Line #70 Webcomic/Phantomarine


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phantomarineshowdownoriginal_4.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: [[https://www.phantomarine.com/comic/01-the-horizon-line/ Come back to me and sing forever, Princess Phaedra Philemon, down in the great echoing graveyard of the world]]]]
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4	Five thousand years ago, the god of death fell into the Candlelight Sea.
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6	The islands were littered with his bones and the waters became a haunted wasteland - the final resting place of a swarm of hungry ghosts. Those few who survived the cataclysm now cower behind the glow of sacred lighthouses, fearing the deadly oceans beyond.
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8	When the spirit of an ill-fated princess arrives on the other side of the horizon line, she risks her soul for a chance to live again. Her opponent: the vile remains of the fallen death god himself - a formless, parasitic, devilish blight known as the Red Tide King.
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10	Read it [[https://www.phantomarine.com/ here.]]
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12	----
13	!!General Tropes:
14	* ActionMom: Vanna, staying active within the Lodestar Guild after Pavel was born and even after Pavel was bitten and her husband vanished.
15	* AmbiguouslyHuman: Halea, who has undergone a drastic change recently.
16	* ArmorPiercingResponse: After her daughter's funeral, Daphne is asked whether there's a prayer she'd like her to say. Unbeknownst to Daphne, her answer saves her life— the one who asked was too stunned and touched to push her down the stairs.
17	--> '''Daphne:''' I pray that you wake up from your own bad dream. And that when it's over, you're far happier than I am.
18	* BigBad: Zigzagged with Cheth and Halea [[spoiler: who is actually Cheline possessing Halea's corpse]]. Also see BigGood below.
19	** Cheth is the SatanicArchetype of the setting: children are told that, should they misbehave, he'll come to steal their souls and wear them as clothing. He's a [[JerkassGods Jerkass God]] to Phaedra, and he is also blamed for the existence of the Fata Morgana, a dangerous army of assassins...
20	** Halea is sinister from her first appearance, quickly becoming a threat to Pavel and his mother when she learns that he has survived his seabite longer than normally possible. [[spoiler: She is also behind Phaedra's assassination, as well as her father's, and has led a millennia-long campaign of misinformation and suppression via her church.]]
21	* BigGood: Zigzagged with Cheth, Shoshana and Cheline. Also see BigBad above.
22	** Cheline is revered as the Mother Goddess of Life, whose daughter Shoshana saved the world from the evil god Cheth. She is the mainstream deity of the Candlelight Sea and Shoshana is a MessianicArchetype, the Prophetess who is predicted to one day come back to fix the sea.
23	** While Cheth ''is'' the creepy GodOfTheDead, in truth he used to be the psychopomp of souls towards reincarnation. He is the main benefactor of the protagonist and his main goal is [[spoiler: to restore the natural order and finally let the countless billions of souls stuck in the sea move on.]] He also used to be worshiped by his own church, just like Cheline.
24	* CanineCompanion: Katja. She technically belongs to Phaedra's mother, but is deeply loyal to her "big sister", to the point that she snuck onto the boat for her fateful voyage.
25	* CataclysmBackstory: The ocean was cursed — and many islands were flooded and destroyed — in an event called the Fracture, in which Cheth's body was cast down and broken apart.
26	* ChessWithDeath: Lampshaded. Cheth offers a chess game as a potential challenge. Phaedra turns it down, commenting "You must've played millions of chess games."
27	* ColdSniper: Subverted with Irving. He is a sniper and tries to appear cold and aloof, but he's actually quite soft.
28	* ColorCodedElements: Subverted. Cheth, god of water, has a red motif (hence his nickname as the Red Tide King). His sister Cheline, goddess of fire, has a blue motif (hence the blue fire in her temples).
29	* CoolBoat: The Mantaluna.
30	* CrapSackWorld: Most of humanity is dispersed on a hellish water world. While life on the islands is generally okay, the ''entire'' ocean is plagued by ghosts who will attempt to devour any living creature they come across. Anyone injured by these ghosts becomes incurably cursed and is shunned by society, and will inevitably die and be consumed by the curse, becoming undead thralls. The only reason the sea can be navigated at all is because of a line of Lighthouses that emit a magical light that repels the ghosts, but the undead thralls are resistant to it and can even disable it during attacks. As if that wasn't bad enough, all of those miserable ghosts? That's the fate of ''everyone''. There is no other afterlife or reincarnation system; once you die you're stuck forever in the sea as a decaying monster who serves as a toy for the GodOfTheDead.
31	* CreepyTwins: Subverted. Cheth often appears as a pair of tall, dark-haired [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals "twins"]], one male and one female, who follow this trope's archetype. Because he puppeteers them both at the same time, they finish each others' sentences, wear the same facial expressions, and, in the event of injury, experience the other's pain— but he has strongly hinted that they aren't actually twins.
32	* CultureChopSuey: Elements of many different real-world cultures appear to be mixed. Pavel wears a festival costume based on Cham Dance masks and Pacific Northwest button cloaks. He and his mother eat ramen. Cheline's shrine looks Egyptian or Babylonian. Phaedra's father dresses like an 18th-century British admiral.
33	* CuteGhostGirl:
34	** Phaedra, once she gets some food in her that is. This is lampshaded by Cheth himself in the first chapter.
35	** Lani is this as well.
36	* CypherLanguage: The symbols for the God's Tongue are [[spoiler: a phonetic substitution]] cipher.
37	* DeadGuyPuppet: Turns out [[spoiler: the Fata Morgana]] are an example of this trope. [[GlassEye Their eyes have even been replaced by glass,]] and [[{{Mummy}} there's a good reason they wear bandages.]] Also see OfCorpseHesAlive below.
38	* DealWithTheDevil: Multiple.
39	** If Phaedra can ask a question Cheth can't answer ''and'' if he asks a question she knows the answer to, then she and her crew get their lives back. What Cheth didn't tell her was that she only saved ''her own'' life, and so her life force was divided between herself and her crew. One fifth of a soul isn't enough to live off of, condemning them to live as conscious seaghosts instead.
40	** [[spoiler:Amos]] is obeying [[spoiler:Cheline]] on the belief that she will bestow her gift upon mankind, despite her orders resulting in the death of his son and the protest that she could have at least given him a funeral... [[DesecratingTheDead she shoots him down, claiming that feeding the seagulls was honor enough.]]
41	* DeathAndTheMaiden: Played with. Cheth represents Death, but this is done in two different ways.
42	** Although he is her puppeteer and thus both Death and the Maiden, Cheth is very tender with the soul he calls his favorite lady.[[spoiler: They seem to have been close when she was alive, so this trope might actually be played straight.]]
43	** Cheth and Phaedra. He has NoSenseOfPersonalSpace, calls her cute in their first meeting, and after finding out she is crushing on his female half, starts [[TheTease to tease her even more.]]
44	---> '''Cheth:''' No... I know what's going on here.
45	---> One of the skeletal arms reaches a single finger upward, pushing Phaedra's chin back. She looks down, startled.
46	---> '''Cheth:''' I think a CERTAIN QUESTION has ruined your judgment.
47	---> The skeletal arm bends Phaedra as far backward as she can lean - only to meet the red-eyed, sharp-toothed face of Cheth's female half, smiling broadly down at her. The woman's voice echoes as she speaks.
48	---> '''Cheth:''' Well, Phaedra? AM I A PRETTY LADY?
49	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest:
50	** Phaedra clearly misses her father, who she deeply admired, but only calls her living mother "panicky".
51	** Subverted with [[spoiler:Vanna, who fits this trope but is not actually [[FateWorseThanDeath killed]].]] She is shown as a kind maternal figure and even in deep pain she makes sure that her son has a store of medicine and a way to find help, and [[spoiler: Pavel]] misses her a lot.
52	** [[spoiler: Lani]] speaks fondly of her mother, but doesn't know she's already dead.
53	* DesecratingTheDead: Both Cheth and [[spoiler: Cheline]] do this in different ways. He wears their souls to mess with their loved ones, she destroys, puppeteers and operates on corpses.
54	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Vanna]] tells [[spoiler: Pavel]] that she was glad that, if she could only save one person, it was him.
55	* TheDividual: Cheth. He is particularly fond of taking the form of a pair of CreepyTwins... or a dinosaur.
56	* DiseaseBleach: Anyone who is seabitten slowly turns white, and eventually turns into [[spoiler: the Fata Morgana.]] Pavel and Eddy are two examples, while [[spoiler: Vanna]] is an example of someone who has completely turned.
57	%%* EnsembleDarkHorse: Salty Joe.
58	* EyesAlwaysShut: Cal's eyes appear closed unless he's surprised.
59	* FantasticSlurs: Seabite victims are called Crossers, referring to their eventual fate of 'crossing the Horizon Line' and becoming Fata Morgana.
60	* FateWorseThanDeath: Anyone who is bitten by a seaghost slowly turns white and brittle [[spoiler: until they become the Fata Morgana]]. That being said, true death is not much better due to the fact that souls are forever stuck in the sea in an unending restless state as they suffer and fall apart. [[spoiler: This is not natural, and Cheth's defeat 5000 years ago ''caused this''. He is supposed to be their psychopomp, but due to his injured status he is unable to continue his work, something that torments him.]]
61	* FauxAffablyEvil: Cheth initially acts the part of an AffablyEvil god, but he's fairly quick to anger and KickTheDog.
62	* FluffyFashionFeathers: Lady Halea's giant feather boa.
63	* FoodAsBribe: After the trauma of being dead, the Mantaluna Crew conspire to get Phaedra back in sorts by cooking up a feast.
64	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Cal is always surrounded by ghost animals.
65	* GenkiGirl: Lani. Even her undead state hasn't dampened her spirits that much.
66	* GlassEye: Lady Halea has two; the pupils/irises are fashioned after peacock feathers.
67	* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: Cheline and Cheth are respectively their setting's God and SatanicArchetype. Both have been shown to taunt people with their dead family members.
68	--> '''Euphemia:''' I'll see you burn yet.
69	--> '''Cheline:''' [[SayItWithHearts Your granddaughter burns first ♥]]
70	* HazardousWater: The people are cautioned not to go into the sea for the fear of getting bitten by seaghosts.
71	* HealingPotion: Though it can't heal him, Vanna's mysterious medicine has succeeded in halting Pavel's seabite from spreading. He's five years past his life expectancy as a seabite victim.
72	* HealingSpring: Bathing in the sacred waters of an Aquifer is believed to slow the spread of seabite.
73	* HiveMind: Cheth communicates with the souls of the ghosts he possesses. There is only one mind for thousands and thousands of ghosts, which are colloquially known as the "Redtiders".
74	* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: All seaghosts to some degree, withering into ghostly husks or changing due to strong emotion. Even Cheth isn't immune.
75	* JerkassGods: See GodAndSatanAreBothJerks above.
76	* LightIsGood: The lighthouses keep the seaghosts at bay and away from the living.
77	* LockedIntoStrangeness:
78	** Victims of the seabite have the color bleached out of them at the site of the bite, and the bite is said to "spread" the longer a victim remains untreated. Pavel's head and neck, including his hair, have been bleached. Some of the other children at the Salabay Aquifer also have bleached streaks in their hair as a result of their seabites. [[spoiler: When Pavel's mother is seabitten, she loses all the color in her skin, eyes, and hair before fading away.]]
79	** The Fata Morgana all have white hair.
80	* MakingASplash: Cheth has the ability to manipulate water in all forms.
81	* MarkOfTheBeast: Seaghosts possessed by Cheth display his characteristic black band tattoos on their arms, and a long line of fishbone tattoos on their backs.
82	* MessianicArchetype: Shoshana. She's seen as a savior will eventually fix the sea in her SecondComing.
83	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Phaedra sees Pavel with a clear head for the first time after eating ghost food and realizes that he has seabite, she assumes that ''she'' might have been the one who bit him in her fugue state and simply forgot about it, immediately apologizing to him for her assumed actions.
84	** She also reacts this way when she realizes she doomed her crew and herself to unlife.
85	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Red Tide King and the Fata Morgana.
86	* OceanPunk: The Candlelight Sea relies on ships, both sailboats and motorboats, for travel between its many islands.
87	* OfCorpseHesAlive: [[spoiler: Halea]] has been dead for months, but is puppeteered to appear alive and further a conspiracy. Likely not the first one this has been done to, nor the last.
88	* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: While Cheth is primarily referred to as male, he rarely restricts himself to a single gender. In fact, one of his favorite forms is taking on the forms of a male and female twin simultaneously.
89	** Side material clarifies he defaults to male pronouns, but is otherwise genderfluid.
90	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The seaghosts drain life away from living organisms, bleaching them. They are also kept away by the light of lighthouses, despite being unaffected by sunlight.
91	* OutOfClothesExperience: After [[spoiler:Vanna gets bitten]], she disappears, leaving her clothing behind.
92	* ParentsInDistress: When [[spoiler:Vanna]] disappears after becoming seabitten, [[spoiler:Pavel]] strives to find and rescue her from the Fata Morgana.
93	* PlotTriggeringDeath: The assassination of Phaedra and her companions triggers the events that lead to the main plot.
94	* PowerCrystal: Phantomarine is a glowing mineral used in the beacons of the Lighthouse Road - its perpetual light creates a barrier that repels seaghosts. It has a related substance called Revenite that provides similar protection, but requires an electrical current to glow. Pavel was given a lantern with a piece inside, which should be impossible because ''all'' of the Phantomarine in the world was supposed to have been used to make the Road.
95	* PowersThatBe: Subverted. The Red Tide King is invisible to the average living person, but it's absolutely possible to be PalsWithJesus if you're seabitten or dead.
96	** Cheline also subverts this, as she deliberately invokes this trope to obfuscate her very real and physical actions.
97	* PrettyPrincessPowerhouse: Phaedra is a trained swordfighter and maritime commander, like the rest of her family line. She isn't strong enough to defeat Cheth in a legitimate duel, but her skills are still nothing to scoff at, and she injures him multiple times.
98	* ProngsOfPoseidon: Shoshana's personal symbol and primary weapon was a trident, Bonefeather.
99	* PullingThemselvesTogether: Cheth's plesiosaurus form after Phaedra sliced his head off at his neck.
100	* FiendishFish: Cheth, pre-Fracture. There's a reason why they call him the Bonefish!
101	* RedEyesTakeWarning: Cheth's sclera turn red when he is experiencing extreme emotions. Seaghosts also acquire red pupils when he's possessing them.
102	* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Katja, Phaedra's right hand Samoyed, and all her siblings.
103	* RotatingProtagonist: The prologue and chapter one are about Phaedra and Cheth, chapter two and three are majorly about Pavel and his mother, completely leaving out the previous cast until four and five regroup them, and then six is almost entirely focusing on Halea and a whole new set of characters again.
104	* RoyalRapier: Phaedra wields her father's sword, to devastating results.
105	* SayItWithHearts: Both Cheth and Cheline are prone to this, mostly as a taunt.
106	* TheHeart: Pavel's role in the story. He even forces Cheth and Phaedra to have a civil conversation.
107	* ThePhoenix: Cheline appears as a four-winged raven-like phoenix.
108	* TitleDrop: "Phantomarine" is the name of the local PowerCrystal, which generates light to repel seaghosts, not needing an electrical current like the related Revenite. Interestingly, Pavel was given a lantern with Phantomarine in it when ''all'' of the substance in the known world ''should'' be in the Lighthouse Road.
109	* UndeathlyPallor: Human seaghosts' skin tones range from bone white to different shades of purple or blue, depending on their skin tone in life.
110	** The Fata Morgana bleach white regardless of their original skintone, and [[spoiler: seem to actually be the corpses of the seabitten, puppeteered by Cheline to do her bidding.]]
111	* {{Unobtanium}}: ''All'' the known Phantomarine in the world was supposed to be used to make the Lighthouse Road, so Pavel's mother is baffled by how some was made into a lantern and given to him.
112	* WrittenByTheWinners: As time goes on, it's made clear that the conflict between Cheth and Cheline is not ''nearly'' as black and white as most people believe it is, and it seems that Shoshana was far from the MessianicArchetype the church claims her to be.

Context Webcomic / Phantomarine