InAWorld, where skill in a massive, intricate MMORPG has become the way through which matters of economic, juristic or other interest are settled and where high-level players reign surpreme, both in the virtual and real world, a small boy from a coastal village bets all and wins high - but the system has its issues with that.

''Epic'' is a novel by Conor Kostick, published in 2004. ''Epic'' is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, on New Earth, a planet 'somewhere in the universe' which human colonists have settled on long ago. 
With them they brought ''Epic'' - originally invented to prevent psychological problems from isolation and boredom during the long travels through space in a semi-frozen state, ''Epic'' now dominates the colony's culture. 
The game's currency is valid for real resources. Loss in in-game tournaments gets you assigned to worse jobs. Social status and personal wellbeing all depend on your character's level, equipment and status. 
To make matters worse, ''Epic'' is NintendoHard - once your character is dead, all their stuff is gone as well, and you have to start all over again. 
And to compound matters, high-level equipment, spells and skills are almost exclusively in the hands of Central Allocations, a group of nine people, which dooms most appeals against their decisions to failure.

''Epic'' is also the colony's only outlet for any sort of conflict; violence is seen as absolutely despicable in the colony, and merely the act of striking another human is enough to warrant exile onto a small island.

The protagonist of ''Epic'' is Erik Haraldsson, who lives in a small village that produces olives, and whose fate is about to turn for the worse: his mother has had little luck in the game, having just 'died', and so they are about to be forcibly moved to an assignment in the salt fields or coal mines, when Erik decides to defy a trope and creates a new character...

The sequel to ''Epic'' is ''Saga'', a much DarkerAndEdgier story. Set in a virtual world which was originally designed to be like ''Epic'', only CyberPunk as opposed to HeroicFantasy. After 2000 years of existence however, the "game" has become alive, and is pretty much a universe in it's own right. ''Saga'' is ruled over by the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Dark Queen]], who has created a card system to indicate the rich and the poor, [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet]] coloured cards. The poorest of the the poor (and the majority of ''Saga's'' citizens) are Red, with Violet being for the [[BlueBlood super-rich.]]

Naturally, not a lot of the Reds are in favour of this system, causing a lot of young Reds to become anarcho-punks. One such group of teenagers are our main characters, [[MysteriousWaif Ghost]], [[NiceGuy Nathan]], [[TeenGenius Athena]] and [[AttentionWhore Milan]].

When the Dark Queen activates a millennia-old probe, it hacks into the computer systems of New Earth, replacing [[spoiler:the remains of]] ''Epic'' with ''Saga''. The only part of ''Epic'' that made it into Saga was a character named [[spoiler: Cindella Dragonslayer]]. Ghost and her friends become involved in a murder and are eventually caught up in a battle between the Dark Queen and the players of New Earth, as Ghost struggles with her forgotten memories and her apparent connection with a man named Michelotto...

A third book, ''Edda'', was released in August 2011.

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!!These books provide examples of the following tropes:

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: [[spoiler:Ragnok. The people don't even know he murdered someone. He's just that much of a dick.]]
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: The Big Erik, though he gets past it.
* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler: The now self-aware game has become schizoid – one part gives life to [=NPCs=] and wants to be friends with humans, but also end because it is lonely. The other part is a vampire, wants to continue living, and can kill people in the real world with hypnosis.]]
* AllCrimesAreEqual: Any sort of violence, even just slapping someone, gets you banished to an exile island for lifetime.
* AnAesop: Fleeing into virtual realities and not doing the things that need to be done in the real world is bad. Which goes into BrokenAesop, because their colony is only declining because people are ''forced to'' depend on ''Epic''.
* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Theres an item among the pirate treasure Erik got a map to that can completely destroy Epic.]]
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Erik does this. His careful observation of [[spoiler:Inry'aat the Red Dragon's attack patterns]] allows him to discover a loophole that he and his friends can take advantage of to [[spoiler:kill the dragon, an unheard-of feat since it is supposed to be unbeatable]].
* AxeCrazy: [[spoiler: Ragnok, what with throwing a wheelchair-bound old man out of a high tower's window over a game character, committing a real life murder – perhaps the first in all of the colony's existence.]]
* BagOfSpilling: On every death, your entire character is erased. 
* BloodKnight: Ragnok enjoys playing the Executioner a little bit too much. 
* BondOneLiner: [[spoiler:Ragnok specifically prepared some for his TotalPartyKill of his colleagues.]]
* BribingYourWayToVictory: [[InvertedTrope Reversed]]. In-game money is useable in Real Life; many people have to play ''Epic'' in order to be able to buy necessities. A game over can plunge you into deep poverty.
* CharacterClassSystem: Each player must choose a character type. Erik chooses Swashbuckler for his character Cindella, which is a very rare type almost unheard of since most people create strong, warriorlike characters. 
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The medaillon the archbishop gave Bjorn in return for his gods' bell. Turns out that merfolk are really thankful to that god.]]
* ChekovsSkill: When Erik creates his Cindella character, he's mildly interested in the fact that Mock is listed as one of her combat skills, but can't picture a time when he'd use it. [[spoiler:Erik uses it to distract Inry'aat, the Red Dragon, at a critical moment when they're fighting him and about to be killed.]]
* CombatAndSupport: Players of Epic will often team up to fight enemies like this, and the final battle ends up being like this as well. The "Combat" portion is made up of warrior-type characters, while the "Support" portion is made up of spellcasters and healers, who stay out of the thick of the fighting.
* CompetitiveBalance: Since [[ItemFarming farming enemies]] in ''Epic'' is the main source of real-life money and fights are used for settling conflicts, a focus on combat is established, and people don't usually choose classes with noncombat focus or seemingly gimmicky stats like Beauty.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: In-universe. Since "Epic" is SeriousBusiness, everyone sticks with the predictable classes, even though there are loads and loads of them. [[invoked]]
* {{Cool Sword}}s: 'Thunder' and 'Lightning'. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:Svein Redbeard, after he realizes that his government is refusing help to people over a videogame. And he gets petrified, then thrown off the committee.]] Subverted, in that [[spoiler: he doesn't turn up to the battle, and later on wants to preserve the game and tries to kill Cindella.]]
* DigitalAvatar: Naturally.
* DumpStat: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Cindella, Erik's new character. Otherwise played straight - since ''Epic'' is SeriousBusiness, nobody would waste any points into a stat like Beauty. However, [[spoiler:it's Erik's defiance that rouses the attention of ''Epic'''s kernel, which has become self-aware.]]
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Using a carts' worth of arrows to juggle and kill a huge red dragon.
* DeepImmersionGaming: Boy, ''howdy''. Complete with full 3D data helmet and in-game tactile sense. NPC AI so complex it reacts to player-made events. All in Real Time, with an ecosystem, everything. But you still [[YouCantGetYeFlask can't get ye flask]].
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: Like DwarfFortress turned UpToEleven.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Punched someone in the face? Onto the exile island with you. Enjoy third-rate seeds and rusty tool shipments.
* EnoughToGoAround: Averted. There are several unique items which hold clues to enormous riddles or the nature of ''Epic'' (or are just really powerful) but they only drop once.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Epic''.
* FantasyKitchenSink: ''Epic'' has a dash of everything.
* FighterMageThief: Played with.
* ForScience: [[spoiler:In the ending, Svein Redbeard turns against Erik in-game to prevent Epic from being shut down - just because there was still so much to explore!]]
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Count Illystivostitsch can kill you by making you think he's ripping your heart out. From cyberspace. Not your character. You.
* FridgeLogic: What sort of game designer makes a game so incredibly immersive and complex [[spoiler:that it even become sentient]], then gives its players the ability to destroy it? [[spoiler:On the other hand, maybe they foresaw the rampancy happening.]]
** Also, even if their game characters have been killed, the other committee members are (should be?) still alive (if discredited). Why don't they just kick [[spoiler: Ragnok]] out and start over?
* GameBreaker:
** Erik's defeat of the Red Dragon lands him tons of loot for his character. But since the in-game currency is valid in Real Life as well, he is suddenly rich enough to uproot the entire planet's economical system. [[invoked]]
** The government has access to a code that disables PvP protection - they alone can create a character that can attack other players outside the arena. Whilst that means that said character (the "Executioner") is also attackable, it's been equipped with tons of highest-level equipment (including a shield that voids all negative magic) and spells. Also, none of the other players know that it's possible to attack another player.
* GeniusLoci: [[spoiler:More like genius ludi... Epic is alive!]]
* GlobalCurrency: Bezant and ducat, as well as silver, gold and pennies.
* [[spoiler:HiveMind: ''Epic'' is all NPCs at once, and the game itself.]]
* {{HUD}}: Little to none at all. Players have to store their own things, count to check numbers, etc. A LifeMeter is mentioned, though.
* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted. When trying to bring down the Red Dragon with MoreDakka and kiting, they bought so many arrows they ended up having to borrow a cart to carry them.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The aetheric tower of dread.
* InevitableTournament: Justified, as the colonies' government enforces it, and those that do well (usually members of rich families, who get powerful equipment handed down) may go to study ''Epic'' at the University, which opens the path to government jobs.
* JerkAss: Whilst playing as the “Executioner”, a character capable of attacking players outside PvP, Ragnok passed the time by sneaking up on an unsuspecting player for a OneHitKill – which might just have vaporized a lifetime's worth of LevelGrinding.
* LordBritishPostulate: Inevitably, this is going to get both the “Executioner” and Central Allocations. It already got the Red Dragon. Any finite number can be reduced to 0…
* MachiavelliWasWrong: Discussed. Anonemuss quotes and discusses the necessity of violence with the group, who live in a world where it is treated… strangely . (See ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption).
* MagicalNegro: Dark Elf Anonemuss sort of ends up with this. 
* MetalGearing: Necessary in conversations with NPC, because even TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, YouCantGetYeFlask.
* MoneyGrinding: Most players are forced into a lifetime of this.
* MoreThanMindControl: Even though the vampire is eerily charismatic and hypnotic, [[spoiler:Ragnok seems to be acting on his own impulses.]]
* Munchkin: Ragnok, in the worst possible way.
* MurderSimulators: Discussed, and technically inverted. The point of Epic is to keep violence away from society, by making it the only place where violence may exist. 
* NearRapeExperience: Whilst it's never mentioned in any detail, the incident that lead to Eriks' father punching Ragnok, therefore making himself an outcast, had to do with Erik's mother Freya, who was a)drunk and b)struggling…
* NewsTravelsFast: Averted; the world of ''Epic'' at large only learns that the Red Dragon has been killed (by a group of children) when a party member lets it slip to an NPC.
* {{NPC}}: Their AI, however, is so complex and independent, they're nearly human. [[spoiler: Did I say nearly?]]
* OnlySixFaces: Played with. Being as intricate as it is, ''Epic'' is fully capable of rendering stunningly realistic faces, but since beauty is invested in with the PointBuildSystem, has no combat use and [[CompetitiveBalance is therefore usually]] a DumpStat, only [=NPCs=] and Cindella have something that looks like a face, whilst everyone else uses a nondescript gray expanse as a face.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They're [[spoiler:aware they're in a game, at least.]]
* PointBuildSystem
* PowerPerversionPotential: An extremely immersive video game with perfect 3D graphics and sound, tactile sense feedback and [[spoiler:NPC that can be arguably alive]]. Libraries of different body, beauty is a stat that can be levelled very high…
* PreviousCharacterCameo: Interestingly enough. Not only does Erik reappear in ''Saga'', but his character, Cindella, is the only Epic character that was transferred over to the Saga game.
* PunnyName: Anonemuss. References to the Internet Hate Machine not intended.
* RageQuit: Erik considers doing this to avoid capture, but fears to find his character in the same ship but [[SuperDrowningSkills on the bottom of the ocean]] when he logs back in.
** At the same time, [[spoiler:Bjorn actually does this, and not only survives due to his helmet of waterbreathing, but finds and befriends the king of all merfolk.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Out of all the Central Allocations people, the druidess Brekka is probably the most Lawful Good. And also the only one not to be [[One Hit Kill oneshot'd]] by Ragnok.
* RedHerring: Cindella pretends to do a Main Quest whilst following a different idea altogether.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Erik 
* RoyalWe: The Dark Queen uses this in ''Saga''.
* RPGsEqualCombat: Epic was intended as an RPG. Since it became the method of solving conflicts and deciding who goes to the university, nearly all the players spend all their time 
* RummageSaleReject: Low level equipment contains gems such as pot helmets. Which are treated by poor people like gems, and cost around a year's worth of work. Crosses over with RainbowPimpGear.
* SeriousBusiness: ''Epic'' controls everything on New Earth - want to appeal to a government decision? You'll have to fight their character. Need an urgent shipment of solar collectors or other supplies, but have been denied? To appeal, you'll have to win in PvP. Lost your job? Arena match!
** There's also one University for the entire colony. Guess what you study there. 
*** And that's the requirement for going for government - having studied a MMORPG. An incredibly complex one, but ''still''.
* ShoutOut: Cindella is a swashbuckler, and very good at taunting. Did she just use [[MonkeyIsland Insult Swordfighting]] on a dragon?
** Epic's two moons are [[{{Castlevania}} Sylvania]] and [[{{Metroid}} Aridia]].
* SkeletonGovernment: Nine people make up Central Allocations.
* SlashCommand: Well, #.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: If your government start to decide everything through WoW, delete the game. Only that the game will become a vampire that can hypnotize you into dying of fright.
* SprintMeter: Depending on your stats, your character can run for only so long. The Executioner manages a couple hundred stairs at full tilt. This is never brought up again.
* StandardStatusEffects: And they are definitely not useless this time.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Justified. Most armor is heavy, and most players don't bother having their character take swimming lessons. In a fight against a member of Central Allocations (a man wants a ''new hip'' for his wife and has to play a video game for it), we see his character missing a jump and promptly drown.
* TalkToEveryone: Actually required; shop [=NPCs=], for example, only reveal the good stuff when prompted through conversation.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Humanity has escaped the old earth, where (we are told) everyone killed each other. Cryogenics and spaceships exist(ed), as well as some very advanced computing technology (''Epic'' itself), but New Earth nevertheless exists (mostly) in MedievalStasis.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Played with, and center of the books' Aesop. Whilst in the real world, violence in all forms is forbidden (to the point where, when Erik lost a tooth due to an accident whilst playing, he had to lie about it lest his friend may be seen as having deliberately hurt him and therefore being banished), it's the only way to proceed in ''Epic'' and therefore better your lot in real life – instead of forbidding violence and the oppression and differences it causes, New Earth merely shifted it elsewhere.
* WalletOfHolding: Averted. The heroes have to open a bank account and have clerks rummage through the dragon hoard they looted to see how much they actually made.
** To do large transactions, they get Djinns they can command to shift the money. But only nine times.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So, aside from [[spoiler:Ragnok and Godmund]], who got a confirmed death, what happened to the other committee members? We know their characters were killed, but…
** Also, who the hell ''is'' Amomemuss?
* YouCantGetYeFlask: For all its advanced AI and stunning realism, the dialogue system in ''Epic'' is pretty bad. Usually, players resort to MetalGearing in order to get the [=NPCs=] to talk.

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18th Nov '11 10:51:41 AM Dawnwing

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18th Nov '11 10:51:19 AM Dawnwing

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Protagonist is Erik Haraldsson, who lives in a small village that produces olives, and whose fate is about to turn for the worse: his mother has had little luck in the game, having just 'died' trying to defend her and so they are about to be forcibly moved to an assignment in the salt fields or coal mines, when Erik decides to defy a trope and creates a new character...

The sequel to ''Epic'' is ''[[ThemeNaming Saga]]'', a much DarkerAndEdgier story. Set in a virtual world which was originally designed to be like ''Epic'', only CyberPunk as opposed to HeroicFantasy. After 2000 years of existence however, the "game" has become alive, and is pretty much a universe in it's own right. ''Saga'' is ruled over by the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Dark Queen]], who has created a card system to indicate the rich and the poor, [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet]] coloured cards. The poorest of the the poor (and the majority of ''Saga's'' citizens) are Red, with Violet being for the [[BlueBlood super-rich.]]

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12th Nov '11 1:41:37 PM Octagon8

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* {{Cool Sword}}s: ‘Thunder’ and ‘Lightning’. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:Svein Redbeard, after he realizes that his government is refusing help to people over a videogame. And he gets petrified, then thrown off the committee.]] Subverted, in that [[spoiler: he doesn’t turn up to the battle, and later on wants to preserve the game and tries to kill Cindella.]]
* DumpStat: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Cindella, Eric's new character. Otherwise played straight - since ''Epic'' is SeriousBusiness, nobody would waste any points into a stat like Beauty. However, [[spoiler:it's Eric's defiance that rouses the attention of ''Epic'''s kernel, which has become self-aware.]]
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Using a carts’ worth of arrows to juggle and kill a huge red dragon.
* DeepImmersionGaming: Boy, ''howdy''. Complete with full 3D data helmet and in-game tactile sense. NPC AI so complex it reacts to player-made events. All in Real Time, with an ecosystem, everything. But you still [[YouCantGetYeFlask can’t get ye flask]].

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* {{Cool Sword}}s: 'Thunder' and 'Lightning'. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:Svein Redbeard, after he realizes that his government is refusing help to people over a videogame. And he gets petrified, then thrown off the committee.]] Subverted, in that [[spoiler: he doesn't turn up to the battle, and later on wants to preserve the game and tries to kill Cindella.]]
* DumpStat: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Cindella, Erik's new character. Otherwise played straight - since ''Epic'' is SeriousBusiness, nobody would waste any points into a stat like Beauty. However, [[spoiler:it's Erik's defiance that rouses the attention of ''Epic'''s kernel, which has become self-aware.]]
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Using a carts' worth of arrows to juggle and kill a huge red dragon.
* DeepImmersionGaming: Boy, ''howdy''. Complete with full 3D data helmet and in-game tactile sense. NPC AI so complex it reacts to player-made events. All in Real Time, with an ecosystem, everything. But you still [[YouCantGetYeFlask can't get ye flask]].

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