Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context VideoGame / ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura

Go To

1[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arcanum_cover_copy.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:340:Get ready for a fantastic adventure!]]
3
4''Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'' is an expansive and very open-ended RolePlayingGame where Tolkienian HighFantasy meets Vernian SteamPunk, courtesy of [[Creator/TroikaGames the designers]] behind the first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games.
5
6Much of ''Arcanum'' deals with ItemCrafting and character building -- many of the items in the game can be used to build other items. It contains a very detailed setting and a well-designed scenario, as well as ''vast'' amounts of political backstory in the game's libraries, newspapers, and legends. The game retains a cult following similar to its cousin ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'', and is additionally often very favorably compared to ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' and ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', although ''Arcanum'''s detail focuses more on its setting's history and mechanisms than on its playable characters.
7
8The ''[[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld IFS Zephyr]]'' has just begun her maiden voyage, a marvelous, high-society venture through the clouds. Aboard, the cream of high society enjoys the flight, playing chess, sipping fine wine, etc. Sadly, nothing good can last forever -- and, out of the blue, the airship is attacked by a pair of ogres flying primitive fighter planes. Within moments, the vessel goes down in flames.
9
10There's only one survivor, the player character -- and, as they crawl out of the wreckage, a dying gnome begs them to take [[MacGuffin his ring]] to "the boy". Immediately after the gnome succumbs to his wounds, the player character emerges from the rubble and is approached by a man named [[TheLancer Virgil]], who claims to have found the reincarnation of a long lost prophet... and that's where the story properly takes off.
11
12As they journey through Arcanum, the player can join up with a number of companions. Although their personalities are often not as well-defined as those of some non-playable characters in the game, many of them are (very nicely) voiced, and they all contribute to the plot and interact with each other. Many of them are hidden, and many of them require very specific alignment, charisma stats and dialogue from the player before they even suggest joining the party. Similarly, the player often needs to meet very specific aptitude requirements before certain quests are even mentioned, meaning that no two playthroughs are the same and that each new player character will have a unique experience.
13
14''Arcanum'' has a level cap of 50, which encourages players to specialize in very specific types of magic or technology. (However, a no-CD-patch combined with a level cap remover patch can quickly fix that.) Uniquely, knowledge of technology in ''Arcanum'' disables magical aptitude, and vice versa, so that the player will always have to choose between the two (or find a very, very careful balance) and (eventually) be shunned by the other branch.
15
16Remarkably, the game is still being tested and patched by a squadron of devoted fans today. The game is [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura now available]] on Website/GOGDotCom, with the notorious bugs fixed and the game adapted to modern systems. In August 2016, it made it onto Platform/{{Steam}} as well.
17
18A sequel -- titled ''Journey to the Centre of Arcanum'' and using ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'''s Source engine -- [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was in its initial planning stages]], but Sierra and Valve had disagreements, and Creator/TroikaGames' dissolution sealed the game's fate.
19
20----
21!!This game provides examples of the following:
22
23* HundredPercentHeroismRating: The PC gets better reaction from other characters (including shopkeepers who give them discounts) if he or she helped the inhabitants of a given settlement. Additionally, characters sometimes mention specific deeds of the PC and act accordingly. Of course, evil deeds get attention and respect of shady characters (including party members who base their decision to join the PC on his or her karma meter).
24* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: The level cap of 50 can be reached before you've even finished half the game, quite easily at that. And because followers only level-up with player's character, [[GuideDangIt it can get really tricky]] to find and recruit them before you've surpassed their starting level, which in turn affects their competence. Patches addressed this by allowing the experience meter to roll over endlessly at 50, granting no bonus for your character but allowing followers to keep leveling up until they hit the cap.
25* AccidentalMisnaming: A dumb character never gets names right, be it for people or places, to Virgil's constant frustration.
26* AdventurerArchaeologist: Franklin Payne combines this with GentlemanAdventurer.
27* TheAgeless: [[spoiler:Anyone banished into the Void becomes this. Time seems to pass, but no one gets any older. It is unknown whether this quality only applies to beings from Arcanum.]]
28* AlmostDeadGuy: The old man in the opening sequence who provides you with your mission goals before dying.
29* AlternativeCalendar: Averted, oddly enough--the game begins on January 1, 1885, despite this being another world.
30* AlternateIdentityAmnesia: Cynthia Wit has no idea that she's a lycanthrope, or that she's responsible for butchering the rabbits that her father farms. She tells you that she's been hoping to catch the culprit herself, but all she remembers is feeling terribly exhausted, falling asleep before the attacker arrives and waking up the next morning to find another dead rabbit.
31* AmazonBrigade:
32** There is a militant nomadic group in the Isle of Despair which consists solely of women who couldn't stand the misogynist order in the encampment. If you're a man and not wearing a specical headband, they'll attack you on sight.
33** While you can't have a complete female party in game, you can still have a party which consists of the female PC, Jayna, Raven and Z'an Al'urin (though you have to be extra charismatic to hold together the latter two), plus the temporary followers like Swyft and Lady Druella at some point in time.
34* AmmoUsingMeleeWeapon: The shocking staff and Tesla-staff consume batteries every time they're wielded. If there are no batteries in user's inventory, they just deal the damage of a regular staff (which isn't much).
35* AndIMustScream:
36** Torian Kel's fellow Gray Legionnaires; undead warriors whose bodies have rotted away.
37--->"Nothing will ever raise my comrades from the dust. They will live on... without voice, without dreams, without vision..."
38** [[spoiler:Arronax has spent the last 2000 years imprisoned in a magical shell, as punishment for attempting to destroy Kerghan when he was first banished to the Void. At least it's given him time to consider how much of an ass he was.]]
39* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: One of the Isle of Despair's inmates will offer to tell you a story, which ends with the revelation that [[spoiler:he's the rightful heir to the throne of Cumbria, deposed during a coup]].
40* AndManGrewProud: Vendigroth was the height of humankind's technological development. The city was so advanced that they didn't take the threats of a powerful mage seriously enough and he ended up wiping them off the map. On the other hand, the moment he started to cause troubles, [[spoiler: the scientists of Vendigroth created a device perfectly capable of killing the god-like mages of the Age of Legends]].
41* AndYourRewardIsClothes: See ShoutOut below. The clothes happen to be the ones the mage was wearing.
42* AntidoteEffect: The Heal Poison potion and its tech equivalent Poison Cure. Poison is not that damaging to begin with, so most of the time it's easier to just wait it out and heal the lost HP. Only one character in the game even uses a poison strong enough to actually kill you. Non-tech characters might not even have to wait, as [=NPCs=] with White Necromancy spells, including Virgil once he reaches level five, can negate both the poison and the damage.
43* AntiVillain: For most of the game, [[spoiler: Kerghan]] kills, tortures, and generally acts in an indisputably evil way. But when you are told his motivations for doing so, [[spoiler: particularly when Virgil confirms what he has to say]], you can easily understand his point of view. [[spoiler: Which is kind of disturbing given that he's an OmnicidalManiac.]]
44* AntiquatedLinguistics: The manual is written like this. Mostly in an in-universe style. Some of the books and newspaper articles you can find in-game are written in a similar fashion.
45* AnyoneCanDie: No matter how they are important to the plot, every character can be killed, with the exception of the Silver Lady, who mostly wanders in the spirit plane, anyway.
46* ApocalypticLog: In Vendigroth, you can find newspapers reporting about an elven wizard who threatened them and how they told him to screw himself. Vendigroth is now a giant lifeless wasteland with the city buried underground -- guess who's responsible for that.
47* ArbitraryGunPower: ZigZagged. Guns are some of the weakest weapons in the game, particularly those not crafted and all of those sold in shops. It isn't until much later on when you get really big guns that they begin to hold their own as a weapon class, and even then most gunslingers will never hope to match the damage output of a basic melee fighter.
48* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Your total number of followers is governed by your Charisma. This maxes out at six. However, the dog and robots/zombies/summons do not count against this limit.
49* TheArchmage:
50** Simeon Tor is the head mage of Tulla. He gives you the quest to find Pelojian.
51** There's also the Master Mages of each magic School. If you've learned every spell in a School, you can learn under their tutelage, giving you Mastery of that School and halving the Fatigue cost of all the School's spells. You cannot master multiple Schools.
52* ArtifactAlias: Garfield Thelonius Remmington III is a human who, by some freak accident of birth, was born resembling an orc. He found that the only way he could make money in the game's [[FantasticRacism prejudice-filled society]] was by adopting the name "Gar, World's Smartest Orc" and performing as a freak-show attraction, hiding his family name and severing all ties with them so they would not need to bear the shame of association with him. Even though tricking him into revealing his true name and securing his freedom from his employer are both necessary steps to recruiting him as a follower, your character continues to refer to him as "Gar" for the rest of the game. The game hand-waves it, as he himself explains he still doesn't want to embarrass his family. So outside the interactions with the player's character, he maintains his entire masquerade and demands the same from the PC.
53* ArtifactTitle: The Unified Kingdom was actually ruled by kings a long time ago, but now, after the royal dynasty mysteriously disappeared somewhere, it is an oligarchy ruled by the Gnomish Industrial Council.
54* ArtifactOfDoom:
55** The Bangellian Scourge, at least story-wise. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration In game terms, every kill subtracts from your alignment.]]
56** Similarly, the Dark Helm reduces your alignment by 20 every time you put it on, which makes it useful to players who need to keep their alignment from going too high or lose followers.
57* ArtificialBrilliance: The AI's capable of some pretty complex interactions. If you kill a man in the street while no guards are watching, you might think you're off scot free -- but you'd better drag the body into an alley, because if a guard on patrol spots you standing next to a corpse he'll figure out you're the killer. Also, unlike in most [=RPGs=], if you take off your clothes and go running through the streets [=NPCs=] will actually react to your obscene behaviour.
58* ArtificialStupidity:
59** AI characters tend to pick up anything on the ground that looks appealing -- even if that object is a several-ton boulder that will almost crush them under the weight. You can use the AI's proactive behavior against it by dropping a piece of equipment that's been cursed and waiting for them to equip it, which will make them easier to kill or even kill them for you.
60** AI characters are programmed to switch to better gear in their inventory, but don't always make such determinations logically. This is especially true of armor, as characters may ignore a higher Armor Class for other statistics.
61*** A common tactic for neutralizing the first BeefGate is to find and drop Railroad Spikes in front of the ogres, who will pick them up and equip, as they are unarmed, thus nullifying their massive unarmed attack for 1-2 damage the Spikes deal.
62** There is a guard captain in Dernholm whose patrol route occasionally takes him right through a campfire. Left to his own devices, he'll walk through that fire until his plate mail melts right off his back.
63* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: "Pure Ore" is made by combining Iron Ore with Steel. Steel ''is'' iron with some carbon in it.
64* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence:
65** St. Mannox was believed to have done this. [[spoiler:He was actually murdered, making this a subversion.]]
66** In some of the MultipleEndings, [[spoiler:the PC can do this.]]
67** It's heavily implied as the fate of all the high elves upon the natural end of their lives.
68* AsimovsThreeKindsOfScienceFiction: While science/technology is used to advance the plot/equip the player, the effect on society plays a far greater role: an IndustrialRevolution in what was previously a StandardFantasySetting (elves, dwarves, magic etc.) in MedievalStasis and the upsets this has caused: one kingdom stubbornly clings to magic and knights and is but a shadow of its former glory after a curb-stomp from machine-gun-wielding professional armies, dwarves don't like the idea of machines doing work for them, and of course the magic-using, forest-dwelling elves aren't thrilled that their homes are being clear-cut for coal. Technology doesn't have it entirely its own way, however: Due to science applying the laws of physics and magic breaking them, they can't be used in close proximity to one another.
69* ATaleToldByAnIdiot: Trying to recap the fate of the Black Mountain Clan to Bates results in this if you play a character with low Intelligence. He eventually gives you money to ''stop'' talking to him.
70* AttackDrone: You can build mechanized arachnids and upgrade them into bipedal automatons. Both are pretty dangerous, but the former is slow while the latter can move as fast as any human.
71* TheAtoner:
72** [[spoiler:Virgil was a thief and gambling addict until his brother was killed to collect on his debts. He claims that he himself was "an evil man" when Virgil tells the PC this.]]
73** A bigger one is [[spoiler:Arronax, who can be recruited during the final part of the game, tells you about how much he regrets the horrible crimes he committed in his youth, and how having 2000 years to stand in a single spot and think about it has that effect on you.]]
74* AwesomeButImpractical:
75** Being a Technologist is often seen as this. While it's actually more of a MagikarpPower due to the sheer number of points required, there's plenty of easier ways to break ''Arcanum'' before you even hit the midpoint. In order to mitigate that, you would need to buy schematics from shops and a lot technical manuals from Tarant´s University that will increase your technical expertise in an specific discipline, even if you have not allocated a single point on it. That will allow you to make powerful gear, but it still requires time and luck to find the schematics and a large sum of money to purchase enough manuals.
76** [[spoiler:The Vendigroth Device is capable of killing a mage with no possibility of resurrection... except it only works if the mage has a certain ability which few are powerful enough to master, and that they typically only use when critically injured, so you have to go to the trouble of killing them normally first. There's a grand total of three living mages which even possess the ability, two of which are no longer strong enough to do so. It was made during a time when most mages had that power, and they were currently under threat from one.]]
77** The Disintegration spell deals an absurd amount of damage to a foe, but will completely obliterate their equipment. If you care about looting, you probably don't want that to happen.
78** Jormund has access to several powerful spells from the Force and Fire schools of magic, but the penalty he takes to spellcasting due to being a [[SquareRaceRoundClass Dwarf wizard]] means he'll often exhaust himself before the end of a fight.
79** The game has a ton of potential backgrounds which modify your character's base stats, but most of them are terrible. All the backgrounds that provide boosts based on time or locale have areas in which they just won't work. Anything that gives you items in exchange for reducing your stats isn't worth it because they'll be rendered obsolete (and money is easy to steal). Finally, increases in beauty are pointless because all that does it modify reaction, which is only a problem if it drops so low as to render people hostile, and accomplishing that requires practically zeroing out the stat or having extreme negative modifiers (for context, one of the best backgrounds in the game comes with a hefty negative reaction modifier, and it's well worth the handicap because it's easy to mitigate).
80** A borderline case with the Mechanized Gun. It is hands-down the best firearm in the game stats-wise. However, where most firearms use 1 or, in extreme cases 2, bullets per shot fired, the Mechanized Gun uses six. ''Six''. Ammunition in this game is not weightless, meaning that most of your carrying capacity will be used up for ammunition.
81* BadassBoast: Loghaire Thunder Stone gets a pretty epic one if you happen to be stupid/flip with him as a first impression.
82-->'''Loghaire:''' YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME? I'VE SPILLED OCEANS OF BLOOD WITH THIS AXE. THE BODIES OF THE FALLEN WOULD MAKE A MOUNTAIN TO HIDE THE SUN. AND YOU DARE?
83* BadassBookworm: The player character can be one of these.
84* BadassNormal: You can eschew super science and high magic in favor of good old fashioned stabbing things in the face (or in the back in case of thieves). Very effective; the only problem is that around midgame, your build will be complete and you'll need to either branch out or put the remaining points into HP.
85* BadPowersBadPeople: {{Deconstructed}} with the Schuylers. [[spoiler: They're Black Necromancers who CutLexLuthorACheck by raising dwarven Neanderthals as zombies and having them make fine jewelry. However, while they do good business and what they're doing isn't a crime, it's going to disturb a lot of people, many would-be heroes have little respect for the law if their personal moral code is violated, and there'll be hell to pay if ''dwarves'' hear about it. So they're ProperlyParanoid about keeping their secrets, which means that they employ deadly defenses and fatal punishments for employees who blab. This means that, ultimately, they end up as somewhat evil people anyway.]]
86* BallisticDiscount: It's quite easy to buy something that's ridiculously expensive, then promptly kill the guy you bought it from and get your money back. This not only applies to weapons, but also to (for example) a ship.
87* BearsAreBadNews: While the black bears don't present much threat to any combat-oriented Living One, their grizzly bear cousins, on the other hand, are powerful random encounter critters and can be very deadly to the low-level characters. The fact that they spawn around locations which the player may want to visit right after leaving the first town doesn't help.
88* BeefGate:
89** The first town has a very literal BeefGate; that is, a gate guarded by three Beef Gate characters. All but a very few character builds can get by them without abusing the system to make them incapable of fighting at full strength.
90** Trying to go to the various cities out of order can potentially land you in random encounters well above your ability to handle, but this is hit and miss, and risking it can get you to some worthwhile rewards ahead of schedule.
91** There's a pack of wolves outside the first area that will slaughter you unless you follow Virgil's advice and use the World Map to bypass them. However, as long as you can goad them into single combat, an attack mage or melee character can reliably kill all of them. It's good for early EXP.
92** The Black Mountain Mines are one of the two dungeons in the game[[note]]The other is the microdungeon under P. Schuyler and Sons[[/note]] that you ''must'' [[DungeonCrawling crawl]], with no option B. They serve as a "level check" for the early game; if you aren't strong enough to pass them and deal with the monsters inside, then you need to grind more and maybe do a couple sidequests.
93* BestialityIsDepraved:
94** If you're ever inclined to have sex with the sheep in Madam Lil's Brothel, your followers will not appreciate that at all.
95** A book on half-orcs mentions that it's not always a male orc raping a human woman, as human rapists exist and are also not that picky about species, mentioning a "Wool Raiser" who was the bane of shepherds.
96-->It is yet another sad fact of life that the majority of half-orcs are formed by carnal rape of a human female by an orcish male. It should be noted, however, that this proves nothing about the character of the orcish race, for many human males commit the assault of rape, and like orcs, do not limit this act just to their species.\
97Many of you may remember the infamous "Wool Raiser," that nefarious bandit who kept many fearing for the safety of their sheep and other livestock.
98* {{BFG}}: Several, including the terrifyingly powerful Elephant Gun, the armor-defeating Rifled Cannon, the enormous HandCannon, a freaking ''Grenade Launcher'' and various [[LostTechnology Vendigroth artifacts]], such as the Large Bore Rifle, Bronwych's Gun (essentially a plasma pistol) and, of course, [[EleventhHourSuperpower Droch's Warbringer]].
99* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: Yeti are white-furred gorillas found in Hardin's Pass.
100* BizarreGamblingWinnings: At one point, you need a ship. One of the options is to win one in a game of dice.
101* BlueAndOrangeMorality:
102** Comes up in the quest where you deal with the [[LizardFolk Bedokaan]]. The diplomatic solution to the quest is to have the Bedokaan chieftain explain his philosophy to you, then help him to understand how different his thought process is from mammals.
103** The dwarves have a complex philosophy refered to as "stone and shape", which you need to understand if you want to [[spoiler:get King Loghaire back on his throne]].
104** The elves have their own philosophy about how everything has its place in the world, though it's not plot-relevant and fairly simple. [[spoiler: The dark elves have their own variant - which claims they stand above everything else - which is the reason for their schism.]]
105* BombThrowingAnarchist: Subverted. Donn Throgg's resistance movement resembles some of the more militant socialist movements from the mid-to-late 19th century, but Throgg isn't really a bad guy, and he saw violence as the only way to change the hideous working conditions in the factories of Tarant. He can be persuaded to pursue his goals in a peaceful manner. [[spoiler: This ends up with him becoming the future president of the Unified Kingdom, and judging from the art style on his posters, he's running a socialist platform.]]
106* BookEnds:
107** The very first side quest that can be found involves a spirit stuck on the mortal plane, where every moment brings pain. [[spoiler:While said spirit very much deserves this fate, the fact that the mortal world is "painful" is the BigBad's motivation.]]
108** And another variation. The plot of the game starts when someone escapes the Void (although you are not involved in it). It ends when you do the same thing.
109* BoringButPractical:
110** The first spell of the Black Necromancy college, Harm, does decent damage with little Fatigue consumption.
111** The Conveyance college has minimal use in combat, but it contains the unlocking and teleportation spells, allowing you to unlock anything and teleport to any location on the map so long as it's been marked. The former requires a maxed out magic rating to work to its full potential, but you'll probably have that if you're a spellcaster anyway.
112** There's also the humble Balanced Sword and Featherweight Axe, a pair of simple and easily-obtainable melee weapons from the Smithy tech tree that are easy to use, extremely powerful, light, and fast, and so will usually be a technological melee fighter's primary armament for most of the game. They can later be upgraded to Envenomed, Charged or Pyrotechnic versions for extra poison, electric or fire damage, respectively, the latter of which also never takes damage from striking objects that fall under BreakableWeapons categories. All it takes is a minor investment in tech manuals for the requisite skill.
113** Healing salves. The resources to make them are pretty plentiful, they require only a little investment in one of the tech skills (or a certain follower who can be recruited fairly early on) to make, and they restore 20hp per use, making them a solid choice of healing item for a technologist who can't benefit from Vergil's magic. They are also one of few technology items that can be freely used by magic users without any ill effects.
114** Worn Boots. They can be easily found in trash bins in quantity. Wearing them provides any character with +3 Damage Reduction, which means 3% less damage from all sources. Until you can find, buy or steal better, it's worth the effort to dumpster dive. You can also sell them to General Merchants for a decent amount of coins. Very handy at low levels. Further reinforced with normal boots, which are a common and cheap item sold by pretty much all merchants selling clothes and also by lesser blacksmiths. They provide +5 Damage Reduction, which is more or equal to most early game armours.
115** For inventory management, the humble keyring. You are going to collect a lot of keys over the course of the game, which weigh nothing but each takes up an inventory square. A keyring takes two squares, also weighs nothing, and holds infinite keys. All you have to do is buy it for a few coins from a thrift merchant.
116** Once you make it to Tarant, there's a quest in the warehouse district which tasks you with clearing a warehouse of rats. The gold you get for completing it isn't anything special, but the warehouse has nine chests (or chest-like storage containers) which you can use as permanent free storage. It's placed closed to most of the stores, just over the bridge when you arrive by map, near the town gypsy for item identification, near the dock if you arrive by ship, and near the Tarant junk merchant, who for whatever reason is the best repairman in the game (most repairs reduce the item's maximum durability, but he often doesn't reduce it at all). It's the perfect hub for any adventurer.
117*** As an added bonus, one of the chests has Dwarven Ores for crafting Featherweight Axes.
118** Fate Points have a wide range of applications. The most useful of these is the ability to infallibly steal whatever you want from whoever you want without being noticed, regardless of your actual skill. Not very flashy, but you can pickpocket some very good gear if you know where to look.
119** Smoking Suits and Fancy Dresses have the simple effect of granting +20 reaction. Your reaction affects how much shopkeepers charge you, what quest givers are willing to pay you, and make people more willing to listen to you in general. It's invaluable for players who play as a half-orc, or those that have chosen backgrounds that have reaction penalties in exchange for bonuses (Escaped Lunatic, for example).
120** Melee fighters. Forget using magic or technological disciplines, just put your starting points into Melee, Dodge, ST and DX. Not only it negates entirely the EarlyGameHell[[note]]You can reach Expert-level Melee skill by 2nd level or ''start'' with it with the right background[[/note]], but by the middle of the game, your build will be complete, and you'll be strong enough to beat your way through almost any quest or area in the game (and in fact many guides recommend this approach for a first playthrough with an orc or half-ogre). The only problem is what you do with the rest of your level-ups.
121** Sogg Mead Mug, the first potential follower you can meet (other than plot-mandated Virgil). Unless you start with dumped Charisma (he requires 9 to join, with default being 8), he is by far the definition of the most boring, but also the most reliable companion, being the standard template for melee fighter. On top of that, he ends up having ''300'' HP in the end, and, since he's a half-ogre, the large-sized armours provide additional Damage Reduction. Oh, he also makes for a great pack mule!
122* BountyHunter: If you give Gilbert Bates' diary to Appleby and make it public that Bates didn't invent his famed engine, bounty hunters will start to spawn in random encounters, wanting to claim the price on Living One's head for betraying Bates.
123* BowAndSwordInAccord:
124** Characters can be built who switch between guns or bows and melee weapons, but carrying multiple weapons of your chosen type is also common because BreakableWeapons is in effect and swords are no good for breaking open stubborn chests.
125** Played absolutely straight with Raven and Waramon, two followers you can recruit in the Glimmering Forest.
126* BreakableWeapons: All weapons and armors in the game have a durability value. While they don't degrade from use alone, certain uses or attacks can damage them. Broken objects must be repaired to be used again. Repaired objects usually lose a small amount of durability, regardless of whether or not they were broken at the time. However, there are some exceptions to these rules.
127** Armors suffer damage when attacked, in proportion to the weapon and type of damage being dealt (usually by fire-aligned enemies). Weapons suffer damage when attacking sufficiently hard or hot objects (usually golems), or when you critically miss while using them. If an item runs out of durability, it is considered broken and is automatically unequipped (or dropped, if your inventory is full).
128** Axes do not suffer weapon damage when attacking wooden doors or chests. They will, however, suffer damage from rock, metal, and fire. The same is true of gauntlets.
129** Ranged weapons never suffer contact damage against objects, which sounds perfectly sensible until you realize that the same applies to ''throwing'' weapons like boomerangs.
130** Certain powerful melee weapons never suffer contact damage, even against things their lesser counterparts would. The pyrotechnic axe and arcane weapon variants, for example, can smash anything.
131* BreedingSlave: One of the more disturbing quests in the game involves [[spoiler:the player character uncovering a conspiracy by the gnomish elite to breed half-ogres through a eugenics programme - first with kidnapped human women who were forcibly bred with ogres, then with the female half-ogres born from those pairings, who are implied to be imprisoned in a breeding facility of unknown location.]]
132* BringingBackProof:
133** Adkin Chambers once fought a duel with Sir Garrick Stout over [[CompeteForTheMaidensHand which of them had the right to court Lady Druella]], that ended with Stout [[EyeScream cutting out Chambers' eyes]] with a dishonorable blow after the duel was supposed to have ended. Chambers will set the player character a quest to kill Sir Garrick, remove his eyes from his corpse, and bring them to him.
134** Similarly, to receive master training for Repair, one must bring to Maxim proof that [[spoiler: his flying machines work. The very ones that shot the Zephyr down in the opening. And there is a camera at the Crash Site]]. Thankfully, it is marked as a special item, so as long as you remember where you left it, it will be there, and if not picked at all, it will persist in its original place.
135** A journalist in Roseborough asks you to take a picture of a giant dragon as he has no wish to see it again.
136* ButThouMust: Amusingly, a dumb character can pull this off on Min'Gorad, constantly asking the same question about the "Mountain Dorfs" until she's had enough and attacks you.
137* CameBackStrong: The blessing of the All Father kills and then resurrects you with a massive stat and skill boost. If you're a technologist, however, make sure one of your party members has a tech-based revive item, because the [[GuideDangIt All Father's magic resurrection will be blocked]].
138* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Oren Vorman]], the FinalBoss of the Vormantown module, is a monstrously huge, green, partially-cybernetic abomination only capable of repeating "Daddy...", likely due to his resurrection involving both tech and magick, which don't mix on Arcanum.
139* CantArgueWithElves:
140** Raven can be frustratingly unwilling to help you clean up [[spoiler: a mess that the Dark Elves made by forging a letter from their ruler]]. Yet you really have no choice but to play her games and help with her problems before she'll let you talk to the Silver Lady. And the sacred forest she wants you to clean up is protected from your usual violent solutions.
141** Qintarra's guards can range from snooty to outright nasty when you ask permission to enter if you're not of a favored race.
142* {{Cap}}:
143** The level cap is 50, which isn't that difficult to reach. In the patched game, the experience meter rolls over constantly past 50, allowing followers to catch up if they were recruited at a lower level.
144** Stats are capped at +12 of the character's starting stat, counting any modifiers from backgrounds. Blessings, potions, and equipment buffs of any kind are limited by this cap. This means a stat needs to start at at least 8 to reach the bonus at 20.
145* CastFromStamina: Using magic decreases your [[SprintMeter Fatigue meter]], as does running with a weapon out, fighting, or being heavily encumbered. An unwise mage can exhaust themselves into unconsciousness. This [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] the RobeAndWizardHat, since robes are among the lightest non-technological apparel in the game.
146* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Part of the reason why magic and technology are in opposition of each other.
147* TheChosenOne: Almost from the moment the game begins you're told that you're the reincarnation of Nasrudin, a messianic figure. Later subverted when [[spoiler:you actually meet Nasrudin, who's still alive and living in seclusion]]. Or possibly played straight, since [[spoiler: the exact wording of the prophecy says that the ''spirit'' of Nasrudin will be reborn, rather than the guy himself. Since Nasrudin was a force of order and righter of wrongs in his time, and you can become one too, it could be argued that you revived that spirit alright.]]
148* TheChosenZero: If you happen to be, say, a dumb ogre, upon first meeting Virgil, he will make an awkward "the gods move in mysterious ways" excuse while trying (and hilariously failing) not to be offensive.
149* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler: The Master instructor of Backstabbing]] will stab you in the back, figuratively and literally.
150* CircleOfStandingStones: The Ring of Brodgar stands at the point where Arronax the Destroyer was [[SealedEvilInACan banished]] by Nasrudin, the Messiah figure of the Panarii.
151* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Green monsters mostly mean they're poisonous and red ones are usually fire-based. This isn't absolute, though. For example, blue zombies are counter-intuitively able to deal fire damage.
152* CombatDiplomacyStealth: Most of the quest solutions boil down to one of these, with Magick and Technology allowing you to either cast spells or build and maintain items to complement your preferred play-style.
153* CompanionSpecificSidequest: Some NPC companions such as Virgil and Magnus are more involved in some plotlines than others and react accordingly if in the party at the time (Virgil believed the PC to be a prophecied hero and is less than thrilled to discover [[spoiler:they've been worshipping the wrong guy all along]], Magnus is a city-born dwarf and desperately tries to hide it via HaveIMentionedIAmADwarfToday and [[spoiler:turns out to be the descendant of a legendary lost dwarf clan]]).
154* CowboyCop: Doc Roberts. Even though he isn't an actual cop. [[spoiler: He'll take the job from the useless sheriff if you save the town and help him stop the bank robbery, though.]]
155* CripplingTheCompetition: A self-inflicted example. William Thorndop, formerly the world's greatest marksman, has taken a vow of non-violence, and cut off his own trigger fingers to make sure he can never hold a firearm again.
156* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: Averted. ''Arcanum'' uses a sliding scale of encumbrance which applies progressive penalties to speed, removes sprinting, and finally outright stops your character from moving. In practice, you're still trying to hit the delicate balance between walk and run, but that balance is well shy of your total carry weight.
157* CrypticConversation: Virtually everything the Silver Lady has to say. It takes at least a second playthrough to fully decipher her visions, which include not only advice on where to go next but also tidbits of backstory as well as hints to the true nature of the villain. [[spoiler: Her mention of a lone figure floating above a plane of mirrored glass is worth remembering when listening to Kerghan's motivations.]]
158* CursedItem: Scattered throughout the game are cursed items that look like normal, unidentified enchanted items until you identify them. These items have powerful effects, but equally debilitating drawbacks. For example, a cursed ring that makes you invisible as long as you wear it but also continuously damages you as long as you wear it.
159* CursedWithAwesome: The Dark Helmet [[spoiler: (obtained from The Lord of the Damned in the Ashbury Castle)]] is one of the most popular cursed items in the game. In exchange for docking your alignment for putting it on, it increases your magic meter every time you don it (unless your technological meter is too high). It's great for three reasons: (1) if you want to be more evil, (2) to make your spells or you magic items more effective or (3) balance your magic/tech meter.
160* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Well, BackStory power to the max, anyway, overlapping with InformedAbility. Arronax [[spoiler: single-handedly destroyed the largest and greatest ''technological'' city of the Age of Legends]]. In-game, he can't even use Disintegrate (which he actually does use in a cutscene). It mostly amounts to a game engine limitation. Since all characters run on the same type of build (that is to say, they function as you do), it's impossible for him to be as powerful as advertised. Still not a sufficient excuse, though, because there are other characters in the game who are legitimately more powerful than he is, so someone overlooked something with him.
161* DaChief: The Police Chief in Caladon.
162* DamageDiscrimination: Averted. One stray bullet or misaimed boomerang is all it takes for two townsfolk to start laying into each other.
163* DamageOverTime: How poison works. Depending on your situation and amount of the poison itself, it might be lethal either in turn-based mode (potent, but short-lived poisons, which will damage you much faster with each turn tick) or real-time (huge stack of low-grade poison, slowly chipping your HP over extended period) if not treated quickly. Eventually, the poison goes away on its own, but only after dealing damage equal to its potency and over time indicated by its amount.
164* TheDarkArts: Averted in the present. Black Necromancy and even demon-summoning are morally neutral (at least as far as your character alignment is concerned), though in point of fact Black Necromancers tend to be [[{{Jerkass}} jerks]]. Played straight in the story, as Black Necromancy was considered an abomination when it was first discovered. [[spoiler:Hence why its discoverer, Kerghan, was banished to the Void]].
165* DarkActionGirl: Due to their racial strength bonus (which allows them to reach the 20 strength and gain the double damage bonus) and to the FantasticRacism, Half-Orcs females are this by default.
166* DeadlyDoctor: You can buff yourself with therapeutics and drug, corrode, poison or even "zombify" your enemies with chemicals. Oh, and remember to pick the MadDoctor background trait.
167* DeathByChildbirth: Birth of a Half-Ogre child almost always leads to death of human mother.
168* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Kerghan's goal is to create a technological portal that will exploit [[MagicVersusScience the fragile balance between magic and technology]] and free him from [[SealedEvilInACan the Void.]] The game encourages you to destroy him with the Vendigroth Device, a technological weapon which utilises the same principle to turn his own magic against him.]]
169* DeathIsCheap:
170** Both mages and technologists have ready access to spells, scrolls, and chemical concoctions that can resurrect anyone body and soul intact. This is precisely why being banished to the Void is such a big deal, since it isn't killing someone so much as tossing them into an alternate dimension from which there is no [[spoiler:apparent]] return.
171** Being able to nullify magical resurrection is also why [[spoiler: the Vendigroth Device is so desperately sought after by both sides of the conflict.]]
172* DeconstructorFleet:
173** For the SteamPunk genre. The game takes pains to [[ShownTheirWork point out the more unpleasant side]] of the Victorian era, including hideously unsafe factory working conditions, strikers being gunned down, classism, racism (try playing the game as an half-orc), eugenics -- there's a ''very'' uncomfortable book that talks about a way of solving the Orcish Question via use of a breeding program and removal of a 'malignant gland'. Not to mention the Half-Ogre breeding project, which has some distinctly unnerving parallels with antisemitic conspiracy theories of the time.
174** It also deconstructs the StandardFantasySetting. [[OurElvesAreDifferent Elves really have a solid claim to being better]], but that doesn't mean that they're ''[[CantArgueWithElves wiser]]''. Good men can wreck the world with the best of intentions, while someone who is pure evil may turn out to be ''right''. Wandering adventurers raiding ruins are joked at even as the PC does just that, and glorious heroes who went around righting wrongs [[spoiler:triggered a general war when they disagreed on what was right or wrong]].
175* DefiantToTheEnd: Multiple characters play this straight, subvert it, or avert it depending on the actions of the player. One notable aversion that takes place before the plot begins is the Banishment of Kerghan to the Void. Banishment was viewed to be a FateWorseThanDeath, and everyone who earned it was dragged kicking and screaming. Kerghan meekly goes to his fate. [[spoiler: Of course, this is something of a BatmanGambit, as he was counting on continuing his research in the timeless Void]].
176* DevelopersForesight:
177** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52_ZyndqeLI Every voice-acted NPC has extra dialogue depending on your status]]. This isn't merely limited to whether your character is mentally handicapped or talking to the NPC's ghost, but also includes invisible, transformed, shrunken, and whether they're dressed as a barbarian or completely naked. They also have numerous interactions with other voiced [=NPCs=], including other companions.
178** If you killed William Radcliffe [[spoiler:(his impersonator), another assassin will greet you at the bridge, who'll be human and will have different gear.]]
179** [[spoiler: Even when you decide to follow the evil path and take the quest to get the Vendigroth Device from K'an Hua, you can still sail to Thanatos and take the same quest from Nasrudin. If you do this and go to the Ring of Brodgar with the device, you will find that Nasrudin killed K'an Hua before you came]].
180** Your reputation does precede you and some quests will reference unrelated ones you've completed prior. For example, Willoughsby will ask you to negotiate with Caladon, citing your success regarding Ashbury's statue for your competence.
181* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Defeating [[spoiler:Kerghan]], who's more or less a PhysicalGod at this point.
182* DirtyCop: Implied with the detect alignment spell. The vast majority of Tarant's guards show up as negative.
183* DisabledDeity: The halfing thief god Bolo is said to only have one arm; the other was cut off as punishment for [[IntangibleTheft stealing the shadow]] of Progo the god of storms.
184* DisadvantageousDisintegration: The Disintegrate spell handily destroys your enemy's loot, as well.
185* DiscOneNuke:
186** Rapier. A bog standard weapon with neutral amplitude, meaning it can be wielded by any character having even most basic melee proficiency. It deals great damage and has one of the highest speed ratings in the whole game. Despite that it costs pocket change and can be even bought in the shop ''before the game starts''. The rapier is wickedly good and is by far one of the most powerful, yet widely accessible and common melee weapons, able to keep up with enemies up until about reaching Stillwater or so.
187** Recruiting Magnus in Tarant or investing just two points in the Smithy Discipline will allow you to create Balanced Swords, a very fast, decent damage weapon that's a solid choice for most of the game (unless your character is a mage, or a technophobe). Since it can be reliably crafted in the first town, it makes powering through the local BeefGate all that easier.
188** Extending from this is the Featherweight Axe, the Balanced Sword's slightly slower but stronger big brother, which can be upgraded into the (in)famous [[HotBlade Pyrotechnic Axe]]. It can be made as soon as you set foot in Tarant. Four free Dwarven Ores can be found in a warehouse infested with rats and the Oaken Axe Handles can be purchased from Junk Dealers. Fuel is dirt cheap and can be picked up from the local general store. Simply put three points into Smithing or have Magnus make Featherweight Axes when he's at a high enough level. The schematics for the Pyrotechnic Axe can be found in a locked chest under Mr. Willoughsby's trap door guarded by three mechanical arachnids, which you don't even have to fight (they're slow, so you can just lead them around the room and break the chest while they try to catch up). Alternatively, the schematics can bought from the nearby weapon shop if you're willing to roll the inventory enough. Then all you need to do is buy enough manuals from the college to inflate your tech skill to craft it. Once you do, you have yourself an InfinityMinusOneSword which does not suffer [[BreakableWeapons weapon damage]] and does 30-50 fire damage a hit, which is broken in this game because the only things immune to fire damage are the things that can do fire damage themselves.
189** Humble healing salves. You start with around 30-36 hit points. A single salve heals 20, instantly, regardless of character. It takes a single point in Herbology to make them (or recruit Jayna Styles) and just the starting location has enough ingredients to make 16 of them. They are by far the most reliable and commonly used healing items in the game and certain builds' early survival entirely depends on starting the game with the recipe.
190** The Sword of Baltar, Lianna Del Par's blade, is a massive greatsword that does ridiculous amounts of damage (15-25 per hit). Now, it does take a high Strength to use, but even if you're not a Half-Ogre yourself, you might well have Sogg Mead Mug for a companion, and ''he'' can use it effectively, allowing him to tear down any opposition at lightning speed. It costs a fate point to steal, but who cares?
191** One rather often-overlooked, yet quietly exceptional, weapon is Almstead's Axe, the property of Blackroot's blacksmith. In terms of damage and speed it is slightly inferior to the Featherweight Axe, but it is aptitude-neutral and has +15 to-hit. In the early game most characters struggle to hit the broad side of a barn in broad daylight, making accuracy extremely valuable. It is definitely worth the Fate Point you'd spend plucking it out of Almstead's hands.
192** In similar fashion, one of the rewards from Doc Roberts. If you say you dabble in magic, the doctor will give you an Enchanted Sword. Not only is it the best weapon from all three options, it's not a standard Enchanted Sword either. It comes with extremely useful +2 Speed bonus. It can help immensely early on, especially if you decide to deal with the bandits guarding the bridge -- if not you, then Virgil or Sogg can use it to great effect.
193** Another easily overlooked weapon is Sharpshooter's Pistol, a revolver carried by the gunsmith working in Tarant. It is arguably the best early firearm, thanks to +15 to-hit bonus, very good speed and range on tier with sniper rifles.
194** With a little bit of level grinding and the right background, mages can have access to 5th spell in a chosen college before the second plot-mandated dungeon. This includes the Disintegrate spell, which kills anything you can target with no saving throw allowed. Considering the second dungeon is full of very powerful things that do not drop loot anyway, this is a big help.
195** The Looking-Glass Rifle. It packs serious punch, dealing 10-30 damage at a range that exceeds any other weapon or form of attack. In some versions, it deals a fixed damage in 40-40, which allows to knock-out most of the early and midgame enemies [[OneHitKill with just one bullet]]. Aside of that, it comes with nice +20 to-hit bonus ''and'' properties equal to being Master of Firearms -- there are ''no range penalties'' added, regardless how far away the target is. The only thing stopping this rifle from being ultimate gun is relatively low Speed -- it takes 4 AP to fire a single shot and that's after getting Apprentice training. It's perfectly possible to pick this gun and keep using it up until the very end. You don't even have the spend the points it would normally take to craft it, because the Master of Firearms in Ashbury carries a copy and will give it to you for free if you promise to ''not'' ask for Master training, which the gun renders irrelevant.
196** While you are in Ashbury to pick up that rifle, you should first go and rescue the dog. It's by far the most powerful follower you can get in the whole game and all you have to do is save the starving animal from being beaten to death by a random gnome. In turn, once healed, you gain a murder machine that can tear apart anything on its way. In the early game, the dog is worth more than a party consisting of 3 or 4 combat-oriented followers - and only gets stronger from there.
197** If one has a high pickpocket skill and/or is willing to spend a Fate Point, you can steal a Hand Cannon right out of Sammie White's hand as soon as your enter Tarant, giving you one of the more hard-hitting firearms early in the game without having to dump points into gun smithing for the schematic or invest in the needed Clarington Rifle and Fancy Pistol to put it together.
198* DisciplinesOfMagic:
199** There are 16 spell colleges of 5 spells each (the four elements, necromantic white/black, nature, force, summoning, mental, etc.). Obtaining mastery of all spells in a college lets you cast the spells at half cost, and learning new spells increases magical aptitude, increasing the effect of some spells.
200** Technological disciplines function in the same way (8 disciplines and 7 ranks), although they're used to create items, weapons, and armor with various effects rather than cast spells.
201* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
202** An in-game character called Gilbert Bates. Considered the inventor of steam engines, [[spoiler:actually turns out he stole the idea from the dwarves]]. Reminds you of any old, debunked conspiracy theories? He even has a pissed-off, borderline incompetent competitor named Cedric ''Apple''by.
203** Also, the first NPC character that can join your party and act as your early guide to the world of Arcanum is a man called [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Virgil]]. Possibly doubles as a nice ShoutOut.
204** The Dark Elves and their views on elven supremacy are an obvious reference to the Nazis.
205** The Elven Council obviously represent the United Nations. As Nasrudin states, "For the good of all. We really believed that. For a time, I suppose it was even true."
206** The game as a whole is a fable for the last 2000 years (more or less) of human history.
207* ADogNamedDog:
208** Quite literally with the dog. It has no proper name and the game refers to it either as a dog or as "worthless mutt".
209** There is an unique, game-breakingly powerful sword to be found in Isle of Despair, that is simply called "Sword". It looks, weighs and has a shop price similar to a generic, standard quality one-handed sword. Its stats are anything but generic, however; it's the fourth best sword in the entire game, surpassed only by two-handed ancient artifacts that come to play in the final act.
210* TheDogBitesBack: The player can find several half-ogres magically bound to a cruel master in the Dark Elf village. Killing this master will release them, and they immediately turn on their tormentors. The elves never stand a chance, and they'll go on to attempt to wipe out the whole village.
211* {{Doorstopper}}: Played with. The manuals you can buy to inflate your tech skills cannot be read, but are phenomenally heavy for books (and rather expensive), the implication being that they aren't exactly light reading.
212* DoubleEdgedBuff: Getting drunk increases Strength and Constitution but lowers Intelligence, Charisma, Perception, and Dexterity.
213* DoWellButNotPerfect: To achieve the best possible ending for Caladon (assuming that you also convince Donn Throgg to end the orcish uprising in Tarant), you should perform well in negotiations between Caladon and Tarant, but not excellently (Willoughsby should evaluate your performance in 7000, not 11000 coins). If you negotiate on the best possible terms for the Unified Kingdom, Caladon eventually will fade away in the shadow of Tarant, while the unification under more friendlier terms for Caladon brings mutual prosperity to the both cities.
214* DugTooDeep: The Dredge in Wheel Clan mines is a subversion. Rather than actually digging too deep, the dwarves simply abandoned the corridors after digging out all the ore and the monsters nested in, eventually growing both in size and numbers to the point where the tunnels had to be sealed and guarded, because it's too late for cleaning. The maze of corridors is one of ''the'' toughest [[DungeonCrawling crawls]] in the entire game and the monsters can put a serious fight even without the end boss getting involved. Should the party come unprepared, it can easily escalate to TotalPartyKill.
215* DumpStat:
216** Beauty. It mostly only really helps to keep people from being hostile on sight and resolving a ''small'' few situations without combat. You can get by with a 2 (and even maximize your Charisma), and there are several items and blessings floating about that will bump it up about three or four points. There are some exceptions but the difference is minor and largely limited to a few minor quest rewards and merchant prices. Lampshaded in the game's manual, which tells the player that an intelligent, charismatic but ugly character will reap the full benefits of a speech-based playthrough more easily than a beautiful, but uncharismatic and stupid character.
217** By the same token, reaction modifiers as part of character backgrounds are pointless. Fancy clothing provides a hefty reaction boost which equals any positive modifier and will practically negate any negative modifier. This makes the Escaped Lunatic background pretty useful, as the -25 penalty to reaction is cut down to a mere -5 in exchange for major resistance boosts.
218** Perception. It has exactly five applications: using firearms, sneaking around, spotting traps, zooming out longer from where you stand and providing a small bonus to To Hit chance of ranged attacks (a single rank of a related skill will provide you with the same value as maxed-out Perception). Firearms are severely outshined by other weapon classes, Prowling is a gimmick-tier skill, there is a good chance you will ''never'' invest in Spot Traps and you can reasonably spot nearby enemies even with average Perception. For anyone, who isn't a gunslinger, the stat is completely useless. Curiously enough, bows and their skill fall under the [[OneStatToRuleThemAll all-powerful]] Dexterity, making the stat redundant for archers.
219** To a lesser degree: spending Skill Points on Health and Fatigue boosts alone. Yes, you gain more health and fatigue for each point spent than on Strength, Constitution and Willpower, but you'll gain health/fatigue boosts on level-up. You're better off with the additional bonuses to the above mentioned stats, like better melee damage and carry weight, poison resistance and healing rate or resistance to offensive magics. However, certain followers don't actually have anything else to do with their remaining points after maxing out their core abilities and stats, leaving them with no other option. The dog is probably the best example of this and it's the reason why he's by far the best melee character in the game, even if he can't wear armour.
220** The Only Child background makes Charisma an excellent dump stat for mages. Forget companions and forget diplomacy, because your points are going into a whole lotta magical firepower. This does lock out some GoldenEnding quests, however. Best for an evil or apolitical Living One.
221** Oddly enough, Constitution can be a dump stat for melee fighters as it doesn't affect HP but stamina.
222* DungeonBypass: There are a total of two plot dungeons you can't skip: P. Schuyler and Sons and the Black Mountain Clan both have info you can't get anywhere else. Any other dungeon can be gotten around by the right method. That includes TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, if you're willing to do what it takes.
223* EarlyGameHell: You're probably going to be stuck in Shrouded Hills if you don't know how to properly build your character. Combat is difficult, you don't have enough energy to make magic reliable, you're hunting down parts for your tech builds, etc. Once you get a handful of followers and a few points in your combat skills, the game becomes more forgiving.
224* ElementalEmbodiment: The four elementals: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Air is annoying, Water poisons but is mostly harmless, Earth ranges from a nuisance to a respectable threat, and Fire is outright one of the most dangerous enemies in the game.
225* ElvesVersusDwarves: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with.]]
226** Elves and dwarves have traditionally gotten along fairly well -- the recent industrial revolution has, in fact, caused both civilizations to dislike humans far more than each other, though elves are still a bit bitter about the dwarves letting Gilbert Bates get his hands on the steam engine. [[spoiler:However, a faction of racial supremacist elves manipulates the dwarven king by threatening war between elves and dwarves unless he banishes one of his own clans as punishment for elevating humans. Years later, the king realizes that it was not, in fact, the elves' doing.]]
227** King Thunderstone points out that the two races don't get along (but are civil about it) because [[BlueAndOrangeMorality their moral and ethical philosophies differ too much]] for them to understand each other properly. Ironically, if you consider the philosophies, they are actually very similar.
228** The elves do not take it well if a dwarf PC visits Qintarra. Anyone's allowed to visit, but some are more allowed than others, and dwarves are not on the wanted list.
229* EnhancedArchaicWeapon: Several have arisen following the continent's industrial revolution; compound bows that can be upgraded to shoot either [[PoisonedWeapon poisoned]] or [[ArrowsOnFire burning arrows]], knives and hammers fitted with clockwork mechanisms, swords and axes that can give electric shocks, inflict pyrotechnic damage or are [[PoisonedWeapon permanently envenomed]], and tesla-staffs that shock enemies with jolts of electricity are all available to technologically-savvy adventurers.
230* EthnicGod: The Ancient Lesser Gods are worshipped by a certain race.
231** Ter'el is the Elven God of Wisdom.
232** Geshtianna is the Human God of Love.
233** Alberich is the Dwarven God of Stone.
234** Makaal is the Bedokaan God of Hunt. If you tell to the poachers about the location of the Bedokaan village, Makaal won't accept any gifts from you.
235** Bolo is the Halfling God of Thieves.
236** Kerlin is the Gnome God of Gold.
237** Shakar is the Orcish God of War. Ironically enough, Shakar by the start of game is mostly worshipped by human barbarians in Kree.
238** Torg is the Ogre God of Heart.
239* EvenEvilHasStandards:
240** Trellian, known as The First Assassin, severs an alliance between the assassins' guild he leads, The Molochean Hand, and the Derian-Ka, a cult of necromancers, when he learns of the atrocities committed by the cult's founder, Kerghan, and leads the Hand in a war to purge the Derian-Ka from existence. [[spoiler:In the present day, The Hand's current leader, Gideon Laiar, will do the same to the Dark Elves of T'Sen Ang if you tell him they want to bring back their leader-in-exile Arronax.]]
241** [[spoiler:Vollinger, a Hand assassin who you can recruit as a follower, supposedly gets sickened if you take him to a vivisection laboratory/factory farm which the gnomes of Tarant used to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil force-breed]] Half-Ogres.]]
242** [[spoiler: Many [[TokenEvilTeammate evil Companions]] will turn on you if you side with Kerghan.]]
243* EvilDebtCollector: Your first job for the Maug Gang is to be one. There's a guy who owes some gold to the gang, and your job is to collect from him...and if he doesn't have enough, kill him.
244* EvilIsEasy:
245** Taking the evil path at T'sen Ang bypasses most of the plot of the last two arcs of the game, including several famously annoying quests and dungeons. All you have to do is [[spoiler: slaughter the peaceful inhabitants of Stillwater]].
246** In general, if you murder the person who's supposed to give you the next main quest, they'll have an item containing info on where to go next. Or you can use dark necromancy to summon their spirits to the material world, torturing the information out of them in exchange for their freedom. It actually works quite well.
247* EvilPoacher: Robert Milton in the Glimmering Forest, who pursues the most exotic creatures of the Arcanum wildlife, like [[LizardFolk Bedokaans]]. You can either remove the poachers for Bedokaan or betray them and tell Milton the location of Bedokaan village.
248* EvilVersusEvil: In the [[WretchedHive Boil]] there is a conflict between the gangs of Maug and Pollock. Both sides consist solely of violent thugs with no redeeming traits. The only way to get a good ending for the Boil is to kill leaders of the both gangs.
249* EvilWeapon: There are plenty, but none are as infamous as the Bangellian Scourge. Its creation involved atrocities, and it is an ArtifactOfDoom. Using it docks your alignment with each kill.
250* FantasticRacism:
251** Everyone looks down on orcs. Elves and dwarves simply hate them; humans and gnomes use them for slave labor in a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything direct allegory]] of black slavery. The book series "The Orcish Question", found in the Tarant library, goes into a lot of detail about both sides of the debate, including some contributions by Orcs themselves. There are many almost-explicit comparisons to Africans and to Jews in the discourse, which neatly lampshades the trope: unlike in real world racism, Orcs ''actually'' tend to have lower intelligence and a more violent nature than the authors. Odd thing, though -- if you play a ''half''-orc they have the same base intelligence stat, and a lot of the orcs you can talk to don't really seem stupid or violent at all, just uneducated and underprivileged. [[BlatantLies As for the manual entry...]]
252** Good luck playing as a half-orc. Most inhabitants of Arcanum are grudgingly civil to half-orcs at best, but many will openly react in disgust to your presence.
253** Elves and dwarves don't especially like humans, though this is justified by the fact that humans have been making a mess of things recently. Gnomes, for some reason, are not nearly as disliked by either. Everyone likes halflings, more or less, and racism towards half-ogres is limited by the fact that it's [[TooDumbToLive a bad idea to tick off something that big and strong.]]
254** Racism against half-ogres is usually too subtle for them to notice. The one you meet on the Island of Despair (who was unusually intelligent, as well) didn't realize he was a factory slave until years afterwards, when he'd gotten an education and time to think about it.
255** Subverted by the half-elves who are almost universally liked and admired (and tend to become diplomats, merchants and... trophy wives because of it), except for the almost universally ''disliked'' half-orcs, who loathe them. Also, Qintarra's elves get a bit snobby toward them.
256* FantasticUnderclass: Because of the huge amount of Fantastic Racism that pervades society, orcs and half-orcs living in the city of Tarant are denied basic rights available to most of the other races. A lucky few are permitted to work in the city's factories as what basically amounts to slave labor, the rest are huddled into the city's ghetto district, The Boil, where their only prospect is to join with one of the criminal gangs. [[spoiler: It's possible to change the status quo by the end of the game, by completing a particular quest in a way that gets a half-orc civil rights activist elected as a member of the city council.]]
257* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
258** The Unified Kingdom, [[SubvertedTrope which actually no longer has a monarch]] and is run by a cabal of gnomish capitalists, is obviously modelled on late UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain. The fantasy races are mostly Tolkienian stereotypes.
259** Before the release of the game, the official site carried several front pages for a fictional newspaper from the gameworld. One article had an amusing account of a fantasy version of the historical controversy concerning Darwinism. The gist of it was that the Elves consider themselves the oldest race on Arcanum, and are rather irritated at recent discoveries that seem to indicate that the humans and dwarves evolved first and that elves and some other races branched off from them the due to the influence of magic.
260** One of the in-game texts was a journal of local Archaeological Society. It turns out they are very unhappy about "heroes" [[DungeonCrawling raiding ancient tombs and ruined temples for magical treasures and ancient lore]], without any reverence for scientific methodology. It could be a ShoutOut to Heinrich Schliemann's methods -- but it's a fantasy role-playing game, and we all know what the characters in every fantasy role-playing game ever excel at.
261* FantasyGunControl:
262** PlayedWith. The battle between [[MagicVersusScience Science and Magick]] is an actual rule of Nature and a major sort of world-point. Guns are considered technology, and therefore magic interferes with them. Thus, the archetypal mage cannot use a gun without it exploding in his hands. Firearms are both common and fairly effective... against unarmored humans and low-level monsters. Enchanted armor and mid-to-high-level monsters [[GunsAreWorthless laugh at handguns]], meaning that late-game technologists will be packing {{BFG}}s and ''lots'' of ammo. It's a recurring plot point as well in many of the sidequests, though it only becomes important to the main quest near the end.
263** The backstory examines the "conscript versus knight" problem, but [[GameplayAndStorySegregation the game doesn't bear this out]]. Rifles and effective pistols are expensive, ammunition is even more so, and firearms are no easier to learn than any other weapon. Among [=NPCs=], most guards carry swords and other archaic weapons instead of guns, which tend to be more the purview of adventurer types.
264* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Priest Arbalah is the Farmer to Charles Bregho and Simon Fahrkus's Vipers. Arbalah gave a shelter to the bandits, who repaid him with murder of his family and stealing of his sacred artifact.
265* FictionalPainting: In one quest, your character is tasked with recovering the painting "Kerghan and Persephone", recently stolen from the estate of the Garringsburgs, a family of Tarantian aristocrats.
266* FighterMageThief: In terms of builds, you have these three and Technologist; taking technological skills gives you ItemCrafting, AntiMagic, and lockpicking.
267* FinalBossPreview:
268** At some point between you visiting the Isle of Despair, and arriving at the Wheel Clan, [[spoiler:Kerghan posing as Arronax appears before you as a phantom,]] taunts you and uses a spell which knocks you and all your followers unconscious.
269** More of a "Final Mook Preview," but one quest in Blackroot involves shutting down a portal [[spoiler:to the Void, the game's final dungeon]]. During it, you fight monsters normally not seen till the final dungeon. When you kill them, more spawn, changing to different monsters after you've dealt with enough of one type. Though they run out eventually, [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling leveling here is pretty quick]], enough to get you near the top in one go.
270* FirearmsAreRevolutionary: Firearms are one of several technological inventions to arise from the Industrial Revolution, and the Unified Kingdom quickly cottoned on to the fact that it's much easier to train a soldier to aim a gun than to swing a sword, draw a bow or cast a spell and made a point of outfitting their entire armed forces with firearms. They put them to great use during their war with the kingdom of Cumbria (a conservative nation that values chivalry and "traditional" forms of combat), and at the start of the game the Unified Kingdom's capital Tarant is an industrial powerhouse and the financial and political hub of the continent while Cumbria is a dying shadow of its former self.
271* ForceAndFinesse: Averted, in that a melee character can (and in fact ''should'') max out both his Strength stat and his Backstab skill to perform ridiculously high damage attacks.
272* {{Foreshadowing}}:
273** A quest you can take when you first arrive in Tarant involves the stolen FictionalPainting "Kerghan and Persephone". Persephone is the name of a goddess from Myth/ClassicalMythology, closely associated with the afterlife. [[spoiler:When Kerghan explains the motives for his actions during the final confrontation, he claims to have developed a form of necromancy that allowed him to visit the land of the dead despite still being alive.]]
274** A half-ogre you meet in an early-to-mid-game area tells you that he grew up in an orphanage where all of the children were half-ogres, and he finds it strange since the typical circumstances of a half-ogre's birth (a male ogre forcing himself on a human woman, who survives the rape, pregnancy and birth of the child) means that half-ogres ought to be very uncommon in Arcanum. [[spoiler:Much later in the game, you can complete a quest in which you discover a conspiracy by the gnomish elite to breed half-ogres through a eugenics programme]].
275* FlunkyBoss: The FinalBoss can summon two of the EliteMook blue zombies to aid him in battle. Even if you're maxed out for that battle, the zombies are at least a respectable annoyance (because they do fire damage).
276* ForcedTransformation: Turning opponents into sheep is one option for mages with spells from the Morph college.
277* FreeLoveFuture: The society of the elves of Qintarra (and presumably T'sen-Ang) is sexually open and non-monogamous. In fact, in Qintarra, [[YourNormalIsOurTaboo living together monogamously is considered perverted to the point of threatening the social order]], which becomes a plot point in one quest.
278* GameBreakingBug: Several, with perhaps the most notable being the one where a party member told to wait will disappear forever.
279* GameFavouredGender: Male characters get a considerable number of advantages over female characters. First of all, out of the 8 playable races only 4 of them have a [[DistaffCounterpart female option]]. Women also start with +1 CON and -1 STR. This means they can never obtain the double melee damage bonus for having 20 STR without taking a background that increases their strength. Which naturally excludes them from taking another, more useful background. Males also have more heterosexual options for [[OptionalSexualEncounter sexual encounters]] in the game.
280* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: The game deserves credit for the fact that the resurrection spell ''enables'' new quest options via restoring a person.
281* GayOption: Seducing a lonely widow is harder if you're also a woman, but it's certainly doable. Then there's the female [[TheDragon Dragon]], who, when faced by a female hero, is actually more likely to be the one doing the seducing. Finally, there's an actual brothel in Tarant, which isn't that discriminating about its clients. Or its [[BestialityIsDepraved employees]]. Near endgame [[spoiler:if Raven is in your party, the player is human/half-elf/elf and said the right lines to her in before she joined]] she will have sex with the PC regardless of gender. In fact, it appears the only straight option for females are two filthy gnomes (one being a prostitution job), and the orgy in you're invited to in Stillwater for finding the cult's statue (there are some dudes lying around in the aftermath, although you're not linked to anyone specifically).
282* GenderBlenderName: Hervor, a guard of steam engine in Shrouded Hills, is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervor the Old Norse female heroine]].
283* GenderRarityValue: Dwarven males outnumber females by 2 to 1, which is one of the reason why male dwarves protect and shelter females from sight of foreigners at all costs.
284* GenderRestrictedGear: Gender-restricted clothes such as dresses and fine suits do exist (including ones that give a +20 bonus to [=NPCs'=] initial reaction); however, actual armor of any type can be worn by either gender as long as it's the correct size for the race.
285* GenerationalMagicDecline: "The History and Nature of Magick" book in Tulla reveals that in the ancient times there were 8 levels of spells, not 5, with spells like Mass Ressurection and Eternal Flame being among the strongest, but the magick grew weaker since then and the most amazing spells became unavailable for mages. This explains the existence of powerful spells which were used by ancient mages in the past (or even present) but are inaccessible to the player (such as banishment to the Void).
286* GeniusBruiser:
287** Thorvald's Half-Ogre guard, who was educated in Tarant as a child and has a love of reading. One method of getting past him is to find him a new book to read.
288** The player character can be built like this as well.
289* GiantSpider: Spiders start at about cat-sized and move up from there. One quest has you clear a mine of poisonous spiders impeding work. The boss of the level is an oversized version that's much tougher than the regular ones.
290* GlobalCurrency: Averted in-universe (the lack of such actually comes up as a plot point a couple of times), but [[GameplayAndStorySegregation played straight gameplay-wise]].
291* GodhoodSeeker: The player character may become this at the end of the patched game if [[spoiler: s/he sides with Kerghan until the very last moment and then declares godhood when he demands to know the reason for the betrayal]].
292* GodEating: An in-game book about pagan gods states that Torg fathered an entire pantheon of gods to rule over the ogres, but when he saw that many of them had forgotten what it meant to be ogrish, he slew them all and swallowed their still-beating hearts.
293* GodzillaThreshold: One that looks minor, but disturbing when mulled upon. [[spoiler:That 'Gnome' who gave you the ring at the start of the game turns out to be a Dwarf who emaciated himself and cut his own beard to better hide his identity.]] Arcanum Dwarves regard their beards as the most important thing right after their own lives, which raises the question: what could be so dire that a Dwarf would willingly cut his own beard?
294* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:The Industrial Council]] is running one of these, largely dealing with [[spoiler:breeding half-ogre guards. These allow the weaker gnomes running the council to be protected against jealous rivals and keep themselves in power.]]
295* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: Fancy Dress, which is pink and purple, gives female characters +20 Reaction. Some noble women also wear same looking dresses.
296* GraveRobbing: With a shovel and a fresh grave, you can help yourself to the corpse inside and anything of value in there with them. It's necessary for a couple quests, but it's also considered theft and you'll be attacked if anyone sees you do it.
297* GreatWhiteHunter: Franklin Payne, who carries a big gun and a bigger ego. If you ask him, he'll tell you stories about his hunts.
298* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Notably averted. Policeman {{NPC}}s notice and react to bodies, as well as the presence of armed characters in the vicinity of those bodies, and may attack the player if they happen to walk in while you're standing over a fresh kill with your sword drawn. In the event of an assault they'll leap to the victim's aid, and it is possible to get them to fight on your side if you don't fight back against your attacker until they get involved.
299* GuideDangIt:
300** Good luck finding out Called Shots on your own in the game. They are only mentioned in the manual and not explained nor described in-game in any way. Unless you find keyboard shortcuts for them in the net, you are out. Certain combat skills openly ''rely'' on Called Shots.
301** You're never informed that you won't be able to return to the Isle of Despair, meaning you can accidentally lock yourself out of the best ending for [[spoiler:Dernholm]] by missing a quest on the island.
302** Recruiting the dog can be quite the hassle unless you know ''exactly'' what you're doing. Then again, it's equally possible to just stumble upon the dog by accident, since recruiting him is time-sensitive upon arrival. Unless you have resurrection spell or a resurrection scroll handy.
303** The blessing from the All-Father:
304*** You have to make blessings at the altars in a certain order, some of which have to be repeated at least once, then find the final altar buried in Vendigroth. Oh, and if you're a technologist, you better have one of your followers carry a tech-based resurrect. The All-Father kills you in the process of blessing you, then casts Resurrect to bring you back... except a 100 tech-aligned character will block the spell, thus leaving you dead if your party can't bring you back. The game does give you a book and a vague diagram which can allow you to reasonably figure it out, and trial and error allows you to realize you messed up (other gods will curse you if you do it wrong).
305*** One particular bit on getting the All-Father blessing is ridiculously obscure. You need to give an offering to the Greater Goddess of Neutrality... But the altar is located in Gorgoth Pass, a location which is ''not shown on any map in the game''. Even if you know the place from browsing game guides, it still won't pop in your map until you're close enough, and just ''getting'' close enough is a challenge in itself. There's a journal entry gained from tavern gossip, but that alone requires you to TalkToEveryone with no idea where to hear it.
306** Some Fate Points require counter-intuitive behavior to trigger. For example, a Fate Point gained for aiding Magnus against the necromancer jewelers requires that you ''almost'' betray him first. Simply aiding him outright earns you nothing.
307** Good luck finding the [[Film/MasterOfTheFlyingGuillotine Aerial Decapitator]], the strongest non-grenade throwing weapon, without looking up the coordinates of its location.
308** Certain minor side quests affect the ending of the game. Some of the most obscure are:
309*** Getting hired by [[spoiler: Jongle Dunne, the gnome magician from Shrouded Hills]]. At first it looks like the basic case of PlayingBothSides, but only if you do things in the very specific order, you will unlock a special, secret ending - [[spoiler: turns out Jongle was working on the philosopher's stone and ''actually succeeds'', even if you end up repairing the engine he hired you to destroy]]. There is no "fail" state for this plotline during the ending slides if you mess up, so even figuring out about its existence isn't that obvious, and it's very easy to accidentally lock yourself out of ability to finish his questline.
310*** ''Two'' affect Black Root, which is otherwise skipped entirely during the ending in normal circumstances. First, the more obvious one, is to [[spoiler: take all the steps to convince them to rejoin Cumbria and also get [[RightfulKingReturns Maximilian]] back from his exile, someone you at this point don't even know to exist]], making the town prosper. The more tricky ending is to connecting an apparently random shipwreck with [[spoiler: king's Praetor missing daughter, get Max back from his exile ''and'' '''not''' convincing Black Root to rejoin Cumbria. This will lead to an ending where king Maximilian restores Cumbria and fights a successful war against Tarant, winning with the use of the reformed Dragon Knights]].
311*** The lengthy path of various side-quests and specific discussion subject with certain [=NCPs=], along with discovery of the final fate of the legendary Iron Clan, which isn't even a quest by itself, is the only way to [[spoiler: restore the clan and find out that Magnus' ancestors came from it]]. Oh, and part of it is bugged, further narrowing down the possible paths to get that ending.
312*** The GoldenEnding for the whole game and [[spoiler: Caladon]] in particular requires from you to [[spoiler: do well in the diplomatic negotiations, but not perfect]]. As a result, the whole kingdom will prosper. A good indicator for this ending is the reward you get after the related quest: you are still qualified for the master training, but the master comments out you could still do better than that.
313* GuileHero: Persuasion-based characters can get anyone to do pretty much anything they want, often without charge. It's even possible to have a decent combat build on top of this, including some use of magic or tech.
314* TheGunslinger: You can play this kind of character.
315* GypsyCurse: Killing Madame Toussaud is a ''bad'' idea. Can also be inverted with the quest's good ending.
316* HalfHumanHybrids: Now in three flavours: half-elves, half-orcs and half-ogres. Unusually for the genre, the writers have an in-game explanation for why halfbreeds are even biologically possible (Pre-release marketing material in the form of a fake newspaper suggests that humans and elves are really just distantly related races rather than separate species, half-ogres [[spoiler: are a eugenics experiment that has gone though countless non-viable offspring until a breeding population was produced]] while Orcs are suggested to be [[spoiler:humans that have undergone some form of mutation or deformity]], and why only those three variants exist.
317* HandCannon: With a large enough bore to literally qualify as a 'cannon'; in RealLife, anyone attempting to wield it as a pistol would shatter their own arm. [[RuleOfCool Not that anyone cares.]]
318* HairRaisingHare: The Vorpal Bunny, the strongest summon of the Nature college. It's a melee master bunny that knows Force magic.
319* TheHatMakesTheMan: The Dark Helm, which in the unpatched game permanently lowers your alignment every time you use it, while boosting your magickal aptitude at the same time. After the patch, Dark Helm lowers your alignment and increases your magickal aptitude only as long as you wear the helmet.
320* HealerSignsOnEarly: The first thing that happens upon the player gaining control is a conversation with Virgil, who is very insistent on joining you. He knows the basic healing spell already, which is invaluable for helping most players survive the early game. Technologist characters gain access to a tech healer just as they are probably tech-oriented enough for Virgil's spells to start failing. The PC can also learn a little White Necromancy or Herbology themselves for a single skill point.
321* HeroOfAnotherStory: Jyheirad the knight and his companions, Morrawynd, R'yn-Diak and Frondo, are a separate group of adventurers you run into while trying to retrieve a demon-killing sword. They'll even retrieve it for you if you make your case, bypassing one of the game's more difficult dungeons..
322* HeroicFantasy: Melded with SteamPunk. The player will meet and can play as powerful mages and noble knights.
323* HeroicSpirit: [[spoiler: Raven]] is the first character where the evil strategy of 1) murder 2) cast Conjure Spirit doesn't seem to work. [[spoiler: Her ghost]] doesn't feel any pain from the summoning, and actively mocks the PC's attempts at interrogation. On the other hand, you still get a hint leading to the next quest.
324* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Elven Council went around righting wrongs and doing hero stuff in the Age of Legends, but [[CantArgueWithElves their heads got pretty swollen from all of the heroic carnage]], until [[spoiler: Arronax finally went over the edge and nuked Vendigroth in the name of the Council]].
325* HiddenElfVillage: Two of them. And four dwarf ones [[spoiler: (only one's left, though)]]. Probably more, but they're just too well hidden to be in the game. And one for super-powerful self-proclaimed "good" wizards. And one for LizardFolk.
326* HindenburgIncendiaryPrinciple: The game begins with your character on board a luxurious airship, which is attacked by orcs in steampunk fighter planes. It crashes, setting off the story.
327* HistoricalInJoke: While the use of an engine muffler to make a silencer may look like just another example of [[RuleOfFun the game's]] [[BambooTechnology approach to item crafting]], both items were invented by the same person (Hiram Maxim) based on the same science.
328* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:The Vendigroth device]] exploits the unstable relationship between magick and technology to turn a mage's powers against them, but only under very specific circumstances. It was built when mages were ridiculously more powerful, and most modern mages do not have the skill to reach that level.
329* HollywoodSilencer: Although, since semi-automatic pistols have yet to be invented and normal revolvers can't be silenced, it can only be used on a certain custom-built firearm.
330* HolyGround: Falcon's Ache is sacred to the elves, and anyone who sheds blood on the ground will have their life taken by the spirits that live there. This becomes important in a quest when you have to drive away some lumberjacks that want to claim the site as a timber yard; you can't hurt them, but you can goad them into attacking you and let the spirits kill them, so long as you don't fight back.
331* HomeworkSlave: The Bully character background mentions that the character used to bully smart kids into doing his homework, giving him lower intelligence.
332-->You were the class bully, big and dumb. Extortion and intimidation have afforded you a bonus to Strength (+1), but getting people to do your homework for you leaves you with a deficiency in Intelligence (-1).
333* HotBlade: The Pyrotechnic Axe deals a lot of fire damage in addition to its normal damage. Based on its design, it appears to work through some form of induction.
334* HulkSpeak: Orcs, ogres and half-ogres usually speak this way. You can, too, if you have less than 5 IN or have the Idiot Savant, Bride of Frankenstein or Frankenstein Monster background traits.
335* HumansAdvanceSwiftly:
336** Unlike the dwarves and elves, humans aren't inherelty disposed to magick or technology and can master either. However, since learning the magick ways takes a lot of time and dedication, which not every human with his short lifespan can afford, many humans in Arcanum prefer to learn technology. Morever, while Dwarves are cautious in their use of technology and don't allow it to ruin their traditional way of life, the humans, because of said short lifespan, use technological wonders without any restraints for their own benefit. Even if they don't have a natural talent for technology like dwarves, it's the humans who shaped the {{Steampunk}} world of Arcanum, with all its virtues and vices.
337** In fact, it wasn't even the dwarves who invented technology first. It was the humans of Vendigroth, the ancient city from the Age of Legends, which was destroyed by Arronax in fear that humans will use technology against Elves. The legacy of Vendigroth was completely lost and forgotten since then, but those Vendigrothian technological items that can be found and made by the PC are usually among the finest technological inventions among their class, [[OlderIsBetter despite being more than 2,000-years old]].
338** Subverted by [[spoiler: the dwarves of the Iron Clan. The metallurgical science of the Iron Clan is beyond anyone else's and is a match for the mightiest enchantments of the Elven Council, and unlike modern dwarves, they did ''not'' believe in the tradition of only working with your hands. Their automata are almost as formidable as their warriors' hammers and armor, which is a plot point in one ending.]]
339* HumansAreBastards: Dwarven technology in human hands has propelled Arcanum into an industrial revolution, which has led to the destruction of Morbihan Forest and rendered Tarant the world's most polluted city. Dwarves and elves offer several reasons for why this trope is in effect: humans have much shorter lifespans than other civilised races, so they don't live long enough to develop wisdom; they are driven by fear of their own death to make their mark upon the world before they die; and they rarely live long enough to see the destructive consequences of their actions.
340* IdiotSavant: One of the possible backgrounds you can give during character creation. It gives a bonus to your character's intelligence and gambling stats, representing their love of mathematics, but they've lived in a mental institution for most of their lives, stunting their social skills and causing them to talk as though they have a much lower intelligence.
341* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten:
342** The [[spoiler:Dark Elves of T'sen Ang]] will offer an alliance to an evil-aligned player character; their first quest requires you to massacre the village of Stillwater. This isn't entirely arbitrary evilness, though it might seem to be. [[spoiler:If you ask Min'Gorad for reasons, she tells you that the town is too close to the forest, and people making forays into the elven lands are using it to resupply. It fits with the intensely xenophobic and paranoid mentality the dark elves have.]]
343** To enter the Maug Gang, you have to collect a debt from an impoverished Boil resident, or kill him if he refuses. While it's a legitimate quest in theory, the real reason is that Muggs doesn't think you'll be willing to do this kind of dirty work.
344* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: [[spoiler: Subverted. You'd expect the ring given by the dying "gnome" to be either magical or at least the key to unlocking some ancient horror. However, the signet ring is merely a clue to figuring out the identity of "the boy", and it's fully possible to identify, locate him and acquire his aid even if you let the ring be stolen within 5 minutes of obtaining it. Keeping it only allows you to sell it back to the owner for a small sum.]]
345* ImmortalApathy: Humans have some of the shortest lifespans of the sentient races, and members of the more LongLived races have a tendency to treat them as foolish children, motivated by a constant fear of death and driven to make a mark on the world before they die. One dwarf, discussing the environmental damage caused by human logging, notes that he's spent human lifetimes contemplating what sort of stone to use for a sculpture, compared to the kind of world-changing decisions a human can make in a few cycles of the moon. [[AllThereInTheManual The chapter of the manual]] discussing elves also notes that, while humans and elves sometimes form romantic bonds that result in [[HalfHumanHybrid half-elf children]], an elf woman who looks no older than 17 to a human has probably seen 5 generations of humans turn to dust in her lifetime, so it's little wonder elves get tired of human interaction in their old age.
346* ImpossibleTheft: If your Pick Pocket skill is high enough, you can steal fairly large objects from people, as well as their jewelry. Using Fate Points, you can steal the clothes off their backs and the weapons in their hands.
347* IncredibleShrinkingMan: There's a spell which shrinks the target, the player included. Useful as a debuff for enemies, and allows you to bypass a height restriction on a certain quest which is normally limited to the smaller races. There's even [[DevelopersForesight unique dialog]] if you do.
348* InfinityMinusOneSword: The Pyrotechnic Axe for any Tech-oriented melee character. It can be crafted once you arrive at Tarant with minimal effort if your character is trained in Smithing (or you recruit Magnus), deals a ton of bonus fire damage and doesn't suffer from weapon degradation when attacking anything made of metal (doors, machines), rock (golems) or fire (elementals and heated golems).
349* InfinityPlusOneSword:
350** There is a {{BFS}} in the final dungeon which does as much if not more damage than any other weapon in the game. [[spoiler:If you neglected to bring the Vendigroth Device or handed it over to the Dark Elves, then said sword is one of the few ways to pierce Kerghan's barrier and kill him.]]
351** For technologically inclined characters with the sufficient skills there also is [[HandCannon Droch's Warbringer]], an insanely powerful pistol made from [[spoiler:Vendigrothan]] weapon parts. Even its inventors -- with all the physics-defying technology they've had -- considered it to be the ultimate weapon. This is reflected in its in-game stats.
352* IntangibleTheft: The halfling thief god Bolo is said to have stolen the shadow of Progo the god of storms. He was caught and punished by [[DisabledDeity losing one arm.]]
353* InterfaceSpoiler:
354** [[spoiler:When the Mysterious Apparition appears after your visit to the Isle of Despair you can see the crossed pistols icon of a Human character in the info box. This is a huge spoiler, since it invalidates his claim that he's Arronax, who is an elf. The Mysterious Apparition is actually the human mage Kerghan.]]
355** Gar the "Orc" also has the character icon of a Human.
356** The list of automatic character builds include the builds (and thus the names) of all the dead [=NPCs=] right from the moment you start the game.
357* IntoxicationMechanic: Drinking [[BoozeBasedBuff increases strength]] but reduces accuracy with every drink downed.
358* InventoryManagementPuzzle: Characters can only carry a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of space. Objects like guns and bows, though not overly heavy, can take up about a twelfth of your inventory space, while things like potions only take up a single square. Crates, chests and such can hold a much larger number of items, and have no weight penalty, but still have a space limit. You can fudge this a bit by using your hotkey slots to carry items (useful for big ones like clockwork robots), but it still counts against your weight limit.
359* ItemCrafting: Make a suit of plate armour with only two items and some theoretical knowledge! No tools needed! Results in literally no time at all! Or, for that matter, a sentient super dangerous attack spider from only a steam engine and a cogwheel. Oh, the marvels of modern science!
360* KidnappedScientist:
361** There's an in-universe short story about some poachers who tried to hunt the mythical Stillwater Giant. They had planned to kidnap a gunsmith to maintain their weapons, but settle on the story's narrator, a chemist, instead.
362** Late in the game, this is revealed to be a key component of the BigBad's evil plan: [[spoiler:he enslaved the Black Mountain clan shortly after their banishment, and has forced them to construct a technological portal which will rip a hole in the SealedEvilInACan he's trapped inside.]]
363* KillerRabbit:
364** The summoning spell for the Nature magick college, at full power, will summon an ordinary-looking white rabbit called the "Vorpal Bunny". This bunny is a master of Melee and knows the first two spells of the Force college, so it's not a bunny to be trifled with.
365** Also, the blue rabbit that is allegedly the shapeshifting Stillwater Giant. You ''do'' find it in a cave filled with bones, after all...
366** Also, the blue rabbit that is genuinely the shapeshifting Stillwater Giant, which you meet in a random encounter immediately after finishing that questline.
367* KillTheHostBody: The Whytechurch Murderer is an elf wizard [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan who tried to banish a demon and ended up sharing his body with it]], and is now forced to kill for the demon's amusement. The only way to end his killing spree safely is to [[VillainBeatingArtifact find a specific dagger]] and kill him with it, banishing both him and the demon to hell. A small annoyance in the execution of this, however, is that doing so will cause a WhatTheHellHero moment from any good party members who see you kill him, since the wizard is treated as a "good" character by the game's alignment system and the extenuating circumstances of why you're killing him aren't accounted for.
368* LampshadeHanging: When dealing with a possible demon, the town sheriff complains that such things always require an unnecessarily long trek to retrieve some absurdly specific weapon with which to defeat it. You are naturally forced to do just that. [[GuideDangIt And good luck figuring it out all by yourself]].
369* LargeHam: Franklyn Payne, adventurer extraordinaire! He's fond of boasting (loudly) to anyone who will listen.
370* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: A seer notes in passing that from one perspective, you're fate's puppet, destined to play out your role. From another, you're the only one with any choice at all, and everyone else's on the strings.
371* LethalJokeItem: The Miner's Helmet is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- a hard hat with small electric light in front. It comes with whooping 15 Armor Class (which is ''more than entire set of chainmail'' and similar armour) and +10 to-hit bonus in dark areas. It's also one of few helmets that doesn't decrease Perception.
372* LivingMuseumExhibit: H. T. Parnell's museum in Tarant is home to Gar, the world's smartest orc. He sold himself to Parnell as an indentured servant in exchange for Parnell saving his family from poverty, and works off the debt by performing as a "freakshow" exhibit, impressing visitors to the museum with his above-average (by orc standards) knowledge.
373* LizardFolk: The Bedokaan, who are lizard folk who live on the borders of elvish territory. They're relatively peaceful unless directly threatened, and a character who is smart and persuasive enough can even debate philosophy with the chief.
374* LoanShark: The mission to join the Maugs requires you to collect a loan from a beggar in the Boil, or to kill him if he can't pay. [[spoiler: He can't pay. Your options are to pay the debt yourself, or end him.]]
375* LogicalWeakness: Inverted. Certain monsters are completely immune to Called Shots, for they lack the proper body shape to even target their legs, arms or even head.
376* LuckManipulationMechanic: The game has fate points, which may be used to force a critical success (or do something else if you prefer). This is most useful for forcing a critical pickpocket success, allowing you to steal the unique items from certain [=NPCs=].
377* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe:
378** Quality Iron Shield, a pretty common shield sold by blacksmiths all over the game, grants Armor Class of 30. To put that into perspective, that's more than most of the top-tier armours. Shields in general provide absurd amount of AC when compared with anything else, making it considerably harder to hit their wielders and providing a solid reason why one-handed weapons are much better in the long run. Technologists can also upgrade it into the handy Flow Disruptor, which tacks on a +30 magic defense.
379** Screaming Shield takes it a step further. It is equally common item sold by magical smiths and aside of 30 AC, it also comes with additional +10 Damage Resistance. As in ''reducing all damage by 10%''. And most importantly, while magical, it provides full bonus regardless if the wearer's magic amplitude is 100 or 0.
380* LudicrousGibs: Decapitation, dismemberment and even cleaving people's legs out from under the are quite common sights as your character grows in power. Or you know [[GuideDangIt how to aim your attacks]].
381* MacGyvering: You'll do this a lot if you play as a scientist. Creating powerful weapons from seemingly random assortments of items is standard operating procedure for them, especially in case of Explosives, Mechanics and Chemistry colleges.
382* MadnessMantra: The ghost of Bessie Toone in Shrouded Hills's mines repeats "Sarah, my dear Sarah" all the time.
383* MagicFromTechnology: Technology in this setting is capable of doing things so fantastic that it's essentially indistinguishable from magic in many ways (though magic itself is still a separate, distinct thing). A healing salve that closes gashes and mends broken bones in literally seconds? A staff that fries your foes with pinpoint-accurate bolts of lightning? A ring that gives you limited SuperSpeed when wearing it? A chemical concoction that can ''bring people back from the dead''? A device that can create ''zombies''? All of this and more can be yours through the wonders of [[SteamPunk late 19th Century]] [[ForScience SCIENCE!]]
384* TheMagicGoesAway:
385** It's implied that, because of the MagicVersusScience rules discussed below, Arcanum goes through cycles of a period of high technology, a period when magic and technology coexist in uneasy balance, [[TheMagicCameBack a period of high magic]], another period of coexistence, and so on. Bates' manufacture and marketing of steam engines to the humans is causing a new age of technology to begin and magic to wane. Certain in-game books and conversations imply that magic was once stronger than it is now, and some of the relics from Vendigroth and The Iron Clan hint at what technology might achieve in the future. Although the Vendigrothian relics suggests that it is quite possible for the periods of uneasy coexistence to have both magic and technology be what the 'present day' of the game would consider high.
386** The game manual mentions an unexplained event some 900,000 years ago that caused the magickal energies of the world to suddenly skyrocket. Scholars call this time period in Arcanum's history the Epoch of High Enchantment. It is in this highly magickal time that the Elves and Giants evolved from humans, and many of the more fantastic creatures, that have since become extinct, came into existance by either transforming or merging together creatures that existed at the time. It is implied that ever since then magick has been slowly draining from the world.
387* MagicHarmsTechnology: Because the ScienceVersusMagic rules that govern the world, magick twists the laws of physics that technology relies on to function, increasing the odds that technological items will break in unpredictable ways. At the same time, ScienceDestroysMagic is also in effect -- skilled technologists & powerful technological items subtly reinforce the laws of physics in the areas immediately around them, acting as magick dampeners that can stop spells from functioning in their presence.
388* MagicVersusScience:
389** One of the best [[JustifiedTrope justifications]] on record; [[MagicAndPowers Magick]] ''[[RealityWarper alters physics]]'' to do stuff, Technology ''uses physics'' to do stuff. Machinery operating around people using spells are performing nonsense actions -- powerful spells will break weaker machines just by being used in the vicinity. Likewise, spells used around machinery are basically inserted into said machinery -- powerful machines will cause weaker spells to fail just by operating in their vicinity. As a gameplay mechanic, this means any bonuses granted by items of the opposing discipline will be reduced or completely nullified, and in the case of usable items (weapons, healing items, etc) will be more likely to critically fail, up to a guaranteed fail if either discipline is maxed out.
390** A hilarious and quickly-tiresome conversation occurs every time you try to buy a train ticket, basically boiling down to "Are you a wizard?", "Are you sure you're not a wizard?", "You might be a wizard, if-" and quickly turns out to be completely redundant, since the conductor has a device that detects hazardous levels of magic before letting you board a train anyway. Said magic-detecting device? A pocket watch, which will start going backward in the presence of mages. Conversely, simply being inside a train station instantly lowers your magicka stat.
391** On a society-wide level, Tarant carefully restricts where and when magick can be used, while Cumbria largely forbids the employment of technology. However, Caladon averts this; they broadly employ both magick and technology, their magick is much more advanced than anything in Cumbria, and in some areas their ''technology'' is ahead of Tarant's as well. In general, the best outcomes for human society come from embracing both paths, as demonstrated by both Caladon and [[spoiler: Cumbria under Maximilian]].
392* {{Magick}}: It's even in the title.
393* MagikarpPower:
394** Most schools of magic work this way. The first level of a spell tree is some weak utility spell, the second is stronger and likely has some use in combat, the third is hefty, and the fifth (which requires a lot of dedicated status-requirements) is super-powerful. On top of that, spell strength is dependent on your magic rating; a truly powerful mage needs a full 100 rating, which requires putting points into several spell trees. Special mention goes to summoning spells, which summon different creatures based on your magical rating. The higher it is, the stronger the summon.
395** Technologists as a character build are an even greater example. While they get a far worse rap than they deserve from a lot of players, there are some serious issues with using them to their full potential, most notably the extreme cost in points to fill out their disciplines (seven compared to five for mages). Playing an effective technologist requires you to finesse your abilities and items for the utmost advantage, but a proper build can lead to a character who is mighty enough to defeat [[{{Superboss}} Stringy Pete and his crew of the damned]] by themselves.
396** Lockpicking on either side of the fence. Any lock you can pick without maxed out skill is probably a chest or door you could have beat open just as easy. Maxed out skill lets you pick storekeeper chests, for infinite money and free gear. Tech lockpicking has the benefit of being silent, letting you pick more chests without being caught compared to the noisy unlocking spell that will alert/wake up everyone nearby.
397** Backstabbing starts out as almost useless. It only works with daggers and knives, only when sneaking and attacking InTheBack, and with a pretty low chance to provide any bonus at all. The bonus itself is a joke due to how little damage daggers and knives deal. However, once you reach Expert status, you're able to use swords and axes with it, too. Master adds a gargantuan critical chance, making roughtly every even attack a critical. Combined with proper sneaking, it's possible to easily perform a series of [[OneHitKill One-Hit Kills]] on end-game enemies, all infamous for being damage sponges.
398* {{Magitek}}: Defied, as the rules of magic and technology in this universe make them impossible to function together. One newspaper article describes a scientist who attempted to create a magical pistol by binding a demon to it. The spectacular failure of the experiment is described with amusement by the writer of the newspaper article, in a tone suggesting that any halfwit within this setting could spot the outcome a mile away. See YinYangBomb below for the sole successful subversion.
399* MagneticHero: A very charismatic player character can recruit up to six humanoid companions to follow them around. And if abusing the system, even more.
400* TheMagocracy: The Elven Council in the Age of Legends. It was made up of the most powerful elven mages of the time.
401* {{Malaproper}}: Anytime Lukan the Witless attempts SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. Also, the player character with low (<5) intelligence does this a lot whenever talking to someone.
402* ManualLeaderAIParty: You have control over the PC and only the PC. You can give your party general orders such as "back off" or "heal me," but that's the limit of your control. Even choosing what weapon they use is only possible by giving them a single weapon or else they'll switch to the best one available, even if they don't have the strength to wield it properly.
403* MasterOfUnlocking: There are two ways of becoming this. Either max out the Lockpick skill for neutral or tech characters, or learn the Unlocking Cantrip spell with 100 Magicka. Being seen by guards while picking a lock will cause them to attack, so the former option is best for stealth, since all spells raise awareness levels (because they're flashy). The latter is better for repeat business (say, if you manage to unlock a shop's inventory, or plan to squat a house for storage), since a lock unlocked by magic will never be relocked.
404* TheMentor: Elder Joachim to Virgil. He took the latter in after Virgil found himself in a difficult spot and helped him turn his life around, teaching him the Panarii religion in the process. It's also implied he's who Virgil learned his initial healing spells from.
405* MercyKill: The BigBad wants to do this [[spoiler:to the ''[[OmnicidalManiac entire world]]''.]] He believes that since spirits on the mortal plane are always in pain and those that have passed on are not, killing everyone will free them of their suffering forever. [[spoiler:He's not entirely wrong, as another character can confirm, but that same character tells him not everyone feels the same about it.]]
406* ModularEpilogue: The game has this kind of ending, displaying how the player's actions influenced the fate of certain states and factions of the game world.
407* MookMaker: The Mace of the Damned from the Ashbury mortuary has a chance to stun enemies but also summon hostile zombies. But at high levels, that's just more XP.
408* MoneyForNothing: Looting every dead enemy (especially those nice Molochean hand people who insist on providing you with free robes every time you run into them) and trashcan will quickly result in the player having more money than they know what to do with.
409* MoneySpider: There is a warehouse in Tarant home to a giant rat inexplicably carrying several hundred gold coins.
410* MoreDakka: The Repeater Rifle is a more subdued version of this; for players desirous of further Dakka, there's the fully-automatic Mechanized Gun, which can dish out an absolutely terrifying amount of damage but chews through ammo at an astonishing rate.
411* MugglesDoItBetter: PlayedWith. Technology can't hope to match some of the greater feats of magic, such as stopping time, a OneHitKill or teleportation. However, technology has a much lower skill requirement to use it effectively, such that even a neutral character can use most tech items reliably, while mages need to have their magic aptitude as high as possible to reap the full benefits of spells. This makes technology more attractive to the common man, who doesn't have to know how it works, only that it does.
412* MultipleEndings: On top of the basic choice to kill the BigBad or join with him, the ending slides give different fates for different characters and cities depending on your actions.
413* MultiplePersuasionModes: The game uses the Persuasion skill throughout most quests and represents both the ability to convince someone that your course of action is correct and the ability to convince someone of a bluff, but on a few occasions, different stat checks are used:
414** A sufficient Strength stat can be used for intimidation to pass a situation, such as convincing a quest NPC to give you an item or convincing a belligerent man to leave you alone.
415** High intelligence is required to enable certain dialogue options in order to resolve a few quests through dialogue; in particular to be able to debate Dwarven philosophy in the Wheel Clan caves.
416* MundaneUtility: The main reason to even bother with Conveyance spell college is its final spell, Teleportation. Just cast it and move to any known location in the world map instantly.
417* MurderInc:
418** The Molochean Hand, an order of assassins currently dead set on murdering the player character. You can convince them to get off your back, but they'll simply turn on someone else instead.
419** The Thieves Underground is a loose coalition of criminals with headquarters in the major ports. You can make some money and experience stealing certain special items in town for them.
420* MurderTheHypotenuse: In one quest, you're asked to investigate the murder of Wrath, an elf wizard, and one conclusion you can draw is that he was killed by Sharpe, who was living with a woman that Wrath lusted after and saw Wrath as a threat to their friendship. [[spoiler:If you dig a little deeper, it turns out to be an inversion; Wrath committed suicide in a manner that he hoped would get Sharpe framed for murder.]]
421* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: Certain companions will not travel with other potential companions if they are in your party, even if you've recruited them once before. This can be bypassed with a Charisma stat of 20 and Master Persuasion, which allows you to recruit anyone regardless of alignment or personal issues; they'll complain, but they'll still fall in line.
422** Raven and Z'an will refuse to travel with one another thanks to the differences between Elves and Dark Elves, in addition to the fact that you need a completely opposite moral alignment for either one.
423** Magnus also develops a hatred of the undead as a result of the quest involving P. Schuyler and Sons, and will refuse to travel with Torian Kel.
424** Perriman Smythe hates Geoffrey Tarellond-Ashe and won't join your party if you have Geoffrey as your companion. In comparison to the examples above, you can't have them together even if you have 20 of Charisma and Master Persuasion, because of a bug.
425** Torian Kel and Bane of Kree, to the point that Torian attacks Bane on sight, as Bane destroyed Torian's homeland, Kree, and holds his sword.
426* NamedAfterTheInjury: The criminal Miranda Tears has a pair of scars on both sides of her face, starting at her eyes and working their way down her cheeks.
427* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The dark elves are basically elven supremacists.
428* NecessaryDrawback: Cursed items have powers that are either superior to any non-cursed item or have abilities that cannot be obtained through regular items. As a tradeoff, they come with negative effects that make using them debilitating, if not outright dangerous over long periods. For example, the Ring of Shadows casts permanent invisibility on whoever is wearing it, but in exchange completely nullifies health regeneration and causes steady health and fatigue damage for as long as it's worn.
429* NeverMyFault:
430** Kraka-Tur murdered the last dragon in Arcanum and used its blood to become a monster so he could get revenge on his enemies and terrorize people. Yet when the Elven Council came for him, he played the victim; his diary even claims the line "I've done nothing wrong!"
431** Percival Toone basically stole his family's mine by badgering his mother into giving it to him (she wanted it to go to his sister instead), then sold it for a cheap penny to some questionable businessmen. His mother committed suicide over this and began haunting the mine, which caused it to stop producing ore. The new owners naturally blame him for this, and want either their money back, or his blood. At absolutely no point does Percival admit blame; it's his mother's fault, or his sister's, or the businessmen's. If you return ownership of the mine to him, he'll immediately make plans to sell it again.
432** Averted with [[spoiler: Arronax]]. While he's upset that his father didn't stop him from destroying [[spoiler: Vendigroth]] while he had the chance, he doesn't deny responsibility for the atrocity.
433* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
434** If you have the Bane of Kree in your party at the end of the game and gave him the InfinityPlusOneSword you found in the same area, an ending sequence has him waging war upon all of Arcanum, for which you are blamed. While it would seem obvious what effect bringing him back would have, there's no real dialogue or even a hint as to how to trigger this unless you have a specific follower in your party. Contrast with the half-man, half-dragon Kraka-Tur, who will explicitly threaten to do this should you release him yet won't (no doubt being a coward dissuaded him from causing trouble with you around).
435** Tarant is really easy to mess up. [[spoiler: Killing or just merely exposing Gilbert Bates as a fraud]] will ruin the economy [[spoiler: since he is the only provider of reliable steam engines]], and [[spoiler: killing one of the Boil's crime lords, but not both, will allow the other to take over the Boil and then expand his criminal empire across Tarant]]. Setting off the [[spoiler: Orc Riots]] also really isn't a good thing for the city. Then there is Caladon-Tarant and Tarant-Blackroot relationships, which, again, can be easily messed up, with Tarant almost always getting the short end of the stick out of those.
436* NobleBigot: Even most high Alignment NPC's will treat a Half-Orc PC with contempt.
437* NobleDemon: Z'an Al'urin is supposedly Alignment -30, and won't work with good [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] unless they have Master Persuasion, but nothing in her actions or dialogue besides this point backs this up; [[spoiler: in fact, she's the one who gives Loghaire Thunder Stone a massive WhatTheHellHero later in the game if you bring her to meet him and gives Arronax a similar dressing down if she meets him]]. Fan theory suggest she's in the middle of HeelFaceTurn, as her dialogues heavily imply being disillusioned with dark elves and their ideology.
438* NoHarmRequirement: You are tasked with driving away some lumberjacks that are planning to cut down trees in an Elven [[HolyGround sacred grove]], but are warned that the site is protected by a spirit of vengeance that will awaken and destroy you if shed the lumberjack's blood (in-game, this means any character who lands an attack is hit with an unblockable death spell). However, if you can't convince them to leave peacefully, you can goad them into attacking and let the spirit kill them for you.
439* NoKillLikeOverkill: The Disintegrate spell first kills the victim and then [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin disintegrates their corpse]]. [[DeaderThanDead There's no chance for resurrection after that]].
440* NominalImportance: Only quest characters are given unique names. However, they're identified as generic townspeople until you talk to them for the first time (which can result in an InterfaceSpoiler as the resulting switch to their actual name is a dead giveaway that they're involved in some quest, even if you have yet to discover it).
441* NotCompletelyUseless: At first glance, "Sold Your Soul" is a terrible background to pick: it provides +20 Magick aptitude, but also a ''permanent'' -20 threshold to your moral alignment, forcing you to be an EvilSorcerer... Except that aptitude bonus makes you a ''devilishly good'' EvilSorcerer, particularly in tandem with being a half-elf (another +5 to aptitude, without the typical weaknesses of playing as a pure-blood elf). Since spell effects and damage scale with aptitude, and it can in fact go well past 100, you are starting with an effect similar to mastering a whole school of magic as a free bonus.
442* NotTheIntendedUse: The "Fast Turn Based" combat mode teleports characters instantly instead of playing their walking animations. Toggling combat allows you to move much faster even when there's no battle (but requires caution in towns, as it's all too possible to click on an NPC).
443* NoTechButHighTech: Magick is fundamentally incompatible with technology as its application makes complex mechanisms turn haywire. Simple items like bows and swords are fine however, even though technically bowyery or metallurgy still involve a level of technology. But since they don't come with any moving parts, complex mechanisms and, gods forbid, engines or loaded springs, they are simple enough for magick to not interfere with their applications - though the advanced metallurgy involved in Smithy weapons ''does'' oppose magick. Meanwhile, the simplest mechanical clock will end up damaged by mere ''presence'' of strong magick. And then there's mail and plate armor. These are technological ''unless'' they're enchanted.
444* NoWomansLand: The Isle of Despair is very harsh to the convicted women ([[SinsOfOurFathers and their offspring]]). The men of the encampment treat the local women as property and constantly abuse them. Those women who couldn't stand the oppression and are willing to fight join together in the nomadic group outside of the encampment.
445* NonIndicativeName: The Unifed Kingdom in Tarant, which isn't ruled by a king, but rather oligarchs of the Gnomish Industrial Council. There used to be a king, but he disappeared under mysterious circumstances...
446* NonResidentialResidence: If you strike up a conversation with the half-ogre Ogdin Bigfist and ask him to tell you about himself, he'll tell you that one of his earliest memories is of being kept as a slave in a printing works and having to sleep beneath one of the desks.
447* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: In addition to the actual quest log, you can get hints on main quest progress by asking Virgil what you are supposed to do. These conversations turn into a RunningGag if your character is incapable of speaking in an intelligent manner.
448* ObfuscatingStupidity: Gar the Orc AKA Garfield Thelonius Remingtom the Third. A child of two human parents physically identical to an orc. Introduced as a sideshow act; the "World's Smartest Orc". He was forced into indentured servitude after his genuinely caring parents lost their entire fortune trying to help him. The player may negotiate his freedom and gain him as a party member if they're intelligent enough to discern Gar's true nature.
449* OccultDetective: You can solve Garringsburg Robbery with the help of a gypsy fortune teller.
450* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome:
451** If you go to the Pit of Fires to retrieve a magic sword, you may find a group of adventurers who are there to obtain the sword in exchange for monetary compensation. If you can convince them that you need the sword for a noble purpose (like, for example, [[spoiler:destroying L'Anamelach]]), they will go into the cave, brave all the Fire Elementals waiting in it, return to the entrance, and promptly hand the sword over to you. Not a single one of them dies in the process.
452** Thorvald warns you that the reason ships don't travel to the Isle of Despair is because bandits will try to take over and kill the crew. When you return to the ship, you'll find a trail of bodies leading to Captain Teach, who fought them all off by himself.
453* OlderIsBetter: The Iron Clan and Vendigroth are ancient technological civilizations that have items far superior to their modern counterparts. Iron Clan plate armor has an Armor Class of 45, nearly double that of the Machined Plate Mail. Vendigroth has the game's most powerful rifle and gauntlets superior to any other. Naturally, all of these things are extremely rare, limited to one or two of each.
454* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler: Kerghan]], and a rare example where one of your morally good characters will actually admit he kinda has a point. [[spoiler:Since life brings suffering, and the character in question knows as well as Kerghan that the dead are genuinely at peace in this world, killing everyone will bring an end to suffering for all things.]]
455* OneGenderRace:
456** An in-game reason was made up to explain what amounted to space limitations. Dwarf women are rare (you never see one in-game, and bringing up the issue with male dwarfs can somehow [[BerserkButton trigger homicidal rage]]), while gnome and halfling women apparently suffer from StayInTheKitchen syndrome.
457** As for Half-Ogres, [[spoiler:the Gnomish Industrial Council keeps all the females that result from their breeding program at their farms to breed more half-ogres.]]
458* OneHitKill:
459** In some versions, Looking-Glass Rifle deals 40-40 damage, which allows to reliably drop with single bullet all sort of low and mid level enemies. Always. Each shot. At the longest range of any attack possible in the game. And it also provides an accuracy bonus to the user, while cancelling range penalties, rendering Master training in Firearms obsolete.
460** Due to the way how bonus damage from Backstabbing is applied, each hit, regardless of weapon used, can come with free ''+100'' damage ''and'' a really big critical chance to that. That's more than enough to overkill anything short of a small handful of really tough enemies.
461** The Disintegration spell deals enough damage to kill ''anything'', regardless of HP. On the downside, it also destroys loot, but if you happen to face monsters or animals, they won't drop loot anyway.
462* OneSizeFitsAll: Averted. Body armor comes in three sizes: medium for humans, elves, orcs, half-elves and half-orcs; small for dwarves, gnomes and halflings; and large for ogres and half-ogres. Bedokaans, being LizardFolk, don't fit any of the three sizes and can't wear armour at all. Also, ogres cannot wield pistols or other small firearms because their hands are too big, though other forms of armor have no such restrictions.
463* OneStatToRuleThemAll:
464** Dexterity, and even moreso, weapons' Speed, in both combat options. In ''Arcanum'', number of hits simply outweighs raw damage by a huge amount. This is also the chief reason why melee characters can easily outperform gunslingers. Melee skill is Dexterity-based, so in the process of increasing it, you gain extra Speed and Action Points. Firearms are Perception-based, providing no bonus at all.
465** For Mages, it's Willpower. It is the prerequisite stat to learn the more advanced spells, and it also increases your ManaMeter. You won't need to care about other combat stats when you can summon Elementals to tank your enemies while you blast them to oblivion from afar.
466* OneTwinMustDie: Orc culture contains a variant of this, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the manual]]. Twin births are a more common event for orcs than for humans, but triplets are seen as an unnecessary burden, as the mother, with her two breasts and arms, is seen as only being capable of raising two children at once. The solution to the problem is for [[MonstrousCannibalism the father to pick the weakest looking newborn and eat it]], in celebration of his own fertility.
467* OptionalSexualEncounter: Aside from the Brothel in Tarant (including Laura), you can sleep with Lillian Minsk, Brigitte in Stillwater, a corresponding orgy, a gnome for Madam Lil, Mr. Wellington, M'in Gorad, and Belle the Sheep.
468* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: The Stillwater Giant is essentially the cryptid of Stillwater. The Giant is regarded by the most people as a beautiful local fairy tale at best, scientists laugh at the very idea of it and all "evidence" of his existence is either very dubious or blatantly fabricated (like Stillwater Giant's pelt in the Museum of Tarant). After you bring the Giant's fake pelt to elf Mirth, however, you can discover that the Stillwater Giant is very real...
469* OurElvesAreDifferent: The major elf groups can be colossal {{Jerk Ass}}es to anyone who isn't an elf... up to the [[KnightTemplar Dark Elves]] who want to [[FantasticRacism bring all non-Elves under Elven domination, or else just kill them off]]. Even the "good" Quintarran elves are incredibly smug and HolierThanThou. For example, when an elf is found killed, their only suspect is their token dwarf because elves don't kill other elves.
470* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame:
471** Played straight to the extent that female dwarves are simply a rumour dwarves never discuss (and your player can't be one), so all dwarves to be found are bearded males. The reason for this is speculated by an in-universe evolutionary biologist to be that dwarven males outnumber females 2:1 and that it takes about 10 years for a dwarven woman to carry a child to term, meaning that they have to be kept perfectly safe for long periods of time.
472** Averted with city dwarves, who eschew the old clan customs, and are more proud of their city of origin than their dwarvishness. They still don't talk about their females.
473** [[InvokedTrope Attempted invocation]] by Magnus, who's so ashamed to be a city dwarf, he makes every attempt to be More The Same like he imagines ''real'' dwarves should be. Even when he doesn't exactly know the customs he should be following, he'll make them up as he goes along. He gets most of the facts from a dubious book on the subject, which was written by a human.
474** Also subverted by [[spoiler: Preston Radcliffe, the dying "gnome" at the game's intro. He's actually a dwarf who shaved his beard to disguise himself. To the rest of his clan, this is an unthinkable disgrace only partly forgiven by the severity of the situation. The player, if a dwarf, can lampshade this by saying, "We dwarves would rather cut our throats than cut off our beards."]]
475* OurGodsAreDifferent:
476** The Old Gods are still worshipped in some places and grant blessings (blessings which, it should be noted, bypass the magic-tech dichotomy), and one of the longest sidequests in the game is about the path to seek the favor of the [[TopGod All-Father]] through the blessings of his children.
477** Nasrudin was an ancient elf of the Age of Legends who is now worshipped as a god by the Panarii religion. [[spoiler: He's not really happy about this. His son]] Arronax is seen as the GodOfEvil, but is worshipped by the Dark Elves. [[spoiler: He hasn't been doing much of anything in the past two millenia. Kerghan has been impersonating him.]]
478** A strong implication, reinforced by a couple of possible endings, is that being a God is simply a matter of being a powerful being worshipped by weaker beings. Compared to the people of the modern age, the Elven Council and [[spoiler:Kerghan the Necromancer]] are ancient beings of unimaginable power; calling them "gods" and worshipping them isn't really that far from the truth.
479* OurOrcsAreDifferent: For the most part, they fit the Tolkien-Orc archetype, being either wandering barbarians who will try to extort money from you or street thugs who harass you if you walk down the wrong alleyway at night-time. Some of the orcs in Tarant's factories can come across sympathetically, however, as an oppressed underclass of labourers doing poorly-paid work.
480* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Averted. Vendigroth is an incredibly advanced ancient society, whose technological feats can rival the mages of old. But the fact that the Altar of [[spoiler:Velorien, the Allfather]] can be found in the ancient ruins shows that they never really abandoned religion in their technological pursuits.
481* OrphanedEtymology: Polar Bears can be found in the central mountain range of Arcanum, which seems to have a mostly temperate climate. Also, Tesla coils and Molotov cocktails exist, despite neither Nikola Tesla nor Vyacheslav Molotov having existed in this world.
482* PathOfInspiration: [[spoiler: The Panarii religion was created as a scheme by K'an Hua and the Dark Elves. The religion isn't corrupt at all, but by casting Arronax as the UnseenEvil, they mystify what he actually is: a powerful mage and a dangerous zealot trapped in the Void behind magical wards. This will make it easier for the Dark Elves to crack him out when the time comes.]]
483* PhysicalGod: Anyone of sufficient personal power is effectively a deity. Nasrudin and Arronax are even worshipped as such, [[spoiler: and they're hardly the most powerful beings in the setting. In the ending, you can declare yourself a god, and given that you just took Kerghan apart, it's really more of a LampshadeHanging than anything]].
484* PlayingBothSides: You can pick up competing quests which usually require betraying one party. However, if you're clever, you can manage both outcomes and get double credit. Just keep in mind that not ''all'' quests work this way and [[SchmuckBait often trying to pull this trope]] ends with a catastrophic failure instead, so thread carefully.
485** The first quest you will probably find is a bandit asking you to kill a priest to lift a curse. The priest in turn will ask you to get back what the bandit stole. If you do the former first, not only will you fail the latter, you'll be cursed for your trouble. If you do the latter and then the former, you get the blessing from the priest and experience from both quests without any pesky curse.
486** There's a wizard in Shrouded Hills who wants you to sabotage the town's steam engine along with some other quests, and the mayor in turn will ask you to repair it. Just be sure to finish the former's quests (there is a FetchQuest he gives after destroying the engine) first, because he'll take issue with you after the engine is fixed.
487** The only way to achieve master training in both melee and dodge is to use the mutual hatred of the two masters against each other, while [[TakeAThirdOption siding with the damsel they both love]].
488** When working for the Boil's crime families, you can play both of them against each other, [[Film/ForAFewDollarsMore Man With No Name style]]. There is also law involved, and you can play it ''three'' sides. Even if you eventually have to join one of the gangs for good to progress their quests, you can still [[spoiler: actually be with the police, having an option to wipe out both. Just make sure to collect the reward before blowing your temporary boss]].
489** Unrelated with quests, but if your party has both [[MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers Raven and Z'an Al'urin]], you will have to play along both of them to keep them from clawing each other's eyes out.
490* PointBuildSystem: ''Arcanum'' has one of the most flexible character creation systems in all of gaming. Gaining a level earns a point (two at certain levels). One point can be invested into an extra point in any stat, a new spell or schematic, a rank of any skill, or a small bonus to health or fatigue.
491* PointOfNoReturn: Once [[spoiler:Nasrudin banishes you to the Void]] you cannot return to any previous area in the game. You are at least given fair warning to prepare. However, if you try to [[spoiler:kill Nasrudin, he'll banish you before dying whether you like it or not]].
492* PoisonedWeapons: With Strong Poison and the right crafting recipe, you can poison certain melee weapons so they poison whatever they strike. Plus there are of course various weapons that apply poison on their own.
493* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: One early SideQuest involves the discovery and destruction of a one-way dimensional portal spawning enemies from the final dungeon. The intent is to use a device which instantly collapses the portal from a safe distance. However, there's nothing stopping you from fighting the enemies. Each time you kill an enemy, another is immediately spawned by the portal to replace it, going through a rotation of different types until it runs out. With careful kiting to keep from being swarmed, you can level grind using the enemies until the supply is exhausted. You'll jump about twenty to thirty levels for your trouble, in a game where the [[CharacterLevel Level]] {{Cap}} is only fifty.
494* PeopleFarms: [[spoiler:As soon as you reach the Half-Ogre Island, you discover that this place was used for breeding factories of Half-Ogres by the Gnomish industrialists, with kidnapped human females as {{Breeding Slave}}s. Nowadays, Gnomes use the same factories, but with Half-Ogre females, somewhere else]].
495* PermanentlyMissableContent: Everything on the Isle of Despair is lost to you as soon as you leave. Within that, you can do pit fights to earn favor so you can speak to the local leader. The pit fighters can only be looted inside the pit, and one of them is carrying a shockingly powerful sword. Mercifully, the game gives you a fair amount of time after each win to go looting, and the corpses stay in the pit during subsequent fights. If you skip the pit fights through persuasion or other means, you can never attempt them.
496* PoweredArmor:
497** The Machined Plate, powered by a Minute Steam Works which makes it essentially a SteamPunk version of its {{Expy}} the [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} T-51b Power Armor]] and like the T-51b, it grants +3 Strength. There are actually three versions of the Machined Plate in the game:
498** Basic Machined Plate (Armor Class 25, Damage Resistance +30, Fire Resistance +10, Electrical Resistance -20, Noise Penalty -90), can be found in a house during a quest and grants no Strength bonus.
499** Machined Platemail (Armor Class 30, Damage Resistance +20, Fire Resistance +20, Noise Penalty -90, Strength +3), worn by certain [=NPCs=].
500** Machined Plate (Armor Class 25, Damage Resistance +45, Poison Resistance +20, Fire Resistance +20, Electrical Resistance -10, Noise Penalty -90, Strength +3), can only be made by investing 7 points into Smithy to craft the Elite Plate and combining it with a Minute Steam Works. Alternatively, Magnus can craft the Elite Plate and then schematics along with books can help to make the machined set. Arguably the best non-unique technological armor in the game and one of the better armours out there.
501* PowerupLetdown: The Master quest for Pick Pocket requires you to run naked through the streets of Tarant, earning yourself a reputation as a streaker which causes a minor negative reaction in all those you meet. In return, the Master bonus lets you plant any item on anyone with guaranteed success. There is precisely one quest in the entire game that uses this skill, and you don't need the mastery bonus to do it.
502* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: Non-exploding thrown weapons are different kinds of returning weapon, starting with basic boomerangs and going up to enchanted star-blades and the [[ShoutOut Aerial Decapitator]].
503* ProtagonistWithoutAPast: No one in Arcanum knows you or anything about you. While you can choose various backstories or prebuilt characters, they don't affect the story in any way. If you take the trait "child of a hero", the game claims that everyone knows your father is famous, but no one will acknowledge it (although they will tend to react more positively to you).
504* PurelyAestheticGender: Averted. Females of any race (where applicable) gain one point of Constitution and lose one point of Strength. The maximum possible value for a stat is 12 added to the starting value from race and background, and hitting 20 in a status gives you bonus (for example, doubling damage for strength) on top of normal effects for increasing stats, so females can't get that bonus without a background adjusting their strength value. Gender also affects dialog, though there's only a few times this is more then just sir/ma'am pronouns etc, such as the Gentleman's Club in Tarrant. However, it does mean that female characters are slightly [[GuysSmashGirlsShoot better mages (because of the Endurance boost)]], and the Tomboy background gives +1 STR / -1 CON, essentially undoing the gender adjustment. This does, however, prevent females from accessing other, more useful backgrounds.
505* {{Railroading}}: The main plot quest technically makes a good deal of the world inaccessible until you reach certain milestones, though a player exploring around randomly with still discover landmarks if they walk over them.
506* RaisedByOrcs: One of the possible backgrounds for the player character.
507* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil:
508** Half-Orcs are subject to a lot of FantasticRacism, partly because most people assume that at some point in their ancestry, a male orc violated an unwilling human woman.
509** One of the most disturbing and sickening parts of the game is visiting [[spoiler:the factory farm where a large number of Half-Ogres were 'bred' by the Gnomish conspiracy.]]
510* RagnarokProofing: Much of the technology of [[spoiler:Vendigroth]] still functions over two thousand years after a (localised) EarthShatteringKaboom, including, unfortunately, the defense systems. Same goes for the [[spoiler:Iron Clan Guardians]]. Although it's not clear how old these are, they're implied to be much older than Vendigroth.
511* RealIsBrown: The game is notoriously khaki, and the default gamma setting makes things twice as dark as they are. Switching the game to more readable settings has the unintended effect of making Arcanum look more cheerful.
512* RealityWarper: The nature of magic means that all mages are this by default, bending the laws of physics to their whims. Technologists, on the other hand, are an inversion: technology actually ''strengthens'' reality where it is used, making magic harder to use in that area.
513* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Kerghan]] has an epic speech where he explains why basically life itself sucks and must be wiped out, accompanied with FMV stills. What makes the speech extra creepy is that [[spoiler:he actually makes a fairly convincing case for it, since what amounts to Heaven is demonstrably real in-story]] if you keep a morally good Virgil in your party until then.
514* ReligionIsMagic: Making offer to gods whose altars a scattered around Arcanum gives you very real stat boosts. It also gives you very real curses if you don't respect their interpersonal relationships when doing it.
515* ReligionIsRight:
516** Partly subverted and partly played straight with Panarii. Most of their myths actually happened. Their prophecies, on the other hand, need some work. [[spoiler: You are not the ChosenOne and reincarnation of Nasrudin, as Virgil believes. It's really hard to reincarnate when you are still alive]].
517** Played straight and deconstructed with the pantheon of old gods. They're all real, and their powers are easily demonstrated, but in a world where magic is mundane and sometimes a nuisance most people have lost interest. Halcyon and Gestianna's followers amount to village cults, and the latter has an annual orgy as a main selling point.
518* TheReveal:
519** [[spoiler:Nasrudin, the long-dead elf of whom the player character is supposedly the reincarnation]], is alive and well (in body at least).
520** Towards the end of the game, it turns out [[spoiler: [[FantasticRacism Arronax]] has done a HeelFaceTurn, wants to [[TheAtoner atone]] for his misdeeds, and is stuck in a crystal unable to interact with his surroundings or communicate with the normal world. [[OmnicidalManiac Kerghan]] is the real BigBad.]]
521* RevolversAreJustBetter:
522** Averted; most of the upper-tier handguns are either rolling-block or semi-automatic, and the title of best firearm overall is tied between a steampunk rocket launcher, a bolt-action SniperRifle, a gigantic break-action elephant gun, a [[MoreDakka heavy machine gun]] and a LightningGun. Revolvers are by far the most common type of firearm in the game, though, and will be the main armament of any gunslinger character for the majority of the game.
523** In early stages of the game, the Fine Revolver, the second gun a Gunsmith PC can make, is quite potent. It comes with a nice +5 to-hit bonus, good speed (and Doc Roberts can train you to make it even faster) and decent damage. In fact, it's as good as the Balanced Sword, which is considered game-breakingly powerful, while being ranged weapon. If you go directly to Tarant, the gunsmith running a shop there carries an unique Sharpshooter's Pistol - a further improvement of Fine Revolver, with ''+15'' to-hit bonus and range exceeding most rifles.
524** Played straight with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Droch's Warbringer]] which has a huge revolver cylinder making it look like a [[HandCannon Magnum Revolver]] with a sawed-off shotgun grip.
525* RockBeatsLaser: Averted. A few decades prior to the beginning of the game, the nations of Cumbria and Tarant went to war. The mighty army of the kingdom of Cumbria, renowned for their skill at arms, consisted mainly of mounted knights and heavily-armored swordsmen. The poorly-trained conscript military of Tarant consisted of riflemen, artillery, and machine-gun teams. The battle is ''exactly'' as one-sided as it sounds. The Cumbrians only ever won any battles through ambushes in dense terrain, and these were few and far between. By 1885 (when the game starts), Cumbria is a decaying, run-down shadow of its former self, while Tarant is thriving.
526* RPGsEqualCombat: Technically it's possible to complete the game without fighting and it isn't even hard, but it requires you to have a very specific character build. Even with a combat-focused build, however, there's still plenty of non-combat gameplay.
527* RunningGag: "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" It becomes quite a running gag throughout the game.
528* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: The "Teacher" background makes the character much more focused on his friends, but at the same time unable to maintain so many relationships. In gameplay terms, this means the player's maximum companion count is reduced by one (out of maxiumum of 6), and in exchange you gain the ability to automatically grant a training bonus one rank lower than your own to all followers who qualify (Expert Melee grants automatic Apprentice Melee to all followers, for example, as long as they have one point in it). Since not all characters gain skill qualification automatically, this can be a ''major'' game-changing ability with certain party compositions. Just the sole Apprentice qualification adding +5 speed to related weapons makes followers much more deadly than normal.
529* ScaledUp: Kraka-Tur, a human who transformed himself into a dragon using dragon's blood and a magic scroll. [[spoiler:The FinalBoss will also shapeshift into a vaguely draconic form if you choose to fight him.]]
530* SchizoTech: Showcased as early as the brief animation that plays when you first start the game, in which a traditional knight in plate armor with an enchanted sword is showcased alongside a warrior with a [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver]] and a suit of SteamPunk PoweredArmor. Things only get more ridiculous from there - the market district of Tarant, for example, has a gunsmith selling ''machine guns'' next door to a weapons shop peddling swords and maces, airplanes and commercial [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airship]] lines exist but nothing even resembling an automobile can be found, etc.
531* SchmuckBait: On your way to Tarant from Shrouded Hills you will come across Torg's altar. You even might have the ruby needed for the offering. If you make that offering, you just made the entire quest related to sacrifices to the gods needlessly complicated, since Torg isn't even part of the First Circle.
532* ScienceDestroysMagic: One late conversation mentions that the world goes through cycles of magic, uneasy balance, tech, etc., with the game taking place during the uneasy balance leading into an era of technology. There's an UnreliableNarrator at work, however, [[spoiler: and other indications (such as the state of the world in the Age of Legends) indicate that it's possible for high technology and high magick to exist simultaneously]].
533* ScienceHero: You can play a technologist character yourself, but there are straight examples among [=NPCs=] as well.
534* ScienceIsBad:
535** The most technologically-adept race of all, the dwarves, are in fact extremely conservative in their employment of technology, and their beliefs hew fairly closely to this trope. One of their axioms is that "any work not done with one's own hands is no such thing," which is why they didn't use the steam engine one of them had invented. Later, King Loghaire explains that when faced with a new technology, the first thing that a human asks is "what can I use this for?" when it should be "what is the ''cost'' of its use?"
536** Several of the problems Arcanum is faced with, such as the pollution of Tarant and the destruction of the Morbihan Forest, can be traced back to technology getting into human hands and running amok. The game doesn't treat technology as purely evil, but it's certainly dangerous and easy to misuse.
537** Elves, being [[MagicVersusScience innately magickal]], tend to hold this view.
538* SelfImposedExile: Loghaire Thunderstone, the former king of the dwarves, stepped down from his throne and exiled himself to a derelict mine known as the Dredge, ashamed at himself for banishing the Black Mountain Clan and allowing elves to interfere in the dwarven justice system.
539* ShaggyDogStory: The closest thing to a satisfactory ending you can get to the quest line in which you [[spoiler:uncover a conspiracy by the gnomish elite to force-breed half-ogres through a eugenics programme]] is for the player character to [[spoiler: try to expose the conspiracy to someone who's already in on it, a spy posing as a newspaper editor. He'll pay you a pittance then take the only piece of evidence you have, leaving everyone else in Arcanum none the wiser]].
540* ShipwreckStart: The Player Character emerges as the sole survivor of a crashed passenger airship, the ''IFS Zephyr'', after it gets shot out of the sky by ogres piloting some mysterious heavier-than-air flying machines. Shortly afterwards, they find an AlmostDeadGuy who entrusts them with returning a ring to its rightful owner, a monk of the [[CrystalDragonJesus Panarii]] religion proclaims them the reincarnation of a prophecied hero, and they begin to find evidence of a conspiracy of assassins out to murder them...
541* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Averted. They're cheap, light, and compact but are still objectively one of the worst firearms in the game, with [[ShortRangeShotgun terrible range]], [[ArbitraryGunPower poor damage]], no armor penetration and a slow fire rate.
542* SealedEvilInACan: The Void fulfills this purpose, as the elven council banished the worst criminals there. Simply killing them wasn't an option, as magical resurrection exists and thus even death won't stop the very determined. [[spoiler:L'Anamelach counts as well.]]
543* SelectiveMemory: Our hero was going from the second largest city on the continent to the largest one, but does not remember where these cities are located. All our hero has is a map which shows the major topographical features of the continent, but none of the settlements. The player character is supposedly from a different continent which makes their lack of geographical knowledge about Arcanum understandable.
544* SequenceBreaking: With a few exceptions, all material and locations in the game exist right from the start, allowing you to skip to whatever part you want as long as you know where to look.
545* SerialKiller: A string of murders occurs in Caladon, which have the police stumped as to the killer. The PC can investigate the crime and ultimately track down the killer.
546* SheatheYourSword: There's a side-quest where you have to get human prospectors off of elven holy ground. The ground is cursed/blessed so that anyone who acts violently while on it is killed instantly. You have basically two options; talk/trick the humans into leaving, or goad them into attacking you thus getting them killed. If you're going for the latter option, [[GuideDangIt make sure you have Automatic Combat switched to "off." Also, don't wear the bullet deflecting hat; when it reflects a bullet it counts as a hostile action.]]
547* ShoutOut:
548** Several to ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'':
549*** [[WholePlotReference You find a power-armor-wearing man outside of the secret mage city. He was sent to find a water crystal but now they won't let him back in because he's been contaminated by the outside world. And his name is Albert, which is also the name of the one of the pre-made player characters of Fallout.]]
550*** The entirety of Vendigroth Wastes - a huge desert littered by ruins of an ancient, technologically advanced civilization that vanished due to an unknown cataclysm.
551*** There's also a two-headed cow in Parnell's museum of curiosities. {{Lampshaded}} when your character claims to have seen one somewhere else.
552** Virgil's name references ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', where the [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Roman poet Virgil]] accompanies Dante on his journey. Similarly, Virgil is your first companion and can join you at the very beginning of the game.
553** Arronax's name is very similar to Professor Aronnax, from [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea a certain piece of Victorian science fiction]].
554** The weapon you retrieve for Throwing mastery is the [[Film/{{Krull}} Glaive]] in all but name.
555** The very secret EasterEgg "Aerial Decapitator", taken directly from ''Film/MasterOfTheFlyingGuillotine''.
556** Evil Virgil tells Joachim [[Franchise/StarWars "Your powers are weak, old man."]]
557** A sidequest involves the player in an investigation around prostitutes murdered and disemboweled in a district called "Whythechurch". An obvious shout-out to UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, the "murderer of Whitechapel".
558** ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan''.
559** The artwork for Looking Glass Rifle from the schematics is a sketch of [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII the rifle used by Doc Brown]].
560** The in-game book ''The Orcish Question Volume 2'' includes the line "[[Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan We can rebuild them! We have the Technology!]]"
561** If you can recruit the demon Gorgoth as an ally, he will sometimes scream [[Film/AustinPowers "GET IN MY BELLY!"]] during fights.
562** The god of dwarves, whose attributes are forging and stonecutting is called [[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Alberich]].
563** One of the corpses found at the Zephyr crash site is carrying a camera and has the surname Zapruder, shared with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Zapruder Abraham Zapruder]] who took one of the most famous videos of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film JFK's assassination]].
564** [[AllThereInTheManual The manual]] mentions Sawney Bean, a degenerate human who became chieftain of an orc tribe and became an infamous cannibal. He shares his name with a cannibal from Scottish folklore.
565** The halfling thief Tollo Underhill is a shout-out to ''Literature/LordOfTheRings; "Underhill" was the name Frodo used while attempting to travel through Bree incognito. In addition, there is another halfling named Frondo in Jyreihad's party.
566*** Another member of Jyreihad's party is a half-elf named [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Morrawynd]].
567* SicklyGreenGlow: Being poisoned turns your health bar sickly green and it faintly flashes whenever you take poison damage.
568* SimpleYetAwesome: Being a Technologist in a HighFantasy setting may be awesome, but the fact remains that being a Mage is simpler and just as, if not more effective.[[labelnote:details]]Being a Technologist requires you to hunt down components for whatever discipline you've chosen, usually spread across two or three shops if not requiring you to visit several different locations. You will probably need to spend money on manuals to inflate your skill in the disciplines you haven't chosen to make the good equipment. You'll also have more items that will need repairing/replacing. Meanwhile, being a Mage requires you to invest in Willpower (which raises your Mana anyway) and it only costs 5 points to master a School. The spells start from simple but useful (''Harm'' is spammable damage spell, you can always heal yourself with White Necromancy School), but the final spells are downright gamebreaking (''Quench Life'' is a OneHitKill to living things, but there's always ''Disintegrate'' against nonliving ones if you don't care about loot. ''[[TimeStandsStill Tempus Fugit]]'' will see your enemies dead before they even get a move, and travel in style with ''Teleport''). Once you've grabbed the essential spells, you can either master other Schools and become TheArchmage, or invest in physical stats to turn you into a LightningBruiser MagicKnight. And all you need to bring will be potions to replenish your Mana.[[/labelnote]]
569* SkippableBoss:
570** With enough Persuasion you can skip Lukan's fight by making him think you represent the Thieves Underground, who are unhappy about him stepping on their toes. He'll even pay you for it.
571** The end boss can be talked into letting you kill him without resistance, again echoing ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''.
572* SlidingScaleOfUndeadRegeneration: Undead will eventually decay into dust if left for long enough, but a magic potion exists which can restore them into flesh and blood humans.
573* SlobsVersusSnobs: The rivaling gang leaders in the Boil in Tarant are pompous, FauxAffablyEvil half-orc Damian Maug and unsophisticated, plain-speaking half-ogre Pollock.
574* SmallNameBigEgo:
575** Magnus, who tries too hard to be a traditional dwarf when it's apparent to all around him that he's not, and gets defensive when called on it. He does at least get better about it over the course of the game, and finally admits to it when the dwarven king himself starts prodding.
576** Cedric Appleby's ego is of the size of a castle. His capabilities? The size of an kite.
577* SoldierVSWarrior: In the backstory, Cumbria's Dragon Knights against the Tarantian Army. The Dragon Knights were a proud warrior caste who were raised from the birth in the ways of the martial honor, while the Tarantian Army was mostly made up of green recruits. Despite being at a disadvantage in melee fights, Tarant managed to bring a shattering defeat upon Cumbria through its ability to arm its regular soldiers with firearms and thus put an end to the Dragon Knights as a whole.
578* SniperPistol: One of these can be made, although the trope is played with a bit in that the resulting firearm is designed and built specifically as a sniping weapon rather than just being an ordinary pistol with a scope bolted on. And while being a powerful handgun in general, it pales in comparison with proper rifles.
579* SniperRifle:
580** One can be purchased (or built by characters exceptionally skilled in Gunsmithing). It has the longest range of any weapon, spell, or ability in the game, and can easily hit targets three or more screens away.
581** The [[{{BFG}} Elephant Gun]] can also serve in this role; it has slightly shorter range but deals much more damage.
582** On the other hand, in some versions Looking-Glass Rifle ''always'' deals 40 damage. That's enough to knock-out most of enemies you will ever encounter with precisely [[OneHitKill one bullet]] and can carry gun-totting characters throughout almost entire game. Best part? The rifle is extremely accurate, regardless of Firearms skill.
583* SpaceJews: The gnomes are small people with large noses and exceptional prowess at handling the money who own a large part of the industry and banking. Moreover, they've been subject to much prejudice because of this.
584* SpiritualSuccessor: To the first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games - which is a given, since it was created by the same team of developers, just under a different brand.
585* StaminaBurn: Bludgeoning weapons such as staves, hammers, and maces often do poor health damage but lots of fatigue damage, allowing you to damage an opponent's stamina and knock them unconscious before killing them. Since magick is CastFromStamina, this also makes them useful anti-mage weapons - at least in theory, since there is but a tiny handful of casters you will fight in the whole game.
586* StarCrossedLovers: Princess Aria and Prince Auguste. Princess Aria [[spoiler:dies on a shipwreck.]]
587* StandardFantasySetting: The whole idea of this game is that industrial revolution broke out in an SFS. Probably the only obvious departure from SFS model is that gnomes, [[OurGnomesAreWeirder instead of being obsessive inventors]], are the bankers that own these inventors, but only if you count it as such.
588* StartOfDarkness: You can find Kerghan's journal in the caves of the Stonecutter Clan, detailing his descent from a well-meaning mage wanting the respect of his fellow Council members, to a virtuoso necromancer pitying his peers for failing to appreciate his grand understanding of death.
589* StealthExpert: You may play as one, which is of particular importance for pacifists and backstabbers. Why, you can hide in an open field if you're good enough!
590* SteamPunk: Steampowered armour! Clockwork fighting robots! Electrified swords for that additional sting! Magnetised top hats avert bullets! Firearms are strangely weak! [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2000/03/01/wed-mar-01 Dwarves with Guns!]]
591* StopBeingStereotypical:
592** If a half-orc PC encounters orcish muggers or bandits approach thinking they're a human before letting them go as fellow orcs, the PC can berate them for giving orcs a bad name.
593** [=NPCs=] usually have nothing but contempt for half-ogres, and those same lines can be spoken by an ogre.
594* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: {{Deconstructed}} by [[spoiler: Kerghan]]. He wants to kill everyone, but he honestly thinks he's doing everyone a favor in the process, by freeing them from lives of pain and allowing them to know peace. The scary part is that he actually has a fair point within the rules of the game's universe.
595* SuicideIsShameful: The elves of Qintarra are horrified by a member of their community committing suicide, believing it to be an abomination against nature that will deny his soul any chance of reincarnation. And for the more practical reason that it makes it impossible to magically resurrect him.
596* {{Superboss}}: Stringy Pete and his crew are significantly harder to beat than the final boss. You can, however, give yourself an advantage by using your accumulated Fate Points to Critical Success Pickpocket all his gear before the fight.
597* StunnedSilence: There are followers in the game (like Magnus, Raven and Geoffrey) who can't be recruited by a low-intelligence character. If they are in your party and you attempt to talk to them with a dumbed down intelligence (say, from drinking too much wine), they will stare at you speechless, shocked by your sudden mental decline.
598* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: Kryggird's Falchion. It is one of the best melee weapons in the game, but you don't acquire it until the very end, for one purpose - [[spoiler:to kill Kerghan if you didn't bring the Vendigroth Device to the Void, as it is the only weapon that can penetrate through his magickal shell]].
599* TakeAThirdOption: Most of the quests in this game have a third option that can be taken in lieu of the "correct" one. Quests only ever give you an objective, they never say it has to be completed a certain way. That said, quest-givers do occasionally reward you better if you do it according to their instructions.
600** For example, one quests tasks you with retrieving a gem from a shrine, only to be told that making any noise (i.e. failing to Sneak) will summon a bunch of monsters to kill you. There's nothing to stop you from just walking up, murdering the hell out of the monsters when they appear (it's not even that hard if your character or party has decent combat skills), then taking the gem at your leisure.
601** In the Boil, you have the option of joining one of two gangs to defeat the other. To get the good ending for that section, you have to wipe out both gangs. This is actually a quest in itself, but you could be forgiven for never actually receiving that quest since it's a bit difficult to find.
602** How you deal with [[spoiler:Kerghan]] can boil to this. The most obvious outcomes are to fight or join him. The third and most difficult outcome is to talk him out of it.
603* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Diplomacy is a good solution to several of the quests. In particular, [[spoiler: the Final Boss will agree to debate philosophy with you, and submit to an assisted suicide if you can show him enough holes in his logic. The GoldenEnding absolutely requires the player to be a master of Persuasion.]]
604* TaxonomicTermConfusion: The Stillwater Giant's scientific name is presented as Gigantopithecus Arcanus. The name is neither italicized nor underlined, but that can be forgiven because of engine limitations. What stands out is that "Arcanus" is capitalized when the species name shouldn't be.
605* {{Technophobia}}:
606** Because [[MagicVersusScience Magick and Technology are seen to be mutually exclusive and cannot be safely mixed without interfering with one another]], mages generally embrace a technophobic mindset and see technology as a threat to the "established order" (although many of the Tulla mages think of it as a passing fad). Technologists, on the other hand, see magic as a relic of ancient times and a barrier to progress.
607** Custom characters can be given the "Technophobia" trait during character creation. Being raised in a backwater potato farm means that they have never encountered technology before, and are too afraid of technological items to risk touching them or picking them up.
608* TeaIsClassy: Gar comes from a noble family and is especially fond of Earl Grey. The player needs to debate with him on the merits of green tea over earl grey before he'd be willing to join the party.
609* {{Telefrag}}:
610** Implied with the portals in Tulla. High-level technologists are forbidden to use them because the results would not be pretty.
611** Outright stated by Min'Gorad as [[spoiler:the reason why Arronax couldn't yet leave the Void using the technological portal that Stennar escaped through.]] Stennar's non-existent magical aptitude let him get through the tiniest cracks in the seals, whereas [[spoiler:Arronax's god-like magical power would break the machinery of the portal]] and lead to "an excruciating death, to say the least".]]
612* TerminallyDependentSociety: Shrouded Hills is dependent solely on mining. If you don't free the ghost on the local mine, it will be never opened again and the town will slowly die.
613* ThievesGuild: Thieves Underground, a loose organization of thieves and criminals who operate extensively in Tarant and Caladon, while having members in other, smaller towns as well. Recruitable party member, Tollo Underhill, despite being [[TheSociopath violent sociopath]], is also a member. Becoming member of Thieves Underground gives the Living One access to thieving side quests and BlackMarket in major cities.
614* ThirdPersonPerson: Ristezze in Shrouded Hills, the first town you come to, speaks exclusively in third person. The player can call him on it, but he doesn't see anything wrong with his speech patterns.
615* ThisIsUnforgivable: If you reveal Bates didn't ''invent'' the steam engine (which he never claimed to have done either), it will lead to a continent-wide outcry. Never mind it is made clear throughout the game and its endings he should still be credited as at least great engineer for ability to improve on the basic dwarven design and then continously produce better and more varied engines of top quality.
616* TheseQuestionsThree: There are three naked halfling wizards in Black Root who can offer the Living One to play the Ancient Game in the form of three riddles. If you answer correctly all of them, you will get a gem which can summon a 50 level halfling wizard on your side. However, if you answer wrongly the last riddle, you will be punished for that...
617* TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar: Downplayed with [[spoiler:Arronax vs. the Vendigroth civilization]], since it was really only a single elf going to war instead of their whole race.
618* TheTimeOfMyths:
619** The Epoch of Enchantment that happened 900.000 years before the start of the game and lasted for some 4000 years. A wild and cataclysmic outburst of magick that mutated existing creatures (horses-unicorns, birds-firebirds humans-elves&giants), spawned new ones (wyrms, dragons, krakens, drakes, hydras) and chimerised others (centaurs, manticores).
620** The Age of Legends to a lesser extent (though it happened "only" 3000 years ago).
621* TimeAbyss: Elves had a well advanced civilization 750.000 years before the start of the game while the Dwarven one is implied to be several thousand years old. Even high-technology civilization directly preceeding the current one is around 2000 years old.
622* TooAwesomeToUse: Magic Scrolls end up being this to many players. You rarely encounter them lying around, and they cost a lot of money; even the nearly-useless ones. So they just end up sitting there, waiting for "that time" where you'll want that Scroll of Fireflash. About the only exception is the Black Mountain Mines, where the game makes it abundantly clear that it isn't giving you an abundance of Detect Traps scrolls for you not to use them.
623* TooDumbToLive: Charles Bhrego murdered the family of a powerful mage-priest and was cursed to forever be barred from the afterlife upon his death. You find him after his partner turned on him, an agonized ghost begging for release. What's the first thing Charles does if the player is powerful and merciful enough to resurrect him? Attack for no reason, get slaughtered, and return to the state he begged for release from.
624* TranquillizerDart: The Tranquilizer Gun deals mediocre health damage but extreme fatigue damage, enough to put down almost anything in just a few shots. It requires a full chemistry investment to make, but works well as a support weapon.
625* UnidentifiedItems: The game has magick items which must be identified to unlock their potential; this can be done by either learning "Divine Magick", a fifth-level divination spell, or paying 100 gold to a wise woman. Since [[PointBuildSystem character points]] are finite and gold isn't in short supply, the majority of sensible players tend to opt for the latter.
626* UniversalAmmunition: Pistol? Rifle? HandCannon? [[{{BFG}} Elephant Gun?]] Same bullets. Even more egregious is that ''flintlocks'' use them too despite bullets eliminating the need for a spark.
627* UnproblematicProstitution: Madam Lil's brothel is more or less portrayed as this. One of the sidequests involves a lower-class housekeeper who is mistreated by her rich masters, and there's an option to get her a job at Lil's so she can have a better life.
628* UnseenEvil: In-universe example. Arronax is deliberately portrayed as this by the Panarii religion [[spoiler: or rather, by the Dark Elves running the church. Kan'Hua specifically states that "ultimate evil" is a fantasy that can be reasoned away or presented as a metaphor. The real idea of Arronax merely being a very powerful mage sealed behind magical wards is played down to avoid anyone seeking to repair the deteriorating seal.]]
629* UselessUsefulSpell: Plenty, but the most notable is probably anything from the Meta school, which revolves around countering enemy spellcasters. Despite magick being a huge focus of the game, only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of enemies you'll kill use spells.
630* VaguenessIsComing: The dying gnome at the start of the game helpfully informs you that "unimaginable evil" is coming to "destroy everyone and everything".
631* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
632** Use [[CharmPerson Charm Beast]] to befriend a wild animal, like a wolf or bear. Walk to the nearest town. Have your animal friend enter an occupied house while you wait outside. Magelock the door shut. Then dispel Charm Beast. (You might want to magically seal the windows, too -- you don't want anyone to escape the wrath of [[BearsAreBadNews Mr. Disoriented Grizzly.]]) Is also an effective means to assassinate someone without the guards finding out it was you (whereas if a cop NPC walks into a room and you're standing over a bloody corpse with a sword in your hand, they'll usually put two and two together and attack you).
633** There's also the fact that there exists only 1 NPC in the game who can't be killed [[spoiler:(The Silver Lady)]]. Every major character can be murdered, then have their ghost summoned and interrogated. A true villain may kill the dwarf leader of the Isle of Despair, then raise his spirit just to tell him that you're going to travel to his home clan and kill everyone - oh, and that you'll drag the corpses into the daylight just to add insult to injury (sadly, you can't actually drag the corpses outside). There's almost no limit to how much cruelty you can inflict upon the populace of Arcanum.
634* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment:
635** While most things in this game can just be killed to deal with them, there are two instances where the game will punish you severely for trying.
636*** The first instance is a quest Raven sends you on. The area in question is cursed so that if you or your party harms anything there, you all die automatically. The trick is to get your targets to do this to you.
637*** The second is dealing with Stringy Pete. You have to do three quests to get his boat. You might wonder why you can't just kill him instead. After all, he's just one high-level skeleton. He is just one high-level skeleton... armed with the best magical armor available, and summons six similarly high-level skeletons to back him up. While it is ''technically'' possible to win, it's very unlikely unless you bring a huge group and prepare for it. Too bad one of his quests is impossible to complete if you pick up the Torin stone before speaking to him and the priests. Or if you lose the stone. Then killing him is the only way to get to his ship.
638** Killing the fat perverted Mr. Franklin who hires a female PC to sleep with him ([[BlackWidow while he is fast asleep from the sex]]) will result in the quest-giver attacking when going to pick up the payment. Can be averted by killing him ''after'' payment is received.
639** The fortune teller sidequest. To elaborate, Tarant has two fortune tellers, Madame Toussaud and a fraud in upper Tarant. Once you speak to the fraud, she'll ask you to steal Toussaud's crystal ball. Upon arrival, Toussaud will know why you've come and demand you choose a side. If you choose her side, you get the ball with no conflict and give it to the fraud, who dies upon touching it. You get a decent blessing (stat boost) for the trouble. Side against Toussaud, though, and you get hit with an equal curse (stat reduction), while the fraud rewards you with nothing worthwhile. No sane person ever sides with the fraud.
640* VideoGameStealing: It is technically possible to steal equipped armor and weapons, just rather difficult. Fate Points let you get around the difficulty, assuming you're willing to spend them.
641* VillainBeatingArtifact:
642** One quest requires you to find a specific dagger so that you can kill a wizard whose soul is bound to a demon. Killing the wizard with any other weapon will release the demon into the world.
643** The final boss can only be killed with one of two items, [[spoiler:the Vendigroth Device or Kryggird's Falchion,]] or with a magical attack strong enough to bash through the shield.
644* VillainOfAnotherStory: Gilbert Bates, titan of industry, all but a slavemaster to his factory workers, murderous when crossed, entirely in your corner unless you mess that up.
645* ViolenceIsNotAnOption: There is a quest where you have to get rid of explorers that are trespassing in elves' holy forest. You cannot attack them, because if you do, the spirits that live in that forest will promptly eradicate all aggressors. Subverted in that, while there is a peaceful solution, there's also nothing stopping you from provoking the explorers into attacking you, as long as you don't retaliate...
646* WalkingTechbane: Due to the setting's MagicVersusScience laws, technological devices malfunction in the presence of magick, or magically-inclined beings. As a gameplay mechanic, this means any technological devices either won't work for a mage (armor, for example, will only provide base protection, not any special bonuses) or will be more likely to critically fail, depending on your magic aptitude. Meanwhile, magic items simply don't work for a technologist; a magic sword in a techie's hands is just a plain sword.
647* WeBuyAnything: Played with; vendors will only buy things related to their stock (smithy shops only buy armor and weapons, for example), except for the junk vendors, who will buy anything short of destroyed items - at terrible prices. Get your Haggle skills to Expert or Mastery level though, and they will not only buy anything, they'll sell you the clothes off their backs.
648* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: You lose if your character dies, though the game will allow your party members to attempt a resurrection if one or more of them have that ability. Just try not to get caught in a situation where your tech or magic resistance renders you immune to the type of resurrection they have.
649* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Kerghan]] wants to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everyone]] because he believes that [[spoiler:the afterlife is better and more peaceful than life]]. Interestingly, that particular theory is somewhat confirmed in-game, since one of your party members [[spoiler:who dies and is resurrected]] agrees with him but still thinks that people should be allowed to choose their own fate.
650* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A sequel titled ''Journey to the Centre of Arcanum'' was planed but never went beyond the story concept. It would have used the Source Engine and be an RPG in style of Bloodlines. The story would have the player character search for the lost explorer Franklin Payne and descending into the depths of Arcanum, finding prehistoric monsters, subterranean humanoids and ultimately - a clue on how to reconcile magic and technology in a single artifact.
651* WhatTheHellHero: Good party members will object to you killing good [=NPCs=] or doing quests that give you evil alignment, and will leave your party if you do it once too often.
652* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Virtually any problem can be solved with the right application of force. Locked door? Beat it down. Guy holding an item you like? Kill him. Interdimensional portal releasing demon hordes upon the land? Whack it closed. Note that while this method may work, it is not exactly the most ''subtle'' way of doing things. Also, some of the [[GoldenEnding Golden Endings]] for various places require that you be skilled in Persuasion, such as taking a diplomatic solution to the matter of [[spoiler: Donn Throgg]].
653* WillOTheWisp: Several enemies are glowing balls of light found in swampy terrain. They come in several varieties, which can be annoying when you're searching for one of the rarer types.
654* WizardsLiveLonger: Wizards have several means of extending their lifespan. The human necromancer Kerghan was over 200 years old at the time of his banishment, and [[spoiler: Nasrudin is at least ''four thousand'' years old due to using a healing shell, when few elves reach one thousand. K'an Hua is also a mighty wizard of at least three thousand years, with no explanation]].
655* WholePlotReference: To ''VideoGame/Fallout1''. An optional quest in Tulla revolves around a student who was sent out by the mages to retrieve the Gem of Water Purity but then was denied entry to the city upon the return because he was deemed too tainted by the outside world. Bonus point, he is wearing a [[PoweredArmor Machined Plate]] and his name is Albert, just like one of the pre-made player characters. Tulla itself lies in the Vendigroth Wastes, a land once devastated by apocalypse-like event that turned it into a barren desert, and is a HiddenElfVillage - just like Vault 13.
656* WrenchWench: Players are allowed to be this/a GadgeteerGenius, eventually building such things as steam-powered robots, staffs that shoot lightning, and a device that can revive the dead.
657* WretchedHive: The Boil, located on the outskirts of Tarant, near where you arrive when traveling there from the world map. One of the city guards even delivers a ShoutOut to ''Franchise/StarWars'', the TropeNamer, when warning you not to enter. This place is so bad that the occupants are programmed to be hostile on sight unless you're at a high enough level.
658* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The writing in this game deserves credit considering that the [[spoiler:completely sane Kerghan is this while also making a genuine OmnicidalManiac. He's decided that because being alive is painful (summoned spirits suffer terribly from being forced back into life as well) and the final afterlife is perfect bliss, the logical solution is to end all life. He reasons that if living is unpleasant and death peaceful, then having to live must be a terrible crime to force upon a soul and one that must be permanently removed. Even Virgil will more or less confirm his opinion, though he isn't about to force it on others.]] Remarkably, if the player can explain the flaws in his philosophy - that some souls never have the opportunity or sometimes even the ability to enjoy the pleasures life can bring - he'll willingly abandon his genocidal agenda and submit to having his soul banished forever in order to claim final peace. He even shows some slight regret that he never learned how to enjoy life himself: "Perhaps some souls are born into death... they never knew how to live."
659* WorthyOpponent: An assassin from the Molochean hand will attempt to assassinate you once you've concluded your mission in T'sen Ang. If you attempt to trick him, he'll applaud you for trying.
660* YearOutsideHourInside: Played with inside the Void.
661** [[spoiler:Stennar Rock-Cutter]] refers to the elderly Gilbert Bates as "the boy" because although time passes at the same rate as in Arcanum, no one ages and their mental state doesn't degrade.
662** All the banished entities behave as they did 2000 years past, though Arronax and Kerghan managed to learn introspection in that time. If the PC tells Arronax they killed his father, he admits that he sometimes forgets how much time must have passed since his banishment.]]
663* YinYangBomb: Bronwych's Gun uses mithril in the construction of a firearm, exploiting the negative interaction between magic and technology to create a violent reaction.
664

Top