Darth Wiki / Rattledragons And Other Dangers Of Questing

“Rattledragons” is part high fantasy, part gritty western. Here in the colorful world of Moonsgaze, you can find elemental mages and monks learned in secret lore rubbing shoulders with homesteaders, working girls and the occasional cowboy just back from driving a herd of manticores to market. Moonsgaze is divided down the middle by a dangerous mountain range that few can cross; on the western side is a magical kingdom run by a race of powerful wizards, who rule ruthlessly over the oppressed, magic-less humans from their cold ivory towers. This area is usually referred to simply as “Back Over There.” On the eastern side of the mountains, however, is a barren land of endless opportunity. Here giants, goblins, dragons, and many other monsters roam the dangerous wastes - yet for the few brave and hardy humans who have made a home here, this land represents a glimmer of hope for a ravaged people. They call it the Questinglands.

The Peoples of Moonsgaze

Wizards

• Expressive Ears
• My Instincts Are Showing: "feathering"
• Pointy Ears
• Really 700 Years Old: Can live for hundreds of years, and aren't considered full adults until 40 or 50 years old.

Magic

• Animal Eye Spy: Rubylings
• Attack Reflector: Silverlings.
• Barrier Warrior: Silverlings
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: Averted with Opalines; the only way for them to come down from a fit is to consume magical energy or life force. Until their magical "hunger" is sated, the only way to stop them is to restrain or knock them out - and even that only postpones the inevitable. Don't try wizardbane, either; it only makes it worse.
• Bizarre Human Biology: Wizards look generally humanoid, although taller and more slender than humans; however, their physiology is built to attune to, process, and rely on magical energy, and as such there are major differences. For one, a wizard's heart has six chambers instead of four, and beats at more than double the rate. Their metabolisms are extremely fast and they struggle to gain fat or muscle; their bones are also thinner than a human's. Most interestingly, wizard bodies are affected strongly by the cycle of the moon: at the new moon, when magic is weakest, they become lethargic and ill; at the full moon, they are affected by mania, euphoria, and racing heart rate.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Notable aversion with Silverlings; putting up a force field protects one's body, but it does so by essentially using one's spirit as a shield. Thus if an attacker strikes at the force field, it can cause exhaustion or other mental damage.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Opalines.
• Compelling Voice
• Deadly Gaze
• Deflective Shields
• Dragons Versus Knights
• Elemental Punch: Goldlings
• Emotion Control: Rubylings
• The Empath: Rubylings
• Familiar: Rubylings sometimes have them.
• Fertile Feet
• Forced Sleep
• Hand Blast
• Heroic RRoD: Sollatap Syndrome.
• Hypnotic Eyes
• I'm Having Soul Pains: If they overuse their magic, or at the new moon.
• Instant Armor
• Lunacy: Their magic is tied to the moon.
• Made of Iron: Goldlings
• Mage Species
• Magic Knight: Goldlings
• Master of Your Domain: Goldlings and Pearlings, albeit in very different ways.
• Megaton Punch: Goldlings
• Mind Rape: Rubylings are capable of this, and the Iron Talon use it frequently as an interrogation tactic.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Silverlings and Goldlings, in different ways.
• Pest Controller
• Portal Cut: Possible for Pearlings.
• Power Floats: Played With with Pearlings.
• Power Perversion Potential: Rubylings have the ability to control and manipulate minds. As you might expect, this is not always a power used wisely.
• Power-Strain Blackout: This can happen if a wizard overuses their power, as magic comes from one's life force.
• Psychic Nosebleed: An early warning sign of Sollatap Syndrome.
• Silver Bullet: Wizardbane
• Soul Eating
• Super-Strength
• Super Supremacist: They see magic as a requirement for sentience, and anyone who doesn't have it is little more than an animal to them.
• Sword Beam: Goldlings tend to use their swords as magical focuses more than cutty things.
• Talking to Plants
• Touch of Death: Opalines
• Walk on Water: Some Silverlings can do this.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
• You Are Already Dead: Opalines

Religion

• Angel Unaware: Kattakama, frequently
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Wahenna and Kattakama
• Background Magic Field: Brona & Macana
• Dragons Are Demonic: Macanataroi
• Ethnic God: Kattakama & Wahenna
• Leaking Can of Evil: Macanataroi
• Sentient Cosmic Force: Brona and Macana, according to their religion.

Social Structure

• Abomination Accusation Attack: Anything 'impure' to them is pretty much this.
• Anarcho-Tyranny: To a certain degree.
• The Beautiful Elite: See themselves this way.
• Chocolate Baby: Wizards born with unusual coloring are frequently assumed to be half-human, and treated as such.
• Conspiracy Theorist: As befitting a society where there are a lot of real conspiracies, wizards have a number of conspiracy theories of their own.
• Enemies Equals Greatness: No better way to gain social status than by the number of times you've almost been assassinated.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: They certainly do.
• First Rule of the Yard: Their society is built around ruthless competition.
• Gemstone Motifs: The four castes are Silverlings, Rubylings, Goldlings, and Pearlings
• Honor Before Reason: Wizard society tends to be more about winning in the moment than keeping a functional civilization going.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Unlike many cultures in Moonsgaze, suicide is unthinkable for wizards. Generations of careful eugenics have created a personality that places self-preservation above (almost) anything else. As such, wizards who have truly lost the will to live generally choose to go out in a blaze of glory against a Worthy Opponent rather than resort to traditional suicide.
• Lack of Empathy: Frequently suffer from this.
• Might Makes Right
• Missing White Woman Syndrome
• My Country, Right or Wrong: They're a very nationalistic society.
• Offing the Offspring: The eugenic system dictates that any children with "abnormal" physical, mental or magical traits have to be given up for culling, or at the very least sterilization.
• Ordered to Die: If a wizard's anomalous traits don't manifest until adulthood, they are usually given the chance to turn themselves in rather than be hunted down.
• People of Hair Color: With rare exception, all wizards are blond. Justified in that this is the result of generations of deliberate eugenics.
• Prestige Peril: In a culture where power is gained by killing those above you, having a lot of power is pretty damn dangerous.
• Punished for Sympathy: Compassion isn't valued very highly among wizards.
• The Purge: Not uncommon when leadership changes.
• The Social Darwinist: Their society is built around this.
• Suicide is Shameful

Silverlings

• Blood on the Debate Floor: The Senate is not known for its calm, professional disagreement.
• Staff of Authority: Tribunes have them - the word for tribune in the wizarding language literally means "staff of magic."

Rubylings

• Advertising Campaigns: They're responsible for the creation and spreading of propaganda.
• Ambadassador: Ambassadors to the Questinglands tend to be pretty tough; partly because they have to make the journey to the Questinglands, and partly because they're sent there with express instructions to back up 'negotiations' with violence. Questinglanders refer to them as the "bully brigade."
• Cloak and Dagger: The Iron Talon.
• Culture Police: The job of many higher-ranked Rubylings.
• Propaganda Machine
• Room 101: Paluaneshini, the "houses of eternal life."
• Secret Police: The Iron Talon.
• Torture Technician: The Iron Talon
• Weeding Out Imperfections: Rubylings are both gardeners and eugenicists.

Goldlings

• Anti-Air: For dragon hunters.
• Bigot with a Badge: The Jade Knights, as a rule.
• Bling of War: Look, when you fight with magic, armor doesn't need to be especially practical. The dragon hunters are an exception to this, as they value stealth and speed over flash and intimidation.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The Goldling Academy
• Casualty in the Ring: Goldlings spar with each other frequently as part of their training. These "sparring" matches have few rules, and are frequently done in the middle of the night with no warning to the participants, or after days of forced fasting, or otherwise under high-pressure, dangerous circumstances. Unsurprisingly, accidents are common. Luckily the Goldling Academies usually have highly skilled Silverling doctors to prevent participants from outright dying, but scars, permanent injuries, or brain damage are not uncommon.
• Chevalier vs. Rogue: The Jade Knights, Goldling beat cops responsible for maintaining order and crushing rebellion within Mithradoon, and the Iron Talon, an elite force of Rubyling detectives (and spies, and torturers) who use their unique skills for manipulation and subterfuge to take down high-level threats to the state, are ostensibly on the same side. That doesn't mean they get along.
• Conscription: The vast majority of Goldlings are conscripted into the army at a young age
• Cruel Mercy: Wizarding justice
• The Dragonslayer: A whole force of them.
• Intimidation Demonstration: The primary purpose of the Goldling army; they haven't fought an actual battle in centuries.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The various departments of wizarding law enforcement, like wizards in general, have never been particularly good at cooperating. With the Jade Knights and the Iron Talon constantly at each other's throats, and the army, the Dragonslaying Division, and the aforementioned Iron Talon not bothering to keep each other in the loop even when not having their own spats, the protagonists become very good at dodging pursuers by Calling the Cops on the FBI and otherwise sowing confusion in the ranks.
• Kangaroo Court: Run a number of them.
• Knightly Sword and Shield: Goldlings
• Kung-Fu Wizard: This is kind of their 'thing.'
• Ornamental Weapon: Goldlings don't actually use those fancy swords unless they absolutely have to.
• Police Brutality: Responsible for keeping the human slaves in line.
• Resignations Not Accepted: From the army.
• The Spartan Way: The Goldling Academy
• Stock Punishment
• Training from Hell: The Goldling Academy
• Wake Up Fighting: Common for Goldlings, since it's deliberately encouraged in their Training from Hell - where they are regularly woken up in the middle of the night by random attacks from the trainers.
• A Taste of the Lash: Lashing is a common punishment for various indiscretions, many of them pretty minor.

Pearlings

• No OSHA Compliance: Pearling homes frequently have high balconies, no railings, and holes in the floors and ceilings in place of stairs. Justified since most Pearlings can... you know...fly.
• Suffrage and Political Liberation: By Pearlings

Economy

Currency

Banking

Crafts

Kleptomania

• Gold Fever: Strictly speaking, gold is considered a less-valuable metal, but they sure do like shiny things.
• Loves Only Gold: Silver, technically. Although other metals and gems are also valuable.
• Conspicuous Consumption

Gender And Family

Men

• Elfeminate: Not strictly elves, but still lithe, magical, pointy-eared people who are notably androgynous.
• Guyliner: Makeup is the social norm for both genders.
• Real Men Have Short Hair: Averted. Long hair is the norm for both genders.
• Real Men Wear Pink: A lot of the masculine styles for wizard men don't really align with human ideas of masculinity.

Women

Queerness

• Gendered Insult: In the wizarding language, gender-neutral pronouns are the standard, and using gendered pronouns for someone other than a spouse or lover is considered vulgar.

Dating And Love

Marriage

Family and Children

• Fictional Age of Majority: 40, in this case.

Culture

Food

Art and Culture

• Gallows Humor: They tend to treat death with a total lack of seriousness.
• Mister Muffykins: Small fluffy dogs are very popular with upper-class wizard women.

Clothes

• Cool Helmet: Goldlings
• Cosmetic Horror: Popular wizard make-up styles include pure white lead foundation, bright blue or red eyeshadow, black kohl eyeliner, and stark red blush in distinct circles. To non-wizards, the effect is pretty unsettling.
• High-Class Gloves
• Pimped-Out Dress: Wizarding women love their fancy ballgowns.

Holidays

• Beastly Bloodsports: Gladiator matches are hugely popular.
• Bread and Circuses
• Caged Bird Metaphor: It's traditional for lovers to give each other birds or birdcages as gifts.
• Chariot Race
• Duel to the Death: Dueling is an important cultural sport in Mithradoon. There's even a national holiday around it.
• Gladiator Games: Common.
• Glove Slap
• The Grand Hunt: Popular among the wizarding elite.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break
• Spectator Casualty: Happens occasionally at gladiatorial games.
• Swan Boats: A popular pastime for young lovers.
• Victory by First Blood: How most (though not all) duels work.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Duel banter is considered a valuable art form among wizards.

Death and Mourning

Language

• Pardon My Klingon: Linazayoli, the wizard language, has a number of interesting swear words.

Humans

• Ambiguously Brown: Humans are a lot more diverse physically than wizards, but they tend to fall somewhere in this category.

Slavery

• Call a Human a "Meatbag": Fulke
• Fantastic Slurs
• Fantastic Underclass: Humans as a whole are this on one level, as they form a slave class underneath the lowest caste of wizard society. On a second level, those humans who by birth or choice are undocumented by the Office of Human Affairs are completely unable to participate in the economy and must subsist through charity or crime.
• Fighting for a Homeland: The Halfpenny Rebellion was this; today, the Kattakama Rising Front has taken up the mantle.
• Gangbangers: The Kattakama Rising Front, according to wizards. There's a grain of truth in the stereotype.
• Graffiti of the Resistance
• Humans Are Smelly
• Human Subspecies: Are one of these, not that they would ever admit it.
• Human Traffickers: Because human slaves, while used and abused, are tightly regulated and considered government property, there is an underground market for "undocumented" humans (that is, those who by choice or chance live under the radar of the Office For Human Affairs).
• Icon of Rebellion: Kattakama.
• Insult Backfire: Wizards and humans have very different values. Wizards like to say humans are an Extreme Doormat race (which humans see as being humble and strong), while humans hate wizards for being cruel and manipulative (which wizards just see as being clever).
• I Surrender, Suckers: The Katakana Rising Front are infamous for this; since it flagrantly violates the Code, more traditional code-fearing humans sometimes point to this as a reason rebellion against the wizards is to be discouraged.
• Les Collaborateurs
• Le Parkour
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Wizards are quite chivalrous in combat...as long as they consider their opponent an equal, that is. Their wars against humans more often included violent war crimes and casual slaughter.
• Martyrdom Culture: Tend to view the human code system as this.
• Population Control: While wizarding women have free access to birth control and codified rights regarding sexual activity, Mithradoon laws are designed to encourage human women to breed as fast as physically possible.
• The Right of a Superior Species
• Slave Liberation
• Slave Race: Back Over There, they are this to wizards.
• The Stateless
• Thieving Magpie
• Time Dissonance
• Time Dissonance: In comparison to wizards.
• Underground Railroad
• You Are Number 6

Religion

• Ambition Is Evil: According to the Code (specifically Code 3, Humility).
• Blind Obedience
• Code of Honour: The Code.
• Conspicuous Consumption: The tell-tale sign of a Coin-Eyed Jack.
• Death by Materialism: Coin-Eyed Jack.
• Family Honor: The Code mandates this (Code 1, Fidelity).
• Fighting Back Is Wrong: Code 2 (Endurance) tends to shame people for speaking up about any kind of hardship or abuse. The more extreme interpretations of Code 2 essentially mandate being an Extreme Doormat.
• Honor Before Reason
• Honor-Related Abuse
• Liberty Over Prosperity
• Magic Is Feminine
• Makeup Is Evil
• Sacred Hospitality: Code 1, Fidelity.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome
• Torches and Pitchforks
• Un-person

Gender and Family

Women

• Defiled Forever
• Mandatory Motherhood
• Water Is Womanly

Men

Queerness

• Butch Lesbian: Enforced for Aunts.
• Camp Gay: Enforced for Uncles.
• Gay Best Friend
• Queer Flowers

Marriage & Children

• Corporal Punishment
• Divorce Requires Death
• Fictional Age of Majority
• Heirloom Engagement Ring
• Shotgun Wedding
• Soap Punishment

The Homestead

• Beast in the Building
• Drowning Unwanted Pets

Culture

Food

• Foreign Queasine

Technology

Holidays

• Mud Wrestling: Common sport in the Questinglands.
• Old-Fashioned Fruit Stomping
• Fight Clubbing
• Good Old Fisticuffs

Art and Culture

• Heroic Dog
• Scavengers Are Scum
• Snakes Are Sinister
• Vile Vulture
• Virtuous Bees
• Working Class Anthem

Death and Mourning

Social Structure

• Anarchy Is Chaos: Strongly averted in the Questinglands. While there are the Halfpennies who track down and punish those who harm others, and structured organizations such as the Eyelasses and Dragonmothers exist, there is no real "government" or "law"; informal custom, moral belief systems, and the simple fact that if you harm someone they are likely to harm you back keep human society together. That doesn't stop wizards, used to a rigid despotic oligarchy, from seeing this society as total chaos and seeking to bring humans back into "civilization."

Coin Eyes

Giantslayers

• Bring It Back Alive
• Creature-Hunter Organization: The Giantslayers, also known as the Hunter's Guild.
• Egomaniac Hunter: The Giantslayers, often.
• Flesh and Bombs: The Giantslayers will sometimes trap an animal carcass and wait for Goblins to scavenge it.
• Hunter Trapper: The Giantslayers are this.
• Sapient Fur Trade: Of Giants. To be fair, the Giants also engage in this with humans.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The Giantslayers.

Golem's Hands

Halfpennies

• All Crimes Are Equal: There are two punishments for crimes in the Questinglands: social shame, and hanging. As far as humans are concerned, if you've done something bad enough that the law has to get involved, it's bad enough to warrant death.
• Battle Bolas: Used by the Halfpennies to capture criminals.
• Bounty Hunter: The Halfpennies, also known as the Lawman's Guild.
• Dead Guy on Display
• Death March
• The Executioner: Halfpennies
• Kangaroo Court
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil
• Lawman Baton
• Public Execution
• Vigilante Execution

Seedbearers

• Apple for Teacher
• Medieval Universal Literacy: Far from universal, but certainly much more common than in an equivalent time period in our world.
• Fill It with Flowers

Economy

Dragonmothers

Relationship With Dragons

• Action Mom: They don't stop being badasses when they have a child.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: They feel this way towards the Eyelasses.
• Breeding Cult: According to rumor. It's not entirely untrue, but given that dragons reproduce through telepathic bond, it's much less salacious than the penny magazines have it.
• Dragon Rider
• Dragon Tamer: In a certain sense.
• Pregnant Badass: They bear dragon children and they're badass warrior monks.
• Taking the Veil: They're essentially a nun order, although they do take a lover (their dragon mate).

Fighting

• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: They have their own martial art based around manipulation of "flow" (life force).
• Elemental Punch: Of the chi-empowered variety.
• Fantastic Fighting Style
• Flare Gun / Pocket Rocket Launcher
• Force and Finesse: The force to the Eyelasses' finesse.
• The Gunslinger: The only people in Moonsgaze to have guns.
• Ki Manipulation: It's called "flow," but basically this.
• Pressure Point
• Rank Scales with Asskicking
• Revolvers Are Just Better
• Smoke Out
• Supernatural Martial Arts
• Zen Slap

Technology & Science

• Ammunition Conservation
• Awesomeness by Analysis: They're not just badass fighters, they're also highly educated lorekeepers and scientists.
• Badass Bookworm: A requirement.
• Badass Creed: They are sworn to defend the truth.
• Guns vs. Swords: Inevitable, since all other factions fight with blades (and/or magic).
• Healing Herb: The order possesses pretty advanced medical knowledge and can create potent medicines from wild plants.
• Lightning Gun
• Measuring the Marigolds
• One-Man Industrial Revolution: A century ago, a rogue Dragonmother flew into Coin Town and dropped a handful of secret Dragonmother tech into their lap. Coin Town is now a booming center of industry, and the entire economy of the Questinglands jumped forward by fifty years in a month. This is used by Dragonmothers to highlight the dangers of sharing their knowledge with outsiders, and by other humans to highlight why you should never trust the Dragonmothers.

Relationship with Other Humans

• Harmony Versus Discipline: The Discipline to the Eyelasses' Harmony.
• Neutrality Backlash
• Persecuted Intellectuals: They're regarded with suspicion by most other humans.
• Witch with a Capital "B"

Hives

• The Teetotaler: Sworn not to drink or partake of intoxicants. Coffee is pretty popular though.

The Holy Sisters of the Eyeless God, aka the Eyelasses

Theology

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
• Divine Birds
• Energy Beings
• Fertility God: The Eyeless God.
• God-Eating
• Healer God: The Eyeless God.
• Magpies as Portents
• Marriage to a God: One of the tenets of the Order.
• Omniscient Morality License
• Science Is Bad

Practice

• Blindfolded Vision: They blindfold themselves (and eventually remove their eyes), but thanks to extensive training can navigate pretty well.
• Book Burning: They worship ignorance, so books are not their favorite things - to the fury of the Dragonmothers.
• Crop Circles
• Floral Theme Naming
• Flower Motifs
• The Fundamentalist: They're fervently religious, convert as many people as they can, and are fiercely anti-education and anti-technology.
• The Hedonist: Their religion is all about this.
• Knocking on Heathens' Door: They make trips all over the Questinglands to convert young women to the Order.
• Living Is More than Surviving
• Love Potion: Are capable of making them. They stole the knowledge from the Dragonmothers, to their eternal frustration.
• The Missionary
• Prayer of Malice
• Serpent Staff
• Snakes Are Sexy

Fighting

• Blind Weaponmaster: They fight with naginata-style polearms and don't need their eyes to do so.
• Church Militant
• Dance Battler
• Drunken Boxing
• Face-Design Shield: When they go into battle, they wear armor painted with the face of the Eyeless God.
• Fantastic Fighting Style
• Kiai
• Martial Arts and Crafts
• Naginatas Are Feminine: They're an all-female order who celebrate femininity and dress in flowery clothes, and they fight with polearms.
• Silk Hiding Steel: They usually qualify as this, especially the higher-ranked ones.

Relationship With Others

• Force and Finesse: The finesse to the Dragonmothers' force.
• Illegal Religion: In Mithradoon.
• Witch with a Capital "B"

The Whores' Guild

Culture

• Chastity Dagger: Carry these, and are legally allowed to shank you with them if you try anything.
• Crossdresser: Many Guilders are physically male, but they all dress as women. Some are transfemme, others are just crossdressers.
• Hammerspace Hair: They wear their hair in elaborate braided constructions, and you better be sure they've got a knife in there.

Work

• Den of Iniquity: Their whole 'thing.'
• Disposable Sex Worker: Strongly averted. Attacking a guilder in the Questinglands is grounds for hanging. (Back Over There, where the guild is illegal, this is more often played straight.)
• Sex Tourism
• The Women Are Safe with Us: Assaulting a guilder in the Questinglands is punishable by hanging. And that's if the Eyelasses don't get to you first.

Dragons

Biology

• Absurdly Sharp Claws
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction
• Bizarre Alien Sexes
• Breath Weapon: Their normal breath is just hot steam, but they can secrete flammable chemicals from glands in their mouth if they want to deal damage.
• Catlike Dragons
• Deep Sleep
• Egg-Laying Male
• Extra Parent Conception
• Feathered Dragons
• Giant Flyer
• Made of Iron
• Master of Your Domain
• Mister Seahorse
• One-Gender Race: All dragons are male, due to an ancient curse.
• Razor Wings
• Super-Toughness: Dragons are really hard to kill.

Culture & Lore

• Alternative Number System
• Bond Creatures
• Draconic Abomination
• Dragon Hoard
• Last-Minute Baby Naming
• Lazy Dragon
• Mars Needs Women
• Omniscient Morality License
• Prenatal Possessions
• Religion Is Wrong
• Serpent of Immortality
• Starfish Language
• Stronger with Age
• Time Dissonance
• Vagueness Is Coming: Dragons have a limited ability to tell the future, but usually not in a particularly helpful or specific way.

History

• Armored Dragons
• Beast of Battle: They're not exactly beasts, but they serve the same purpose when Dragonmothers (rarely) ride into battle.
• Breeding Slave: Because dragons are inherently very wise and typically very selfless due to their constant awareness of past, present and future, this is extremely rare. However, there have been examples of mad or evil dragons who kidnapped women to be their brides and bear their children.
• Chunky Salsa Rule: As a rule, dragons are very, very difficult to kill. As a result, wizard dragonslayers tend to use this as a rule of thumb.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: Averted; however, these stories exist because of dragons who did capture women in the past (although rarely princesses).
• The Dreaded: To wizards.
• Dying Race
• Evil Egg Eater
• Gendercide
• Living Relic: A species variant.
• Secret Weapon: They know what really happened to the third moon of Moonsgaze.

Giants

Biology/Appearance

• Animal Eyes
• Barbarian Longhair: They're warrior nomads, and they don't exactly have barbers.
• Braids of Barbarism: When you spend your life wandering the wilds hunting big game, braids are convenient.
• Dreadlock Warrior: When their hair isn't braided, it's dreaded.
• Mating Season Mayhem

Religion

• Animal-Themed Fighting Style
• Crafted from Animals: Everything they make.
• God-Eating
• Made of Iron
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Some of the less humanoid clans are this.
• Nemean Skinning: They worship animal gods, so wearing a skin where the animal is still recognizable is a good way to gain the power of that animal.
• Noble Bird of Prey: The roc is a major deity for most of the mountain clans. However, they're rarely hunted, as it's about fifty-fifty who gets eaten.
• Noble Wolf: Another major deity for some clans.
• Panthera Awesome: Another animal deity.
• Prayer of Malice
• Serpent Staff
• Thank Your Prey: They're a hunting-based culture and worship the spirits of the animals they hunt.

Culture

• Cheerful Funeral
• Combat by Champion: In the days before human settlement, Giant clans typically did not go to war. If two clans competed over territory or resources, or if a personal slight was made, each clan's strongest warrior would duel the other in a ceremonial fight, and the result stood. Nowadays the chokehold of colonization has forced Giant clans into competition so regularly that the old ways are dying out in favor of less honorable tactics.
• Death Before Dishonor
• Death March
• Face Death with Dignity
• Fed to the Beast: When Giants get too elderly to hunt, or if they're permanently disabled, this is considered the honorable way to go.
• Last-Minute Baby Naming
• Music for Courage: Music is a big part of Giant culture, especially songs of the hunt.
• Offing the Offspring
• Power Fist
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Tend to be this.
• Rugged Scar: Invoked; achievements in the hunt are marked by scarification.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Not a surprise, given that their entire society is based around hunting. If you want to travel beyond the settled areas of the Questinglands, your best bet is to find a Giant clan to guide you - preferably one that won't kill and eat you on sight.
• Warrior Poet: The two pillars of Giant culture are hunting and music.
• This Way to Certain Death

Relationship With Others

• Arms Dealer: Some clans make and sell weapons to other clans or humans. Sometimes those weapons are directed back at them.
• Barbarian Tribe: Portrayed this way by humans.
• Cannibal Tribe
• Child Eater
• Cycle of Revenge: Have been stuck in one with the humans for decades.
• Frazetta Man: Sometimes portrayed this way by humans.
• Genocide Backfire
• Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: Giants sometimes make miniature weapons specifically for humans to buy, but not always.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Hybrids exist in Coin Town, but anywhere else they are definitely not welcome.
• Height Insult
• Hide Your Otherness
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: They're a hunting-based society, but since humans started to settle the Questinglands they have increasingly become the hunted.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Conversely, they sometimes hunt and eat humans.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers
• Neutrality Backlash
• Occupiers Out of Our Country: Many clans, especially the Dala-Am, are not fans of human settlement.
• Sapient Fur Trade: Of humans, occasionally. To be fair, it's mutual.
• To Serve Man

Am Clans

• Behemoth Battle: Between the Ala-Am and Dala-Am.
• Child of Two Worlds
• Combat Parkour: The mountain clans, especially the Char-Am but extending to all mountain-dwelling Giants, have their own martial arts designed around combat and mobility in rocky, difficult terrain which shares elements with Parkour as a sport.
• The Dreaded: The Dala-Am are this.
• Le Parkour: Many of the Am clans, but especially the Char-Am.
• The Lightfooted: The Char-Am.
• Sinister Scimitar: The Dala-Am use curved blades, and are arguably the most dangerous clan to encounter.

Hamon Clans

Iziwe Clans

Kana Clans

• Clamshell Currency

Goblins

• Our Goblins Are Different

Biology/Appearance

• Absurdly Sharp Claws
• Explosive Breeder: Goblin women typically give birth to at least three - and up to seven - babies with each pregnancy. In tight underground quarters with extremely limited resources, this means that many children don't survive past infancy.
• Expressive Ears
• Fictional Age of Majority
• Little People
• Lizard Folk: Elements of this.
• Mole Men
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family
• Prehensile Tail

Culture

• Babies Make Everything Better
• Bee People
• Death March
• Battle Chant: During migratory battles. It's more of a "battle clicking", as they don't really have vocal cords the way humans do.
• Emergency Stash: They often leave important supplies buried in secret pits along their usual migratory routes, in case future migrations go badly. Those stashes can be extremely useful to human travelers who learn to find them.
• Of the People
• Pit Trap

Class System

• The Evils of Free Will
• Challenging the Chief
• Child of Two Worlds
• Fed to the Beast: Criminals, escaped slaves, and religious sacrifices are frequently left in the wilds to be killed by Giants.
• Force Feeding: Frequently done to captured slaves to keep them alive.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Captured human slaves sometimes end up with half-Goblin children. These children aren't welcome back in human society, so if they escape Goblin slavery they usually live on the outskirts.
• Hide Your Otherness
• Hive Caste System
• Human Sacrifice
• Made a Slave: Slavery is a core part of Goblin culture, and while many slaves are born into their position, others are captured during raids. Some are even unlucky human travelers who were ambushed in the wilds.
• Outcast Refuge
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Do this to each other during migratory battles, or more rarely full-scale invasions of other Goblin chiefdoms. During the very early days of the Questinglands, they tried it on human settlements, but the humans quickly proved not worth the trouble.
• Sand Necktie: Another form of execution or sacrifice.
• Sins of the Father
• The Social Darwinist
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Averted; only men can be dyers and weavers.
• Un-person
• Virtuous Bees

Mariners and Catches

• Alien Kudzu
• Atlantis: Not exactly this, but there are notable similarities.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Eventually. The underwater kingdom of Dreamsea is not to be fucked with, as the wizards quickly learn.
• Bathtub Mermaid
• Bio-Armor: It's unknown if their strange coral-insect armor grows naturally from them, or if it's a separate organism in a symbiotic relationship. Either way, it protects them as well as everyone else, shielding their madness-inducing true forms from outsiders.
• Bioluminescence Is Cool: They're glowy bitches.
• Bio Punk
• Bizarre Alien Biology
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction
• Bizarre Alien Sexes
• Blue-and-Orange Morality
• Chest Burster
• Combat Tentacles: They're underwater eldritch horrors, are you surprised?
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Part of their modus operandi. They'll try and get any visitor to fall in love with one of their young; those people are then known as Mariners, as they are permanently bonded to their new "wife" and rarely go far from Dreamsea. It's unknown why they do this, or what their goals are.
• Eldritch Abomination
• Go Mad from the Revelation
• Healing Factor: Not only do they perpetually heal, but they can also heal others; gazing upon their true form will drive you mad, but also heal injuries and eventually, with repeated exposure, make you immortal yourself.
• Inhumanly Beautiful Race
• Mars Needs Women
• Monstrous Mandibles
• Naughty Tentacles: According to the penny magazines, at least. Is it true? Maybe.
• Non-Human Non-Binary
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous
• Suicide by Sea
• Super Not-Drowning Skills
• Symbolic Serene Submersion
• Tentacled Terror

Cowboys

• Aura Vision: The blood ritual that makes a Cowboy gives them the ability to see others' life force.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: They favor them; riding the dusty wastelands of the Questinglands can be hard on the lungs.
• Bloody Murder
• Born in the Saddle
• Child of Two Worlds
• Cool Mask: Wear dragon masks.
• Dimensional Cutter
• Dragon Ancestry
• Dragon Knight: Their outfits are designed to make them look like dragons, with scale patterns on their clothing, dragon masks, and even prosthetic wings and tails.
• The Dreaded: To pretty much everyone, but especially wizards.
• Energy Donation: They can transfer life force to others - or conversely, suck it out of them.
• Enlightenment Superpowers
• Fantastic Livestock
• Gaucho
• Horseback Heroism
• Horse of a Different Color
• Ki Manipulation: Taken to a more extreme level than the Dragonmothers.
• Master of Threads: Their philosophy describes the world as "woven," full of magical energy that can be cut, re-sewn, and loomed with enough skill and understanding. The magic runes they use to do this are often literally woven into or painted on cloth.
• Meditation Powerup
• Supernatural Martial Arts

The World of Moonsgaze

Back Over There

Mithradoon

• Absurdly Cool City: Ishono and Neshinaballa both qualify, in different ways.
• Ad Dissonance
• Air Strip One: The districts - including the de jure "districts" of the Questinglands - are named this way.
• Bears Are Bad News
• The City Narrows
• Dungeon Punk: May come across this way.
• Enchanted Forest
• Fantastic Ghetto
• Fascists Bedtime
• A Foggy Day in London Town: Obviously not actually Britain, but the damp coastal climate of much of Mithradoon is directly based off this trope.
• Forbidden Holiday
• Great White Feline
• Human Traffickers
• Moth Menace
• Our Kelpies Are Different
• The Plague: Fairly common in the population-dense, badly-sanitized slums of Mithradoon; Aleokaballa is named after a particularly deadly outbreak.
• Produce Pelting
• Sewer Gator
• Urban Hellscape: Not every wizard city is this, but there are a couple - most notably
• Vice City: Neshinaballa counts.
• Villainous Gentrification
• Walls of Tyranny
• Wretched Hive: The human slums

Tiarafal

• Alluring Flowers
• Cobweb Jungle
• Dreadful Dragonfly
• Festering Fungus
• Floating Water: Can be seen if you peer over the edge of Slandrood Hollycane.
• Fungus Humongous
• Garden of Evil
• Giant Spider
• Glowing Flora
• Hungry Jungle
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Ferryman's Graveyard. The waterfall Slandrood Hollycane is often translated as "farewell, traveler," which would count, except that this is a folk etymology which makes no sense. The human name for it, Worldhead or World's End, is more played straight.
• Magic Mushroom
• Never Smile at a Crocodile
• Not-So-Safe Harbor
• Swamps Are Evil
• Underwater City

Moralanishi Popina

Sollahopisholly

• Blood Sucking Bats
• Canis Major
• Hellish Horse

Macarelti Mountains

• Rope Bridge
• Winged Unicorn
• Beast with a Human Face
• Dangerous Clifftop Road: The Dolly Canyon. Made especially dangerous by the presence of the Dala-Am Giant clan in the area.
• Giant Flyer
• Roc Birds

The Questinglands

• Cattle Punk: Elements of this.

Nearland Scrub

• Beware My Stinger Tail
• Big Creepy-Crawlies
• Carbuncle Creature
• Creepy Camel Spider
• Creepy Centipedes
• Feathered Serpent
• Gem Heart
• Kukris Are Kool: The favored weapon of Questinglands settlers.
• Harping on About Harpies
• Healing Serpent
• Low Culture, High Tech: Coin Towners aren't primitives, nor are they stupid, but since their tech is taken from the Dragonmothers there is definitely a degree to which their understanding of and skill with that tech is limited.
• Malicious Monitor Lizard
• Outlaw Town: They're kind of all this, but Scrubton especially counts, as it's a popular destination for Mithradoon criminals to hide out.
• Punk Punk: Due to outside meddling, Coin Town is definitely a little steampunk.
• Salvage Pirates
• Scary Scorpions
• Spider Swarm
• Western Rattlers
• The Wild West

Mother's Kiss Plain

• Animal Stampede
• Asian Fox Spirit
• Brutal Bird of Prey: Avalts
• Developing Nations Lack Cities
• Full-Boar Action
• Good Old Ways: Many places in the Questinglands, but especially Unville.
• Healing Herb
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey
• Ludd Was Right
• No FEMA Response
• The Pampas
• Past Right Now: The most traditional Coders come across as this - especially the denizens of Unville.
• Red Light District
• Reed Snorkel
• Rising Water, Rising Tension
• Shoulder-Sized Dragon: The eponymous rattledragons.
• Stink Snub: The river Long Nose is called that because it is full of mineral deposits that make it stink like sulfur. People who live along the banks of Long Nose are sometimes called Noses, as they tend to pick up the smell.
• Stinky Flower
• Tengu
• Termite Trouble
• Wretched Hive: According to wizards.

Barren Hills

• Diligent Draft Animal
• Dreadful Dragonfly
• Dying Town
• Eyeball-Plucking Birds
• Land Mine Goes "Click!": There are still fields of unexploded ordinance from the ancient Moon and Flower War between wizards and dragons.
• Hellish Horse

The Beyondbeach

The Teethlands

• Eerily Out-of-Place Object
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Teethlands. Also, the Dragon's Jaw Mountains.
• Treacherous Spirit Chase

Blackback Plain

• Extremophile Lifeforms
• Lava Pit: The volcanic plain that takes up most of the region has a number of these.
• Nitro Express: The quicklime industry.
• Secret Underground Passage
• Wild Wilderness: Zig-zagged.

Sandy Crumble

• Antlion Monster
• Crystal Landscape
• Mi'raj
• Sand Worm

Dragon's Jaw Mountains

• Elephant Graveyard
• Isle of Giant Horrors
• Turtle Island

The Bay Of Bliss

• Bermuda Triangle: Dreamsea.
• Electric Jellyfish
• Giant Squid
• Our Hippocamps Are Different
• Sea Serpents
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: Sandy Crumble. Possibly worse, the Bay of Bliss.
• Underwater City

History

The Time Before

• Advanced Ancient Humans
• The Ark: The entirety of Moonsgaze is technically this.
• Caused the Big Bang
• Cosmic Egg
• Fantasy Aliens
• Panspermia
• Precursors
• Secret History
• Sentient Cosmic Force: There are theories that magic itself is to some vast, alien degree itself sentient.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The third moon

The Silver Age

• Bizarre Baby Boom
• Came from the Sky
• Hostile Terraforming: During the Moon and Flower War.
• Lost Superweapon: The third moon
• Mass Super-Empowering Event
• Military Coup
• The Purge
• Rain of Blood: The stories say that when the third moon crashed into Moonsgaze thousands of years ago, killing millions in an instant, that the sky rained blood for months afterwards.
• Revolving Door Revolution
• Suppressed History

The Moon And Flower War

• Action Bomb: In the most desperate of circumstances, wizards may deliberately drive themselves into Sollatap to take out their enemies.
• Alpha Strike: The final battles of the Moon and Flower War.
• Biological Weapons Solve Everything
• Child Soldiers: Back when humans were used as disposable shock troops in the wizarding army
• Collateral Damage
• Cool vs. Awesome: Wizards and dragons.
• Fantastic Nuke
• Gladiator Revolt
• Hostile Terraforming: During the Moon and Flower War.
• Instant Fish Kill
• Leave No Survivors
• Long-Dead Badass: Falfetu and Ruddihoke, in different ways [Roland & Oliver]
• Pretext for War
• We Have Reserves

The Copper Age

• Always a Bigger Fish: During the Halfpenny Rebellion, wizards could very easily round up and kill large numbers of human rebels. They could not, however, so easily handle the dragons who came to defend them.
• Beast of Battle: Used in the Halfpenny War; homesteads banded together to sacrifice some of their cattle, setting their tails on fire and directing them to stampede towards enemy lines.
• Crushing the Populace
• Day of the Jackboot
• Death March
• Defiant Stone Throw
• Disproportionate Retribution
• The Famine
• Fascists Bedtime
• Firearms Are Revolutionary
• First Contact Faux Pas
• Genocide Backfire
• Give Chase with Angry Natives: Several times during the Halfpenny Rebellion, human rebels threw wizards off their trail by tricking them into following them into Giant territory. The Giants eventually wised up to being used this way and started refusing to take part in outsiders' squabbles - aside from a few clans, like the Dala-Am, whose policy to this day tends more towards "kill and eat everyone involved."
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Coin Town
• Gunboat Diplomacy
• Improvised Weapon
• Mob War
• Molotov Cocktail: Once-favored weapon of human revolutionaries defending their land from the wizarding army. These days the kind of large-scale warfare that requires explosives is (mostly) history.
• Neutrality Backlash
• No Party Like a Donner Party
• Powder Trail
• Protect This House
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Did this to the Questinglands during the Halfpenny War.
• Reduced to Ratburgers
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
• Self-Immolation: Used during the most desperate battles of the Halfpenny War. It succeeded - in teaching wizards that humans will do anything to protect their families.
• Slave Liberation
• Spark of the Rebellion
• The Stateless
• Still Fighting the Civil War
• Torn Apart by the Mob: Halfpenny War
• Victory by Endurance: The Halfpenny Rebellion

Other

• Black Market Produce
• Civil War
• Emergency Authority
• Sink the Lifeboats
• Staged Populist Uprising

Main Characters

Glassallmass Aryalee

• Afraid of Their Own Strength: With good reason.
• Bad Bedroom, Bad Life
• Big Brother Is Employing You
• Break the Haughty
• Broken Ace: He's a highly magically powerful, ambitious, competent social climber who is held up as a perfect example of what wizards should be. He got that way through a lifetime of hiding his true colors as an Opaline.
• Bullying a Dragon: People sent to capture him tend not to take him seriously, until they realize he's a powerful Opaline.
• Can't Take Criticism
• Child of Two Worlds: Though he tries to hide it.
• Defector from Decadence: Eventually.
• Defiant Captive: When initially captured by the Dragonmothers.
• Distressed Dude
• Dye or Die: He resists dying his hair for a long time, but eventually caves, as blond hair is a neon sign for "wizard," and constantly using his magic to blend in is not healthy.
• The Exile
• Failure-to-Save Murder
• The Fettered: To Brainjun's Unfettered.
• Fish out of Water
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Even after they're officially friends, he never lets Aluma forget torturing him when they first met.
• Glove Slap / Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Does this to a Senate member when they harass Beulah at a party. It's the final confirmation of his Heel–Face Turn, and the most phenomenally stupid thing he could have done.
• Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?
• Hidden Heart of Gold
• Horror Hunger
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• Improbable Age
• Internalized Categorism
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's an asshole, but it's more a protective mask than anything.
• Kids Are Cruel
• Kryptonite Ring: Insists that Aluma continue to carry wizardbane on her long after they become friends, just in case his Opaline powers get out of control.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Like most wizards, but multiple wizard characters comment on how attractive he is.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: He goes from a sour misanthrope more interested in political clout than friendships, to a genuinely good friend and potential revolutionary.
• Mark of the Supernatural: He has an ugly birthmark on the back of his neck which he hides with his hair.
• Mistaken Age: Aluma is shocked when she realizes he's barely an adult.
• Morality Pet: Gallikama
• The Most Wanted: How he ends up in the Questinglands.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After killing Donnamead, and even more so after his big outburst that gets him exiled from Mithradoon.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: At first.
• Obsessively Normal
• Ominous Walk: When in full Opaline mode, he looks pretty damn creepy.
• Painful Transformation
• Parental Neglect
• Person of Mass Destruction: He's the second-most powerful Opaline in living history. The most powerful is the BBEG.
• Political Hostage
• Prophet Eyes: When in his Superpowered Evil Side.
• Really 17 Years Old
• Scars Are Ugly
• Survivor Guilt: He's...not okay.
• Sympathetic Murderer: He's killed an uncomfortable number of people. But it's the result of a curse and he can't control it, so it's okay?
• Tears of Blood
• The Gloves Come Off: When his pursuers hurt Gallikama to try to get to him. It works.
• Tired of Running: When a wizarding hunting party finally catch up to him in the Questinglands and start murdering innocent humans for the crime of being too close, he stops holding back his curse and routs them in seconds.
• Took a Level in Kindness
• Tortured Monster
• Trophy Child
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Like most wizards, he treats humans as inferior beings. Unlike most wizards, he does so to cover up that he was essentially raised by a human family as a child and spent his youth being shamed and bullied for it. Between that and the shame of being an Opaline, everything he does is a carefully constructed act to prove that he's "wizard enough" - part of which is being a dick to humans. He gets better over time.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Opalines are kill-on-sight in Mithradoon.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities

Gallikama Aryalee

• Adoption Diss
• Age-Stereotypical Food
• All of the Other Reindeer
• Because You Were Nice to Me: His relationship with Glassallmass.
• Boxing Lesson: Ends up getting them from Aluma.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: See above. Since he's not particularly magically gifted, they come in handy.
• Break the Cutie: Goes through this over the course of the story. Luckily, he's stronger than he looks, and he never quite breaks completely.
• Came Back Strong: After being accidentally killed and resurrected by Glassallmass, he's immune to Opaline magic and very difficult to kill in general.
• Chronic Pet Killer
• Claimed by the Supernatural: An accidental variant. Made especially awkward by the fact that the person who "claimed" him was working very hard not to let on that he cared.
• Compliment Backfire
• Cowardly Lion: He's a sweet, shy dork, but when crossed he can hold his own.
• Creature of Habit
• Doppleganger Attack: Sort of. His skill with illusions eventually progresses to the point that he can create several illusionary copies of himself to distract enemies.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Originally has past-shoulder-length, loose flowing silky hair, but cuts his hair when he flees to the Questinglands with Glassallmass. Returning to Mithradoon, he keeps it somewhat shorter and braids it, showing that he's more practical and hardened than before.
• Endearingly Dorky
• Entertainment Below Their Age
• Fictional Disability: He's designed as a neurodivergent character, but it's less a specific disability than a made-up cocktail of autism, anxiety, OCD and schizophrenia symptoms.
• Fiery Cover Up: The death of his family when he was a child.
• Freakiness Shame
• Friendless Background: He's a brown-haired weirdo Pearling in a society that isn't kind to the different. Glassallmass was his first ever friend.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Except for his weird thing with fire, he's a pretty normal Pearling. But he learns to use his mundane powers to great effect.
• Heroic BSoD: When he realizes that his best friend, who he thought saved his life, actually killed him.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: He has a recurring dream of returning to his childhood home and running in to save his family.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Even though he isn't actually one.
• I Just Want to Have Friends
• Innocent Bigot: To humans - and also initially to Beulah, as trans wizards are practically unheard of; when he eventually realizes she's not a cis woman, he assumes she's a crossdresser and apologizes for referring to her as female. She has very little patience for this.
• I Owe You My Life: To Glassallmass. He isn't initially aware that Glassallmass killed him.
• Kill on Sight
• Loon with a Heart of Gold
• Loser Has Your Back: To Glass.
• Moral Sociopathy: Downplayed. He's no sociopath, but his sweet, calm personality turns out to be because watching his entire family die caused him to near-completely disconnect from his emotions as a coping mechanism. He's very friendly and in fact a morally better person than the 'normal' Glass, but he rarely experiences strong emotion and has no idea how to handle it when he does.
• Neurodiversity Is Supernatural: Played with. He's neurodivergent and has magic, but that's normal for wizards. He also has a mysterious connection with the moons that is initially thought to be supernatural, but eventually turns out to just be plain old fashioned psychosis.
• Not Worth Killing
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging
• Offending the Fool: He's a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander and not always the sharpest spoon in the chandelier. He is, however, self-aware enough to know this, and deeply ashamed of it.
• Plagued by Nightmares: He has a recurring dream about Wahenna contacting him asking for help. He thinks it's a prophecy; it turns out to be mental illness.
• The Pollyanna: To the chagrin of everyone around him.
• Pyromaniac: A much more realistic variant than in most fiction; setting fires is his way of coping with the fire that killed his family - a way to feel in control, if you will. And he's far from an Ax-Crazy murderer.
• Relative Button: Brainjun tortured his adoptive mother for years. She is the only person in the world he truly hates.
• Relative Ridicule
• Revenant Zombie
• Rich Kid Turned Social Activist
• Secret Stab Wound: Played with in that it's not the wound he's hiding, exactly - it's the fact that his body is clearly not reacting to being wounded like a normal, living person.
• Self-Deprecation
• Step into the Blinding Fight: He learns to use illusion magic to completely blind his opponents.
• Superpowered Evil Side
• Undying Loyalty: To Glassallmass.
• White Sheep

Aluma Clawraker

• All Girls Want Bad Boys
• All of the Other Reindeer
• Badass Bookworm: Like most Dragonmothers, but she was a nerd even before joining the order.
• Badass Bandolier: Wears one.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears one of these, too.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Boots of Toughness: She's got the badass wardrobe starter pack.
• Born from a Dead Woman
• Broken Bird: After the death of her husband.
• Brutal Honesty
• Death by Childbirth: Her mother.
• Determinator: She pulled herself, deathly injured, out of an underwater cave full of deadly acid that had just killed her husband, and walked across the most inhospitable environment in the world until reaching civilization - and came out of it with just a nasty scar.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: She still blames herself for the recklessness that got her husband killed.
• Greek Fire: She and her husband Carmian worked mining quicklime to sell as an alchemical component; this is one of the main uses of quicklime in the Questinglands. After Carmian died and she was severely burned in the process of said mining, the smell of quicklime now makes her violently ill.
• Heartbroken Badass: A recent widow, and nothing scares her.
• Hates Being Touched
• Hates Wearing Dresses: She's always been a tomboy, even before becoming a Dragonmother. It didn't make her popular in her home town.
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: When interrogating Glass and Galli.
• In Harm's Way: She's always been reckless, but after the death of her husband throwing herself into danger became a coping mechanism.
• Insult of Endearment: When she first meets Glass she just refers to him as 'wizard.' Much later, she still occasionally calls him that affectionately.
• Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: She's not afraid to use violence to get information. In fact, she actually uses this on Glassallmass when she first meets him. He forgives her eventually.
• Live-Action Escort Mission: Has to do this with Glassallmass. Luckily, she's not afraid to smack him around if it serves her.
• More Insulting than Intended: When people question or mock her relationship with Rocshadow.
• Nerves of Steel: Absolutely nothing scares her.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon
• Not Wanting Kids Is Weird
• Old Maid
• "Open!" Says Me
• Prim and Proper Bun: Keeps her hair like this most of the time.
• Rage Against the Heavens: After her husband's death and her mortal injury, she first went to the Eyelasses for treatment. They shamed her for her lack of "proper" femininity, punished her for her natural curiosity, and made her feel like it was all her fault. She has held a grudge against them ever since.
• Rebellious Spirit
• Scars Are Forever: The burn scars from her accident never faded. According to the Dragonmothers they could have been treated, but the poor medical skills of the Eyelasses only made them worse, and she didn't get to proper treatment in time.
• Science Hero: As a Dragonmother, she definitely qualifies. Chemistry is a passion of hers, and her hobby is collecting minerals and plants to make medicines and industrial chemicals. (And also explosives.)
• Slut-Shaming: Accidentally does this to Bee, resulting in a big fight.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: She's a fairly prickly person, but once you get past her hard outside it becomes clear that it's a protective shell.
• Stepford Snarker
• Stout Strength: She's only 5'2", but visibly muscular and strong as hell.
• Taking the Veil: She joined the Dragonmothers after losing her husband.
• Too Many Belts: Look, she's a Mad Max character, okay?
• Two-Faced: Downplayed; she has a facial burn scar, but it doesn't cover the entire half of the face.

Beulah "Bee" Sweet

• Abusive Parents: Downplayed in that her parents actually cared for her and genuinely thought they were doing what was best - but their behavior was still clearly abusive.
• Action Fashionista: Being beautiful is her job, so it's no surprise she has an array of outfits. However, when traveling and roughing it she tends to dress quite a bit more sensibly.
• Actually Pretty Funny
• Against My Religion: She's Culturally Religious at best, but will sometimes pull this to try and get out of things like exercise, reading, wearing clothes...
• Badass Normal: She's the least combat-ready of the four main characters and has no special training, powers or abilities, but she still manages to hold her own.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: Back home in Ishono, she ended up in this position for about two years.
• Book Dumb
• Braids of Action: When she has to fight or run she exchanges her elaborate hairdo for more practical braids.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Did this...and then had to deal with her parents dying horribly shortly thereafter.
• Closet Punishment: As a child.
• Club Kid: Very much was one. She's calmed down, but not by that much.
• Combat Haircomb: Has and uses one.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Although she's really more frustrated that she had to be rescued at all.
• Culturally Religious: She's a Guilder, so technically a follower of the Eyeless God, but in reality she's an athiest who just appreciates the hedonistic, genderfluid lifestyle the Eyelasses provide.
• Damsel out of Distress: She tends to get herself captured. She also tends to subsequently get herself un-captured. (Although there are a couple times when she does have to be rescued, which she is quite put out about.)
• Defiant Captive
• Denied Food as Punishment: As a child.
• Disposable Sex Worker: The wizards treated her this way. They were very wrong.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge
• Femme Fatale Spy: Was one for the Kattakama Rising Front, seducing high-ranking wizards, learning important state secrets, and then blackmailing them.
• Former Teen Rebel: Her family wasn't thrilled with her presenting female from an early age, nor with her blatant flouting of the Code.
• Girlish Pigtails: Sometimes wears these.
• Guile Hero
• Head-Turning Beauty
• High-Class Call Girl: Like all Guilders. Back in Ishono she fit the bill even better, and was very "in demand" among high-ranking wizards - until she got caught working with the Kattakama Rising Front.
• Hold My Glasses: She doesn't start fights often, but when she does, her earrings and other jewelry come off first.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She's a real sweetheart and a genuinely kind person.
• Insult Friendly Fire: She is really not a fan of wizards, which causes her to butt heads with Glassallmass (and to a lesser degree Gallikama).
• Kick Chick: Since she's not particularly strong, when she doesn't have a blade in her hand she tends to rely on kicks - especially when wearing high heels. At one point she actually manages to render Inisdar infertile.
• La Résistance: She worked with the Kattakama Rising Front for a few years until she was caught red-handed and had to run.
• Man Bites Man
• Outfit-Rip Sex Check
• Out of the Inferno: Her entire neighborhood was burned as retaliation for her insurrectionist activities, and she fled for the Questinglands, leaving everything she knew behind.
• Playing with Syringes
• Rape and Revenge
• Shower of Angst: The guildhall's bathhouse is her self-proclaimed happy place, where she goes after frustrating interactions with clients, friends, or strangers to calm down. In her own words, "Nothing helps you put it all into perspective like being ass-naked in very hot water."
• Sneaking Out at Night
• The Social Expert: Serves as this for the main group, as none of the others are particularly good at talking to people.
• Sole Survivor
• Statuesque Stunner: She's about 5'8", which is very tall for a human woman.
• Street Smart
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Her parents were devout Coders and tried their best to mold her into a code-fearing, marriageable young man. It backfired on them big time.
• Survivor Guilt: As far as she knows, her entire family is dead, and it's mostly her fault.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child
• Will Not Be a Victim: She was exploited and experimented on by wizards. She responded by joining the Kattakama Rising Front. She's fiercely independent and resents any insinuation that her current profession is taking advantage of her - which gets her and Aluma in frequent fights.

Villains

Brainjun Lollycullen

• Action Politician: She's a politically powerful tribune, responsible for making laws at the highest level of government. She's also the most powerful Opaline in living memory, and completely insane.
• Appeal to Inherent Nature
• At Least I Admit It
• Backhanded Apology: A master of these.
• Bad Boss
• Bait the Dog: She saves Glassallmass from being murdered for his Opaline curse, reveals to him her own nature, and offers to train him to better control his powers...as long as he leaves his friends to die and agrees to help her destroy the world. When he rejects her, her reaction is violent.
• Blackmail
• Bloodbath Villain Origin: She accidentally killed her entire family as a small child. It broke her.
• Boring Insult
• The Chessmaster: Her multi-century-long scheme to take over Mithradoon definitely qualifies her.
• Create Your Own Hero
• Defeat Means Respect
• Ditch the Bodyguards: Averted. Her personal guard are completely in her thrall, so that she can do whatever she likes with them in the room.
• Drunk on the Dark Side
• Fright Deathtrap: A favored tactic.
• Fully-Embraced Fiend
• Hive Queen
• Hope Crusher
• Hypnotize the Captive
• I Banged Your Mom: To Gallikama. In this case it's more just a statement of fact...and a threat, of course.
• I Did What I Had to Do
• It Is Beyond Saving
• Kill the God
• The Kingslayer
• Lady of Black Magic
• Lesbian Vampire: She's strictly speaking neither a lesbian nor a vampire, but she still plays with the trope by abusing, gaslighting, and feeding on her female lover.
• Mind Rape
• Murder Makes You Crazy
• Never My Fault
• Ominous Walk: Kind of a staple for Opalines.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Most Opalines either suppress their magical "hunger," or use it for their own ends. Brainjun has become convinced that the "hunger" itself is its own end, and has started a cult to the Macana itself. Also, she wants to destroy the moon. So there's that.
• Restart the World
• Revenge Through Corruption
• Royal Rapier
• Self-Made Orphan
• Serial Killer
• The Sociopath
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: She wants to destroy magic itself, which would have the side effect of destroying the world. Unfortunately for our heroes, she's very good at pretending she just wants to *take over* the world, resulting in them being blindsided by The Reveal.
• Trap Master: Her mansion looks like the demented shared fever dream of Rube Goldberg and Dr. Evil. Luckily, Glassallmass worked as a house servant for her for some time (at the time unaware of her true nature), so he knows about (most) of the traps.
• Twisting the Words
• The Unfettered
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid
• Villain with Good Publicity

Glenpua "Old Ironheart" Gurglecullen

• Bad Boss
• The Baroness
• Blackmail
• Brawn Hilda: She's quite fat from all the gifts people bring her to win her favor, but she's still not to be messed with.
• The Dreaded: She's respected and feared by the entire Senate.
• God Save Us from the Queen!
• Heartbroken Badass: Eventually
• Iron Lady: She's a tough, masculine, powerful female politician in her older years, and she's directly based off this stereotype.
• Moral Pragmatist
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Unlike many of her peers, she's shrewd enough to recognize that the protagonists are worth treating with a modicum of respect.

Mellaver Lollytama

• Agent Provocateur
• Agony Beam
• Combat Compliment
• Hypnotize the Captive
• Inspector Javert
• Murder by Suicide
• Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer
• Poison Is Evil
• Schedule Fanatic
• Soft-Spoken Sadist
• Strolling Through the Chaos
• Sword Cane
• Trophy Room
• Torture Technician
• Weasel Mascot
• Would Hurt a Child

Inisdar Piersgall

• Abusive Parents: Had them, and also is one.
• Age Insecurity
• Bad Boss
• Blood Knight
• Casualty in the Ring: It's not entirely his fault he's an idiot - he was bludgeoned over the head during a training match in the Goldling Academy, giving him a traumatic brain injury. The impairment of his decision-making skills is fairly obvious, as is the visible dent in his forehead.
• The Chain of Harm
• Childhood Brain Damage
• Child Hater
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father
• General Ripper
• Gentleman Adventurer
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Intimidation Demonstration
• The Neidermeyer
• Never My Fault
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He may be an incompetent, posturing leader, but woe to those who underestimate him because of that: he's a buffoon, but one that controls the entire wizard army and has zero regard for the lives of his soldiers or anyone they attack.
• Powerful, but Incompetent: He's the leader of the wizarding army, second only to the king, and he's a complete buffoon.

Slanafee Piersgall

• Bait the Dog: She appears to sympathize with Gallikama, as both of them are bullied and stigmatized for their appearance. It is quickly revealed that she despises him and all others who share her 'condition' in brutal form of Internalized Categorism that drives her to despicable acts of violence.
• Battle Ballgown
• Condescending Compassion
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!
• Dying Moment of Awesome
• Evil Sounds Deep: A villainous contralto.
• Hates Being Touched
• Immaturity Insult: As far as she's concerned, she's the only adult in the room.
• Internalized Categorism
• Misery Builds Character: Because of her looks she has been looked down on and mistreated her whole life. It's only made her angrier.
• Razor Floss: Uses a garrotte to murder Inisdar and take over the wizarding army.
• Redheaded Stepchild
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Justified, because the existence of a red-headed, green-eyed wizard in one of the highest ranks of the military is quite significant indeed.
• The Starscream
• You Are What You Hate

Glenipoe Piersgall

• Dismissive Kick: Does this to Beulah when she is captured.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: Slanafee does this to taunt him when he eventually tries to kill her. It's less a Curb-Stomp Battle, and more that he eventually gives up since he can't land a single hit on her.
• Servile Snarker
• Smug Snake

Inismomey Piersgall

• Abusive Parents
• Agonizing Stomach Wound: Dies this way.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy
• Drill Sergeant Nasty
• Leeroy Jenkins
• Manchild
• Miles Gloriosus: If you listen to him, he's one of the most decorated military officers in Mithradoon. In reality, he's the son of Inisdar and thus needed no actual achievements to get to where he is now.
• Minor Insult Meltdown
• Murder Is the Best Solution
• The Napoleon
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!

Sentan Piersgall

• Arson, Murder, and Admiration
• Colonel Kilgore
• Grumpy Old Man
• Honor Before Reason
• Old Master
• Old Windbag
• Rambling Old Man Monologue
• Schedule Fanatic
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!

Brainkey Piersafee

• Amazonian Beauty
• Blood Knight
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Combat Sadomasochist
• The Dragonslayer
• The Gadfly
• Ground Punch
• Leeroy Jenkins
• Murder Is the Best Solution
• Knows the Ropes
• Spectator Casualty: She was originally a gladiator who got banned from the ring after too many "accidental" spectator deaths were linked to mysterious payments she was getting.

Sensher Piersafee

• Badass Adorable
• Black Magician Girl
• Break the Cutie
• Boom Stick
• The Dragonslayer
• Girly Bruiser
• Unskilled, but Strong
• Waif-Fu

Glencoe Piersafee

• Actually Pretty Funny
• Age Insecurity
• The Captain
• Defiant Captive
• Distressed Dude
• The Dragonslayer
• I Did What I Had to Do
• I'm Not Hungry
• Inappropriately Close Comrades: With Inisai.
• The Men First
• My Country, Right or Wrong
• Ordered Apology
• Scarred Equipment
• Unconscious Objector: When captured by the good guys.
• Wake Up Fighting: When captured.

Inisai Piersafee

• Ancestral Weapon
• Blood Is the New Black
• Crazy-Prepared
• The Dragonslayer
• Female Fighter, Male Handler: To his sister
• I Did What I Had to Do
• Implacable Man
• Inappropriately Close Comrades: With Glencoe.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: To Sensher.
• Last Villain Stand
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: To his sister
• The Unfettered: He sees himself as this in his quest for vengeance, but ultimately his sister and boyfriend matter more to him than he initially realizes, and he isn't actually willing to sacrifice as much as he thinks.
• Villainous Valour
• Will Not Tell a Lie

Nepok-Tulga Mu’a-Dala-Am

• Lady of War
• Defiant Captive
• Defiant to the End
• Dying Moment of Awesome

Zorig-Chireka Bakit-Dala-Am

• Improbable Age
• Little Miss Badass
• Turn Out Like His Father

B’lak-Hawa Bakit-Dala-Am

• Protected by a Child

Eter-Mok Itompi-Dala-Am

• Does Not Like Men
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge
• Murderous Thighs
• Neck Lift

Supporting Characters

Araminta Copperstriker

• Big Brother Bully: To Aluma.
• Hates Being Touched: Aluma's whole family is like this.
• Old Maid
• Trophy Child

Ascra Copperstriker

• Afraid to Hold the Baby
• Brutal Honesty
• Cosmetic Catastrophe
• From Stray to Pet
• Growing Up Sucks
• Not Wanting Kids Is Weird
• Pet Dress-Up
• Sneaking Snacks

Donnamead Aryalee

• Blood from Every Orifice
• Break the Cutie
• Hates Being Touched
• Out Sick: Frequently
• Parental Neglect
• Shoot the Dog
• Tragic Monster
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom

Tenacity Carmian

• Fedora of Asskicking
• Handicapped Badass
• Hell-Bent for Leather
• Lovable Rogue
• Venturous Smuggler

Bottlebrush Axeblade Mistrender Firecracker Broadwings Snoozy Goldblood Thunderwhale Blossom Suneater Kicker Rocshadow

• Brutal Honesty
• I Did What I Had to Do
• Shoot the Dog
• Handicapped Badass

Moonring Greyscale Crownbrow Featherwing Striker Bloodfang Swordblunt Tickler Crookedtooth Twist Cowherd Bookbender Flutterheart Fatherless Numbeyes Roar Weddingbells Skybeam Cloudblower Bittertongue Glorious Gearspin Shining Sunrise

• Moral Pragmatist
• Schedule Fanatic
• Utopia Justifies the Means

Roughback Bittenclaw Boldest Metalgiver Steamwhistle Cracklemaw Shriek Bullhorns

the bad one

• At Least I Admit It
• Defiant to the End

Glendar Lollybrain

Gallikama's adoptive mother

• Age Insecurity
• Claimed by the Supernatural: By Brainjun.
• Domestic Abuse
• The Killer in Me
• More than Mind Control
• Out Sick: Frequently
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom

Inisgul Gurglesen

Glenpua's husband

• Age Insecurity
• Baldness Angst
• Classy Cane
• My Country, Right or Wrong
• Scatterbrained Senior
• When I Was Your Age...

Slandarsey Gurglebrain

the librarian guy

• Absent-Minded Professor
• Innocent Bigot: He really just finds the primitive human culture fascinating and would love to learn more about how humans manage to survive when they're irrevocably crippled by their lack of magic.
• Make It Look Like a Struggle

Cullenmeaty Piersafee

• Action Mom
• Badass Bureaucrat
• Career-Ending Injury
• Child of Two Worlds
• Defiant Captive: Initially
• Deliver Us from Evil
• Ditch the Bodyguards
• The Dragonslayer: Formerly
• Dragon Tamer
• Four-Star Badass
• The Glasses Come Off
• Handicapped Badass
• Heartbroken Badass
• Hook Hand
• I Did What I Had to Do
• Life-or-Limb Decision: The rumor about her missing arm is that she had to cut it off to escape from the dragons. The rumor is incorrect.
• Messy Maggots
• My Country, Right or Wrong
• My God, What Have I Done?
• Not in This for Your Revolution
• Offing the Offspring: Was forced to kill her own child.
• Post-Injury Desk Job
• Rage Within the Machine
• Redemption Equals Affliction
• Reluctant Retiree
• Retired Badass
• While You Were in Diapers
• You Are What You Hate

Deja Reve

• Bathtub Mermaid: A mermaid or other aquatic character who is kept in a bathtub.
• Break the Cutie
• Suicide by Sea: Xe is considering this when the protagonists come upon xem.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?

Tournesol

• Caring Gardener
• Does Not Like Men
• Broomstick Quarterstaff
• Brutal Honesty
• Kindhearted Cat Lover
• Runaway Bride
• Sunny Sunflower Disposition
• Suspiciously Specific Sermon
• Waif-Fu

Nakam-Batu Apu-Ala-Am

• Not in This for Your Revolution

Tuku-Chireka Apu-Ala-Am

Nepok-Rina Ak-Ala-Am

• Blood Knight
• Death Before Dishonor
• Honor Before Reason
• Murder Is the Best Solution

Kun-Sancha Aplu-Ala-Am

• Will Not Tell a Lie

Zara-Mir Ak-Ala-Am

• Boisterous Bruiser
• Voice of the Resistance: Using a stolen Dragonmother radio.

Mir-Itempa Itompi-Kavat-Hamon

• A Scar to Remember
• Broken Bird

Rina-Sancha Itompi-Kavat-Hamon

• Extreme Mêlée Revenge
• Killer Bear Hug
• Wake Up Fighting
• You Killed My Father

Mantal-Din Ak-Lapan-Hamon

• I Did What I Had to Do
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!
• Genocide Survivor
• Sole Survivor

B’lak-Zaka Bakit-Tomor-Kana

• Adopt the Food
• Break the Cutie
• The Chief's Daughter: More three-dimensional than the usual version (and without the romance aspect), but she has some elements of this trope.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: She makes a habit of carrying Glass around; she is, however, more than twice his size, so it's not that unexpected.
• Innocent Bigot: An interesting variation; while traveling with a human group she picked up a lot of terms for wizards which were metaphorical to them, but having never met a wizard she took literally. Thus when she meets Glass, she has a number of assumptions which are baffling to him - and confronting which begins to shake his previously unquestioned belief that wizards are not only superior but the only "normal" ones.
• Lady Legionnaire Wear
• Parrot Pet Position
• Shoulder Teammate
• Spanner in the Works

Tula-Zur Mu’a-Tomor-Kana

• Snipe Hunt: Sends Glass on one.

Bist-Mok Ak-Tomor-Kana

• Crazy-Prepared

Tula-Avat Apu-Tomor-Kana

• Insult of Endearment: He calls Glass 'Goldfinch' in reference to both his yellow hair and his small size (and proportionate weakness). Later on it becomes less of an insult and more of a nickname.
• Lighthearted Rematch

Gevur-Lekim Aplu-Tomor-Kana

• Calling the Old Man Out

Nepok-Crut Mu’a-Tomor-Kana

Likur-Lunga Apu-Tomor-Kana

• Aloof Ally
• Brutal Honesty
• Combat Compliment
• Sink or Swim Mentor

Ashar-Hagak Aplu-Tomor-Kana

Kestrel Blackhand

• Aloof Ally
• Bounty Hunter
• Crazy-Prepared
• Fluffy Tamer
• Friend to All Children
• The Gadfly
• Roguish Poacher
• Scarred Equipment
• Utility Weapon: The whip that they use to drive their livestock is also their primary weapon.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities

Other Characters

• Abhorrent Admirer
• Abandoned War Child
• Alien Princess
• All Lesbians Want Kids
• Alternate Identity Amnesia
• Ambiguously Evil
• Ambiguously Human
• An Arm and a Leg
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil
• Arachnid Appearance and Attire
• Artificial Limbs
• Asshole Victim: The Silverling who abused Gallikama, and who Glass subsequently murdered.
• The Atoner
• Became Their Own Antithesis
• Becoming the Mask
• Black Shirt
• Blessed with Suck
• Bold Explorer
• Breakup Breakout
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday
• Call to Agriculture
• Canary in a Coal Mine
• Cartesian Karma
• Chafing Against the Dress Code
• Cop Killer
• Crushing Handshake
• Crying Wolf
• Cult Defector
• Cursed with Awesome
• Delinquent Hair
• Demolitions Expert
• Despair Event Horizon
• The Dog Bites Back
• Domestic Abuse
• Egomaniac Hunter
• Even Evil Has Standards
• Evil Former Friend
• Faith–Heel Turn
• Fake Defector
• Fake Memories
• Femme Fatalons
• Foreign Exchange Student
• Freudian Excuse
• Gaining the Will to Kill
• Glasgow Grin
• Going Native
• Good Ol' Boy
• Good with Numbers
• Hanging Judge
• Hates Baths
• Height Angst
• Heritage Face Turn
• Hiding Your Heritage
• Huge Schoolgirl
• Hunter of His Own Kind
• Hunter of Monsters
• Identity Breakdown
• Ignorant Minion
• Innocent Flower Girl
• Introverted Cat Person
• Involuntary Dance
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
• Karma Houdini
• Kick the Morality Pet
• Knight Templar
• Large-Ham Announcer
• Laser-Guided Amnesia
• The Last DJ
• Lawman Gone Bad
• Lobotomy
• Loss of Identity
• Love Makes You Evil
• Lucky Rabbit's Foot
• Macabre Moth Motif
• Machine Empathy
• Manifesto-Making Malcontent
• The Man They Couldn't Hang
• Marry the Nanny
• Military Maverick
• Minion with an F in Evil
• Misfit Lab Rat
• More than Mind Control
• The Mountain Man
• Muscle Angst
• New Body, Old Abilities
• Noble Demon
• Papa Wolf
• The Paragon Always Rebels
• Parasitic Immortality
• Peacock Girl
• Planetary Parasite
• Professional Killer
• Psycho for Hire
• Public Bathhouse Scene
• Raised by Wolves
• Rage Within the Machine
• Rebel Leader
• Rebel Prince
• Rebel Relaxation
• Reformed Criminal
• Right-Hand Cat
• Ring on a Necklace
• The Scrounger
• Scrubbing Off the Trauma
• Shower Shy
• Skinny Dipping
• Small-Town Tyrant
• A Spy at the Spa
• Strawberry Short Hand
• Stubborn Hair
• Super Not-Drowning Skills
• Team Killer
• Tragic Monster
• The Tragic Rose
• Trapped by Gambling Debts
• Troubled Teen: A young Opaline girl who
• Tunnel King
• Tyrannical Town Tycoon
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People
• Upper-Class Equestrian
• Uptown Girl
• Vigilante Man
• Weapons of Their Trade
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• Windmill Crusader
• The Witch Hunter

Plot

• Accidental Discovery
• Ace Custom
• Addled Addict: An alcoholic's physical and mental health deteriorate due to their addiction.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: A common naming scheme for bars and inns, of the form "The [Adjective] [Animal]."
• Alcohol Hic: A drunk person has the hiccups.
• The Alcoholic: A character who tends to excessively consume alcoholic drinks.
• Alcoholic Parent: A parent who is an alcoholic.
• Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality: Someone shows themselves to be Ambiguously Bi, but only when intoxicated.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: A character ends up doing stupid things after getting drunk.
• Alcohol Is Gasoline: Alcohol is used in place of gasoline to power a motor.
• All Beer Is Ale: Lager doesn't seem to exist in most fictional worlds.
• Anthropomorphic Vice: Alcohol and other vices are personified or anthropomorphized.
• Anti-Alcohol Aesop: An Aesop is given on the dangers of drinking alcohol.
• Bar Brawl: A huge fight breaks out at a bar.
• Barred from Every Bar: Getting kicked out of multiple bars due to drunken misbehavior.
• Bar Slide: The bartender slides the drink across the bar to the customer.
• Beer Commercials: TV ads for beer in the U.S. aren't allowed to show the beer being drunk.
• Beergasm: Someone drinks alcohol and reacts with over-the-top pleasure.
• Beer Goggles: Getting drunk will cause a person to see another person as being more attractive than they actually are.
• Binge Montage: When you have thirty seconds to show a long night of partying.
• Booze-Based Buff: Video games have alcohol featured as a power-up to make the player character stronger.
• Booze Flamethrower: Spitting alcohol through an open flame to create a much larger burst of fire.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: Getting someone drunk so that it would be easier to bed them.^note It should be noted that in many jurisdictions, having sex with someone while they are inebriated qualifies as rape, since inebriated individuals are considered unable to give consent due to alcohol impacting their decision-making.
• Can-Crushing Cranium: Crushing an empty can of beer against your own forehead to show how tough you are.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: It doesn't take a lot of alcohol for a person to get drunk.
• Descent into Addiction: An arc where a character goes from a healthy drinker to an alcoholic.
• Designated Driver: A sober person who has to drive people home when they're too drunk to safely drive their own vehicles.
• Discreet Drink Disposal: A character quietly gets rid of their drink due to wanting to stay sober, without offending the person who gave it to them.
• Drink-Based Characterization: A character's choice of drink is used to reveal something about them.
• Drinking Contest: A competition to see who can drink the most alcohol.
• Drinking Game: A game where you take a swig of an alcoholic beverage every time something happens while you're watching a movie or show.
  • JustForFun.Drinking Game: Make your own!
• Drinking on Duty: Drinking when you're supposed to be working.
• Drowning My Sorrows: A character becomes alcoholic after falling into depression.
• Drowning Our Romantic Sorrows: Resolving a Love Triangle over some drinks.
• Drunk Driver: Alcohol and automobiles don't mix. Here's what happens when you try.
• Drunken Boxing: A martial art fighting style based on imitating a drunk's movements.
• Drunken Glow: Blushing as a sign of drunkenness.
• The Drunken Sailor: Sailors love booze.
• Drunken Master: A character who is incredibly competent—but only when drunk.
• Drunken Montage: When you have thirty seconds to show a long night of drowning your sorrows.
• Drunken Song: Character sings to show that they are drunk.
• Drunk on Milk: A character becomes inebriated after drinking a non-alcoholic drink.
• Drunk Rolling: Stealing from people who have passed out drunk.
• Dry Crusader: A character who abstains from alcohol and tries to make others give up alcohol as well.
• Expensive Glass of Crap: Wine snobs can't tell the difference between fancy wine and bum wine that's had its label swapped.
• Fake High: Characters get drunk on a non-alcoholic placebo.
• Flair Bartending: Drink-making with an eye to showmanship.
• Foul First Drink: A character tries alcohol for the first time and finds the taste disgusting.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Alcoholic beverages are replaced with non-alcoholic beverages, but are still treated as if they are alcoholic.
• Gargle Blaster: A concoction of different alcohols that isn't remotely safe to drink.
• Gigantic Gulp: Drinking from a comically huge cup.
• A Glass of Chianti: Villains love red wine.
• Going Cold Turkey: An alcoholic curing themself by the most direct, painful way possible.
• Hair of the Dog: The best cure for a hangover is more alcohol!
• Hangover Sensitivity: Lights are too bright and sounds are too loud for a hung over character.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: A girl who drinks hard and parties hard.
• Heal It with Booze: Using alcohol as a disinfectant or anesthetic.
• Hideous Hangover Cure: Folk remedies for hangovers with bizarre ingredients.
• Hillbilly Moonshiner: The stereotype that people living in the country like to illegally brew their own alcohol.
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: A joke where one character orders drinks for themself, and the other thinks they're ordering for them both; or, vice versa.
• I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: The character drinking at the bar gets confrontational when the bartender tries to tell them to go easy on how much alcohol they're consuming.
• Impairment Shot: A point-of-view shot of someone in a boozy state.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: A character remarks that they need a drink to make it clear how exasperated and depressed they are about the current situation.
• I Never: A kind of drinking game where the objective is for everyone to take a shot whenever another person claims to have not done something that the other person actually did do.
• Intoxication Ensues: Accidentally getting drunk.
• Intoxication Mechanic: The player character in a video game using drugs or alcohol hinders the player from playing the game.
• In Vino Veritas: Getting drunk causes you to show how you really are.
• Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet: Kids sneaking a drink of the funny grape juice.
• Lactose over Liquor: Ordering milk in a place usually associated with drinking alcohol.
• Lady Drunk: An old, bitter, female drunk.
• Libation for the Dead
• Liquid Courage
• Military Moonshiner
• Never Gets Drunk
• Off the Wagon
• Quick Nip
• A Round of Drinks for the House
• Skull Cups
• A Tankard of Moose Urine
• The Teetotaler
• To Absent Friends
• Watering Down
• What Did I Do Last Night?
• Wine Is Classy
• Agony of the Feet
• After Action Patch Up
• Alien Blood
• Alien Catnip
• The Alleged Steed
• All Webbed Up
• Always a Bigger Fish
• And Now You Must Marry Me
• Anatomically Ignorant Healing
• Anger Born of Worry
• Angry Guard Dog
• Angry Mob
• Animal Assassin: Used by a Rubyling.
• Animal Espionage
• Animal Nemesis
• An Offer You Can't Refuse
• Anticipatory Lipstick
• Anti-Magical Faction
• Apocalypse Cult
• Artifact Domination
• Artifact of Attraction
• Assassination Attempt
• Assimilation Plot
• A Storm Is Coming
• Attack the Injury
• Backup Bluff
• Back-to-Back Badasses
• Badass Minds Think Alike
• Bad Guy Bar
• Balkanize Me: Mithradoon splits into a number of smaller nation-states after the moon incident.
• Ballroom Blitz
• Bar Brawl
• Bathtub Bonding
• Battle Amongst the Flames
• Bear Trap
• The Beastmaster
• Bedouin Rescue Service: The Tomor-Kana to Glassallmass.
• Beg the Dog
• Behemoth Battle
• Belated Injury Realization
• Beware the Mind Reader
• BFS
• Big Damn Heroes
• Big Heroic Run
• Bitch Slap
• Bloody Murder
• Body Horror
• Body Surf
• Bouncer
• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good
• Brainwash Residue
• Breaking Out the Boss: The dragonslayers to Glencoe.
• Bridge Logic
• Bringing Back Proof
• Bugs Herald Evil
• Buried in a Pile of Corpses
• Burning the Flag
• Burn the Witch!
• By the Hair
• Caged Bird Metaphor
• Calling the Cops on the FBI
• Canine Companion
• Can't Bathe Without a Weapon: A cautious character carries a weapon with them while they bathe.
• Captive Push
• Caught in a Snare
• Cavalry Betrayal
• Changed My Mind, Kid
• Chariot Pulled by Cats
• Child by Rape: The honor-obsessed coder human society tends to look very badly upon children out of wedlock. In wizard culture, meanwhile, a woman being forced to carry a child can (at least in theory) warp the child's magic, perhaps even resulting in an Opaline. This is an obvious problem for
• Child Naming Request
• Chained to a Railway
• Chaos While They're Not Looking
• Chekhov's Skill
• Circling Vultures
• Clash of Evolutionary Levels
• Cold-Blooded Torture
• Confidence Sabotage
• Contract on the Hitman
• Conversation Casualty
• The Coup
• Cradling Your Kill
• Crashing Through the Harem
• Creepy-Crawly Torture
• Crystal Weapon
• Culture Clash
• Custom-Built Host
• Dances and Balls
• Defacement Insult
• Defensive Feint Trap
• Delivery Guy
• Den of Iniquity
• Deprogram
• Diagnosis: Knowing Too Much
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?
• Dirty Bomb
• Dismissive Kick
• Divide and Conquer
• Divided We Fall
• Draft Dodging
• The Dragons Come Back
• Dramatic Necklace Removal
• Dream Weaver
• Drink-Based Characterization
• Dungeon Crawling
• Dying as Yourself
• Eaten Alive
• Emergency Authority
• Emergency Cargo Dump
• Emergency Transformation
• Emotion Bomb
• Emotion Suppression
• Empty Quiver
• Empty Shell
• Enemy Civil War
• Escaped Animal Rampage
• Et Tu, Brute?
• Evil Is Easy
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Initially deconstructed, then played straight, and finally inverted. The Big Bad wants to destroy the moons and ultimately magic itself. However, because she is a high-ranking wizard tribune and the people speaking against her are humans and dragons, the classically Lawful Evil wizards ignore the threat and inadvertently aid her in her goals. Once her true nature as an Opaline comes to light the trope is played straight as the wizarding army joins with the Questinglanders to save the world. In the end, however, the Questinglanders themselves turn on their wizard allies and choose to rid the world of magic (albeit in a somewhat less world-destroying, though still genocidal, way) so that the slave labor system will collapse. Throughout the story Good, Evil and Oblivion are variously allied and at odds - and who counts as each changes dramatically.
• Excrement Statement
• Eye Scream
• Failed State
• Fake Memories
• False Flag Operation
• Familial Body Snatcher
• Fanatical Fire
• Fed to Pigs
• Fed to the Beast
• Fighting from the Inside
• Fingore
• Fire of Comfort
• Flesh Golem
• Flies Equals Evil
• Forced Miscarriage
• Forced Prize Fight
• Forced to Watch
• Forced Transformation
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten
• For Your Own Good
• Foul Flower
• Gambling Brawl
• Garden of Love
• Genocide from the Inside: "The trouble with the strongholds of evil is that there are always children inside."
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul
• Giant Enemy Crab
• Glamour
• Government-Exploited Crisis
• Grand Theft Me
• Grave Robbing
• Grievous Bottley Harm
• Gunship Rescue: An odd variant with a dragon instead of an aircraft.
• Gutted Like a Fish
• Hand Stomp
• Happiness in Mind Control
• Haunted Fetter
• Hazy-Feel Turn
• Headlock of Dominance
• The Hedge of Thorns
• Heroic Host
• Heroic Safe Mode
• Hero with Bad Publicity
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: From Aluma to Glassallmass.
• Hired to Hunt Yourself
• Hive Mind
• Horsing Around
• Hostage Situation
• Hostile Hitchhiker
• Hostile Terraforming
• Hover Skates
• How Do I Shot Web?: When wizards initially gained their magic, it took them a while to figure out how not to kill themselves. The same is true when humans eventually figure out how to duplicate the process.
• Howl of Sorrow
• Human Resources
• Human Weapon
• Hunting "Accident"
• Hunting the Rogue
• Literal Change of Heart
• Ignored Enemy
• Imminent Danger Clue
• Impaled Palm
• Insult Friendly Fire
• Internal Death Squad
• Kidnapped by the Call: Glass and Galli
• Kidnapped Doctor
• Kidnapped Scientist: Aluma, briefly
• The Kid with the Remote Control
• Kill All Humans
• Kill the Host Body
• Knife Fight
• Know Your Vines
• Last-Minute Reprieve
• Leave Him to Me!: A mutual one between Brainjun and Glassallmass. Justified in that it's far less dangerous for an Opaline to challenge another Opaline in combat; however, it's also a matter of personal significance to both of them, because
• Lie to the Beholder
• Little Brother Is Watching
• Living Aphrodisiac
• Living Ark
• Living Bodysuit
• Locked in the Dungeon
• Lost World
• Love Imbues Life
• Make an Example of Them
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mass Teleportation
• Master of Illusion
• Meat Puppet
• Meditation Power Up
• Mercy Kill
• Mexican Stand Off
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body
• Misplaced Retribution
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal
• Mission Briefing
• Misfit Mobilization Moment
• Mistaken for Spies
• Mocking the Mourner: The person who did this to Glassallmass... regretted it.
• Monster Progenitor
• Moral Event Horizon
• Mouth Stitched Shut
• Muggle–Mage Romance
• Muggle in Mage Custody
• My Fist Forgives You
• Neck Snap
• Neglected Garden
• No Escape but Down
• No Fame, No Wealth, No Service
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
• No Indoor Voice
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond
• No Sympathy for Grudgeholders
• Not Brainwashed
• Off the Table
• Off with His Head!
• Only Fatal to Adults
• Ordered to Die
• Our Sirens Are Different
• Siren Song
• Paranoia Gambit
• Parrot Pet Position
• Pistol-Whipping
• Poison Ring
• Possessing a Dead Body
• Possession Burnout
• Post-Victory Collapse
• The Power of Hate
• Power Fist
• Protest by Obstruction
• Primp of Contempt
• Prisoner Exchange
• Prison Riot
• Professional Killer
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide
• Pursued Protagonist: Glassallmass is introduced this way.
• Quiet Cry for Help
• Rabble Rouser
• Raised as a Host
• Razor Apples
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech
• Redemption Quest
• Red Light District
• Reforged into a Minion
• Reformed, but Not Tamed
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Glassallmass quickly becomes a critical piece of the Questinglands' plan to remain independent, and as such Aluma can't let him be recaptured. It doesn't mean she's happy about having to rescue him, especially early on when he's still a raging asshole.
• Reign of Terror
• Renegade Splinter Faction
• Replacement Goldfish
• Resign in Protest
• Resist the Beast
• Restrained Resistance, Reckless Rebellion
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves
• Right-Hand Attack Dog
• Rival Turned Evil
• River of Insanity
• Roadside Surgery
• A Round of Drinks for the House
• Sadist Teacher
• Scaling the Summit
• Scary Stinging Swarm
• Sealed Good in a Can
• Secret Path: The underground tunnels of the Beyondbeach.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes
• Sensing You Are Outmatched
• Sentient Phlebotinum
• Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
• Shoot the Hostage
• Shut Up and Save Me!
• Sinister Suffocation
• Sky Heist
• The Smart One Turns Traitor
• Smoky Gentlemen's Club
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse
• Soiled City on a Hill
• Sole Survivor
• Soulless Shell
• Spider Limbs
• Spiteful Spit
• Spiteful Suicide
• Spontaneous Crowd Formation
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Glassallmass
• Sudden Humility
• Suicide Mission
• Summon Bigger Fish
• Superhuman Trafficking
• Super Spit
• The Svengali
• Sympathetic Sentient Weapon
• Symbiotic Possession
• Symbolic Mutilation
• Symbolic Weapon Discarding
• Taking the Fight Outside
• Taking Over the Town
• Talk to the Fist
• Tears of Remorse
• Technology Uplift
• Terminally Dependent Society: The moment magic stops being reliable, wizarding society collapses.
• Testing Range Mishap
• That Man Is Dead
• Third-Party Deal Breaker
• This Is Not a Floor
• They Have the Scent!
• Throne Room Throwdown: Against Brainjun.
• Throw 'Em to the Wolves
• Throwing the Fight
• Tongue Trauma
• To Serve Man
• Torches and Pitchforks
• Torture Cellar
• Torture Is Ineffective
• Totalitarian Utilitarian
• To Win Without Fighting
• Trampled Underfoot
• Transhuman Treachery
• Traumatic C-Section
• Treasure Room
• Tree Buchet
• Trial by Friendly Fire
• Trial of the Mystical Jury
• Unfriendly Fire
• Unhappy Medium
• Uriah Gambit
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes
• Vampires Own Nightclubs
• Verbal Salt in the Wound
• Vigilante Execution
• Villainous Rescue
• Villain-Possessed Bystander
• Voluntary Vampire Victim
• War Crime Subverts Heroism
• Was Once a Man
• Water Wake Up
• Weak-Willed
• What a Drag
• White Stallion
• The Wild Hunt
• With My Hands Tied
• Wizard Duel: Several
• Worthy Opponent
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters
• Your Worst Memory

Author Analysis (take with a grain of salt)

• Lawful Good: Coders, Halfpennies (usually). Dragons and Dragonmothers are mostly this, though they sometimes veer into Lawful Neutral.
• Neutral Good: Seedbearers, some humans. Gallikama Aryalee.
• Chaotic Good: Cowboys. Some Guilders. Beulah Sweet.
• Lawful Neutral: Some wizards, sometimes dragons, Goblins as a whole. Many Giants. Some Halfpennies. Aluma Clawraker.
• True Neutral: Some Giants, Dreamsea (although they might fall better under Blue-and-Orange Morality). Giantslayers. Some wizards. Glassallmass Aryalee.
• Chaotic Neutral: Coin-Eyes, Eyelasses, most Guilders. Some Giants as well as some Giantslayers. Some rogue Cowboys.
• Lawful Evil: Most wizards. Possibly Goblins and some Giants, depending on your stance on warfare and revenge.
• Neutral Evil: Many wizards.
• Chaotic Evil: Brainjun Lollycullen.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name
• Crapsack World: This really kind of is one, isn't it? Not to the degree of many fictional worlds, but there's not really a single society in this world that doesn't suck to live in. Wizards are crazy narcissistic oligarchic-capitalists, humans are deeply conservative and oppressive not to mention obsessed with martyrdom, the Eyelasses are a fundamentalist sex cult, Dragonmothers are aloof intellectuals who could fix everything but choose not to, Goblins are fanatical marauders who engage in large-scale slavery and murder, and Giants are just dying out altogether. Of course it's more nuanced than that...but it's still not a very optimistic world.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Going to need to be very careful to avoid this. The Dragonmothers take a lot of influence from Eastern mysticism, and I'll need to make sure to differentiate them so it doesn't just come across as "oh so cool china monks"
• Evil Colonialist
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much
• Standard Fantasy Races
• Token Heroic Orc