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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvt-lltq_7676.jpg]]
2A cute and sparkly game by Creator/HanakoGames about dressing up a pretty little princess and preparing her to become a great queen...
3
4...and [[MoodWhiplash watching her be assassinated]].
5
6[[SaveScumming Let's try this again.]]
7
8Elodie, the 14-year-old crown princess of Nova, is suddenly yanked back home from boarding school when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances. As the next in line to the throne, Elodie must survive until her fifteenth birthday before she can be legally crowned as Queen. Unfortunately, [[DecadentCourt she is surrounded by people who have their own plans for her]], most of which involves her untimely demise.
9
10''Long Live The Queen'' is a viciously evil MediaNotes/RenPy-based game where you, as a woefully-unprepared princess, must manage Elodie's weekly schooling to teach her the skills she needs while [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything is trying to kill her]]. Will you nurture her into a [[EvilOverlord cruel warlord]] who [[OffWithHisHead executes anyone and anything]] that could pose a threat? Or a {{Guile Hero}}ine wielding an extensive intelligence network in one hand and a web of alliances and funding accounts in the other? Or maybe even a badass MagicalGirlWarrior with a ''personal attack falcon''?
11
12The game is largely [[SkillScoresAndPerks skill-based]]: Elodie's weekly classes raise her skill levels, and those levels are checked against a static target number to see if she passes a challenge. Training up a category of associated skills unlocks [[AndYourRewardIsClothes new clothes for Elodie]] that boosts those skills even further. You must also manage Elodie's mood carefully, as it dictates how willing she is to learn certain skills. (For example, she is far more receptive to Conversation lessons when she is Cheerful instead of Depressed.)
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14It sounds simple, but ''Long Live The Queen'' just loves throwing you curveballs by suddenly [[TrialAndErrorGameplay checking for skills you never thought you would need]]. (All your points in Naval Strategy won't count for anything if you ''fall off the Crow's Nest!'')
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16You can buy this game on Creator/HanakoGames' website, Platform/{{Steam}} and Platform/GOGDotCom. In 2022 a slightly-updated version of the game was released for Platform/NintendoSwitch, Platform/XboxOne, Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS, Platform/PlayStation4, and Platform/PlayStation5 with translations into multiple languages.
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18Compare ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker''.
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20In 2022, Hanako Games announced the development of a [[RecycledInSpace science fiction sequel]] called ''Long Live The Queen: Galaxy Princess Zorana''.
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22'''Spoiler Warning:''' While we'll try to mark major spoilers, just about everything in the game is a spoiler to some degree. Read this page with caution if you want your play experience to be unspoiled.
23----
24!!Tropes:
25
26[[foldercontrol]]
27
28[[folder:A-B]]
29* AbusiveParents: A veritable conga-line of them through the Duchess of Lillah's brood. Starting from the bottom, Briony is neglected by her parents. [[spoiler:Then we have her parents, who are on the verge of divorce because her mother is having an affair with her own brother. That brother, Kevan, is emotionally unstable because he was "seduced" as a young teenager by his own stepfather; Kevan's younger brother Thaddeus witnessed it, and when the Duchess of Lillah found out, she immediately divorced her husband and had him killed for trying to continue his affair with Kevan, ''and'' is implied to have thrown Kevan out of her home entirely for it... which caused him to come live with his sister in the first place.]] It's a vicious circle with an awful lot of spokes, and the Duchess is the hub.
30* ActionPet: Your falcon can, in fact, save your life if you train falconry to max level.
31* AdultsAreUseless:
32** Despite supposedly being available as an advisor, Elodie's father, the King Dowager, never provides help to his daughter with any of the problems that get dropped on her. Civil war? Silence. Inventions that would greatly advance Nova's power? Silence. Execute your family and be an all-around brat? Pout. [[spoiler:Until the end, if Elodie never gets her Lumen gem, where he willingly fights for his daughter with ''his'' Lumen gem.]] In fact, he can make things ''worse'' -- he gives Elodie the idea to ramp up punishments if she's scared about plots against her (which she can then gleefully enforce), and can dissuade Elodie from taking Julianna in, based on highly circumstantial evidence. By "dissuade", we mean "possibly throw her into the dungeons for life". He's also actively adversarial to Elodie over the issue of her mother's Lumen gem, keeping it from her with the castle guards.
33** Julianna just sort of hangs around the castle if Elodie doesn't send her away (or imprison her). She steps in to handle attacks by monsters such as the snake or the [[spoiler:creeping shade]] but refuses to divulge useful information about Lumens until after Elodie figures them out herself, and doesn't do anything to organise the resistance against Shanjia, even when she obviously could have. [[spoiler:Your own FATHER can do more than her in the endgame.]] Oh, and if you try to call her out on withholding information, she gives you a withering, threatening speech about how Lumens are beholden to Nova itself — ''not'' easily killable Queens. Ouch.
34** Averted in one patched-in story option when dealing with [[spoiler:the Lumen wife-killer]]. Previously, Elodie had to rely on her Sense Magic ability to determine whether or not he was telling the truth (and if she failed, whether or not she showed mercy, he'd be a KarmaHoudini). Now, with a partial success (enough to realize there's ''something'' going on there, if not exactly what), she can call in Julianna or send him to Selene.
35** If you get the "recruited an advisor" achievement, your advisor is actually not bad at giving advice. [[spoiler:Arisse is a bit of a hard-ass, but she's the most effective defense against Lucille that doesn't involve killing her or putting her in a position of great power; she never accuses Lucille directly, but Arisse will divert her out of Elodie's way as much as possible and may even drive her out of the castle altogether.]]
36** ''Most'' of the adults in the game are remarkably useless to their children when something goes wrong. Briony's parents exile her to boarding school so they can focus on themselves, there's a small custody crisis over Adair because his family's ability to protect him is questionable [[spoiler:and it might get him killed]]. Lieke wants to remain advisor to her daughter Gwenelle once she inherits, but it's implied she's grown accustomed to being in charge and is only being stubborn because she doesn't want to give up her power. Even Selene, an actual priestess equipped to advise on spiritual matters and perform divination in the castle chapel, is probably the most directly helpful of all the adults in Elodie's life, and even ''her'' help is limited to [[spoiler:damage control once everything's gone to Hell already]].
37* AgeGapRomance: Appears in the backstory between the Earl of Titan, who dies of old age during the story, and the late Duchess of Elath, who suffered DeathByChildbirth while not much older than Elodie in order to provide for the succession as soon as possible. In-game, Elodie's oldest marriage prospects are in their thirties, as is one GayOption -- literally old enough to be her (thirty-three-year-old) father -- or, for that matter, she can literally marry an appalled ''[[spoiler:Briony's]]'' father. On the flip side, Elodie's youngest marriage prospect is six years younger than her, resulting in her only marrying after almost a decade into her reign.
38* AllGirlsLikePonies:
39** You, as the player, can selectively invoke this trope by giving Elodie an education in training and handling horses.
40** Spoofed in one event. Under certain circumstances, Arisse sends Elodie a decorative horse pillow, and under more certain circumstances, this is her reaction:
41--->'''Elodie:''' ''[thinking]'' Horses have been important in Lillah since even before it was part of Nova. [[CaptainObvious But this isn't a horse. It's just a pillow.]] ''[angry]'' Why couldn't she have sent me a horse?
42** [[spoiler:Talarist]] invokes this in the ending where he's engaged to Elodie during the game, as he attempts to distract his young wife with a wedding gift of horses while he gets busy with politicking.
43* AllThereInTheManual: There's a lot of background information in the flavor text for Elodie's classes, which may or may not come up in game depending on skill checks. There's more information (such as names) in the character reference biographies. Many names only appear in the reference biographies, like the Duke of Kigal's children besides Linley.
44* AnachronismStew: Elodie's costumes are a mishmash of clothing styles from many eras, including ''modern'' clothing like a catsuit, a tuxedo, and workout gear. Then there's details like boxes of chocolates, Adair's bow tie, Talarist and Alice's glasses, and ''everybody's'' hairstyles in contrast with a setting where concepts like the printing press and the hospital are still in their infancy.
45* AndNowYouMustMarryMe:
46** [[spoiler:Subverted in the endgame -- the BigBad is already married and has no interest in a fourteen-year-old.]]
47** This is a possible goal of [[spoiler:the Duke of Maree, if you surrender his lands to Ixion or punish his sister for her attempted power play]]. You can also spin the circumstances around. [[spoiler:If your skills are high enough that you realize that Banion is trying to suggest you have a secret relationship, ''then play along with it anyway'', you have the option of informing him he fits your type, and you intend on marrying him.]] The epilogue details that Elodie takes special steps to ensure it's known that she has the power in the relationship.
48** In a variation, you can enact And Now You Must Marry Him regarding the Ixion crisis, forcing [[spoiler:Brin, Duchess of Hellas]] to be married off in order to resolve the conflict [[spoiler:which she started in the first place]].
49* AndIMustScream: If Elodie fails the Lumen checks if she chooses to confront [[spoiler:Lucille at the ball about her Lumen status]], she becomes blind and motionless for a long, long time, until she finally expires.
50* AndManGrewProud: While not quite on a [[ApocalypseHow world-ending scale]], bits of lore that you can uncover in the game indicate that [[spoiler:Lumens were responsible for the destruction of the old capital and for monsters like the keythong and the kraken]].
51* AngerBornOfWorry: The reaction of Joslyn and Corisande to [[spoiler:their daughters gallivanting off into the Old Forest and nearly being eaten by tentacle monsters]]. Elodie acknowledges this even as she snaps back.
52* {{Animesque}}: It's a western-made game designed to look like a Japanese visual novel.
53* AnnoyingArrows: Mostly averted. Getting shot is a great way to end up dead, ''especially'' if Elodie foolishly tries to push the arrow through to the other side. On the other hand, if she lives through that, there are no lasting consequences to having been shot. [[spoiler:If Elodie succeeds in having Julianna hunted down and killed, it's done by an archer.]]
54* AndThenWhat: Elodie can bring this point up with [[spoiler:[[BigBad Togami]]]], if you're on the [[spoiler:save the day with the power of music]] achievement path.
55-->'''Elodie:''' [[spoiler:When you've killed me and taken my crystal, what do you do then?]]... You ''have'' the world! But if you're not happy, ''what's the point?''
56* ArrangedMarriage: Played with in that you must arrange ''your own marriage'', but otherwise played absolutely straight. There is simply no time to think about romance in the deadly world of political intrigue and military threats you are cast into. A correctly-arranged marriage brings alliances you desperately need.
57** If you survive the game without becoming engaged or expressing interest toward anyone, Elodie may decide to wait for ''romance'' and winds up with an unnamed Earl who's good at baking.
58** A lesbian Elodie can choose to avoid marriage and shack up with a female companion instead, if she plays her cards right. Even more elusive is taking [[GuideDangIt the painstaking steps]] that can involve you marrying Evrard, a commoner.
59** Elodie can also arrange someone else's marriage to stop a war.
60* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Elodie's composure lessons include staying relaxed while getting her wrists and ankles whipped, walking correctly while wearing armor, staying calm after being smeared with jam and made to walk around in public, walking on hot coals without being burned, and finally, bluffing at cards.
61* ArtShift: The design for [[spoiler:Sailor Scout Briony]] is quite different from the other human figures depicted in the ending slides.
62* ArtStyleDissonance: The aesthetics make the visual novel look like a MagicalGirl anime. Everything is bright and colorful, the characters are ''adorable'', and Elodie in particular has all sorts of cute outfits to wear. It all masks that this is a very dreary CrapsackWorld with horrific monsters and cutthroat politics that will often force the protagonist to make some morally questionable decisions.
63* AshFace: The death scene of Elodie blowing herself up depicts a chibi version of her sheepishly holding a wand up with her entire head covered in black soot.
64* AssholeVictim:
65** It's strongly implied that [[spoiler:the Duchess of Lillah]] killed her stepson and her second husband. The former abused and possibly killed a number of his servants, and the latter [[spoiler:"seduced" her son (and ''his'' stepson) Kevan]] and may also have raped a teenage girl.
66** Defending yourself against [[spoiler:Lucille]] inadvertently fries her alive. Given what she was trying to do, no tears will be shed.
67** A cruel Elodie can be one herself: such as [[spoiler:dying to the Earl of Io for sending Briony to her death or getting sucked dry by Charlotte's mom for sacrificing Charlotte to the kraken]].
68* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Elodie's mother was one of the few remaining magic-users, and Elodie can inherit her Lumen crystal in turn. [[spoiler:Her father, the King Dowager and a duke in his own right, also possesses one and the ability to use it.]] At the height of Nova's power, all of the dukes and duchesses were Lumen along with the royal family.
69* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: The finale has Elodie swear fealty to all of her subjects, and in return all of the nobles in the land swear their loyalty to her. All chant; [[TitleDrop "Long Live The Queen!"]] and Elodie responds by saying that she will.
70* AxCrazy: The Earl of Io has an incredibly short temper and a tendency to go berserk, regardless of the consequences, on anyone who even ''looks'' like an enemy of the family. He doesn't bother to make sure his target is actually guilty, either.
71* BadassBystander: If Elodie has gained enough approval from Nova's commoners, [[spoiler:a young man may tackle an assassin sent after her in public, killing him at the cost of his own life]].
72* TheBard: Elodie can hire a court musician who writes songs in the royal family's honor. [[spoiler:Her music isn't actually that great, but she's quite a talented spy if Elodie figures out enough to utilize her skills.]]
73* BenevolentMageRuler: Elodie can become one of these if she develops her Lumen powers and avoids cruel actions.
74* BerserkButton: Being too blunt in asking the Earl of Io [[spoiler:if his late half-brother actually killed the brother of the woman who tried to poison his sister]] leads to him [[spoiler:''cutting the woman's throat in front of you'' and shouting that nobody hurts his family before storming off. This is despite the fact that passing a Court Manners check suggests that he was as glad to see his half-brother dead as most people]]. This isn't even getting into what he can do later.
75* BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler:Lucille, Togami, and the Kraken. Lucille is responsible for most of the attempts on Elodie's life in Nova. Togami leads the Shanjian invasion, and is the one who killed Queen Fidelia in the first place. And the Kraken is an ancient horror that must be dealt with in some fashion if it's ever awakened.]] Each of them have their own agenda and pursue different goals.
76* BigFirstChoice: If neither Julianna nor Selene are taken on as a Lumen mentor within the first few weeks of the game, the player is giving up on being able to learn magic at all for the rest of the run and locking themself out of any skill checks that require any kind of magic ability. Some of said skill checks have an entire ''story path'' hiding behind them. Meanwhile, a player keeping the option to learn magic open will still have to take the time to learn it, which means giving up on another skillset and the choices allowed by having it.
77* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Duchess of Lillah's family and various stepfamilies. Featuring [[spoiler:sexual abuse, incest, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs incestuous sexual abuse]], serial killing, lots of adultery, killing the perpetrators of the foregoing...]]
78* BitchInSheepsClothing: Where to start...
79** [[spoiler:Lucille is such a nice and sweet aunt to Elodie. She also wants Elodie dead and is responsible for several annoying assassination attempts, and even if pacified, is ''still'' not above ''rendering Elodie sterile'' to ensure her own daughter becomes heir.]]
80** Banion is friendly and courteous, but he's also using Elodie to get his way, and he won't appreciate it if Elodie doesn't back his sister's power play [[spoiler:-- and will attempt to blackmail Elodie, a child, into a physical relationship, should his plans go awry. That's if he doesn't try to get her killed...]]
81** Annoy Julianna enough (which is easy) and she'll tell you that she's not beholden to ''you'', some girl who'll die. She's beholden to ''Nova'', and will sacrifice you if necessary so that the domain and its Lumen traditions survive.
82** If you choose to court the affection of the Duke of Sedna, then he appears to be charming and courteous in every way. If, however, you're too blunt in telling him that you have no interest in marrying him, then he'll raise tariffs on the border, making things quite difficult for your people. Even if the two of you are on good terms, getting engaged to Adair will result in him doing the same thing, despite him and Adair not seeming to have anything to do with each other at first.
83** Elodie herself can become one with the right education and dialogue choices. Explicitly spelled out if [[spoiler:Elodie sacrificed Charlotte to the kraken]], where the rumors from the sailors of the ship that transported Charlotte there will tell people that the cute little queen is actually a cold-hearted bastard, or in the Divine Omen ending, where [[spoiler:a horde of cats ensures that, despite the peasants and nobles hating the fact that you've killed most of your family and nobles, Elodie gets away with her murders]].
84* BittersweetEnding: If you're unable to stop [[spoiler:the Shanjian fleet]], but were able to defuse the Sedna incident and were betrothed to the Duke, you're able to escape, with the help of Sedna spies, and the game notes that you ''will'' be plotting a counter-attack with Sedna.
85** There are several. If you refuse to get a Lumen crystal and don't find another way of handling the endgame, [[spoiler:the King will die protecting Elodie from Togami, anyone suspected of being a Lumen will be severely persecuted for generations to come, Togami leads the Shanjian army to invade Borealis in the north, and is hinted to still be plotting against Nova. Elodie lives and Nova is relatively stable, however]].
86* BlackAndGrayMorality: The nobility of Nova are ruthless in the pursuit of power, and many are rather unpleasant people, but only a few are truly evil. For example, [[spoiler:your aunt]] wants you dead... but is a loving mother. Your magic mentor will coldly tell you that she's not beholden to you, just Nova/magic, and she'll let you and your loved ones die rather than risk that... but she'll [[spoiler:join you in the dangerous fleet-sinking ritual that can get you all killed]] to defend the country. Several nobles will be willing to kill a child (Elodie) via duels for wrongs either minor or imagined. Meanwhile, Elodie herself is likely to make some very tough choices to keep her throne and protect her kingdom. Even the most moral Elodie has her ransoming soldiers with rich families, should [[spoiler:Nova repel the Shanjian assault at sea]], and can even angrily [[spoiler:sacrifice her cousin and best friend to a monster]] for her supposed role in an assassination plot.
87* BlackComedy: All of Elodie's deaths are illustrated with a cutesy, super-deformed depiction of her demise.
88* BondOneLiner: If the [[spoiler:Earl of Io]] challenges Elodie to a duel and she is already a [[MagicalGirl Lumen]], she can burn him to death and then reply, "I decline."
89* BreadAndCircuses: During Week 38, if Elodie's commoner approval is very low (which is more likely than not caused by her cruel actions) and she directed her agents to watch for a possible commoner uprising, she can arrange a free concert or medications for the poor to avoid the popular discontent from spiraling out of control.
90* BrickJoke: [[spoiler:If Elodie doesn't retrieve the squid poem, non-tactfully rejects Talarist, and then changes her mind and proposes to him at the end of the game, the poem turns up in his hands and he happily exploits it.]]
91* BrokenBird: Elodie can easily become this if you make her depressed enough times. And she's getting this way right from the beginning -- the first in-game screen you'll see is Elodie looking sadly back at you while soft music plays. One of the epilogues establishes her pretty solidly as one: [[spoiler:If a sterilized Elodie delays her marriage to Talarist after Joslyn dies ''and'' maxes out the Faith skillset, they will divorce, leaving Elodie completely alone.]] She never recovers from her grief, and instead devotes herself to her faith in an effort to find meaning in it.
92** Her father Joslyn is a male version of this. He never seems to get over his wife's death.
93* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:If you fulfill a particularly difficult GuideDangIt, Joslyn ''can'' defeat Togami when he comes to challenge Elodie to a WizardDuel, but it will come at a great cost for Joslyn: He will remain unconscious for weeks after the fight, and even after he wakes up, his physical and mental integrity will be severely and permanently dwindled.]]
94* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler:Between the Earl of Io and his older sister, the Duchess of Mead.]]
95** For bonus {{Squick}} points, this follows [[spoiler:a case of step-ParentalIncest between the Earl of Io and his mother's second husband]].
96** A strongly-implied case of [[spoiler:stepsister and step-ParentalIncest can occur if you marry Banion at his sister Brin's urging. Brin will marry your father, but become your lover as well]].
97* BrutalHonesty: A common result of insufficient Court Manners.
98-->'''Elodie:''' Lord Fabian, can we talk? You don't look so good, and I'm worried about what will happen to Adair if you die.
99* BullyingADragon: Make no mistake, Julianna let herself be imprisoned because she hoped Elodie would have a change of heart at some time. [[spoiler:If Elodie decides to execute her, however, she will have no qualms about killing the princess to make her escape.]]
100* ButchLesbian: [[TheMentor Duchess Julianna]]. She's got a short haircut, a sword, and a beautiful priestess girlfriend.
101* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: "''Illuminate!''" Played with: one of Elodie's possible Lumen mentors teaches her to say this to activate her powers, the other doesn't. It works fine either way, though flavor text says saying something helps. [[spoiler:Her father uses it, too.]]
102[[/folder]]
103
104[[folder:C-E]]
105* CallBack:
106** Early in the game, this exchange occurs:
107--->'''Kevan, Earl of Io:''' Your Highness! This slattern dares to beg pardon, when she admits that she tried to poison my sister under her own roof!\
108'''Elodie:''' Which sister?\
109'''Kevan:''' Corisande, the Duchess of Mead.
110** Later, depending on choices in between, it's possible to have [[BrickJoke this conversation]]:
111--->'''Corisande, Duchess of Mead:''' Elodie! Where is my daughter?\
112'''Elodie:''' Which daughter?\
113'''Corisande:''' You know very well that I only have one.
114* CataclysmBackstory: [[spoiler:About six hundred years back from the game's "present day," the Lumens of Nova went a bit overboard with their powers and ended up wrecking the old capital.]] The place in question is ''still'' overrun by monsters, and the kingdom has basically written it off as a loss. Elodie and another character can go on an adventure there, but surviving requires passing multiple high-level skill checks.
115** Note: You don't even get anywhere near your destination. You barely get 50 feet inside before you get overwhelmed. The skill checks only determine whether you can ''escape''.
116** A history-focused Elodie will eventually discover that Nova has a CataclysmBackstory [[spoiler:''twice over''. Its original settlers were northern Lumens looking for a more hospitable land after wars between them left half the continent they were from unlivable. Then their descendants forgot their roots and almost repeated the whole thing.]]
117* CatchPhrase: King Joslyn's is "As you wish."
118* TheCavalry: [[spoiler:If the Ixion conflict was solved by surrendering the province to them, the Ixionite fleet will possibly come to help you during the naval battle against Shanjia.]]
119* CharacterPortrait: Given to named characters with dialogue (which means that a number of characters, including several love/marriage interests, don't get one). Elodie's is one of the few whose portrait differs according to mood (as well as according to what she's wearing). This used to lead to small incongruities like Charlotte's cheerful portrait coupled with her telling Elodie to stay away from her [[spoiler:after killing Charlotte's mother]], but this bug has since been fixed.
120* TheChessmaster: Elodie, to varying extents. In particular, a cruel Elodie won't be able to violently blunder to her coronation without a certain amount of strategic social engineering; it's possible for her to ensure the loyalty of her nobles by killing the ones currently in power and bestowing their titles to others who would otherwise never inherit.
121* AChildShallLeadThem: Elodie is only 14 when the game starts, and the age of majority is 15.
122* ChoiceAndConsequenceSystem: Skill checks, mood, and choices can affect foreign relations, everyone's opinion of Elodie, and who lives or dies. Events will change depending on the aforementioned factors, even if they are set to happen no matter what.
123* CivilWar: If Elodie screws things up badly enough, her subjects may rise in rebellion against her.
124* ClassyCravat: Worn by most of the men who appear in the game, nearly all of whom are noblemen. Exceptions: Laurent (necktie), Adair (bow tie), Talarist (turtleneck), Kevan and Evrard (nothing).
125* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Lumen Crystals generally fall into this, for the ones we get to see, anyway; the crystals themselves typically correspond to their owners' hair or eye colors. [[spoiler:Togami is an exception, as his crystal is mauve... but then we find out that Charlotte, who also shares his red eyes, has mauve hair and can inherit his crystal if he dies.]]
126* CombatByChampion: [[spoiler:Togami]] offers to settle [[spoiler:Nova's fate as an independent kingdom]] by a DuelToTheDeath with Elodie. Depending on how you've been raising her, however, she can choose to TakeAThirdOption instead.
127* CombatTentacles: [[spoiler:Briony is attacked by these during the trip into the Old Capital; Elodie can rescue her.]]
128* ComplimentBackfire: Briony can tell Elodie "You're smarter than I remembered" if Elodie successfully dissuades Briony from her adventure into the Capital, much to Elodie's exasperation.
129* CoolClearWater: Investing enough in the Lore stat will reveal some background lore as follows: "A Lumen once tried to lift the curse from an enchanted spring whose water was poisonous and glowed green. After dispelling the magic, she tasted the water and fell dead - the green flow was a not a curse, but a spell placed by a Lumen long before to warn everyone away from the spring's natural poison."
130* CripplingOverspecialization: Not immediately obvious, but sometimes all the magic power in the world won't help if you don't level up things like ''decoration''.
131* CultureBlind: Elodie knows ''nothing'' about royal etiquette at the start of the game, not even things the crown princess might reasonably be expected to know, like court manners. This will get her into a few binds, such as dealing with the Duke of Sedna's marriage proposal. It's [[JustifiedTrope explained]] by Elodie's time at her boarding school, where there's little to no class divide between royalty, nobility, and wealthy commoners, and her being forced to come home early because of her mother's sudden death. It's implied that her royal education would have begun when she graduated as a legal adult.
132* CultureChopSuey: Nova is mostly generically "European", having regions with English, French, and even Greek-sounding names, as well as the weirdly African-sounding Mazomba. The kingdom of Shanjia is a stronger example, having many FarEast-style touches, but the costumes worn by the few Shanjian characters we see are still firmly in the MedievalEuropeanFantasy mold.
133* CyanidePill: [[spoiler:The assassin that may go after Elodie at the Festival of the Good Lady will die from poison before he can be interrogated... but will leave behind a coded message that, once decrypted, leads Elodie to the duchy of origin.]]
134* DarkIsEvil: Should Elodie be evil enough to [[spoiler:join Togami as his enforcer]], the ending slide shows her in a completely age-inappropriate skin-tight black get-up.
135* DecadentCourt: The amount of backstabbing, plotting, and all-around assholery the nobles are up is ''amazing'', if you decide to train in Intrigue and learn all about their plots. Quite a few will attempt to drag you into supporting their plots, or just want you plain dead.
136* DeadpanSnarker:
137** Your father can sometimes come off as this, especially with his usual reluctance to openly judge you.
138--->'''Elodie:''' Throw her into the castle dungeons and let her rot!\
139'''Joslyn:''' Well. I suppose she won't be a problem anymore.
140** Elodie can do it too, after receiving a dirty poem and showing a sense of humor about it:
141--->'''Joslyn:''' There is a woman here to see you. She is a musician and wishes Crown patronage.\
142'''Elodie:''' (Which means money.)\
143'''Sabine:''' Your Royal Highness! If you accept me as a member of your court I will immortalise you in word and song. I have dabbled in musical styles from many countries, and can entertain your guests and lighten your evenings.\
144'''Elodie:''' (I wonder if she also writes naughty poetry?)
145** Elodie's agents keeping a watch on the commoners report to back to her after investigating an assassination attempt.
146--->'''Agent:''' As far as I can tell, you are beloved among the common people. You are the young and innocent princess bearing up nobly under sorrow. A true heroine.\
147'''Elodie:''' Right.\
148'''Agent:''' The poisoned chocolates you received were not the tool of a revolutionary plot. I would wager that the motive is more... personal.\
149'''Elodie:''' (Personal? A romantic gift of death? Great.)
150* DeathOfAChild: Depending on your choices, [[TheManyDeathsOfYou 14-year-old Elodie can die in any number of ways]], [[spoiler:12-year-old Adair can be assassinated]], and [[spoiler:13-year-old Charlotte can either be fed to a kraken or be put to the sword along with her entire family, including her 9 and 7-year-old siblings, on suspicion of treason]].
151* DeclarationOfProtection: In his engagement path, Talarist will give one to Elodie under certain circumstances...[[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope or rather,]] he will give one ''about'' Elodie ''to'' the Novan court, [[ShamingTheMob to shame them]] for supposedly showing less loyalty to her than him, a foreigner. This endears him to no one.]]
152* DefeatMeansFriendship: One of the many ways you can deal with your enemies. [[spoiler:This is actually the ''most'' effective method, though also the hardest. The two most dangerous threats to Elodie can be dealt with in this manner: you can make Lucille your Lumen Minister (which "coincidentally" reduces the number of attempts on your life to near-zero), and befriending Togami not only saves your country from the leaderless remnants of his army, but is implied to save ''the entire world'' from Shanjia's warmongering. Befriending Briony (and therefore stopping her from dying in the Old Forest) also pre-empts Kevan's reason to seek revenge in Week 33, and forcing Brin to marry an Ixionite loses most of its consequences if Elodie understands Brin's [[DoesNotLikeMen outrage]] and shows her how to spin it in her favor.]] That said, there are several exceptions to the rule, [[spoiler:most of them involving marriage candidates with pre-existing problems. For example, even if you defeat and spare Kevan in a duel, this does ''not'' magically cure his sudden bouts of trauma-induced rage. Making her your Lumen minister will stop Lucille from trying to have you ''killed'', but the implication is that she still hasn't quite given up on taking the throne for her own daughter.]]
153* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
154** Since nearly all of the characters are nobility, there tends to be an according contempt for commoners as well as suspicion of those who rise above their original station -- such as the Duke-Consort of Lillah and the King of Shanjia. [[spoiler:Those two do turn out to be genuine pieces of work.]]
155** The possible romance that starts between a 14-year-old Elodie and Brin, with an age gap of 19 years, her being the same age as Elodie's father. However, she does take a step to ensure this is consensual and not the result of a mistake. By in-world standards, Elodie comes of age at 15 and a consensual age-gap relationship after that is nothing special. By modern standards of our world, not so much. [[note]]While an older romanceable character does exist, Elodie's romance with him develops very slowly and likely would take several years before getting anywhere, meaning that she would be an adult even by modern standards[[/note]]
156* DemonicPossession: A man brought before the court claims that demons made him strangle his wife, and Elodie may be able to sense magic around him... [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope because he's a Lumen, and he doesn't like being found out]]]].
157* DepravedBisexual: A Cruel Elodie who makes Coronation will sleep with anyone of both genders -- and drop them like a hot potato as soon as she's bored of them. She also keeps Alice as a SexSlave.
158* DepravedHomosexual: It's strongly implied that the late previous Duke of Mead was one, i.e. [[spoiler:he was briefly "lifemate" to the Duke of Ursul (Julianna's father), he had a habit of hiring "attractive young servants who had to be frequently replaced after injuries and 'accidents'", and a woman accuses his family of killing her brother.]] Compare the supposed DepravedBisexual [[spoiler:late Duke-Consort of Lillah, who was rumored to have raped the Duchess of Elath and is confirmed to have "seduced" his stepson]].
159* DespairEventHorizon: While both Joslyn and Julianna start the game suffering from serious depression over Fidelia's death, making them much less useful than they ought to be, both are capable of coming out of it. The one who gets this worst is Elodie's uncle Laurent [[spoiler: if Elodie publicly accuses him of trying to assassinate her, and Lucille promptly joins in the accusation to cover her own tracks. Between his sister's death and his wife's betrayal, Laurent simply ''gives up'' and allows himself to be led away to be executed, saying nothing more than "May the gods have mercy on all our souls."]]
160* DevelopersForesight: Being a visual novel, the player doesn't have a whole lot of room to intentionally break the script, but half the gameplay revolves around the consequences of Elodie's actions. Completing all the achievements will expose you to the complete story and every major route, but there are a ''lot'' of variables for an experienced player to manipulate through contradictory or unintuitive choices and preparedness for unavoidable late-game events, which the game rewards with new epilogue text or dialogue options to reflect Elodie's weird decision-making.
161* DidntThinkThisThrough: Some of Elodie's marriage decisions can fall into this, especially if she chooses to propose to someone whose family members she had previously executed. In the best-case scenario, they might simply reject her, otherwise she might find herself nearly killed, poisoned, or at war.
162* DisproportionateRetribution:
163** Elodie can order a maid to be flogged... because Elodie ran into the maid, due to being a klutz.
164** The tipping point for [[spoiler:Sudbury joining Arisse's rebellion]] can be Elodie messing up a birthday party RSVP.
165* DoesNotLikeMagic:
166** The King Dowager, [[spoiler:[[YouAreWhatYouHate who does, in fact, have Lumen potential and his own crystal]]]], forbids his daughter to have anything to do with Lumen, and enforces it with armed guards whom Elodie has to force her way past.
167** Novans in general to a lesser extent. Lumen are by and large feared, though Elodie's use of Lumen is seen as acceptable because she's the Queen.
168** Elodie herself, potentially. Starting with locking up a Lumen who offered to teach you magic (and you've got the option to keep her there indefinitely), and spiraling from there.
169* TheDogBitesBack: If you [[spoiler:massacre Lucille's ENTIRE family, Charlotte included]], Merva will secede from Nova, knowing full well what you've done.
170* DoubleInLawMarriage: One possibility for Elodie. [[spoiler:She marries Banion, and Banion's sister Brin marries her father. This is done to facilitate Elodie and Brin's own lesbian relationship.]]
171* DownerEnding:
172** The nature of the game means there are a lot of them. Evening reaching coronation doesn't guarantee a cheerful ending, as any of the following can happen: [[spoiler:both of Elodie's parents are murdered, the murderer is a KarmaHoudini who's moving to conquer another country, Elodie has been poisoned by her "loving" aunt to keep her from having children and forcing her to relinquish power to her aunt's lineage, and her rejection of her Lumen crystal leads to a rise in violent prejudice against magic.]] A psychopathic Elodie may plunge Nova into an age of terror and strife, as well.
173** The "To Serve Evil" ending takes the cake, in which [[spoiler:Elodie willfully betrays her nation and kills her own father, then becomes Togami's enforcer]], resulting in much of Nova [[UnPerson trying to pretend that she never existed]]. This already bleak ending is [[FromBadToWorse even bleaker]] if Charlotte is Elodie's heir at this point, [[spoiler:as the fears towards another unstable underage magical monarch lead to a civil war that will forever devastate Nova.]]
174* DrivenToSuicide: If Elodie [[spoiler:chooses to sacrifice herself to the kraken]], the dialogue shows it's less HeroicSacrifice and more depression: she's choosing to do so because she felt like she'll never be a good queen due to all the decisions she's made and her lack of experience.
175* DumbassHasAPoint: If Elodie doesn't know enough about medicine, she'll turn down the chance to fund a hospital. An educated Elodie can recognize that the benefits, which extend not just to the saving of lives but also the advancement of medicine in general, outweigh the risks, but an ''uneducated'' Elodie has a common-sense awareness of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital-acquired_infection Hospital-Acquired Infections.]]
176* EarnYourBadEnding: It's possible to finish the game with [[spoiler:your father, aunt, uncle, cousins, and most of Nova's high ranking nobles all dead - but doing so requires a great deal of effort.]]
177* EldritchAbomination: The things that attack Briony and Elodie in the forest, as well as the [[spoiler:kraken]] summoned if Elodie wipes out the Shanjian fleet in one go. [[http://www.hanakogames.com/llq-ss6.jpg Just one of the many ways she can meet her end]].
178* ElementalPowers: Lumens tend to have some affinity for certain elements, although this also includes more abstract specialties like [[HealingHands healing]]. They aren't barred from using spells not associated with that theme and do appear to have common spells between them (like fire and [[spoiler:strangling chains]]), but most Lumens in the game are linked to specific elements again and again.
179** LightEmUp: Elodie (Light is a constant theme in her Lumen training and even shows up in one of her Meditation classes even if she's not a Lumen. Elements of HardLight and PlayingWithFire are thrown in as well. Regardless of if she's a Lumen or not, the final epilogue slide shows Queen Elodie shining brightly.)
180** DishingOutDirt: Julianna (Though not prominently displayed, she does make the ground shake a little if Elodie taunts her while she's imprisoned, and Selene explicitly says her powers lie with the earth -- important at the time, given that [[spoiler:Selene wants to create an earthquake to crush an invading force]].)
181** MakingASplash: Selene (More specifically, she has an affinity with sea water. She uses a bowl of water in her divination methods, [[spoiler:can drown people on dry land, and can even track down the location of a kraken in the ocean]].)
182** PowerOfTheVoid: [[spoiler:Lucille]] (She claims at first that all she can do is block out sound, but if pushed, she reveals she controls the general absence of things like light and life, and she [[spoiler:tries to render Elodie without sight, voice, and movement until she eventually withers away]]. She can also just outright [[LifeDrain drain people of life energy]], or in extreme cases, summon beams of darkness that explode silently.)
183** HealingHands: Charlotte (Despite not being a Lumen at the start of the game, she can heal Elodie's wounds if she's bitten and poisoned by a milk viper; further investigation reinforces the existence of these powers, and in one of the Lumen Charlotte epilogues, it's mentioned she still has healing magic.)
184* EmperorScientist: Depending on the choices Elodie makes, she can end up sparking a scientific revolution in Nova after her coronation. This can be accelerated if she funds the Printing Press ''and'' the Hospital, as the combination of the two allows for widespread collaboration and distribution of medical knowledge.
185* EntertaininglyWrong:
186** When an assassin is revealed to have come from Merva, Elodie reluctantly concludes that [[spoiler:her uncle Laurent, the Duke of Merva and her heir presumptive, is probably behind it. Lucille turns out to be the one masterminding it, so that her husband and daughter can inherit the throne.]]
187** Erwin, the Earl of Ishtar, has an unfortunate tendency to have family die around him -- including one of his previous wives and two of his daughters. After the death of his grandson Adair, Elodie can blame him for it and order him imprisoned or executed, [[spoiler:especially if she doesn't know about the political situation with Elath and Talasse, and that those dead family members were part of Elath's ducal family]].
188** Elodie might be under the impression that [[spoiler:Arisse is about to wage civil war]] and choose to assassinate her before her plans go in place... but a closer inspection -- one that can only be done if [[spoiler:Sabine is working as a spy]] -- might reveal that the target merely holds a personal grudge over [[spoiler:her stepson being sent away]] and has no dire intentions against Elodie. Without that extra information, there's no clear distinction between a grudge and a war, thus leading to the possibility of overreacting to the reports.
189** Earlier, when deciding custody of Adair, passing Internal Affairs checks will have Elodie remembering [[spoiler:Arisse is estranged from her eldest son and implicated in the deaths of her husband and stepson. This does ''not'' mean she will harm Adair]].
190* EpicFail:
191** Some of Elodie's failed skill checks result in some spectacular failures.
192--->'''Elodie:''' (I need to let him down gently.)\
193[Court Manners check failed]\
194'''Elodie:''' I am ''not'' marrying you! I'm only fourteen! ( ...That may not have been gentle.)
195** Speaking of which, there's her failing an early Foreign Intelligence check and confusing a foreign duke for one of her own subjects.
196--->'''Elodie:''' We have a Duke of Sedna?
197* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
198** Part of the process of [[spoiler:"saving the day with the power of music"]] is reminding [[spoiler:Togami]] of his children. [[spoiler:Chopping his head off]] leaves his wife in very, very angry mourning. Angry enough that she threatens Nova and [[spoiler:sends the head of one of her ministers trying to ally with Nova]].
199** [[spoiler:Lucille]] loves her daughter very much -- a fact you will be reminded of if [[spoiler:you sacrifice said daughter to the kraken. Hope you like dying.]]
200** A cruel Elodie can be a horrible person who's HappilyMarried.
201* EveryoneIsRelated: A number of the duchies of Nova are ruled by people who are directly related to each other (to say nothing of the numerous cousins), i.e. Caloris and Mazomba (brothers Joslyn and Armand), Hellas and Maree (siblings Brin and Banion), Mead and Lillah (daughter Corisande and mother Arisse). Indeed, part of Arisse's power derives from being the mother, wife (then stepmother), and mother-in-law to the rulers of three other duchies besides her own. Also, Briony is the Duchess of Ursul's niece [[spoiler:and possible heir to her Lumen crystal]], and Brin and Banion's brother Bennett is the stepfather of Elodie's friend Gwenelle (as well as the father of her youngest marriage prospect, eight-year-old Anciet). And speaking of which, most of Elodie's marriage and romance prospects are related as well -- [[spoiler:Briony and Linley are cousins through their mothers, Kevan is their uncle, Thaddeus is Kevan's half-brother while Adair is their stepbrother, Talarist and his brother are distantly related to Adair, Anciet is Brin and Banion's nephew, Evrard and Alice are brother and sister...]]
202* EvilDetectingDog: If you boost your skill with Dogs high enough, you may receive an important warning this way.
203* EvilOverlord: [[spoiler:Togami.]] He rules an overseas kingdom that has enough resources to raise a massive army and supporting fleet that are both capable of overwhelming Nova through sheer numbers. His goal is world domination. [[spoiler:And he's a Lumen to boot.]]
204* EvilUncle: [[spoiler:Subverted. If you get a certain event, it ''looks'' like Uncle Laurent tried to have Elodie killed so that he could take the throne, but that was actually his wife Lucille's doing. She's trying to get Elodie out of the way so her daughter can inherit the throne and the PowerCrystal. Which means Lucille will have to bump off Laurent as well to reach her goal.]]
205* EvilVsEvil: If Elodie's cruelty stat is high enough, her conflict with [[spoiler:Lucille and Togami]] can be seen as this.
206* TheExile: A bit of research into Foreign Affairs teaches that Lillah is a relatively new duchy that was created after outcasts from the Yeveni nomads to the east chose to settle down as part of Nova; the rest of Yeveh refuses to acknowledge Lillah even exists and pretend that an invisible wall marks their western border. [[spoiler:As for in-game exiles, Arisse, Corisande, and Charmion, all of whom are descendants of the former Yeveni nomads, can be banished from Nova under threat of death for their roles in inciting civil war. It's not said where they end up, however.]]
207* ExpansionPack: A low-key version, as patches to the game not only fix bugs but add characters and story options (for example, Alice replaces Elodie's unnamed maids in the original and [[spoiler:Elodie can now marry Alice's brother]], Kevan can now be [[spoiler:killed with magic at the duel or pursued for marriage at the end of the game]], the court musician gets a name and portrait, there are more opportunities to speak to Charlotte, you receive [[spoiler:Togami's Lumen crystal]] after winning the duel, and it is now possible to choose exactly which "scandalous" option to dance with so you don't have to get rid of Julianna before going for Brin).
208* {{Expy}}: Nova is essentially [[Anime/SailorMoon Crystal Tokyo]] with a more traditional medieval noble structure.
209** Elodie (Chibiusa), a pink-haired, pigtailed princess who comes into possession of a magical crystal upon which her royal status is founded, after her mother, an impossibly-perfect and wonderful lady, is suddenly killed, and she's forced to take on responsibilities she isn't ready for in order to ensure the safety of her kingdom.
210** Charlotte (Hotaru), a purple haired girl with healing powers, kept isolated by a loving parent, who remains Elodie's best friend despite everything they go through together. [[spoiler: That doting parent, Lucille (Professor Tomoe) is also a major antagonist who plans to kill Elodie to empower Charlotte by stealing her crystal, all out of love for her daughter.]]
211** Julianna (Haruka), a sword-wielding, generally androgynous lesbian with earth-based powers who cares much more about her duty as a magical warrior than anything else, including getting along with other people, in a relationship with...
212** Selene (Michiru), a gentle, feminine lady with powers associated with the ocean and mirrors, willing to sacrifice whatever lives she must in order to maintain the safety of the realm (provided, of course, that Julianna will also live).
213** Joslyn (King Endymion), a dowager king left a shadow of his former self after the loss of his beloved queen, who but dearly loves his daughter even if he can't properly be a parent to her anymore. [[spoiler: And in true Tuxedo Mask fashion, he'll appear in the nick of time to save her once all else has failed, using his own crystal that serves as a counterpart to his wife's.]]
214[[/folder]]
215
216[[folder:F-H]]
217* FantasticRacism: There's an undercurrent of tension between Lumens and [[{{Muggle}} non-empowered commoners]] due in part to a tragic event that happened in the backstory. As a result, any Lumens outside either the royal house or the Duchess of Ursul keep their abilities a secret for fear of inviting persecution. If [[spoiler:Lucille]] is appointed Lumen Minister, it's noted at the ball Elodie may attend later that other nobility are openly shunning her for her status.
218* FantasyGunControl: Averted. Cannons seem to be the main weapon of naval warfare (although a lumen capable of launching magical attacks is a lot more powerful in general). Everyone still uses bows and arrows on land, though.
219* FictionalAgeOfMajority: The age of majority in Nova is 15. The main goal of the game is for Elodie to survive to her fifteenth birthday so she can be crowned queen. She is able to court many people who are old enough to be her father, but she can't immediately marry Adair, who is two years her junior, until he comes of age. Gwenelle and Briony have conflicts with their mothers because they are teenagers but also legal adults who can make their own decisions.
220* FieryRedhead: Kevan, the Earl of Io. To a violently unstable degree.
221* FissionMailed: A small case with the "evil minion" ending a few weeks before the normal end of the game, as the screen [[IrisOut irises out]] like Elodie's death scenes and then goes straight into the epilogue. Another case is escaping to Sedna, as the game treats it like a regular game over, despite Elodie living and plotting to retake Nova.
222** Successfully triggering an earthquake also causes the screen to iris out in much the same way... only for it to pop back open and the story to continue a couple of seconds later.
223* FlowerMotifs:
224** Brin, the Duchess of Hellas, is thirty-three and still wears a flower in her hair. If Elodie dances with her at the ball, she may send a bouquet. In the language of flowers, they mean [[GayOption a secret love]], and they're also [[SilkHidingSteel poisonous when eaten]].
225** Elodie may come across a half-dead flower arrangement in the palace and grumble about careless staff; with enough skill in Divination, she takes it as a bad omen (and with enough skill in Decoration, she'll rearrange it to her satisfaction).
226* {{Foreshadowing}}: Lots of information pertaining to things which happen in game are foreshadowed either in the flavor text for Elodie's classes, or during conversations with other characters. Some points are more obscure than others; for example:
227** With high enough Lore, you uncover a theory suggesting that Bad Things happen when enough powerful Lumen get together. [[spoiler:If you use Lumen powers to sink the Shanjian fleet, you either create a freak wave which drowns Elodie, or cause a sacrifice-demanding sea monster to awaken.]]
228** The ''only'' competition Elodie can win during the tournament is the music one, which suggests she is an incredible performer. [[spoiler:A few weeks later, her music skills become vital in the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Save the Day with the Power of Music]] ending.]]
229** If you become engaged to Adair, the Duke of Sedna will always cause trouble at your borders, no matter how kind you've been to him in the past. While at first glance it may be because you've spurned him, having good internal and foreign affair levels will reveal that [[spoiler:he's actually Adair's next of kin, and therefore the very strategically important Duchy of Elath will pass to him if Adair dies. If you do not marry Adair, he'll send assassins to eliminate him to ensure this succession, and furthermore, it's heavily implied that he killed the rest of Adair's family to reach this end. However, Elodie marrying Adair and therefore taking him under the protection of the crown has completely destroyed his plans.]] It's a small wonder that he's a little bitter.
230** ''Someone'' killed [[spoiler:the rest of Adair's family, but it couldn't have been the Duke of Sedna, who was only six years old at the time. This plot may have been going on for generations.]]
231** In a possible conversation after Julianna's arrival, Charlotte mentions her mother says people hate Lumen because they're jealous. [[spoiler:Her mother is a Lumen herself and grooming Charlotte to become one as well]].
232** After the scene with the milk viper, Lucille comes to see what all the commotion was about, only to freak out and leave the palace with her daughter upon being told that there was a snake. [[spoiler:[[INeverSaidItWasPoison She'll do this even if no one tells her the snake was poisonous]]. Lucille accidentally reveals her plot to kill Elodie early on.]]
233* ForWantOfANail: Since the game almost encourages SaveScumming, it's easy to see what actions lead to which results, with some of them being rather convoluted. For example, imprisoning the Duchess of Ursul in the beginning leads to the possibility of sacrificing an entirely different character to a monster. [[spoiler:If Juliana is not there to save Elodie from a snake, she may get bitten, so Charlotte heals her and by doing so reveals that she has magical powers, which makes her an acceptable sacrifice in case Elodie accidentally summons the Kraken.]]
234* FourthDateMarriage: Since many of her possible marriages are arranged, Elodie doesn't interact much with a number of the prospective grooms during the course of the game. However, one extreme case is Talarist, the Duke of Sedna. At the beginning of the game, Elodie doesn't even know which country Sedna is in; a few weeks, a letter of condolence, and a pretty necklace later, he visits in person, flirts, and suggests marriage. Elodie can promptly accept, much to her father's shock.
235* FriendToAllLivingThings: While she can't strictly ''talk'' to animals (or hear them talk back), Elodie can learn how to handle different creatures and interpret their behavior with high enough education in animal-related skills. [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower This is not as useless as it may sound at first.]] [[spoiler:Highlights include the EvilDetectingDog and Elodie's trained falcon diving onto the face of an attacker.]]
236** If her highest skill group by the end of the game is animal handling, Elodie develops a deep love for animals, and passes many new animal welfare laws in Nova.
237* FreudianSlip: Possibly deliberately. Elodie may suspect an auditioning musician of being a recruitable secret agent. When she asks if she can juggle, the musician replies, "I can keep a set of dangers in the air."
238* GambitPileup: Everyone has something they want out of you, and everyone can potentially be your enemy or ally depending on how you deal with them. Also, unlike in many games, you may or may not ever find out who was behind a particular scheme.
239* GayOption: Brin, the Duchess of Hellas, can send Elodie flowers after dancing with her, and Elodie can later choose to marry her brother to be closer to her, refuse to marry and take her as a companion, or even [[spoiler:outright marry her should Elodie become unable to have biological children anyway]]. Depending on the choices made before the ball, Elodie can also dance with Julianna or Arisse, but this doesn't lead to a relationship. Also, Briony falls for her if they both survive the forest adventure and Elodie can reciprocate by making her "Lady of the Royal Bedchamber," though it doesn't stop their eventual marriages to men. Lastly, a cruel Elodie can keep Alice as a SexSlave. Ick.
240* GenderBlenderName: Elodie's father, Joslyn (a variant of Jocelyn, which ''can'' be a male name) and Jael, the late Duke-Consort of Lillah (whose perhaps most famous bearer is a Biblical woman).
241* GeniusDitz: Because you only have so many weeks' worth of classes and some stat checks get pretty high, it's likely you'll end up with a queen who's got near-perfect knowledge of some subjects while being completely clueless in others.
242* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen:
243** Depending on choices, Elodie can end up executing everyone who looks at her sideways and cackling about it. She even occasionally gets to shout "OffWithHisHead". And even better? With enough training, she can personally kill any threat to her life. Assassin jumps her? She stabs him. Enraged noble challenges her to a duel? She immolates him.
244** It's heavily implied the Queen of Shanjia isn't any better than her husband, though some endings imply she ''isn't quite'' as nasty as he can be (or even Elodie). For example, one of the ways she can deal with Elodie in the wake of [[spoiler:a dead Togami]] is sending the heads of one of the cowardly ministers who tried to cut a "peace" deal with Elodie in the wake of [[spoiler:the duel]].
245* GodzillaThreshold: Joslyn is of the opinion that Lumen magic should only be reserved for situations like this. [[spoiler:He'll suggest it as a possibility once the Shanjian invasion begins.]]
246* GoldDigger:
247** A variant with Lieke, the Countess of Dis, who only married the elderly Duke of Sudbury for long enough to produce a heir to the duchy; she then served as regent in the time between his death and her daughter coming of age. Judging from an argument at the latter's birthday party, she's reluctant to hand on her power. No royal likes her for this (daughter included), except for the Duke himself.
248** With a successful Flattery check, Elodie accuses Sirin of being one.
249--->'''Elodie:''' Good afternoon, Countess. What a lovely brooch you're wearing. It reminds me a bit of one my mother used to wear. I suppose you have an eye for valuable prizes, don't you? Ready to leap in and snatch them the instant they become available, to keep them out of anyone else's hands?
250** Briony's father Ignatius may be a male example -- since he [[spoiler:immediately divorces his wife if he comes into money or power of his own, it's implied that he's only staying with her because of her rank and the security it brings him. We don't know if he married her for this reason, or if they had a loving relationship at some point before Corisande started sleeping with her brother.]]
251** Banion is a definite male example, said by the game to have been waiting for a powerful heiress to accept his suit for quite some time (and before Elodie, he at least tried to court Julianna). Since being king consort would be the ultimate status boost, he aggressively pursues Elodie throughout the game. Counts as a AgeGapRomance, since he's 31, and she's only 14.
252*** If she forced his sister to marry an Ixionite lord, he will make an attempt to coerce her into marriage at the grand ball - alternatively, if she's pissed off the nobility enough, he will depose her as ruler and force her to marry him (even though she is still legally too young to wed), which nets you a game over.
253*** He's so eager for the prestige, that Elodie can always propose marriage to him at the end of the game, and he will always accept, even if he hates you so much that he previously tried to have you assassinated. [[spoiler:If you killed his sister, he later gets his revenge by poisoning Elodie when she becomes pregnant (though very carefully, so their unborn child is left unharmed), allowing him to effectively seize power over Nova. Then he takes their daughter away from the now sickly Elodie as soon as she's born, and names her after his late sister.]]
254** Talarist is also implied to be one, albeit he's more subtle in the way he goes about it.
255* GoldenEnding: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Elodie can make some undeniably good choices, and some endgame outcomes are definitely better than others. However, some positive outcomes are mutually exclusive with others, leading to even the happiest endings still possessing at least one element that's less than ideal (usually either [[spoiler:Lumens still being considered social pariahs and thus Elodie's mentors being unable to be publicly be together]] or [[spoiler:the BigBad still being alive, in power, and apparently still willing to invade Nova again if he gets the opportunity]]).
256* TheGoodKingdom: The term 'kingdom' is avoided in-game, but it fills the same trope niche.
257* GoryDiscretionShot: As much as there can be in a text-based game. Some deaths Elodie can witness, like [[spoiler:Banion's execution]], aren't described at all.
258-->[[spoiler:There is a horrible scream, and the smell of burning flesh. [...] Kevan's sword falls to the ground beside his gauntlet. He won't be needing either anymore.]]\
259[[spoiler:You knew what the outcome would be, you knew it all along. Togami is a trained Lumen eager to demonstrate his powers, and your father... ''was'' your father.]]
260* GoToYourRoom: Joslyn to Elodie, if she is deposed in a vote of no confidence in Week 17.
261* GovernmentInExile: Several endgame scenarios:
262** [[spoiler:If Elodie is engaged to Talarist and Shanjia is approaching the capital, she has the option of fleeing to Talasse, where she will be married to Talarist and given a chance to plan a counterattack. Although she escapes with her life, the game ends here.]]
263** [[spoiler:If Elodie refuses Togami's duel and then goes to Julianna to advice, Julianna will suggest that she, Elodie, and all other known Lumens leave the capital and go into hiding to make plans to fight back. Joslyn insists on going with them, and the game ends with the group preparing to flee into the countryside; it's not clear if they'll leave Nova, but the narration notes that they'll have to sleep in forests and utilize disguises.]]
264* GuideDangIt:
265** There are a ''lot'' of intricately connected events in the game and the relationships between them will not be apparent at first. Working out who is trying to kill you at which points and why requires serious note-taking. If you haven't been following all the subplots, angry relatives may suddenly show up and challenge Elodie to a duel to the death... for an offense she didn't even know she committed. In a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, many of the more important facts are only listed in the little blurbs that come up when you're leveling up Elodie's education, meaning that unless you're using an external guide, the first time you play, you will literally only know what Elodie already knows.
266** Some of the bonus achievements are downright impossible to get unless you plan your route from day one. Notable examples are the 'save the day through the power of music' bonus (which requires ridiculously high stats in [[spoiler:Voice, Instrument, Foreign Intelligence, Public Speaking, AND Presence]]), as well as the 'Naval Victory' bonus [[spoiler:(which requires VERY high Naval Strategy, you not losing ANY soldiers at any point during the game, and accessing very specific events)]].
267** Seeing all the different epilogue windows might be tough, and maxing out the achievement list might be difficult, but at least the game gives you a checklist to fill out so you know what you're trying to do. Seeing all the different variations on the epilogue text is damn near ''impossible'' because the game doesn't track them! This goes double for Elodie's marriage options that ''aren't'' on the list at the end of the game because they depend heavily on Elodie's player-chosen proposal being rejected. Some of those options have to be unlocked through special events (which is ''already'' a GuideDangIt process), and then the player has to do something to ruin their relationship with Elodie in the endgame so that she'll have to find someone else. The cause-and-effect of these events is so mysterious that even the most comprehensive guide can only tell you what ''may'' happen as a result of any individual choice.
268* HaveANiceDeath: The 1.1 update adds chibified representations of each of Elodie's many, many ways to die [[HundredPercentCompletion to give players incentive to see all of them]].
269* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Several lame-sounding skills turn out to have unusual uses. For instance, you can end up using your knowledge of Trade and Production to avoid an assassination attempt. [[spoiler:The best ending you can get comes about from managing to instill a change of heart in the BigBad by way of a heartfelt song. Another ending involves defeating him with the help of your skill in decorating, followed by a beautiful coronation.]]
270* HeartSymbol: The StartScreen starts with an animation of such a shadow expanding out from the center to darken the whole screen.
271* HeelFaceTurn:
272** Of a sort. [[spoiler:You can recruit Lucille as your Lumen Minister, after which she stops trying to kill you -- unless you kill her daughter, for obvious reasons.]]
273** If you achieve the [[spoiler:Save The Day with the Power of Music]] bonus, the epilogue strongly implies that [[spoiler:Togami]] has one.
274* HeirClubForMen: Averted; inheritance in Nova is gender neutral. It's emphasized by the fact that for both genders a title gained by marriage is always indicated with the "-Consort" suffix.
275* HereditaryHomosexuality: The previous Duke of Ursul once had a commitment ceremony to the Duke of Mead. His daughter Julianna, the current Duchess, is a lesbian.
276* HereWeGoAgain: If you managed to talk Briony out of going on a boneheaded adventure to the Old Capital, she'll send letters to Elodie... asking about pirate treasure this time. Elodie promptly responds with this, word for word.
277* HeroesPreferSwords: While you can train Elodie in archery and lances as well as swords (and her tournament results imply she's actually best at archery, at least at her age), during [[spoiler:her climactic duel with Togami, she can create a magic sword to chop off his head]]. It's also potentially useful in [[spoiler:the duels against Banion and Kevan, though in Banion's case it's his preference rather than yours]].
278* HeroicSacrifice:
279** [[spoiler:If Elodie accepts the duel with Togami even though she isn't a Lumen, her father will become one on the spot to take her place. It can be downplayed if you find an anti-magic artifact earlier on in the game - Joslyn survives, but is permanently physically and mentally impaired.]]
280--->[[spoiler:'''Joslyn:''' You want to fight the Lumen ruler of Nova? ''Illuminate''!]]
281** [[spoiler:Elodie herself can choose to do this to get rid of the kraken, which obviously ends the game.]]
282* HiddenBackupPrince: A possible epilogue outcome, though unlikely to be true, given the circumstances where it comes up. [[spoiler:In two possible outcomes for Elodie's father and the duchy of Caloris that he holds in addition to being the former King-consort, a young man will try to make a claim on the duchy, declaring that he's Elodie's father's illegitimate son from before his marriage to her mother. However, since this ''only'' occurs if her father is either dead or mentally incapacitated, his story is highly dubious at best. If Elodie's father is dead, she just ignores the man entirely, since no one can verify his claims. If her father is alive, but suffered brain damage, the latter does accept the man as his son, and names him as the heir to the duchy - but Elodie is extremely doubtful that the man really is her half brother, given her father's compromised state of mind.]]
283* HiddenMechanic: One stat the game tutorial doesn't tell you about, is your cruelty. Cruelty is based on how you treat your maid or whether or not you order people to be executed and so on. High cruelty is key for the Evil Minion Route and achivement but also effects certain flavor text, such as how Elodie treats prisoners when you visit the dungeon, whether or not commoners are afraid of you, and certain text in the epilogue.
284* HighClassGlass: Elodie dons a monocle when she puts on the SpyCatsuit.
285* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Two of the possible fights with other Lumen can end this way with enough Resist Magic skill, as Lucille overloads all her power trying to take control of Elodie and the wife-strangler's magic rebounds on him.]] To a lesser degree, it's possible for [[spoiler:Banion, the Duke of Maree]] to call for a vote of no confidence and discover that nobody will support him, and Elodie has the option of demanding to lop off his head. On the other side, if Elodie [[spoiler:forces his sister into marriage, Banion will try to trick her into a compromising position with him to force their engagement in turn]]. Elodie can wind up doing this to herself, if she doesn't have enough Lumen training and enough Lumens to make the battle at sea work, and winds up [[LudicrousGibs exploding herself]].
286** Talarist, in one of the epilogues; with the right combination of events, he'll pitch a fit over Elodie and publicly denounce her, brandishing the squid poem as evidence... but since it's funny, Elodie ends up marrying Talarist's (apparently much better-humored) younger brother, locking Talarist himself out of any possibility of advancement in the Novan nobility.
287** If Elodie discovers that [[spoiler: Lucille]] is trying to kill her, this gives her the option to [[spoiler: sacrifice Charlotte to the Kraken]] as soon as the possibility presents itself. Since the whole point was to put [[spoiler: Charlotte]] on the throne, giving Elodie an excuse to execute her is just a horrible, horrible backfire.
288* HostageSituation: [[spoiler:If a civil war breaks out and Briony is in the castle at the time -- the leaders of the rebellion are her grandmother, her mother, and her aunt -- Elodie has the option of either sending her home as a gesture of goodwill or holding her hostage. If she picks the latter, she can then negotiate one of three things for Briony's release: A simple end to the war, a tribute of money from the rebelling nobles, or exile from Nova for the three rebel leaders. This provides one way to quickly get out of the civil war scenario, although the third option can only be taken by an intimidating Elodie.]]
289* HotBlooded:
290** Brin, the Duchess of Hellas, conquered Ixionite territory without your mother's permission, nearly (and possibly, if you can't run damage control) starting a war.
291** The Earl of Io really likes being a rageaholic ham willing to kill anyone even vaguely suspected of wanting to harm his family. If he challenges Elodie to a duel, spittle flies away from his mouth with each word.
292* HumanSacrifice: An EldritchAbomination can be pacified with the sacrifice of a Lumen or potential Lumen that has not yet reached adulthood. That means that Elodie is a viable sacrifice.[[spoiler:...And so is her cousin Charlotte.]]
293* HumiliationConga: Ignatius' life in general, at least on the path that allows Elodie to successfully romance him. His father [[TheUnfavorite passes him over for inheritance]] in favor of Julianna, despite her vocal disinterest in anything but magic. He goes on to marry into a BigScrewedUpFamily, with the implication that he's not welcome back home. His angry, unstable, mentally-unwell brother-in-law, who violently overreacts to any and all perceived disrespect towards his family, shows up to crash on his couch. He catches a break when the new, impulsive queen arrests his sister and awards him the title, but then finds out his wife is having an affair [[spoiler:with her own brother]]. This alienates him from his own daughter as the adults try to protect her from the truth by exiling her to boarding school, but this prompts her to nearly get herself killed trying to win back their attention. And then, after all the secrets are out and he finally divorces his [[spoiler: incestuous]] cheating wife, his kids ''still'' choose to stay with their mother and uncle [[spoiler: whose affair has not actually stopped]] because Mead is a more comfortable place to live than Ursul. Unless [[EarnYourHappyEnding he accepts Elodie's proposal]], he ends up alone, either abandoned or betrayed by every loved one he has.
294[[/folder]]
295
296[[folder:I-M]]
297* IHaveNoSon: Happens in the backstory to Bennett and Ignatius. Their parents are now deceased, and they're happy to take over if Elodie puts their sibling(s) out of the way.
298* IdiotHero: It's entirely possible to go through the game by surviving plot after plot and never discover who's behind any of them. Elodie will also accidentally stunt technological and medical growth by not knowing enough about production and medicine, by way of automatically denying the creation of the printing press and centralized hospitals.
299* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: [[spoiler:If you offer to join forces with Togami, his first order is to kill your father.]] For obvious reasons, a regular Elodie will be aghast. A cruel Elodie can do so.
300* InnocentBlueEyes: Elodie's bright blue eyes are a reflection of her initial naiveté. Whether she remains so, of course, is up to the player's decisions.
301** His new portrait shows that Adair has them.
302** Elodie gets hers from her father. [[spoiler:It's subtle, but Joslyn married young, is actually pretty easy to manipulate if Elodie doesn't run interference for him, and won't hesitate to give up his life to protect her even if she's been cruel. He may be in mourning and aware of the more manipulative aspects of ruling, but he himself is actually pretty innocent.]] This also implies that Fidelia ''didn't'' have them, reinforcing her reputation as a sharp monarch.
303* InstantExpert: Deconstructed; Elodie is capable of becoming a master of any skill in about two months, but depends on whether she's in a suitable mood (and properly dressed) to be receptive to the lessons, which are taught by the best tutors in Nova and being given to her under life-or-death pressure. She's still implied to have more natural talent for some skills than others (and some, like History and Faith, top out with her being unable to learn any more because there are obstacles to further study), but even the ones where she's not quite skilled enough to be competitive still leave her better than her noble peers if she maxes the skill out.
304* IronLady: Arisse, the Duchess of Lillah. Next to Elodie, she is the most powerful noble in the kingdom, nicknamed the "Eastern Queen" because of her influence over multiple duchies, and absolutely not to be crossed. [[spoiler:It's strongly implied that she had her stepson and her second husband killed when they went completely beyond the pale of acceptable behavior (rape, torture, serial killing). If Elodie completely mismanages the kingdom, she'll declare civil war to set the kingdom right - or force Elodie to pick her up as a mentor.]]
305** A heavily military-oriented Elodie can become one, personally commanding the fleet against the invading Shanjian force.
306* ItWillNeverCatchOn: If ignorant in the relevant subjects, Elodie will automatically turn away petitioners asking for funding to create a movable-type printing press and establish a hospital (in the latter case, she'll think putting sick people together will just make them die faster).
307* JerkassHasAPoint: Joslyn's certainly not a {{Jerkass}} by habit, but him forbidding Elodie's access to a Lumen crystal when she otherwise has nigh-unlimited authority over the kingdom seems to be unusually arbitrary and out of character at first. However, closer examination of the backstory reveals that he has good reasons: [[spoiler:Not only are there multiple accounts of Lumen users with more power than knowledge or wisdom wreaking havoc by deploying their powers recklessly, but Elodie's mother was specifically targeted for assassination because she had a Lumen crystal that someone else wanted.]]
308* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Duchess Julianna can be curt, cold, mean, and downright obstructive at times if she views it as necessary. She's also one of the only nobles in the ''entire empire'' who puts Nova before her own selfish whims, will risk her neck for you without a second thought [[spoiler:in defense of the nation,]] and is also one of the only people who is [[spoiler:actually trying to ''protect'' Elodie, instead of simply wanting her dead.]]
309* JumpedAtTheCall: Briony wants to go adventuring in the magic-filled Old Forest [[spoiler:and will get herself killed if you don't either stop her from going, or go with her and have [[GuideDangIt exactly the right skills to save her]]]].
310* KarmaHoudini:
311** Attempting to arrest the person responsible for multiple assassination attempts on you, instead of killing her (or her family), causes her to escape, kill the guards sent after her, and kill her husband.
312*** You can also unwittingly give her exactly what she wants by [[spoiler:allowing her to poison a vulnerable Elodie in the epilogue, rendering her infertile and leaving an opening for her own daughter to inherit the crown. The person in question even gets to become Prime Minister in one scenario.]]
313** [[spoiler:Togami]] can get away with [[spoiler:killing your father, destroying your military, and going on to do the same thing to Borealis and any country he suspects has Lumens in it.]]
314** Even with the Good ending where [[spoiler:you convince Togami to stop his invasion with The Power of Music.]] He still gets away with [[spoiler:killing your mother, which he never reveals to you even after you befriend him.]] As well as [[spoiler:all the previous people and foreign countries he butchered in his rise to power.]]
315** Elodie, if you play your cards right. Such as remaining happily married while you condemned your family and "favorite cousin" to horrifying deaths.
316* KarmaMeter: The hidden cruelty statistic; its level indicates if you're eventually willing to do things like [[spoiler:kill your father and cousin]].
317* KarmicDeath: If you feed [[spoiler:Charlotte]] to the [[spoiler:Kraken while Lucille is still alive]], you WILL earn your well-deserved death a week later.
318* KickTheDog:
319** One late-game hint as to the status of the aforementioned KarmaMeter is when [[spoiler:a servant dies from sneaking poisoned chocolates meant for Elodie.]] Normally, she's frightened; with high enough cruelty, she's happy it wasn't her.
320** You can beat your maid if you're too clumsy to move out of the way.
321** Julianna herself does this a little - if Elodie gets angry at her for withholding information, Julianna will callously tell her she's not beholden to expendable queens like Elodie - she's beholden to Nova and their crystals first and foremost. If Elodie tries to ask what's a creeping shade [[spoiler:that killed a squire in the aftermath of Elodie accidentally killing Lucille in self-defense]], Julianna will tell Elodie she's wasting her time and is doing nothing but distracting her.
322** If [[spoiler:you opt to attempt to persuade Togami from killing you by way of song]], he'll call you pathetic for crying as you recall happy memories of your mother. Note: this is a grown man taunting a scared child he's about to kill.
323** Despite being told by the Earl of Titan not to do so, you can deliberately send young Adair to live with his grandfather[[note]]This is a bad thing, as his grandfather can't protect him very well[[/note]], and when Arisse gets rightfully upset, you can [[spoiler:kill her.]]
324** Or you can ''brag'' to poor Adair about [[spoiler:executing his stepmother for treason against Elodie]]. Bonus points if Elodie has enough internal knowledge to [[spoiler:claim that Arisse was probably going to kill him like she killed her other relatives]], something that doesn't even seem likely based on known information [[spoiler:given that he's not a serial killer or a child molester]].
325** Referenced literally if [[spoiler:Sabine]] tells Elodie that she's so unpopular with the citizens that a few are even spreading rumors that she kicked a puppy down the stairs. A cruel Elodie responds in a way that suggests there may be truth to that rumor.
326* KidHero: More obvious if Elodie has high reflexes and military prowess, but {{deconstructed}} if you ride with Briony to the Old Capital, where, after barely surviving, you will get a withering lecture that the only reason you two survived is by sheer luck and that there are no heroes, only dead fools.
327* KnightTemplarParent: [[spoiler:Elodie's aunt Lucille is trying to kill her so the throne will pass to her daughter Charlotte and she can gain the royal Lumen crystal. Even if Elodie makes Lucille Lumen Minister, it's implied she's still waiting on Elodie to die, and she'll sabotage her ability to have children (and thus non-Charlotte heirs) if the chance presents itself]].
328* LaserGuidedKarma: If you [[spoiler:feed Charlotte to the Kraken]], the accompanying sailors, disgusted and horrified, will spread rumors of Elodie being a cruel Lumen witch in the aftermath, no matter how well-intentioned she was before or after. These rumors smear Elodie throughout her reign. And if you did this while her [[spoiler:mom is still alive, you're dead, no matter what.]]
329* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: The options for confronting Sirin.
330-->Shame her with silent scorn\
331Insult her with false flattery\
332Trip her as she passes
333* LessonsInSophistication: This is a game entirely devoted to choosing which combination of Princess Lessons will allow Princess Elodie to survive until her fifteenth birthday, when she will be crowned Queen. The game takes ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman all the way up to eleven; the player must use excessive SaveScumming and TrialAndErrorGameplay to figure out which seemingly unimportant lessons are going to save Elodie's life.
334* LipstickLesbian: Brin. Feminine haircut with a flower in her hair and makeup, very interested in flowers, implied to fall in love easily, and [[spoiler:was Julianna's lover.]]
335* LivingEmotionalCrutch: [[spoiler:In Kevan's "good" marriage ending, he eventually confides his past to Elodie, but this doesn't entirely cure his trust issues. Instead he falls so madly in love that he swears he can't live without her. Fortunately, there's no mention of it being put to the test. Also invoked with regard to his half-brother Thaddeus, who has issues stemming from some of the same events; see below.]]
336* TheLoad: If you join Briony in exploring the old forest, she becomes instantly useless [[spoiler:and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou surviving the encounter]] [[GuideDangIt requires knowing all the right skills]]; and if you didn't bring horses, you have the option of abandoning her]]. Not that Elodie might be any better.
337* LonelyAtTheTop: A possible fate for Elodie if she gets her money's worth from the executioner's block.
338* LoopholeAbuse: One of the conditions [[spoiler:Togami]] sets on his duel with Elodie is that it's a test of magical power, not of weapon skills. [[spoiler:This doesn't prevent Elodie from conjuring a magic sword from Hard Light and using it to behead him if you choose the appropriate option and have enough points in Swords to make it work.]]
339* LoveHurts: If an anti-Lumen Elodie is trying to seek information on [[spoiler:Julianna's escape from the dungeons]], Brin's motivation for approaching her after the ball and telling Elodie that the castle priestess is [[spoiler:Julianna's]] current lover is that Brin was dumped for said lover for being "too challenging". The same dialogue also shows Brin's been dumped ''twice'' before [[spoiler:Julianna]], the implication being that they left her for men, and Brin thought [[spoiler:Julianna]] would "stay the course" and stay with her. Nope.
340* LoveMartyr: Invoked with the Duchess of Lillah's desire to marry off her troubled son Thaddeus, believing the right marriage would be good for him; Elodie notes there's nothing about it being good for ''her''. [[spoiler:There's also a hint of this in the ending where you successfully marry her ''other'' troubled son Kevan (which necessitates knowing about his incestuous relationships), in which you eventually successfully shift his fanatical loyalties from his family to you]].
341* LoveRedeems: Invoked with the Duchess of Lillah's desire to marry off her troubled son Thaddeus, believing the right marriage would be good for him; Elodie notes there's nothing about it being good for ''her''. [[spoiler:There's also a hint of this in the ending where you successfully marry her ''other'' troubled son Kevan (which necessitates knowing about his incestuous relationships), in which you eventually successfully shift his fanatical loyalties from his family to you]].
342* LovesMeNot: In week 3, Charlotte and Elodie's interaction:
343-->'''Charlotte:''' He loves me, he loves me not...\
344'''Elodie:''' Lottie, do you have a boyfriend?\
345'''Charlotte:''' Not really, I just like to play with the flowers.
346* LoyalAnimalCompanion: Sufficiently leveling up your Animal Handling skills will gain you these - and they can end up saving your life. If Kevan makes an attempt on your life during the tournament, and you are skilled enough in falconry and participated in the falconry competition, your personal falcon companion will literally swoop in and attempt to claw his eyes out, saving your life. If you've spent enough time learning about dogs, your personal pet dog will display uncharacteristic aggression if you receive a box of chocolates, which tips you off that they're probably not safe to eat. If you are good enough with horses, they'll obey your commands and not run away, despite their own terror, if you go into the forest with Briony, which saves both of your lives.
347* LightIsNotGood:
348** A Cruel Lumen-Oriented Elodie certainly isn't! While fire isn't exclusive to her light theme, she has a particular penchant for badly burning if not outright incinerating those who oppose her.
349** Selene might be a respected priestess and one of Elodie's faith tutors, but that doesn't stop her from making ruthless suggestions throughout the game, though it's downplayed as she is never antagonistic to Elodie ([[spoiler:unless Julianna is jailed indefinitely]]). Her ideas include poisoning castle servants, drowning guards with her powers, [[spoiler:force-feeding a murderer salt water until he's effectively braindead]], [[spoiler:suggesting a human sacrifice to appease a kraken]], and [[spoiler:triggering a massive earthquake that destroys an invading army and, as collateral, a lot of settlements in Nova]].
350* MagicalGirlQueenlinessTest: The "test" being to survive the year between your mother's death and your coronation.
351* MagicalGirlWarrior: There are several around, the late Queen was one, and Elodie can become one during the game. [[spoiler:So can her father... well, without the girl part.]]
352* MagicKnight: Julianna is deadly with both her sword and her magic. Elodie can follow in her footsteps, which comes in handy if she duels in the end.
353* MamaBear: [[spoiler: If she's still alive, Lucille ''will'' use her powers on Elodie if she sacrifices Charlotte to the kraken.]]
354* MandatoryMotherhood:
355** Motherhood is one of Elodie's duties; if she's a lesbian, she'll either marry a man to produce a heir, or either sleep with an unknown male or use Lumen powers to get impregnated, should she keep Brin as a constant companion. In one ending, [[spoiler:if you both marry Talarist and name him the Duke of Elath]], her health will be ruined by the effort to provide heirs for [[spoiler:both the throne and the duchy]] as soon as possible.
356** Played with Brin, depending on how much Elodie meddles in her life. If Brin [[spoiler:is forced to marry an Ixionite]], a knowledgeable Elodie can take her aside and advise her that she doesn't have to stay ''married'' when the child is born, and Brin does indeed get a divorce after she gets her heir. If she stays unmarried but has a romance with Elodie, she can potentially adopt [[spoiler:Banion's "natural son"]] as her heir instead; or, she can end up [[spoiler:marrying Elodie's father, and bearing him a son.]]
357** Julianna averts this trope, because Julianna is both a lesbian and is not inclined to take orders from anyone. [[spoiler:Julianna can adopt Briony as heir, instead.]]
358* TheManyDeathsOfYou: There is even a checklist to keep track of the different ways you have died!
359* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Arisse, the Duchess of Lillah, has six children from two husbands--not counting her stepchildren. Her daughter Charmion is the Duchess-Consort of Kigal and has a bunch more. One of the new conversations with Adair, in which he asks why Elodie has no siblings of her own, indicates that "Mom-Arisse" considers having plenty of [[SpareToTheThrone Spares to the Throne]] a responsibility.
360* MeaningfulName:
361** The DepravedHomosexual Duke of Mead was named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_(plant)#Myth_associated_with_Hyacinth Hyacinth]].
362** According to WordOfGod [[http://hanakoforum.nfshost.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1567 here]], most of the duchies of Nova are named after impact craters (in the sense of "Boom!" and calamity), while Nova is named in the sense of stars going nova. The exceptions are Maree (after lava-filled lunar basins -- two of its territories, Imbrium and Serenitatis, are named after specific ones), Kigal (after the death goddess Ereshkigal), Lillah (after Lilith), and Elath (meaning 'Goddess'). [[invoked]]
363** "Elodie" is the French rendering of the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunilo_and_Alodia Saint Alodia]], a child martyr honored by the medieval Catholic Church. In keeping with the astronomical themes, it's also the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10726_Elodie an asteroid]]. Her name also contains the word "die", which is [[NintendoHard something she will spend a lot of time doing]]. Additionally, Elodie is arguably the truncated varation of the musical term Melody. (M)elodie's name can be considered meaningful as [[spoiler:the music competition is one of the few contests she can outright win (implying that she's rather exceptional even despite her young age) and also the arguably Golden Ending is done through the difficult achievement path "Power of Music".]]
364** Sedna, a duchy in neighboring Talasse, is the name of both a space object and an Inuit sea goddess.
365** A beautiful young countess named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirin Sirin]] tries to move in on Elodie's father, much to her displeasure. She's the Countess of [[Theatre/TheTempest Miranda]] and [[Myth/GreekMythology Callisto]], which are the names of both literary characters and moons.
366** Lucille is the Countess of Nix. [[spoiler:Her Lumen power is based on ''nothingness.'']]
367** Selene the name of a moon goddess. [[spoiler:Her Lumen powers are rooted in the ocean, and the moon famously influences the tides.]]
368* MedicalMonarch: How you get the [[spoiler:Divine Omen]] achievement -- Elodie wins over her people [[spoiler:and staves off a peasant revolt]] through her medical skills. The skills themselves aren't supernatural, but then there's all those [[spoiler:cats]]...
369* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: For the most part. Nova is roughly analogous to a mismash of most of Europe, with Borealis basically being Magic Russia, and Shanjia is a unified China with a dash of Japan and Khan-era Mongolia.
370* MeltingPotNomenclature: Includes French (Elodie, Laurent, Armand, Charlotte), English and Irish (Kevan, Briony, Thaddeus, Cayleigh, Bram), German/Scandinavian (Fabian, Erwin, Severin, Astrid), Greek and Latin (Paulus, Corisande, Charmion), Dutch (Lieke). Location names range from Titan (Myth/GreekMythology) to Sedna (Inuit). Nova also uses the British terms for a particular rank, in which women with the title are countesses and men are earls instead of counts.
371* TheMentor:
372** A Lumen-inclined Elodie will have Julianna (or Selene, should she send Julianna away) teaching them in Lumen usage from the start of the game.
373** Should Elodie fuck up really badly, sometimes Arisse will ''force'' Elodie to make her an advisor.
374* MineralMacguffin: Lumens rely on magic crystals for their powers. You need to get yours from the treasury, should you wish to use magic. There's a bit of a RedHerring by [[spoiler:attempting to give a Lumen crystal to one of your more Lumen-inclined relatives, but it doesn't work, as said relative isn't a psychopathic jerk and crystals only match "frequencies" in personality and moral standing. It's un-herringed in a later patch, where you can give her one you won in a duel designed to change the resonance of the loser's crystal.]]
375* MisplacedRetribution: Early in the game a woman tries to poison the Duchess of Mead, blaming her family for her brother's death ten years ago. With enough knowledge of internal affairs Elodie can point out that the likely perpetrator--the Duchess's half-brother and predecessor--is long dead as well, and the Duchess might even have been sympathetic to her case. This prompts the woman to go to prison quietly out of remorse. Later, [[spoiler:if Briony dies, her uncle may blame Elodie on the evidence of Briony writing to her a few times talking about her search for adventure]].
376** If you discover [[spoiler:Lucille's plot, Elodie can choose to murder her and her husband - or EVERYONE in the family, banish everyone, or feed Charlotte to a kraken.]] The dialogue in the latter choice [[SinsOfOurFathers makes it clear she thinks she was in on the plot]].
377** If Elodie decides not to accompany Briony into the forest, the Earl of Io will want Elodie's head for Briony's death, even though it was Briony's idea.
378* MissingMom: Elodie's mother, Queen Fidelia, dies before the beginning of the game--hence Elodie's hasty ascension. A few nobles have this backstory, as well, such as the Duchess of Elath, who apparently had her mother and older sister killed by Sedna spies--then, once she died in childbirth, the same was true of her son.
379* MistakenForCheating: If you both marry [[spoiler:Thaddeus]] and talk down [[spoiler:Togami]], the former will assume you're having an affair with the latter, though he doesn't accuse you so much as storm off to brood. Alternatively, [[spoiler:Banion]] might spread rumors of Elodie having affairs with other nobles, and if precautions aren't taken to prove them wrong then [[spoiler:Thaddeus]] and Elodie will end up divorcing.
380* MistakenForGay: If endgame Elodie [[spoiler:proposes to a non-murderous Kevan without knowing his secret]], she consoles herself after his rejection by noting he doesn't seem interested in ''any'' women. [[spoiler:His exact orientation is left to the imagination, but he's in a relationship with his sister]].
381* TheMistress: [[spoiler:Either Brin, Briony, or Alice]] can become this to Elodie, if Elodie decides to marry after taking a [[GayOption female companion]]. [[spoiler:That's an "if" for Brin, but not for Briony or Alice.]]
382* MoodWhiplash: Just one example: the discussion about provisions for Adair's future if his elderly father dies ends with Adair interrupting to ask for help after spilling punch on his shoes.
383* MundaneUtility: Some of the descriptions for leveling up Elodie's Lumen powers mention this.
384** [[spoiler:50 points in Resist Magic: You gain increased resistance against heat and cold, becoming comfortable in different weather and environments (and able to sip hot soup without burning your tongue!)]]
385* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Banion can play the DoubleStandard in the trope against Elodie at the Ball, in some circumstances. There's no dishonor on him for implying that he's been having sex with an underage girl, but the barb is pointedly aimed to upset Elodie by essentially calling her a slut in public and get her to react. If Elodie can handle it calmly, she can deflect the issue without losing face. Alternatively, if Elodie is engaged to Talarist and invites him to the ball, ''he'' will deny the accusations if he doesn't think Elodie will.
386[[/folder]]
387
388[[folder:N-R]]
389* NaiveEverygirl: Elodie starts off acting like any player would if thrust into her position. [[DecadentCourt Considering where she is]], this is not a particularly good thing.
390* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Can be repeatedly invoked by Elodie, as she claims to do things like [[spoiler:using her cousin as a human sacrifice]] "for the good of Nova." This is the Steam achievement name for such a thing, too.
391* NeverMyFault: Or, more accurately, never ''anyone in my family's fault'', where Kevan is concerned: the woman who attempts to poison his sister is trying to get vigilante justice for her brother, and her claim is justified ([[spoiler:although she's blaming the wrong family member]]), but Kevan will stab her himself if Elodie implies it might be true. If Briony dies, he blames Elodie and will challenge her to a duel in order to publicly kill her. [[spoiler:Briony only tries to get to the Old Capital because her parents have kept her stuck at boarding school for ''years'' because of Kevan, and she thinks coming back with treasure is the only way her parents will let her come home again.]] Even the Duchess of Lillah's second husband gets a break, as he is [[spoiler:referred to as having "seduced" Kevan and had a "relationship" with him, even though virtually everything about the situation indicates it was not consensual.]]
392* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Sinking the Shanjian fleet with synchronized magic wakes up a kraken, which requires either human sacrifice (usually yours) or years of painstaking rituals to keep from going on a rampage that kills hundreds of thousands]].
393* NiceToTheWaiter:
394** The lessons in Court Manners encourage treating servants with respect, as it ensures better service.
395** Generally subverted in the case of Alice. Most interactions Elodie has with her tend to be cruel [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] moments. Even actions that would typically be considered generous or even romantic, like dancing with her at a ball or giving her gifts that were meant for you, add to the [[KarmaMeter Cruelty meter]] as these are more about spiting the nobility in ways that bring unwanted attention to the poor maid.
396* NightmareFetishist: Alice can fall in love with an Elodie who hasn't laid a hand on her (besides dancing with her), usually by way of starting a civil war. Of course, it's not clear whether she is actually in love with Elodie, or simply [[DirtyCoward sucking up to her out of fear]].
397* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:Charlotte may use her fledgling Lumen abilities to save her cousin Elodie from a snakebite. Elodie may repay her by feeding her to a kraken.]] Or in an alternate future for the same character, [[spoiler:she can become a Lumen in the epilogue, heal a dying child in another duchy, and then be ''attacked by a mob and nearly drowned'' in order to purify her of her "witchcraft"]].
398* NonIndicativeName: Oddly enough, you don't unlock the ability to play sports on the weekends by raising any of the "athletic" skills, but by raising Reflexes (under "agility").
399* NonstandardGameOver: While getting Elodie killed is the most obvious way to end the game, there are a few situations where she can get away with her life but not her crown. These include [[spoiler:being turned into a [[PuppetKing a mere figurehead]] by powerful nobles, being forced to abdicate by a peasant revolt and fleeing the country in the face of a foreign invasion]].
400* NoodleImplements: Elodie may receive an anonymous poem describing her committing unspeakable acts with a squid. She can be outraged or [[ActuallyPrettyFunny amused]].
401* NoSocialSkills: Elodie acts reasonable enough for a 14-year-old girl, but unless you level up her skills in the Social category, she will not have the proper manners/tact expected of a queen.
402* NoSparks:
403** How almost all of Elodie's marriages seem to wind up. [[spoiler:The marriage with Adair in particular is always described as "a relationship more like close friends than lovers."]]
404** If [[spoiler:she's unable to have children]], Elodie's delayed marriage to Banion can end up like this. The lack of sparks is so apparent that even guests at the wedding notice the distance between the couple. [[spoiler:This actually is the best ending the two of them can have together without involving his sister, since the narrative describes it as [[MarriageOfConvenience a partnership]] [[PlatonicLifePartners where both are content with their choices]].]]
405* NoSavingThrow: If you [[spoiler:sacrifice Charlotte to the kraken in week 37 without having executed Lucille beforehand, this results in Lucille killing you in week 38 without any way to prevent it via skill check]].
406* NotSoDifferentRemark: Elodie can calm the Earl of Io's rage over his sister's attempted poisoning (as indicated in Briony's subsequent letter) by pointing out the motives of the perpetrator.
407-->'''Elodie''': She acted for the love of her sibling. Surely you can understand that? No one else needs to die.
408* ObviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Togami]] is probably one of the most stereotypical {{big bad}}s ever. RedEyesTakeWarning? Check. WhiteHairBlackHeart? Check. [[EvilWearsBlack Dressed head to toe in black?]] Check, check and double check. [[AffablyEvil Unfailingly polite?]] Check.
409* OccultBlueEyes: Elodie has these, regardless of whether she ends up becoming a Lumen or not, because the potential is all there. [[spoiler:The same can be said for her father.]]
410* OffWithHisHead:
411** If you've maxed out Wield Magic and Resist Magic, and are fast in the reflexes department, this is [[spoiler:Togami's fate if you decide to summon up a magical sword and end the duel.]]
412** If you kill [[spoiler:Togami]], then in the epilogue, after [[spoiler:the Queen of Shanjia's far less conquest-minded ministers try]] to curry favor with Nova, she sends Elodie one of their heads.
413** A cruel Elodie gets to scream it gleefully if she [[spoiler:chooses to execute Banion, should his attempt at a vote of no-confidence fail.]] This is apparently the fate of anyone she executes openly, such as [[spoiler:Brin]] or the diplomat from Ixion.
414* OjouRinglets: Elodie sports a pair, as is befitting her royal status and the game's {{Animesque}} art style.
415* OneStatToRuleThemAll: While the game is prone to suddenly requiring a so-far useless skills to be at a high level, there are a few skills that are consistently an obvious good investment:
416** The entire Conversation skillset, as lacking it can make Elodie be unintentionally rude to the wrong people, get into compromising situations without realizing it (and getting out of some of them gracefully requires even higher Conversation skills) or look incompetent enough to have to face a rebellion.
417** The Military skillset, especially in no-magic runs. There are three different major events that can be dealt with if Elodie's Military skills are good enough, with the last one being inevitable. Military skills not quite good enough to win may still be enough to limit losses or KnowWhenToFoldEm.
418** Composure, as it's often used for keeping Elodie from acting on impulse in situations where doing just that is the worse thing she can do.
419** Reflexes is often checked when it comes to physically doging things that might be otherwise lethal. Even in runs not relying on it, getting it at 30 by Week 3 will accomplish the triple duty of keeping the milk viper from biting anyone in Julianna's absence, not bumping into Alice on a later week and unlocking the only means of making Elodie angry all while leaving the hidden cruelty stat alone that isn't reliant on story events.
420* OnlySaneMan: Arisse, the Duchess of Lillah, is the only sane, non-juvenile member of the catastrophe that is the combined Mead-Lillah ducal family who we know much of anything about. If Elodie proves to be an incompetent and/or tyrannical ruler, she'll be the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] in the entire kingdom.
421* PaletteSwap: Multiple:
422** The portraits of Elodie's aunt Lucille, the Countess of Nix, and her friend Gwenelle's mother Lieke, the Countess of Dis.
423** Most of the Dukes and Duchesses who only appear during a vote of no confidence or other rare circumstances combine the appearances of more prominent characters and change colors around, such as Elodie's uncle Armand, who has Talarist's hair and Joslyn's face and color scheme.
424* ParanoiaFuel: Invoked by a cruel Elodie in the epilogue. Sometimes, she sets those who displease her free so they can spend the next month in a panic waiting for the axe to drop.
425* PassedOverInheritance: Kevan is the oldest of Arisse's children who doesn't already have a duchy by right or marriage, but his relationship with his mother is strained and if she dies she leaves Lillah to his younger half-brother Kiran. This might also be because while Kevan is an earl, Kiran and his younger siblings are entitled to nothing else because their father was a commoner.
426* PassiveAggressiveKombat: With enough Conversation skills, Elodie can engage in this. For example, when driving off a woman making a move on her father, she can compliment her on a brooch--saying that it reminds her of one [[MissingMom her mother used to wear]]. Banion, the Duke of Maree, is also a practitioner; the toast he gives at the ball if he's unhappy with the handling of the Ixion situation drips with so much sarcasm that an insufficiently composed Elodie may be spurred to kill him. A ''sufficiently'' composed Elodie may repay him in kind.
427* PayEvilUntoEvil:
428** Subverted when Elodie can [[spoiler:feed Charlotte to the kraken]] without a high Cruelty score if she discovers that [[spoiler:Charlotte's mother sent her the poisoned chocolates]], in which case she considers it [[DeliberateValuesDissonance part of punishing the family]], even thinking that the seemingly-innocent victim might have been in on the plot ([[spoiler:According to WordOfGod, she wasn't]]). This doesn't horrify her father any less, nor does it make the people of Nova any less unnerved.
429** You can vaporize the assassin sent to kill you during the Festival of the Good Lady - but it's clear that the commoners watching are absolutely horrified.
430** Similarly, when [[spoiler:Kevan, the Earl of Io]] challenges you at the tournament for potentially incredibly flimsy reasons, you can preemptively incinerate him. This is a meta-gamey example, since only the player (possibly from previous painful experience) can know that [[spoiler:he'll attack you whether or not you agree to a duel]]. The audience, with no way to know this, is accordingly appalled.
431** You can choose to execute ''all'' the Shanjian invading force if you [[spoiler:defeat his invasion force at sea.]] Even the low cruelty option is ransoming the rich ones' families.
432* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage:
433** [[spoiler:The Duke of Sedna]] is an interesting case; it's possible to either become engaged to him near the beginning of the game or decide to pursue him after Elodie's coronation (if you didn't burn your bridges), but only in the latter case do you get a description of how well the marriage works instead of how fancy the wedding is.
434** It's implied that Joslyn and Queen Fidelia (Elodie's parents) were this, as Joslyn doesn't really seem to ever get over her death. He ''can'' remarry, but it's more a duty thing than anything else. It may have even been a love match to begin with.
435** Surprisingly, this can happen with [[spoiler:Arisse's son, Thaddeus, whom Elodie will be forced to marry if she upsets the nobility enough and doesn't want to fight a civil war. If you've made the right choices to avert any public scandals, the two enjoy a peaceful marriage. If Elodie has a secret affair with Banion, she gives birth to a son whom ''everyone'' suspects was fathered by him, but Thaddeus is a very loving and protective father to the boy regardless.]]
436* ThePerformerKing: Elodie can be trained as one. She can potentially win the music contest at the tournament, and there's an ending where she can [[spoiler:talk an invading overlord into calling off his armies]] by singing to him.
437* PersonalityPowers: Lumens in general, for those whose powers get much description. Elodie's are light-based with a bit of a moon theme, Selene has water-related powers, Julianna has earth magic, and Charlotte has an innate healing power even without being a Lumen herself. [[spoiler:The murderer who strangled his wife has magic chains, befitting a criminal, and Lucille has power over absence, and uses it to cancel Elodie's voice if confronted on it, and secretly uses it to render her infertile if Elodie doesn't marry in one of the epilogues.]]
438* PimpedOutDress: Onscreen, Elodie's Royal Coronet outfit. In one ending, [[spoiler:Elodie asserts her dominance at her wedding to the Duke of Maree by wearing one while dressing ''him'' in a ballet outfit]].
439* PlotTriggeringDeath: Elodie's mother's death starts off the entire plot.
440* PoliceAreUseless: If pressed, your Lumen mentor will coldly monologue about the importance of Lumens to the safety of Nova and how Elodie is merely a mortal queen, while Lumens owe allegiance to magic and Nova itself, and much ado is made of Julianna choosing to accept the disgrace of being a Lumen for the greater good. Unfortunately, outside of the milk viper incident within the first few weeks of the game and the Lumen lessons themselves, your mentor will never actually help you of her own volition again, and if she does, it's because you've alerted her to a danger that she would otherwise not have noticed. [[spoiler: This is especially jarring for Julianna, who feels responsible for Fidelia's death because she wasn't there to prevent it, but will actually be in the castle during most of the magical attacks on Elodie and do absolutely nothing to help, including letting Togami kill Joslyn (even though she's a skilled swordswoman and powerful Lumen combatant, the exact same skills Elodie needs to win that battle) so that he'll take Joslyn's crystal and leave Nova alone.]] In a greater sense, the cycle of magical tragedies (and the reason Lumens are so poorly regarded in general) are because of the tendency for power-hungry Lumens to be useless as protectors of anyone but themselves.
441* PoliticallyActivePrincess: Elodie has political responsibilities thrust upon her in any case, but she can be ''good'' at it with skills like Intrigue, Royal Demeanor, and Conversation. Attending royal court as a weekend activity counts a little, as well, though it has no actual effect on the politics of the world.
442* {{Polyamory}}: Implied to be the result of [[spoiler:Elodie marrying Banion in order to get closer to Brin, assuming Brin doesn't end up married to Joslyn]]. The other nobles joke that Elodie married both of them, all three are noted to have a close relationship, and in some circumstances [[spoiler:Brin adopts Banion's son, from before his marriage to Elodie, as her own heir]].
443* PoorCommunicationKills:
444** Julianna, despite being Elodie's mentor, never tells her anything. If you haven't discovered that [[spoiler:Selene is a Lumen]], she won't mention it, even when that fact is [[IdiotBall literally a matter of survival for Nova and the Queen]]. What's more, Julianna will threaten Elodie over it. Ouch.
445** Elodie apparently neglects to mention to her mentor that [[spoiler:her aunt tried to kill her in a Lumen battle]] for over a week, by which time the aftereffects have killed an innocent bystander. [[spoiler: And if that mentor is Julianna, she will have ''attended the ball'' and presumably be among the unsettled nobles.]]
446* PortentOfDoom: The Divination skill allows Elodie to identify these and react accordingly.
447* PostClimaxConfrontation: The climax of the game and the final mandatory confrontation is [[spoiler:the Shanjian invasion]], but there are still a few final opportunities for Elodie to lose her life or her crown depending on her choices - [[spoiler:the kraken, Lucille, and a peasant revolt]].
448* PowerCrystal: Lumens are empowered by special stones called Lumen Crystals. Whether or not Elodie chooses to recover the Lumen Crystal passed down from her mother has a big effect on how the plot can unfold.
449* ThePowerOfRock: [[spoiler:The BigBad used to be a musician. The only non-lethal way you're going to get out of the duel with him is by singing - and you need a damn good amount of training to instill a change of heart in him.]] Foreshadowed somewhat in that the music competition is one of the few tournament categories you can actually win, suggesting that a fully-trained Elodie is truly exceptional (as opposed to just good for a fourteen-year-old).
450* PrettyPrincessPowerhouse: Elodie is cute little pink-haired princess, with several (skill boosting) outfits to choose from. These skills can include Weaponry, Athleticism, Military, and Lumen, and she can use them for things like [[spoiler:fighting Togami in a duel]] or [[spoiler:personally leading her naval fleet]]. Being a young crown princess in training for the throne doesn't mean Elodie can't tackle certain threats with a head-on approach. Solving issues with her military, magic, and weapon skills is the clearest example, although with the right training, Elodie can be a GuileHeroine who unflinchingly talks down those who want her dead.
451* PrimalScene: [[spoiler:Played for trauma in one of Kevan's marriage endings, which reveals that his younger half-brother Thaddeus walked in on him in flagrante delicto with his stepfather. Foreshadowed in a different story path when their mother mentions Thaddeus saw something unspecified as a child, which she blames for his current rebellious nature.]]
452* PrincessesPreferPink: Elodie wears a few pink outfits.
453* PrincessProtagonist: The art style seems to invoke this as a bright point, but the game ultimately [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] it. Elodie may get to live in the lap of luxury, wear pretty clothes, and select from a large pool of willing bachelors, but her royal status also makes her life incredibly difficult. She has to make many hard political decisions, navigate through the DecadentCourt, avoid frequent attempts on her life, and at times sacrifice her own happiness for the greater good. And that's if she doesn't decide to abuse her power.
454* PrincessesRule: Elodie is Crown Princess until she comes of age, but in the meantime she's tasked with things like approving loans and judging criminal cases. This is a plot point in certain interactions with her father, the King Dowager, who reminds her that she's not the queen yet when [[spoiler:she asks after her mother's Lumen crystal or protests him taking her place in the duel with Togami]].
455* PsychicPowers: Really advanced [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers Meditation]] unlocks a low-level ESP sense in Elodie, allowing her to see with her eyes closed and sense what's happening in nearby rooms.
456* PsychoticSmirk:
457** [[http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131124180307/longlivethequeen/images/5/5b/Willful.png Elodie, when she's in a Willful mood.]] She'll also wear it during certain cruel actions - the worst is [[spoiler:when she orders Charlotte fed to the kraken.]]
458** Togami's smug-ass smirk that he's ''always'' wearing.
459* PublicDomainSoundtrack:
460** The title screen music is "God Save the King", which was known as "God Save the Queen" for the first decade of the game's existence. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Because no one else will.]]
461** The tune used for deaths is, quite appropriately, Chopin's Funeral March.
462* PuppetQueen: [[spoiler:The Duke of Maree and/or the Duchess of Lillah]] can try to make Elodie into one, which leads to NonStandardGameOver if they managed to succeed.
463* PyrrhicVictory:
464** In a naval battle, it is possible to join with two or more other Lumens and use magic to inflict heavy losses on the enemy fleet (if not outright sink it). If Elodie is not adept enough in wielding magic, her ship is forced to get closer first. At this point, with four magic users on your ship, ''winning'' the next magic check knocks back the fleet but leads to a freak wave. This kills you instantly, and other than bringing only moderate magical force (or a less experienced Elodie), this can't be avoided.
465** Using a massive Lumen attack to completely demolish the invading fleet [[spoiler:awakens a kraken that destroys shoreside populations, fills the shore up with wreckage, and knocks out shipping routes.]] The only way to stop it is either [[spoiler:spend time and resources undertaking a very costly and dangerous ritual that requires precision and massive concentration, sacrificing Elodie (which obviously disrupts the Novan government), or sacrificing her cousin (which results in well-deserved rumors that smear Elodie's reputation all through her reign).]]
466** Should your father [[spoiler:fight Togami in your stead and with Lumen magic]], he ''can'' survive... at the cost of becoming physically and mentally handicapped.
467** Should Shanjia go on to invade Borealis, a land known for its Lumen, [[spoiler:to continue Togami's gathering of crystals, Foreign Affairs will heavily imply it'll be for naught - all "Lumen Shamans" are cons who use mundane illusions and sleight of hand to keep up appearances.]]
468** If Elodie refuses to engage in the magical duel and Selene is her tutor, she'll be told that the best course of action is to [[spoiler:combine her powers with those of Selene and Julianna to trigger a ''massive earthquake'' to destroy Togami and his army]]. While a sufficiently skilled Elodie will pull this off successfully and kill her target, [[spoiler:the earthquake causes extensive damage to her own lands, especially Caloris, where monsters from the Old Forest are now running amok]]. The narration itself suggests this victory is worse than a loss.
469* RageAgainstTheMentor: The Duchess of Ursul tends to dispense information on a need-to-know basis; she doesn't even tell Elodie that [[spoiler:the palace priestess is also a Lumen]]. Elodie angrily orders her to explain if there are any other Lumen besides her and [[spoiler:said priestess]].
470* RagsToRiches: [[spoiler:Togami]] was once a lowly court musician who only rose to power after marrying the Queen. [[spoiler:This information is vital if you want to defuse the Shanjian debacle without anyone important dying.]]
471* ReallyGetsAround: If Elodie is cruel enough, she can refuse to marry anyone in the end and just take whatever lovers she chooses, discarding them when they become boring. If Elodie punished Brin in any way and agrees to dance with Banion in the ball after insinuating that he and Elodie have a relationship, she flat out tells Banion that she's allowed to pick and choose whoever she likes, though this is an empty threat if your Elodie isn't cruel enough.
472* RealWomenNeverWearDresses: Averted. As one review put it, "You can't make a successful [[Series/GameOfThrones Arya]] without adding a little Sansa".
473* RebelliousPrincess:
474** Depending on choices and how many points of Willfulness you accumulate, Elodie can become one.
475--->'''Elodie''': I don't care what anyone thinks. I'm the princess and I want my jewelry.
476** Briony is the heir to the duchy of Mead, and is sick and tired of her parents' bickering and over-protectiveness of her, asking for Elodie to help her run away from home and go on an adventure in the Old Capital. [[spoiler:It turns out that's all due to a skeleton in their family's closet that her mother is desperate to protect her from.]] It's also deconstructed in that [[spoiler:if Elodie can't get her through the forest or prevent her from going in the first place, she is killed]].
477* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[spoiler:Togami.]] But averted with [[spoiler:Charlotte]], who is sweeter than even a non-cruel Elodie and isn't involved in [[spoiler:her mother's assassination plot on Elodie]], although the fact that [[spoiler:she can inherit Togami's Lumen crystal]] makes one wonder...
478* RegentForLife: Inverted--Elodie isn't technically queen until her fifteenth birthday, but her father still leaves nearly all major decisions to her, the major exception being access to her mother's Lumen crystal--and once Elodie acquires it, he doesn't do much about it besides look reproachful when she [[spoiler:uses it to threaten Ixion]] or [[spoiler:supposedly become partially estranged from her, should Julianna or Selene have to murder the guards.]]
479* RescueRomance: Rescuing [[spoiler:Briony from a tentacle monster]] can lead to this. According to the game, being rescued is the most romantic thing to happen to her.
480* RomancingTheWidow: Attempted by a number of women with Joslyn, the King Dowager and Duke of Caloris. He's generally uninterested, but may still marry again to produce a heir for the duchy (since Elodie, as queen, can't also succeed him as the Duchess of Caloris).
481* RoyalBrat: If you so choose, Elodie can be a real piece of work, ranging from beating your maid for something your fault, to [[spoiler:slaying your father and going on a Shanjian-sanctioned rampage throughout Shanjia's countryside.]]
482* RoyalWe: Elodie uses it on several occasions, i.e. "We are not interested" and "We must be circumspect."
483* RulingFamilyMassacre: Two of these are possible if certain decisions are made:
484** [[spoiler:Togami is reponsible for Fidelia's death, and if Elodie is completely unprepared for the invasion, he'll kill Joslyn when he duels in Elodie's place, and then kill Elodie herself when she snaps and attacks him in a rage.]]
485** [[spoiler:If Elodie finds out that Lucille is plotting to kill her, she can execute the entire Mervan ducal family, young children included. Merva will rebel in response to this, resulting in either Elodie destroying most of the territory, or Merva and Nova mutually pretending the other doesn't exist.]]
486[[/folder]]
487
488[[folder:S-Y]]
489* SadisticChoice: All of your options for dealing with [[spoiler:the Shanjian invasion. Out of all the conflicts that can occur in the story, this is the one that absolutely cannot be avoided, no matter what; and no matter how you choose to deal with it, there will be casualties.]]
490** [[spoiler:Defeating them in battle is an ''extremely'' difficult GuideDangIt; if successful, Nova is safe for the time being, but the Shanjians will certainly return for revenge one day. If you lose, you will be confronted by their king, Togami, face to face. Kill him in a magic duel, and his remaining troops loot the countryside and slaughter countless innocents - plus you gain a very dangerous enemy in his now widowed and ''absolutely enraged'' queen. If your magic isn't strong enough, he kills you. If you have no magic at all because you refused your crystal, your father will fight instead, and will either die, or be left with permanent brain damage. There ''is'' one way to resolve the encounter peacefully and form an uneasy friendship with the Shanjians, but doing so is another GuideDangIt that requires you to pass a number of very difficult skill checks, and a good chunk of lives were still lost in the battle that preceded it.]]
491** [[spoiler: Alternatively, you can avoid dealing with them altogether by using magic to annihilate their entire fleet before it can make landfall - at the cost of awakening an infinitely more more deadly EldritchAbomination from the ocean floor. Then, you must either appease the monster by sacrificing either yourself or your cousin, or you must freeze it in tracks with a very difficult and costly magic ritual that must be renewed on a weekly basis.]]
492** [[spoiler: If Selene is your Lumen mentor, rather than Julianna, you won't be able to sink their ships; instead, you will be presented with the option of using a magic ritual to set off an enormous earthquake directly under the invaders' camp. It succeeds in killing Togami and shattering most of the Shanjian army - [[PyrrhicVictory but also causes devastating damage to nearby lands, leaving many towns and villages in ruins]]. Your treasury takes a huge hit from the cost of rebuilding, as does your popularity from the loss of innocent life.]]
493* SatelliteLoveInterest: Since the game is far more about politicking than romance, we know little about most of Elodie's marriage prospects beyond rank and family background and, accordingly, what they would bring to an alliance.
494* SarcasmMode: If you choose to accompany Briony to the Old Capital, the game's narration touts Briony and Elodie's common sense and how two little girls will be a match for hideous creatures responsible for nearly bringing about the fall of the Novan empire long ago.
495-->There is no guard around the borders of the Old Forest. There isn't any need for one. Caloris has soaked in lore until the stain is permanent; even an illiterate fisher-child knows better.\
496But you are young and innocent, brave and strong. True heroes.
497* SaveGameLimits: The number of save slots appears to be effectively infinite, being listed in groups of 8, with more than 1000 possible slots. Saves can be made mid-conversation.
498* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:One possible fate for the Kraken is to be periodically sealed away in a costly ritual that has to be done every month for a few years.]]
499* SexSlave: Implied in one ending. [[spoiler:If sufficiently intimidated by Elodie's cruelty, Alice the maid gets coerced into being the queen's lover, and is especially envied for the jeweled collar that she's required to wear.]]
500* ShootTheDog: Multiple:
501** Elodie can prevent a civil war at one point by having a traitor poisoned.
502** Julianna or Selene will suggest killing Elodie's treasury guards to gain access to Elodie's Lumen crystal if Elodie can't get it peacefully. Julianna is more tactful about suggesting "drastic measures" than Selene is, and either way, Elodie is extremely reluctant to carry it out.
503** Elodie can have [[spoiler:Lucille's]] entire family executed for her treachery - [[spoiler:including Charlotte and the underaged children]].
504** Elodie can abandon Briony during their ill-fated trip into the Old Capital to save her own life.
505** One of the ways of appeasing Ixion is [[spoiler:executing Brin.]]
506* ShoutOut:
507** The Steam achievement for [[YetAnotherStupidDeath getting your very first death]] is [[VideoGame/SpaceQuest Congratulations on your Recent Demise]].
508** The Lumen power-up sequence is a clear nod to ''Anime/SailorMoon''. If Julianna and Selene openly marry, the ending slide you get is Briony in a Sailor outfit, and Julianna and Selene themselves echo back to Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who also had earth-shaking and ocean-based powers and a TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic. In addition, the duchies that their crystals belong to, Ursul and [[spoiler:Mazomba]] are named after Ursula and [[spoiler:Mazomba]]: a crater on Uranus's moon Titania and [[spoiler:a crater on Neptune's moon Triton]], respectively.
509** The rulers of Shanjia are named [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Togami and Junko.]]
510** The ending slide if [[spoiler:Elodie skimps on her coronation feast]] is based on a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khodynka_Tragedy historical disaster at the coronation of Nicholas II of Russia]].
511** The trading card you get for a drowned Elodie on the Steam version reads [[Creator/EdwardGorey E is for Elodie, who sleeps with the fishes.]]
512** Elodie's activation phrase when bonding with her crystal under Selene's instruction: "[[Film/PeterPan I do believe in magic. I do]]."
513** The background figure King Latimer, whose "gathering light" led to the growth of the Novan empire, shares his name with a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Latimer Protestant martyr]] who was burned for heresy and whose last words also involved light.
514** The Steam achievement for poisoning a chicken is called "An Ex Chicken", after the Creator/MontyPython sketch that uses the same terminology while talking about its titular dead parrot.
515* SiblingTriangle: Banion and Brin were caught in one of these when Banion tried to court Julianna -- who then proceeded to date his sister without him even realizing it. Elodie can get in on this too if she stays on both siblings' good sides, although the amount of interest she keeps in Banion can vary.
516* SilkHidingSteel: One way for Elodie to survive till her coronation is to become this. It's particularly encouraged by the fact that one needs to be in a Yielding mood for best results when developing the Royal Demeanor skill, which includes such traits as Composure and Presence. However, naked steel works too.
517* SketchySuccessor: This can be played straight or averted in the end, depending on how you play, but Elodie definitely starts out like this. She seems to have had no education whatsoever in the art of running a kingdom prior to the beginning of the game, starting out with absolutely zero of the required skills - even though many of those skills, i.e court manners, military leadership, basic economics, and the history of her kingdom are things that a crown princess ''should'' have been taught since birth.
518* SmolderingShoes: Blasting [[spoiler:Kevan, Earl of Io]] with magic when he challenges Elodie leaves just his sword falling beside his dueling gauntlet. It's either this or a GoryDiscretionShot.
519* SorcerousOverlord: Julianna wants to turn Elodie into this. [[spoiler:[[TheEvilPrince Lucille]] wants to turn Charlotte into this. Togami, King of Shanjia, already is.]]
520* StellarName: Many of the locations in Nova are named after impact craters or satellites in our solar system, while Nova itself is named after the stellar phenomenon.
521** Earldoms / counties: moons include Nix (Lucille), Dysnomia (Brin), Io (Kevan), Titan (Fabian) and Callisto/Miranda (Sirin). Ishtar (Erwin, Adair's maternal grandfather) is named after an asteroid. Serenitatis (Banion) is named after an impact plain on Earth's own moon.
522** Duchies are more often craters: Caloris (Joslyn), Mazomba (Armand), Mead (Corisande), Hellas (Brin), Elath (Adair) and Sudbury (Gwenelle). Sedna (Talarist) is named after a celestial object and located in a different country than the rest.
523* SuccessionCrisis:
524** A two-stage one occurs regarding Elath. First, the father of the twelve-year-old Duke of Elath dies a natural death of age, and Elodie has to determine who becomes effective regent for one of the most important duchies in Nova. If you screw this decision up, then the young Duke will be assassinated. His next of kin is Talarist, the Duke of Sedna in Talasse, and agents of Talasse are likely responsible for his death as well as the earlier deaths of the rest of his family in Nova. Elodie may choose to give the duchy to a Novan instead, whereupon Talarist sends in an army.
525** Several more seem in the offing. The ducal families are tightly intermarried, with few cadet branches, and titles have tended to pool - most notable are the siblings Banion and Brin, who each hold a duchy and an earldom/county. They're both over thirty, unmarried with no acknowledged children, and their only known heirs are their BlackSheep brother Bennett and his young son. [[spoiler:If both of them die, Bennett takes Brin's duchy and his son takes Banion's - and since a noble of Nova can't hold two duchies at once, Bennett will need to have another child to inherit Hellas or else play further succession ping-pong with Anciet's potential children]]. Then there's the brothers who hold the duchies of Caloris and Mazomba - Armand is a bachelor and Joslyn is a widower who has one daughter who can't succeed him as the duchess because she's already the crown princess. [[spoiler:If Joslyn dies, since neither Armand nor Elodie are eligible to succeed him, the options are one claimant who ''might'' be his illegitimate son, his brother-in-law, or someone with no mentioned relation to him whatsoever]].
526* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Being the child of a Lumen doesn't make you a Lumen, but the potential to become one once provided with a crystal runs in families and very small powers can turn up beforehand [[spoiler:if one parent is already a Lumen by the time her child is born, and the other parent is a ''potential'' Lumen]] -- Charlotte has HealingHands, and Elodie starts to emit light once she's skilled enough in meditation.
527* TakeAThirdOption: Extra options to difficult choices often show up thanks to passed skill checks:
528** Enough Flattery allows to mediate between Elodie's best friend and her mother without taking a side. It doesn't solve their tensions, but it does help take the heat off Elodie, since the rest of the nobility is watching ''very'' carefully to see where Elodie's sympathies lie.
529** Deciding the custody battle over the underage Duke of Elath by placing him with his beloved stepsister instead of his stepmother, who already holds perhaps excessive political influence, or his grandfather, who can't protect him. The stepsister only becomes an option if Elodie has enough Divination to realize that the elderly Duke-regent is going to die soon and ask for his input on the matter. There's another "third option", which is always available, of placing him with Elodie's paternal uncle, but this is more likely to anger his stepmother.
530** Enough Internal Affairs allows to inquire further into the allegations of an attempted murderer who claims her act was justified, as revenge for her brother. If Elodie shows her mercy, her victim's relatives will be angry, and being nobles, Elodie lose support; if Elodie tries to punish her ''she'' goes berserk and ends up dead; if Elodie clumsily insults her accuser he'll kill her himself. Only an Elodie with enough knowledge ''and'' enough etiquette can resolve the situation without damage.
531** After [[spoiler:Togami]] storms the palace, instead of taking part in the WizardDuel he proposes, Elodie can instead reason with him through song. This being an option requires enough Foreign Intelligence to know of the aspect of his background that makes it a viable solution. [[spoiler:Noticeably, this is the ONLY option that leaves everyone except the initial military losses alive AND leaves Nova in a stable, if not improved, political state.]]
532** If you [[spoiler:accidentally summon the kraken due to wiping out the Shanjia fleet via magic]], you will either have to sacrifice yourself or take a costly and ''very'' risky ritual that will take seven years to complete. [[spoiler:If you know Charlotte is a Lumen and are either high in cruelty or found out about her mother's attempts on your life, you can sacrifice her, instead.]]
533* TangledFamilyTree:
534** Some of the noble families come across this way due to their tendency to intermarry. See EveryoneIsRelated above.
535** Elodie herself can get in on the act if she has a lesbian relationship with Brin. To facilitate this union and provide heirs for their respective titles; Elodie can marry Brin's brother, Banion - while Brin marries Elodie's father, Jocelyn. This results in making Brin and Jocelyn's son Elodie's half-brother, nephew and pseudo-stepson all rolled into one.
536* TeenPregnancy: A number of cases, given that this is a medievalish society with a relatively low age of majority. A bit of calculation shows that the Duchess of Lillah was about seventeen at the birth of her eldest child, and Joslyn was about nineteen at the birth of Elodie (though we don't know how old Fidelia was[[labelnote:Speculation]]We do know that she has a brother, Laurent, whose age is given. Assuming Nova runs on absolute primogeniture - oldest child inherits most senior title, regardless of gender - we can assume that Fidelia would have to be at least nine months older than 19, which is the age Uncle Laurent was when Elodie was born[[/labelnote]]). Cayleigh, the Duchess of Elath, was also seventeen at her DeathByChildbirth, but it's noted that her father pushed her into it and it's considered unusual to marry so young unless the succession is at stake (as with Cayleigh and Elodie); it's implied that her father and her husband still blame each other for her death. Possibly the youngest instance in the game is Charmion, the Duchess-Consort of Kigal; the listing in her mother's biography implies she's younger than her thirty-three-year-old brother Kevan, and her oldest child is seventeen.
537** In the epilogues where Elodie has children, it usually isn't clearly stated exactly ''when'' they come along, though it is more than likely that she does give birth to her first child before she's twenty. [[spoiler:One ending where this definitely ''does'' happen occurs if Elodie executes Banion's sister, and then later decides to marry him - he gets her pregnant almost immediately after their wedding, but then poisons her, rendering her bedridden and incapable of ruling. When Elodie gives birth, he takes the baby from her and names her after his late sister.]]
538** If Lucille survives to the end of the game, she may try to advise Elodie not to marry too soon, citing the risks of giving birth at a very young age... [[spoiler:but this is really just [[BitchInSheepsClothing a ruse so she can poison Elodie and make her barren,]] ensuring her daughter Charlotte will remain Elodie's heir presumptive.]]
539** Played straight for Elodie, with realistic consequences, in another epilogue. [[spoiler:If Talarist becomes the duke of Elath, and Elodie chooses to marry him, she uses herbal fertility treatments in order to provide heirs to the duchy and the kingdom as soon as possible. She quickly conceives twin girls, but giving birth at such a young age, especially to twins, nearly kills her, and permanently damages her health.]]
540* TenderTears: While [[spoiler:attempting to talk down Togami]] Elodie is moved to tears after recalling all the happy memories about her mother.
541* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Swords, arrows, poisonings, bumps on the head, monster attacks... there's nearly a dozen ways for Elodie to meet her end here.
542* ThereAreNoTherapists: Just lost your mother? Been subjected to numerous assassination attempts? Had several people attempt to coerce you into marriage? Fended off two foreign invasions, and possibly a civil war? Have been ''extremely'' poorly prepared for the task of running a country? Well, too bad. You're the heir to throne, and now you have a Queen's responsibilities, like it or not. Considering the medievalish setting and state of healthcare available in Nova, this is [[JustifiedTrope hardly]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance surprising]].
543* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: If you refuse the duel at the tournament and dodge the first subsequent attack, your challenger will be promptly pincushioned with arrows by the skilled archers attending.
544* ThickerThanWater: This is the case for the remaining members of the [[BigScrewedUpFamily Lillah-Mead ducal family]]. Kevan of Io is AxCrazy about it, while the other members are relatively more sensible, and [[spoiler:Arisse abandoned it on two occasions when her husband and stepson needed to be put down -- though one could argue that even this still fits, as by sacrificing them she would have been keeping them from dragging the rest of the family down as well. Elodie can also force Arisse and her two elder daughters to leave Nova by threatening Briony, if her reputation for cruelty is bad enough for it to be plausible]].
545* ThreesomeSubtext: If Elodie shows interest in both Brin ''and'' Banion, and decides to marry Banion, it's noted she spends a lot of time with not only Banion, but Brin. Then there's the ending where the King marries Brin...
546* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: Possible to both do this and have it be done to you. [[spoiler:Namely, to the Duke of Maree and from the Earl of Io.]]
547* TilMurderDoUsPart: [[spoiler: In one epilogue (if she is killed during the Royal Ball), Lucille's coded journals are recovered. In them, it's revealed that she planned to kill both Elodie and her husband - the only two people who are directly related to the late Queen Fidelia - to secure Charlotte's claim to the throne.]]
548* TitleDrop: Shouted by the assembled crowd of citizens, once you actually make it to the coronation, to which Elodie replies, "Thank you! I will!"
549* TooDumbToLive:
550** Quite a few of Elodie's deaths are caused by her simply not knowing that whatever she's trying to do is exactly the ''wrong'' thing for that situation. Since most of these are based on skill checks, this can be averted on a case-by-case basis depending on how the player has been guiding her education.
551** If an assassin comes at you during the Nova-sponsored tournament, he may try attacking you after the Archery tournament. Should you block his attack, he is turned into a pincushion by every archer present.
552** Everything about Elodie and Briony's trip into the Old Capital. Bumbling into a monster infested forest from which no one has ever returned? "True heroes", indeed.
553** Should you receive chocolates and have sufficiently leveled skills, you can found out any of the following: that the company that sent it used a very unusual trade route based on its location, that it uses an suspicious level of etiquette for a company of its size, that it shouldn't be a chocolates company based on its location, that the company most likely doesn't exist, that there was an omen of death and your dog growling and barking at said chocolate. And, if you're leveled enough, you can get them all at once. ''You can still eat them anyway.''
554* ToughLeaderFacade: Elodie is a young girl who has just had the responsibility of ruling an entire country thrust upon her well before anyone expected her to be ready for the task, least of all Elodie herself. The mood swings she experiences are important for players to consider, given that her attitude affects how well she does in her weekly classes.
555* ATragedyOfImpulsiveness: Bad things, including some of Elodie's deaths, can happen because of failed Composure checks, which evaluate her ability to stay calm in a crisis. This can cause Elodie to automatically [[spoiler:eat the poisoned chocolate if she has none of the other skills that will make her suspicious of it; merely postponing eating it will save her life, as it will result in a servant with a sweet tooth getting to it first]]. The skill also needs to be quite high to prevent a HeroicSacrifice from being AllForNothing.
556* TranquilFury: If you decide to [[ForTheEvulz order the guards to stab an imprisoned Julianna]], Julianna's only change in expression is opening her eyes to glance coldly in your direction before [[spoiler:golden chains of light choke you to death.]]
557* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Inherent in the nature of the game, since you won't know what to prepare for on your first playthrough, but the sequence where [[spoiler:you and Briony explore the old forest together]] requires practically perfect decision-making from the first week in order to get out of alive.
558* TrickedToDeath: Elodie may be sent [[spoiler: poisoned chocolates and die from eating them]] if she lacks the skills required to realize that there's something suspicious.
559* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Consistent acts of cruelty will turn Elodie into a truly vicious little sociopath. See the entry under Videogame Cruelty Potential for some of the specifics.
560* UndyingLoyalty: Training your falconry skill to max level turns your falcon into a truely badass animal who is like this. Then participating in the falconry contest gets you some praise but not much else. [[spoiler:The real boon here is that in case you get challenged to a duel, your falcon will proceed to hack away at the attacker and save your life. We are talking about an earl in plate armour here who is almost impossible to kill with magic.]]
561** [[spoiler: Kevan, the Earl of Io]] becomes desperately loyal to Elodie if she successfully romances him. It's only in the epilogue so we don't see it tested, but he's very clear on how he'd die if anything should happen to her.
562* TheUnfavorite: Ignatius of Ursul, who was passed over for inheritance in favor of Julianna.
563* {{Unperson}}: [[spoiler:Will happen to Elodie, if she joins Togami. Elodie's black-hearted, evil actions will cause her to be stricken from the records and her name to be forbidden from ever being spoken of ever again.]]
564* VerticalKidnapping: Should you and Briony venture into the Old Forest, the first sign of everything going FUBAR is Briony not answering when Elodie asks her something... [[spoiler:and Elodie turns to find Briony pinned to a tree by a swarm of black tentacles.]]
565* VestigialEmpire: According to history lessons, Nova used to be much larger and more powerful under the command of its Lumen nobility. However, even though it's not all that it used to be, Nova is not a weak realm, and if Elodie makes it to the throne, she can start working on [[ResurgentEmpire inverting this trope]].
566* ViciousCycle: High levels in History and Lore reveal that [[spoiler:there have been multiple "cycles" of Lumen rulers becoming too conceited with their own powers and eventually causing a great disaster, which forces humanity to migrate to a new land and anti-Lumen sentiment to reach fever pitch. This anti-Lumen movement would inevitably destroy all existing knowledge of Lumen magic... including any information on what led to the initial disaster, setting the stage for future Lumens to repeat past mistakes]]. If Elodie becomes Queen after discovering this, then [[spoiler:she takes measures to preserve and spread this knowledge with the hope of preventing the cycle from continuing]].
567* VideoGameCaringPotential : Even with Elodie being surrounded by DecadentCourt who wants her dead/overthrown/puppeted and [[spoiler: foreign invasion looming on the horizon]], it's still perfectly possible to make morally right choices (with enough amount of supporting stats of course) that not only save her life/crown but also improving her legtimacy and Nova's living standards. This includes [[spoiler: solving the territorial dispute with Ixion peacefully, investing on technological breakthrough such as printing press and centralized healthcare, make a fair judgment that the culprit willingly accept imprisonment while appeasing Kevan, sanctioning pro-Lumen materials to improve their image among people, recruiting Lucille as Lumen Minister (appeasing her enough that she will stop further attempts on Elodie's life), bonding with Adair if he was chosen as future husband and live in the castle, sending emergency aid to the people when Talarist causing trade disruption and shortages, heals the wounded rebel soldiers after the civil war and earning back their loyalty, convincing Kevan to stop his (possibly unjustified) rage and sparing his life, successfully convince Togami to stop his conquest by singing to him.]]
568* VideogameCrueltyPotential:
569** Among other things, you can [[spoiler:force a woman into marriage, abuse the servants, ramp up punishments in hopes of discouraging assassination attempts, order your uncle executed on highly circumstantial evidence, imprison Julianna for life on the assumption she had something to do with your mother's death and then start a massive manhunt for her, reduce the Duchess of Mead to tears by blaming her for her daughter's death ''after'' deliberately sending her daughter into a monster-ridden forest alone, immolate her brother with magic after he calls you out (in the case where he's ''right'' in assuming that you're responsible for Briony's death), have your father killed so you can abandon your kingdom and go on a gleeful murder spree through a foreign country, deliberately set up the last remaining heir of a bloodline in a dangerous situation after being told not to, brag to a young orphan and your ''future husband'' that you executed his stepmother for leading a rebellion, make Thaddeus a cuckold right after doing a playthrough revealing the reason [[PrimalScene why he's mentally damaged]] and him have to deal with rumors that him and Elodie's son probably belongs to her smug ex-fiance and feed your cousin to a kraken--or order your uncle, aunt, and ''all'' your young cousins executed for your aunt's treason.]] This is even integrated into the game: there's a hidden Cruelty stat that measures just how nasty Elodie has become.
570** If you take Elodie hunting at the weekend while she is in an Angry mood, the game [[LemonyNarrator describes you taking your anger out on poor woodland creatures.]] Similarly, if she already has high cruelty when visiting the dungeons, she'll poke the prisoners with a stick. Which raises her cruelty even more.
571* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment:
572** If you are stupid enough to [[spoiler:have Charlotte sacrificed to the kraken and you have her mother as Lumen Minister]], you deserve what's coming to you.
573** Attempting to execute [[spoiler:Julianna]] if you've tossed her in the dungeons is a quick way of killing yourself.
574** Two minor ones: [[spoiler:murdering Lucille's entire family causes Merva to secede from Nova, but Nova and Queen Elodie can't give less of a damn. Having Charlotte sacrificed enforces anti-Lumen paranoia and damages Elodie's reputation as being a blood-sucking Lumen witch, but the ending doesn't go into much detail beyond that.]]
575** If you've been a shitty ruler and/or executed a member of the nobility, you will most likely face a vote of no confidence AND a civil war, either of which might lose the game for you.
576** Choosing to ramp up punishments, while increasing cruelty stat, [[spoiler:will not prevent assassination attempts by Lucille in week 28 and 32 ''at all''.]]
577* VirtualPaperDoll: You unlock new outfits by raising related skills. This isn't just a CosmeticAward; those outfits do give potentially-vital stat bonuses.
578* WakeUpCallBoss: The bandit attack that occurs [[spoiler:on the road to the party in Sudbury]] is what kills most first-time players. While it can be easily skipped through a simple choice, the death checks only ratchet up from this point on.
579* WeakButSkilled: No matter how good Elodie is, there's no way that she can [[spoiler:defeat Togami in a contest of pure magical power.]] She can, however, be more cunning than he is and defeat him by using her skills to the fullest.
580* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: You can express interest in marrying [[spoiler:Kevan, the Earl of Io]] despite, depending on story paths, your awareness of [[spoiler:his incestuous relationship with his sister/his attempt to kill you/having cut someone's throat in front of your eyes]]. Oh, and his crippling anger issues. If he's [[spoiler:tried to kill you]], [[spoiler:he tries again on your wedding day]]. If you know about [[spoiler:the incest]], which is mutually exclusive with the other path, his niece thinks it's a terrible idea but goes along with it [[spoiler:so he'll no longer be physically close to her mother]]; it actually works out fairly well.
581* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
582** In an unpatched game, [[spoiler:Togami's Lumen crystal. He proposed the WizardDuel to win Elodie's, and if he killed Joslyn he took the crystal off his corpse, but if Elodie defeated him his crystal was never mentioned again. A later patch accounted for the crystal and gave Elodie the opportunity to do something productive with it.]]
583** One of the possible outcomes of the duel at the royal tournament is [[spoiler:Elodie bludgeoning Kevan over the head with her staff when he refuses to surrender. She doesn't know or care whether she killed him, and we never do find out. In the context of a single playthrough, if he's after Elodie because of Briony's death and Elodie didn't actually cause it, she never gets an explanation for why he's out for her blood]].
584* WhatTheHellHero: If Elodie goes with Briony on her foolish, life-threatening adventure and both of them [[spoiler:live to tell the tale,]] they will get some serious and obviously deserved scolding from Corisande and Joslyn. Corisande (Briony's mum), in particular, notes that there are no such thing as "heroes", only reckless idiots who get themselves killed. Double points if you abandon her.
585** [[spoiler:A Cruel Elodie joining with Togami gets the entirety of Nova turned on her. Congratulations, you've managed to unify the dumb, horrendously evil noble squabbling and plotting! By being an enormous bastard.]]
586** Your father will be absolutely horrified if you sacrifice [[spoiler:Charlotte, who's your best friend and cousin]], to the kraken.
587** Joslyn will give you a rather silent one should you opt to take drastic measures in getting your crystal, knowing [[spoiler:you were behind the murder of the treasury guards.]]
588* WhiteHairBlackHeart: [[spoiler:[[BigBad Togami]]]], oh yes.
589* WickedStepmother:
590** Arisse, the Duchess of Lillah, is implicated in the deaths of several people and is also the stepmother of the twelve-year-old Duke of Elath. [[spoiler:However, it's ultimately subverted--his aging father would much rather leave him in the custody of Arisse than the boy's grandfather, and Arisse is also much more likely than the grandfather to keep him alive.]]
591** Played with [[spoiler:by Arisse's stepson, the Duke of Mead. Yes, she had him murdered, but that was because he was a DepravedHomosexual and SerialKiller, and instead of gaining control of his lands, they go to his younger half-sister, her daughter.]]
592** However, [[spoiler:Arisse's second husband Jael probably qualifies as a Wicked Stepfather, given that he "seduced" his stepson Kevan, who judging from the age of his eldest half-brother (Kevan is thirty-three, Kiran is nineteen) would've been a preteen or a very young teenager at the time of the marriage.]]
593* WidowedAtTheWedding: This can happen in one epilogue. [[spoiler:If you defeat Kevan in a duel but force him to yield rather than kill him, or just don't give him a chance to deliver his challenge in the first place, he will later be happy to accept a marriage proposal from you... just so he can have another shot at killing you. He attempts to kill Elodie at their wedding, but fails spectacularly and is cut down by the royal guard. Understandably, Elodie becomes averse to the idea of marriage after that.]]
594* WifeHusbandry: One of the other custody options for the aforementioned Duke of Elath is to bring him to the palace as Elodie's betrothed (though to be sure, Elodie is only two years older). They end up more friendly than romantic. Elodie can also express interest in marrying her friend's little brother Anciet, who's even younger, but the epilogue indicates that nobody seriously considers it [[spoiler:except Anciet himself, who proposes after coming of age]].
595* WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath: The little white spirits in the death chibis.
596* WizardDuel: One possible endgame. [[spoiler:This is so that the BigBad can properly gain the possession of Elodie's Lumen Crystal.]]
597* WorstAid: AVERTED! [[spoiler:Do NOT pull the arrow out, or else death from blood loss.]] Even being knowledgeable in Battlefield Medicine isn't enough: [[spoiler:if you're under seventy in the skill, you wind up ''shoving it in.'']]
598* WrongGenreSavvy:
599** Many players mistake this game for a Princess Maker clone. Trying to play it as such will get you murdered.
600** Increase the Lore stat to 80 and the FlavorText reveals one example in the backstory.
601--->A Lumen once tried to lift the curse from an enchanted spring whose water was poisonous and glowed green. After dispelling the magic, she tasted the water and fell dead -- the green glow was a not a curse, but a spell placed by a Lumen long before to warn everyone away from the spring's natural poison.
602* YouAreGrounded: If Elodie fails the vote of no confidence she will throw a tantrum to which her father will promptly order her to go to her room.
603* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Elodie's father blames magic and Lumen for her mother's death, but if Elodie lacks her Lumen crystal, it's revealed that he also possesses a Lumen crystal when he duels Togami in his daughter's place.]] This is however a partial subversion: [[spoiler:Elodie's father is NOT a Lumen throughout most of the game, only a potential one. He doesn't actually activate the crystal and become a Lumen until Togami expresses interest in a Lumen battle, becoming what he hates only to save his daughter.]]
604* YouDidntAsk:
605** There are ''very'' few instances where other people tell Elodie about things without prompting, often resulting in AdultsAreUseless. One of the more prominent examples is a discussion with her father who's telling her that she'll have to be on her guard. If Elodie has studied Intrigue by this point, she can ask whether the royal court doesn't have agents for that sort of thing. This prompts the father to say that of course they have agents and ask what sort of problems they should be looking out for. Depending on the choice, they can defuse several difficult-to-avoid potential game overs. If Elodie ''hasn't'' got the Intrigue skills, she won't ask about the agents and her father won't talk about them, and the agents won't assassinate a rebel noble, noticing a war-mongering foreign nation, guarding Elodie against brigands or averting a peasant rebellion.
606** Along with DevelopersForesight: If you [[spoiler:suss out the fact that Lucille is a lumen]] and send a spy to gather info on who sent the assassins, your spy will be irritated that you had found this out earlier, and Elodie will claim it slipped her mind.
607* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: If you discover [[spoiler:Aunt Lucille's plot and send soldiers to arrest her entire family, they escape - and days later, Laurent's mangled corpse is found.]]
608* YouKilledMyFather:
609** [[spoiler:Togami murdered Queen Fidelia]] before the beginning of the game so that her inexperienced daughter would inherit her Lumen crystal and make it easier to take in a WizardDuel. However, you only discover this in the ending where he [[spoiler:taunts Elodie after killing her father as well, and in this path you're in no position to do anything about it... at least, not immediately.]]
610** [[spoiler:Kevan]] can duel Elodie over this if [[spoiler:his mother Arisse was executed during the civil war, or if his niece Briony has died in any way]]. This can also be a subversion, however: [[spoiler:Elodie might not have any meaningful role in Briony's death and be completely clueless that something even happened, so she won't even know what Kevan is talking about when he says his family's blood is on her hands.]]
611** An inversion happens if [[spoiler:Elodie sacrifices Charlotte to the kraken while Lucille is still alive -- the very next week, she'll be killed via magic]].
612[[/folder]]

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