History Literature / TalesOfMu

* AprilFoolsDay: An [[http://www.talesofmu.com/story/uncategorized/big-news update]] was posted in 2009, announcing production plans for a SyFy channel spin-off TV show, of which the author claimed pride but apparently had little creative control, resulting in significant deviations from the core themes of the novel. It linked to the writer's Livejournal crossposting, where comments revealed the prank. A few commenters disbelieved the announcement because it referenced "the newly branded SyFy channel" at the end, and were double-pranked to discover SciFi's renaming on April 1st, though it was widely known earlier.

Chapter 496, plus a number of side stories, concluded Mack's first year at MU. The second year has reset the chapter numbering; so far, 315 chapters of the second year have been released, along with more side stories. Specific chapters will be referred to with the Y__-__ format; first blank is the year, second is the chapter number.

* PhenotypeStereotype: MUniverse elves as a general rule have long, ultra-fine and wispy hair that rarely varies far from platinum blonde, and as a result is hard to do anything with other than let it hang. Part of Glory's wanting to change her hairstyle is being tired of this.

** The lack of parity is the point of "mixed" melee, and a reference to Dungeons and Dragons mechanics, where weapons all kind of work the same way despite obvious mismatches. Since the setting is explicitly an RPG mechanics universe, those are the rules that apply.

* WebcomicTime: ''Tales of MU'' has been going since June of 2007. The story is now at some point in the early part of the second year of Mackenzie's college term.
** To emphasize how strongly this trope is in play, 10 months of that time is a time-skip in a single update. Roughly three to four months of time has actually passed on-screen. It's even somewhat invoked, with some chapters focusing on things that no sane person would consider 'part of the story' just to maintain the glacial pace, like the characters walking from one doorway to another across the street complaining about lunch being sub-par.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler:Revealed to have happened to both Mack and Rowan. Mack's memories of what happened to her mother and of her childhood friendship with Rowan have either been completely removed or buried; this is tied to a compulsion to only acknowledge her mother's fate with "It wasn't my fault" and to refuse further discussion. Rowan, according to Dee, has had his memories of what happened around the time that Mack's demonic side emerged "destroyed", a much messier version of the memory excision Hissy had to have when she tried to read Mack's mind in the first year.]]

* NoPeriodsPeriod: {{Averted|Trope}}; Mackenzies period is not only mentioned, but becomes a plot point. It turns out any female can overdraw magic on their period - leading to potential disaster.

* {{Squick}}: Elves have a deep-seated cultural aversion to genital contact. Glory even says it's [[InvokedTrope squicky]] in Y2-214 when talking about the reasons why elves avoid hetero relationships, and Steff notes in the previous chapter that any sexual hijinks that she, Mack, and Amaranth could get up to with Glory would pale (for the other elves present) in comparison to the kinkiness of eavesdropping on a human (Nicki) actually going down on Grace (an elf, and Glory's sister to boot).

* {{Squick}}: Elves have a deep-seated cultural aversion to genital contact; Glory even says it's [[InvokedTrope squicky]] in Y2-214 when talking about the reasons why elves avoid hetero relationships.

Chapter 496, plus a number of side stories, concluded Mack's first year at MU. The second year has reset the chapter numbering; so far, 311 chapters of the second year have been released, along with more side stories. Specific chapters will be referred to with the Y__-__ format; first blank is the year, second is the chapter number.

* ImAManICantHelpIt: Prevalent in Elven culture, due to [[OurElvesAreBetter increased sexual potency]]. Among the more disciplined underground variety, it seems more common among the "[[{{Transsexual}} halfkind]]" as they are not expected to show responsibility or constraint.
* TheImmodestOrgasm: Mack brings [[spoiler:Nicki]] to one in Y2-264.

* MindRape: Trying to read an infernal being's mind is ''bad'' news for the telepath. In Y1-121, Hissy gets a full dose of Mack's mind (bad enough on its own, but Mack was blood-hungry and her demonic side was in full swing) and nearly claws her face off from the trauma. She eventually has to have the memories of the encounter scrubbed from her mind.

* PhenotypeStereotype: MU-niverse elves as a general rule have long, ultra-fine and wispy hair that rarely varies far from platinum blonde, and as a result is hard to do anything with other than let it hang. Part of Glory's wanting to change her hairstyle is being tired of this.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Maliko's attempt to get Mackenzie to help her figure something out:

Chapter 496, plus a number of side stories, concluded Mack's first year at MU. The second year has reset the chapter numbering; so far, 287 chapters of the second year have been released, along with more side stories, so many of the tropes below and on the YMMV page are contained in the first year's stories. Specific chapters will be referred to with the Y__-__ format; first blank is the year, second is the chapter number.

* DealWithTheDevil: The Y2 side story "Splish, Splash" reveals that Mack Daddy has made deals with [[spoiler:Callahan and one other of Mack's teachers[[note]]''not'' professors; Callahan made sure to word that precisely[[/note]]]] regarding [[spoiler:Mack's instruction over the course of the second year.]] The reasons for this are as of yet unrevealed. [[spoiler:Callahan's reward was for Mack Daddy to give truthful answers to three questions. He ducked out on the third one rather than answer.]]

* RecapEpisode: Y2-295 serves as a very abbreviated summary of where Mack is in her life and retreading of information the reader already knows about Mack, presented as her mulling over what she's going to say in a "introduce yourself to your fellow students" exercise in one of her classes. The next two chapters do the same, for Two and Amaranth, respectively, while 299 does this for Ian and Steff.

** A simultaneous use and inversion: Mack's response for whenever anyone has asked about her mother's death is to say "It wasn't my fault" and then change the subject as quickly as possible. Not very specific, but no one called her on how suspicious that sounded...[[spoiler:until the ridiculous owl-turtle thing did so, which got her wondering about how her mother really did die]]. This is revisited in Y2-300, [[spoiler:when Mack's recollection of a meeting with someone who remembered her but she didn't remember brings the topic back up, confirming for Dee the ROTT's suspicion that Mack's memories of what happened to her mother have been altered]].

* PornWithPlot: Roughly half of the first "year" of the story was either pure sex or sexually-themed material. The sexual content has drastically decreased in the second "year" but still [[JustForPun comes up]] every now and then.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia:

** A simultaneous use and inversion: Mack's answer for whenever anyone has asked about her mother's death is "It wasn't my fault." Not very specific, but no one called her on how suspicious that sounded...[[spoiler:until the ridiculous owl-turtle thing did so, which got her wondering about how her mother really did die]]. This is revisited in Y2-300, [[spoiler:when Mack's recollection of a meeting with someone who remembered her but she didn't remember brings the topic back up, leading Dee to posit that Mack's memories have been altered]].

* RecapEpisode: Y2-295 serves as a very abbreviated summary of where Mack is in her life and retreading of information the reader already knows about Mack, presented as her mulling over what she's going to say in a "introduce yourself to your fellow students" exercise in one of her classes.

** A simultaneous use and inversion: For the first year and part of the second, whenever anyone asked about her mother's death, all Mack would say is "It wasn't my fault." Not very specific, but no one called her on how suspicious that sounded...[[spoiler:until the ridiculous owl-turtle thing did so, which got her wondering about how her mother really did die]].

** Implied to be a motive for [[spoiler:Two's creator designing her to be completely hairless except for her head, although Two does later deny that he used her sexually]].

* {{Polyamory}}: Extremely common among main characters. It is mentioned that this kind relationship is significantly more common among non-humans - though while the story seems to confirm this, the source is of questionable credibility.

** Coach Jillian "Jilly" Callahan has retired from being a mercenary and a successful dragon-slayer to teaching in the combat-athletics department of MU, but has not in any way retired from being {{Badass}}. This gets even more ridiculous when more of her past is revealed. She is also known as [[spoiler:Gillian Gottmörder]] and she received an imperial pardon for [[spoiler:three counts of attempted deicide (one of which succeeded, but they don't have a law to cover that), two counts of genocide, five counts of high treason against the Imperial Republic (which normally merits summary execution), and her various "petty" murders and property destructions. She also apparently stopped at least two attempts by the giants to retake the world.]] She has also killed seven [[spoiler:greater dragons]]. Possibly eight. One loses track.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A plot point that Mackenzie occasionally has to deal with due to her variety of non-human having essential dietary requirements of human flesh; especially prominent when she's trapped in [[DungeonCrawling the Labyrinth]] and runs across the [[YouAllMeetInAnInn adventuring party]], including a [[WhiteMage priestess]] [[TechnicalPacifist of the goddess of peace]] and is shot in the shoulder. The resulting argument among the party isn't whether they should save Mack, but whether they should [[MurderIsTheBestSolution kill her now]] or [[WhatTheHellHero let her bleed to death after they abandon her]].

* BigEater: The hobbit-like burrow gnomes have multiple meals throughout the day.

** Pretty much every example seen on-screen in Y1 demonstrates that Mack is correct and Amaranth is incorrect (every skirmish player we meet is at _best_ a conniving, selfish prick), so largely this trope is played straight.

* EthicalSlut: Amaranth personifies this trope. Nymphs are naturally extremely promiscuous, but she also spends a lot of time strengthening her girlfriends' polyamorous relationships and encouraging safe sexual exploration among her friends. She's naturally opposed to the concept of "sexual shaming" and believes that the world would be a much better place if people allowed themselves to admit and (consensually) explore their sexual desires.
::The trope is also somewhat subverted, in that nymphs frequently stray into BlueAndOrangeMorality territory in general and essentially live there permanently when it comes to sexual matters. Sometimes this makes them more ethical about it from a human perspective, and other times they'll openly condone rape or take BDSM play as an excuse to try to micromanage every action and even private thought of a partner and bully them into behavior they're uncomfortable with or that is actively harmful. Amaranth's own kink involves snuff fantasies, so she takes it up to 11 on a regular basis without any particular malice (it is, after all, what gods do, even minor ones).