History Webcomic / Phantomarine

%%* SeductiveMummy: The Fata Morgana, a group of undead stealth rangers wrapped in skin-tight bandages.

* ParentsInDistress: When [[spoiler:Vanna]] disappears after becoming Seabitten, [[spoiler:Pavel]] strives to find and rescue her from the Fata Morgana.

** The Fata Morgana bleach white regardless of their original skintone, and [[spoiler: seem to actually be the corpses of the Seabitten, puppeteered by Cheline to do her bidding.]]

* OutOfClothesExperience: After Vanna [[spoiler:gets bitten]], she disappears, leaving her clothing behind. Guess that explains the clothing choices of the Fata Morgana.

* MarkOfTheBeast: seaghosts possessed by Cheth display his characteristic black band tattoos on their arms, and a long line of fishbone tattoos on their backs.
%%* MessianicArchetype: Shoshana.

* HealingSpring: Bathing in the sacred waters of an Aquifer is believed to slow the spread of seabite.

* HealingPotion: Though it can't heal him, Vanna's mysterious medicine has succeeded in halting Pavel's seabite from spreading. He's five years past his life expectancy as a Seabite victim.

* HealingSpring: Bathing in the sacred waters of an Aquifer is believed to slow the spread of Seabite.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Anyone who is bitten by a seaghost slowly turns white and brittle [[spoiler: until they become the Fata Morgana]]. That being said, true death is not much better due to the fact that souls are forever stuck in the sea in an unending restless state as they suffer and fall apart. [[spoiler: This is not natural, and Cheth's defeat 5000 years ago ''caused this'', as he is supposed to be the psychopomp of the death but due to his injured status he is unable to continue his work, something that torments him]]

* DesecratingTheDead: Both Cheth and [[spoiler: Cheline]] do this in different ways. He wears their souls to mess with their loved ones, she

* DeadGuyPuppet: Turns out [[spoiler: the Fata Morgana]] are an example of this trope. [[GlassEye Their eyes have even been replaced by glass,]] and [[Mummy there's a good reason they wear bandages.]] Also see OfCorpseHesAlive below.

%%* FriendToAllLivingThings: Cal (but with ghost animals).

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Cheth is a terrifying FallenGod, but it's all but stated that the ancient Divine War was a farce and that Cheth used to be a benevolent God and held an important role as the shepard of souls.]] In fact, his primary objective is to ''fix'' the screwed up nature of the setting, and -- albeit with quite a bit of bickering -- he serves as the central benefactor of the cast.

* HazardousWater: The people are cautioned not to go into the sea for the fear of getting bitten by Seaghosts.

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: All Seaghosts to some degree, withering into ghostly husks or changing due to strong emotion. Even Cheth isn't immune.

* MarkOfTheBeast: Seaghosts possessed by Cheth display his characteristic black band tattoos on their arms, and a long line of fishbone tattoos on their backs.

** Halea is sinister from her first appearance, quickly becoming a threat to Pavel and his mother when she learns that he has survived his seabite longer than normally possible. [[spoiler: She is also behind Phaedra's assassination, as well as her father's.]]

** While Cheth ''is'' the GodOfTheDead, in truth he used to be the psychopomp of souls towards reincarnation. He is the main benefactor of the protagonist and his main goal is [[spoiler: to restore the natural order and finally let the countless billions of souls stuck in the sea move on.]]

* CataclysmBackstory: The ocean was cursed - and many islands were flooded and destroyed - in an event called the Fracture, in which Cheth's body was cast down and broken apart.

* ColorCodedElements: Subverted. Cheth, god of water, has a red motif (hence the Red Tide). His sister Cheline, goddess of fire, has a blue motif (hence the blue fire in her temples).

* CreepyTwins: Cheth often appears as a pair of tall, dark-haired [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals "twins"]], one male and one female. Because he puppeteers them both at the same time, they finish each others' sentences, wear the same facial expressions, and, in the event of injury, experience the other's pain.

* DeadGuyPuppet: Turns out the [[spoiler: Fata Morgana]] are an example of this trope. Their eyes have even been replaced by glass. Also see OfCorpseHesAlive below.

** If Phaedra can ask a question Cheth can't answer ''and'' if he asks a question she knows the answer to, then she and her crew get their lives back. [[spoiler: What Cheth didn't tell her was that she only saved ''her own'' life, and so her life force was divided between herself and her crew, condemning them to live as seaghosts.]]

* OceanPunk: The Candlelight Sea relies on ships, both sailboats and motorboats, for travel between its many islands.
* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: While Cheth is primarily referred to as male, he rarely restricts himself to a single gender. In fact, one of his favorite forms is taking on the forms of a male and female twin simultaneously.
** WordOfGod clarified he defaults to male pronouns, but is otherwise genderfluid.

* ParentsInDistress: [[spoiler: When Vanna disappears after becoming Seabitten, Pavel strives to find and rescue her from the Fata Morgana.]]

* PowersThatBe: Partially subverted, the names of the gods are well known but to the average person [[spoiler:they are incomprehensible, showing their power through the church and the Fata Morgana]]
* PrettyPrincessPowerhouse: Phaedra is a trained swordfighter and maritime commander, like the rest of her family line. She isn't strong enough to defeat Cheth in swordplay, but her skills are still nothing to scoff at.
* ProngsOfPoseidon: Shoshana's personal symbol and primary weapon was a trident. Given that she's the future leader of the Royal Marine Navy, it's quite clear that the trident is there to reinforce her nautical association.
* PullingThemselvesTogether: Cheth's Plesiosaurus form after Phaedra [[spoiler:sliced his head off at his neck]].
* FiendishFish: [[spoiler:Cheth, pre-Fracture. There's a reason why they call him the Bonefish.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Cheth's eyes turn red when he is experiencing extreme emotions

* RoyalRapier: Phaedra wields an awesome looking sword, to devastating results.

* ThePhoenix: Cheline appears as a four-winged peacock-like phoenix.

* WrittenByTheWinners: As time goes on, it's made clear that the conflict between Cheth and Cheline is not ''nearly'' as black and white as most people believe it is, and it seems that Shoshana was far from the CrystalDragonJesus the church claims her to be.

** Cheline is revered as the Mother Goddess of Life, whose daughter Shoshana saved the world from the evil god Cheth. She is the mainstream deity of the Candlelight Sea and Shoshana is a CrystalDragonJesus, the Prophetess who is predicted to one day come back to fix the sea.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Halea, who has undergone a drastic change.
* BigBad: Played with with Cheth and Halea [[spoiler: who is actually Cheline possessing Halea's corpse]].
** Cheth is the

* BigGood: Played with with Cheth, Shoshana and Cheline.
** Cheline is revered as the Mother Goddess of Life, whose daughter Shoshana saved the world from the evil god Cheth. Cheline is the mainstream deity of the Candlelight Sea and Shoshana is a CrystalDragonJesus, the Prophetess who is predicted to one day come back and fix the sea.
** While Cheth ''is'' the GodOfTheDead, in truth he used to be the psychopomp of souls towards reincarnation. He is the main benefactor of the protagonist and his main goal is to restore the natural order and finally let the countless billions of souls stuck in the sea move on.

* CrapSackWorld: Most of humanity is dispersed on a hellish water world. While life on the islands is generally okay, the ''entire'' ocean is plagued by ghosts who will attempt to devour any living creature they come across. Anyone injured by these ghosts becomes incurably cursed and is shunned by society, and will inevitably die and be consumed by the curse, becoming undead thralls. The only reason the sea can be navigated at all is because of a line of Lighthouses that emit a magical light that repels the ghosts, but the undead thralls are resistant to it and can even disable it during attacks. As if that wasn't bad enough, all of those miserable ghosts? That's the fate of ''everyone else''. There is no other afterlife or reincarnation system; once you die you're stuck forever in the sea as a decaying monster who serves as a toy for the GodOfTheDead. [[spoiler: Said Death God is [[GoodAllAlong trying to fix the situation]], but his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity opposite god has hijacked human society]] to sell the idea that he is evil and create a cult around herself.]]
* CreepyTwins: Cheth often appears as a pair of tall, dark-haired twins, one male and one female. Because he puppeteers them both at the same time, they finish each others' sentences, wear the same facial expressions, and, in the event of injury, experience the other's pain.

* CypherLanguage: The symbols for the God's Tongue are [[spoiler: a phonetic substitution cipher.]]

** Phaedra clearly misses her father, who she deeply admired, but calls her living mother "panicky".
** Played with concerning [[spoiler:Vanna, who is spirited away but not killed.]] She is shown as a kind maternal figure and even in deep pain she makes sure that her son has a store of medicine and a way to find help.
* DealWithTheDevil: There are two, but with a catch:
** If Phaedra can ask a question Cheth can't answer ''and'' if he asks a question she knows the answer to, then she and her crew get their lives back. [[spoiler: What Cheth didn't tell her was that she only saved ''her own'' life, and her life force was divided between herself and her crew, condemning them as seaghosts.]]
** Phaedra now has to find an artifact that can resurrect herself and her crew by the year's end. If she doesn't....Cheth will come to claim her.
** [[spoiler:Amos]] is obeying [[spoiler:Halea]] on the belief that she will bestow her gift upon mankind, despite her orders resulting in the death of his son. He attempts to protest that she could have at least given him a funeral, but she shoots him down, claiming that feeding the seagulls was honor enough.

* TheDividual: Cheth. He is particularly fond of taking the form of a pair of CreepyTwins.

* JerkassGods: Cheth wastes no time in psychologically taunting Phaedra with her dead father when she angers him.

* OutOfClothesExperience: After Vanna [[spoiler:gets bitten]], she disappears leaving her clothing behind. Guess that explains the clothing choices of the Fata Morgana.

** The Fata Morgana bleach white regardless of their original skintone, and [[spoiler: seem to actually be the corpses of the Seabitten, puppeted by Cheline to do her bidding.]]

* ActionMom: Vanna, staying active within the Lodestar Guild after Pavel was born and even after [[spoiler:Pavel was bitten and her husband got turned ]].
* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler:Halea, with Phaedra's grandmother implying that she's Cheline possessing Halea's body, especially since their telepathic conversation has ''[[CypherLanguage God's Tongue]]'' in the background of a speech bubble.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: The Fata Morgana, who are what seaghost bite victims eventually turn into, ''supposedly'' serve Cheth, but when the group that assassinated Phaedra appeared, said god was ignored by them when he asked what was going on, and seemed to have no idea what they were doing there. He also seems to disapprove of [[spoiler:them attacking Pavel's home and causing his mother to be bitten and disappear to eventually become one herself]], implying that something else is going on.
* BigBad: Lady Halea, or at least [[spoiler: the ''thing'' possessing her, who is implied to be Cheline]], as the true power behind TheEmpire and [[spoiler:the lies about Cheth, which is preventing him from repairing the world]]
* BigGood: [[spoiler: ''Cheth'' of all people. Chapter 4 reveals that while he ''is'' the GodOfTheDead, in truth he used to be the psychopomp of souls towards reincarnation. He is the main benefactor of the protagonist and his main goal is actually to restore the natural order and finally let the countless billions of souls stuck in the sea finally move on. This is added by the fact that Cheline is strongly implied to be the actual BigBad and the evil that is corrupting the human world form the inside out.]]

%%* ColdSniper: Irving.

%%* CoolBoat: The Mantaluna.

%%* CuteGhostGirl:
%%** Phaedra, once she gets some food in her that is.
%%** Lani is this as well.
* CypherLanguage: [[spoiler: The symbols for the God's Tongue are a substitution cipher of both straight alphabetical letters and short phonetic letter combinations.]]

** Phaedra clearly misses her father.
** [[spoiler: Vanna is shown as a kind maternal figure before she is spirited away. Even after death, she makes sure that Pavel has a store of medicine and a way to find help.]]

** [[spoiler: Phaedra now has to find an artifact that can resurrect herself and her crew by the year's end. If she doesn't....Cheth will come to claim her.]]
* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Vanna tells Pavel that she was glad that she died protecting him.]]

* DiseaseBleach: Anyone who is seabitten slowly turns white, and eventually turns into [[spoiler: the Fata Morgana.]] Pavel and Eddy are two examples, while [[spoiler: Vanna is the example of someone who has completely turned.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Phaedra and her crew are introduced as the central characters, but [[spoiler: they get assassinated by the Fata Morgana and tricked by Cheth in the very first chapter, removing them from the story. Pavel then becomes the actual protagonist, and while Phaedra and co do come back a few chapter laters as ghosts, Pavel is still the main focus character.]]

* FantasticSlurs: Seabite victims are called [[spoiler: Crossers, referring to their eventual fate of 'crossing the Horizon Line' and becoming Fata Morgana.]]

* HealingPotion: [[spoiler:Vanna's mysterious medicine has succeeded in halting Pavel's seabite from spreading.]]
* HiveMind: Cheth communicates with the multiple corpses and souls of those he possesses.

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: All Seaghosts to some degree, withering into ghostly husks. Also seen with Phaedra after being turned into a Seaghost.

* LightIsGood: The lighthouses keep the seaghosts at bay and from the living.

** Victims of the seabite have the color bleached out of them at the site of the bite, and the bite is said to "spread" the longer a victim remains untreated. Pavel's head and neck, including his hair, have been bleached to a near albinic color, though his mother's medicine has been able to halt the spread. Some of the other children at the Salabay Aquifer also have bleached streaks in their hair as a result of their seabites. [[spoiler: When Pavel's mother is seabitten, she loses all the color in her skin, eyes, and hair before fading away.]]
** The Fata Morgana -- [[spoiler: all seabite victims who have become silent, superpowered assassins]] -- all have white hair.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The seaghosts drain life away from living organisms and their bite [[spoiler: can turn people into Fata Morgana assassins]]. They are also kept away from the lighthouses.

%%* SeductiveMummy: The Fata Morgana, a group of undead stealth rangers wrapped in skin-tight bandages
%%* TheHeart: Pavel.
* ThePhoenix: [[spoiler:Cheline appears as a four-winged peacock-like phoenix.]]

* WrittenByTheWinners: As time goes on, it's made clear that [[spoiler:the conflict between Cheth and Cheline is not ''nearly'' as black and white as most people believe it is, and it seems that Shoshana was far from the CrystalDragonJesus the church claims her to be]].

* CrapSackWorld: Most of humanity is dispersed on a hellish water world. While life on the islands is generally okey, the ''entire'' ocean is plagued by ghosts who will jump and devour an anything near. Anyone injured by these ghosts becomes incurably cursed and is shunned by society, and will innebitably die and be consumed by the curse, becoming undead thralls. The only reason the sea can be navigated at all is because of a line of Lighthouses that emit a magical light that repels the ghosts, but the undead thralls are resistant to it and can even disable it during attacks. As if that wasn't bad enough, all of those miserable ghosts? That's the fate of ''everyone else''. There is no other afterlife or reincartion system once you die you're stuck forever in sea as a decaying monster who serves as a toy for the GodOfTheDead. [[spoiler: Said Death God is [[GoodAllAlong trying to fix the situation]], but his [[VillainWithGoodPublicity opposite god has hijacked human society]] to sell the idea that he is evil and create a cult around herself.]]

* DiseaseBleach: Anyone who is seabitten slowly turns white, and eventually turning them into [[spoiler: the Fata Morgana.]] Pavel and Eddy are two examples, while [[spoiler: Vanna is the example of someone who has completely turned.]]

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Cheth is a terrifying FallenGod, but it's all but stated that the ancient Divine War was a farce and that Cheth used to be a benevolent God and held an important role as the shepard of souls.]] In fact, his primary objective is to ''fix'' the screwed up nature of the setting, and -albeit with quite a bit of bickering- he serves as the central benefactor of the cast.

* HazardousWater: The people are cautioned not to go in for the fear of getting bitten by Seaghosts.

* BigGood: [[spoiler: ''Cheth'' of all people. Chapter 4 reveals that while he ''is'' the GodOfDeath, in truth he used to be the psychopomp of souls towards reincarnation. His main goal is actually to restore the natural order and finally let the countless billions of souls stuck in the sea finally move on. This is added by the fact that Cheline is strongly implied to be the actual BigBad and the evil that is corrupting the human world form the inside out.]]

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Cheth is terrifying FallenGod, but it's all but stated that the ancient Divine War was a farce and that Cheth used to be a benevolent God and held an important role as the shepard of souls.]] In fact, his primary objective is to ''fix'' the screwed up nature of the setting, and -albeit with quite a bit of bickering- he serves as the central benefactor of the cast.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Anyone who is bitten by a seaghost slowly turns white and brittle [[spoiler: until they become the Fata Morgana]].

* PowersThatBe: Partially subverted, the names of the gods are well known but to the average person [[spoiler:they are incomprehensible, showing their power through the chruch and the Fata Morgana]]

* ColdSniper: Irving.

* CoolBoat: The Mantaluna.

* CuteGhostGirl:
** Phaedra, once she gets some food in her that is.
** Lani is this as well.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: Salty Joe.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Cal (but with ghost animals).

* MessianicArchetype: Shoshana.

* SeductiveMummy: The Fata Morgana, a group of undead stealth rangers wrapped in skin-tight bandages
* TheHeart: Pavel.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Dinosaurs are also extinct in this world, but their souls often appear as seaghosts. [[spoiler: Cheth has possessed a plesiosaur, a skeletal t-rex, and several other extinct beasts. His original form is also quite saurian in appearance.]]

* OutOfClothesExperience: After Vanna [[spoiler:gets bitten]], she disappears leaving her clothing behind. Guess that explains the clothing choices of the Fata Morgana

* ProngsOfPoseidon: Shoshana's personal symbol and primary weapon was a trident.