History VideoGame / DivinityDragonCommander

* BreakTheHaughty: The events of the Harrowridge genocide on both Yorrick and Edmund's parts. Yorrick tries to fathom some reason why the Undead would of have murdered the Elves, but can't come up with one and is reduced to gibberish before condemning the genocide with quiet hatred. Edmund is a much more direct example to come out of the affair: the last you see of him before the investigation is him contemptuously spitting that he'll 'hop to it'. [[HeroicBSOD He comes back in shock at what he's seen.]]

* TheIngenue: Princess Lohannah was brought up to be the "embodiment of elven ideals". She starts painfully naive of the customs of other races and necessities of politics, but grows more pragmatic and competent as the story continues.

*** The medical unit will sometimes say something along the lines of "[[{{Series/House}} Everybody lies]], even those who are dying.

* ShoutOut: A couple unit quotes
** Armors have [[Music/SirMixALot big guns and they cannot lie.]]
** Juggernauts will declare "Film/ApocalypseNow" upon being given a target.
** Shamans are sick of soldiers taking [[Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim arrows to the knee]]

** The medical unit will sometimes say something along the lines of "[[{{Series/House}} Everybody lies]], even those who are dying.

* BreakTheHaughty: The events of the Harrowridge genocide on both Yorick and Edmund's parts. Yorick tries to fathom some reason why the Undead would of have murdered the Elves, but can't come up with one and is reduced to gibberish before condemning the genocide with quiet hatred. Edmund is a much more direct example to come out of the affair: the last you see of him before the investigation is him contemptuously spitting that he'll 'hop to it'. [[HeroicBSOD He comes back in shock at what he's seen.]]

* TheComicallySerious: By virtue of having the hat of TheFundamentalist, Yorick, the Undead councilor, falls into this quite often. One IdleAnimation involves Yorick briefly using his hands as puppets.
-->'''Yorick''': To show our appreciation, we are organizing an event completely novel among the Undead. A... 'party' I believe the word is. Trinculo also suggested something called an... "[[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy orgy]]"? But Prospera shooed him away.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The organ donation debate event reveals Yorick to be this in regards to medicine: despite such things being forbidden by his religion, and repeated votes against medical ordinances like national health care, Yorick is willing to...ahem...make an exception for the sake of fixing his brittle knee.

--->'''Yorick''': I bet you were one of those youths that brought a candle under the bed sheet to leer at dirty drawings in the night! That's how fires start, you know! [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial And if you're not lucky enough to come back as an undead, you... but er... never mind all that... I seem to have lost my train of thought]].

* UnstoppableRage: Choose to bar religion from public school curriculum and [[TheFundamentalist Yorick]] will, as one might expect, throw a truly spectacular tantrum.
-->'''Yorick:''' [[ThisCannotBe This is]] ''[[ThisCannotBe impossible]]''...intolerable...beyond comprehension! May the Seven tear you limb from limb! May they boil you in demon's feces! How will our children learn morality and compassion when you ban the Seven Scriptures!?! MAY MAGGOTS DEVOUR YOU ALIVE!

* PoliticalIdeologies: Each of the five races seems to fall on one of the typical five basic political standpoints, though, like real people, they can break with their traditional philosophies based upon the situation. They are, from right to left...
** Undead: Reactionary, dedicated to upholding the status quo and are highly theocratic.
** Dwarves: Conservative, support traditional "family values" and often back the military. They also have something of a capitalistic streak, as they oppose most business regulation and have a noted dislike of the taxman.
** Imps: Technocratic centrists, highly pragmatic and focused on simply looking out for number one.
** Lizards: Liberal, strongly back the ideals of progressive ideology, to the point of actually having a fairly democratic society. Their councilor even tells this straight to the Emperor, and actively bemoans his ilk's tendency to curtail the rights of his people for the sake of his own ego. On the other hand, they're more than willing to pressure others to play along even if their own societies don't want to, such as advocating that all races have referendums on democracy whether they want it or not, and advocating things like smoking bans and limiting reproductive rights for imps.
** Elves: Radical, have views everyone else considers "out there" and tend to propose highly irregular legislation. They also have an environmentalist bent.

--> '''Trooper:''' "Pay me in blood!"

--> '''Trinculo:''' "Commander, here was me actually agreeing with one of Yorrick's proposals. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall You'll not find another opportunity to please both the Imps and Undead again anytime soon.]]"

--> '''Trinculo:''' "Damn the Gods, for there are none, and damn petty morality, for it is a break on progress."

--> '''Edmund:''' "Must have been a quaint locale indeed."

--> '''Maxos:''' "Oh, to be a youth of 500 again."

--> '''Aida:''' "Always got me drinks, that trick. Never got me any boys though."

** Interestingly, talking with Catherine about the place reveals that it isn't a {{Utopia}} as such places are usually portryaed, but is actually more repressive than the rest of Rivellon when it comes to gender politics. To clarify, in the greater Empire, women are treated slightly worse than men, but can easily be high ranking officials or generals with little fuss made of their gender, while in Westbridge, men were essentially slaves based solely on the virtue of their gender. Catherine ended up out of a throne and in your employ when a huge rebellion by the men ousted her and her sexist regime.

* NotSoAboveItAll: If you convince Henry to bond with the other generals over poker, Edmuond denounces it afterwards as "the past-time of booze-hounds and imbeciles".

The single-player campaign adds RPGElements by means of the dragon commander's actions aboard his airship, the Raven. As autocratic leader of an empire and military force, there are decisions to be made in both domestic and military affairs. Decisions have an impact on the approval ratings of the empire's five primary species. Many decisions also have an impact on the strategic map itself -- for example, enacting conscription is unpopular with most species, but permanently reduces unit construction costs.

* TheIngenue: Princess Lohanna was brought up to be the "embodiment of elven ideals". She starts painfully naive of the customs of other races and necessities of politics, but grows more pragmatic and competent as the story continues.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: The overarching theme behind the Elvish and Undead princess storylines. Barring a few times where she thanks or prays to [[CrystalDragonJesus The Seven]], Ophelia is nowhere close to [[TheFundamentalist Yorrick]] in terms of devotion, and is blatantly going against the decree of her people by seeking a cure for her disease. Lohanna's story revolves around her breaking away from elvish tradition and trying things forbidden to her people (meat, wine, etc.) and becoming noticeably less sheltered over time.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Subverted. Elven culture is put to the forefront during Lohanna's storyline and shown to often be as repressive and closeminded as the Undead side, just on the other wing: hard left as opposed to hard right. The elf councilperson Oberon is also not above making some truly mind-boggling decisions (the homophobic elf inquisitor debacle comes to mind), and it is well within your power to [[ScrewYouElves shut him down]].

* TheKingdom: Another social option for you, it's quite easy to build a society of libertine values, social freedoms and open government with only a few counsel meetings.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Subverted somewhat. The elf councilperson is very enthusiastic and bombastic in defending his typical environmentalist and civil rights agenda, but is merely disappointed when you don't listen to him. He's also not above making some truly mind-boggling decisions (the homophobic elf inquisitor debacle comes to mind), and it is well within your power to [[ScrewYouElves shut him down]].

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: In-game, taking your dragon form requires sacrificing at least twenty people every battle. No mention of made of this anywhere in the story, nor does it have any impact on people's opinion of you.

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Corvus the demon is responsible for every unpleasant event of the protagonist's life.]]

** The medical unit will sometimes say something along the lines of "[[Series/House Everybody lies]], even those who are dying.

** Interestingly, talking with Catherine about the place reveals that it isn't a {{Utopia}} as one might expect, but is actually more repressive than the rest of Rivellon when it comes to gender politics. To clarify, in the greater Empire, women are treated slightly worse than men, but can easily be high ranking officials or generals with little fuss made of their gender, while in Westbridge, men are essentially slaves based solely on the virtue of their gender.

** [[StrawHypocrite Her dialogue also implies that she would be perfectly fine with most of the iniquities in your armed forces if they favored women.]] Doesn't help that she rails against misogyny while espousing highly misandristic opinions.

* {{Jerkass}}: Yorrick, for one. He starts off a pompous fundamentalist windbag and ends a pompous fundamentalist windbag. Catherine, too: even her compliments, should you earn them, all end with a heavy-handed slap about how much she hates men, and at no point does she even ''begin'' to acknowledge her bigotry like Edmund does. Just give her a click during ''your own goddamn wedding day'' and see [[KickTheDog how apologetically low she can be when she wants to.]]

* AssholeVictim: The Elven noble [[spoiler:whom Scarlett kills with extreme prejudice if you allow her]]. As a Witch Hunter, he has the authority to inflict truly horrific deaths on anyone found to be a witch. [[spoiler:This noble has been abusing his position by declaring homosexuals (or suspected homosexuals) to be witches in order to justify their painful execution. While extra-judicial vigilante justice may not be a good thing, the fact of the matter was that he was so highly placed it seemed that he would have gotten off scot-free with his crimes otherwise. Even your Elven Councillor is aware of his deeds but to protect the good name of the elves he is willing to *bribe* you just to turn a blind eye.]]

The game has two primary phases with two genres. The strategy map is where the player determines army movements, building placement, research, and the use of strategic cards in typical TurnBasedStrategy fashion, reminiscent of a ''{{Risk}}'' map. When opposing armies occupy the same territory, the player can let the computer auto-resolve the battle, or opt to take command personally in a RealTimeStrategy engine, with the most notable feature being your ability to [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons turn into a dragon and personally partake in the battles.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Yorrick, for one. He starts off a pompous fundamentalist windbag and ends a pompous fundamentalist windbag. Catherine, too: even her compliments, should you earn them, all end with a heavy-handed slap about how much she hates men, and at no point does she even ''begin'' to acknowledge her bigotry like Edmund does.

* HistoricalInJoke: One event involves the Dwarven Scientist [[CharlesDarwin Darles Charwin]] and the controversy surrounding the hypothesis of his latest research paper, [[spoiler: specifically, that Lizards and Orcs have a common ancestor.]] Much like in real life, everyone gets the meaning of this assertion completely wrong and it accidentally creates a small wave of racism.

** Camila will always change into a more queenly outfit, but the stricter path gives a more severe wardrobe while the freer path is slightly more relaxed in look.

** Ophelia changes her whole look. She is normally topless and either [[spoiler: a vampire, a robot, a robot with flesh covering, or a human.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: The events of the Harrowridge genocide on both Yorrick and Edmund's parts, Yorrick noticeably less so: his initial horror at the deed is quickly subsumed by the '[[KickTheDog realization]]' that the [[VictimBlaming elves must have done something truly]] dreadful to earn such a fate. Edmund is a much straighter example to come out of the affair: the last you see of him before the investigation is him contemptuously spitting that he'll 'hop to it'. [[HeroicBSOD He comes back in shock at what he's seen.]]

* TheComicallySerious: By virtue of having the hat of TheFundamentalist, Yorick, the Undead councilor, falls into this quite often.