History Webcomic / InOurShadow

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Bray Stormfront. Lord Tempest Brushfire. Kangaroos seem to have a knack for this.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Bray Stormfront. Lord Brushfire. Kangaroos seem to have a knack for this.

* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler: When Emperor Schorl first used the neural flare he had a close bond with a lab rat named Lehna. After she died of old age, he spotted her granddaughter. It's implied that all of the lab rats he's had as personal advisers, including Quartz and now his great-granddaughter Clover, have served the same purpose.]]

Book 3 has started around late February 2022, labelled "In Our Shadow 2".

* AlbinosAreFreaks: Labrats are albino rats whose ancestors were used in human experiments with telepathy, though in a subversion they used their talents to become the Empire's warrior aristocracy. In Book 3 Marble, a labrat pup living in a squirrel-majority settlement, is a bit of an outcast because of her species and unusual fur color (the fact that labrats are albino practically forgotten), and her only friend is an albino squirrel named Seed.

* BearsAreBadNews: Bears were bred to be smaller and more docile by the Rat Empire, but a bear schoolteacher still manages to fight off her rat minders and get her mixed-species students safely to Australia when the submission signal goes down. At the start of Book 3 the bears have managed to build an empire that has almost unified Eurasia [[spoiler: before the kangaroos intervene.]]

* FullCircleRevolution: In Book 1 the Rat Empire rules the northern hemisphere with an iron fist and periodically ventures into the southern to trash other polities that seem overly ambitious. In Book 3 the Kangaroo Kingdom does the same with the hemispheres reversed, albeit under a pretense of preventing stagnation [[spoiler: and getting the humans' attention]] by keeping the successor states in a constant state of war.

* InterspeciesAdoption: Marble, the protagonist of Book 3, is a labrat raised by an opossum and a human, [[spoiler: though her "mom" intends to use a neural flare on her and make her into a new Emperor Schorl, and her "dad" seems most interested in seeing what'll happen.]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Kangaroos. Lord Brushfire responded to Amethyst's request that they give up their weapons by sending her MiniMecha flying. Of course, it got him killed seconds later.

** In Book 2 it turns out [[spoiler: that an isolated group of lemurs making an anthropological documentary in Africa survived, along with Jayrunner.]]

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: How the rats try to justify enslaving and exterminating entire species to ensure their own safety. No one else buys it.
* ImmortalityImmorality: Schorl is immortal, wants to live forever, and is ready to commit the worst atrocities to remain immortal and in power.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Schorl only cares about himself.
-->'''Schorl:''' "I stopped caring about the plans of you mortals long ago. The only thing I care about is if I'm in danger. Everything else is irrelevant."

The story of Book 1 opens on Brianna, a numbat, and Bray, a wallaby, escaping from a prison camp run by the highly advanced and xenophobic Rat Empire, who recently conquered Australia seeking human technology. Together they seek a human device called a "neural flare" that Bri believes can save the world from the rats, or seal its fate. Book 2 continues from where Book 2 left off, exploring the conflict with the rats.

* Stinger: [[spoiler:It turns out Bray is still alive, and unfortunately Schorl might be a KarmaHoudini as well]].

The story opens on Brianna, a numbat, and Bray, a wallaby, escaping from a prison camp run by the highly advanced and xenophobic Rat Empire, who recently conquered Australia seeking human technology. Together they seek a human device called a "neural flare" that Bri believes can save the world from the rats, or seal its fate.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He wasn't as evil as he is now, but in his youth, Schorl was very close to his boydguard (and ImpliedLoveInterest) Lehna. Her death took a big toll on his sanity. [[spoiler:Just as he's about to die in the explosion of the Shroud Pylon he's in, he sheds a SingleTear while saying that he's sorry he couldn't keep the promise he made to her of staying alive to carry on her memory forever, showing that even after her death he continued to cherish her memory.]]

* RacialRemnant: In Book 2 it turns out [[spoiler: that an isolated group of lemurs making an anthropological documentary in Africa survived, along with Jayrunner. And the stinger of Book 1 suggested that a human ship has been circling the solar system for millennia and is now coming back.]]

* AbsoluteXenophobe: Rats are an entire species of {{Dirty Coward}}s who can't feel safe unless every other species is either cowed into submission, either through the "submission signal" broadcast throughout the Northern Hemisphere or brute force, or extinct.

* FamousLastWords:
** [[DefiantToTheEnd "Not by your hand..."]] [[spoiler:Quartz.]]
** "You know... Now that I've finally come to it... Forty-six years is... far... too..." [[spoiler:Schorl. We'll never know if he was going to say 'long' or 'short'.]]

* RealityEnsues: Quartz, an old rat, uses for the first time a kangaroo firearm for which he has zero training and starts shooting around as if he was in an action movie. The recoil ends up breaking his wrist.

** The lemurs hope that the human mechs will let them do this. [[spoiler: It only makes them a target for the rats, who easily destroy Madagascar as they [[RealityEnsues didn't have enough time mastering their new technology]] compared to the rats, [[CurbStompCushion Jayrunner's brief holding action notwithstanding]].]]

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The rats are in many ways what might have happened if the Nazis succeeded.

** At first glance, Schorl seems to be rather laid back for an EmperorScientist, even sometimes downright quircky with his tics or his inability to remember his followers' names. But he's also perfectly willing to commit genocides against other species and [[spoiler:is a cold ManipulativeBastard who uses his people's fear (and uses a signal to amplify their fear) in order to keep his power. When one rat discovers his plan, he kills him without a second-thought.]]

** JerkassRealization: ... and the aformentioned speech makes Brianna realize how much of a {{Jerkass}} she can be sometimes.

** [[spoiler:Quartz, [[FakeDefector who joined the kangaroos only to betray them later]] and killed Bray, Ms Granite and tried to kill Lady Brushfire,]] is killed by the same kangaroo he tried to murder earlier.

* LastSecondChance: Halite (real name: Quartz) tries one last time to convince Schorl to stop his evil totalitarian ways for the good of the rat people [[spoiler:by pretending to be on the verge of death and having a heartfelt conversation with him.]] When it becomes clear Schorl won't do it, [[spoiler:Quartz defects]]. [[spoiler: [[FakeDefector Except not.]]]]

* CurbStompBattle: Deconstructed with the rats. Their extreme technological superiority means that they've usually been on the giving end of this sort of fight. This means that they are so used to easy victories and technological dominance that it's ruined their adaptability as a military and made them completely incapable of fighting on even ground. [[HollywoodTactics They don't bother at all with things like strategy, tactics, or chain of command]], [[UnskilledButStrong instead relying entirely on superior numbers and firepower]], and have no idea how to deal with an opponent that can actually fight back.

** At first glance, Schorl seems to be rather laid back for an EmperorScientist, even sometimes downright quircky with his tics or his inability to remember his followers' names. But he's also perfectly willing to commit genocides against other species and [[spoiler:is a cold ManipulativeBastard who uses his people's fear (and uses a signal to amplify their fear) in order to keep his power. When one rat discovers his plan, he kills him without a second-thought]].
** [[spoiler:Quartz]] looks like a reasonable PunchClockVillain who eventually [[spoiler:has a HeelFaceTurn when Schorl goes too far]]. In reality, [[spoiler:he's a ManipulativeBastard who's trying to kill both Bray and Schorl to reinstate the lab rats as rulers of the Rat Empire.]]
* FinalSolution: Schorl's response to learning that [[spoiler:lemurs can use human mechs is to order Madagascar wiped off the map.]] Later, he orders the same fate for [[spoiler:Australia once the Twilight Shroud goes down]].

* HumanitysWake: It's not clear how exactly humanity died out, but there was both a nuclear war and an ice age.

* NoSell: Rat point-defense is very good. Even if something gets past their lasers, they can use gravity manipulation to create small singularities.

* SmugSnake: Lab rats, due to their game-breaking ability to read others' minds and therefore to counter their every moves, are generally very full of themselves. But they are not as smart or as competent as they think. As Brianna puts it best, mind reading powers are useless when the user isn't competent enough.

* TookALevelInBadass: The lemurs hope that the human mechs will let them do this. [[spoiler: It only makes them a target for the rats, who easily destroy Madagascar- [[CurbStompCushion Jayrunner's brief holding action notwithstanding]].]]

* YourHeadASplode: [[spoiler: The general effect when Lady Brushfire [[https://www.deviantart.com/kitfox-crimson/art/In-Our-Shadow-page-346-749713598crushes]] Quartz's tiny rat skull in her bare hand.]] Though a later comic shows that despite the blood geyser she only cracked his skull.

* EvilAlbino: Clover is absolutely one. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with her great-grandfather Quartz, who is implied to have been only ever a PunchClockVillain at worst and later became a DefectorFromDecadence. [[spoiler: [[FakeDefector Except not.]]]]

** [[spoiler:Quartz]] looks like a reasonable PunchClockVillain who eventually [[spoiler:has a HeelFaceTurn when Schorl goes too far]]. [[spoiler:In reality, he's a ManipulativeBastard who's trying to kill both Bray and Schorl to reinstate the lab rats as rulers of the Rat Empire.]]

* TheDogShotFirst: Amethyst starts to use lethal force against the kangaroos only after Lord Brushfire hits her with enough strength to break her armor.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Clover is an insufferable SmugSnake, but even she is apalled when Schorl callously blows up a portion of a rat city, killing thousands of rats, just to have a better shot at the heroes in the Human base on the Moon. In general, she seems a little unnerved by Schorl's willingness to sacrifice the lives of his rat citizens to further his goals.

* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Quartz]] fancies himself as a great schemer who will [[spoiler:kill all the Flare users and give the power back to the old Labrat Aristocracy]]. However, while he manages to [[spoiler:kill Bray]], he's nowhere near as close to succeeding [[spoiler:overthrowing Schorl]] when [[spoiler:Lady Brushfire kills him]].

* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Quartz]] fancies himself as a great schemer who will [[spoiler:kill all the Flare users and give the power back the Rat Empire back the old Labrat Aristocracy]]. However, while he manages to [[spoiler:kill Bray]], he's nowhere near as close to succeeding [[spoiler:overthrowing Schorl]] when [[spoiler:Lady Brushfire kills him]].