But Now I Must Go / I Choose to Stay: He tries to Take a Third Option and go home but use his power to travel between worlds to visit Draconica, but Dronor says he has to take that power away. After thinking about his worried sick mother and encouragement from Erowin he decides to go home.
Dirty Coward: Initially, he would run away from any and all danger and wanted nothing to do with Daniar or her quest. He grows out of it and by the Eastern Alliance Arc where he calls Emperor Gothon a 'Final Fantasy' reject to his face, while the emperor's prisoner.
The Heart: This is his functional role in the group; emotional support.
Hot for Teacher: A swamp monster creates an illusion lure of whatever the target finds most alluring. For Ben it was one of his teachers in tight clothing.
Leeroy Jenkins: Used as a battle cry. He tries to explain the Trope Namer to his companions but ultimately gives up.
Macguffin Boy: Emperor Gothon makes it clear early on that his reason for conquering Britannia was to capture Ben. He thinks it's because Ben's soul can save his dying wife, but it's acutally because Kazebar wants the boy's latent power to travel between worlds.
Oblivious to Love: Despite noticing Daniar's crush on Kalak and said relationship's development, he's oblivious to Erowin's crush on him.
Ordinary High School Student: In defiance of what almost always happens next, he stays an ordinary high school student. By the time he finds out that he has a unique power to travel between worlds, at the end of the story, Dronor says he has to take it away from him to make sure a villain never gets their hand on it again.
Shout Out: Many of them from Red Bull to Metallica to Final Fantasy, and all of them are played for laughs because no one knows what he's talking about.
Supporting Protagonist: It's his story but Daniar gets the limelight. He lampshades this in the bonus art at the end, where he complains to the author and artist about how he is a 'bit character in his own story'.
Took a Level in Badass: Deconstructed. He never becomes an asskicking warrior because he doesn't have the time or equipment to do so, but he does become significanly braver over the course of the story.
Played for laughs at one point where he finds a suit of armor that more or less fits him and says he looks like an asskicking warrior. Then he falls over and says he'll leave the fighting to Daniar and Kalak.
Daniar
Badass Princess: Famous in-universe for enforcing her dad's law.
Big Sister Mentor: Taught her martial arts and tries to keep her away from bad habits like drinking during the day.
The Cape: She doesn't just kick ass but but she shows mercy and tries to set a moral example.
Daddy's Girl: According to Zarracka she is a goody-two-shoes attention whore who demands all of their father's attention. Only the first part is true.
Flying Brick: Daniar's use of this trope is justified: She is a dragokin, a human blessed by a dragon god with dragon-like powers, and what are dragons know for besides flying, breathing fire, and great strength?
The Hero: She leads the group, she fights the battles, she has the Heroic Spirit. It's lampshaded by Ben in the bonus art how she gets the 'meaty story lines' despite not being The Protagonist.
Heroes Prefer Swords: She carries one and is very skilled with it but never uses it to stab anyone. Truthbringer has never tasted blood since it was made.
Honor Before Reason: Daniar takes her Thou Shall Not Kill thing very seriously. Enemy soldiers were overrunning her kingdom's capital but she refused to do more than disarm them because they were conscripts.
The Leader: A type II for Team Good; she has her head on straight and guides her teammates which are either too cowardly, too bloodthirsty or too kind to otherwise hold together.
Real Men Love Jesus: In this case, Real Women Love Dronor. She regularly reminds her group that Dronor is watching over them, guiding them, etc. In her book 'pray to Dronor' is a legitimate plan.
Revenge: Defied. Despite having lost her home and kingdom to Gothon, same as Kalak and Kazem, she never considers revenge.
Refusing to kill Jihidain is the reason she is still around to cause trouble.
Refusing to train Benji means he jumps into danger without the skill necessary to get out of it or the self-disciple to stay out of it in the first place. This almost gets her and Lydia killed.
Refusing to tell Benji that his Aunt Zarracka is evil means said aunt had no problem convincing him that she was good and Daniar herself was the bad one. This leds to the destruction of Final Shield and a lot of death.
Over Protective Mom / Fantasy Forbidding Mother: She doesn't want Benji to follow in her foot steps so she does everything she can to keep him away from battle and danger. Benji is not her first child; that one died because she jumped into battle while pregnant thus causing her to overcompensate.
Pregnant Badass: A flashback reveals she was this at one point. Deconstructed as a belly wound killed the fetus.
Erowin
Badass Damsel: She looks and acts like The Ingenue, and she is, but she's no slouch at defending herself.
Back from the Dead: Mordak kills her and yet she comes back to help out on two occasions.
Brother-Sister Incest: She's Ben's twin sister and she's in love with him, but she might not have known before becoming an angel.
Came Back Strong: As a dragokin she can handle mooks. After dying and becoming an angel she can effortlessly No Sell the Big Bad's best shot.
Can't Hold Her Liquor: One drink can make her drunk enough to jump on stage and dance.
Detect Evil: One of her powers is detecting 'hostile intent' in strangers.
The Empath: She can sense and influence the feelings of others, which she uses to calm wild animals and sense hostile intent.
Green Thumb: She can make vines spontaneously grow.
Healing Hands: Even the brink of death is not an obstacle. After she becomes an angel this power goes Up to Eleven: death itself is no longer an obstacle.
Martial Pacifist: "I hate violence of all kinds." *kicks a banelord* "Except in self-defense."
Mind Link Mates: "We're twins; united in body and soul." Presumably being Ben's twin serves as an 'anchor' or something and that allows her to stick around and help after Mordak kills her.
No Self Buffs: She can't use her healing power on herself.
Spirit Advisor: After dying she takes this role until the climax.
Kalak
Adorkable: He's awkward in personal relationships, especially with women.
Blood Knight: Like all leondians, he loves fighting
Child Of Rape: Gothon captured his mom and raped her before she escaped
Combat Pragmatist: Rule Number One of Leondian training states 'victory is the only thing that matters'. Rule number two states 'honor is for the weak'.
He-Man Woman Hater: A strange example. He grew up surrounded by female soldiers, idolizes his warrior queen mother and has a great relationship with his sister (who has seen more combat than him) but doesn't take Badass Princess Daniar seriously and for some reason thinks women care about nothing but shopping and pinning flowers to their dresses. Word Of God says this is part of his Jerk Ass Facade because he felt insecure among so many strong women when he himself had never seen combat.
Heroic Sacrifice: After transforming into Mordak, he kills himself to prevent himself from killing Daniar.
Jerk Ass: He's rude, insenstive, and downright mean.
Love Redeems: His relationship with Daniar makes him a kinder and nobler person. Thus giving him Heroic Willpower.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: Justified here. According to Leondian law, no one can take part in combat unless they have at least one child. Being a virgin means being a non-combatant which means being deadweight.
Momma's Boy: Idolized his mom as the ideal warrior and she's the one he wants revenge for.
The Needless: Due to his training he can go for weeks without sleeping. Food and water are still required but he can go much longer without them then anyone else in the party.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: First a deconstruction: a childhood spent on martial training means he has no idea how to do anything more than fight and march. Then a reconstruction: "‘I don’t deny that I was frightened that day. And I know that fear is unacceptable in our laws. But we all were frightened once. At the beginning of our training, we were just scared little children....Our kingdom is gone, we’d just be rovers, wanderers, nomads, vagabonds – call us what you will. I call us homeless soldiers, reduced to petty mercenaries." That shared childhood of training makes them a unified culture.
Revenge: His chief motivation for the quest is to kill Gothon for razing his homeland.
The Spartan Way: The lifestyle of all Leonidans is intense physical training from the age of five. There is enough evidence to call it the original spartan way.
Super-Powered Evil Side: halfway transforming into Mordak makes him far more powerful but it also makes him a mindless killing machine.
The following applies to him in Legacy of the Dragokin
Deal with the Devil: Allows Mordak to resume control over his body to escape certain doom by drowning.
Fighting from the Inside: He's gotten better at this since the last book. He can come out and hold control for a brief period at a time whenever Daniar or Benji are in trouble.
Hot Consort: Britanian laws says there can only be one monarch which means he does little except look handsome next to Daniar.
The Power of Love: He uses this to temporarily overturn Mordak's control and then to exorcise the monster from his own body in addition to Zarracka's.
Ritchie
Butt Monkey: Treated like crap by Kalak. The journey is no kinder to him.
Chew Toy: He gets comical injuries. One time his fur fluffed up from Rana's lightening storm and another time he's covered in tar for no plot-based reason.
Dirty Coward: Like Ben he shies away from danger despite being equipped with 'the perfect hunting tool' i.e. his own body.
Took a Level in Badass: Also like Ben he becomes substantially braver and more confident.
The following applies to him in Legacy of the Dragokin
Morality Chain: Revealed to have been this for Kalak all along. Once he dies, Mordak stirs, Kalak's marriage decays and he visits Zarracka for comfort.
Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He dies sometime between the end of the first and the beginning of the second; presumably of old age. Kalak's problems start because of this.
Rana
The Aloner: Invoked. She traveled to perhaps the most inhospitable place in Draconica to be alone from everyone. Ironically, this is also the only place in the world where one can hear what's going on everywhere in the world.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She lived in a desolate mountain cave for years yet she's still a knock-out beauty. However, the narration notes that 'dust itself was afraid to touch it (her dress)'. It's possible she used her Shock and Awe powers to create a Dirt Forcefield.
Blow You Away: Rana's Breath Weapon is the ability to exhale hurricane force breath. Hinted to be powerful as Zarracka states she can "knock back entire legions with just a sneeze".
Changed My Mind, Kid: Initally refused to help Daniar but later came to save her after the Easatern Alliance was slaughtered.
Does Not Like Men: She calls them things like 'useless' and 'violent' and 'quick to hide behind women when they can't handle their own problems'.
The Empress: From marrying Taurok after he succedds Gothon.
The First Cut Is the Deepest: Her isolation seems from Daniar actidentally stealing her crush, Tyrone. In truth, Zarracka killed him because she failed to steal him from Daniar.
The following tropes apply to her in Legacy of the Dragokin
Game Breaking Injury: She is badly injuried at the start and then overuse of her electric powers sends her into a comma. Because of that she is missing from many battles and the narration often notes that she is not at full strength.
Happily Married: Her hook up with Taurok started as infatuation but now she's clearly in love with him.
Heroic RROD: Final Shield requires a tremendous amount of power to get started; she was bleeding from her orfices by the time it was ready.
Hot Consort: Defied. Traditionally she would have been this but Finn changed the law so she can rule with him instead of next to him.
Morality Pet: Invoked by Finn. When he wants to prove that he's not evil he points to his loving wife.
Took a Level in Kindness: She has a warmer and kinder personality here because she's no longer in bitter isolation and dropped the 'I hate men' mindset.
He used a Force Choke on an officer that had failed him.
Happily Married: With Sophia before she got sick. Subverted. He hated her for never providing him with an heir, struck her during a fight, and deluded himself into thinking they were happy while devoting the rest of his life to saving her from an illness he cooked up yet genuinely believes. Double subverted. Sophia's ghost appears as he dies, kisses him, and they depart to the afterlife truly happy.
I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. He has a mysterious power that allows him to kill without touching, and fear of punishment for his inner circle. How he keeps Taurok under control; the general's daughter-in-law and granddaughter are marked for death unless he obeys the emperor.
You Have Failed Me: He does not take kindly to Zarracka returning empty handed. Downplayed. He never intended to kill her, only to humiliate her by making her think he did.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: His opinion of himself. Ben tells him that another guy in Earth History tried the same thing and is remembered as 'one of the biggest bastards in history'.
Taurok
Amazon Chaser: All he knows of Rana is that she's a Badass Princess. After Storming a Castle together he wants her to be his badass empress.
The Emperor: Succeeds Gothon as emperor of Baalaria
Heel Face Turn: Betrays Gothon in the final act to join Team Good.
I Did What I Had to Do: He hates every single order Gothon gives him over the course of the story but follows them to keep his family safe.
Master Swordsman: In terms of skill he outclasses everyone else.
Noble Demon: He's a villain and comitted to the empire but he has a stunning degree of honor.
Noble Top Enforcer: Taurok insists on fighting fair and hates getting civilians involved in his boss' pursuit of the heroes. Gothon, by contrast, will do anything to accomplish his Evil Plan. He would have turned on Gothon long ago if the guy didn't have his family hostage. Ultimately does so anyway.
Our Elves Are Better: They're called 'shadori', and have purple skin. He doesn't put on airs and in fact it's the opposite. His human soldiers think they're better than him and don't want to be led by him.
Sixth Ranger: Joins the heroes in time for the climax.
You Killed My Father: Son in this case. He thinks Daniar killed him because they dueled just before he died. It was actually a Baalarian archer aiming for Daniar during said duel. Taurok's son took the blow for Daniar and Gothon pinned the blame on her.
The following tropes apply to him in Legacy of the Dragokin
Badass Grandpa: Technically he was always this but now his granddaughter is fifteen and his age comes up more often.
Happily Married: Coments about how lucky he is to have Rana for his wife are common.
Meaningful Rename: His full name is 'Finn Taurok' but he was always referred to by his last name in first book. Now that he's a good guy, the narration switches to his first name. This means that he's on a First Name Basiswith the audience.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He's done a better job ruling Baalaria than Gothon and doesn't hold his country's bad reputation against those that dislike it because of Gothon's invasion.
Retired Badass: He stepped down as general in favor of his granddaughter because he's running the empire now.
Lydia
Go Through Me: This is how Daniar's duel with Taurok ends: Lydia placing herself in their midst and making them stop.
The Mole: Taurok placed her inside Daniar's group to mine intel but Lydia herself was unaware of this.
Token Mini Moe: She's an adorable little girl that Daniar fawns over.
The following tropes apply to her in Legacy Of the Dragokin
Ascended Extra: From minor role in the first to one of the main heroes in the second. She gets as much screen time as Daniar.
Authority Equals Asskicking: She is more skilled and competent than any of her subordinates despite their greater age.
Badass Normal: She can emulate Daniar's Thou Shall Not Kill philosophy despite lacking her dragokin durability, strength, and breath weapon.
It's All My Fault: She blames herself for her mother's death and the trauma this causes her allows Abyss leverage to break her psychologically.
Married to the Job: Her life begins and ends with the military; she's estranged from her only family, rarely sees her only friend, and the possibility that her soliders will reject her leadership sends her into a breakdown.
Nepotism According to her critics, the only reason she's a general is because her grandfather is the emperor.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: After deciphering the weakness in Abyss' fighting style, she tells her opponent what this flaw says about them personally as they die.
The Stoic: Comports herself in a calm and professional matter; it's a point of pride.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Inverted. Lucia is slender, skilled with magic, avoids fighting, and holds little interest in gold or industry. Thus, he's closer to an elf than a traditional dwarf. Whether all dwarves are like this is unknown because he's the only one in the setting
The Medic: He carries poison for 'medicinal' purposes at all times. Though effective in curing even life threatening wounds, this medicine is worse than the disease.
The Star Scream: He plans to overthrow Gothon for reasons he will not disclose. This is because he doesn't know them. Kazebar is possessing him.
Chainmail Bikini: Justified. It's a 'strip down version' she made because she didn't want to wear the normal and all covering version in a desert. The other solders are completely covered.
Dark Chick: The girl of Team Evil filling many roles.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: How Gothon rewards her for failing twice over by throwing her, tied up, into a pit with a giant monster. The monster in question was a herbivore and thus harmless. All it did was scare her shitless, make her beg for her life, and ruin her dress with its slobber.
Evil Counterpart:To Daniar. She is vain, self-centered and was the apple of her mother's eye. Daniar is Modest Royalty and selfless and apple of her father's eye.
Evil Is Petty: Her undying hatred for Daniar is based on her younger sister forcing her to play the 'goblin queen' when they were children. Subverted. Their mother died giving birth to Daniar so Zarracka blames her for it. Double Subverted. She hates Daniar because their mother favored Zarracka herself and so Daniar stole the limelight away from her.
Herself in the Eastern Alliance Arc where she notes that Taurok is the only man who doesn't want her to take her dress off due to the desert heat.
Gothon in the final arc, who says that his empire is 'not a cat house'.
Ben in the bonus art with a picture of Zarracka in said low-cut dress.
Freudian Excuse: She was spoiled by her mother and then banished for seeking attention by summoning an emperor ghul in the capital. The only reason she started working for Gothon is because she was living in a city that he conquered.
''Legacy of the Dragokin gives her two more: 1. She's wants to have children but can't because she's sterile; 2. After her mom died everyone focused on Daniar and ignored her.
Thicker Than Water: Invoked whenever she's at Daniar's mercy. Inverted when their positions are reversed.
Where I Was Born And Razed: Pre-story she summoned an emperor class fire ghul in a desperate bid for hero-style praise and attention that almost trashed Britannia's capital. In the main narrative she is vital in Baalaria's victory over said capital.
Woman Scorned: When Tyrone refused to cheat on Daniar with her, she killed him and made it look like a suicide. When she tried the same on Kalak and with similar success she gave him hypothermia.
The following tropes apply to her in Legacy of the Dragokin
And Then What?: She has no idea what to do with herself after her revenge is accomplished. Becoming a better mother for Benji than Daniar gives her a new purpose.
Becoming the Mask: She pretended to be Benji's sympathetic 'Auntie Zarracka' to enlist his help escaping and ultimately became genuinely fond of him.
Because You Were Nice to Me: First spares Benji and later wants to adopt him because he helped her escape and said he wished she were his mother instead of Daniar.
Hannibal Lecture: From within her custom cell she taunts Kalak about his failing marriage and attempts to seduce her way into his heart.
Heel Face Turn: She joins the battle against the Big Bad without a devious agenda and later volunteers to go back to her cell. She's as surprised as anyone.
Mind Control: Thanks to Mordak she develops this power.
Tailor-Made Prison: She has a custom made cell to negate her ice powers. It has successfully held her for ten years.
Took a Level in Badass: Accepting a power boost from Mordak transforms her ice weapon into flying ice daggers and increases her strength above dragokin levels.
Mordak
The Brute: A mindless killing machine created by Lucia. It's sole purpose is to fight.
The following tropes apply to it/him in Legacy of the Dragokin
Body Surf: How he has always survived but now he can plan for it. He offered Zarracka power because it would allow him to make her his backup body. He hoped to do this to the Big Bad but the heroes anticipated that it and prevented it.
Humanity Is Infectious: Spending ten years in a human's mind absorbing emotions and watching him interact has allowed this mindless weapon to develop a sense-of-Self.
Grand Theft Me: He does this to Kalak in both books but it's more prominent here.
Lady and Knight: Becomes a black knight for dark lady Zarracka; he calls her 'my dear' and says he'll be her protector. He's simply playing into her ego; she's nothing but a spare body to him.
The Empath: It's because of his empathy that he can manipulate others.
Not Quite Dead: He's been dormant in Kalak's mind for ten years.
Rasputinian Death: He's killed or exorcised three times in this book: the first time Kalak and Zarracka beat him up in the mindscape, then Kalak kissed the evil out of Zarracka (his back up body) then Kthonia scattered his physical remains into a thousand pieces with a hurricane gust. The two from the previous book brings the grand total up to five. Justified by a combination of You Kill It, You Bought It and Body Surf.
Suddenly Voiced: Instead of a walking weapon he's sentient. He explains this after Kalak expresses surprise that he can talk.
Took a Level in Badass: Formerly he was mindless but now he's sentinent and developed psychic powers.
Dronor
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Dronor dies and becomes a spirit, but his level of power doesn't change. Likely because he's already the single most powerful being in the setting.
Big Good: Dronor, the oldest and most powerful dragon. He's a champion of good, the most powerful on the side of good, and is even prayed to by mortals.
Deader Than Dead: Dronor's fire can erase someone from existence. It is the highest punishment he is capable of administering.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In the book's epilogue, [[spoiler: it's revealed that he managed to escape being destroyed at the last minute to take possession of an unborn child from a different world at a different era. Named Adolf.
Big Bad He's the true cause of the conflict and the only truly evil member of Team Evil.
Evil Plan: Manipulate Gothon to use his resources to find Ben and steal the power to travel between worlds. He will use this power to gather advanced technology, magic, magical technology etc until he becomes a god and takes over the univese.
Fallen Hero / Villain with Good Publicity. Pre-series he was Draconica's number 1 humanitarian. To reward his good work Dronor granted his son the power to travel between worlds, believing that if any human deserved this honor it would be Kazebar's family line. Whether he was tempted by this power or if he was Evil All Along is not made clear.
A God Am I: He has a god-complex so great he thinks he's surpassed Dronor.
Clingy Jealous Girl: As soon as they meet, she throws petty insults at Daniar and pulls Kalak away from her. Ritchie says she's like this with every girl Kalak has contact with. He thinks it's Big Sister Instinct but by insisting that Kalak never has to have a child (and thus, never have sex with another woman) she borders Incest Subtext
Death Seeker: Of the 'glorious death in battle' variety. On the verge of death she doubts the 'glorious' aspect. "Is this the glorious death we sought? It feels so cold..."
Honor Before Reason: Lots of 'better to die on your feet than live on your knees' sort of lines from him. Whether he believes this himself or is just using it as propaganda is up for debate.
Revenge: Gothon took everything from him: Family, home, etc. So he wants the guy's head on a stick.
Yusef
Actual Pacifist: Subverted. While his nearly every line is about how bad fighting is and how horrible it is to lead people to their deaths, etc, his solution is to kill off a great number of people and scare the bulk into surrendering.
What Happened to the Mouse?: After serving his role in the plot, he disapears and is never heard from again. Word Of God says he was going to have a Heel Realization and comitt suicide by walking into a sand worm pit, but cut it out because it was too depressing after the moment of hope with Rana.
You Said You Would Let Them Go: Apparently there was a miscommuncation. Yusef was under the impression that the cavalry would be killed but the infantry spared because they were little more than farmers with pitchforks; the cavalry would go first and then the infantry would give up and Gothon would 'let them go'. Gothon's plan was all or nothing. He gave the entire army the chance to surrender and join him and face no further aggression from him. Kazem turned this down on principle and the entire Eastern Alliance was slaughtered.
