Darth Wiki / Clouds Of Altaenia

Clouds of Altaenia is an indie RPG for PC, centered around the familiar-yet-alien world of Iterodel. The game centers around six protagonists in their shared quest to travel the world, sort out a divine crisis, and discover themselves along the way. The story is still largely WIP, but a lot of character, world, and gameplay progress has been made, and is yet ongoing.

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This work contains examples of:

World Tropes

• Alien Sky: The night sky view of Iterodel has a view of it’s massive twin rings that encircle the planet, and four moons of smaller size than ours. What’s even more alien is only the moons are fully natural - the rings are massive divine machines made to keep the magic of the world in balance, and even the stars of the night sky are fake, just made to cover up the abodes of the gods and the massive shields that protect Iterodel from foreign threats.
  • Despite the fake sky, the projection shown to the world is still modeled after the data outside. To not freak anyone out, it doesn't show the Neutrino Beasts.
• Applied Phlebotinum: All spells are powered by Bryonic Petals, a magic material that falls from the rings to be absorbed into lifeforms to power spells or just used by itself. It takes the form of rain, snow, or even crystal, depending on the environment it passes through before being absorbed. Additionally, when in crystal form, they can be worked into a substance called Margalium, which is used to power nearly all magical devices on Iterodel.
• Beneath the Earth: The caves of Tariveld, for being so dark, are home to a massive ecosystem of underground lakes, friendly and dangerous fauna, and even hotspots of plant life. Oh, and the remaining survivors of original Quillid society.
• Chummy Commies: The Nepenthe is a socialist city-state in all but name, with an economy that doesn't operate on any currency and instead operates most closely to a gift economy; And yet, it and its people are simply a group looking for economic and/or social security after the rest of Namarria began to destablize.
• Close-Knit Community: The Nepenthe, the Non-Governmental Organization Alani hails from, is this due to being made as a safe haven for persecuted or impoverished people from all walks of life - people looking out for each other is heavily present and encouraged.
• Dyson Sphere: Outer Caelestis/The Great Shields, played with in that they are built around the heavens outside Iterodel. They were created to protect the planet from any more Neutrino Beasts entering, and they are also used to help simulate the fake starmap seen by those on Iterodel.
• God of the Moon: Four of them, one for each of the four moons: Minh, Azaa, Veda, and Lalasa. Their priests pray for various minor values compared to that of the other gods. Those minor virtues are what they were originally made to represent, before adopting the moons after the experiments on each failed.
• Magical Abortion: Talked about as an option in several countries, using plant magic to abort an unwanted fetus. The gods see this as a valid option; since the soul of an unborn child isn’t even fused with them until the late stages of a pregnancy(and thus can simply be plucked out and put back into the reincarnation cycle), they see nothing immoral with the idea.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: Most of the world has an acceptance of any sexuality or gender identity, especially those of abydellian, meropean, or quidla ancestry. Despite this, some bigoted outliers or countries still exist.
• Our Angels Are Different: The gods employ an ‘artificial’, ageless race known as the Guiders. They take the form of massive divine machines that look alien to the mortals of Iterodel, and they only appear in times of crisis.
• Underwater City: Downplayed with the quidla - due to them being semi-aquatic, many quidla-dominant cities and even most of their houses have areas made for underwater living and travel.
• Wandering Culture: Roy's home tribe, like most tribes in Ilati, are a migratory civilization due to living deep in the arctic.

Race Tropes

• Alien Gender Confusion: Because female and male meropeans look practically identical, those who haven't spent much time around one can have issues telling the two apart.
• Be the Ball: Tinoi have the ability to roll themselves up into balls, which gives them more defense, movement, and even the ability to ram into others. This is their special stance in gameplay, as well.
• Bioluminescence Is Cool: The quillids and quidla evolved bioluminescence, parts of their skin glowing a constant red(the tail and mouth for quidla, and the forehead, sides, tail, and back for quillids). The quillids were known to have been able to change the color of their light.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The abydellians, while having a body plan like theropod dinosaurs, also can take a quadrupedal stance, have large claws that resemble wings, have native uses for fire magic, and are bar none the largest sapients.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Played With: While every species has clothing, the abydellians, quidla, and meropeans do not wear anything on their back and lower halves, since they not only have no need to, but they literally can't reach back there. Phinok and Camerline, on the other hand, do wear clothes covering their lower halves, and it's not like any race has anything to cover, anyway.
• Extra Eyes: The Camerline possess four eyes, having a slightly smaller set of them above their larger two.
• In a Single Bound: The tinoi, taken from their kangaroo-like inspiration, have a super-jump they they can use to travel.
• Long-Lived: The abydellians, quidla, and quillids live notably longer than humans do.
• Poisonous Person: The Quidla evolved a native poison which they employ to defend themselves and as an attack on their enemies, in-game.
• Pregnant Reptile: The abydellians, quillids, and quidla go through pregnancy and live birth despite looking more reptilian or amphibian, than mammalian.
• Proportional Aging: All the sapient species age at the same rate humans do, even demigods.
• Racial Remnant: The quidla took themselves to be this, after Rutizhana single-handedly killed all of the quillids.
• Regenerating Health: The camerline, due to living in the strange ecosystem of Alheimur, can regenerate their own health and wounds, provided they have some concentration and time. This functions as their unique stance, but while in it, they’re locked out of doing much except defending.
• Regenerating Mana: The quillids of modern day have the ability to bring out magic from deep inside themselves, given to them by living under the blizzard for millennia. This works as their unique stance, but similarly to the camerline, the most they can do in it is move around and do basic attacks while waiting for their magic to regenerate.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Abydellians, who are based on dinosaurs, are stereotyped as savages and warmongers by those looking to sow a divide between species. Rather obviously, they’re far from the eternally brutish and evil race they are thought of.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: The most common way to tell the gender of most races is through their size or color. Some transgender characters invoke this by painting themselves in the colors of their gender.
• Stout Strength: Meropeans are very large, padded, and not at all the most flexible of the species, yet they make up for it with natural dizzying strength.
• Super-Reflexes: The phinok have this trait for use during flight, achieved by slowing down their perception of time.
• Throat Light: The quidla can make a red glow come from their mouths, which was evolved for sake of communication and intimidation and retains much of the same uses now.
• Token Aquatic Race: Zigzagged: The Quillids were created by the gods to be the only amphibious race on Iterodel, but then several moved to a different area of Tariveld, becoming the quidla. And then, the quillids were killed off, making the quidla again the only aquatic race. A portion of the original Quillids survived and lived in the underground lakes of Tariveld, however, making the world now have two aquatic races.
• Token Flyer: The phinok are the only race capable of flight, and the closest thing the other races have is the tinoi's super jump.
• Truly Single Parent: Abydellians, quillids and quidla have the ability to reproduce through parthenogenesis, having kids without need for a mate.
• Xenophobic Herbivore: For being the only sapient species that doesn't eat meat, the meropeans have a long history of racism toward the other races, and at times the fact they are the only herbivores has been used to illustrate the others' 'savagery'.

Gameplay Tropes

• Injured Vulnerability: The more a character is hurt, the less damage their physical attacks will do, and low health also has a huge negative impact on one's Break Meter. This can be useful with neutralizing certain problematic attackers that can't be outright killed easily, but the same applies to you and your team. And in either case, magic attacks are wholly exempt from this.
• Morale Mechanic: Every character has an extra stat known as Fighting Spirit, which acts as both a Limit Break and Break Meter system depending on how high into the positives or negatives it is, respectively. Most units continually gain small amounts of FS throughout the battle to be spent on super moves, but getting dangerously low FS causes several debuffs and can turn off gaining it naturally.

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These are tropes specific to individual characters - beware of spoilers.

Protagonists

Ranin

Ranin Malsteed

• The Atoner: Ranin's desperate in several ways to make up for their actions in the past, and while they're now a genuinely considerate and thoughtful person, it's fueled in large part by their massive hidden Guilt Complex.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Is the short one of the three Malsteed siblings, from being of a short species and being short for that species.
• Disability Immunity: One side-effect of being soulless is their complete immunity to Dark magic, which makes anything from teleporters to magic bursts do nothing on them.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Defied. They were born from their parent Enki's Teen Pregnancy, and yet they and their twin were told of their true parentage from their birth. Unfortunately, it does little to assuage the family's rifts.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Due to lacking a soul, Ranin cannot use magic in any natural capacity and is at constant risk of taking the full brunt of magic attacks and healing, save for all dark magic, which they are entirely immune to. They make up for their lack of natural magic by using their Guider battery to use magic for them, but they largely (and the game encourages them to) Fight Like a Normal.
• Reformed Bully: They used to be a far meaner person who troubled their fellow kids and worried their parents, but their incident with the Guider and subsequent abandonment led to them changing their tune to becoming nicer.
• The Soulless: Ranin didn't simply have their soul taken from them; they never had one in the first place, a result of an incredibly rare cosmic slip-up. Despite that, they still have the same ability to feel compassion as anybody else(since souls aren't responsible for the ability to care for things, only one's magical identity).
• Un-Sorcerer: Being soulless, Ranin is one of the few people on Iterodel(and the only one shown in game) to be literally incapable of magic of any kind - an ability even all animals possess - and to be at the full mercy of all magic, barring an immunity to dark magic. They've learned to adapt to their unique position and it gives them skills and insights that most others plainly never thought about.

Veru

Veru Malsteed

• BFS: Veru's sword given to him by Nezha, Strythgera, was almost as long as him, and seeing as he's a Meropean, it dwarfed the other main cast members until it was broken.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Is the big one of the Malsteed siblings, though it's mostly to do with his size as a meropean. He slightly defies the trope's convention as he's the most leader-like of the three, at least in the beginning.
• Celibate Hero: Veru fits pretty easily, being an asexual person who eagerly accepts his role as a hero.
• Cool Sword: Strythgera; allegedly forged and entrusted to him by Nezha. While it breaks very early into the story, its powers are still usable via the party's teamwork, and enable them to achieve feats impossible for any other group of mortals.
• Experienced Protagonist: While everyone in Iterodel knows at least a little in terms of self-defense, Veru enters the game having trained under a god for years and possessing great finesse with his sword.
• Wake-Up Call: More than anybody, Veru's sword breaking at the beginning of the game puts serious strain on his mentality and is the start of his re-assessing what he valued in his old status quo.

Pakure

Pakure Nawatu-Malsteed

• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Pakure is the thin one of the Malsteeds, when compared to the weight of the average quidla.
• Biomanipulation/Green Thumb: She has Plant magic as her natural affinity, and has a far greater ability with it than most, thanks to having Helder's soul.
• Broken Bird: Downplayed, but Pakure only adopted her more brash side after being abandoned by her old family. She commonly shows her older, nicer side, but only around people she doesn't feel threatened by.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Downplayed, since she is merely a blunt person, but she never hesitates to use her heavy staff as a blunt weapon, when she's unable to access her magic for whatever reason.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Pakure claims that her mother, who died when she was merely two years old, would have been the only person in the Nawatu family that cared for her, besides Zhino. Cruelly Subverted after she learns that Nomai cared for her as little as the rest of her family has.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Only technically, as they are not twins, but Pakure is a blunt, but ultimately helpful healer who didn’t use to have her sardonic streak, and Ranin is an anxiously kind person who hates how much of a jerk they used to be.
• Reincarnation: Pakure is a Daivitag, a recent reincarnation of a demigod's soul. She inherited that of one named Helder, and with it, the advanced magical potential of his soul, as well as Helder himself as constant companion and Guardian Entity of sorts.
• Riches to Rags: Was thrown out of her noble lineage on account of refusing to follow her family's code of stepping on others to get ahead, as well as for having the same genetic condition that killed her mother.
• Support Party Member: Her initial role in the team is a healer, and while she never loses that status, she evolves throughout the game into becoming more of an all-around magic user.
• Token Aquatic Race: Of the main cast, she's the only Quidla, thus she's by far the best swimmer of the bunch.
• Trans Tribulations: She is male-to-female transgender, but only discovered this after being expelled from her old family, and thus she's rather anxious about coming back to them as a different person than they last saw.

Roy

Gonaga "Roy" Druserda

• Adopted to the House: Roy initially lived and traveled with Praemon for this reason, with a goal for most of their time spent together being to find Roy a new loving parent and home. Subverted when Praemon develops so much of a parental love for Roy that he asks to adopt him himself, which Roy was ecstatic about.
• Adult Adoptee: After the Time Skip, an adult Roy is finally adopted by Praemon. Downplayed, though, in that he'd only just turned eighteen.
• The Big Guy: Roy is this to the main six, thanks to his ethnicity making him naturally big and having spent most of his years on the road. True to his archetype, he acts as the team's Stone Wall.
• Character Tic: He has trouble standing still sometimes, and sometimes stims via flapping his hands or tapping his claws against each other. He also sometimes turns his flapping into drumming on his hips if he thinks it’s inappropriate to flap - as an Easter Egg, his drumming sometimes references the background music of Eusebes.
• Crush Blush: Has a habit of doing this when with Pakure, and later, Niall. He still does it with Niall even after they become boyfriends.
• Disappeared Dad: Played With as in he literally has no biological father - he was born from his mother's parthenogenesis, so she is his only biological parent.
• Easy Sex Change: Averted. While he desires a physical transition, he has to spend a whole year slowly transitioning - it's this process that he's busy doing throughout the entire game.
• Fat and Proud: Downplayed. He starts the game looking very skinny, as he was emaciated little more than a year ago, and he says that he really preferred his old, chubbier body. His regaining weight throughout the game is something he's relieved about and is framed as a completely good thing and a sign of his improving well-being.
• Failure Knight: A huge part of his motivation for finding his family, even though he claims they hate him, is to make up for his percieved failure to protect them: Namely, letting Luana and Celio leave without him, and letting Praemon be captured. This complex even goes back to his failure to protect his family's cattle.
• Formerly Fat: Played for Drama. He mentions (and is shown in flashbacks) to have been strong and fat. He lost a lot of weight in the month he was entirely on his own to the point of nearly dying of emaciation. Slowly Subverted throughout the game, as along with his transition, Roy regains most of his pudginess.
• Interspecies Adoption: While the adoption was never finalized, Roy had Praemon, a phinok, for a father figure.
• Like Brother and Sister: Roy's quick to form this with Sekia after revealing that he'd begun to think of her like a sister.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: This is what his relationship with Niall ends as, after Niall begins accepting his feminine side. It's somewhat Downplayed, in that while Niall becomes far more comfortable with his femininity, the both of them still retain plenty of masculine traits.
• Nature Hero: He's a heroic person who prefers living life in the forests and has animals as a special interest of his, having led to him becoming well-researched on a lot of them.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars / A Scar to Remember: The huge gash across his face was handed to him by his own mother the last time they ever saw each other, and it's often a reminder to him of everything else she did to him.
  • The end of the game and post-game shows this trope beginning to subvert with enough time and healing, as Roy eventually comes to terms with his scar once he understands how he's able to move past his abuse, beginning to see it more like a Rugged Scar.
• Sword/Shield Contrast: Ends up creating this with Niall, contrasting both their personalities and literal weapons. It's shown a little beforehand, but this trope becomes more prominent after the two get together.
• Tragic Ice Character: Had an Evil Matriarch of a mom and a Notorious Adoptive Father in terms of tragedy, was born in the arctic and possesses frost magic in terms of ice, and almost died in a blizzard in terms of both.
• Twofer Token Minority: Downplayed, as while everyone in the main cast has a few minority-groups related to them, he's the one with the most as an autistic pansexual transgender abydellian from a secluded minority tribe.

Sekia

Sekia Li

• Amazon Chaser: Implied. While she never makes any overt comments worshipping Alani's fitness, she does nothing but blush in the instances where Alani singlehandedly saves the party.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Sekia's singing voice is noted by her girlfriend and many of her friends to be quite beautiful, although she’s rather humble about it.
• Chubby Chaser: Sekia doesn't hesitate to agree that her type is fat people, and she is notably attracted to her girlfriend Alani as well as characters like Niall and Ottoline.
• Forgot the Disability: Some people forget that Sekia has hypotonia due to it being a milder case, and most people don't even know she has it upon first glance, but it still gives her issues with walking and standing for too long.
• Handicapped Badass: Her hypotonia may impact her ability to walk, but she's still a masterful archer while mounted, can fight perfectly fine while grounded as long as she has her cane, and her disability doesn't impact her skills while in flight.
• Like Brother and Sister: She ends up forming this with Roy not long into the story, seeing as they've been best friends for a long while and Roy even lived in Sekia's house for a time.
• Mage Marksman: Sekia is the only bow user able to use enchanted arrows, which she can fire when mounted.
• Making a Splash: Has Water magic as her natural affinity, befitting her free-flowing personality.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Sekia is unable to wield two-handed weapons while on the ground, but has unique access to Apar, giving her an entirely unique stance that enables her to be part-tank, part-magic ranged unit. And as a trade off for her limited grounded potential, she can parry enemy attacks no matter what weapon she has equipped by using her cane.
• Official Couple: She's with Alani from the very beginning of the story. While they have a handful of rocky moments, they never break up and stay very much in love by the end of the story.
• Precocious Crush: Harbored one as an early teen on her adult mentor, Ottoline.
• Team Chef: She handles most of the cooking duties for the main cast, and thanks to being a Big Eater, tends to make large portions.
• Token Flyer: As the only phinok, Sekia's the only one on the team capable of flight.

Alani

Alani Troiani

• Acrofatic: Alani is notably chubby, but is noted to be one of the most agile people in the Nepenthe, more so than most members of her already-flexible species.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She's a plump young lady, and yet she's regarded as rather beautiful by her new friends, and especially her girlfriend Sekia. It's something she's not used to, considering some of her experiences in the Nepenthe.
• Code Name: Although she never finished her training in the Nepenthe's agent program, she reached far enough to earn the name of 'Cygnus', and since agent names are introduced before real names in the Nepenthe, it or the nickname 'Cyg' is what nearly everybody there calls her.
• Disappeared Dad: Alani's and Jubal's father is nowhere to be found, and their mother Chrysa states that he abandoned her, soon after learning she was expecting. Alani ran into him at one point in her early teens, and to this day is trying to find him again.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Alani's a noble soul who's incredibly eager to become an agent to help people and even spurs change to fix the issues within her own community, yet she has consistent problems with believing herself to be lazy or a burden.
• Jack of All Stats: Alani is very flexible in how she can be played, and naturally lends herself to being a little bit of everything. With the right equipment and skills, she can be pushed toward a build specializing in about anything except for pure defense.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Even after being with her with almost a year, Alani is still very nervous and awkward trying to be romantic with Sekia. Makes sense, when you consider that with a Disappeared Dad, and her mother unable to secure a new partner, she's never had a frame-of-reference for such a long romance.
• Official Couple: She's with Sekia from the very beginning of the story. While they have a handful of rocky moments, they never break up and stay very much in love by the end of the story.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Downplayed. She’s needed glasses since early in her life and is by far the most politically knowledgeable of the main cast, but her impulsivity makes her bad with planning and short-term tasks.
• Weight Woe: At first, she hated the fact she inherited her mother's very rotund physique, and while she doesn't openly comment on her own weight, she still has a lot of baggage about it considering her being fat impacted people's opinions of her when she was training to become an agent.

Antagonists

Meidarith, God of Balance

Meidarith, God of Balance

Neiano

Side Characters

Niall

Niall Leonard

• Artificial Limbs: Niall sports an artificial right leg, in place of the real one that was lost in an accident in his youth.
• Berserk Button: He's usually even-keeled for such a loud person, but he will get mad if you insult his uncle, his sister, his boyfriend, or his fashion sense.
• Big Beautiful Man: He is unmistakably heavyset, and Roy and Sekia both think he's gorgeous.
• Big Fun: He's fat, and quite boisterous and jovial, too.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Niall's able to back up his grandstanding, being very strong and talented with his weapons; the fact he prefers using a very unwieldy greataxe adds to his showing-off.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He first appears as an Non Playable Character in Ciltei, who aside from Nominal Importance and an conspiciously unique appearance, serves a simple role in one cutscene and can be chatted with right after. Cue the end of the chapter he appears in, and Niall rushes in to intercept the spy in his entourage and save the party, becoming an important character to the plot immediately after.
• Fat and Proud: He's very proud of his size and sees himself and other fat folks as attractive.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Played for Drama. Niall's always enjoyed dresses more than any other clothing, and was among the more sensitive people of his family, but he's buried a lot of his more feminine traits deep down as a result of being bullied and fears of coming off a stereotype. It's through Roy's understanding and talks with Wholesome Crossdresser Aquarius that he's finally able to take steps toward the gender expression he'd always preferred.
• No Indoor Voice: Downplayed. The young man's normal volume is quite loud, though he's able to soften himself pretty easily when the time calls for it.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Discussed after he gets together with Roy, talking about how he's scared accepting more feminine tendencies would invalidate their relationship.
  • Ultimately, Niall talks through and accepts his feminine leanings, making his relationship with Roy become this, but in a Downplayed sense, as Niall still chooses to retain some of his masculinity.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: He doesn't show it, but he's terrified of his supposed "responsibilities" as a gay man, fat man, and an amputee, working very hard to avoid being seen as a Camp Gay or Fat Slob. His arc's in part about overcoming his fears of being a stereotype, mostly through learning to love his feminine leanings.
• Stout Strength: Niall may be fat, but he’s still strong enough to wield a massive greataxe, a challenge of strength and dexterity even for most abydellians. This is also reflected in-game, with how Strength and Energy are his two highest stats.
• Sword/Shield Contrast: Forms this with Roy after they become boyfriends, with Roy defending Niall until he can make powerful blows. It also works with how Roy's calm protectiveness contrasts Niall's angrier protectiveness.

Sharlei

Sharlei Drinaw

• Revenge: Sharlei's new main motivation after their sibling accidentally killed their 'pet'.

Helder

Helder

• Promotion to Parent: Was designated as Phaediria's 'brother-turned-parent' in Helder's early adulthood, and despite resenting the gods for it, Helder proved to be a great caretaker to her.

Praemon

Xuzem "Praemon"

• Ambadassador: Both a diplomat who's very knowledgeable about his culture, and a passionate man able to swing around an axe meant for a species twice his size.
• Interspecies Adoption: Became a father figure to Roy, though he is a phinok and half the height of his abydellian son.
• Not So Above It All: He drops a lot of his collected demeneanor for pure glee and affectionate teasing upon learning Roy has a crush on Niall.

Roy's Siblings

Zhino

Zhino

• Parental Substitute: Took up being the primary caretaker of Nomai's many children, including Pakure, after both she and her husbands died.

Eridanus and his Boyfriends

Tropes applying to all three of them:

• All Lesbians Want Kids: Gender-Inverted. They're three men who felt their family wasn't complete without children, and decided to have some with Eridanus' offering to carry them.
• Code Name: As the three of them are agents, Mokao, Fenwick, and Cloru were given their code names of Eridanus, Pyxis, and Aquarius, respectively.
• Non-Action Guy: Contrary to most of the Nepenthe's agents, all of them sit back from all field work for health and/or safety reasons.
• Polyamory: All three of them are deeply and equally in love with one another, and while Aquarius is entirely committed, Eridanus and Pyxis sometimes have side dates with other people.
• Wedding Episode: A late-game quest features helping the three of them with final tasks needed before the three of them finally get married.

Mokao Paewai / Eridanus

• Biomanipulation/Green Thumb: Ended up with Plant magic as his affinity.
  • Keeping the Handicap: While he could use it to theoretically nullify his cerebral palsy or speed up his pregnancy, he chooses not to, simply being okay to put up with the downsides.
• Affectionate Nickname: His boyfriends either refer to him fondly as 'Eri' or simply by his real name.
• Ethical Slut: Mokao is polyamorous and while he most commonly sticks to his boyfriends, he also freely goes on dates with people all throughout the Nepenthe. While none of his scenes with his clients focus on their sexuality, he does state he's okay with whatever they do behind closed doors so long as it doesn't hurt anybody or break anybody's trust.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Subverted and Defied. Cerebral palsy paralyzed his entire back half and rendered him only able to walk with a mobility aid, and he's also a caring therapist who his boyfriends talk about adoringly. When you meet him, though, you find he hates the stereotype of him having "overcome" his disability, since he only became a therapist through years of psych classes as a young adult - having had to work as hard as anyone else - and insists on being treated completely mundanely.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Courtesy of quidla pregnancy being a roulette in terms of length, Eridanus may be at the very start of his pregnancy meeting him at the beginning of the game, but he's still pregnant by the end of the game, a year and three-quarters later.
• Mister Seahorse: He's a pregnant man; it's Justified, when you learn he's also transgender.
• Obvious Pregnancy: While he's only very slightly rounder by the first time you meet him, post-Time Skip the baby bump he sports is impressively big for his species.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: His job is to listen and help people work through their issues, so he's pretty naturally willing to hear people out, including the protagonists. Of course, with his family-to-be, he can't directly help them with adventuring the world.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted, since he is one, and he's more than willing to help out patients like the main cast. This goes on to include the main cast, when he takes Roy's, Sekia's, and Ranin's cases during the Time Skip.

Cloru Iocco / Aquarius

• Shipper on Deck: He very much likes to both support and tease his boyfriends about... well, every metamour of his, but most consistently banters about Pyxis' crush on Centaurus.
• Techno Wizard: He's one of the people in charge of all of the Nepenthe's tech, and he knows what gadgets to equip on any member going into the field, as well as how to operate it all himself. Like the rest of his polycule, he's keen to stay at home, acting as Mission Control at best.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Aquarius likes to wear primarily dresses, and neither the story nor characters think any less positively of him for it.

Fenwick Milburn / Pyxis

• Big, Screwed-Up Family: He comes from a massive family host to two overly-traditional and transphobic Abusive Parents; And as the most vocal opponent of his parents and about his queer relationship, he's well-okay with being the family's Black Sheep.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: He can't seem to help a large crush on Centaurus, the leader of the Nepenthe. Granted, Centaurus was not leader when Pyxis first met them, Centaurus is Oblivious to Love, and Pyxis is too busy supporting Eridanus and preparing for his upcoming children to have any another serious romances.

Ketner

Sterling Ketner

Carys

Fazil

Fazil Anthis

• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Exaggerated, since he fails to recall Alani's name on top of incorrectly guessing a slew of information about her. Justified, since he wasn't even around for her birth.

Jeroz and Varanet

Jeroz Altruc

Vuenna "Varanet" Altruc

Ranin's Parents

Enki Drinaw

• Parents as People: While many of COA's parents fit the bill, Enki especially does. No matter how much they love their kids, they're bad at hiding the overall negative impact that having kids so early had on them. As an adult, when Sharlei and Ronothe give them a chance to live life the way they always wanted for a while, they don't hesitate to take it.
• Teasing Parent: They very commonly had prank wars with their kids, usually spurred by Ranin's antics.
• Teen Pregnancy: Conceived Ranin and Sharlei by complete accident. While they ended up keeping it of their own accord, it was at first at the insistence of their parents.

Ronothe Drinaw

Aquila **UNMARKED SPOILERS**

Aquila

• Immortal Ruler: While not truly immortal, she's been the designated queen of her nation for the past 1,046 years.
• Lady And A Scholar: Aquila is a very refined individual who may not be as smart as her encyclopedic sister, but is still a fountain of knowledge and experience beyond being so long-lived.
• Really 700 Years Old: Same as all demigods, her lifespan is dramatically long; she's in her early forties for a quillid, but is around 1,600 years in actual age.
• Zen Survivor: The events of her sister's kidnapping, the fall of the empire, and especially Rutizhana put her through hell as a teenager, and forced her to change her mentality to be far wiser and calculated, at the expense of a lot of her individuality and mental health.

Phaediria **UNMARKED SPOILERS**

Phaediria

• Celibate Eccentric Genius: She's a sex-adverse aromantic asexual literally engineered to be a master scholar.
• Magic Librarian: She is the sole libarian of the oldest living library in the modern day, and she's also a supremely-knowledgeable demigoddess with impressive Earth magic at her disposal.
• Pregnant Badass: Discussed when Aquila says that Phaediria spent her entire pregnancy at work constructing the Drigiltru Library, as well as helping defend the town from monster raids as if nothing was amiss.
• Really 700 Years Old: She looks only 30 for a quillid, but is over a millennium old.
• She Is All Grown Up: After Helder's memories show her as a child for the whole of the game during flashbacks, she's a momther by the time you meet her for real in the post-game, and Helder's surprised by her new beauty.

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The gods of Iterodel appear as strange, twisted and complex soul-like entities in their truest form, but always appear to mortals as said mortal's species, so as not to freak them out.
• Cast Full of Gay: Many side characters in the game and the entirety of the main cast are queer: Ranin is an intersex non-binary person, Pakure is a trans female, Veru is an aromantic asexual, Roy is a pansexual trans male, Sekia is bisexual, and Alani is a demisexual lesbian.
• Color Motifs: Every continent has a signature color that the UI of the game is overhauled to fit: Eusebes is blue, Namarria is yellow, Shifiru is green, Petramis is red, Alheimur is turquoise, Tariveld is purple, Caelestis is pink, and Outer Caelestis is magenta.
• Depopulation Bomb: A massive, unearthly blizzard destroyed the Quillids and left a miniscule fragment of their home and species alive, and those survivors adopted the new name of the Quidla. As it turns out, many Quillids also survived under the ice, but only one of these underground societies could survive in the harsh caves.
• Elemental Powers: There are nine(culturally, there are ten) elements in the world, and each person attunes to one at a young age:
  • An Ice Person: Control over ice and frost, yet not a true element, in that it's actually just clever use of fire and water magic together. Even still, ice mages are seen as just as valid as the other professions.
  • Blow You Away: Control over wind and air.
  • Casting a Shadow: While it's said to be 'dark' magic, it's actually control over the soul. Since it's control over what 'causes' magic in the first place, it's used for both creative and pragmatic purposes, giving it its 'dark' title.
  • Dishing Out Dirt
  • Extra-ore-dinary
  • Green Thumb
  • Light 'em Up
  • Making a Splash: Control over water in all forms, including vapor and ice.
  • Playing with Fire: Control over heat energy, in both heating things up and cooling things down. It even extends to infrared radiation, letting fire mages, of all types, predict the weather.
  • Shock and Awe
• Eldritch Abomination: The Neutrino Beasts, the progenitors of universes like Iterodel. They live as mindless creatures with little grasp of logic or even survival, any disaster or miracle they cause being purely accidental. And despite the gods having been made through one, they have no idea of their existence.
  • Eldritch Location: Alheimur is an infantile Neutrino Beast, having accidentally fallen into the gravity of Iterodel, and having to have been forcibly killed by the gods to stop it from unwittingly tearing the planet apart. Even though it is long dead, its unique magical state is used for numerous historic disasters.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The main six members of the cast can roughly fall into these categories:
  • Veru and Roy are Fighters, Veru being a Mighty Glacier and a Magic Knight who serves as the team's main damage, and Roy being a Stone Wall that can be turned into another Mighty Glacier or even a Lightning Bruiser with the right conditions,
  • Pakure is a Mage and a Support Party Member,
  • And Sekia is a Thief as a Fragile Speedster. Alani is also in a Thief role, that can be turned into a Duelist or Magic Knight depending on what the player does with her.
• Flower Motifs: All over. Multiple characters throughout the game, as well as the identities of the continents, are tied to specific flowers, and they even show up prominently in the menus.
• Giant Corpse World: Alheimur is a titanic being known as a Neutrino Beast(See Eldritch Abomination above, having been dead for thousands of years and whose remains constructed of raw magic feed the plants that have been slowly decomposing it.
• Happily Adopted: Roy was set to be adopted by his father figure and 'Ičá', Praemon, and loved the idea. Subverted when Praemon was separated from Roy after being accused of a fabricated scandal, and Double Subverted after the two reunite, and Roy is adopted as an adult.
• Hegemonic Empire: The nation of Pelzotra, the empire that the Quillids all lived in, grew to power through abusing the species’ Martial Pacifist dogma to convince neighboring nations to join them, or turn citizens of countries against their governments, without harming any of their own. It became much mellower after its conquest was over, and Quillids shortly before their demise expressed an immense disdain for how their shared empire came to be.
• Interspecies Adoption: Praemon became a father figure to Roy, and ended up attempting to adopt him.
• I Will Find You: Two instances:
  • Praemon, Roy's 'Ičá' and father figure, goes missing after a fabricated political scandal. One reason Roy sets out is to reunite with him as well as become officially adopted by him.
  • Helder, despite only living on through Pakure, aims to find his toddler sister Phaediria, who had also died in the Blizzard Incident. Since they're both ghosts, Helder theorizes they could interact with each other. However, Phaedi isn't dead at all, and has continued her life with only vague knowledge of Helder.
• Non-Governmental Organization: The Nepenthe is a secret community that is headed by people who simply wanted to create a place for those suffering in Namarria to escape to, and thus it's not considered a nation, technically.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sekia and Alani - the two are girlfriends with more than one parent of the same sex, somewhat witty or theatrical attitudes and anxieties about their families and friends, but Sekia is calmer, shorter, and has water magic at her use contrasting Alani's more active personality and fire magic.
• Time Skip: About three fourths through the game, the story cools down for a while and a time skip lasting a year happens.
• Underground City: Downplayed - Laniakea, the base of operations for the Nepenthe, is partially underground.
  • The underground quillid city of Zertasil counts fully, going several miles below the earth.
• Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: The abydellians, quidla, phinok, and nearly all Petramisian and Tariveldic species have six limbs, as a result of that being the body plan of vertebrates in Petramis and Tariveld’s tree of life. The Abydellians, though, are the only ones with four hands.
• Wrong Context Magic: Monarch’s affinity simply reads as ‘Undefined’, with no description, and his spells are strange and impossible for any other character to even 'attempt'. Justified by his carrying two different affinities built for a mortal and a god.