipment repairs and quest rewards are a few hundred]]). By comparision, it was [[spoiler:50 credits]] in Couette's old guild.
* PerpetualStorm: The Continent without Return is protecected by one until the second novel.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: This is basically the reason for which the Order becomes a third faction in the second novel. As both Sparadrap and Ivy have put it, "They weren't very happy to have been put on pause for thousands of years.".

* ThrivingGhostTown: The Puinetourne hamlet is a bad case : a windmill, a tavern and an auction house. Non-shopkeeper NPC population : an old man that spends the day going back and fourth between the tavern and his home.

* WeAreAsMayflies: The explosion of the Stone of Ages drained Lys and Ark'hen's powers and they have been recovering from the event ever since. The event in question is several millenia old.

** In the third novel, Ystos, Saphhir and Heimdäl meet a NonPlayerCharacter that complains about the Coalition being full of magic fanactics... while making it quite clear the he himself considers technology to be the only right path to follow.