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1[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BeginningOfABeautifulFriendship_6997.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:264:In retrospect, the jokes about turning her in for the reward money were a bad idea.]]
3''[[http://www.waterphoenixking.com/ The Water Phoenix King]]'' is a webcomic most simply described by its creator, Kyle Marquis (also the writer/artist of ''[[http://brokenspacecomic.com/ Broken Space]]'' and designer of role-playing game ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''), as a [[NotableFantasyWebcomics mythic fantasy serial]] which updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which is absolutely true.
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5After that, it gets significantly more complicated to explain — but can equally truthfully be called an epic HighFantasy adventure about a GenreSavvy TeenGenius MagicalGirlWarrior who is also rather an AntiHero and more than a little AxCrazy — her first exchange with her newly-revealed SpiritAdvisor is a demand to assist her in DisposingOfABody '''''not''''' the one from her ''first'' AccidentalMurder — but who doesn’t really ''want'' to be Evil (that business of summoning the EldritchAbomination was a ''complete'' accident), her angst-ridden nerdy (yet [[PrettyBoy pretty]]!) MentorArchetype guardian FallenAngel who constantly protests his unheroic inadequacy before flinging himself into the fray, the [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatized]] [[ProudScholarRace former lawyer]] with the [[ScarsAreForever horrific scar]] currently working as a [[ParttimeHero bartender/bouncer/janitor]] who’s just crawled back from the DespairEventHorizon after [[TheDrifter ten years in the wilderness]] considering his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld immortality]] a curse [[WhoWantsToLiveForever not a blessing]] to [[RetiredGunfighter take up his gun]] in one of the strangest rookie-veteran team-ups ever, and the rest of the RagtagBunchOfMisfits who either through fate or chance -- if there ''is'' any difference in this universe — have all [[YouAllMeetInAnInn Met In An Inn]] which has turned out to be the InnBetweenTheWorlds and stayed there under the protection of the [[TheTrickster Goddess of the Crossroads]] to try to save their country, and ultimately their homeworld itself, from the impending Doom that has turned out to be the inevitable consequence of humanity overthrowing the titular GodEmperor in a war that ended up embroiling nearly everyone on — or off — the planet. (Turns out [[FisherKing The King is the Land]] holds doubly true [[PhysicalGod when “divine right” is literal]].)
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7Got all that? Either you want to be reading it already, or you need more assurance. We haven’t even gotten to the zebra-riding samurai not-orcs, the dragonfly-riding insectile aliens, tortoise-riding traveling salesmen, the [[KillerRobot killer robots]], the “war weasel,” the teenage [[KnightTemplar aspiring-Templar]] [[ArchEnemy nemesis]] with the {{BFS}} (mace, actually), the sword-vs-death-ray fights, or the cannibal demigods! ScienceFiction or {{Fantasy}}? Don’t even go there, the answer is, "[[ScienceFantasy Both, of course!]]" The art is semi-realistic, a bit like early medieval miniature illustrations, densely detailed with rough but very expressive pen work and beautifully moody colors, and the story moves quickly.
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9As of September 14th, 2015, the comic is complete and can be read for free online at waterphoenixking.com
10----
11!!This comic provides examples of:
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13* AccidentalMurder: Anthem wasn't ''trying'' to kill the [[spoiler: wounded courier]] whose identity and papers she stole but she certainly didn't handle the situation in a very gracious or humane way.
14* ActionGirl: Anthem, right off the bat, and later Ismene.
15* ActionSurvivor: Gilgam, particularly at the beginning when he's terribly out of training and condition both; moreover he is as typical for his species short and wiry, something very obvious when he stands next to his boss or his coworker Reshma the blacksmith-turned-hostler at the inn. He's an ideal sniper and scout and a ''terrible'' melee fighter despite his superior speed and senses -- which doesn't stop him from ''trying'' to tank in emergencies, usually with less than optimal outcomes for him.
16* AerithAndBob: Averted almost entirely -- only one name so far (the aforementioned Ismene) taken untranslated from Earth-Prime, and that could be a deliberate cue.
17* AesopCollateralDamage: The main plot point of the series; what if God punished every single sin that mankind performed with natural disasters and monsters? End result is one big CrapsackWorld, GodIsDead, and the protagonists have to sabotage the LaserGuidedKarma system before it destroys the world for instigating a revolution against a FallenAngel.
18* AlchemyIsMagic
19* AlphaBitch: Anthem, back home in her village. Her upbringing as one of the Hadrakahn landed gentry still shows through from time to time, though she has made significant progress. (At the Inn of Silver Leaves, Shreyas has taken that spot.)
20* AncestralWeapon: Possibly the Lightning Gun, if it's the same as the weapon carried by one of the women in the old picture in Gilgam's room at the inn, shown at the beginning of Book 3.
21* AncientAstronauts: Played straight with the Ulenites, who came from the Moon, colonized parts of Chalt in ages past, and eventually withdrew back to the Moon for the most part, though belligerent factions there would like to reconquer the planet and have made a start with Esgavi. Subverted with the Wyrds, whose Ancient-Egyptian-influenced culture originated on the world, and only departed late in their history to live in floating cities, except for a few holdouts like Gilgam.
22* AnyoneCanDie: A good quarter of the protagonists experience death. Some come back. Some... don't.
23* OurAngelsAreDifferent: The theology of this setting is complicated and vaguely neoplatonic. Angels are essentially avatars or self-aware aspects of the gods, who constantly emanate fragments of their consciousness, some of which reside in their emblems and images in household shrines. Thus Vish is sometimes insulted or dissed by being called a 'lar,' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lares]] by other beings.
24* AnnoyingArrows: Averted. In Book 4 we see that arrows have the impact of bullets, easily. (Well, except in the case of [[TheUndead Revenants,]] who find them merely annoying.)
25** Played straight but justified with [[spoiler: Iseme, because of her HealingFactor]].
26* AntiHero: Anthem, at least for a while, and still being nagged to go over to TheDarkSide by her own personal Demon-Dragon. Fortunately she has Vish and Gilgam looking out for her. ''Un''fortunately, they have their own ''shelves'' full of Issues...
27* AxCrazy: Anthem, Prince Thrale, Lord Ezheis... Hm, what do all of these characters have in common? Aside from coming from aristocratic backgrounds and having been raised under the authority of a god who said their peoples were the natural rulers of humanity, that is! Anthem, at least, is ''trying'' to deal with her "Off with their heads!" impulses in constructive ways.
28* BadassBookworm: Anthem, extremely so: if she hadn't been researching forbidden spells in the first place -- or been clever enough to put all the pieces together -- she never would have ended up in any of these situations.
29* BadassLongCoat / BadassLongRobe: Many people wear cloaks or greatcoats in Chalt, but Gilgam's winter gear is a particularly good example. Varaxunax has a nice embroidered one, too.
30* BadCopIncompetentCop: The Bison Guards, unfortunately.
31* BattleCouple: [[spoiler: Gilgam and Corva]], recently.
32** Anthem and Vish are a zig-zagged version of this. Sometimes they fight together, but most of the time Vish buffs Anthem with luck enchantments.
33* BeastOfBattle: Subverted, since [[spoiler: Rosie never ''wanted'' to be a "war weasel" ]] and, after killing her captor (who didn't read the EvilOverlordList!) has since avoided fights like a sensible animal.
34* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Averted, so far. If there's any Grand Schemer controlling everything, it's not apparent: right now it just looks like a football scrum of people acting, reacting, and scrambling wildly to catch up when their plans fall apart. Even, or especially, The Gods.
35* BeetleManiac: Gilgam has quite a few of these decorating his equipment. His pauldrons, the large pin which unfolds into a collar that connects them over his warmer-weather gear, and the charge crystals for his gun are all scarab-shaped, and his riding-beast is a robot that looks like a cross between an ant and a beetle of some sort. [[AncientEgypt It makes sense...]]
36* BeingGoodSucks: Particularly for Vish, who forfeited much of his powers and took serious damage to do the right thing; but also for Ismene whose sacrifices haven't had much of a payoff either so far.
37** Vish lost his girlfriend and [[spoiler:forty thousand civilians in the city of Esgavi]] to a raving madman's doomsday weapon. What is the most logical course of action? Break into negotiations and offer Oxo the Murderer diplomatic immunity in exchange for a full alliance with the Ulenites, ending a global war. Gilgam outright calls Vish the better man for having the moral integrity to choose the greater good over getting revenge on a mass murderer.
38* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Maresh starts out as a HeroAntagonist, but is repeatedly tortured for failing missions or talking back to his boss. This reaches a breaking point when he [[TheStarscream betrays his master]] and tries to [[spoiler:cause the apocalypse so he can torture the survivors into obedience forever]].
39** Thrale may or may not be an example[[note]]Ismene's view of Thrale pre-torture is biased and he may have been EvilAllAlong[[/note]], but it's clear from his mass-murder fetish that the torture drove him insane.
40* BerserkerTears: Anthem in her first battle, quite understandably.
41* BigBad: Trying to explain this one ends up sounding like a "Who's on first?" routine. There's the Demon-Dragon Darumatha, who's ''a'' dragon, but not ''TheDragon,'' it's the BigBad, except it's got a front man who would appear to be the BigBad only it's not ''his'' "Dragon" but his EvilGenius, while at the same time it's trying to convince one of Our Heroes that WeCanRuleTogether too -- but it has another, [[EvilVersusEvil older Nemesis]] who's also pulling strings and manipulating events from the shadows, and...that's the ''simple'' version.
42** By the end of chapter 19, Maresh and Anthem are the only two factions left standing... and [[DragonAscendant Maresh]] has been driven irrevocably insane.
43* {{BFS}}: Yamra's stone Scepter. It has magic powers, not all as yet revealed, including [[spoiler: TakenForGranite petrifaction]] and [[spoiler: FamilyUnfriendlyDeath dissolving]] but works just fine for crushing skulls. Maresh carries it slung across his back on a bandoleer, sensibly enough.
44* BigDamnHeroes: Quite a few times, but Chapter 4 brings everything nicely full-circle from the beginning.
45* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: The reason why Gurahl ruined everything. First he killed the mass-murderers and rapists. Then he killed the cultists and cutthroats, then he killed the Average Joe because mortals were sometimes evil, and then he decided that even the truly saintly left had the occasional bad ''thought'', and that was the reason why everybody left had to die. The gods killed him before he could complete his genocide, but his final 'gift' to the world was a static karma system, Tamantha, which he completed and implemented. Tamantha is utterly flawed; [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain it is racist]], [[DoubleStandard sexist]], [[FantasticCasteSystem caste-based]], [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure punishes everyone for one person's sins]], and [[DisproportionateRetribution always uses excessive force]]. Naturally, people rebel against this prejudiced anti-grey morality, the karma system oppresses them even more, etc.
46* BlackMagicianGirl: Played straight and subverted both, with Anthem and Ailari’s gifts -- to orthodox Yamrans like Maresh and the Blue Knight (and sometimes Dosh, depending on the day of the week) all witchcraft and sorcery are automatically evil and so are their practitioners; on the other hand, even though she was only acting in panicked self-defense, Anthem has done some pretty [[TheDarkSide Dark]] stuff with her magic. (And without it, as well.)
47-->'''Anthem:''' ''(to an annoying but harmless co-worker)'' Sometimes I '''''hate things''''' so much they '''''go away.'''''
48-->'''Keilindi:''' What?
49-->'''Anthem:''' Nothing.
50* BloodlessCarnage: Averted. Boy howdy, is it averted! This is telegraphed from the first panels of the first row of the first page, with the partially-burned corpse of a failed teenage sorceress in closeup, but it’s still more than a bit of a shocker when Anthem [[spoiler: guts Nasker Wont with a sickle and then vaporizes his remains with WildMagic]] and that itself is a mere warning that things are going to get even more gory in future installments. It’s not glamorized, though. Likewise, there are no PrettyLittleHeadshots either.
51* BloodyHilarious: Often, especially in Chapter 1.
52* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Subverted (see "BloodyHilarious" above) in the aftermath of the scene in the page image -- everyone else ''thinks'' it's (poor little) Anthem!
53* BreakingTheFourthWall: Only between chapters. Each new book begins with a recap of recent events narrated by the characters, as if they were actors discussing their roles in a screenplay, but otherwise staying in-character. Once the story proper resumes, the FourthWall stays intact throughout.
54* BurnTheWitch: Followers of the Water Phoenix King regard all forms of magic not taught and approved by their god to be blasphemy, though this didn't stop them from dabbling in alchemy and other forms as an easier path to longevity and power than the sanctioned practices of meditation and self-discipline. (Yamrans traditionally drowned prisoners, but same thing.) Lord Ezheis boasts of having killed many witches when their side was still in power, and the event that touched off the war leading to Yamra's overthrow appears to have been a crackdown on an independent city openly tolerant of magic. Anthem doesn't even wait around to find out what her own people would do to her for it.
55* CallARabbitASmeerp: Averted, along with CallASmeerpARabbit. There are some small differences between Earth-Prime animals and the ones called the same names on Chalt, as might be expected on a world shaped by whimsical deities, but nothing egregious.
56* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: Captain Rasho and Sergeant Deemo of the Bison Guards, who are also respectively EnsignNewbie and DrillSergeantNasty.
57* CatsAreMean: More like "Cats Are Cats", as the Inn of Silver Leaves has many feline occupants, all of whom seem to spend most of their time [[TruthInTelevision sleeping on various perches]] but they do persecute Arcoan the bokkminn (short insectile alien) busboy, stalking and chasing him around the halls until someone intervenes. He claims to be convinced that they will eat him someday, but they don't mess with the other bokkminn staying at the inn -- a soldier, even if he is only the disrespected "mascot" of the Bison Guards, wears armor and carries a spear and seems to be generally far less impressed with most things -- and Arcoan ''claims'' to have been a champion tamer of riding dragonflies in the past, so something else strange seems to be going on there... Oh, and cats on Chalt have variously colored halos, thanks to what whimsical deity we don't yet know. [[http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/mar/10/poetry-i-will-consider-my-cat-jeoffry/ Christopher Smart would approve.]]
58* ChekhovsGun: Ever wonder why they called it the "Silver Leaves Inn"? [[spoiler:Answer: Nanotechnology that looks like silver leaves, buried around the inn, designed to translate physical locations into electromagnetic cyberwaves]].[[note]]Followed by the Bishop of Narmathex using this against Gilgam by scattering said leaves with wind.[[/note]]
59* ChekhovsGunman: Remember the wyrd gun incident with a giraffe Gilgam talked about in chapter 4? Turns out said giraffe beastman is a professional sniper assassin.
60* TheChessmaster: Lots! Ailari, Barrabon, Darumatha, and plenty of up-and-coming or aspiring chessmasters as plots and schemes abound.
61* CombatPragmatist: More common than not in the story, to date. One of the Prince's guards learned the hard way not to threaten people in a barn where there are sharp-edged farm implements around, and several of the Blue Knight's men found out that their own campfire could be used against them in a fight.
62* CometOfDoom: Chapter 4 (The title ''is'' "Temple of the Comet" after all!) This comet is an emanation of another powerful but dead god, and as such has potential to grant vast mystical powers to anyone who can control it, making it both very dangerous and a hot commodity.
63** Chapter 20: [[spoiler:Maresh summons a water sword ''the size of a small moon'' with the intent of drowning an entire world by stabbing it to death.]]
64* ConsummateLiar: Gilgam's ability to bend, fold, spindle and otherwise mutilate the facts all the while conveying the essence of the truth has to be seen to be believed. Absolutely none of the particulars of his account of the battle in the first issue are correct, though they all match up to the evidence, they're all plausible, ''and'' the proper outcome of it all is the same as it would have been if he had told the truth. It's just simpler to spin a complicated explanation on the fly, all told (because nobody would believe the truth anyway) and serves Justice just as well -- though Father Xosu, god of Justice and Healing, might beg to disagree...
65* CoolSword: Several {{Magitek}} weapons, as well as ordinary swords without names or histories.
66* CrapsackWorld: Chalt seems like this at first, what with the [[WonTheWarLostThePeace post-war-of-liberation desolation]] and continuing Warring States style anarchy, the feudal abuses inherent in all the systems, the history of genocides and atrocities and the impending apocalypse as the natural order of the cosmos breaks down causing food shortages and population displacement, but upon consideration it isn’t [[TruthInTelevision any more so than our own world.]] (It is, however, a WorldOfSnark.)
67* CreepyChild: Anthem shamed her father and scared her mother by sheer creepiness. She didn't even do anything, but her cruelty was visible even then.
68* CuteAndPsycho: Anthem, this being the technical term for the "Ax-Crazy Ingenue" role (of course somebody came up with a name for it, no matter how rare a combination it is.)
69* {{Cyborg}}: The lunar ambassador's bodyguard in Chapter 2 of has both arms replaced with densely-folded ribbons of razor-edged, thought-controlled metal. Not someone you want to mess with.
70* DarkAndTroubledPast: Half the characters. Here's a list:
71** Anthem and Maresh accidentally unleashed a SealedEvilInACan, a dragon with dreams of godhood.
72** Vish was born to save the world, only to ruin his destiny by saving a selfish, cruel girl.
73** Kahwei performed three crimes that are unforgivable to the Yigs: [[spoiler:Cowardice for choosing to be a pampered sacrifice to stop a calamity only to turn back at the last moment, Genocide for killing the women of an entire race, and Imprisonment which doesn't seem like a crime but his former minions turn on him when they hear this one]]. Admitting all three unleashes his [[spoiler:and Gheen's]] true potential.
74** Ismene stole a princess' face, and fled when her boyfriend was captured. She feels guilty for letting Thrale lose his mind to torture.
75** Vax sold [[spoiler:his soul to ''four'' demons]]. He thought it would be clever to use their bickering to prevent cooperative debt collection, until a god died and everyone started ''trading''.
76** Corva [[spoiler:was a slaver - specifically, the one who enslaved Kahwei and Gilgam]]. Gilgam leaves her the moment he hears this.
77* DamselInDistress: Subverted, in that people often ''expect'' Anthem to be this, right before she reaches for the nearest sharp implement or [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu confounds]] the EldritchAbomination with logic and statistics.
78* DarkIsNotEvil: Played straight, as Ailari is a goddess of Night and Trickery as well as Change, whose realms of patronage include not only gambling, merchants and messengers, but thieves and gallows and witches -- she’s kind of a cross between Isis, Hecate and Hermes, far closer to the original classical concepts of Fortuna/Tyche than modern notions of “Lady Luck” -- including the idea of the goddess as a kind of re-balancer of the cosmic scales, putting her thumb on the Scales of Justice to even things out and right old wrongs in unorthodox ways: her angel, Vish, had black wings and a dark, spiky halo before he fell, and his power has always manifested as a reverse-glow, with shadow starbursts instead of rays of light.
79* DeadpanSnarker: Anthem, Gilgam, Varaxunax and Corva have all demonstrated superior snarking skills to date.
80* DeathSeeker: It's not completely clear at first if Gilgam is this, when he goes back into action. (It's more a combination of [[InHarmsWay adrenaline junkie]], severe overconfidence, and being on the upswing...it just goes along with a lot of angst about the war.)
81* DefiantToTheEnd: Gilgam, and to a much lesser extent, Anthem, when captured in the Library.
82* DespairEventHorizon: While Anthem lurches towards this in her first reaction to her [[EldritchAbomination disastrous failure]] and fantasizes about an atoning suicide, that lasts only long enough for her to have a better impulse and run for it. Gilgam, on the other hand, has spent the years since war's end in a haze, having no idea what to do with his life afterward in classic ShellShockedVeteran mode. SurvivorGuilt? Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Just saw too much and had no way to process it? [[WonTheWarLostThePeace The pointlessness of it all in retrospect?]] All of the above? Regardless he's well and truly broken when we first encounter him, which makes the next part so much more awesome than if he were a more conventional hero.
83-->'''Anthem:''' ''(of the bandits}'' And they're still out there. They killed -- I mean, they '''''tried''''' to kill me.
84-->'''Gilgam:''' ''(who has been lying in the dark, despite a lamp, on a bare floor, despite a perfectly good mattress next to him, do we have a pair of [[TheAtoner Atoners]] here?)'' I heard. I'm ... going to have to get up, aren't I? This is your fault. I '''''hate''''' getting up.
85* OurDemonsAreDifferent: This varies, since there are a variety of beings all called "demons" by different people in the story, ranging from relatively harmless and "normal" magical creatures like shapeshifters to incredibly powerful primordial beings who aspire to overthrow the existing pantheon and make themslves rulers of creation, tempting mortals to work their bidding on earth in order to bring this about with offers of power and hearts' desire...
86* TheDitz: Keilindi. (Unless she's a ''really'' [[ObfuscatingStupidity good actress]] -- which would put an interesting twist on her operatic ambitions.)
87* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Yes and no -- on Chalt, dragons are a particular kind of one particular subclass of shapeshifter, they're essentially rogue AIs, and [[spoiler: hoards make dragons,]] dragons don't make hoards. (This is amazingly cool and logical an explanation of why those things go together, and don't separate easily.) There is also some kind of largish reptilian animal called a ''drake'' hunted for its skin, but we have only seen things made from its leather so far, and it may not look much or anything like a traditional dragon.
88* DrillSergeantNasty: Sergeant Deemo of the Bison Guards, subverted in that he's not a very good officer ''or'' soldier himself. (They're a paramilitary, quasi-mercenary unit and pretty much BadCopIncompetentCop, unfortunately for Our Heroes and everyone else around.)
89-->'''Gilgam''': Sergeant, grab the--
90-->'''Deemo''': '''''[[StockScream AHHHHh!]]'''''
91-->'''Gilgam''': Grab your tail and run! Just like that! ''Perfect!'' Dammit.
92* DuelToTheDeath: There have been two formal duels so far, the first between [[spoiler: Prince Thrale and Dosh Ai-Nalyitta]] (he gets better) and the second between [[spoiler: Yiggish warleader Momba Kawunei and his insubordinate officer Hokta Threng]] (who doesn't).
93** Now the count is up to three duels.
94* DungeonCrawling: Since the present storyline is set in a part of the world that was fought over and occupied by multiple ancient civilizations for centuries, and the latest rulers were only recently dispossessed, this is a popular pasttime for would-be adventurers in the region.
95* DysfunctionJunction: The crew at the Inn of Silver Leaves doesn't exactly fit the TrueCompanions model -- there's far too much friction and separate goals for that, let alone outright hostility. Whether this will turn into fatal flaws under future stress, or weld together in time, we have no idea.
96* EarnYourHappyEnding: It took three years and the butchering of half the world, but the protagonists blew up the Karma system and gave the afterlife a ''real'' reason to exist. All-in-all, that's one hell of a retirement plan.
97* EldritchAbomination: Darumatha, the Demon-Dragon of Broken Hours (with a name like ''that...'') It might appear in the form of one of your dead friends, fatal injuries and all, or it might take its ''real'' form of a vast serpentine coil of living metal scales, fangs, and spikes reaching all the way to the outer stars, a manifestation capable of making strong men vomit in terror, or as a charming young woman in evening dress who prattles cheerfully on about cutting hearts out. Or just go back and forth between all these shapes, apparently at random. It's really hard to say which is the worst.
98* EnsignNewbie: Captain Rasho, being extremely young (despite Gilgam's sneer, he is old enough to shave -- ''barely,'' which may be why he sports the PermaStubble) and it's implied that his parents purchased him a commission in the Bison Guards, not one of the better sorts of military units in his country. While brave enough personally, he's inexperienced and completely inept at giving orders that will be obeyed, a situation not helped by the lackluster group of losers under him who all joined up for the money, or because they failed at school or business, or because they want an excuse to beat people up and found this the best-paying, most legal way to do so. He's trying hard, but in ''way'' over his head.
99* EscortMission: The creator describes events in Chapter 4 as this trope.
100-->'''Kyle:''' To Vish, this must be like the worst escort mission in the history of video games: "Okay, drag this useless, tiny, whining girl all over a dungeon and make sure the ancient horrors don’t rip her apart while she insults you." "Does she have any, uh, skills?" "She’s pretty good at math. Mind the pain monsters!" "Great."
101* EvenEvilHasStandards: For Lord Ezheis, the Blue Knight, it's [[spoiler: waging war on his Hadrakahn compatriots]]. For Lord Kebra, it's necromancy, but Darumatha convinces him that his people are too far beyond the MoralEventHorizon to care.
102** The former Ulenite leader Arkame did not condone slavery, even against humans. [[spoiler:And was so horrified at Oxo's genocide on Esgavi that he fled to ''Anthem'' of all people to tell her what atrocities his people committed]].
103* TheEvilPrince: Thrale of Nammathar is pretty definitely this, even though it seems largely attributable to him being a BrokenAce due to [[spoiler: the combination of having been tortured as a POW when he volunteered to help liberate Esgavi from the Yamran forces, and massive insecurity stemming from his failure to match his father's heroic reputation.]] Still, it's not like he's the only character who's been through that sort of thing or has family issues, and the others aren't [[spoiler: trying to start another war in order to drown their inner demons in torrents of blood, beating up girls or provoking strangers to duels in order to get away with murder.]] He's way past PrinceCharmless at this point.
104* EvilWeapon: Anthem has acquired one recently, "Malice," the most powerful weapon created by an angel of Yamra known as [[LightIsNotGood The Torture Lord]]. Being GenreSavvy, she objects rather strenuously — "You're giving ME an evil sword?" — but Vish is surprisingly confident that it won't be a problem. The blade itself, which cleaves supernatural beings with ease, looks a little bit like a straightened katana with an extra hook cut from a redshifted nebula, and was made [[spoiler: from Kawunei's agony during the time that he and Gilgam were [=POW=]s]] so essentially she's carrying around a piece of his soul; he is apparently resigned to it, but not terribly happy about this.
105* {{FacePalm}}: A not-uncommon reaction around the Inn of Silver Leaves.
106* FailedASpotCheck: Averted in Book 1, where Gilgam notices right away that someone has been working Dark magic in the barn, and then spots the footprints of enemies casing the joint earlier and other things awry in the surroundings; played straight later when he fails to notice Maresh shadowing them in the forest. Partly justified in that Maresh has gotten serious ninja powers with his upgrades, but serves to point out Gilgam's habitual overconfidence.
107-->'''Anthem''': I have a helpful god, remember? He can se things other people can't.
108-->'''Gilgam''': No one sees more than me, Annie.
109* {{Fanservice}}: Averted, deliberately per the creator. Yes, a comic with a teenage blonde protagonist, several cast regulars who are prostitutes, and an Evil Overlord Wannabe with a harem of [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Blue Space Babes,]] ''doesn’t'' focus on T&A or find excuses to spotlight their secondary sexual characteristics. That’s not to say there aren’t instances of nudity and people (not only women) in various states of undress -- the “M” rating isn’t just there to be edgy and there are multiple reasons for it, including the occasional brief sex scene -- but it’s not done to be titillating, just in a matter-of-fact nod-to-realism way. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of CostumePorn, justified by the real world historical settings the cultures in the story are modeled on or inspired by. (Understated, in fact, compared to the amount of bling found in portrait galleries up through the 18th century.) The detail level of clothing and gear, not only adds considerable visual interest to the pages but makes it easy to keep track of a large cast of characters. Moreover, as Hollywood has long known, historic costume is Hawt! all on its own! (There is also a bit of ContinuityPorn in the costume department, for the attentive reader.)
110* FantasyGunControl: Certainly possible with the level of [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemy]] here, but Given that this world has [[PlayingWithFire sorcerers who can light things on fire with their minds]] ''even if they're not terribly powerful or talented'', carrying around anything with gunpowder in it would seem to be like carrying a self-destruct mechanism and giving all your enemies the password... (Since Wyrdish Lightning Guns take [[PowerCrystal solid-state charge units]], this wouldn't apply.)
111* FantasyPantheon: We have not encountered all of the deities of Chalt to date, but a number of them, or aspects of them, have turned up in the form of the shrine gods on the inn's altar. Their conversation and commentary on events is often amusing as well as informative.
112* FantasyWorldMap: This is also a map of the Cosmos, which is more critical than one might think, unless one is familiar with how UsefulNotes/{{Alchemy}} operates as a magical system[[http://www.alchemy-works.com/planets_mars.html]]...
113* ForestRanger: Not quite played straight, since he’s protecting ''travelers'' from the dangers of the forest and not the other way around for the most part (although this is what the original TropeNamer, the Rangers in ''LOTR,'' actually ''did'') and somewhat ironic in that Gilgam started out as a city slicker whose first military experience was fighting as a harquebusier in conventional pikes-vs-cavalry engagements, and only later ended up functioning as a sniper/commando with the appropriate forest camo for the job. These days he’s guarding the highways from bandits and monsters as best he can since the local ruler doesn’t much care about the state of his domain (read: is ''completely'' mad) and the official patrols are composed of fops and bully-boys who would rather stay at the inn drinking than do their job, though he lately gained a deputy, and very recent developments have brought reinforcements, if of an ambiguous nature, into the picture.
114-->'''Gilgam:''' ''(reassuring the latest rescuees)'' Don't worry, old man. I’ve been '''''chased''''' through these woods by '''''lots of things.'''''
115* ForTheEvulz: Darumatha often claims to be doing this, but you can't take anything it says at face value. Listen closely and you'll catch the plain old [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition]] underlying.
116* FunctionalMagic: Several different systems are in operation, including UsefulNotes/{{Alchemy}}, Device Magic, {{Necromancy}}, Rule Magic, and Theurgy. The Scientific Method appears to be able to be applied to all of them to increase their efficiency, although this is somewhat controversial when it comes to dealing with the Gods.
117-->'''Anthem''': Of ''course'' it's not easy. If we do it wrong, mouths will open in the sky and children will be born with kestrel's heads, north will be south and cows will eat people. I ''know.'' I'm not asking if it's ''easy.'' I'm asking if it's ''possible.''
118* FunSize: Played straight with Vish, who is a traditional shoulder-sized guardian angel, at least in his current manifestation, for reasons not fully clear, and finds it difficult to be taken seriously in consequence -- but subverted with Mixabokes, who was once a terrible but beautiful enforcer serving the god Yamra, an avatar of the goddess of binding (!) who nearly died in the war and was forced to transfer his consciousness to an imp's toadlike body, and is definitely ''not'' [[UglyCute so ugly he's cute]], now.
119* GenreSavvy: Many characters are aware of history, so far:
120** In issue #2, Anthem explicitly mocks past myths and legends as full of bad puns and creaky contrivances, and boasts of her intent to come up with all-new and different pranks worthy of her Trickster deity. (It doesn’t quite work out the way she planned.) Even earlier, she is filled with trepidation at having taken a mysterious potion [[spoiler: coffee]] from an inhuman stranger, since [[Literature/AliceInWonderland that never turns out well for girls in stories]]!
121** Lord Ezheis describes himself and his companions as "villains," even as he demonstrates that EvenEvilhasStandards.
122** And Kebra's fear that he's being set up by his backer to take a fall reflects not simply paranoia but how [[DealWithTheDevil such bargains typically go in tales.]]
123* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Dendi Mbako becomes one because thanks to the dislocation of the cosmos caused by the killing of the [[GodEmperor Water Phoenix King]], he remains bound to his body despite his execution (it's not quote DeathTakesAHoliday, but close). The twin aims of restoring himself to true life and taking revenge on the comrades who left him behind when they escaped gave him the motivation to achieve [[TheUndead Lich]] status. Even decapitation isn't enough...
124* GlassCannon: Gilgam, with or without his gun -- though his fighting skills improved drastically between the time he first took up his gun again and the arrival of the lunar Embassy a few weeks later, he's very frank about the fact that "run away very fast" is still his preferred strategy when outnumbered without tactical advantage, because he's just too thin and wiry ''not'' to be flattened in melee if he gets cornered. Paradoxically, this just serves to make him even more insanely badass, because he keeps determinedly tanking all the same, when there's no one else to do it.
125-->'''Gilgam''': [...]Let's say hello, and if they don't like us, let's run away.
126* GodEmperor: Yamra, the Water Phoenix King, who according to his supporters was the benevolent ruler of creation, who favored his chosen race of Humans and protected the world from demons and other forces of Chaos. Unfortunately, his regime was based around his master's crazy karma system, punishing crimes of disorder or even ''unsanctioned benevolence and bravery'' with demons and mutations. Most of humanity got fed up with this divinely-ordained Order and, eventually, rose up and overthrew him with the assistance of the other sentient races of Chalt, ten years before our story begins.
127* GodIsEvil: The feeling of those who opposed Yamra, and before him his progenitor Gurahl, including the Goddess Ailari and her supporters. Disputed, obviously, by those who want to restore some form of the old regime.
128* GodzillaThreshold: Each of the chains binding Okeshida causes plague and ruin when broken, but Anthem has to break them all or the world will be overrun by demons spawned by the karma system that only Okeshida can delete.
129* TheGoodChancellor: Jarjuna, the human hero of the land who rose from humble beginnings as a glassblower's son to lead the rebellion and kill the GodEmperor ten years ago, and who since then has struggled to reforge a safe and stable society out of the ruins. We haven't met him yet, but it was his deed of land to another war hero, Lt. Arduna Pathlo, that made the latter's dream of starting an inn possible, so he's ultimately responsible for most of what's going on, on one level. A lot of the resentment against him even from the nobles of his own side seems to come from his plebeian background and more egalitarian policies, as he appears to be doing as well as anyone could under the circumstances. Given he rallied an army and killed a ''god'' with his own sword, he would seem to count as a BadassBureaucrat too.
130* GoodIsNotNice: Gilgam embodies this -- being ReallySevenHundredYearsOld is only part of the reason; it mostly seems caused by [[WonTheWarLostThePeace post-war disillusionment and depression,]] though he was probably always sarcastic and irreverent (he ''was'' a lawyer, after all) and being The OnlySaneMan (in ''his'' mind, at least) doesn't help. Milat doesn't suffer fools gladly either, and everyone gets pretty testy from time to time, without actually being ''Evil.''
131* GoodScarsEvilScars: Subverted. There was [[BrokenHero never any real question about his Alignment]], but Gilgam's triple scar (it looks like he was clawed by a wildcat -- we eventually learn what really did it) ''quite'' disfiguring, really disturbing and wince-inducing at first, although one eventually gets used to it and almost stops noticing it until something happens to point out again just how close he came to losing that eye. (It's shocking how young he looks in the flashbacks before he got it.) He's still quite handsome, but it's despite, not because of. It [[AcheyScars doesn't seem to bother him at all now]], either.
132* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Trope does not appear to be in effect; one of the core cast chain-smokes, and while he is an openly mercenary and rather sleazy character, not so far an Evil one and on the side of the angels -- wait, [[LightIsNotGood that saying doesn't quite work in this universe]] -- has volunteered to help Our Heroes regardless of any reward. (Random guests around the bar have been seen indulging as well.) TruthInTelevision -- after all, it's not like you can DetectEvil by tobacco purchases in real life!
133* GoryDiscretionShot: Averted; see "BloodlessCarnage." (The [[BlackScreenOfDeath one exception so far]] is even [[BodyHorror more disturbing.]])
134* AHandfulForAnEye: Early on in the first issue, Gilgam makes use of enemy campfire embers in melee, establishing his GlassCannon and [[TheTrickster Trickster-Hero]] status at the same time.
135* HannibalLecture: Darumatha's efforts to tempt Anthem into becoming its War Leader/Mortal Figurehead have included these.
136* HeroicBSOD: Anthem [[spoiler: whenever she has to face Maresh again]] and Gilgam [[spoiler: after being recaptured by the Forgers of Pain]]. (They do get better.)
137* HesBack: Book 4...
138-->'''Anthem:''' How did he get a wyrd-gun?
139-->'''Gilgam:''' Long story. Involves a giraffe. I'll tell you later.
140* HigherTechSpecies: Both the Wyrds and the Ulenites in comparison to everyone else; however, it's complicated by the fact that there are worlds with incompatible atmospheres and magical planes, too.
141* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Averted. The inn's serving girls who freelance as prostitutes are a varied crew of individuals with their own aims and agendas; there's [[AlphaBitch the bossy one]], the quiet one, and the silly one, but each of them, though (so far) secondary characters, have backstories and aspirations beyond "pleasing men" and their work is neither glamorized nor handled exploitatively, but represented as a complicated thing where natural desires, social conventions, and moral hypocrisies collide in multiple standards. They're not "[[TheLoad useless]]" either: [[spoiler: all of them help reload crossbows during the fighting in Chapter 3, and more than that -- a particularly touching moment occurs when Kei and Meyra, both in borrowed arrow-proof tabards and Meyra clutching a bloody dagger, hug silently after the battle.]] Since then, there's been a bit of a ShipTease between the leader of the triad, Shreyas, and the Captain of the Bison Guards, whose wounds she tended as well as other things -- whether this is a political gambit or TrueLove leading to a [[http://www.amazon.com/Pot-Gold-Other-Plays-Classics/dp/0140441492/ref=pd_sim_b_1 New Comedy farce scenario]] remains to be seen.
142* HorseOfADifferentColor: Saddle-broken zebras are not uncommon, and are particularly popular with Yigs, who ''really'' favor dramatic stripes, but the more common riding animal seems to be the bicorn, which as you'd expect from the name is a large ungulate with two straight, twisted horns on its head. Wild herds of them live on the grasslands of the Baltoo. (Gilgam, however, has a riding robot that [[AncientEgypt looks like a giant bug,]] and Naksuanan, the Maheti merchant, rides a Galapagos-sized tortoise.)
143* HumansAreSpecial: Played straight, since the Creator Gods of this world chose humans as their favored species. Not that this has worked out particularly well for us ''or'' them...
144* HumansAreWhite: Averted. Pink-complexioned, light-haired people are not in the majority even among humans, being outnumbered by dark-hair and olive or dark complexions. Of the ten people who work at the inn, eight are human, one is a multi-colored insectile alien, one can pass for human if he leaves his hat on and avoids attention, and only two are white: Anthem and another girl, a knight's bastard who ran away to seek her fortune. There's a lot more to the ethno-religious situation on Chalt, in the wreckage of multiple cosmopolitan empires, but that gives a hint. Non-human races aren't all the same hue or color, either.
145* IdiotBall: Averted -- nobody carries one. People make decisions with insufficient information or do things for reasons that are not, overall, morally good or even practical ones, but everyone acts sensibly according to their own priorities, principles, and knowledge of the situation then available to them. This makes for better disasters and more suspense all around.
146* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Under Tamantha, most of the souls in the afterlife are tormented by the sheer overpopulation constantly crushing them - except for the strange, orange-colored souls who simply ignore the screaming around them and sit in a Buddhist pose, smiling. Anthem and company pity these souls for reaching a false enlightenment through feeble-minded obedience to the system, completely unaware that they are being rewarded for having no hopes and dreams, and used to further torture the normal souls with envy.
147* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: Chapter 4, Gilgam to Kawunei after the latter points out he was bluffing with an unloaded weapon after the battle.
148* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Subverted. When Anthem gains them by literal ex machina it is temporary, and she is completely aware that she needs real training in order to be any good without miraculous, and karmically dangerous, assistance. When she tries to learn for real she is so dismally bad at it that her trainer gives up in despair.
149* InASingleBound: Anthem gains this, along with enhanced speed and endurance, when she becomes a priestess of the Goddess of Journeys. Maresh gets it as part of his augmentation by Barrabon, and also partly as a matter of SupernaturalMartialArts Training.
150* InfiniteSupplies: Averted. Our Heroes' home base is situated at a major crossroads and is the first inn to be opened in the Chancellor's attempt to restore civilization to the war-torn wastelands, so in spite of the dangers of the highways they will not lack access to either money or goods so long as there is any trade moving at all. But food shortages and money woes are always on everyone's mind, partly because the effects reverberate throughout the realm and swiftly impact everyone else, as starving refugees and political exiles turn bandit from desperation.
151* TheIngenue: Dosh ''thinks'' Anthem is this. This [[TheFool says a lot about Dosh...]]
152* InMediasRes: ''WPK'' starts with our protagonist staggering away from the flames of a catastrophic magical explosion, and unfolds the backstory and setting as we travel along with her through this new-to-us world.
153* InnBetweenTheWorlds: The Inn of Silver Leaves, built atop the ruins of an old wyrdish fort, bits of which Gilgam has been cannibalizing to install ever more modern conveniences; it has become a focal point not only for merchants and others traveling through the wasteland between cities, but for beings from other spheres, drawn there by the increase in magical and mystical power due to the actions of both Ailari and her servants, and their adversaries working against each other.
154* InsufferableGenius: Anthem. She gets better over time but her arrogance causes the occasional outburst.
155* JustFriends: Averted entirely. It's impressive how thoroughly it's averted, in fact -- there is never any point at which the bond between dainty, feminine teenaged Anthem and battered, rakish immortal Gilgam even hints at something sexually inappropriate. Their relationship segues back and forth between sensei/student and older/younger siblings conspiring in mischief to the rarer real-life phenomenon of two intergenerational individuals "clicking" as equals, when it could ''so'' easily be filled with the creepy, but -- well, it's ''still'' full of creepiness, but the creepy overtones have to do with their equally casual acceptance of violence and Eldritch Sorcery, and the meddling of the Gods, instead. A prime case in point: the sequence in the second issue when Gilgam manhandles her down to the basement and ''puts her in a time-out until she '''stops threatening to rip someone's throat out with her teeth or call down cthonic retribution from the heavens''' on their enemy''-- who admittedly deserves a comeuppance but the former would be imprudent and the latter overkill for bystanders. [[spoiler:For him to do that, given what she is and has done, is a braver thing than standing down TWO simultaneous armed mobs earlier in the issue]]. Even more impressive in that the aversion isn't done by means of any usual gimmick: Anthem is not a PuritySue too innocently childlike to be thought of "in that way" and Gilgam ''doesn't'' consider [[MayflyDecemberRomance humanity to be an insumountable obstacle]] to romance, either. They really are friends -- no "just" about it.
156-->'''The Blue Knight''': That voice...'''''You!''''' From the library!
157-->'''Gilgam''': Good! You remember me. So you ''also'' remember my pretty little friend, the Blood Goddess. She's here now. She'll kill anyone I don't.
158-->'''Anthem''': Yes, I prefer "pretty" to "weird." I'm not ''that'' weird.
159* KindheartedCatLover: Arduna is seen in issue 5 cradling a very contented, blissed-out yellow tabby. (Ironically, the scene ''does'' come at the culmination of [[RightHandCat a round of political and military strategic plotting]]...)
160* KnightErrant: Gilgam, though he's anchored his errantry to the inn for now, in a very practical arrangement.
161* KnightInShiningArmor: Mostly subverted, but played straight in Book 2 with Sir Commito Ai-Chalse, who fills the [[Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda Sapt role of older Mentor]] to Princess Ismene.
162* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Gilgam's consoling speech to Anthem in the middle of book 2. Made ... peculiarly painful in that he doesn't actually seem to know how to do this himself when push comes to shove (tables involved or not.)
163* LadyOfWar: Commander Corva, though "demure" doesn't quite fit someone who dual-wields cutlass and hatchet and brawls with the best of them. (She does have the ImpossiblyCoolClothes, however.)
164* LaserGuidedKarma: The Deconstruction. The karma system (known as Tamantha) is inherently flawed in divine design and is responsible for guiding the world to self-destruction. Not only is Tamantha extremely biased towards one's origin[[note]]Divine Bigotry includes racism, sexism, and especially classism[[/note]], but any slight mark of disobedience has a chance of quickly spawning monsters and natural disasters that rampage in the offender's general direction, causing massive AesopCollateralDamage which leads more people to commit more crimes out of desperation or suffering, causing the karma punishments to escalate in a vicious cycle. This culminated in the assassination of an immortal tyrant who was deemed untouchable by Tamantha, which sets up the grim background of the world-ending plot.
165* LightningGun: Fairly short-range, but very lethal. Gilgam's only holds two charges at once, but it turns out there ''were'' drum-loading model of this EnergyWeapon made...Yeah.
166* LostTechnology: From several past civilizations, in fact. Fortunately one of the original Ancients is around to turn it on for them! ''Unfortunately'' he doesn't remember all the instructions...which is bad, when your security systems include [[spoiler: Killer Robots]].
167* MacGuffin: [[spoiler: The titular comet]] in issue #4.
168* MadeOfIron: Averted. People who get hit are slowed, or put down for the count, unless they're Undead. (That takes bisection with Magitek weapons.) Even superhuman physical abilities and magical protections are no match for concussions inflicted by the combination of an armored elbow and a stone floor, or getting thrown onto sharp glass.
169* Magitek: Science and sorcery seem to go together like any two things that go well together, in this world -- there's no evident problem with mixing them or using them together in whatever combination of reality hacks gets the job done.
170* MasterOfIllusion: Vish, naturally, as an emissary of TheTrickster; he has promised to train Anthem in this.
171* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Yes ... and not exactly. There ''are'' knights in full plate with swords and shields riding around on big horse-things "covered in curtains", and other trappings indicative of "Western" inspired fantasy -- but it's not ''just'' Northern but also Mediterranean, there are other cultures both on and off the main continent with entirely different sorts of historical inspirations, and purely fantastic otherworldly ones as well. It could be a mess, a horrible "culture collage" of the most random sort, but somehow it's not. The simplest way of explaining it is: Imagine if the Conquistadors had ''allied with'' Tenochtitlan instead, returned to conquer Spain and formed a fusion culture and religion; the Armada had won; and the Stewarts hadn't just claimed "Divine Right" but actual ''divinity'' in their rule of the resulting combined Holy Human Empire, its protectorates and colonies across Europe and much of the Americas. And magic actually ''worked'' the way people still hoped it did in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the age of John Dee and Paracelsus, and the cosmos really was Neoplatonic and inhabited as the ancients believed. Everyone expects the Anglo-Aztec Inquisition -- but that doesn't mean they like it!
172* MillionToOneChance: Used as part of a threat. Anthem points out that even though she only has a one in twenty chance of killing Demon-Dragon Darumatha, [[KarmicDeath this also means there is a one in twenty chance that Darumatha gets killed off stupidly for a very fight it had no good reason to start.]] [[DidyouJustScamCthulhu This is actually enough to make the demon-dragon concede.]]
173* MistakenForServant: Anthem is frequently profiled as her secretary, because of her Vice President Secretary behavior and lack of regal appearance.
174* {{Mentors}}: Vish fulfills the [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Giles role]], for the most part, though he's not as badass as "Ripper" by any means (better at bluffing, though) and has only recently accepted the need to help Anthem with weapons practice in addition to magical and mystical disciplines, since Gilgam has absolutely refused to train her in swordplay. (This is ''not'' because he objects to women in combat or thinks that she ought to stay "innocent," but may be related to his PTSD and fears of responsibility, or because he feels that whacking on her with beater swords would cause problems for their friendship. Gilgam also mentors Anthem, socially, but ... his mentoring comes off as a little ''skewed'' even at the best of times: "Cheer up, we still have enemies to kill!" would not be an acceptable pep talk to an anxious teenager, by most standards.)
175* MookChivalry: Averted. ZergRush is the preferred tactic for dealing with adversaries.
176* {{Mythopoeia}}: Chalt has its own [[FantasyPantheon pantheon of gods]] plus demigods and other supernatural beings, CreationMyth, and theologies attempting to explain The Gods and their ways.
177* NeglectfulPrecursors: The Wyrds on the whole would seem to be this, going by some of Gilgam's bitterer remarks.
178* {{Ninja}}: None, strictly speaking, so far; but Gilgam's hooded black and dark-green forest camo outfit looks the part, and he spends a lot of his time patrolling in high places like trees, cliff ledges, and the inn's own rooftop, bringing this trope pretty near the mark. Also making for some surreal visuals when he comes off-shift from one duty and immediately takes up another, while even the most arrogant Brute Squad member has difficulty coping with "Alien Ninja Bartender" as a paradigm...
179* NotSoDifferentRemark: Darumatha to Anthem in its "[[WeCanRuleTogether Join me]]" speeches.
180* OddJobGods: All of the deities fall into this multi-tasking category. TruthInTelevision, given ancient history.
181* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:How Anthem and her team kill Darumatha]]. And BOY was it a huge neck!
182* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Subverted; it ''looks'' like this at first when Gilgam begins to haggle with Arduna about how much they'll pay him to be both handyman ''and'' security for the inn, but then [[spoiler: he swiftly points out that if he ''weren't'' honest, he could lie, pretend to take the lowball offer, and easily steal ''even more'' than he's asking. Instead of being emblematic of unheroically mercenary attitude, it's a strangely-powerful way of showing a BrokenHero [[CallToAdventure answering The Call]]: for the first time in ''years'' he's standing up for himself and declaring that he's ''worth'' something, still.]] And it fits the whole pragmatic tone of the story, and one apparent moral of it, which is that people don't live on air, money doesn't grow on trees, and the old aristocratic attitude that commerce and toil are low and contemptible -- though ''wealth'' is anything but -- is itself a corrupting one.
183* {{Paratext}}: Very restrained, for webcomics ''or'' for genre media these days. There's [[FantasyWorldMap The Map,]] which has [[{{Mythopoeia}} some short mythology and setting notes]], DramatisPersonae pages for major and minor cast members -- and that's it, except for brief comments accompanying each page as posted, and a dry, often humorous [[LaconicWiki Laconic]] summary [[http://twitter.com/Moochava in the author's Twitter feed]] announcing a new page.
184* PlayingWithSyringes: Hadrakahn aristocrats were into this before the war put a stop to their rule, conducting experiments of undescribed but decidedly unpleasant type in the pursuit of earthly immortality -- even though it was a form of heresy revealing lack of faith in their GodEmperor. It's likely that this was a contributing factor to the rebellion itself, as it seems unlikely that most, if any, of the test subjects were volunteers. (Those channels running through the floors and walls of the ruined Temple of Natural Philosophy: ''not'' a gravy delivery system...)
185* PrideBeforeAFall: Maresh on the Temple roof in Book 4. Heh.
186* ProtectiveCharm: Gilgam has one in the form of a [[http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/f/faience_wedjat_eye.aspx bronze wedjat]], whose powers are undefined but which has "gone off" twice now (that we know of) in Anthem's presence, making it function as a "DetectEvil" gadget in addition to any defensive properties. WordOfGod says that Corva's shell brooch is also a talisman, but we haven't seen it do anything yet.
187* ProudScholarRace: The Wyrds, whose society had reached and/or surpassed 20th century technology even before they decided to leave the surface of the planet for floating island cities. Amusingly subverted in that while Gilgam is quite vain of his people's accomplishments, and while he is both literate and knowledgeable, he ''isn't'' an obsessive bookworm like Anthem, is ''quite'' happy to push off translating duties on her when he learns she can read Wyrdish (much to her annoyance) and Spock never had embarrassing moments when he couldn't remember what buttons to push, did he?
188-->'''Gilgam:''' ''(handing her a battery-powered flashlight)'' Hold this. It '''''makes light'''''...with '''''magic!'''''
189-->'''Anthem:''' ''(glaring)'' I '''''know''''' what a '''''wyrd-lamp''''' is, thank you. ''(This is even funnier because there '''are''' magic lights in this world.)''
190* PuppetKing: Everybody wants one these days! Barrabon and Maresh are recruiting candidates for their revived theocracy, Darumatha has found a second-stringer when Anthem wouldn't play, it's just the thing to do when you don't think you can get away with ruling openly on Chalt.
191* QuitYourWhining: Several occasions so far. [[spoiler: Gilgam to Anthem during their cold-weather training hikes; Okidesha's idol to Vish in Chapter 3; Corva to Anthem during her latest duty-related freakout]].
192* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Wyrds, and gods/angels/demons, though all of these beings can be killed, if not easily.
193** Vish, on the other hand, inverts this to [[http://www.waterphoenixking.com/comic/volume-07-page-35 Anthem's incredulity]].
194* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Very likely, Chancellor Jarjuna off in the distant capital; locally, Arduna, though unfortunately his authority is limited to the Inn of Silver Leaves. (Well, legally, anyways. MissionCreep has begun to set in.)
195* TheRemnant: Two, in fact -- the remains of Yamra's human army composed of Hadrakahn knights and their loyal retainers, and the Yiggish rebel lords and their followers who joined him in hopes of gaining power unavailable to them in their own empire, the Ngapp. They don't get along very well, but both make life difficult for their neighbors in post-war Chalt whether teamed up or not.
196* TheRival: Maresh, the young [[KnightTemplar Templar-in-training]], though he would strongly disagree which of them is [[RivalTurnedEvil the Bad Guy]] of this story. (He would be TheWoobie, except he's way too annoying for that.)
197* {{Ronin}}: The Ngapp, who served Yamra in hopes of supplanting his rebellious human subjects, and were retroactively outlawed after their emperor decided to support the human resistance at the tail end of the war. Now exiled to the wastelands, men without a country or hope of pardon, they have turned bandits and raid against neighboring humans and their own people, the Yigs, indiscriminately. (Ironically, Kawunei is ''technically'' loyal to his treacherous liege Yoth, but only in order to better supplant him since Dreadlord Yoth's too paranoid and jealous to surround himself willingly with [[SurroundedByIdiots any but idiots]] (or at least people genre-savvy enough not to seem too competent), making his fears a self-fulfilling prophecy, thus skating right along the edge of this without going quite over.)
198* RuinsForRuinsSake: Averted, with the history of the realm involving ancient warring nations occupying the region for ages past. (It should be noted that the author lives in a part of the country where [[http://www.primaryresearch.org/stonewalls/schweizer/index.php centuries-old stone walls running through the middle of dense woods]] are [[TruthInTelevision to even be remarked upon.]]
199* SamaritanRelationshipStarter: Chapter 3 turns out to be this.
200* {{Samurai}}: See "Ronin" above.
201* ScaryShinyGlasses / TheGlassesComeOff: Both averted. Kawunei only takes his glasses off to clean or fiddle with when it's quiet and safe, and he was plenty scary long before we ever saw his lenses flash in the darkness. (Something about the way he's [[FriendlySniper quiet and polite and pleasant up until the instant he decides it's time to kill someone]], and then ''does'' it. And [[spoiler: ''Vish'' defeats him]]!) These tics just seem like little touches of realism. Definitely StoicSpectacles, though his rivals may have mistaken them for NerdGlasses.
202* SchizoTech: Justified, with civilizations of different ages and even planetary origins all interacting on Chalt.
203* SecretIdentity: Played with interestingly as nobody at the inn is fooled by Anthem for long, but even after she reveals her real name and origins to her friends, she, and they, all continue to use her new one and never mention her past before outsiders.
204* ShapeshiftingLover: [[spoiler: Ismene]].
205* SingleStrokeBattle: The (foreshadowy) duel in Chapter 4. The {{Magitek}} weapon helps, but he's ''just that fast'', too.
206* SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty: Definitely gritty, with stuff worn out and broken from time,, battle and disrepair, but not making TheDungAges mistake -- class, wealth, tradition, craftsmanship all affect the visual environment and material levels of civilization on Chalt. But everything ''does'' come at a cost, which is kind of the point of the story.
207* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The scale is ''very'' well oiled. It feels it weighted towards "Cynicism," but then there are all these surprising Heartwarming moments! Only they tend to come, if not in a welter of gore, at least in situations fraught with and surrounded by, intense violence and brutal cruelty.
208* SnowMeansDeath: A lot of that, esecially in Book 3. Justified in the increased destperation caused by winter's onset.
209* SnowMeansLove: Book 3, in retrospect.
210* SpaceElves: The Wyrds, pretty much, of the Type II Enlightened Mystic Race kind -- they've got the [[OurElvesAreDifferent longevity, speed, grace, superior senses,]] and the PointyEars -- with that making the Ulenites the [[ElvesVersusDwarves Space Dwarves.]]
211** Subverts most conventions in that ''both'' cultures are high-tech and mechanized, both have their present pacifists and warrior pasts, and both groups may have been fighting over territory more than ideology in antiquity, though we haven't really heard enough to be certain of historical motivations.
212** And while the Wyrds presently may be [[NeglectfulPrecursors in retreat from the unpleasantness of earthly life]], well on their way to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence a Higher Plane]] as previous species have gone before, "dreaming in columns of lightning", the political situation is so delicate that Gilgam is able to bluff the Ulenite embassy over fears of this detente ''ending'' by pretending to be a semi-official representative of his people observing the proceedings.
213** Moreover their culture isn't Myth/CelticMythology influenced at all, unless you want to get ''really'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scota obscure ]]; their futuristic tech isn't CrystalSpiresAndTogas, it's [[AncientEgypt Crystal Pyramids And Scarabs]] and they look the part, with dark skin and kinky hair.
214** We haven't him shaving or stubble-chinned, but from Gilgam's old family photos we know that Wyrds ''can'' grow full beards, as sported by one of his mother's companions.
215** And he uses neither sword nor bow, carrying only a medium-sized knife and his gun which he uses as a bludgeon as often as not; since we haven't yet seen any other Wyrdish fighters in battle, it's not possible to say if this is an aversion or a subversion of the trope, in other words, if it's ''them'' or just ''him.'' There have been more than a few indications that he's not a "proper" Wyrd, if he ever was.
216** However he ''does'' [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero go on a lot]] about [[FantasticRacism the inferiority of human culture]] and intellect, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold especially at first and/or when people annoy him.]]
217* SpaceWhale: The Wisps, beings of pure energy that inhabit the upper atmosphere, and which were nearly [[Literature/MobyDick hunted to extinction by early Wyrdish adventurers]] to power their devices until they worked out alternate energy sources. In Book 3, Gilgam mentions that [[spoiler: his mother once captained such expeditions]], one of the very few definite things he's said about his past.
218* SpikesOfVillainy: Averted/Subverted, since the Bison Guards are [[BadCopIncompetentCop at worst Corrupt Cops and at best Incompetent Cops,]] but have impressively spiked pauldrons as part of their livery; while Arduna and Reshma both have helmets with spiky bits that ''look'' exactly like something EvilMinions would wear in traditional fantasy art, but are among the best of fellows in the story.
219* SpookySilentLibrary: Discovered when wild magic reveals the stairway to a new part of the complex of ruins over which the inn is built; it becomes rather less spooky [[spoiler: after they deal with the bandits and magical guardians infesting the tunnels and start inventorying the rare books]].
220* StoryArc: Each chapter is a complete episode, but plot threads and characters carry over/under/around/through for the long haul. A very nice little instance of this long-term continuity is the glimpse of the Blue Knight (who does not appear in this issue in the present) in the background during a flashback to the invasion of Esgavi during the war, logically since he was once one of Yamra's important lords.
221* TagalongKid: Anthem, in the earlier issues -- lately not so much as she now has two full jobs as the inn's accountant and official cleric of the goddess but she's also furiously LevelGrinding now, so she may be planning on convincing Gilgam to let her come on patrols again:
222-->'''Gilgam''': Hell are you doing?
223-->'''Anthem''': Following you.
224-->'''Gilgam''': That's so damn cute. But ''no.'' Go wait inside, little girl.
225* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Averted; speech is always broken up to fit events on the page.
226* TeenGenius: Anthem ''and'' Maresh, who being too clever for their own good managed to summon a very powerful demon by accident, and are both dealing with the consequences now, each of them having been saved by rival, warring camps of the gods. Anthem is superb at math and logic, but not so great at coping when reality fails to match her calculations; while Maresh runs on passion and emotion, and is great at manipulating and motivating people with the intensity of his convictions, but not necessarily able to see the wider picture. Between them, they're wreaking a lot of havoc in their nation of Vasgol...
227* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Many instances, as Chalt is an old world with many hierarchies in place, and yet hierarchies which have been disrupted by war and revolution:
228** Anthem's failure to observe the formalities towards her nominal superiors gives away her imposture [[PaperThinDisguise almost at once]]; Reshma, one of her co-workers who is himself a fugitive from [[strike:justice]] nobles outraged that a lowly blacksmith would dare to love their sister, tries to give her pointers about this early on, as her privileged upbringing makes it almost impossible for her to function as a commoner despite her wide reading and intellect.
229** Later on, after she's given up pretending and is depending on her status as a cleric/clerk to protect her, she gets snippy with other people who don't address her with sufficient formality. This creates minor friction, a good bit of irony, and opportunities for snark all round.
230** Gilgam, on the other hand, is entirely informal, demanding none and giving none and mocking the notion of inherited rank at all. This leaves most people very confused as to how to deal with him, since as one of [[Precursors The Ancients]] he ought to be the most formal of all, right? May just be even more tangled of a situation, as at the beginning he introduces himself as "a prince among wyrds" which ''probably'' was just scarcasm and a figure of speech but -- we just don't know. It's RuleOfFunny and a very small possible visual clue versus low probability and no evidence at all either way.
231** The trope is played absolutely straight when he's conducting the interrogation/negotiations with Commander Corva and addresses her as "Miss", which, well, might have been mere empty formality -- and equally, ''might'' have been another test. She corrects him ''quite'' firmly on that point -- making the occasion when she grants him, and him alone, FirstNameBasis, a very important one indeed.
232* TranslationConvention: It is given that everyone is speaking Vasyar, the majority language of this part of the world, unless speech is in brackets; different dialects and accents are indicated with more subtle internal cues or remarked upon by the characters.
233* TreasureMap: In classic ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' mode, this doesn't quite work out the way it's supposed to. (It gets hung over the bar -- bloodstains and all -- as a souvenir, afterward.)
234-->'''Anthem:''' This looks like the map Naksuanan sold those two treasure-hunters. Except ''his'' was written in Vasyar, not Wyrdish. Here, for example, the cave under the Serpent Tower was labeled "Hall of Opals."
235-->'''Gilgam:''' You mean the cave that ''really'' says "Hall of Giant Sorcerous ''Bone-Crushing '''Tardigrades?'''''"
236-->'''Anthem:''' ''Bone!'' That's the word I didn't recognize!
237* TreasureRoom: Subverted in Chapter 1, as the adventurers storm right past the ''real'' [[AllThatGlitters treasure]] in their anger at not having found the non-existent rooms full of jewels.
238* TheTrickster: The goddess Ailari, patron of travelers, messengers, merchants, inns, freedom, and fortune. Her various servants and champions all embody these aspects in different ways, starting with Anthem's protests that she's nobody's servant, thankyouverymuch, and Gilgam's shameless [[RulesLawyer Rules Lawyering]] and outright deceptions to see justice done without giving her away. (Vish, for all his Lawful inclinations, even wears Hermes' winged sandals.)
239-->'''Vish:''' [...]Lady Luck. My Goddess. Yours now. Sanctifier of Journeys, Lady of Crossroads, Gallows-Girl of Thieves and the Courts of Night.
240* TheUnchosenOne: Anthem, who was trying to be the savior of her [[DoomedHometown village]] when it backfired bigtime, and Gilgam, who stepped into the gap because nobody else was there to do it, and Vish, going above and beyond the paramaters of his mission when duty called. Pretty much all the Good Guys so far, in fact, have just shouldered responsibilities with more or less grace answering no Call but their own internal promptings. Maresh ''was'' explicitly chosen by a god as champion, but this is not looking to be a very good thing...
241* {{Uncoffee}}: Averted, as Anthem, a tea-drinker from the sticks who's never encountered "java" before, is introduced to it while pulling an all-nighter. HilarityEnsues.
242-->'''Ismene:''' Should I w--wake Anthem?
243-->'''Vish:''' Without coffee, she sleeps. Like a little coffee-powered machine. I doubt tea would help, and if we wake her she'll just argue more.
244* UpperClassTwit: Dosh Ai-Nalyitta, a young adventurer from a minor aristocratic house loyal to the GodEmperor in the war and consequently fallen on hard times. He has enough good qualities to inspire loyalty from his friends even when he is being ''extremely'' annoying, but lacks the necessary discernment to keep out of major trouble, including seeing through overt flattery and manipulation. (Think Bertie Wooster as a cavalier with a sword and a big white horse-analogue.)
245* VirginTension: Completely averted. Anthem's sexual experience has never been stated one way or the other (she has expressed a [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Holmesian]] scornful bewilderment at the angst that others go through over matters of sex and love and societal hypocrisies surrounding them/we don't know/it doesn't matter) but at the outset Gilgam assumes that her reason for running away from home was a premarital pregnancy/abortion and subsequent disgrace (in fairness a ''much'' more reasonable assumption than [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow "fleeing an Epic Sorcerous mishap"]]) ... and ''that'' has no affect at all on his chivalrous behavior towards her when they're trapped by a band of fallen knights and retainers turned bandit, as she [[MoreHeroThanThou refuses to leave him]] to [[YouShallNotPass hold them off alone]]:
246-->'''Gilgam:''' Scram, girlie. '''''Now.'''''
247-->'''Anthem:''' What? No, I--
248-->'''Gilgam:''' I'm a ''soldier.'' You're a little yellow-haired serving-girl. And you're only gonna get one chance to get out of this jam. So go, dust, vamoose, depart hurriedly before--
249* VisionaryVillain: Lots. All of Our Heroes' adversaries so far, at least in leadership roles, have grand aims of reshaping the world and gaining or regaining a place of power and respect in it. Some of them even believe, or claim to believe, that they're even doing it for the good of all.
250* VisualInnuendo: There is a subtle bit of risque humor in Chapter 1 over the circumstances in which Anthem aquires her sword: she picks it up from where the macho, bullying Sergeant Deemo -- think Nobby Nobbs with none of the latter's good qualities -- has thrown it aside, revealed as an abject coward when the crisis comes...and earlier, when he tried to intimidate her, she employed aristocratic hauteur to quell him, calling him a "pitiful eunuch". Then she uses his discarded blade to [[spoiler: chop off the sword-hand]] of the first of a bunch of would-be rapists, cutting short their gloating. (It may not be entirely coincidental that her first deliberate homicide [[http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/DemeterTreasures.html was done with a sickle,]] either.) Swords run the gamut in this fantasy setting from BoringButPractical tools (hur, hur -- no, not ''that'' kind of tool) to [[CoolSword impossible elemental creations]] so not surprising that their symbolism is all over the map, too.
251* VitriolicBestBuds: Anthem and Gilgam, who snark at each other ''all the time.'' (It's a tough job, but ''somebody's'' got to do it.)
252* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Several different sorts - demons and gods (basically the same thing, just divided by who's winning) can do it easily, and ordinary creatures can slip the bonds of nature under certain, as-yet-indefinite circumstances and "overreach" themselves to become higher lifeforms. Such shapeshifters have uncanny powers of healing that can give them away when they try to pass for normal humans. They also, in keeping with many legendary traditions, retain some characteristic of their natural form, such as a skin cloak or a mark on their body which betrays their origin. Reactions to shapeshifters seems to vary by culture on Chalt, with orthodox Hadrakahns regarding them as demons to be slain even when they are trying to live harmless unobtrusive lives, while the magic-using Escavites seem to be less fazed by them. We have learned very recently that artificial shapeshifting for humans is also possible, through sorcery.
253* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Yamran loyalists, but it's interesting how "Humanity needs us to rule again for their own good" exactly coincides with their self-interests. In this world, you're (marginally) safer sticking with the ones who honestly admit that they're in it for themselves.
254* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: Averted. Xenophobia is a major theme of the series, with FantasticRacism and intra-human bigotry equally serious.
255* WhiteMaskOfDoom: The Forgers of Pain. They're creepy due to their puppet-like aspects.
256* WonTheWarLostThePeace: Defeating Yamra and his knights didn't usher in an age of peace and prosperity, didn't "end all wars" or right all wrongs; instead the grim aftermath for Chalt has been the legacy of widespread destruction, war crimes and ongoing political strife which is pretty much TruthInTelevision. Exacerbated by the fact that [[GodIsDead killing a god]] has messed up the cosmic balance as well.
257* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Subverted in that they all ''stay'' at an inn, too -- the Inn of Silver Leaves becomes Our Heroes’ home base, which is fitting given that it’s doubly sacred ground to Ailari, being a place of commerce at a crossroads. This is convenient for the plot and provides plausible logistical support, as well as plenty of opportunities for conflict ''and'' situational humor.
258* YouAreNotAlone: A particularly awesome example at the end of Chapter 2, as Anthem tries to steel herself to going on the run again...
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