History Sandbox / Theriocephalus

* UniversallyBelovedLeader: Magnus was an extremely popular ruler in his day, thanks being the Empire's saviour after the great Chaos invasion and his intense and public piety, and became Emperor with nothing more than token opposition after mending the millenial rift that had broken the Empire apart. His reputation only grew after his death, and modern Imperials view his as the best thing to ever happen to the Empire since Sigmar himself.

* KillItWithFire: Wood can burn, indeed, making the Dryads, Tree Kins and Tree Men especially vulnerable to it. As a result, they get the ''Flammable'' rule.

* NatureSpirit: Athel Loren is chock full of these spirits who are so old they remember a time when the Wood Elves weren't present. While Dryads and Treemen are the most prominent, the lore indicates that many other types of them, such as naiads and other undescribed spirits, dwell within the forest, just not openly fighting with the Asrai.

* WhenTreesAttack: Or at least when spirits possessing trees attack. A significant portion of the Wood Elves' army is made up of various creatures made of animated wood and plants such as Dryads, Tree-kin and Treemen, who are even more eager to kill interlopers then the Wood Elves themselves.

Winged humanoids resembling elven women with batlike wings and cruel talons. The range widely across the world, and harpy colonies can be found lairing on desolate islets and sea stacks, the caves and dark places of the Chaos Wastes and Troll Country, and the dark depths of Old World forests and mountain ranges. They're opportunistic predators and use their entrancing songs to lure prey to their doom, but are just as happy to scavenge for their meals. Flocks of harpies gather around Beastman herds in hope to glean the fruits of their slaughter, while others perch among the towers of the Dark Elves' strongholds and follow their armies and fleets to war. The Dark Elves themselves consider the harpies to favored by Khaine, and greatly admire their bloodthirsty and cruelty.

* HarpingOnAboutHarpies: Bat-winged harpies appear as a flying unit for the Dark Elves and Beasts of Chaos. They're a OneGenderRace of winged female humanoids, a bunch of scavengers and snatchers. In terms of beauty, they're depicted as attractive but only from the belly up to the neck as a "parody of a woman's body". They often lair in desolate islets and sea stacks and use their entrancing songs to lure sailors to their doom, but others follow Dark Elf armies or Beastman warherds around to feed on the carnage that follows them.
* MonstrousCannibalism: Should a harpy fall in battle, its flock-maters will happily fall on the body and devour it.

[[folder:Vessels]]
!Warning: Massive Spoilers Follow
!!!'''Affiliated Characters''': The Knight, the Hollow Knight/Pure Vessel, the Broken Vessel/Lost Kin
[[quoteright:467:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hk_vessels.png]]

The creations of the Pale King, created by the thousands in hopes that one would be sufficiently hollow to contain the Radiance without being itself corrupted.

* TheBlank: Their faces are hard, blank white masks whose only facial features are a pair of motionless eyes that are essentially just holes bored directly through their crania.
* DisabilityImmunity: {{Invoked}} by the Pale King in his plans of the Vessels. Being "hollow" means that [[spoiler:the Radiance won't be able to corrupt anything if the individual has no sense of identity or will]].
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler:The Pale King's plan in creating the ideal, Pure Vessel centered around shaping a being without any will, mind, or desires. Since the Infection functions by corrupting and infecting minds, the only way to prevent it from taking over the Pure Vessel was for it to ''have'' no mind to latch on to.]]
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Many are implied to have made journeys similar to the Knight's, [[spoiler:somehow escaping the Abyss and climbing to the surface world]], but died either on their way up or while trying to return to Hallownest -- a dead Vessel is found in the Greenapth in Hornet's arena, the Broken Vessel died in the Ancient Basin, and a large number of dead Vessels are found strung up with other prey in Nosk's lair.
* LivingShadow: The Vessels are [[spoiler:constructs of the liquid darkness of the Void bound inside of physical shells -- breaking these shells allows the darkness to emerge, as seen in the Shades created when the Knight dies or the Siblings that wander in the Abyss]].
* NoBiologicalSex: Vessels have no biological sex or gender identity, due to being [[spoiler:artificial constructs created by the Pale King and being essentially molds of Void contained by shells]].
* RoyalBlood: The Vessels are [[spoiler:the children of the Pale King and the White Lady, who were cast into the Abyss to be transformed into creatures of the Void]].
* TheSpeechless: Vessels lack mouths, making them incapable of speech.

[[folder:Greenpath Vessel]]
[[quoteright:149:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/greenpath_vessel.png]]

A familiar figure encountered in the room where Hornet is first fought. After the battle, the Mothing Cloak can be picked up from its body.
----
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Like all others of its kind, [[spoiler:it somehow managed to escape the Abyss and climb to the surface world]] and was implicitly on a journey very similar to the Knight's, but only progressed as far as the Greenpath before perishing.
* PosthumousCharacter: It died an unspecified amount of time before the Knight reaches the Greenpath, and only its prone body is encountered.
* RobbingTheDead: You obtain the Mothwing cloak from its dead body.
[[/folder]]

!!Gazul

God of Death. Gazul is revered as a protector of the Dwarf dead and established the Dwarf tradition of venerating one's ancestors. He is also the reason they despise the Undead. Interestingly, he is the only Dwarf in the setting portrayed with a sword.

[[folder:Northern Tribes]]
!!Norscans
The Norscans, also known as the Northmen or Norse, are the natives of the mountainous peninsula of Norsca, beyond Kislev and the Sea of Claws. They are fearsome warriors and fearless sailors, and the sight of their raider-crewed longships inspire dread across the northern coasts of the Old World. Their ancestors, the Norsii, were one of the many tribes who inhabited what would later became the Empire, and were infamous even then as raiders, warmongers and Chaos worshippers; when Sigmar came to power and united the Teutogens, Jutones, Ostagoths and all the others in a single nation, the Norsii were cast out and forced to retreat into the north.

* BoldExplorer: The Norscans are among the best navigators in the world, and have travelled to, raided, and established settlements all the way from the deserts of Araby and the jungles of Lustria. In many cases, they were the first Old Worlders to ever set eyes on these places.
* BornUnderTheSail: The Norscans are exceptionally good sailors, and take a great deal of pride in this. Their ships range farther than any other Old World group's, often reaching to the shores of Lustria, and they are also deeply feared for their adeptness at both lightning raids from the sea and for ship-to-ship combat.
* HornyVikings: The Norscans are fantasy Vikings in imposing heavy plate and intimidating horned helmets who worship the Chaos Gods. They love battle, slaughter and warfare like the French love their wine. They also have a penchant for being marked by the Chaos Gods in various ways.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The Norscans are, at the end of the day, willing and eager servants of the Chaos Gods, and can be unspeakably savage barbarians and raiders. However, they are also depicted as the least far gone of the major Chaos tribal groups, and tend to retain interests other than just fighting, killing, and slaving -- Norse explorers are a recurring theme in the setting, and there is occasional mention of Norscans being willing to work as mercenaries and even traders.

!!Kurgans
A steppe people that roam the eastern wastelands beyond the World's Edge Mountains, north of the Dark Lands and the Mountains of Mourn. The Kurgans war endlessly against one another to gain the Dark Gods' favors, occasionally riding out against the Kislevites, Chaos Dwarfs, and Ogres. They only join together rarely, when a mighty warlord can unite sufficient tribes to lead a full crusade against the forces of order. They are ancestral kin of the Gospodars, the ruling caste of Kislev, who share their tradition of horsemanship. They split apart long ago, when the shadow of Chaos first fell upon the steppes. Many tribes embraced Chaos, forsaking their ancient gods and spirits to follow the Ruinous Powers. Those that refused to do so were slaughtered, except for a confederation of tribes under the Khan-Queen Miska that instead fled east, settling in the lands north of the Empire and founding the Tzardom of Kislev.
----
* BornInTheSaddle: The Kurgans are excellent horseman and horse archers, and spend most of their lives wandering nomadically from battle to battle on the backs of their fearsome Chaos steeds.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Kurgans, being a fantasy counterpart to the Turkish tribes, tend to favour the axe and bow combination.
* HordesFromTheEast: They are nomads of the eastern steppes and wastelands, and usually alternate between raiding and pillaging Kislev and the Cathayans when they aren't fighting one another. They mostly operate in scattered bands and independent raiders but, when a major warlord rises, they invade Kislev and the Empire in full force, streaming through the northern passes of the World's Edge Mountains to raze and despoil everything in their path.
* WarElephants: While all Chaos tribes make use of war mammoths from time to time, Kurgan tribes such as the Dolgan are the most adept at catching, breaking, and training these beasts, jealously guard the methods by which they do so, and use them more commonly than anyone else.

!!Hung
Another nomadic tribe, the Hung roam the steppes of the farthest east, north of Cathay and Naggaroth. While they are as active and dangerous as their western kin, launching attacks on the Great Bastion and the Watchtowers of the Druchii as fearsome as any invasion of the Old World, few news of their doings make their way back to the Empire.
----
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: They are infamous for their faithlessness and treachery, and make no pacts that they don't intend to break in short order.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: They chiefly mirror the Huns and Xiongnu in style and dress and mostly war against Cathay and the Dark Elves, being seen in the Old World only very rarely.
* VillainOfAnotherStory: They are fully in the service of Chaos and would see all order and structure in the world torn down as gladly as all other Chaos Warriors. However, their immense distance from the primary setting means that they are functionally never seen among the Chaos hordes that invade the Old World. Instead, they war primarily against Cathay and the Dark Elves, creating campaigns as great as any Kurgan or Norse invasion of the Empire but which are simply not discussed in published work.

[[folder:Dragon Ogres]]
[[quoteright:497:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragon_ogre.png]]

Dragon Ogres are an ancient race of monstrous centaur-like beings, with horned, humanoid torsos on the bodies of giant four-legged reptiles. They are some of the very few beings to persist from the nearly-forgotten times before the Old Ones came to the world, and survived to the present days by selling their souls to Chaos for immortality and power at the price of sterility. No new Dragon Ogres have been born since prehistory; the eldest of their kind, called Shaggoths, are some of the oldest living things in the world. Despite their name, they are neither true Dragons nor true Ogres, and in fact are on very bad terms with both races.

* TheAgeless: Part of their bargain with Chaos was that they never age or weaken, and simply grow stronger and larger as the ages pass, although sufficient violence can still put them down for good.
* DraconicHumanoid: The Dragon Ogres are different from the usual fusion, since they're a centaur-like combination of an [[OurOgresAreHungrier ogre]] torso on a dragon's lower body. They're some of the most powerful and ancient of all creatures, as well as followers of the Dark Gods, but they share full dragons' tendency to spend centuries sleeping.
* DyingRace: Dragon Ogres cannot reproduce, and none have been born since they sold their souls to Chaos in the distant past. They are effectively immortal and extremely difficult to kill, but their numbers have slowly dwindled over the long ages as individual Dragon Ogres have died to battle or misfortune.
* EnergyAbsorption: Dragon Ogres are invigorated by lightning and electricity in general. Direct exposure to it refreshes them, heals their injuries, and fills them with strength.
* FantasticRacism: Despite their name, Dragon Ogres have had historically very poor relations with both true Dragons and Ogres. The fought open wars with Dragons in the times before the Old Ones, when they contested for rulership of what became the Old World. In later times, they developed an almost instant enmity with Ogres, resulting in further violence that drove them out of the mountains that the Ogres claimed as their homelands.
* HybridMonster: They are essentially centaurs with ogre instead of human and wingless dragon instead of horse.
* ImmortalProcreationClause: Invoked. The ancient Dragon Ogres asked the Lord of Change for immortality. He granted it, but also rendered them sterile. Most of the still-living Dragon Ogres consider this to be Tzeench's idea of a joke.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: Dragon Ogres resemble giant (some can look over city walls, and the oldest one is often mistaken for a mountain) horned humanoids from the waist up and wingless dragons from the waist down.
* OurOgresAreDifferent: Dragon Ogres are Chaos-aligned monsters resembling monstrous centaurs, with the body of a horned Ogre atop that of a wingless dragon-like beast. They are one of the oldest races in the setting, and perhaps the most dangerous Chaos minions. They aren't related to actual Ogres, as Dragon Ogres predate the arrival of the Old Ones while true Ogres were the last of the Old Ones' creations, and the two races have no fondness for one another. When they first met they instantly became enemies, and have fought many vicious wars over the ages, which culminated in the Dragon Ogres being driven out of the Mountains of Mourn where the Ogres live.
* StrongerWithAge: Dragon Ogres grow larger as they age. The youngest, who are still order than any human nation, are in the same size range as elephants. The true elders, who were ancient when the Old Ones came to the world, are immense. Kholek Suneater can look over city walls, and his father Krakanrok the Black was mistaken for a mountain at first (and even Archaon chose to sneak away from him rather than risk waking him up).
[[/folder]]

!Homestuck
[[folder:Robots]]
!! Sawtooth and Squarewave
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squarewave_and_sawtooth.png]]

A pair of rapping robots created by Dirk Strider. Sawtooth was designed to be unbeatable in a rap-off while Squarewave loses to Dirk every time.

Squarewave has spoken in [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/4541 a flash]] and speaks\\
ALMOST ENTIRELY IN PURE RAP\\
AFTER HE GOT FED UP WITH DIRK'S CRAP\\
HIS RHYMES THOUGH ARE PRETTY WEAK\\
DIRK BEATS HIM WITH ONLY A TWO LINE STREAK\\
HE ALSO USES STEREOTYPICAL RAPPER SLANG LIKE DOGG!!

* TheAce: Sawtooth was deliberately designed to be the greatest possible rap battler, and Dirk notes that he has never once managed to beat him in a rap-off.
* BigDamnHeroes: Sawtooth shows up to save Dirk after he's pinned down by dronebots.
%%* TheBigGuy: Sawtooth is ridiculously tall and silent.%%Not the trope.
%%* ButtMonkey: Squarewave.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Sawtooth is stated to be WalkingTheEarth, but later comes back to pull a BigDamnHeroes.
* ChekhovsGunman: They first appeared on Dave's wall as a poster, about three years of real-life time before their debut as full characters.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: They disappear at the end of the Trickster arc and are never mentioned again.
* ExoticEyeDesigns: Squarewave's eyes consist of concentric circles, one of which is more contracted than the other, leading to look like he constantly has MadEye, even though he's perfectly sane.
%%* EyesAlwaysShut: Sawtooth.
%%* InTheHood: Sawtooth.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Squarewave is associated with "Anbroids". Both robots are associated with chiptune music.
* MeaningfulName: They're named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_wave square]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawtooth_wave sawtooth]] waves.
* MoreDakka: Sawtooth shows up to save Dirk from the dronebots with a pair of giant torso-mounted missile racks.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Robotic characters in comic tend to be grey with obvious bolts and rivets, but otherwise resemble living creatures in form and outline, whereas these guys look more stylized, blocky, and overtly mechanical with mouths that resemble their namesake waves.
* RobotBuddy: Dirk created them to be companions and rap partners, and notes that Squarewave is somewhat close in behavior to a puppy.
%%* RuleOfSymbolism: They're pretty close to being just like the Striders. Squarewave even speaks in red text like Dave.
%%* SiblingYinYang: For some definition of siblings.
* WalkingTheEarth: According to Dirk, Sawtooth wanders the world, searching for opponents and demolishing any rappers foolish enough to challenge him.
* NoWaterproofingInTheFuture: Dirk ends Squarewave's attempt at rap battling him by dousing him with a bottle of soda, which promptly short-circuits the robot.
-->SQUAREWAVE: DAMN DOGG WHY AS A ROBOT I GOT TO BE SO PREDICTABLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO LIQUID LIKE THIS. IT AIN'T COOL!!!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wizards]]
!!Characters from ''Complacency of the Learned''
''Complacency of the Learned'' is a story written by both Rose and her Post-Scratch counterpart, Mom Lalonde. While Rose's story never amounted to much more than PurpleProse, Mom Lalonde's novels have become inexplicable best sellers.

The series is about a group of disciples of twelve great wizards who rebel against them under the influence of Calmasis, chief antihero and antagonist. The kids then murder each of the wizards in ironic ways, until only their leader, Zazzerpan, is left to duel him in a chess match. Roxy calls the books "dark," "inaccessibly written," and "exhaustingly heavy-handed", although still inspiring to her as an author of more lighthearted wizardfic.

WordOfGod is that Rose's wizardfic is about [[http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40585720/Combined_Formspring_Web_Aug-28-2011.htm#andrewhussie1158647790 twelve evil kids who influenced every dark event in history]], and thus a subconscious reflection of the trolls' role in creating the universe. Other characters in the series seem to correspond to the cherubs.

!!!Calmasis
[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calmasis_5.gif]]

Calmasis is the main antagonist of the series.

* AmbiguousGender: Consistently referred to as "s/he", due to being very androgynous.
%%* AntiHero: He's referred to this by Roxy, although evidence seems to suggest that s/he's closer to a VillainProtagonist.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: He challenges Zazzerpan, the greatest master of chess in the story's setting and previously unbeaten at the game, to a chess match and defeats him.
* TheCorrupter: He manages to turn other pupils against the Complacency.
%%* DeathByIrony: He's seemingly obsessed with them.
* MeaningfulName:
** ''Cal''masis, matching Caliborn and Calliope.
** His name is also similar to "kismesis".
** Also similar to [[http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheSalmakis.html Salmacis]], the nymph who was merged with Hermaphroditus to become the first hermaphrodite.
* VillainProtagonist: He torments and kills the Complacency for no real explored reason.
* VillainSue: An in-universe example. S/he wins a game of wizard chess even after being ''checkmated''. Most wizards use wands. Calmasis has a '''revolver'''.

!!!The Complacency
An order of twelve ancient wizards, who are steadily killed off by Calmasis over the story's course. Their known members include Zazzerpan the Learned, Frigglish, Executus, Smarny, Ockite the Bonafide, and Gastrell the Munificent.

* DoomedProtagonist: The basic plot of their in-universe story involves Calmasis steadily killing them all off.
* TheMagnificent: Some of their number, such as Zazzerpan, Ockite and Gastrell, are known by grandiose titles appended to their names.
* StrokeTheBeard: They have a habit of stroking and bothering their beards that could charitably be called compulsive. The excerpt seen in the comic spends a solid paragraph describing how they do it anywhere, on any occasion, as something of a default neutral pose.
* WizardBeard: As parodies of classic fantasy wizards, they're all provided with long, luxurious, silky beards.

!!!Zazzerpan the Learned
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zazzerpan.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:The granite statue of Zazzerpan in Rose's home.]]

Also known as the Predicant Scholar. Zazzerpan is the leader of the Complacency, a wizard of great renown, and the story's main protagonist.
----
* ChekhovsGunman: [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/358 The gigantic wizard statue in Rose's house]] is Zazzerpan the Learned. We don't know whether the statue was named for the character in her wizardfic, vice versa, or neither.
* TheMagnificent: He's typically referred to in full as Zazzerpan the Learned to signify his great arcane knowledge. He is also known as "the Predicant Scholar", meaning a learned man who preaches or publicly proclaims his knowledge, which also resembles a Prospitian or Dersite title.
* MythologyGag: His title's initials are PS, which, combined with his title resembling carapacian naming conventions, brings Webcomic/ProblemSleuth to mind.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Zazzerpan, the wisest of the Complacency's wizards, is a legendary chess player. He's so good that he's never lost a match and has apparently beaten '''gods'''.

!!!Frigglish
A wizard cursed and later killed by Calmasis.
----

* HybridMonster: Dragon Ogres can fight alongside the Warriors of Chaos. Being centaur-like mixes of muscly humanoid down to their stomachs and scaled quadrupeds below that, Dragon Ogres are strange but powerful monsters who act as a LightningBruiser shock-troops with Movement 7, Strength 5 and Toughness 4.

* WarElephant: While all Chaos tribes make use of war mammoths from time to time, Kurgan tribes such as the Dolgan are the most adept at catching, breaking, and training these beasts, jealously guard the methods by which they do so, and use them more commonly than anyone else.