History Roleplay / AcademyOfMerlin

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Several characters. Magnus Ironvein, Rowan Lockwood, Icarus Domitor...

%%* BastardBoyfriend: Faust, End's boyfriend from a hundred years ago, and Orion, Mari's ex from her high school days.

%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: For fuck's sake, we've probably broken 400 by now.

* EveryoneIsGay: Magic literally makes you gay. There's no such thing as a straight character, or if there is, not for long.

* CosmicBalance: A central theme. The world must be kept in balance one way or another, and when that balance is shifted too much, taint and fade come into play to set the balance back.

The old forum is located [[https://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewforum.php?f=1051413 here]], while the new one is [[http://academyofmerlin.freeforums.net/ here]].

The new forum is located [[http://academyofmerlin.freeforums.net/ here]].

The Academy of Merlin is a fantasy school roleplay that takes place in modern-day Wales, in a [[ArtisticLicenseGeography sort-of made-up]] area northeast of Cardiff. Students from all walks of life attend the Academy to study under the professors of Headmaster Louis Soulstone, the current headmaster of the Academy. However, all is rarely well at the Academy. With factions of characters from a discriminatory government bent on imposing their own rules on nonhumans, a not-so-secret secret agency dedicated to bringing justice to the magick world, three towns full of colorful shopkeepers and dangerous gangs, and a mysterious terrorist organization with their own agenda, life at the Academy is rarely dull.

!!This work provides examples of:

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: There only seem to be two types of parents in Merlinverse; bad parents and these. Some examples include Zoya and Barad, Lance and Arthur, and Hadil and Alhena.

* BadassCrew: Psqwad, a small group of Secret Organization members hailing from the French branch. They are an incredibly formidable force when working together.

* BastardBoyfriend: Faust, End's boyfriend from a hundred years ago, and Orion, Mari's ex from her high school days.

* BerserkButton: Most characters have one or the other, but the most common is their friends or family being threatened or injured.

* BigGood: Merlin, and as a lesser example, the Headmaster.

* ColdBloodedTorture: Ari was subjected to this by Iapyx, and Simon by Leah.

* CrazyPrepared: Unit 53 thought ahead for several parts of their plans, staying ahead of the game until nearly the end.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: It's almost a requirement to enter the school--literally.

* DarkSecret: Just about every student has something--no, almost every ''character.'' Secrets range from [[spoiler:being a literal mask]] to [[spoiler:turning half fish]] to [[spoiler:actual murder]] to [[spoiler:accidentally stealing a magical hotspot that was the only thing keeping a couple very angry gods at bay.]]

* EasilyForgiven: Inverted; Marianne easily forgives people.

* EnergyAbsorption: Healers can suck away energy, though it's a difficult skill to master.

* TheFairFolk
* FamilyOfChoice: Several friend groups end up simply adopting each other as family, as they're more preferable than their actual families.

* FictionFiveHundred: Several families, including the Lockwoods, Lethbridges, Delafontaines, Bishops, and Bajoras'.

* GoodParents:
** Nuit and Seb, Ziza's parents.
** Zoya and Barad, Muna's parents.
** Lance and Arthur, Gwen's parents.
** Kane and Fred, Seren's parents.
** Aubrey, Basil, and Fell, Irene [[spoiler:and Madeline]]'s parents.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: [[DefiedTrope Nobody aggressively defies this trope like the Other Kids aggressively defies this trope.]]

* InstantRunes: Egyptian magic creates these in the process of casting.

* IntergenerationalFriendship:
** Carrmin and Cabbage.
** Muna and Simon.
** Sage and Hermes.
** Gert and her employees.

* LikeBrotherAndSister:
** Icarus and Scarlett.
** Shanta and Muna.
** Quentin and Madeline.
* LimitedSocialCircle: Most characters only interact with their friend group, year, or house, and few others.

* LivingProp: Most of the teachers, ninety percent of the time.
* LivingShadow:
** Perdix, a Shade.
** Zilli, a shadow demon.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: For fuck's sake, we've probably broken 400 by now.

* {{Magitek}}: The magick world has been improving its magitech in leaps and bounds, with Schillertech taking the lead in the technological age.

* MythologyGag: Gert, a character from a prior roleplay that happens to live in the area.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** The Blood Pact.
** The Elfslayer.
** The Wicked Witch.
** The Leira (though this one is debatable).

** Dryads and naiads have also been featured in character plots.

* NoodleIncident: A few things occur behind the scenes that no one talks about except in passing.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Elves' aging slows way the hell down by about their twenties, but special mention goes to End, whose body was in a stasis-like state for over a century, and Carrmin, who is fused with a Deity and is permanently twelve.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: Fairies come in thousands of different species and differ with their environment. The desert fae are much more reptilian than one would first expect, for example, and cave fae don't have eyes.

* PocketDimension: There's a ''lot'' scattered around the Justus area, with rips in space-time being caused by the Oak's monstrous power. The most well-known are the fairy tale dimension in Janus Dorms and the Care Bear dimension of unspeakable horrors.
** Pocket dimensions also exist in different capacities, such as magic mirrors being doors to very small ones.

* ThePowerOfTheSun: Sol.

* SaveTheVillain: Marianne saved Lara's life, and in return Lara finally came back into her full power and rebelled against Ezrael.

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Elfslayer was terrifyingly good at finding and killing elves in isolated parts of town.

* {{Sleepyhead}}: Professor Morioka.

* SoapWithinAShow: ''The Number of Days''.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: You'd really think the Academy would employ one by now...

* TruthSerum: Veritaserum, ripped straight from Harry Potter, is a potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth. From their perspective, anyway.

* UndisclosedFunds: Several characters, notably students, spend money without any explanation of where it comes from.

* UrbanFantasy: The roleplay's genre.
* WeatherManipulation: It's possible to cause this on a smaller scale with interelement magic.
** Using Merlin's Oak as a magic amplifier makes it possible to ''really'' change the weather.

* WizardingSchool: Naturally.

* WritingAroundTheTrademark: Merky Mouse Clubhouse, and of course, Five Nights at Frank's, featuring Frank the Bear, Ronnie the Rabbit, Chuck the Duck, and Doxxy the Pirate.

* YouCantFightFate: A common theme, with a more positive spin. Merlin is able to see those who have a greater fate than others, and calls for them to attend the Academy so they have a better chance of emotionally and physically surviving their incoming trials. Having so many people around them going through the same thing is also a helpful support system.[[/folder]]

* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Potato's first event had the two only NPCs previously met both biting the dust in [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown different]], [[NoBodyLeftBehind horrific]] [[LiterallyShatteredLives ways]].

%%note: undergoing some heavy editing

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* SpontaneousWeaponCreation: Very frequently occurs. Usually it's an EnergyWeapon created from the person's magic.
* SuccessionCrisis: The elf supercolony Camelot may have this [[spoiler:if Gwen tries to retake the throne.]] But that's really unlikely since she's totally uninterested.
* StatOVision: Schillertech's eyepieces are ''very'' advanced technology, and more complex robotic companion models (reserved for Ian and his associates) often come with various statistics in the corner recording the user's vitals.
* SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat: Upon regaining memories in the reincarnation AU.

* SummonToHand: The Summon spell. It doesn't work on channelers, unfortunately.
* SuperCellReception: Invoked intentionally by anyone using the underground, student-created cell network that connects certain cellphones together.
** Icarus has a connection of his own with [[spoiler:Iapyx.]]
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: See RandomlyGifted above.
* SuperEmpowering: Merlin allowed Naomi and Ariadne to channel his power through the Oak, enabling them to use interelement magic on a massive scale and put out the fires in the school and the town.
* SuperMode: Marinna and Naomi's siren forms.
* SuperWeaponAverageJoe: The Merchant's glove. He was only able to use it once. Just once.
* SuperWindowJump: End and Muna pull a traditional one while escaping Cati at Naomi's house.
* SupportingLeader: End and Shanta, together, are this for Janus House, if only because their current house rep is... nowhere to be found.
** Yvonne, when she was house rep, had Icarus has backup.
* SweetTooth: Bambi, Ziza and Camille sure like strawberry ice cream.
** Merchant is also fond of strawberries.
* {{Synchronization}}: Muna and Shanta were bonded by Muna's curse for a couple of months, and shared the pain inflicted when Muna's curse was triggered.
* TacticalWithdrawal: Naomi, Muna, End, and Nina run as Vivian unleashes a black wave of magic... good thing they did too, since it was an instadeath spell, apparently.
* TakenForGranite: Fade.
* TaughtByExperience: The way the Headmaster runs his school shows he believes in this trope.
* TechnicolorEyes:
** Elves. Their eyes can range from yellow to orange to brown to green. Just about the only color eyes they can't have, in fact, is blue.
** InvertedTrope: No species that attends Merlin should be able to have ''red'' eyes, to make anyone hexed stand out quite a bit.
* {{Teleportation}}: Merlinverse has been shown to have teleport circles, which teleport to a specific spot. So far, no other method of getting around has been shown.
* TellHimImNotSpeakingToHim: Shanta to Muna at the moment, with End caught in the middle, though it's more like "keep him away from me because I don't want to see him".
* TheThreeFacesOfEve: Strawberry trio. Ziza is the seductress, Camille the wife, and Bambi the child.
* TemptingFate: Yes, good idea Naomi. Insult and try to immobilize the clearly crazy girl that ''already said she would be hostile if she met resistance.'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough Good idea.]]
** Why the food group keeps running into the alleys when they've already been threatened with bodily harm by the gang there is anyone's guess.
* TensionCuttingLaughter: Naomi starts laughing after the rain begins to fall.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: With the sheer amount of trauma going on at the Academy, you'd think that the Headmaster would have employed one of these by now. One character had is ''arms blown off'' in his first year.
** Somewhat averted now that Asphodel is on the scene, but whether she makes things worse or better is up to opinion.
** Actually, there don't seem to be any therapists around the world in general, with the amount of emotional issues everyone has.
* TheyDiedBecauseOfYou: End with pretty much all his victims.
** Shanta about Daksha.
* ThirdOptionLoveInterest: When Ari realized she was in a love triangle between Aerykah and Naomi, she went for... Charlotte.
* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Both inverted ''and'' played straight. The Blood Pact unit dispatched to the school is Unit Thirteen, but Merlin's Thirteen Treasures are anything ''but'' put in a negative light.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: What most students probably think before running headlong into the day's adventure.
** The Magic Mirror story in particular became this.
* ThoseTwoGirls: Ari and Naomi.
** Bambi and Amanda. (Though Amanda's not really a girl.)
** Puddin and Finch.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Muna and End, Ian and Icarus, and Gage and Din. (Even though Din isn't exactly a guy.)
* TimeSkip: Happens at the end of every plot - the world speeds up a little and a new generation of students attends Merlin.
* TownGirls: Strawberry trio - Ziza is the Femme, Bambi the Butch and Camille the Neither.
* TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: The whole point of the school.
* {{Transfictionality}}: Don't think about Rose's storybook too much; you'll get a headache.
* TranslatorMicrobes: The only reason the students can understand each other is because of a massive sphere of influence over most of the forest, Justus, and the Academy known as the language debarrier. It translates others' languages into the hearer's native tongue, with the exception of nonhuman languages.
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Happens frequently with dimensional rips. Often, the only way out is to complete the story of the rip.
* TrueCompanions: The elf trio. It would take physical force to separate them at this point.
** A-Team as well.
* TrueSight: Sight, with a capital S. It's simply defined as the ability to see the world as it is. Magicks are [[spoiler:almost]] always born with it. It's been known to manifest in mundanes as well, such as the Merchant and the Mechanic, but the ability among those without magic capacity is extremely rare.
* ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: Rose's book.
* TruthSerum: One of the Council's punishments. It was administered to Naomi in a NoodleIncident when she broke into their office, which was how her siren secret was exposed.
* TwoTeacherSchool: Subverted; there's lots of teachers, it's just that only a couple of them are prominent.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: The Council's taking over and things are never going to be the same.
* UnderwaterRuins: There are several of these along Wales' coastline that Naomi claims are the leftovers of siren society. It's one of the main reasons she keeps coming to Wales.
* UndisclosedFunds: Several characters have access to a lot of money with no real explanation.
** Nina in particular. ''Nobody knows where her money comes from.''
* UnstoppableMailman: Though they've more or less fallen out of style at this point, owls are still the most reliable way to get a message or mail to someone, regardless of where they are in the world.
* UpperClassTwit: Naomi's brother, Jasper.
* UrbanFantasy
* UtilityMagic: Much of the magic learned in Charms is this.
** This is also how many of the healing spells are described - they replace a lot of modern machinery.
* VillainEpisode: Any of the peeks into the various villain bases qualify as this.
* VillainousFriendship: The whole of Unit 53.
* ViolenceIsDisturbing: VIVIAN. VIVIAN I DON'T THINK YOU HAD TO PUT YOUR HAND THROUGH HER CHEST. OR YOUR FOOT. ''VIVIAN.''
* VitriolicBestBuds: Ian and Icarus.
** Rowan and Potato.
** Zach and Priss.
* WeatherManipulation: Possible with interelement magic - it requires a wind and waterwielder.
* WeirdnessCensor: Glamour.
* WeirdnessMagnet: Seriously, why does everything weird happen ''here?''
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Most likely the thoughts of ''every student'' before something major fucks up.
* WizardingSchool
* WordsDoNotMakeTheMagic: It's not necessary to actually utter the spell's name to cast it - some people do, and some people don't.
** Averted in the case of Egyptian magic.
* WorldBuilding: The most fascinating thing about Merlin is it's not just one person's creation. Other people add onto the world, little by little, and it makes it that much more interesting and richer.
* WorldLimitedToThePlot: Defied. Many character events are actually trips out into the real world, usually via a teleport circle or, in some cases, an airplane.
* WorldOfBadass: There are a LOT of badasses everywhere you look.
* WorldTree: Invoked by Merlin's Oak; it is a massive oak emanating a huge amount of magical power that affects any and all magicks nearby.
* WritingAroundTheTrademark: [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Five Nights at Frank's]], featuring Frank the Bear, Ronnie the Rabbit, Chuck the Duck, and Doxxy the Pirate.
** And, infamously, Merky Mouse Clubhouse.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Several characters need a speech about this. The elf trio is especially guilty of needing to be assured about this again and again.
* YouAreNumberSix: In ''The Pet Project,'' a supplementary story to the third plot, characters were assigned a number and a letter rather than names. The survivors of the ordeal were L6, [=Sh4=], [=Sc8=], T7, and B2.
* YouCantFightFate: A common theme, with a more positive spin. Merlin is able to see those who have a greater fate upon them than others, and brings them to the Academy so they have a better chance of emotionally and physically surviving their coming ordeals.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The elf trio, in different ways.
** Muna has been exiled from his home tribe.
** [[EverybodysDeadDave All of End's former friends are dead.]]
** Shanta is avoiding both her mother and Priya.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Samos and Gil.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: It's pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that Vivian doesn't have very long to live in her current state.
* YourMagicsNoGoodHere: In the Duat, traditional magic simply doesn't work.
* YourWorstNightmare: The magic mirror the maid showed the kids the first time around showed them the worst aspects of themselves.[[/folder]]

* SetTheWorldOnFire: Justus and the dorms were reduced to a sea of flames in no time flat.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: The Merchant ignored the universe's rules and used a special magic glove to save the elf trio from Vivian. Unfortunately, the incident cost him his left hand. (Fortunately, he had Marianne, who hooked him up with a sick arm.)
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Ezrael bolted once he realized the situation was beyond his control.
* SecretKeeper: Several people or groups.
** Gil, Cas, and Ian agree to keep quiet about [[spoiler:Icarus's abusive brother per Icarus's request.]]
** Naomi confesses about her fishy nature to Muna and End first.
** Shanta tells first End, then Muna and Nina the story [[spoiler:of when she was raped and her best friend banished.]]
** End and Shanta know the entire tale of [[spoiler:how Muna got cursed eight years previous.]] In addition, [[spoiler:Shanta has an even clearer picture since Bijan told her his story as well.]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: The Gold Dragon's trial seems to be this.
* SeeTheInvisible: Keen Eye is a spell that can reveal what ordinary vision can't.
* SeenItAll: Nothing really surprises the upperclassmen anymore. Ever. At all.
* ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow: There are rarely any [=RPs=] that take plays during actual classes.
* SlapSlapKiss: Mari yelled at Merchant before revealing she liked him and kissed him. Merchant got really confused.
* SleepCute: Ian fell asleep on Yvonne. Yvonne didn't mind at all.
* {{Sleepyhead}}: Professor Morioka.
** And Potato.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The views of kids at Merlin range from being idealistic to being downright cynical, depending on experience.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Ian and Nina. Ari wore fake glasses to invoke this.
** Rowan wears glasses, but they look stupid.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Elves can communicate with animals through their heightened empathy, but it works a little differently than direct contact. Rather, using their empathy, elves are able to discern an animal's feelings, and, through experience, can interpret their thoughts through that.
* SpeechCentricWork: The majority of the roleplay takes place in a live chat, so most of the roleplaying itself is dialogue based.
* SpikesOfDoom: Sylvia and Naomi run into these while exploring the Ruins.
* SoapWithinAShow: ''The Number of Days''.
* SolarAndLunar: Sol and Luna.
* SomeKindOfForceField: The spells Improbability, Turtle, and Sphere of Influence work like this.
** Also, Merchant's dragon scale generates a small field that protects his cart.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: When Shanta finds soap in Merchant's bag, Merchant is only able to prove it's actually him by naming Muna's percentage of the profits.
* SoulJar: Specially chanted magic lamps are these. They usually store genies, but can be used for... other types of spirits.
** A genie lamp is used to hold Shashi's soul. After the genie is released, of course. The dire consequences of this are unknown at the moment.

* PhlebtoniumBattery: The sun and moon act as different types of chargers for charmed objects.

---------
* PensieveFlashback: Watching the memories stored in Muna's crystal required the use of water, as End and Shanta found out.
* PhlebotinumBattery: The sun and moon act as chargers for charmed objects.
* PocketDimension: There's a ton scattered all over campus. The most well-known are the fairy tale dimension in Janus Dorms, which changes to a different story every time someone enters it, and the Care Bear dimension, which is made up of unspeakable horrors.
* PointyEars: Elves.
* PoisonAndCureGambit: Unit 53's EvilPlan consists of this: either the Council signs off the law that would legalize their past, present, and future actions, or everyone in the Academy, Justus, and the surrounding areas will die slow and painful deaths.
* PoliceAreUseless: Either useless or corrupt.
** Subverted only once, when Shanta calls a police officer to chase off the Merchant. Yes, he comes with, but no, he doesn't really do anything.
** Entirely averted with the Secret Organization.
* PoorCommunicationKills: If Shanta had explained her parting words to Muna just a ''little'' bit better...
** Naomi also has a serious problem with hiding important things from Ari. It's probably one of the reasons the latter broke up with the former.
* PortTown: Town Across is a rich port town across the river, and is the ideal stop for those with a little more cash to spend.
* PowerGivesYouWings: Divinity is a spell that grants the caster wings.
** Shanta specifically has a magic feather that grants her wings, and therefore mobility when it's less convenient to ride Shashi.
* PowerGlows: Magic tends to glow when being cast.
* PowerIncontinence: Marianne and Valentina have a mutation that makes their magic incredibly potent. While Valentina's control is fine, Marianne has more trouble keeping herself in check, especially when her emotions run rampant.

** Some charmed objects can be charged with the sun.
* PowerStrainBlackout: Ari and Cas both passed out from overuse of their magic in the final battle of the Vivian Arc.
** Marianne passed out the day the Black Dragon attacked [[BigDamnHeroes protecting the Merchant.]]
** Ziza, after casting ''ma'at'' to cancel out Apophis's ''isfet,'' promptly fainted as her soul was dragged back to the Duat. (Good thing Jack was around.)
* PowerTrio: The elf trio - both the LandSeaSky variety and FighterMageThief variety.
** Shanta is the sky and the fighter, with her adventurous spirit and aggressive swordplay tactics. She also stood in as a second land, but this facade has broken down since her HeroicBSOD.
** End is the land and the mage, as he is the most stable of the three and relies the most on magic. Since Shanta has stepped down from being the land, he has stepped up to support the other two.
** Muna is the sea and the thief, for being most unpredictable and most morally ambiguous. His role hasn't changed since, but since he's officially started to work for the Merchant he has embraced the thief title more.
* ProtectiveCharm: Improbability is anyone's go-to for defense.
** Carrmin's sphere of influence also counts as this, as it keeps out the worst of the forest's beasts as well as Unit Thirteen.
* PsychologicalTormentZone: Maker's maze, which had Magnus's rescue team hallucinating that they were seeing their loved ones cry out for help.
* PutOnABus: Characters frequently disappear for long periods of time when other characters run by the player take priority in terms of plot arcs.
** The genie from first plot was released and hasn't been seen since.
** Ezrael has made a single appearance since first plot, and James and Andrew's screentime was cut down significantly.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: Melanie, Andrew, and James functioned as this in the forest at the final battle.
* RacistGrandpa: Merlin is described as the Racist Grandpa Tree OOC.
* RailRoading: Frequently invoked by the narrator of a particular event to keep things on track.
* RandomlyGifted: ''Sort of'' how magic powers are. Magic itself is passed down from a gene that is both dominant and recessive, and manifests itself in whichever way it chooses in a newborn child. This leads to both mundanes from magicks and magicks from mundanes. In most cases, though, if at least one of the parents is a magick, the child will likely be the same.
* RazorWind: Windwielders.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Icarus delivered a sharp one to Ian the night he dropped his facade.
* {{Reincarnation}}: There's an entire AU revolving around it.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Pigolem and Cinnamon.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Does the Council need to be reformed? Yes. Would bringing forbidden magic back into practice help? ''No.''
* RingOfPower: The Ring of Second Life in the DS game.
* RobotBuddy: Socket, of course.
* RPGMechanicsVerse: To be completely honest... yeah. The class and element system are the most blatantly obvious.
* RuinsForRuinsSake: There's a mass of underground ruins in the Catacombs that has yet to be expanded upon or explained. They're just... there.
* RulingFamilyMassacre: [[spoiler:Gwen's entire blood family was slaughtered. She was only spared because [[HeavySleeper she slept through it.]]]]
* SaveTheVillain: Marianne saved Lara's life, and in return Lara managed to get back to full power for the first time in a long time. She returned and rebelled against Ezrael.
* SavedByCanon: Daksha, Tara, Hestia, Faust, Nola, Ida, and pretty much anyone who's dead InUniverse is saved by the reincarnation AU.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Ian and Yvonne.
* SayMyName: End!
** Muna...
* TheScapegoat: The Council made the Headmaster one as an excuse to arrest him and move in on the school.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Elfslayer was ''really fucking good'' at finding elves that were in isolated parts of town.
* TheScream: Shanta let out a loud shriek of terror while unpacking the Merchant's groceries, and when the others came to find out what was wrong, she lifted, with trembling fingers... ''soap.''
* SealedGoodInACan: Merlin's Oak is the man himself transformed.

-----
* MagicalUnderpinningsOfReality: Gradually, it's revealed that most things in the world are controlled by some sort of magickal power. The Deities, the threads of fate, the mundanes...
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: The elf trio, though it's mostly Muna and End.
* {{Masquerade}}: The mundane world, for the most part, doesn't realize the magick world exists.
* MediumAwareness: The characters sometimes lean on the fourth wall, wondering if they're just the figment of some cruel god's imagination.
* MembershipToken: If you spot someone in town with a pentagram pin, odds are they're a magick at work and the store has a hidden side.
* MindProbe: Mental healers do this as a matter of course. Those who specialize further into hexmasters, like Rigel and Slater, can manipulate the mind to their heart's content.
* MindScrew: Maker's maze.
* MirrorUniverse: The mirror hanging in Tomas Dorms leads to another... well, let's just say "interesting" dimension.
* MishmashMuseum: The magick museum in England doesn't really seem to have a set theme.
* MixedAncestry: Half-elves, half-dwarves, and dwelves.
* MobWar: Erupts among the gangs, and is... well, ended rather abruptly by Kane. But that's okay, because neither side really wanted to fight anymore.
* MockSurpriseReaction: What?? This group of friends showed up in this one area at the same time?? What a coincidence!
** The elf trio doesn't even other with the fake reaction anymore.
* MoodWhiplash: Very common. Often, [=RPs=] will have something serious going on with one group while something goofy happens with another.
* {{Mooks}}: The various thugs and criminals that hide out in Justus.
* {{Muggles}}: Mundanes.
* MushroomSamba: Maker's maze, which made Magnus's rescue party hallucinate rather horribly.
* MythologyGag: Gert's manly bakery.
** Just the various GEIOW references in general that are sprinkled around.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Yvonne REALLY panics when she accidentally triggers Ian's hex. Gil stands in the background and assures her that it's not as bad as it seems.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes N to Z]]* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Blood Pact certainly doesn't have a friendly ring to it.

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Invoked on occasion when a character utters a miscellaneous swear. Some rather touchy subjects are also casually explained in a sort of "X explained Y to Z" fashion. Bonus points if it's an elf explaining something to another elf in Elven.
* NatureSpirit: Elves are essentially a very high form of nature spirit. However, exactly how they came to be hasn't yet been revealed because Kira's lazy as hell when it comes to writing the lore for that.
* NearDeathExperience: You would be hard-pressed to find a character that ''didn't'' have one at this point. Some near-death experiences have been involved with taint, guns, blades, cave-ins, a particularly irate family member, a monster of unspeakable horror, electricity, and closets.
* NecessaryDrawback: Taint and fade are necessary to the world's balance - if they didn't exist, the world would get completely thrown out of balance.

* NonHumanSidekick: Several characters have companions, usually of the animal variety but not always. Some examples include Ashes the phoenix, Baldwin the zombie dog, Socket the robot, and Goldenrod the "cat".
* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: There's a ''reason'' they're called the forbidden arts.
* NoodleIncident: Something occurred during one Valentine's day involving bees, pestilence, and chocolate, and none of the older years are talking.

* NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow: ...where do we begin? Several characters have survived ordeals that would kill the ordinary man. Gage got blown apart, Ian survived a collapsing building, End was swallowed by more taint than Vivian and... well, Vivian didn't survive.
* NoSuchAgency: What's the Secret Organization? Don't be silly, they don't exist! (Here's a card to sign up by the way.)
* ObstructiveCodeOfConduct: Used intentionally by the CEE to make it easier for them to shut down the school.
* OddFriendship: Elvira and Finley, Ty and Jack, [[DidntSeeThatComing Rowan and Potato]]... there are a lot.
* OddlyCommonRarity: Mundanes that can See are stated to be ''very'' rare. Justified in-universe, though - Merlin's Oak is naturally a WeirdnessMagnet, so those with Sight tend to be drawn to the area.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Lara, Ezrael, and Carrmin.
** Also End.

* OneHitKill: Vivian's most powerful attack, the Death Pulse, kills any living thing in its path. ''Run.''
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: L6, L4 and L2.
* OnlyOneName: So many characters. So very many.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Only students and faculty at the Academy have a chance of borrowing Merlin's power. Everyone else is shit outta luck.
* OpenSecret: Given the nature of the school, if there's a student with a secret, ''everyone'' is going to find out about it in time.
* OperationGameOfDoom: Naomi, Ari, End and Muna visited Naomi's house to retrieve both Naomi's mom and a family heirloom of a sort, a tiara in her father's office. End and Muna's end of the stick (the tiara) ended up being a lot like this.
* TheOrder: The Trimagick Order, to be precise, also known as the government regulating the magick world.
* OrganicTechnology: Golems and homunculi.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Demons are the residents of Lucifer's dimension, are extremely tough, and don't use magic like humans do. Most of them are able to alter their physical form to some degree, though there are a few that specialize in this.

* OutOfTheFryingPan: Gwen and the rest of Useless escaped from Bedivere, only to run into Galahad. And then they escaped ''Galahad'' only to run into ''Percival.''

* IntimateHealing: Defibrillation might be the fastest way to wake someone up, but it's in no way preferred due to [[KissOfLife the method.]]
* IntoxicationEnsues: On Muna's birthday, the elf trio visited the Merchant. Merchant gave them a bottle of booze and they took it back to Janus Dorms. Shenanigans ensued.
* IronWoobie: There are plenty, but special mention goes to Gage (who got his arms blown off) and Ian (who took a building to the face).
** Shanta's leg was snapped by Vivian and she still kept it together enough to redirect lightning.
** ''What the fuck Loren.''
* IShallTauntYou: Cati tries to pull this on Naomi the second time she breaks into her own house. Naomi delivers a physical ShutUpHannibal with her fist.
** Orion frequently taunts Merchant, trying to convince him that Marianne doesn't actually love him. Merchant won't have any of it.
** Priya gloated to Muna, End, Pari and Ara about her victory over Shanta.
* ItsAllMyFault: So many characters will twist events to make it their fault it's ridiculous.
** Special mention goes to the elf trio, all three of whom managed to make ''the same event'' their fault in some way. (End's for not stepping up, Muna's for having to be rescued, and Shanta's for not doing what she was told in the first place.)
* ItMakesSenseInContext: Adventures are frequently summed up in a sentence or two that usually leads to a FlatWhat.
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Shanta wants to go to Daksha's village alone to avoid risking getting caught by the traders. And, of course, she wants to be alone.
* IWroteOurStory: Rose's book exists in the first place because Rose preserved the princess and her sisters in the book.
* JackassGenie: There's now an ambiguously-gendered genie flying around somewhere since it was freed. Right, ''that's'' not going to have serious repercussions later.
* JoinOrDie: According to Vivian, this might have been the students' eventual choice if Unit Thirteen is successful with taking the school.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Icarus, Yvonne and Scarlett took a trip to Ian's mindscape.
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Kesi literally did this to Rowan. [[CurbStompBattle After he punched him.]]
* KidsAreCruel: Ian was bullied frequently and with varying degrees, from simply getting tripped at lunch to being shoved into a locker and sprayed with Axe until he passed out.
** Icarus was ''quite'' a little shit as a child.
** So was Gil.
*** There ''is'' a reason they're called the "A" Team...
** Seth clearly has no trouble throwing his sister into the side of a building.
* LampshadeHanging: Characters will frequently lampshade the ridiculousness of their own situations or backstories, to the point that they're almost LeaningOnTheFourthWall.
* LanguageOfMagic: Ziza speaks ancient Egyptian for those types of spells.
* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail: Character plots, with particular attention on Sana's.
* LayeredWorld: According to the Egypt kids, the Duat is another plane of existence layered onto the material one.
* LetsSplitUpGang: The elf trio often falls on this strategy when trying to worm their way out of tight situations.
** Gil, Ian and Scarlett also did this in Toronto. It didn't end well for Ian.
** This also tends to be the first strategy used when it comes to searching areas for clues.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: Literally A-Team's plan to defeat Iapyx: Let Naomi and Cas at him until he gets tired. It worked, but it almost didn't.
* LightFeminineDarkFeminine: Yvonne and Scarlett, respectively.
* LightIsGood: Sol. Without it, the world would dissolve into chaos.
* LightIsNotGood: Fade.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Merchant and Marianne fight this way frequently.
** So do Finley and Elvira.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Icarus and Scarlett are a good example.
** So are Shanta and Muna.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: The entire world.
* LimitedSocialCircle: Most characters only interact with those in their friend group, year, or house, and few others.
* LimitedWardrobe: Played very straight. Most characters only wear a single set of clothes and little else, unless an event has people making alternate outfits.
->'''Kesi''': I'm not quite sure why we need overnight bags, though... Even if we did stay the night, [[LampshadeHanging we wear more or less the same thing every day anyway...]]
* LittleBitBeastly: Deities all seem to be some varying form of furry. Eryl, for example, has horns.
* LivingLabyrinth: The Catacombs is a living, breathing structure, with a heart and a will.
* LivingProp: Most of the teachers, let's be honest here.
* LivingShadow: Perdix.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are over 330 named characters from past and present, including side characters, shopkeepers, students, antagonists, agents...
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Can happen very quickly since adventures tend to move quickly.
** Icarus fears this from happening to him.
* LoadingScreen: The DS game has this between stages.
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Muna, Iapyx, Samos, Gil pre-haircut...
* LoveTriangle: One was deflated in Naomi's first year between her, Ari and Aerykah.
** Gloriously averted with the strawberry trio.
* LuminescentBlush: Characters do this frequently when embarrassed.
* {{Lunacy}}: Luna.
** Also, moonlight is used to charge some charmed objects. Like Rowan's glasses.
* MagicMirror: One hangs in Tomas that leads to another dimension.
** Also, mirrorstones.
** Also also, the mirror that Faust hid a Reflection in.
* MagicalDefibrillator: One of the spells healers can learn is called Defibrillator, which awakens unconscious people in an... [[KissOfLife interesting way.]]
* MagicalGirl: One of the classes in the DS game. Extremely overpowered, but you sure look gaudy.
* {{Magitek}}: The magic world is on its way to integrating magic with technology.
** Socket is a massive leap forward in this field, hence why Ian's project was hijacked by the Council.

* TheKingdom: Camelot, an elf supercolony that's hugely influential on the elven world, is pretty much this. It even had a royal family until about a decade and a half ago. Then the royal family was slaughtered except for Gwen.

* InLoveWithTheMark: Marianne was ''supposed'' to arrest Merchant for illegal smuggling and several other charges. That, very obviously, did not happen.
* InsistentTerminology: Unit 13 insists on referring to each other by their positions, not their names. None of the other units seems to stick by this policy.
* InstantRunes: The Egyptian spells that Ziza, Seth, and Jack cast.
** And, for experienced tamers, magic circles.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Carrmin and Cabbage.
** Also, Merchant and Muna.
* InterspeciesRomance: With elves, dwarves, humans, and half-breeds of each running around, it's bound to happen.

-----
* GrayingMorality: Several characters are forced to face moral complications as their plots and the main plot progress.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Great Magick War, which takes place centuries earlier.
* GuiltComplex: There's so many characters that suffer from this that it would be faster to list characters that ''don't''.
* GuineaPigFamily: [[spoiler:Adel and Monika Wood use their children as guinea pigs for their magic-related experiments, resulting in some of them becoming magic-impotent..]]
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Inverted with Marianne and Merchant. Merchant's specialty is firing off his fingers from his ArtificialLimb like bullets, while Mari's preferred method is to simply smash her way through everything.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Nina's backpack. Is there anything that's not in there? Probably not.

* HarmfulToTouch: Taint can spread very easily, so it's a very bad idea to touch it or you'll get tainted as well.
* HealingHands: A healer's primary ability is casting Aura through their hands to heal the injured.
* HealingSpring: The Fairy Spring and the Fairy Pool in Nimue's Forest and the Catacombs, respectively.
* HeroicBSOD: Most characters fall into one of these at some point. It usually takes their entire friend group to pull them out of it.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: [[DefiedTrope The Other Kids have aggressively defied this trope.]]
* HiddenElfVillage: Most elven communities, and indeed several magick communities, are hidden out of sight from mundanes via spheres of influence or illusion magic. Shanta's village is one such place.
* HighSchoolDance: The Academy throws two parties a year - the Halloween Party and the Holiday Ball.
* HistoricalInJoke: The London Fire of 1666? Black Dragon. Good thing it's dead now.
* HitMeDammit: Inverted; Shanta asked Darius to give her a reason to punch him because she couldn't do it with a clean conscience. She ended up letting him off easy because there were too many people at fault for the events of the past.
* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: Icarus's grandparents send sweaters to people they hate. All of Icarus's friends received one custom made.
* HumansAreLeaders: The majority of the Council is made of humans. No wonder all their decisions are questionable.
* HyperventilationBag: Kesi got handed one of these. He popped it.
* IfIWantedYouDead: Lara says this when Averill asks if this is all a huge ploy to kill all the students. Needless to say, she's not happy about being accused.
* ImprobableFoodBudget: Where does the school ''get'' all their food anyway?
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Zig-zagged. Elves' aging slows down greatly, but they are by no means immortal.
* ImportantHaircut: Characters will get these for various reasons. Shanta as an act of rebellion, Ari out of necessity, and Gil while transitioning are three examples of many.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Mages tend to fall back on this trope as their class enables them to channel through just about anything they pick up.
* InevitableWaterfall: The massive saltfall in the Catacombs.
* TheInfiltration: Most units' MO is to sneak one of their own into the school and attack from the inside.
* InformedAbility: Can occur with characters simply not having the place to show off their skills or due to the player. Both are understandable.

The first arc, the Vivian Arc, in-story began September 2014 and ended June 2016. The second arc, the Magickless Arc, in-story began June 2016 and will end summer 2017. The third arc, yet to be named, begins in-story summer 2020.

The new forum is located [[http://academyofmerlin.freeforums.net/ here,]] but it isn't fully set up yet.

note: undergoing some heavy editing

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* FateWorseThanDeath: Getting banished to the Duat. Unless you have a lifeline, returning to your body is nearly impossible. And the deeper you are, the harder it is to get back. (And of course, after functioning without a soul for a while, the body tends to die...)
* FascistsBedTime: The CEE instated a strict curfew, which nobody paid attention to.
* FictionFiveHundred: Several families, including the Lockwoods, the Gilioses, and the Lethbridges.
* FierySalamander: The Black Dragon, which set fire to all of Justus and about half the school.
* FingerForcedSmile: Scarlett often did this to people or herself, either in an attempt to cheer them up or to pretend she's smiling.
* FireForgedFriends: The elf trio, A-Team, and Foodles in particular have been through enough shit together that their bonds of friendship will never be severed.
* FishOutOfWater: Several characters are greatly out of their element at the start of the year. They tend to grow out of this trope as they settle into campus life.
* FishPeople: Sirens appear to be anthropomorphic fish, if Naomi's siren form is anything to go by.

* ForcedToWatch: Public punishments were a required watch during the CEE era.
* ForcefulKiss: Icarus pulls this twice, though he's disgusted both times.
** Ian is forced into it in the Cinderella dimension, though he apologized profusely after.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Vivian shares her name with the sorceress Vivienne, who trapped Merlin in the Oak in the first place.
** Additionally, the forest she's caught in is known as Nimue's Forest - Nimue being another name for the sorceress.
* FormulaicMagic: Hexes are formulaic in nature and consist of a number of clauses, which can result in loopholes if the hexmaster is inexperienced.
* ForWantOfANail: Many events in character backstories and the main plot itself occur because of a small instance that snowballs out of control.
** Ziza's ''entire plot'' would not have occurred had she locked a door.
** The Vivian Arc would not have taken place if Vivian had happened to be literally anywhere else during the Ekaterina event.
* FreudianTrio: The elf trio. Shanta is the id, who acts immediately and on instinct. End is the ego, who takes time and deliberates on what to do next. Muna is in between, being both unpredictable but also considers his actions.
* FunctionalMagic: Magic is considered a practical solution to many daily problems, and most magicks are accustomed to using it with daily life.
* GambitPileup: Arc III. Unit One wants to destroy the Oak, Unit Seventeen wants to run away, Sage wants to recover their memory, Serafina wants to escape with Unit Seventeen...
* GameBreakingBug: Apparently, being infected with taint counts as being corrupted data.
* GameChanger: The general rules of the world are that anyone that attempts certain kinds of magic will end up getting tainted for their trouble and die. However, Brands completely circumvent this rule, making them an extremely useful tool for the Blood Pact.
* TheGamePlaysYou: Textbook example. Players are broken down into data and sent into the game.
** Ian made an upgrade to it: as long as the DS is connected to his computer, someone on the outside can monitor events on the inside.
* GhostlyGoals: Renee's goal was simply to guide Chione.
* {{GMPC}}: [[spoiler:Bethany.]]
* GlowingEyes: A healer's eyes will glint as they cast Diagnose.
* GoodIsNotNice: The Council is hardly better than the Pact; in fact, in some ways they're even ''worse.''
* GoodParents: Nuit and Seb, Ziza's parents.
** Also, of course, Zoya and Barad.
** Lance and Arthur.
* GoodWingsEvilWings: Divinity wings tend to reflect the owner's personality. Some are batlike, some are feathery, some are bloody, etc.
* TheGogglesDoNothing: Ian has a pair of goggles on his head that he doesn't seem to use for anything other than looking like a complete nerd.
* GotMeDoingIt: Well, you're not wrong.
** Hn.
** *puffs cheeks out in displeasure*
* GracefulInTheirElement: Most characters work well in a certain situation when they're awkward otherwise.

-----
* TheCorruption: Taint and fade corrupt one's body when you try to tip the balance of power in the world a little too much in one direction or the other.
* CosmicBalance: A central theme in Merlin. Everything is about keeping the world in balance in one way or another. That's why taint and fade exist - to punish those that upset that balance.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: Janus's motto, basically. If you need an insane plan that just might work put together in a short amount of time, look no further than the green house with the wolf.
* CrazyPrepared: Unit 53 already had a sphere in place for the drop with Merchant.
* CreateYourOwnVillain:
** Ezrael is largely responsible for how Vivian turned out.
** Daedalus created his own worst enemy with Iapyx.
* TheCrocIsTicking: If you hear humming, Vivian's probably nearby.
* CorruptedData: In the game, Vivian, Muna, and Shanta's data was all oddly corrupted. This wasn't such a big deal until Shanta took a near-fatal hit from the giant mech in the clock level and the game nearly deleted her data. Muna averted her death by giving her the Ring of Second Life.
* CulturePolice: The Council heavily censored individuality during their stay at the Academy.
* CurbStompBattle: Naomi's first fight against Cati. It didn't go well.
** Ziza is frequently the victim of one of these against Seth.
** Merchant can't really hold a candle to Orion.
** Leah completely destroys the ''entire faculty of the Academy.'' The Headmaster included.
* CustomUniform: Students can customize their uniform to their hearts' content, so long as they follow a few guidelines.
* CuteKitten: Mist, Smoke, and the cat that hangs around Tomas Commons. Gage is unable to resist such creatures.
** Hmm, the second Tomas cat, counts as well.
* DancesAndBalls: The Academy holds two parties that involve dancing - the Halloween Party and the Holiday Ball. Things frequently go wrong at both.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Spells that are taint or fade-inducing are outlawed - they may be powerful, but the taint and fade that forms is (usually) irreversible.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: So many students have this it's practically a requirement to get into Merlin.
* DarkIsEvil: Taint is a dark, dusty substance that spreads through contact and eats away at its victim's body until there's nothing left but dust.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Luna. Without it, the world would be unable to progress beyond much more than a simple structure.
* DarkSecret: Almost every student - no, almost every ''character'' - has a skeleton or five in the closet. Secrets range from [[spoiler:being a literal mask]] to [[spoiler:turning half-fish]] to [[spoiler:really, really liking mustard]] to [[spoiler:straight up murder.]]
* DeathTrap: Potato's first consisted of a series of these.
** Magnus's event was much more blatant about it.
* DemiHuman: Elves and dwarves, along with any other partial fae that might get onto the Academy's roster.
* {{Determinator}}: Many, many characters will turn into one of these if the situation is dire. Egg will never stop if her friends are in danger, End will taint himself without a second thought, Loren will not give up if Mari's given an order, and there is little on this planet that will stop Naomi from fulfilling her goal some way or another.

* DisasterDominoes: The Vivian Arc was a small mistake that snowballed into a bigger mistake, that snowballed into an even bigger mistake, that snowballed into an even ''bigger'' mistake...
* DoAnythingRobot: Socket, Ian's robot, is an incredibly versatile machine that can connect to his phone, display 3D projections, channel magic, pick up small objects, record video feed, talk...
* TheDragonsComeBack: The Black Dragon was released by Unit 13 and very quickly lay waste to the Academy and Justus before the Secret Organization stepped in to put a stop to it.
* DwindlingParty: Axel's rescue party was whittled down rapidly as first Luce was killed, then Affe, then Plate.
* DysfunctionJunction: Yes, let's have almost every character have mental illness to some degree and put them all together. And then try to kill them. [[SarcasmMode That's going to work out really well.]]
* EasilyForgiven: Shanta and End forgave Muna pretty dang quick after he ignored them for weeks.
** Inverted with Marianne; she easily forgives.
* EdibleThemeNaming: Most of food group has different foods for names; namely, Cabbage, Potato, and Egg.
* ElementalPowers: The Aspects are these, obviously. They are as follows:

* ElementalPunch: Mystics can pull this off. A lot of them do.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Several characters are unwilling to talk about their problems and will go to lengths to deny them, even when they're blatantly obvious to everyone else.
* EmergencyBroadcast: During the Black Dragon Incident, the Headmaster used the magic field to send out an emergency message to all the students.
** Gisa used the same trick to send a message to the whole of the campus when Unit 53 invaded.
* {{Emoticon}}: Scarlett may as well use these, and in fact does when played. (A rarity these days though.)
* EndOfSeriesAwareness: Rose's storybook.
* EnemyDetectingRadar: Ian's robot, Socket, can be programmed to recognize specific magical signatures.
* EnergyAbsorption: A possibility with healers, though it takes a long time to really master. Also happens to be Iapyx's specialty.
** Simon's arm is capable of absorbing any magic thrown at him and, when it's taken enough, throw it back in a condensed ball form.
* EnergyWeapon: Most of the offensive-type spells take the form of whatever weapon they're supposed to be mimicking. The exact weapon varies depending on the caster.
* EquivalentExchange: The main theme of the world, and what keeps the order of the universe. Everything has a price, and those that try to get a little too much are going to pay the price.
** Camille's village is centered around this theme, intertwining it with death.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Merchant.
** And the flower boss, and the mechanic.
** Merchant is now the exception to the rule - he's dropped the title and is once more going as Simon.
* EveryoneIsGay: Magic canonically makes you gay, so there's no such thing as a blatantly straight character. At least, not for long.
* EvilIsBurningHot: The Black Dragon set ''all of Justus on fire.'' And the dorms. And the Practice Fields.
* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Each Blood Pact Unit is comprised of six members, all specializing in something different, and together they're supposed to make a good team. Units eat together, sleep together, and work together, so they often fall ino this trope.
** Unit 13 behaved very much like a family, albeit a mildly dysfunctional one.
** Unit 53, not so much.
* EvilSmellsBad: Taint has a very distinctive scent of something nasty and malicious.
* TheExitIsThatWay: Marianne pulls this ''twice,'' first opening a door to the men's bathroom and then the janitor's closet while trying to find the right office.

* ExtremeOmnivore: '''Ratroaches.''' They can eat literally anything.
* FaceDoodling: Shanta has scribbled on Muna's face before.
* TheFairFolk: Humanoid races that mix with the main three faces, collectively called "fae". They are, essentially, a minority to the minorities.
* FamilyOfChoice: A-Team and Elf Trio has simply adopted each other as their family.
** Shanta and End, in a more amusing example, have been more or less adopted by Muna's family. They ''do'' call Zoya and Barad "Mom" and "Dad".
* FantasticFireworks: Justus holds a festival on New Year's and sets off fireworks then.

%%lmfao

* BeneathTheEarth: The Catacombs are a large system of stone and dirt tunnels underneath the campus and the forest.
* BerserkButton: Most characters don't take injury to their friends and loved ones very well.
* TheBet: Rowan and Kesi dated for a week because of something like this.
* BetterAsFriends: Naomi and Ari have come to this. Neither side is upset about it, however.
* BigBad: Depending on your viewpoint, either the Council or the Blood Pact is this.
* BigDamnKiss:
** Ari gave Naomi one before throwing her in the ocean.
** Merchant and Simon shared a lovely one in an alley.
* BigDamnHeroes: People just ''love'' rushing in at the last second to save the day. Specific examples include Bambi, Ziza, Muna, and Gil.
* BigEntrance:
** Ashes ''exploded'' into this world. Literally. The egg exploded. Icarus thought Ashes died.
** Nobody can forget how Yvonne came into the school - flying towards the wreckage left by the Black Dragon atop a giant chicken.
* BigFancyCastle: The castle itself, though some buildings, like the dorms, are separate.
* BigGood: Headmaster Soulstone and/or Merlin's Oak.
* BigGuyLittleGuy: Gage and Din, respectively.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Amirmoez familiy, for one, and the Lockwoods for another.
* BigSisterInstinct: Ari needs to make sure all the girls can properly defend themselves before she leaves for good.
* BirdsOfAFeather: Muna and Scarlett both can speak, but often choose not to. Muna doesn't because his vocal chords are very weak, and Scarlett doesn't because it's simply not her preferred method of communication.
* BirthdayEpisode: Occurs whenever there's a birthday to celebrate.
* BiologicalWeaponsSolveEverything: Unit 53's EvilPlan turned out to be bombing the Oak and sending a poison mist through the area, affecting just about every magick character's ability to use magic.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Blood Pact is completely black, while the Council is only a few shades lighter. Neither is a good option to take.
* BlackComedy: The more depressed/suicidal characters have a tendency to use this. Muna is particularly guilty.
* BlackMarket:
** Simon ran one out of his cart.
** Yorick, the antique shop owner, has since taken over that aspect of Justus.
* BoardingSchool: Students are sorted into four houses and live in dorm buildings in the commons area.
* BodyHorror: A lot of it is brushed over, but there's plenty of this around the campus.
** Ari got her eye poked out with a pencil.
** End basically removed people's faces. Entirely. (Apparently they grow back.)
** Apophis forced Seth to rip out an eye each from Jack and Ziza.
** Leah ripped Simon's fucking arm off.
* BodySnatcher:
** Perdix possessed Iapyx and is now going by the name of Talos.
** Apophis also counts.
* BookcasePassage: There's an entrance to the Catacombs if you can find the right bookcase.
* BooksThatBite: Be careful in the library. Some of the books in the creatures section are a little more... animalistic than others.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The Apartment and Cottage descriptions take a moment to talk directly to the player.
* BridalCarry:
** Shanta and Potato frequently carry people like this.
** Simon carried Marianne out in this fashion when the Black Dragon attacked.
* BuildingOfAdventure: It's entirely possible to have a death-defying adventure without ever leaving the campus.
* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: If Kayla is any indication, Cards are bound to call out a certain phrase in order to activate their power.
* CallingYourAttacks:
** Shanta for example utters it in Elven.
** Ziza, Seth, and Jack, on the other hand, have a separate set of spells that require verbal initiation.
* TheCameo: Gert, Carrmin, and Sharyn all came directly from a previous roleplay about a magic school.
* CastFullOfGay: There is not a single character in the entire Merlinverse that is straight.
* CastHerd: Characters tend to group together and stay together, earning nicknames to refer to the whole group. Examples include Ice Cream Team, Foodles, Swim Team, and Elf Trio. (Plus Nina.)
* CastOfSnowflakes: Everyone's carrying around ''something'' on their shoulders.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: Both played straight and averted. Unless your phone is connected to a special network set up by some of the older students, expect your cell signal and your wifi signal to be blocked by the magic field Merlin's Oak puts out.
* ChainedHeat: Thanks to a shit buy from Magnus, Ice Cream Team ended up being chained together for a bit. At least it was good for bonding.
* CharacterDevelopment: Every character slowly evolves and becomes a better person. Bonus points to End for marking his character development by getting an entirely new body.
* CharacterTic: Everyone has something that they do when they're nervous, or when they're lying.
** Icarus shakes when he's lying.
** Shanta touches her arm when she's nervous.
** Muna taps the table when something is annoying him.
** End's tic (pausing at the end of sentences) ''disappears'' when he's angry or more confident. This actually has unnerved several characters to the point that they actually prefer soft, slow End.
** Ian touches his forearms when he's particularly upset.
** Gwen scratches at her ears an awful lot.
* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies:
** The bad ending AU.
** Also, the final Black Dragon event, with three characters biting the dust.
** Potato's first event had two characters and one piece of dishware bite the bullet.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Several characters have certain aspects of their personality changed or erased altogether as players figure out how to play them.
* ChillyReception: Pepito immediately upon meeting the Other Kids doesn't receive the warmest welcome. In fact, once hearing Madeline's opinion of him, they treated him rather harshly.
* CirclesOfHell: All part of a single dimension ruled by Lucifer.
* CityOfAdventure: Justus, Town Over, and Town Across.
* CityWithNoName: The Town Over, which is the town next to Justus, and the Town Across, the town across the Dock that's accessible by ferry.
* ClassAndLevelSystem: The classes that are taken at Merlin. In a student's second year, they choose one of four paths, and in their third one of two.
* ClearMyName: The Headmaster left a message hoping students would venture into the forest to clear his name after being accused of assisting the Pact in breaking into the school.
* ClassRepresentative: House representatives. They're in charge of their house's needs, makes sure they follow the rules, and are their house's voice in times of crisis.
* ClusterFBomb: Yvonne got off a good one towards Darren.
* ColdBloodedTorture:
** Iapyx subjected Ari to this for days and Icarus for ''years.''
** Simon was held and tortured for several weeks by Unit 53, culminating in getting his artificial arm ripped off.
* ColorCodedCharacters:
** Most characters have a color or two they're associated with. These colors are used for their speech and thoughts in the forums.
** Houses are also associated with specific colors. Lucian is red, Ekaterina is gold, Janus is green, and Tomas is blue.
* CombinationAttack: Cas and Naomi pulled this off during the fight with Vivian, enveloping her with water and pumping it full of Cas's plasma. (Naomi got caught in the crossfire, but that had been unavoidable.)
* CombinedEnergyAttack: Interlement cooperation.
* CommonTongue: The debarrier functions to invoke this.
* ConLang: Ian made up an entire math language to work with magical calculations.
* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Zig-zagged with elf empathy. Elves can communicate with animals based off their empathy, yes, but it isn't exact thoughts and they can only get a general idea of what the animal is feeling. It takes practice to speak with them effectively.
* CooldownHug:
** Ian outright refuses one of these when Socket was smashed.
** Marianne tackles Merchant in one of these when she thought he got shot.
** Tomas in general. Seriously, these kids are so huggy it's ridiculous.
* CoolMask: End, before he regained his original body.

-------

* AnotherDimension: There are several dimension rips scattered around the area, though most of them lead to one PocketDimension and little else. A few are more prominent, though, including the Nine Circles of Hell and the Duat.

* AnyoneCanDie: No holds barred. Side characters have died, main characters have died... the only thing stopping some characters from dying is simply because it's not their time yet, or someone needs them alive for a little longer.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Several have been found, mostly in the custody of the Secret Organization.
** Mari and Simon have retrieved a HandOfGlory, a gristly artifact made from the hand of a thief while the thief still lives.
** End's shell, a memento from Della, is an ArtifactOfDoom for sirens.
** Simon collected a number of these for a customer that turned out to be Unit 53, who in turned used them to create a bomb.
* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Tends to be a staple for balls. Halloween has a thunderstorm and fake bats, while Christmas has fake snow drifting down from the ceiling.
* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler:Vivian's letters to Violet]] can read this way.
* AudienceParticipation: Rose's storybook inserts the readers into the story and lets them finish it. If they don't finish properly, Rose can reset the story, but only once per tale.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Several of these. Endymion, Icarus, Thetis, Mirabelle...
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Ekaterina in general specializes in this - many students are very good at noticing small things off the bat, and piece together information from that.
* BabysittingEpisode: There are chicken nuggets that can revert the consumer into a child. End has been the victim more than once.
* BackFromTheDead: Perdix, and [[spoiler:Chang]]. Also Ian. Multiple times. Nobody's even surprised anymore.
* BadFuture: The "everyone dies" AU.
* TheBadGuysWin:
** Leah may have been chased from the campus, but she still got her hands on the taint.
** Simon was successfully abducted by Unit 53, and all the backup that he brought along didn't do him any good.
%% * BadassCrew: Marianne's Secret Organization squad.
* BadassFamily: Literally everyone in Ziza's family is involved in magick archaeology in some way.
* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: The entire premise of the world. While there are fantastical things one can do with magic, if one oversteps the balance of the world they'll get punished, which is why taint [[spoiler:and fade]] exist in the first place.
* BanOnMagic: Certain magic causes the caster to contract taint or fade, and for those reasons those spells are forbidden. It doesn't stop the Blood Pact, though.
* BastardBoyfriend:
** ''Faust.''
** Orion also counts, but on a slightly lesser scale.
* BatterUp: Janus keeps a bat in their house for... unknown purposes.
* BattleCouple:
** Yin and Deux.
** Simon and Mari, sometimes.
* BattleDiscretionShot: The events that caused Lara to lose her eye are never actually explored in-guild, though it can be found in [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/journal/?mode=view&post_id=34614895&u=28022325 Jenn's journal]] as some drabble.
* BeatTheCurseOutOfHim: Iapyx attempts to this to Icarus. [[spoiler:It backfires once Naomi and Cas throw one last desperate attack.]]

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The Maker forces Ice Cream Team (and some Secret Organization members) through a long, pointless labyrinth designed to confuse them. If they lost at any of the stages, they would die.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Justus's sewers are large enough to walk through, hiding an entrance to the Catacombs and a teleport stone to the Secret Organization. The sewers in the Maker's lab in Romania also qualify.
* AcademyOfAdventure: The force of Merlin's power tears open dimensional rips, which students can freely explore. There are three towns, one across the harbor, each with their own atmosphere and places to visit. And, of course, there's the forest where Carrmin resides and the extensive Catacombs that stretch underneath the campus, the forest, Justus, and... who knows where else.
* ActionDad: Barad, Ramses, Sebastian, and Fado all qualify.
* ActionSurvivor: Characters that manage to survive the events of every plot tend to qualify.
* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The Murky Trout Pub.
* AdultsAreUseless: The professors, at any given time, are more or less useless. Even the Headmaster proves to be completely unhandy to have around most of the time. Averted, however, in the case of Secret Organization agents.
* AerithAndBob: Kids come to the Academy from all over the globe, so names can run from Zachary and Alex to Snezhana and Lucia.
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead:
** Icarus is fond of ruffling Yvonne's hair to the point that no one is allowed to do it but him.
** Orion does this to Marianne. Merchant is not amused in the slightest.
** Zigzagged with Muna; nobody is allowed to touch his head but Firuz.
* AfterActionPatchUp: After a tense situation, there's always a cooldown period where the currently-played character group gets to rest. Popular places to be healed include Simon's cart, Xander's house, and Marianne's salon.
* AirVentPassageway: Rowan goes through one of these on food group's quest to save Axel.
* AlchemyIsMagic: Alchemy is a subclass of practitioner, largely concerned with magical circles and EquivalentExchange. It's also pretty handy to create especially magical components enchanters are able to use for enchanting.

* AllYourPowersCombined: A central theme to interelement magic. Interelement magic combines two or more elements to control a third type. Specific examples include lavawielding (fire + earth), weatherwielding (air + water + optional lightning/ice), and [[MemeticMutation Darude]]wielding (earth, aka sand, + air)
* AlternateUniverse:
** The coffeeshop AU.
** And the apartment complex AU.
** And the RPG AU.
** And the badass AU.
** And the reincarnation AU, which follows the bad ending AU.
** Also the medium awareness AU where everyone totally understands they're actually fictional.
** And the sitcom AU.
** And the hero AU.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Barad and Zoya, AKA Muna's parents. Well, mostly Barad. Pretty much all Barad. Just Barad. Lance also qualifies easily.
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The time period can be most easily explained as "modern-day" as timeskips often take the RP far into the future. For example, the third plot takes place in the year 2020.
* AmputationStopsSpread: [[spoiler:Best way to stop fade in its tracks? Break the afflicted area. You lose it forever, but at least you won't have to live as a stone statue.]]
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Characters will sometimes be abruptly dropped to focus on a different one after a while.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: The Deities, who are all partially animal to some extent.

* AnimeHair: Several characters suffer from this.

* EveryoneIsBi: The majority of characters are either at ''least'' bi or ace.

Don't worry about anyone looking over your shoulder. Only those with Sight - the ability to see things for what they really are - can read the true contents of this letter. The Blind, those lacking sight (primarily made up of mundanes, the nonmagick folk) will only see an ordinary letter to [[http://i.imgur.com/vco2Qx9.png one]]'s lover.\\\

** Also, the final Black Dragon event, with [[http://i.imgur.com/koSEPcu.png three]] characters biting the dust.

* DarkSecret: Almost every student - no, almost every ''character'' - has a skeleton or [[http://i.imgur.com/duzACbc.png five]] in the closet. Secrets range from [[spoiler:being a literal mask]] to [[spoiler:turning half-fish]] to [[spoiler:really, really liking mustard]] to [[spoiler:straight up murder.]]

* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Each Blood Pact Unit is comprised of [[http://i.imgur.com/CyAqpBH.png six]] members, all specializing in something different, and together they're supposed to make a good team. Units eat together, sleep together, and work together, so they often fall ino this trope.

* MediumAwareness: The characters sometimes lean on the [[http://i.imgur.com/qQhYvUZ.png four]]th wall, wondering if they're just the figment of some cruel god's imagination.

** End is the land and the mage, as he is the most stable of the three and relies the most on magic. Since Shanta has stepped down from being the land, he has stepped up to support the other [[http://i.imgur.com/HPAU2SG.png two]].