Characters / Looking for Group

Looking for Group is a fantasy Webcomic by Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza, the creative team behind Least I Could Do and Blind Ferret Entertainment animation studio. It borrows from classic D&D conventions and World of Warcraft to tell an original story.

Warning, Spoilers ahead

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Cale

Cale'Anon Vatay

Cale's first appearance.

Cale is an elven hunter and the central figure of the group. Cale is seen as noble and virtuous to the point of naivete, while in the LFG universe elves are Always Chaotic Evil. After an seemingly accidental meeting with the less morally upstanding Richard, and additional company, he has since found his beliefs in the moral code challenged. Cale has proven an excellent fighter, skilled with both his twin swords and archery. As the series has progressed Cale has begun to gain more depth and grow used to Richard's gruesome sense of humor. He is fiercely loyal, breaking laws and risking death to protect his friends and allies.

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• Anti-Hero:
  • He tries to go against his evil heritage and be good despite being surrounded by amoral characters.
  • He's an anti-hero like Batman, moving outside the system to do what's right rather than what's lawful. He doesn't believe in the end justifying the means, but he does believe in sacrifice for the greater good. His transition from Lawful to Chaotic Good is the entire point of his character development.
• Arrow Catch: And return it without a bow.
• Back from the Dead: In the very beginning of the comic, Richard reduces him to a pile of talking ash, but Richard soon brings him to Benny for a resurrection spell.
• Badass Cape: Even Richard wants it. He even weaponizes it at one point.

• Battle Cry: "For Gamlon!"
• Berserk Button: He is not happy about the Vulii turning the elves into a race of tyrannical conquerors; part of his motivation in the war against Legara is to wipe out the aristocracy who are descendants of the Vulii. Also don't brag about your evil deeds; Richard can get away with it but that's because he is stronger than Cale and immune to his attacks.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Easily the nicest and most idealistic character in the main group, even after character development, as well as the frequent butt of jokes. Yet there is no denying that he is also a fearsome fighter, and in fact is directly responsible for the deaths of every major villain they have faced so far.
• Big Good: As leader of Kethenicia, he has effectively become this.
• Break the Cutie: We see a lot of this from Cale.
• Broken Pedestal: To Gaten, who had great hopes for Cale. And yet Cale disappointed again and again.
• Butt-Monkey: Before he Took a Level in Badass and even then most people like to mock his masculinity and intelligence with him barely objecting anymore.
• Bystander Syndrome: He eventually goes from Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help to this, becoming completely indifferent to any suffering he isn't responsible for—at least when he's already on a quest. Even then he has problems committing to it and will end up trying to help them if he has time.
• The Chew Toy: Richard sets him on fire on a regular basis, Pella attacks him to prove he is not fit for a fight, his panther mauls him in its first introduction (not a case of addressing her as a male) and physics come back from lunch just for him when he tries running on a giant's arm.
• The Chosen One: The Archmage, who claims to be destiny, chose Cale to become the king of Kethenecia. The Dragon Elders expect him to be at the heart of a war greater than any the world has ever seen. His master said he was the result of generations of effort.
• Cloth Fu: He once used his cape to temporarily blind an enemy dwarf.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His idealism and life in monastery made him really naive and can be really slow. He is also the best fighter in the story.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Let's see: He was happy to live his life training in a monastery with his young wife and wise master, only for his master to manipulate him into leaving by forcing his beloved to have an affair, breaking his heart in the process. And while he wouldn't know it, most of his old buddies would die to ensure he had nothing to go back to.
• Doom Magnet: Benny even cites this as the reason for her dumping him.
• Dual Wielding: He dual wields with two swords Pella forged from the Sword of Truth which have fire and ice powers.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: A trait that considerably annoys The Choosers of The One, constantly getting sidetracked resolving whatever problems enter his path instead of focusing on a grander scale.
• Dying Alone: After Benny points out his Doom Magnet tendencies, he spends a year going to extremely isolated places with no companionship save Richard, so that he may avoid bringing harm to those around him and eventually die alone. He eventually snaps out of it.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Pinky.
• Fighting for a Homeland: Once the story started getting serious, he begins fighting to build Kethenecia into a new kingdom, and hopefully a better one than the last. Although he leaves Kethenecia once he thought everything was safe for the people.
• Friend to All Living Things: The only thing that keeps Cale from being a Disney Princess is his lack of a ballgown. While Cale constantly brings disaster unintentionally, trying to learn how to do evil on purpose just attracts the love of happy animals.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As one might expect from a handsome elven leading man.
• The Heart: He is the only one of the group who does not enjoy bloodshed, making him this by default. It helps that despite all the abuse he is victim of by his own team and people he encounters, he still tries to find non violent solutions except if his Berserk Button is pushed.
• Magnetic Hero: He has charisma, if nothing else. It helps him put The Alliance together.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Despite his best efforts, Cale unintentionally screws up just about everything he touches to the point where a tribe of cannibals feels sorry for him.
  • Him leaving Kethenecia for a long time ended up allowing for Princess Leena to usurp him. And she was able to do it in the first place because of the magic she inherited after Cale killed the Archmage.
• No-Respect Guy: Every faction he brings to in Kethenecia has either betrayed him or treated him like shit at some point. Even his girlfriend takes pleasure in seeing him being beaten.
• Oddly Shaped Sword: He goes on a quest to find a weapon that can defeat Leena. He ends up acquiring the Elfin Owl Glee Blade, a very ugly and misshapen magic sword, only to realize he got the wrong magic weapon.
• The One Guy: Turns out, he's the only male in the main group once Krunch dies, including both Sooba and Richard.
• One-Man Army: When Cale gets serious you really don't want to get in his path. He manages to breach the walls of Kethenecia virtually singlehanded with nothing but a few horses and a magic bow.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: When Cale gets ordered by the Demon Court to do evil deeds, he eventually settles on doing evil deeds to evil people. It doesn't work out since the chosen victims are completely cooperative and surrender instantly, with Cale not having the heart to Kick Them While They Are Down.
• Pointy Ears: It comes with being an elf.
• Poke the Poodle: The Demon Court gives him a Sadistic Choice, to either commit evil himself or watch as they kill everyone he has ever had contact with. Cale reluctantly agrees, and the evil he inflicts takes the form of stealing lollipops from children before giving them back.
• Punctuation Shaker: Cale "'" Anon, eh?
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever he gets angry enough, his entire eyes turn red.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Upon learning that the Archmage orchestrated every tragedy in his life and has just seemingly killed Richard, he completely loses it.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Cale notably goes from horrified at killing anyone who isn't obviously evil to calmly asking if they're going to have to kill the dragon elder.
• Training from Hell: His training consisted of three other armed novices routinely and constantly beating Cale into unconsciousness and repeating the moment he came to. Interestingly, despite the fact that he blindfolded can beat up numerous trained fighters with his bare hands, as he was trained to, Cale prefers the dual-swords and bow over unarmed combat.
• Victory Is Boring: After finally stopping the war in the north, rebuilt Kethenecia and got the sword of truth, he had nothing else to do since no leaders has quests to give him so he killed time hunting giant rats until he got a new adventure.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to do good, but he was ultimately willing to murder what he thought was an innocent boy to save the world. So much evil happens around him that he comes to grow rather accepting of the very evil his own faction causes. And he eventually qualifies as being particularly guilty, to the extent that he gives Richard a considerably stronger guilt-fueled power boost than the guilty raiders attacking them.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Starts out as one at the beginning of the story, wanting to do good regardless of the fact that his race is supposedly Always Chaotic Evil. He has a very difficult time grasping the situations at hand when he first becomes part of a group with the evil warlock Richard.
• With Friends Like These...: Everyone in the group physically abuses Cale or leaves him to get wounded by the enemies. It would probably be easier for the elf if he was saving the world alone.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • He once got captured by the Imps after his swords started malfunctioning.
  • He would normally have no problem against the Knights of the Way attacking him when they come en masse to assassinate him, but a surprise attack left him weak.
  • And in a separate incident with the Knights of the Way, he is left weak by being a non-magical being that spent too much time in a Bag of Holding, leaving him disoriented.

Richard

Richard

An average day for Richard.

An undead warlock who willfully sows destruction without any provocation whatsoever, Richard is Cale's foil and serves as the strip's comic relief. He is depicted as manipulative, both physically and magically powerful, exceedingly evil, and childish. He's very sensitive about his less-than-threatening name and reacts aggressively to Cale's nickname for him — "Dick." His companions often react mildly to his frequently psychopathic activities.

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• Affably Evil: He's a pretty joyful and comedic fellow, despite butchering villages and eating babies on a regular basis.
• Abusive Parents:
  • His father more or less sacrificed him on the Archmage's behalf, due to considering Richard nothing but a disappointment.
  • Richard himself adopts a Reptilian King as his own son. While his actions towards Charles are not malicious, he has little idea how to serve as a proper parent. And while it is admittedly the best out of bad options, he repeatedly puts Charles in harm's way because he needs to save innocents to fuel his powers. He also doesn't know if babies need to eat and frequently leaves Charles behind in his Bag of Holding. He encourages him and his brothers (the kraken and dragon he also took as children) to fight for his love too.
• An Arm and a Leg: His limbs are severed pretty regularly and he ends up needing to have them reattached when he can track them down. After his battle with The Archmage, his limbs are destroyed entirely, forcing Cale's group to look for a healer strong enough to help him.
• Anti-Hero: Even this is something of a stretch, though he does show a hidden good side occasionally.
• And Show It to You:
  Richard: The look on your face when a toddler rips out your heart and shows it to you; priceless.
• An Ice Person: Uses ice magic, although not as much as fire magic.
• Animate Dead: One of his abilities. With a horrifying twist in that he can actually animate the skeletons of living people causing them to peel the still screaming person open like a suit to expose the bones beneath.
  Richard: In case you weren't sure, the skeletons are on our side.
• Annoying Arrows:
  • The guy's been shot at with arrows by just about everyone with a bow, including Cale. Repeatedly. He has also been pinned to a ship's mast with arrows, shot in the back with arrows, and had an arrow through his head when being "tortured." Seeing as how he's already dead, he usually just plucks them out.
  • Taken to the logical extreme when, since they're having a hard time removing an arrow from Richard, Cale just draws his bow and fires the arrow, with Richard still attached.
  • An arrow actually hurting him is a sign that his powers need to be recharged.
• Arch-Enemy: The Archmage claims that Richard was supposed to be Cale's. Richard defied this and became Cale's friend.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He is the mayor of a village of undead, and was once known as Lord Ashendale.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Richard's extensive titles are earned based on kills.
• Back from the Dead: He's undead, although following his original cursing has to take measures to maintain that undeath or he will revert back to being a mortal human.
• Badass Boast: Here.
  Richard: Even without magic, I'm never powerless. Or any less dangerous.
• Badass Long Robe: He dresses in a black robe.
• Bag of Holding: He has a pink purse he uses to store Charles and a large number of pets. The inside resembles a large abandoned village.
• Bald of Evil: Or at least mostly bald. Nobody knows for sure.
• Barrier Warrior: His formidable offense and Nigh-Invulnerability means he rarely needs to use his defensive spells, but he does have them.
• Battle Cry: "For pony!!"
• The Beastmaster: He acquires a "purse dragon". Much later in the story, this crops up more and more as he starts magically binding more animals into his Bag of Holding, including a Kraken, several Mix-and-Match Critters, and an attack goat. He occasionally makes use of them in battle.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He is both the Plucky Comic Relief and one of the most individually powerful characters in the comic.
• Black Cloak: Dresses in a black robe with Shoulders of Doom.
• Black Comedy: Richard lives this trope.
• Black Mage: He's all about killing with magic. And many methods of killing without magic.
• Brick Joke: Richard introduces himself by listing off his numerous titles, and at the end he mentions he's "mayor of a little town up the coast."
• Brought Down to Normal: Richard is losing his powers and becoming mortal again since he's no longer engaging in wanton murder and villainy which his brand of dark magic requires. He gets around this for a while through animal sacrifice, but eventually, The Archmage seals off his powers, requiring him to find a new way to fuel them.
• Brought Down to Badass: Here again. Richard proves that, even without his magical powers, he is no less dangerous than before, and has weaponized his gardening skills to breed a species capable of releasing an odourless and colourless gas.
• The Caligula: Though the citizens of his town are pretty used to it, and are thus incredibly jaded towards dangerous situations. This is, of course, because they are already dead.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Enforced. As the story goes on he's engaged in fewer atrocities largely due to his new company, which has been resulting in him losing his powers and turning human.
• Cloudcuckoolander: As a rule, Apart from Comedic Sociopathy, Richard's main contribution to the comic was his increasingly weird and bizarre actions, as well as an ability to pitch in with silly ideas in the middle of serious conversations. This has only gotten marginally better.
• Confusion Fu: Kill It with Fire is by far his favorite tactic, but he can also cast ice spells, animate skeletons (even while their owners are still alive), use his gem as a blade, attach his own body parts to other creatures, unleash dangerous monsters from his Bag of Holding, grow explosive plants, and tear his opponents apart with his bare hands. With such an arsenal at his disposal, one never quite knows how his enemies will be mutilated.
  Richard: Even without magic, I'm never powerless. Or any less dangerous.
• Cool Mask: He wears a veil across the lower half of his face.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Though he probably wouldn't consider it such.
• The Dead Can Dance: He even declares himself "Lord of the Dance".
• Dem Bones: He's a skeleton, possibly even a lich. Most of his body is still covered up, though, so it's less apparent.
• Demonic Possession: Did it to Cale upon being 'killed' by the Archmage.
• Depower: Richard loses most of his magic after The Archmage casts a spell upon his gem. He regains it after finding a new way to recharge his power.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Don't call him Dick... or Lord Ashendale.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Cale dubs Richard "Dick".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played for Laughs. Richard is rather shocked that the Kraken is racist. But he's singing for both of them.
• Evil Sorcerer: Well, warlock, anyway, but he sure acts like a sorceror in terms of his magical combat style.
• Evil Tastes Good: Monks' souls taste like chocolate.
• Evil Wears Black: Constantly wears a black robe.
• Face–Heel Turn: It's an implied one, if you bring into account how seemingly peace-loving he was as a child.
• The Faceless: Only his eyes are clearly visible to the reader, the rest of his face perpetually covered by his veil. (On rare occasions other characters have caught sight of what lies underneath, however.)
• Facial Markings: Above and below his left eye. His bags may or may not count.
• Faking the Dead: It's ambiguous as to whether Richard needed to fuel his undead-ness all along or whether his waning powers were a result of the Demon Court's sentence taking effect. Either way, he does this whenever his mortality starts returning.
• Faux Affably Evil: Although later sliding into genuinely Affably Evil.
• For the Evulz: Enforced. He needs to commit evil acts to fuel his powers. Since he hasn't been doing as many since he joined up with Cale, he started to lose his powers.
• Friendly Enemy: He introduced himself by half-heartedly attempting to corrupt Cale, with the ultimate intention of demolishing his wide-eyed idealism. Even after Cale got toasted by Richard, they ended up travelling together, never really resolving their past antagonism. As it turns out. the Archmage intended for Richard to serve as a rival and possible Starter Villain to get Cale going on his Hero's Journey.
• Gender Reveal: Richard, or rather, Regyna herself forgot that she was originally a woman before becoming undead and thought she was her own little brother.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: He has glowing yellow eyes.

• Green Thumb: He enjoyed gardening while alive. As an undead, he uses his gardening skills to cultivate plant varieties that he can weaponize.
• Heal It With Fire: Cauterizes an injury Cale sustained with his fire magic until it could be healed properly.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: And apart from a few Hidden Depths, his status as this has only marginally changed.
• Heroic Vow: Makes one to protect Cale, even from the Archmage.
• Heroism Incentive: The easiest way to get him to cooperate is by promising him the opportunity to wreak death and destruction.
• Hidden Depths: Switches between being a Heroic Comedic Sociopath and being philosophic and vaguely frightened about his undead status.
• Immortal Immaturity: Richard is a Psychopathic Man Child despite having lived for centuries.
• In the Hood: Is never seen with his hood down.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Richard being able to survive just about any injuries (in his undead state) makes him prime fodder for this role.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He hasn't quite gotten the hand of it yet.
• Jerkass: His very first scene featured him scorching a bunny right under Cale's nose, and he gets in a lot more as time goes on.
• Kill It with Fire: His favourite means of killing things.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: He's great at physical combat, thanks to some chocolate monk soul.
• Laughably Evil: As with all Heroic Comedic Sociopaths, his hilarity is prioritised over the totally evil nature of his actions.
• Large Ham: As fitting for a Villain Protagonist, he's well-versed in Chewing the Scenery.
• Lean and Mean: Skeleton-lean, in fact.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His constant pop culture references.
• Lesser of Two Evils: At one point, Richard seems to imply that things would be a lot worse if he didn't have his powers. It was never elaborated on (since he knocked out Cale right afterwards) but one possibility is that he gave up his innocence to prevent a more powerful evil.
  Richard: As my power wanes, his grow.
• Loophole Abuse: When Richard learns that he can fuel his powers by saving the guilty, he asks Pella to kill a guilty person and then saves him.
• Long List:
  • Richard's list of titles, and tropes compared to the other characters.
  • And his list of decrees when he mistakenly assumes to be worshipped as a divine.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Introduced this way. Over the strips he has developed a much more benevolent side.
• The Man They Couldn't Hang: More like The Man They Couldn't Decapitate
• Meaningful Name: It's probably no accident that his name can be shortened to "Dick."
• The Millstone: Despite being the most powerful of the group, they usually fare better when he isn't involved since he ruins any element of surprise, injure his allies and escalate situations.
• More than Meets the Eye: Richard's cozy little village up the coast turns out to be filled to the brim with undead citizens.
• My Sibling Will Live Through Me: Cale meets Regyna, Richard's sister, in the memory-based pocket dimension. She's the one who actually became the warlock, but confused her identity with her brother's in the process. Even after rediscovering the truth, she continues to go by "Richard".
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Invoked. He may have taught others to fear the name.
• Necromancer: He raised an entire village from the dead and gave them the power to assume a human appearance on the outside, while naming himself mayor. He doesn't do it on-screen though, making it a downplayed example.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He can survive pretty much anything, even a heavy coating of molten lava.
• Not Quite Dead: Just when you thought he was gone for good, Richard proves to be more resilient than the Archmage accounted for.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant
• Nominal Hero: Other than his duty to protect Cale, he's pretty much a comically enforced Card-Carrying Villain. Though this is given a little more depth as the story goes on.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: For all his apparent immaturity, Richard is really very knowledgeable and intelligent, and is probably more in the know on the Archmage's machinations than any other main character (with the possible exception of Pella).
• Older Sidekick: To Cale.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He even admits to being one in his Villain Song.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Richard is truly serious about achieving something, you can bet there's something large at stake.
• Our Liches Are Different: He's nearly invulnerable, even surviving decapitation, and can possess gems. But there's no indication he can reform after complete destruction and has to kill innocents to maintain his immortality.
• Overly Long Gag: His titles.
• Phlebotinum Overload:
  • The Archmage induces this in his gem in an attempt to kill him.
  • He threatens Benny with this when she magically binds his hands to keep him from using magic. She immediately backs down.
• Playing with Fire
  • Fireballs: Likes flinging them around.
  • Technicolor Fire: Normally he has red flames, but after The Archmage breaks his gem he can only use red flames by saving the innocent, whereas saving the guilty will give him blue flames.
• Power Crystal: Which he occasionally uses as a limited Soul Jar.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child:
  • His powers are fueled by the ashes of the innocent people he kills. But as this increasingly becomes a case of Necessarily Evil rather than For the Evulz, he eventually comes to sacrifice animals instead. After The Archmage prevents him from sacrificing the innocent, another sorcerer reveals that it is possible to save the guilty instead, which has an even easier loophole, though it only works once per saved soul. In addition, if he saves the innocent, he can regain his power multiple times over, working around the one soul limit. Which is still a case of this since it results in him deliberately putting Charles in harm's way to save him.
  • Richard’s gem is another example of this. Lord Ashendale sacrificed his son Richard on a sarcophagus, and his blood condensed into the iconic red power jewel.
• Power Parasite: He knows how to steal magic from others if he needs to.
• Power Source: It seems to be the corpse of his father as well as the Power Crystal he wears.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • "Rejoice. For very bad things are about to happen."
  • "Come then. Oblivion awaits." Subverted in the fact that he was captured shortly afterwards.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Just as good at these as he is about the ass kicking variant.
  It was great meeting you, Ajellah. '[Krak!]'
• Psychopathic Manchild: And he still hasn't lost his immature streak.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Though Richard often claims to be the more masculine of the two, Cale isn't the one seen wearing a pink apron, putting curlers in his "hair", or carrying around a pink, flowered purse with deadly animals inside it. Then again, considering Richard’s true identity…
• Reckless Sidekick: Richard generally displays little regard for the group's plans, preferring to act of his own accord even when he has the same goals in mind. Since he is a rare example of this trope where he is by far the most powerful member of the group and has little fear of death, there are usually few permanent consequences to his recklessness. Nonetheless, there have been a few occasions of this where he has been left incapacitated, leaving the rest of the group to accomplish their mission without his power.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes glow yellow, an indicator of being an undead.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a warlock to do after you kill one of his friends.
• Screw Destiny: He tells the Archmage to stop planning Cale's destiny and leave his life in his own hands. According to the Archmage, Richard and Cale were intended to be enemies, not friends, and tries to annihilate him for throwing fate all apart.
• Shoulders of Doom: And they're getting bigger.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His robe has Shoulders of Doom, but lacks sleeves. It makes seeing his human skin easier.
• Soul Jar: It seems he has one, though it's debated as to what it is.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: He subtly threatens the Archmage, telling him that he will not allow him to interfere with Cale's life any further. Could be a subversion, considering that it's Richard.
• Story-Breaker Power: He's the resident Game-Breaker, though it's generally curbed by the fact that he's incredibly unhelpful and not there when he's needed.
• Straw Character:
  • Rich is registered to the Republican party. Though even he has issues with their immigration policy.
  • This goes double for Tiny Dick in the B-Side Comics, who is unsubtly used to portray various people and political standpoints in a negative light. Or in a few cases, to portray them in a good light. Is largely used to promote Democratic Socialism and put down Conservatism and related ideologies.
• The Soulless: Traded away his soul to become an undead warlock.
• Summon Backup Dancers: Oppa Gangnam Style.
• Super Power Lottery: He has a lot of powers. Pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, aerokinesis, various energy attacks, Necromancy, telekinesis, a Healing Factor, and Demonic Possession (of both living creatures and inanimate objects) are just a few. He tops off any gaps with pet monsters, deadly botany, and martial arts skills.
• Token Evil Teammate: He's an utter madman who only joined Cale's party for the opportunity to cause chaos and destruction.
• Tomato in the Mirror: While Richard's memories are vague, he believes himself to be Lord Ashendale's son. During a fight in a pocket dimension where power is tied to lack of preconceptions, Richard says that power could be gained "If I suddenly began questioning everything around me; my entire existence even." Cale yanks off his cowl and hands him a mirror. Apparently, he was actually formed from Lord Ashendale's daughter.
• Tom the Dark Lord: He's a Heroic Comedic Sociopath and Person of Mass Destruction named... Richard. It's even more humiliating when one considers (as Cale does) that he can be called "Dick" for short.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Richard took to singing during his torture sessions. And pointed out that there was still room for an axe by his thigh.
• The Undead: With a twist that Undeath Always Ends: Richard is slowly regaining his mortality if he doesn't perform evil deeds, as per the Demon Court's sentence.
• The Un-Favourite: His father greatly favored his ruthless sister over him, who just wanted to be a simple gardener.
• Unscrupulous Hero: After finding less harmful ways to fuel his powers, he transitions from Token Evil Teammate to this.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Richard is incredibly powerful but other spellcasters have been able to shut him down on multiple occasions. Par for the course for warlocks.
• Villain Song: Richard gets one of these, "Slaughter Your World", in one of the animations, with the added bonus of it being taken from a Disney song with the lyrics modified.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: He can't recall simple words like "Grow" and instead mentions helping flowers "unkill". He seems to not understand sexual intercourse, but that's partly due to him being undead since he was a kid.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Richard had a passion for gardening, but his father wanted a warrior and heavily disagreed with his son's chosen career. This made it easy for the Archmage to convince his father to sacrifice his disappointing son, which turned Richard's sister Regyna into the warlock.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
  • Might be considered one, if you take into account the implications of his forgotten past and how genuinely sad he seemed about it. Doubled when you see his vision of Innocence: a large, near perfect rose like the ones he planted as a human child.
  • And the line that hints that all of his killing is holding a Greater-Scope Villain at bay.
• The Worf Effect: Richard is a Person of Mass Destruction and the strongest member of the group by orders of magnitude. Leena defeats him effortlessly, which leads to Cale concluding they stand no chance against her.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He can eat them.

Benny

Benn'Joon

Benny is a priestess that Richard and Cale met while seeking a healer. Her exact race is unknown to most. It was earlier stated by her ex-husband Rojave that she has mixed ancestry. Benny is a talented priestess; she is able to resurrect others after death (as long as the death is recent enough), heal both minor and serious wounds, and create powerful magical shields in combat. She is also a highly skilled warrior trained by the Bloodrage Clan. She usually takes a pragmatic cynical view of the world.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Benny's outfit. It looks delightful, but offers no protection.
• Barrier Warrior: She can create powerful red force fields when she's not kicking ass.
• Battle Couple: With Cale... until she becomes fed up with his accidental Doom Magnet tendencies.
• Black Bra and Panties: Shown while she had a pillow-fight with Pella.
• Bullying a Dragon: She enjoys antagonizing Richard whenever she can, and usually, he plays along. Sometimes, though, she has to be reminded that he could kill her easily.
• Combat Medic: Her most essential role in the group is being the healer, but she is capable of fighting too.
• Cute Little Fangs: Like you'd expect from a Cute Monster Girl, her monster attributes are played for prettiness.
• Cute Monster Girl: A role she grew into as her romance with Cale went on.
• Deadpan Snarker: Along with Richard, this to the more serious Krunch and Cale.
• Domestic Abuse: She takes pleasure in seeing her boyfriend suffer and often inflicts him with abusive pranks.
• Four-Fingered Hands: She has four fingers, which is one of a number of hints that her father-daughter relationship with Krunch isn't solely adopted.

• Hot Witch: Not a traditional priest outfit, and the comic isn't shy about letting us see her hotness up close.
• Hybrid Monster: Heavily implied. And if later comics are anything to go by, she's a half-minotaur, half-elf. Maybe. It's complicated.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: When was the last time you saw a priest wearing that get-up?
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: All the better to show off the Navel-Deep Neckline.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Despite constantly making jokes at Richard's expense, the one time he seriously threatens her, she immediately backs down.
• Little Miss Badass: When a disembodied voice calls out to Little Benny, she jumps a bit, then proceeds to snark at the voice and threaten it with a rock.
• Love Triangle: She would actually appreciate having a romantic rival for Cale's affections, to make the relationship more exciting.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ended up this way for most of the early comic, and there are still a few moments from time to time.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: A conveniently low-cut robe goes a long way, people.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Her mother is the dark elf pirate captain Tah'vraay, and it's been strongly hinted that Krunch the Minotaur is her biological father as well.
• Power Crystal: She has one in her staff.
• Pointy Ears: Alluding to an exotic elven lineage.
• Pimped-Out Cape: Has one trimmed with white fur, and has gold-decorated shoulders.
• Pretty in Mink: Krunch gives her a fur-lined cape in the snow, when she was shivering. In Book 24, she wears a white fur coat for travelling in the mountains.
• Progressively Prettier: Compare Benny's appearance from her first appearance, to later ones.

• Raised by Orcs: She was raised by minotaurs.

• Sleeves Are for Wimps: She rarely wears sleeves in her outfits.
• Stripperiffic: Especially her first one, but most match the description.
• The Chief's Daughter: Through Krunch, to Chief Bloodrage.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: After Rojave gets his head roasted during the fight with his guild, Benny brings him back to life and heals all his injuries because she wants to smash his head in herself.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Probably adopted, but you still wouldn't expect her to introduce Krunch as her father. Not that he's ugly, but he is a walking, talking cow.
• Woman Scorned: Anyone who gets uncooperative around her is set for a beating.
• You Killed My Father: While she doesn't want revenge for it, she does blame Cale for Krunch's death. She recognizes, however, that it isn't fair, and that they'll talk after she returns from a journey to Krunch's library, but that she does need some time away from Cale.

Krunch

Krunch Bloodrage

Krunch is the elder son of the Bloodrage clan's chief. His younger brother, Ray'd Bool, is the Bloodrage's battle leader and current chief. Although he possesses great strength and battle prowess, Krunch has admitted to being the scholar of the two brothers. Krunch has taken a fairly neutral side in the "good/evil" debate that is, essentially, Cale and Richard's relationship. While Cale believes strongly in good, and Richard equally strongly in evil, Krunch believes that people do what they must to survive and everything is, in essence, relative. Due to his secular nature, and the fact that he is generally able to give logical reasoning to his beliefs, Cale often looks to him for truth and advice.

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• Action Dad: To Benny, through adoption but possibly through blood as well.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Well hooves really, but ties into his people's wild and uninhibited status.
• Big Damn Heroes: Drops in to save the day just as a dragon lands to capture Cale, Richard and Benny.
• Calling the Old Man Out: To both his father and his brother when he finds out why they've been attacking the other Northern tribes.
  Krunch: You, with your ambition, and you, with your blind loyalty!
• Enslaved Elves: In the past, Krunch's people were enslaved and used for hard labor. Krunch himself was once enslaved in a prison.
• Fantastic Racism: Krunch's people were once subject to this.
• Genius Bruiser: He's a scholar and The Smart Guy, but is a strong fighter nevertheless.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The only clothes he wears are a pair of britches.
• I Did What I Had to Do: It was Krunch who introduced this theme to the comic and would serve as its main advocate until the arrival of the Archmage, at which point it became a prominent theme in the comic overall. He even created the page image.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Used as a mocking threat towards Pella's father after they establish themselves as enemies.
• Killed Off for Real: Killed offscreen during the battle in Legara.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: His brother teases him about being a scholar and his father does not seem to respect him either, although there are other reasons for his father's animosity.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Would you really want to mess with someone named Krunch Bloodrage?
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: He's a member of the Bloodrage minotaur clan.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he gets angry, which also is part of his Bloodrage heritage.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He goes on one when his father is killed.

• Secret-Keeper: Richard told him about how Cale was tricked into leaving the Beacon of Hope by believing his wife was unfaithful, and how she was then killed, something Cale himself isn't aware of.
• Slave Race: Or, at least, his race used to be.
• Shoot the Dog: He treats his killing of the gnome, Fitch, who accomanies them as insuranceas a grim-but-necessary act.
• Three Fingered Hands: Like all members of his clan.
• Top-Heavy Guy: He comes from a race of these.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Tah'vraay.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Defied. Krunch proved a capable scholar with a thirst for knowledge, although he did retain his racial strength and effectiveness in combat.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Krunch does not like water.

Pella

Pella

Pella of Clan Breem is a dwarven fighter from old Kethenecia, as well as the youngest child and only daughter of the Commander of the Kethenecian Royal Guard. After the death of her brothers in the war against the Vullii, Pella was given the choice of which path to follow: the axe (a warrior) or the lute (a bard). After a moment of consideration, Pella decided she liked the feel of both. When Cale and friends were sent to bring Kethenecia to the present, Pella was assigned to guide them to the city catacombs under the orders of the Archmage. She aided the heroes in holding off the Vullii and releasing the city from its temporal anchor, later deciding to travel with the Group to the present. Pella has since stayed with the party ostensibly as she "has nowhere else to go." An exceptional fighter as well as an enthusiastic singer, Pella is known to sing love songs to her enemies while dismembering and/or killing them.

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• Amazonian Beauty: Many fans admire her well-muscled, warrior-style build compared to Benny's White Magician Girl Ms. Fanservice appearance.
• Action Girl: With or without a weapon.
• Badass Adorable: She has her cutesy moments, but she can still hand small armies their asses.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Probably the loudest, proudest warrior in the comic.

• Brave Scot: Though like her father, her accent is a more subdued example.
• Fiery Redhead: Pella loves a good fight. (Good being the operative word)
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Specifically, an axe.
• Ironic Echo: A group of men desperately beg for help. When she offers it, they all turn out to be Straw Misogynists and reject her help due to her being a woman, with one of them telling her "You are dismissed." She punishes that person by cutting off his hand and tells them "You be dismissed." before making it clear that she will kill them if they don't get out of her sight.
• Murderous Thighs: The Trope Namer.
• Perpetual Smiler: Very, very rarely does the smile leave her face.
• Put on a Bus: Left the group to live with a very attractive Amazonian woman. They return as a romantic couple.
• Take a Third Option: When Pella was asked if she wanted to pursue being a bard or a warrior (presented with an axe and a lute and asked to pick one), she said, "I rather be liking the feel of them both".
• Token Heroic Orc: At minimum, the only good dwarf left of Clan Breem, and it's unknown whether there are any other good dwarves in the setting either.
• The Blacksmith: The series also adheres to the tradition that smithing is to be expected from dwarves.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: She built a mechanical arm, far above our own technology, in the middle of the mountains, seemingly without our technology, and without any proper components.

Sooba

Sooba

Cale's pet panther, but appears to be more loyal to Richard. Is a strong fighter and appears to be quite intelligent.

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• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Almost to the extent of Hypercompetent Sidekick.
• Berserk Button: Sooba tends to attack Cale whenever he says "Good boy", because she's actually a girl. Cale was lead to believe she was male by her previous owner, Shora, and even after he is corrected, continues to call her this out of habit.
• Catchphrase: You think you know me...
• Gender Reveal: Was assumed to be male, but Benny reveals that Sooba is in fact female, much to the shock of Pella and the audience. "You think you know me" indeed...
• Inner Monologue: During the group's raid on the Legion fort, and the source of the above-mentioned Catchphrase.
• Odd Friendship: With Richard.
• Panthera Awesome: It isn't a stretch to say Sooba is one of the most badass animals in the comic and quite possibly one of the most badass characters overall.
• Speech-Impaired Animal: Other than some facial expressions, Sooba is mostly non-anthropomorphic in behavior and mannerisms, but is capable of coherent internal monologue.
• Team Pet: Specifically Cale's, but there seem to be some ownership issues.

Richard's Pets

Richard's Pets

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• A Day in the Limelight: "The Accessory" reveals the dragon's backstory.
• Badass Adorable: The Chacha Richard captured to be Charles' nanny (nicknamed "Nancha" by Cale). It can boss around Richard to get Charles supplies, beats up the regent while dazed and sleepy, and offers to deal with Assaracus so Richard can tend to Charles (and get his powers back).
• Bag of Holding: Spend most of their time inside Richard's. The main group's trip inside the bag reveals they sometimes play Skee-Ball in there.

Charles

Charles

A baby reptilian king, adopted and named by Richard.

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• Badass Adorable: He got into a tussle with the Kraken and Dragon over a fish as a background event. It ended with the Kraken's tentacle wrapped around the dragon's jaw in a knot, and him enjoying said fish.
• Death Faked for You: Since the Regent for Life's plan to kill him backfired and brought him under Richard's protection, he spreads propaganda that Charles was killed and uses a Frameup on Cale.
• Happily Adopted: Well, Charles likes Richard enough to save him despite Richard's very iffy parenting. To be fair, his last guardian was trying to kill him, while Richard is invested in keeping him alive.
• Morality Pet: Upon his revival, Tavor ends up as his new caretaker, and he actually feels somewhat guilty performing wicked deeds in Charles's presence.
• Power Source: He becomes this to Richard. Originally, Richard's powers were fuelled by the death of innocents. But after The Archmage causes a Phlebotinum Overload in his gem, altering the nature of his powers, Richard discovers that he can fuel himself by protecting the innocent and thus keeps Charles around for that purpose.
• Puberty Superpower: On his fourteenth name day, he will inherit special abilities.
• Puppet King: Since Charles is little more than a baby, his Regent for Life rules in all but name. But even that was not enough to satisfy the regent and he tried to have Charles killed.
• Purple Is Powerful: Wears a purple shirt and is Richard's power source in addition to a baby king.
• The Speechless: Doesn't talk, due to being a baby/toddler. Richard encourages this since he thinks it makes Charles seem really cool.
• Took a Level in Badass: His first scenes were just him being in a cradle or carried around by Richard. Then he beat up his "brothers" the Kraken and the Dragon. He was also instrumental in saving Richard from being encased in ice, since everyone else was in jail at the time.

The Archmage

The Archmage

The Archmage of Kethenecia is an old man, and a seer. Of questionable morals, he intended the city of Kethenecia to survive the millennia by shifting it into the future when the final attack of an alliance of many races was at Kethenecia's gates. The Archmage gave Cale the task to go down to the catacombs and "loosen the anchor." Unfortunately, as Cale found out, the "anchor" was in the form of a small child, and the Archmage's order translated into killing the boy. It was later revealed, after Cale had 'killed' the boy and left, that the young boy was actually the Archmage himself in a magical disguise.

The Archmage later traveled forward to the present date, witnessing what he sees as a new age for Kethenecia. It is eventually revealed that Richard's bunny is actually the Archmage in disguise, and that Richard has known for a long time who his bunny really is.

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• All-Encompassing Mantle: Part of the wise and wizardly characterisations surrounding him.
• Ancient Keeper: He is privvy to most if not all of the background secrets in the comic lore.
• The Archmage: His title and profession.
• Bald of Evil: Part of his wizardly appearance. His baldness is the result of stealing too much power from his fellow mages when he murdered them.
• Big Bad: To an extent, since everything bad that's happened in the story is a direct or indirect result of his machinations throughout history. After his death this becomes much more obvious, though he claims to have been working to avert a greater evil.
• Break the Cutie: By pretending to be a child that Cale is (supposedly) forced to slay in order to send Kethenecia back to the present, the Archmage intended to forcibly impose a Machiavellian streak on Cale to prepare him for his destiny. After all, "Innocence is the cost of justice."
• Catchphrase: "As I have written."
• The Chessmaster: He essentially runs fate and puts all the pieces in place. Unfortunately, he does not manage fate all that benevolently and throws temper tantrums when his pawns start going out of place.
• The Chooser of the One: He is the one who made Cale The Chosen One and manipulates destiny in general.
• Deflector Shields: Conjures one to protect against Richard.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • He is a chessmaster and claims to be omniscient. But he ultimately fails to foresee his own death, just as his familiar had warned.
  • In addition, despite all his "molding" of Cale to get Cale to be The Chosen One, Cale is personally invested in helping anyone who truly needs it, not just the "bigger picture" the Archmage claims to be preparing him for.
• Disappointed in You: Towards Cale for running away from his destiny, helping individuals instead of the masses as the Archmage had intended.
• Drunk with Power: Happens after his My God, What Have I Done? moment, he quickly understood his power would lead to this and made the Chachas as a safety measure. However the realization that he could have this happen to him didn't stick and he later started claiming to be omniscient without irony.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Fellbunny/Archbunny
• Evil Old Folks: His main antagonism came from his behind-the-scenes manipulation instead of directly menacing the main characters, but he's undeniably powerful. When he finally confronts the group for not adhering to his plans, he curb-stomps Cale and quickly puts the normally curse-happy Richard on the defensive.
• Eye Beams: Can use them. It's implied that he uses these to attack Richard's gem while Richard has both his hands held back.
• Gambit Roulette: Turns out that many events that take place are for the purpose of molding Cale into the future king of Kethenecia, all put into place by this guy. Given the sheer number of moving parts (especially since one of those parts was Richard) frankly it's no wonder not everything went the way he wanted.
• God Guise: The Sisters believe his rabbit guise to be a god, due to the fact that he used powerful magic to save them from certain doom while they prayed for a miracle as well as a very convenient head injury that afflicted their leader. He may very well come close. Other areas seems to worship him as well, if the rabbit motifs in those places are taken as religious.
• I Am the Noun: He claims to be magic and destiny.
• Killed Off for Real: Cale, likely possessed by Richard, manages to smash the gems embedded in his forehead while he is distracted gloating over his "victory" over Richard. His corpse is later seen as a component of a hand puppet in Richard's possession.
• Misery Builds Character: He brings a lot of pain to the people he wants to make leaders, they don't like it.
• More than Meets the Eye: The rabbit is the Archmage. He's been seen in that guise in many, many different places including the monastery, the Sisters' backstory, and with Richard.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After receiving a vision of a terrible future, he murdered his fellow magi to steal their power. Immediately afterwards he regretted it, wondering whether it really had been for the greater good. He eventually grew past it.
• Mysterious Employer: To Cale, Richard, and Pella, not that Cale is completely aware of it.
• Necromancer: He can enslave and draw power from the dead and murdered his fellow magi for this reason.
• Not So Omniscient After All: When Cale runs away from Ketheneca over guilt for not preventing Krunch's death, it takes the Archmage several years to find him, despite priding himself in knowing everything. He apparently did not see the commander destroying the North either. Or his own death.
• The Omniscient: Something he claims to be. Later events put this a lot more in doubt, given how things go Off the Rails from his plan.
• Power Crystal: He has three gems embedded in his head, which presumably serve this purpose. One of them is in the Third Eye position. When he confronts the party, Cale eventually smashes them.
• Power Parasite: Over the ages, he has stolen massive amounts of magic from many mages throughout history. When he dies, that magic is returned to its rightful owners or their successors, resulting in a massive shift in the balance of power.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: A firm believer in this.
• Prophet Eyes: They glow when he see's things.
• Seers: And one with the power to arrange the events of the past and present as well as opposed to watching and waiting.
• Shapeshifter: One of his powers. His favored form is the rabbit.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: He once shapeshifted into an innocent boy to trick Cale into thinking he had to make a Sadistic Choice, killing the boy to save Kethenicia and breaking Cale's innocence in the process. A long time later, after Cale runs away from his destiny, The Archmage shapeshifts into this form again while trying to make Cale go back on course.
• Shoot the Dog: He killed a lot of people for the greater good and caused even more indirect death from it. We still have yet to see any real pay off. After his death, the narrative seems to support that he may have just been drunk on his own power and sense of being the chessmaster.
• Squishy Wizard: Very frail looking, physically. Engages in a drawn-out magic duel with Richard, but a few strokes from a sword end him. (To be fair, those strikes took out his Power Crystals and wizard or not it was right through his head.)
• Super-Empowering: He granted magic to the Sisters and the Sons.
• They Were Holding You Back: He's not very fond of Cale's companions. He intends for Cale to become a great king, destined to help those in need and lead the world into a new age. But whenever he thinks Cale needs a nudge to get back on course, he tends to take away things that are dear to him, such as his first wife, Shora. He later tries to kill Richard as well for the same reason, but ends up killed himself.
• Threshold Guardians: The dragons involved in Kethenecia's backstory guard him as part of their deal.
• Time Master: He possesses considerable insight into the past and present, but the future appears a little squiffy. He can time-travel as well.

• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He and his fellow magi foresaw a terrible future in which Kethenicia would burn and the land would fall to evil. He concluded that this prophecy would be impossible even for them to avert, but that it could be managed. He has since proceeded to commit terrible crimes all in the name of restoring hope to the world, and his sanity has increasingly declined.
• Who Dares?: He is outraged when Cale pulls out his swords and asks "You dare draw your weapons at me?"
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: According to one of the dragon elders, he was once a kind man. But the weight of his own magical power drove him insane, and it only got worse with age. He did see this coming, and took measures to ensure someone would be around to stop him when this inevitably occurred.
• You Can't Fight Fate: He believes in this. Though he does feel it can be managed.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He enslaved the souls of his fellow magi to increase his own power. Though it's revealed he later released the souls in order to create The Chachas.
• 0% Approval Rating: The Dragon Elder is considered suspicious due to his connections to the Archmage because the group is very wary of anything to do with him.

Other Kethenecians

• The Alliance: Join with the other tribes of the North to fight The Empire.
• Civil War: Cale abdicates the throne and creates a council to rule Kethenicia in his stead. Leena usurps the council, crowns herself Queen, and kills anyone she fears will oppose her, causing Kethenicia to split between her faction and the rebels.
• Dragon Rider: They rode on sand dragons to break through the Legaran forces.

Dragon Elders

• The Ageless: They have lived for centuries and have implied themselves to be immortal if not killed.
• Back for the Dead: The last elder dragon shows up in the final arc working alongside Tah'vraay, but is abruptly killed by Tavor/Vat moments before his own defeat.
• Big Good: They left the Undying Lands for Kethenicia to guide mortals into an age of wisdom and peace. They have played a key role in moving Cale towards his destiny, and unlike the Archmage, have stronger moral scruples.
• The Chooser of the One: They, along with the Archmage, made Cale The Chosen One. They ultimately expect him to be at the heart of a war greater than any the world has ever seen.
• Draconic Humanoid: They are called dragons, but are considerably more humanoid than the dragons used by The Legion.
• It Is Beyond Saving: As their original efforts with the city of Kethenicia failed and was overrun by evil, and the future Cale wished to save was considerably more corrupted than even the current time, they express this sentiment to him, choosing to return to the place from whence they came. Nevertheless, Cale manages to persuade them to give the world hope, even a small one.
• Last of His Kind: So far only one of them is confirmed to still be alive. The rest seems to have been killed by Tavor and the vulii, and the only known survivor explicitly references the trope.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One of them prevented the chachas from killing the Archmage when they were originally created. The next time the chachas are summoned, they decide to leave instead of performing their task, allowing for the Archmage's plotting that would cause much misery over the course of the main plot.
• No Name Given: The elder dragon most involved in the plot has not given a name and no one has asked for it either. Lampshaded by Benny just before Cale calls him "you". The final arc reveals it to be Algerdroden, but Cale and Benny never learn it.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Unlike the winged, non-talking dragons also seen in the setting, they are wingless, bipedal, and fully sapient.
• Poor Communication Kills: The main elder dragon's warnings are constantly ignored by Cale who would prefer never having to deal with him again since he wants to help people his way instead of being a pawn in a scheme. This leads to some problems when the danger the dragon was trying to warn him about came to pass.
• Sealed Good in a Can: One of the dragon elders attempted to move against the Archmage when he grew too insane. Unfortunately, the Archmage's fail-safe against madness, the Cha-Chas, mysteriously left, leaving him at the Archmage's mercy. As a result, he was locked away for centuries.

Humans

Gaten

• Face–Heel Turn: He joins Leena's murderous dictatorship and betrays Cale. He initially claims that he did it in the name of stability, but later admits he did it out of Greed.
• Greed: His motives for betraying Kethenicia for Leena are revealed to be pretty simple; she offered him the right of coinage.
• Non-Action Guy: Though he does lead the charge while defending his village from the Elementals, he is easily overshadowed in martial skill and power by most other major characters, and is the least involved among the Kethenician leaders in fighting during the war against Legara. It is implied that he is more active in managing the day-to-day affairs of the city.
• Out of Focus: Lacking many interesting quirks or skills, he gets the least amount of focus of the Kethenecian leaders.
• Papa Wolf: When it seems like his son has been killed in the battle against Elementals, he refuses to surrender despite being outmatched.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: What little characterization he has received mostly paints him as this, being a reliable leader while rebuilding Kethenecia and committed to doing good for his people. However, he turned out to be somewhat less reasonable when Leena takes the throne, admitting that he sided with her out of greed.

Commander Aelloon Sr.

• Antagonist in Mourning: Following his crushing defeat of the Bloodrage, he was seen drinking and coming to terms with killing his old friend Chief Bloodrage.

• Badass Normal: He doesn't have any magical or supernatural powers, but he defeated Cale, Benny and Pella with nothing but a table and a helmet. "Those Left Behind" reveals that he once also encountered and easily defeated Notan.
• The Chessmaster: He suggested to his old buddy Chief Bloodrage that he should conquer the lands of the other Northern tribes to weaken them all in anticipation of Legara's conquest of the region.

• Cool Old Guy: He's General Aelloon's father and graying, and despite that is still a very capable fighter and leader.
• Defector from Decadence: Defected from Legara because he knows that the King of Legara won't stop his conquest at Legarion, bringing a number of men with him.
• Friendly Enemy: With Chief Bloodrage.
• Heel–Face Turn: He defected to Kethencia to stop Tavor's conquest.
• Improvised Weapon: He defeated Cale, Benny and Pella with the use of a table and a helmet.
• Let's You and Him Fight: When ordered to invade the North, he convinced his old friend, Chief Bloodrage, to attack the other tribes, thereby weakening all of them, including the Bloodrage, for eventual conquest by Legara.
• Odd Friendship: With Chief Bloodrage.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son was killed by Cale.
• The Strategist: He's the reason the armies of Legara were so successful in the north. After his Heel–Face Turn, he serves as this for Kethenecia.
• Worthy Opponent: To Chief Bloodrage.

Bloodrage

• Our Minotaurs Are Different: They are a clan of minotaurs.

Ray'd Bool

• An Arm and a Leg: His left arm was cut off and replaced with...
• Artificial Limbs: A metal arm built by Pella.
• Back for the Dead: In the final arc, he and his family are captured by Tavor/Vat. When they're set free by Tah'vraay interfering, Ray'd and Leena sacrifice themselves to give their daughter a chance to escape.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Krunch.
• Character Development: Seemingly undergoes this in more recent pages. He becomes actually capable of questioning his leadership, and entertain thoughts of rebellion, with enough cunning and care to stage a Hopeless Boss Fight yet Throwing the Fight in such a way that the paranoid Queen looking through his senses would be fooled. This is a far cry from the guy who would obey the Chief without question.
• Cool Uncle: To Benny.
• Empowered Badass Normal: When he first appeared, he had no superpowers beyond his physical strength. After he loses his left arm, it is replaced by a metal one that enhances his strength even further. And then when Leena usurps the throne of Kethenecia, she magically empowers him so that his metal arm can absorb magical attacks and create weaponized constructs out of them.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Threw a horse at a bunch of enemies.
• Informed Ability: For the warrior son he always get effortlessly beaten. Even when having the power to nullify Richard's attacks he still lost handily in a melee fight.
• Love Makes You Evil: Joins Leena in usurping Kethenicia and crowning her Sorcerous Overlord for this reason. He ends up regretting it when she becomes an Abusive Parent who uses their own daughter as a hostage against him.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Went along with his father's questionable conquests because the war leader answers to the chief, which Krunch chews him out for.
• Punctuation Shaker: Unusually, in the middle of his name rather than between two names.
• Punny Name: Let's just say Ray'd Bool gives you wings.
• The Worf Effect: After his introduction as the Bloodrage warrior son, he is repeatedly defeated to demonstrate the power of the group's enemies.

Dorel

• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC series "Nature's Wrath".
• Barrier Warrior: As a druid, he notes that his primary role in battle is to defend. He also demonstrates how defensive spells can still be used to deadly effect.
• Functional Magic: He has magic for all occasions.
• Green Thumb/In Harmony with Nature: He appears to use nature-based magic distinct from other kinds seen in the comic.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Reluctantly participates in Ray'd's actions against Kethenicia for this reason, though he expresses strong regret upon Benny's return.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Amongst the minotaurs. His pointy snout and horn placement makes him look like a goat, but he lives in a tribe of bull-people.
• The Smart Guy: As a sort of spiritual advisor for his tribe and chieftain.

Gnomes

• Butt-Monkey: When you need a Red Shirt for a humorous death, it's usually a gnome.
• Enemy Mine: They team up with the other northern forces.
• Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The inventive, engineering kind.
• Mini-Mecha: They use these in battle to make up for their small size.
• Red Shirt Army: Most casualties in battle are gnomes. For instance, when Pella tried to save Benny and Tah'vraay from the Legarian soldiers, all the gnomes were killed.

Chief Engineer Toyk

• Bus Crash: When the protagonists return to Kethenecia to investigate Leena's betrayal, Richard offhandedly mentions that Toyk had died during their absence. The exact details surrounding his death are unknown, but presumably had to do with Leena taking the throne.
• Deadpan Snarker: He gets some moments.
• Defiant to the End: He would not abandon Mechastone until the clock tower was lost.
• The Engineer: It's his race's shtick, and he certainly has the look of one, but we never see him get in on the action.

Fitch

• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC short story "A Gnome Song".
• Genius Bruiser: Before becoming Made of Iron, he introduces himself as "just the Librarian".
• Made of Iron: He couldn't be killed unless he was stabbed four times with a spear in one day.

Sisters and Sons

• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The sisters, especially Matron Elosha, worship a rabbit. The Archmage in his favorite disguise.
• Eye Beams: They can fire their magic this way.
• Functional Magic: Their magic is as much telekinetic as elemental onslaughts, and includes the power to create constructs and bind giants to service.
• Older Than They Look: They are said to age slowly.

Matron Elosha

• Abusive Parents: Not physically, thank goodness, but she became coldly indifferent to her daughter upon discovering her poor grasp of magic.
• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC short story "The Daughter".
• Battle Couple: She used to be one with Fuerst.
• Empowered Badass Normal: She was a badass even before the Archmage empowered her people with magic.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Up until her real name was revealed in the NPC story "The Daughter", she was known only as "Matron".
• Identity Amnesia: She was once a bandit who had a disdain for religion stemming from the Corrupt Church she had been raised in. But she eventually received a very convenient head wound, anticipated, and possibly even planned by The Archmage. After being healed by a magical rabbit, she effectively becomes a completely different person. She fanatically worships said rabbit as a god, turns away her former husband, and eventually even rejects her own daughter.
• Iron Lady: Through unknown means that many attribute to the Archmage, her personality took a sharp turn to the left when she gained her powers.
• Little Miss Badass: As a young girl.
• Mama Bear: "All of you. Get behind me." On the other hand, she was quick to turn her back on her actual daughter when she found that she didn't possess magic.
• Parental Abandonment: She turned her back on her own daughter after she discovered that she inherited very little of the magic her mother received from the rabbit.
• Pirate Girl: When she was younger, she was one.
• Pregnant Badass: Even in late into her pregnancy with Tah'vraay, she was still capable of throwing axes with lethal aim.

Captain Tah'vraay

• Action Girl: Goes straight into violence when it's called for.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Cale, Sooba, and Pella in 941.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Dressed her first mate in drag to draw the king's messenger into a trap.
  • When an Elite Mook soldier says that he's bested the entire group before, she uses a throwing knife to take him by surprise, saying that she cheats.
  • Her preferred battleground always has a clear line of sight to the shore, where her ship's weapons are ready to support her.
• Daddy's Girl: After her mother stopped being interested in her for her lack of magical talent, her father spent his time with her instead.
• Daddy's Little Villain: In the NPC backstory, her father describes understanding what joy truly was when she asked to become a pirate like him.
• I See Dead People: An ability implied to be granted by her trick eye. She can even see Richard while he is possessing Cale.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: She is Benny's biological mother, and judging from Benny's physiology it's strongly hinted that Krunch is not merely an adoptive father. She never actually tells her this.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Did not inherit any of the Sisters magic from her mother, leaving the woman without interest in her and letting her father raise her.
• Older Than They Look: White hair makes it difficult to tell her exact age, but she's a lot older than she seems.
• Pirate Girl: Like father and mother, like daughter.

Fuerst

• Action Dad: He is Tah'vraay's father.
• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC short story "The Daughter".
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: He wore a nice green one.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's seen four times before his body is found hanged in Legara. Most of his story comes from the NPC side story.
• Number Two: He was Captain Tah'vraay's first mate aboard her ship.
• This Is Unforgivable!: In his own words, keeping their daughter from him was something he could almost forgive Elosha for; what he couldn't forgive was when she turned her back on Tah'vraay for not sharing her magical talents.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He didn't have any objections to dressing as a woman to ambush a Legarian patrol, even saying that it made him "feel rather pretty".

Trolls

• All Trolls Are Different: They do act like bad guys, but they are not the dumb, illiterate brutes they are portrayed as in other media. The only one to act like one is Tim, who has the excuse of being hit over the head with a mace one too many times.
• Anti-Magic: Their shamans have the power to shut down magic.
• Barbarian Tribe: As close as the comic gets to one anyway.
• Enemy Mine: They join with the other races to fight for survival.
• Green and Mean: They have green skin.
• The Horde: Right up until they join The Alliance. Go figure.
• One-Gender Race: Maybe? All troll warriors we've seen have been male, and the only example of what could be a female troll is a servant offering food to Lord Stoll (in this strip). However, gay marriage is not the norm, implying they do have females.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: They were planning to invade and plunder the home of the gnomes, and they might have succeeded had Toyk not sought outside help.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Their eyes are black with beady red irises to underline their nature.
• Squishy Wizard: No being of magic can harm the troll shamans, but non-magical ones (like Sooba) easily can.
• Token Evil Teammate: Of the Alliance. They don't really apologise for their actions earlier in the comic or reform their ways, and at all times they look out for themselves first. Since abandoning the Kethenecia arc it's never been mentioned whether or not they've since changed their ways. Then again the Bloodrage indirectly destroyed every Northen tribes home, the Commander directly did it and the undead are Richard's people. They don't really stick out as the worse group in the Alliance.

Styx

"Actually, truth be told, we're rather intelligent."

Leader of the trolls. First introduced as the second-in-command of Stoll, the troll warlord besieging the gnome city of Mechastone, he assumed command of Stoll's forces after the latter's death early in the comic. Some time later, he joined forces with the other tribes of the North to oppose the Legaran advance.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: He is a significant character in the NPC stories "Tales as Old as Tim". The first part reveals that he is Tim's brother; the second one gives him more focus, and shows how he came to be Stoll's second-in-command.
• Affably Evil: He went from applauding the cunning involved in Cale & co. pretending to be on their side and Krunch killing Stoll in the confusion of a diversionary attack by the gnomes to turning his new underlings on Cale and Krunch, pointing out that he could hardly let their leader's death go unavenged. The "Tales as Old as Tim" NPC stories show that he more or less did the same thing once.
• Bad Boss: Doubt his leadership and you just signed yourself up for a nigh suicidal mission. Oh, and he'll slice your heel.
• Beard of Evil: A thick black one.
• Big Brother Instinct/Knight Templar Big Brother: Well, Inverted Trope, as Styx is Tim's younger brother, but the Tales as Old as Tim NPC stories show that he's quite protective of his rather dull-witted big brother.
• Big Guy, Little Guy/Brains and Brawn/Fat and Skinny: With Tim as the latter, the former and the latter again respectively.
• Cincinnatus: While for all intents and purposes he leads the trolls, he is not the rightful heir to the throne, who is implied to be Tim.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Appears to be this for Tim.
• Dragon Ascendant: After Stoll's death he became the new leader of the trolls.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • From time to time.
    Styx: Why don't you tell us more about how you wanted to kill Lord Stoll?
  • This other time:
    Ray'd: We assumed you were dead.
    Styx: How much sleep did you lose over that fact?
• The Dragon: To Lord Stoll.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He still cares about his brother Tim.
• Pragmatic Villainy: When the Bloodrage united the north as The Alliance, Styx joined them to ensure his and the trolls' continued survival; when he reappeared later, he reasserted loyalty to them in exchange for a new home for him and his men at Kethenecia in light of Legara's conquest of the north, to the consternation of Ray'd and Krunch.
• Tactical Withdrawal: How he and his troops managed to survive the War of the North.
  Ray'd: You mean fleeing.
  Styx: Call it what you wish. I survived. Where is dear old Dad?

Tim

"CHICKEN!"

A big, fat and incredibly stupid troll, Tim is unusual among his fellows in both intelligence and body size. Very fond of Cale (whom he has named "Chicken" for some reason), he seems to mainly serve as a dogsbody for his smaller and much smarter brother Styx. Despite being a troll, he's actually very good-natured.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC short story "Tales as Old as Tim."
• Aerith and Bob: A world full of unusual names and somehow this idiot wound up with one of the normal ones. Exemplified by his brother being called Styx.
• Berserk Button: Don't harm chickens, even if they're actually elves.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Styx was merely a toddler, now the role are reversed as Tim's intellect is gone and Styx grew older.
• Big Guy, Little Guy/Brains and Brawn/Fat and Skinny: As noted above, he and Styx couldn't be more different if they tried.
• Carry a Big Stick: Favors club if he needs a weapon.
• Dented Iron: According to Styx, his personality is the result of being hit on the noggin with a mace once too often.
• The Ditz: No use sugar-coating it — Tim's a moron, plain and simple.
• Dumb Muscle: Functions as this for Styx and the rest of the trolls.
• Dumb Is Good: At least, nowhere near as evil as his fellow trolls. The main group did more evil than Tim including Cale mostly because Tim is too dumb to get jaded or frustrated by the events surrounding him.
• Improbable Weapon User: In the second half of his NPC tale, he displays the ability to swing a tree trunk at people.
• Malaproper: Subverted once for comedy in his first appearance...
  Tim: I lick you!
  Cale: I think you mean like.
  Styx: No, he doesn't.
  • But played straight otherwise.
    Tim: Sticks!
    Styx: It's pronounced the same, but I'm still pretty certain you're spelling it wrong.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Amply demonstrated in the short time the trolls were antagonists. To begin with, Cale successfully manipulated him into turning against his fellow trolls to help "Chicken".
• The Nicknamer: He calls Cale "Chicken", as mentioned above, and Richard "Squishy man".
• Stout Strength: Even for a troll he is insanely strong and quite fat.
• Token Good Teammate/Token Heroic Orc: The only troll so far to not display any villainous traits, aside from working with his villainous brother Styx.

Knights of the Way

• Face–Heel Turn: After Cale leaves Kethenecia, they are tasked to kill him on Leena's order.
• Heel–Face Turn: They oppose the heroes at first, but are eventually persuaded to join them.
• Hero Killer: Through a combination of numbers and strategy, they have posed a serious threat every time the protagonists have gone up against them. During their first appearance, they incapacitate Richard by ambush and proceed to defeat Pella, Ray'd, and Dorel. When Leena orders the assassination of Cale, they overwhelm Cale, Pella, and Sooba by sheer numbers. After the protagonists return to Kethenecia, they manage to grievously wound Cale. In every confrontation, additional reinforcements were needed for the heroes to triumph over them.
• Threshold Guardians: Prior to joining Kethenecia, they protected portals from misuse.
• Zerg Rush: The initial wave of them sent to kill Cale numbered a hundred and they continued to send reinforcements.

Leena

• Abusive Parents: She doesn't pay much attention to her daughter and forces her husband to kill Cale and Dorel instead of taking care of her, even using their own daughter as a hostage against him.
• Back for the Dead: In the final arc, she and her family are captured by Tavor/Vat. When they're set free by Tah'vraay interfering, Ray'd and Leena sacrifice themselves to give their daughter a chance to escape.
• Back from the Dead: Her spirit was preserved at the moment of her death. Later, she comes back for real as an asskicking Action Girl.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Despite ordering Cale's assassination while he was away from Kethenecia, she merely has him imprisoned once he actually returns. She also decides to incapacitate Richard simply by encasing him in crystal that can be easily cracked by an outside force, as opposed to using a spell that would be more difficult to reverse. Naturally, the heroes manage to escape both predicaments pretty quickly with help from their allies.
• Depower: Richard takes away her magic.
• Domestic Abuse: She is implied to torture her husband when he doesn't obey her demands.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Her appearance steadily deteriorates after her Face–Heel Turn. It reverts back to normal after her magic is stripped from her and her sanity is restored.
• Face–Heel Turn: In Cale's absence, she assumes leadership of Kethenecia, becomes a despot, and orders the assassination of Cale.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: After her magic is stripped from her and her sanity is restored, her husband acknowledges that it wasn't her fault she went mad and tells her he can forgive her. But even so, it will take time for him and their daughter to forget what she did to them.
• Ms. Exposition: She shows Cale the background to the elves' Start of Darkness and the fall of Gamlon, along with the way to find Kethenecia.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After her magic is stripped from her, restoring her sanity, she expresses horror at what she did and breaks down in tears.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Cale had no intention of returning to Kethenicia and likely would not have learned of her misdeeds for some time had she not ordered him assassinated.
• No Kill like Overkill: Orders a hundred soldiers to kill one target: Cale Then again, given who the target is she may have sent too few.
• Posthumous Character: She's been dead for hundreds of years by the time we meet her.
• Sorcerous Overlord: She starts the plot as non-magical warrior. But one of her great grandparents was an extremely powerful mage, whose magic was stolen by The Archmage. After The Archmage dies, said magic is inherited by Leena. She uses it to seize power, crown herself Queen, and attack anyone she fears is a threat to her rule.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Blasts Richard out of a tower and traps him inside crystal after he knocks out Ray'd.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: She became a mad despot due to inheriting magic from one of her ancestors without the training needed to control it. After she gets Depowered, her sanity is restored.

Undead Villagers

• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC tale "Great Pain, Greater Gain", which showed how they realised what happened to them and came to terms with it.
• Animate Dead: They were animated by Richard's magic. Despite being fully dead, they are still fully mindful as well, instead of being mindless shambling zombies.
• Badass Army: Comprised of men and women of all ages, they're capable of fighting the legions of Legara.
• Beneath the Mask: The first hint of their abnormal status was when a young man's arm was cut off by a saw blade and easily reattached.
• Brought Down to Normal: Maikos reveals the villagers lose their undead power when Richard becomes more human.
• Dem Bones: They can magically mask themselves to look like normal people, but their true forms are emaciated and skeletal.
• Enfant Terrible: The undead toddler.
• Happiness in Slavery: For a given measure of slavery; Richard doesn't command their loyalty by force and apparently acts just like a regular mayor around them. Even so, their existences are bound to him by his magic because it facilitated their transformation, and they'd really like to keep it that way. So when Richard starts losing his powers and they start being mortal again, Maikos begs Cale to find Richard and get him his powers back.
• Healing Factor: They easily recover from physical damage. Being undead, even beheading is just an inconvenience to them.
  Freshly beheaded villager: Umm... ouch? Well, I guess we can stop pretending now.
• More than Meets the Eye: The entire village is undead, but they put on the appearance of a normal human village to avoid detection.
• Out of Focus: Despite being some of the most powerful and loyal allies the main group has, they're basically relegated to background characters shortly after the war against Legara.
• Pulling Themselves Together: They can reassemble themselves from individual bones.
• Walk, Don't Swim: They reach Kethenecia by walking across the bottom of the ocean.
• Was Once a Man: There was a time when they really were just a little village up the coast. Suffice it to say, that time is past.

Maikos

• Butt-Monkey: In his early appearances he was Richard's Chew Toy.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At least in his initial appearance. Later on, he keeps his more visibly badass appearance along with the other villagers.
• Number Two: To Richard.

Imps

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They're not brought up again after the war against Legara.
• The Faceless: So far they've never been seen without their masks. They can even somehow eat while wearing them.
• Heel–Face Turn: They first attempt to eat Cale, but join Kethenecia after he helps them defeat an invading tribe.
• Hulking Out: Their main method of battle is to inflate themselves into a much stronger form.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: It at first seems laughable that they can pose a credible threat to anyone, but it turns out they have the power to Hulk Out. Cale (with his swords malfunctioning) and the Legion's dwarves are no match.
• To Serve Man: They gleefully feast on the bodies of their fallen enemies.
• Token Evil Teammate: The NPC "What Lies Beneath the Underneath" shows in a more serious light what it means to have a tribe that eats their enemies on your side; it's... not pretty.
• Weak to Magic: They easily subdue foes in melee combat, but have trouble against an invading group of magic-using imps and need to enlist the help of Cale and Richard.

Dnah

• Badass Bookworm: His main role in the group (when he appeared) was to be The Smart Guy, but when Leena takes the throne he also becomes a Rebel Leader who actively fights against her reign.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The average response that his species gets from people who don't know them is "...wait, are you a talking hand?"
• A Day in the Limelight: "High Five".
• The Exile: He learned that his people, the Right, had been manipulated into mindless slavery by the Left. Feeling that the truth was important, he exposed it. But due to the Left and Right having grown extremely polarized, this simply resulted in a riot. When everything settled down, the Left and Right punished him for spreading the truth by banishing him, shortly before choosing to forget that anything had happened and returning to routine.
• Odd Friendship: He's an old buddy of Krunch. Their shared interests aren't strange but it's probably unusual for a Bloodrage to hang out with someone from his species.
• Rebel Leader: He leads the rebellion against Leena.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Of "Hand". There's also his special move, the "Hctib Pals".
• The Smart Guy: He is a librarian and assisted Krunch in his studies.
• Starfish Aliens: Not an alien but he's still a walking, talking hand with a dinosaur body. His genitals are also in his pinky.
• Took a Level in Badass: Before Leena took the throne, the only opponent he was ever seen defeating was Hctib Elttil, who he had a massive size advantage over. After Leena assumes leadership of Kethenecia, he becomes a Rebel Leader and has been shown beating up Leena's knights while wearing armor.

Sand dragons

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They're not brought up again after the war against Legara.
• Our Dragons Are Different: They are made out of sand, need little sleep, and do not feed at all.
• Playing with Fire: Like normal dragons, they can breathe fire.

Phares

• Awesome, but Impractical: They can exert control over the elements of the world, but across long periods of time rather than moments. Their powers can be combined with those of a powerful magic user (such as Richard) to achieve more instantaneous results, however.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Set up to play a major role in the war against Legara and their NPC story "My Cup Runneth Over", but not mentioned again after Richard summons them to help fight the Archmage.
• Elemental Embodiment: What they essentially are and care for.
• Elemental Powers: They have the power to affect change over generations using all four classical elements and likely others as well.
• Heel–Face Turn: In their first appearance, they nearly wiped out an innocent town with a horde of Elementals in a misguided attempt to protect nature. They have since reformed and now assist Cale and co.
• Immortal Immaturity: Downplayed, as they are not particularly juvenile in their mannerisms. However, being so old and having little experience in interacting with people, they are easily misled by deception.
• Obliviously Evil: They were misled by Hctib about the nature of the villagers living in their valley, as well as the cause of the drought in the region. When the truth became apparent to them, they conceded the error they made.

The Legion of Legara

• Civil War: Richard kills many of those who would normally inherit the throne, causing the country to fall into chaos. General Aelloon eventually makes his own faction dominant, but he himself meets his end. Several years later, refugees are looking for new places to call home and occasionally still fighting one another.
• Dragon Riders: They maintain a sizable dragon pen as part of their military.
• The Empire: They were clearly designed with this in mind.
• Kill It with Fire: Their battle-mages favour fire spells aside from Functional Magic, and their dragons have fire breath, naturally.
• The Usual Adversaries: For most of the comic, the conflicts and disasters can trace their cause directly or indirectly to their involvement.

Tavor, King of Legara

• Beard of Evil: Age developed his facial hair into a truly impressive example.
• Big Bad: The Archmage used him to unite all of Kethenicia's enemies under one banner so that they would collapse together with his defeat. And even long after the Archmage's own death, he turns out to still be alive, or at least, undead.
• Deadpan Snarker: Before his true colours were revealed.
  Tavor: I see the time apart has done nothing to dampen your inquisitive and feminine nature.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Maybe it was a low moment for Kethenecia when they refused to aid Gamlon against the Vulii, but that hardly gives him license to make the whole world suffer in return.
• Dual Wielding: During his battle with Cale, he dual wields a pair of swords.
• Evil Old Folks: As he's only going on because of his oath and his rage. He has been king of Legara for a very long time, passing it off as different generations of the same family line.
• Healing Factor: He is already dead so with his rage and oath being what keeps him from moving on. It takes magic to put him down for a while.
• Hero Killer: He killed Krunch.
• Human Popsicle: Defeated when Cale uses the power of the sword to seal him in a block of fire and ice.
• Evil Counterpart: To Cale. Like Cale, Tavor started out idealistic and somewhat carefree (if a little more cynical than Cale) but wound up having his illusions almost entirely shattered in the events surround Kethenecia's history. Also like Cale, he lost everything in the place he grew up and can't go back again. However, unlike Cale, who always dusted himself off afterwards and eventually became something resembling an Ideal Hero, Tavor decided to make everyone suffer just as he suffered.
• Evil Old Folks: By the time he appears again he's aged considerably.
• Fallen Hero: He was originally a hero of an elven city, but it fell when Kethenicia refused to aid them. As a result, he decided to take out his anger on the entire world, aiming to bring suffering to generation after generation.
• Klingon Promotion: How he became the king.
• Not Quite Dead: After being frozen and having his head destroyed, it takes many years, but he eventually does come back.
• Off with His Head!: After being frozen solid, Richard destroys Tavor's head in order to steal his crown. Even that doesn't take him out for good.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: He aimed to make the entire world suffer for Kethenicia's refusal to save his nation.
• Rasputinian Death: Even burning and freezing him with the Sword of Truth isn't enough to kill him. Even destroying his head only makes him more visibly undead. Putting him down for good would require you to very thoroughly destroy every fragment of his body with magic.
• Skull for a Head: When the main universe and a sci-fi one become a Merged Reality, a robot restores his skull, allowing him to become active again.
• Tragic Villain: Specifically, one Put Them All Out of My Misery example.

• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His desire to erase Kethenecia, the world's last bastion of hope, from existence is fueled by the loss of his own nation.

General Temmet Aelloon, King of Legara

• A Day in the Limelight: "His Father's Son".
• Antagonistic Offspring: To his father, the Commander of the Legarian forces who defected to Kethenecia.
• Anti-Villain: His big plan was revealed to be destroying the portals to Kethenecia to end the war Tavor started. When Benny offers to negotiate a truce he hesitantly agreed.
• Ax-Crazy: As the NPC comic "His Father's Son" shows, Aelloon used to be psychotic and violent in his youth. It's not as obvious in the main comic but he displays a kill-first mentality and does not hesitate to deliver a savage beating to his father for questioning him.
• Beard of Evil: A cool goatee type.
• Big Bad: The first one who showed up in the webcomic.
• Combat Pragmatism: He knows how to use his troops to attack the heroes, don't hesitate to burn villages and kidnap children to slow down his pursuers and in his NPC story "His Father's Son", set during a time where he didn't have an army to do his bidding, shows that he usually relied on trickery when he had to kill someone himself.
• The Dragon: To Tavor, although Tavor didn't show up until the attack on Legara, which allowed the General to function as The Heavy.
• Dragon Ascendant: He won the civil war following Tavor's death, and became the new king of Legara.
• Four-Star Badass: After his promotion to the rank of General, which he received as a reward for his conquests.
• I Am the Noun:
  Aelloon: I am Legara.
• Karmic Death: He was killed while trying to make peace, much like how he killed the Mud'ye matriarch while she was surrendering.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: "Keep him pinned while we destroy the book-"
• Killed Off for Real: He was shot at with at least twelve arrows in one shot.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Downplayed and justified. Despite being a trained soldier, he knows from his initial confontation with Cale & co. that he's outmatched in a straight-up fight with the group, so after their first skirmish he avoids direct confrontation with them. Indeed, his NPC comic strongly hinted that his true strength as a commander is his refusal to fight fairly, as well as a knack for finding/identifying tactical advantages and exploiting them ruthlessly.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He wants to end the war between Kethenecia and Legara because he knows he's too weak to pursue it because of the civil war back home; he still wants to Take Over the World or at least rule as much of it as he can. Benny even said that despite his evil, they could still have peace.
• Poor Communication Kills: His death could have been avoided and the war could have ended had Cale not accidentally dropped in with Richard, and he confused it for an attack.
• Rank Up: He was initially a Commander, and then he was promoted to the rank of General as a reward for his conquests.
• The Starscream: Strongly implied that he aims to overthrow the king. Searching for the sword of truth, a weapon that can kill Tavor, his claim of being Legara, his backstory as a Manipulative Bastard who wants to obtain station and his father questioning him on the king's absence hint about his ambition. He gets what he wants in the end.
• The Strategist: He subdued the East border off-screen, captured Tah'vraay thanks to having a fleet as a rear guard and is really good at forcing the group to split up.

• Wicked Cultured: He certainly enjoys his wines.

Black Dwarves

• Cruel and Unusual Death: One of them gets tauntauned alive, another is quartered and the Imps have developed a taste for their flesh. So far they've gotten the brunt of the most horrifying deaths in the comic.
• Dark Is Evil: Thanks to their above name and black clothing, it's easy to figure out that they're no good.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: They're not really standard dwarves, although they do fit the physical description.
• Private Military Contractors: This seems to be their state of association with the Empire.
• The Remnant: Of Clan Breem, Pella's family-clan.^note At least, the ones met by our titular group Because of this, she can't bring herself to fight them.
• Tunnel King: They function mainly as the Legion's diggers and their digging skills contributed significantly to their victory in the North. They do not work nearly as well on Kethenecia after the latter recruit the imps.

Other characters

The Demon Court

• Autocannibalism: Richard rewrites the book that provides the judge's knowledge to make each judge automatically eat themselves at the conclusion of a case.
• Baddie Flattery: They offer Richard a round of applause for slaughtering a village seemingly For the Evulz.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: They claim to exist to maintain this balance to keep order on behalf of the gods.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Cale ultimately deals with the court by modifying the magic book used to give the judge his knowledge, changing the punishment to needing to perform a dance move called the "Floss".
• Good Is Bad And Bad Is Good: When the prosecutor describes Richard mass-slaughtering the village of Bertu, he is applauded for it; when the prosecutor then explains how this bad deed ultimately proved helpful to the good guys and speculates the warlock may actually be turning good, they shirk in horror.
• Jury of the Damned: The reason they put Richard on trial is because they think he's not being evil enough.
• Kangaroo Court: Richard was presumed guilty until proven innocent.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: To ensure impartiality, they have a new judge born for every case. When each case is over, they then kill the former judge since they don't need him anymore. Creating new judges is easy.

Hctib Elttil

• A Day in the Limelight: In the NPC short story "The Hctib Diaries."
• Chekhov's Gunman: First mentioned by Richard in passing, he becomes more important later on.
• Compensating for Something: Due to him being short, Richard muses that they can easily find him by looking for something that inflates his ego.
• Driven to Madness: He went insane as a result of his service to Richard.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He wanted to be the servant and friend of a very evil master. Richard's cruel and creative killings proved to be too much even for him.
• Familiar: He is a familiar bound in service to Richard. Richard eventually proves to be too much for his sanity and he ends up turning on him.
• Ironic Echo: An associate of his repeatedly abuses him, reminding him that they're demons. When said associate finally makes a genuine expression of sympathy, Hctib says "YOUKNOWWEREDEMONSRIGHT?" while beating him to a bloody pulp.
• Mobile-Suit Human: After seizing control of Richard's purse, he pilots a machine that looks like a Big Red Devil version of himself.
• Motor Mouth: He used to speak like a normal person, but since going mad with hatred for his master his speech consisted of entire sentences strung together with no spaces.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Of "Little Bitch". Richard wanted his name to symbolise his position in their relationship.
• Parody: He is an obvious devil clone of Mickey Mouse. Small overall body with large (albeit flappy) ears? Check. Red pants with gold buttons? Check. Tail? Check. Referred to as a rodent? Check.
• Sole Survivor: Among the demon court.
• Unfortunate Names: A fact he remains completely oblivious to.
  Phares: Is your master aware of the significance of his name?
  Demon Lieutenant: No one's had the heart to tell him.
• Verbal Tic: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Chief Bloodrage

• Action Dad: To Rayd and Krunch, when the fighting arrives at their doorstep.
• Ambition Is Evil: Sort of. It's more "ambition is selfish and destructive", since he winds up getting his tribe brought to the brink by making enemies of the other Northern tribes.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: There's a damn good reason he's chief.
• Badass Family: When the Sisters attack the Bloodrage clanhold, he and his sons fight together.
• Carry a Big Stick: He uses a pair of maces in battle.
  • Dual Wielding: As a consequence.
• Character Death: He died off-screen at the hands of the Empire's diggers.
• Cool Old Guy: Being old hasn't slowed him down any.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He first appeared in page 141, but was mentioned all the way back in page 26. This would serve as firm foreshadowing for the circumstances of his first appearance; Stoll mentioned that Krunch's father had always supported his efforts, and according to Krunch he was a firm believer in empirical expansions. He had no idea how true that was...
• Friendly Enemy: With the Commander. They sit down for a last talk before they go to battle.
• Odd Friendship: With the Commander — that of a human from The Empire and a chief of the Bloodrage.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Big time. Just see what happens when the Sisters order him to surrender.
  Chief Bloodrage: Surrender? Heh.
  Krunch: Bad word.
  Rayd: Very bad word.
  Chief Bloodrage: Surrender. Heh. My sons and I will be pleased to show you how a Bloodrage surrenders. We surrender.
• Shout-Out: Quotes a large chunk of King Théoden's speech from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
  Chief Bloodrage: How did it come to this?
• Verbal Tic: Heh. Sort of makes you wonder what he's laughing about all the time. Heh.
• Worthy Opponent: To the Commander. The feeling appears mutual.

Shora

Cale's former wife, and Sooba's first owner.

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• Break His Heart to Save Him: Agreed to feign infidelity with another student to drive Cale away from the monastery and on the path to his destiny.
• Happily Married: If Cale's devastation at discovering her "cheating" and her own gut-wrenching tears at being forced to do so are any indication.
• Posthumous Character: It isn't until late in the story that Cale finally finds out, but she was murdered before it even began.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She was useful in that she piqued Cale's curiosity about the outside world and made him question how the temple aimed to achieve its ends. But then he married her, giving him an attachment that would get in the way of accomplishing his destiny. As a result, Cale's master forced her to act unfaithful to drive Cale out. He then murdered her to ensure he would have nothing to go back to.

Giants

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Suffice it to say, they're all pretty tall.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Though not nearly as savage and villainous as they are typically portrayed.

Cale's Former Master and Colleagues

• A Day in the Limelight: "Those Left Behind" reveals what happened to them after Cale left the monastery.

Master

The monk who trained Cale while preparing him for his destiny as The Chosen One.

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• Cool Old Guy: He was able to fight the three monks at the same time without much difficulty, but is eventually killed by Clada.
• Deadly Euphemism: When Cale leaves the monastery, one of the monks questions why Shora isn't leaving with him. The master tells him that she will be leaving shortly. The students later find her dead.
• Eye Scream: He's stabbed in the eye with a splintered broom by Clada.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He felt that Shora's marriage to Cale would get in the way of him accomplishing his destiny. So he forced her to act unfaithful to drive Cale out and then killed her. While he does not take pride in his actions, he continuously asserts this. He later tries to justify killing his students for the same reason.
• I'm Going to Hell for This: His reaction to seeing Cale and Shora kissing in the romantic sunset makes him acknowledge the terribleness of his impending actions.
  Master: There will be no forgiveness for what I must do.
• Mentor: To Cale, obviously, and his other students.
• Old Master: He was Cale, Clada, Notan and the third monk's master.
• Posthumous Character: He's killed by the monk trio from Those Left Behind shortly after he murdered Shora.
• Shoot the Dog: He genuinely hates killing or driving away his students, but he does so anyway Because Destiny Says So; it adds a layer of tragedy to his actions.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: He wore a green sleeveless shirt.

Clada

A Drow monk who was one of Cale's colleagues at the monastery.

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• The Ace:
  Clada: I was never your favorite pupil. Doesn't mean I wasn't your best.
• Action Girl: While her peers had trouble fighting their master, she was able to kill him with relative ease.
• Klingon Promotion: Takes command of a band of elvish bandits by assassinating their leader and killing all challengers.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being established as the most skilled among her peers, the second chapter of "Those Left Behind" shows her blundering several escape attempts while the three are faced with bandits, until she admits that she didn't have any plan in the first place.

Notan

A monk who was one of Cale's colleagues at the monastery.

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• Beware the Silly Ones: He's a little out there, but can turn into a complete berserker in battle. He managed to survive a skirmish with a horde of bandits after his peers had left him behind.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He has his moments.
  Notan: You kissed him!
  (beat)
  Notan: I thought confusing kissing and killing was going to be our thing.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Things don't usually end well for his enemies when he needs to "find Gerry".

• Genius Ditz: He doesn't seem too bright, but has a knack for Cutting the Knot solutions.
• Punny Name: Notan has no tan.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His fur shirt has no sleeves.

Mohawk Monk

A monk who was one of Cale's colleagues at the monastery. Their master forced him to make out with Shora in order to end their relationship.

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• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His shirt has no sleeves.

Stranger Danger

A resident of the criminal underworld from the danger cast.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: All his animals are named in an alliterative manner.
• A Day in the Limelight: A Friend You Haven't Yet Met, a NPC story explaining how he got those animals.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Purple, with horns, red eyes, and a beard that has a natural green streak in it.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The magical abilities displayed by the animals that he attracts can range from incredibly mundane to extremely powerful, but he cannot actively control what animals will show up or even whether they'll show up at all at a given moment.
• Blessed with Suck: Animals with special abilities somehow always found him so he can name them. It once got on his nerves, because they can't all be as cool as the Labradoodle of laserbeams.
• The Beast Master: He keeps an entire menagerie of animals with different magical properties.
• The Drag-Along: Only came with the gang to Kethenicia because he could get them out of a jam and they could get him out of the city. May or may not have grown out of it by the time he agrees to infiltrate the city.
• Healing Hands: One of his creatures, Harold, the Hedgehog of Healing, possesses immense magical healing abilities.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": His first name really is Stranger. Lampshaded when he goes to a bar and is initially surprised to be greeted by his name when the barman says "Afternoon, stranger."
• Invisibility: The Indri of Invisibility can make him invisible, though the Indri itself remains visible.
• Retirony: One of his pets, Ernest, the Elephant of Explosions, was only one day from retirement before he died in a massive explosion.
• Straight Gay: No hints as to his sexuality are given before he sleeps with a barman.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The animals with less impressive powers or very niche abilities often have the decency to show up at times when their very limited skills are needed.
• Treacherous Quest Giver: Cale uses him as an agent for heroic mercenary work. A Regent for Life, wanting to kill Charles to take the crown for himself, makes a deal with Stranger. They proceed to use Cale as a token defence force to make it look like Charles was tragically killed by bandits. Unfortunately for both of them, Stranger has a bad case of Underestimating Badassery, and Cale threatens to sic Richard on him should he try it again. He gives them a better quest the next time.
• We Need a Distraction: He is able to use the Dugong of Distraction for this purpose, which completely draws the attention of his desired targets.

Assaracus

A powerful mage that specializes in experimenting on animals.

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• The Beast Master: He has an entire army of Mix-and-Match Critters at his command.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Despite being legitimately powerful, the protagonists never take him seriously when he tries to confront them and he is usually summarily defeated offscreen.
• Forced Transformation: He claims that his current form (a large collection of asses) is the result of a curse imposed by his colleagues, who didn't like his power over life.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: He specializes in creating them.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Though more by chance than by design, he does manage to put Richard on the ropes at one point when Richard wastes too much magic on burning down his extremely inflammable whale-elephant mooks.
• Revenge: Seeks it against Cale and company for humiliating him instead of saving him.
• Unfortunate Names: It isn't lost on him, and he deeply wishes he were named something else.

Chachas

A group of deceptively cute golems that were originally meant as a safeguard against The Archmage going insane.

• Badass Adorable: Small white blobs with big round eyes, yet they can curb-stomp the Archmage.
• Combined Energy Attack: They use swarm magic, a form of magic that grows stronger with each additional caster using it.
• Golem: They are effectively constructs animated by the enslaved souls of dead magi.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
  • They have no trouble hitting a chair Richard was about to hit them with, but not one of their attacks manages to hit the heroes.
  • Even more jarring since they had no problem hitting Richard without touching the wee king in their first encounter
• Loophole Abuse: Their programming causes them confusion when dealing with non-magical attacks, but like Richard, they don't have much problem going around their rules.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The chachas are small, silly-looking, and can't seem to say much other than "chacha." But they can overwhelm Richard by Zerg Rush, break through Benny's shields, and are Genre Savvy enough to not aim for Charles. Their origin story reveals that they were created to keep the Archmage in check.
• Pokémon Speak: The Archmage challenged them, and they repeated the first part of the word, resulting in them saying almost nothing but "chacha".
• Squishy Wizard: They are highly effective when fighting against magic users as powerful as Richard and the Archmage. But when it comes to non-magical beings, not only does their programming cause them confusion, but they are also highly susceptible to physical attacks.
• Zerg Rush: The chachas operate by swarm magic: the more of them there are, the stronger their magic becomes. With enough of them, they can take down the likes of Richard and the Archmage.

Regent

A Lizardman who wanted to kill Charles and take his place as king, as well as making sure Charles doesn't reach his 14th name day.

• Mr. Exposition: He is a chatty king and spent a whole page explaining what will now be his motive and means.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: His army is a joke for the group but then he shows up with all the enemies the group made on the Western continent.
• The Usurper: Wanted to be king which he succeeds after the group take Charles with them.

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