Roleplay / Dragon Haven

Dragon Haven is a panfandom Journal Roleplay on Dreamwidth. In this game, characters are brought into another world, one which dragons oversee, by the dragons themselves. The reason for doing this was originally to save them from some (until recently) unspoken calamity in each world's future, but with the calamity averted, it's currently anyone's guess as to why they're being brought to this other world anymore.

The dragons bring more than just people, too; there are many settings from the various worlds represented by the characters in the game. However, sometimes they come with that world's hazards, and conflicts being caused by different elements from the various worlds are far from uncommon.

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This game provides examples of:

• Ace Pilot: Athrun Zala and Manfred "Specter" Vaeris.
• Affably Evil: Valvatorez, though more especially his Tyrant and Shadow form. How evil they are may be up to debate, though they certainly consider themselves excellent villains.
• The Alliance: Considering the World-Eater just ate the continent we were living on, maybe we should put our differences aside. Briefly, anyway.
• Apocalypse How: The World-Eater is capable of multiversal physical annihilation.
• April Fools' Plot: Little Flopsy puts in an appearance around this time.
  • Dragon Haven's Got Talent, kupo!
• The Assassins Who Don't Do Anything: For all their secrecy and insular behavior they very rarely do any assassinating.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Messing with Orb is generally a very bad idea. They try as hard as they can to play Switzerland (which can tie Athrun's hands sometimes), but when they are attacked, they are not stingy with their aid (especially with Athrun's influence), as shown in the raid on the slaver headquarters.
  • Also invoked when characters exploring the Forbidden Lands awaken a literal sleeping giant. More specifically, sixteen of them.
  • Applies to the town of Seahaven, as well. Though not "giant" in a literal sense, many of its citizens individually possess enough power to level nations. Just ask the poor saps responsible for the Torture Chamber Episode below.
  • You should probably think twice before invading Monsbaiya. As well as all the individuals that live in it, there's the moogles, and the monsters.
• Back from the Dead: The Phoenix Dragon is capable of restoring characters post their canon deaths. We'll bring you justice, don't worry.
• Badass Boast: Too many to list. This place is full of badass heroes, after all.

• Berserk Button: Richard. The slightest hint of betrayal and off he goes. Alternatively, put Sophie in his vicinity.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Applies to many of the heroes in this setting. Many of them are kind, compassionate, and gentle, but cross the line and you'll regret it.
• Blessed with Suck: Making your way across the Archylte Steppe, monsters pass and suddenly you've been branded a l'Cie with an incomprehensible Focus and a future as a crystal block or the world's equivalent of a zombie. But hey, magic!
  • Subverted with Serah. Thanks to Etro's non-existence in the Havens, she no longer gets visions.
• Blood Knight: Adell, though he constitutes the more fight-happy sort, rather than the bloodthirsty variety.
• Bond Creatures:
  • Baby dragons will bond themselves to the person who witnesses them hatch. This bond affects their own lifespan, so unfortunately, they will die when the person they bonded to also dies.
  • Fire lizards have an emotional bond with the first person to feed them. They're also quite numerous.
• Brought Down to Badass: Lightning retains none of her Etro-given powers due to the aforementioned deity not existing in the dragons' world. No one is particularly heartbroken by this, least of all Lightning.

• Character Name Alias: Lucy goes by Louise Miles, for reasons.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: A great deal of protagonists in the setting have this, being willing to risk their safety or sacrifice for others without thought of reward. Some even go out of their way to do so.
• The Chosen Many
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Dropped characters often suffer from this.
• Cool Plane: Manfred "Specter" Vaeris' F-4X Phantom II. Its performance exceeds the already impressive estimates of its Real World counterpart. Specter's plane is capable of reaching Mach 4 at high altitude. Also qualifies as his trademark aircraft.
• Cryptic Conversation: The Assassins. Ever on form, they'll usually encrypt the most important stuff.
• Culture Clash: Inevitable. Especially inevitable when your canon CR is spread over several centuries.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Who doesn't have a tragic backstory.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Several examples.
  • Black Mages, generally.
  • The inhabitants of Veldime, while generally mischievous and a bit chaotic demons, are friendly and peaceful enough.
  • Fatima, the Shadow Frost Witch. Despite a negative reputation, she requested help to rebuild a village from her home world that ostracized her.
  • Valvatorez, a demon vampire who owns a general store in a populous area, frequently aids heroes, and often sets out to fight against threats to the havens. Insists he is still evil. He's not fooling anyone.
  • Sparda, of course.
  • Lioriley, a dark elf, who is nothing if not kind and selfless.
  • Elize uses dark based artes as well as healing ones. In her own universe, this is simply accepted as a normality; the fact she can cast artes in the first place is the reason she was shunned.
• Driving Question:
  • Who is the World-Eater?
  • Should we even trust the dragons?
  • Can we go home?
• Dysfunctional Family:
  • The Assassins, for one.
  • The affectionately named Monsbaiyan Mafia, which consists of Serah, Lightning, Hope, Lucina, Lenalee, Newt, Yuna, and Koujaku, and continues to grow on a regular basis.

• The End of the World as We Know It: The fate that the characters have been saved from.
• Everyone Can See It: So much denial. So much obliviousness. Seriously, guys. Come on.
  • Bro and Dante.
  • Desmond and Lucy.
  • Hope and Lucina. Thankfully, these two at least have passed this minefield.

• Final Fantasy: Its influence is highly present in the setting, especially with the prevalence of Moogles and chocobos.

• Fisher Kingdom: Characters in the havens have the option of gradually forgetting they ever lived anywhere else.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Sophie gained some sopheria seeds (which she is named after). She spent the next few months looking after them until a blossomgale occured.
  • Hope gave Lucina an iris on one occasion. It still took her several more months (and a kiss) to realise his affections.
  • Elize is named after the fictional princessia flower.
• For Science!: Newt. Just Newt. To a lesser degree, Lucy.
• Free-Range Children: Being badass adorable to a one, the kids tend to roam about and participate in events as much as the adults do.
• Friend to All Living Things: Connor, who is rumoured to actually be a Disney Princess.
  • Subverted in that his chocobo hates him with every fibre of its being.

• Give Me a Sword: With the number of invasions (and monsters combing the areas brought to the havens), you should probably learn how to fight.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Terra Branford.
  • Nina Lora technically counts as well, being half-Doman; Domans are her home universe's rough equivalent of humans.
  • Altaïr, Connor and Desmond technically count as this.
  • Technically Lucina as well.

• Happily Married:
  • Serah and Snow.
  • Hope and Lucina.
• Hates Being Touched:
  • Connor.
  • Sophie, to the point where she threw Konayuki into a tree. I'm not making this up.
  • Nina as well, but she has her reasons; see An Ice Person below.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The World-Eater.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: The Assassin's Creed characters' garb, to the point new arrivals are mistaken for someone else entirely. Is this some kind of secret organization? Highly suspect.
  • Subverted in that the white robes and hoods are a required item of clothing for all citizens in Fortuna.
• Horse of a Different Color: Horses are outnumbered by Chocobos to the point of being considered rare mounts.
• Hot Springs Episode: The Haven Rangers, an all-female band of heroes, originally met during one of these.
• A House Divided: Some want to help the dragons. Some don't.
• Humongous Mecha: To be expected when you have Gundam SEED and Transformers in the game.
• I Choose to Stay: On a rare occasion, the dragons might find someone who actually wants to come here.
  • More frequently, someone will indeed choose to stay after resolving any complications at home. For Serah and Lightning, this is the world where they can be together. For Lucina, she exists out of time in her own continent, and planned to leave it anyway.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Nina started off as this, hating how she had to avoid being near people or how she had to do things in specific ways to avoid accidentally hurting anyone. After awhile, with some encouragement she began to accept herself the way she is, but not without a few bumps along the way. At present, she no longer shows any real signs of disliking what she is, but will still on some occasions actively warn others of the potential dangers of being near her when she's not prepared.
• An Ice Person:
  • Fatima, whose powers are simultaneously this and Casting a Shadow.
  • Nina Lora is a rather bizarre example. Due to being incapable of generating her own bodyheat, her body has an involuntary mechanism where it steadily drains heat from whatever she's in contact with at the time. The result of this? Anyone or anything she touches will eventually freeze over unless she breaks contact before it happens.
  • Rozalin. Most of her trademark attacks are ice elemental.
• Identical Grandson: Altair and Desmond.
• Interspecies Romance: A side-effect of so many worlds being stitched together.
  • The elven mage Lioriley and human assassin Connor finally became a couple, to the mild dismay of his descendant.
• Jumped at the Call: For some characters, the havens are a significant improvement on their own world.
  • Konayuki has absolutely no complaints about being removed from the burned-out skeleton of her mountain village.
• Kidnapped by the Call: What's that? You don't want to be saved? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my abducting you to the Havens!
• The Kindnapper: The Dragons. We're keeping you safe from your world's destruction!

• Love Freak: The trope namer herself found her way to Dragon Haven to spread love wherever she goes.

• Meaningful Name: Have you seen the amount of protagonists?
  • The Assassin's Creed cast takes the trophy for this trope. If you don't have a bird name, you should. If you don't have a bird name it might just be derived from the big bad who ended up causing your demise.
  • Likewise, any Square Enix character. Ven comes from a tradition of naming trios after earth, water and air (him being the latter in this example). Literal examples include Hope.
  • Subverted with the Protagonist of Persona 4, going by the name of Souji Seta.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Kamui Demons plot. Our brave heroes took down two demonic owls, only to awaken Yami, Emperor of Darkness. Oops.
• Noble Demon: Valvatorez is present in Dragon Haven, and he's still using his own definition of "evil" for how he operates. Laharl also brings his brand of cantankerous "evil" to the setting. More literal uses of the term include Adell, Rozalin, and Sparda.
• Nonhuman Sidekick: For one example, Celia Espellomente is shaping up to be this to Manfred Vaeris.
• Older Than They Look: A rather high number of characters are, actually, what with the assortment of demons, immortals, non-humans and A.I.
• Only Mostly Dead: If a character dies, they turn into a Shade for roughly a month before being revived. It only happens once, however; if they die a second time, then they're dead for real.
• Our Dragons Are Different: They possess the ability to travel between multiple worlds at will, take people with them, and replicate and/or lift entire regions from worlds.
• Our Spirits Are Different: Celia Espellomente, despite being rather humanlike and looking/acting like an overly-excitable teenage girl, is her own world's form of Nature Spirit. One of an entire race of them, in fact.

• Papa Wolf:
  • Connor's relationship to Konayuki. Includes elements of Badass and Child Duo and Big Brother Instinct.
  • Sparda does not like it when you mess with his kids, biological or otherwise.
• Patchwork World
• Patrick Stewart Speech: Commander Shepard does a Call-Back to what she said to Liara while confronting Shadow Valvatorez during the Shadow Event.

  Shepard: People may be messy, awkward, selfish, even cruel — but they're trying their damnedest out there, doing everything they can. And I swore to myself that I'd fight to make sure they'd still have that chance.

• Pimped-Out Dress: Rozalin still wears her extremely fancy dress almost everywhere she goes, even in battle.
• Real Name as an Alias: Depending on who she talks to, Nina goes by either "Nina Lora" or "Imila Tera". Both names are correct; Nina is her given name, while Imila is the name given by the family that had adopted her after her biological parents had given her up.

• Relationship Reset Button: Maria Thorpe arrived from a point when she was single. Her future husband, on the other hand...

• Schizo Tech: Inevitable with the multiple settings present. Settings can range from the eighteenth-century Davenport Homestead, the fantasy-with-airships setting of Baron, or the sci-fi realms of the Orb Union, Nos Astra, or Crystal City.
• Send Me Back: Unsurprisingly the first thing said by most characters brought to the Havens against their will.
• Series Mascot: Given the prevalence of Final Fantasy in the setting, it's only natural the unofficial mascot of Dragon Haven is the Moogle.
  • An honorable mention goes to Disgaea's bumbling, lazy, and ineffectual Prinnies.
  • Don't forgetz Tales of Graces' Turtlez!
• Shipper on Deck: Souji's active encouragement of Lucina's endeavors with Hope has caused a fair bit of embarrassment for the would-be Exalt. Asuna's plot to have her dance with him at the gathering Serah held did not help matters.
• Sibling Team: Serah and Lightning work as adventurers in Monsbaiya, fighting their way through the Monster Tower to train and earn money. They also run a restaurant.

• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Characters who get a canon update return in the same spot with very little time having passed for everyone around them, even though they themselves might have aged years.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Maranda. She was revived later, much to everyone's relief.
• Talking Animal: Given the sheer volume of moogles, if your character isn't used to talking animals, they will be.
• Team Mom: Serah. Also Lightning, more surprisingly.
• Temporal Paradox: For some canons, the timeline is sitting in a metaphorical bar and has long since given up.
• Torture Chamber Episode: The Crystal City plot. Thanks for the psychological trauma, slavers!
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Sophie: Crablettes.
  • Valvatorez: Sardines.
  • Nina: Chocolate, thanks in part to Terra spoiling her with the stuff.
• Trapped in Another World: Though, unlike many other RPs that use this premise, the characters know generally how they arrived and why they were brought here.
• True Companions: The Haven Rangers were formed from the heroes of various worlds, now intent on protecting the dragons' world and all within it; in true Companion fashion they frequently adventure together despite being scattered across the havens.
• Universal Translator: The Runes are capable of automatically translating everything to the language you understand. That's rather fortunate, really...
• We Help the Helpless: What many of the protagonists in this setting do if they do not suffer from Chronic Hero Syndrome.
• Wham Episode: The Displacement. Even after the plot it was a part of was resolved, many things about the world the characters are in had permanently changed.

• You Can't Go Home Again: If you're dead in canon, this is you. Better find a nice house.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The world didn't end, but there was a massive influx of undead that affected most haven regions around Halloween.

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