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Ash of Gods: Redemption is a Strategy RPG developed by Aurum Dust studio. It was written by Russian novelist Sergey Malitsky, and is set in a world of his Dark Fantasy series it shares the name with.

For a thousand years, the world of Terminus has been occasionally ravaged by the Reaping, a plague heralded by appearance of the Reapers - monstrous demi-gods so powerful they can kill people in huge numbers just by being nearby. They are traditionally treated by two antagonistic nations, the Berkan alliance of kingdoms and the Phrysian Empire, as an excuse to jump at each other's throats. In the game, you control three protagonists that each has their own goal and role to play as a new Reaping takes place. There is Thorn Brenin, a retired captain of the guard who seeks to save his daughter Gleda at all costs. There's Lo Phen, an Eikon and member of the elite warriors known as the Clan of Shadow, whom the event catches while under service of Pelko Soturi, a cunning and amoral brother of Phrysian king. Finally, there's Blanc, now known as Hopper Rouley, a scribe, swordsman and healer who is secretly the last survivor from an attempt at putting a permanent end to the Reapings over seven hundred years ago, and who now finds himself bewitched by a strange witch's curse and chasing clues left by her to undo it.

The game combines a turn-based combat system and punishing gameplay with a "Roguelike" mechanic regarding in-game story choices. In regards to gameplay, the game is more than heavily inspired by The Banner Saga. It also features a card-game-like a mechanic with magic cards that you can collect over the course of the game and use in battle, but you can only take five to each encounter.

In 2017 the studio has launched a Kickstarter for the game, which finished successfully and was released in 2018. The game is also notable for its soundtrack, whose composers were involved in the soundtrack to The Witcher series.


Ash of Gods: Redemption provides examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: The twins that help Thorn and his men escape from prison and later join his group. They seemed to be set up as possible mentors for Gleda, and one of them seems to be romantically interested in Thorn. Then the disappear without a single word or acknowledgment from other characters and show up fighting for Brann Vichti against you with no explanation or even recognition from their former comrades.
  • Action Girl: Gleda, the twins, and pretty much any woman in Lo Phen's party. Amma turns into one once she transforms into a Reaper.
  • Action Survivor: A monk that Thorn can save if you get him to first Menhir fast enough. All monks are non-combatants who specialize in restoring health and energy, but this one has a streak of being found by Thorn as a sole survivor of a massacre.
  • Amazon Brigade: Lo Phen gets joined by such a group early on.
  • Ambiguously Gay: The monk Lo Phen can save. He admits to never feeling the need to participate in relieving urges with the female prostitutes his temple organizes for monks, and to having a "friend" who was openly against it and was punished for it. However, when Lo Phen asks if he is gay, the man responds with "as if I'd tell you".
  • Anyone Can Die: From Strix fatigue, wounds in battle, or story-driven moments, no one really is safe.
  • Blood Knight: Gleda, at least in-game mechanics portray her as such with a "Bloodlust" ability that gives her more health whenever she kills an opponent. In the story, she is a tomboy and a fighter, but while she eases into killing as the story progresses she never becomes a killer.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Amma in the final act gets enslaved by the Reapers again and turns against you.
  • Corrupt Church: The Temple of Divine Retribution feels like this, especially with Corozon as its representative.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Lo Phen's group gets to witness what happens if someone kills an Eikon, even by accident, and others find out - the brutal slaughter of not just perpetrators but everyone involved in the same group, like members of the same military unit or garrison. Or a civilian village, including the children.
  • Fallen Hero: Fisk, the spearman in Thorn's unit, was once seen as a great hero, but unrequired love drove him to drinking and now he is a shadow of his former self.
  • Famed In-Story: Thorn is known and renowned for his past adventures, where he ventured past something called the Veil.
  • Glory Seeker: Mack, Thorn's son who is desperate to prove himself and not live in his father's shadow his whole life.
  • Guide Dang It!: It is really, really hard to achieve the golden ending, as it requires you to follow Chia's clues and get every single part of her spell, play Thorn and Lo Phen as perfectly moral so that they join forces, don't let Hopper's curse rise too high...
  • Hate Sink: Brann Vichti, a character so utterly amoral, selfish, cowardly and smug it is impossible to not hate his guts.
  • Hero Killer: Either Thorn or Lo Phen is bound to become it in the finale if you didn't manage to make them join forces. Which one kills which depends on who you control. If it's Lo Phen he will then either kill or be killed by Hopper.
  • Implacable Man: Lo Phen can activate an ability that just gives him such high defense that he can shrug off damage, and he is resistant to attacks that move opponents. A valid tactic is just to use it, have him bait all opponents, and then shoot them with archers.
  • Implied Loveinterest: Hode to Gleda and Rita to Lo Phen, though in both cases, pretty much nothing but occasional teasing ever comes out of it.
  • Ironic Name: Warriors of Peace are ruthless, cold-blooded murderers. The name talks about their inner peace, which they achieve by becoming so emotionless and cold-blooded that they can carry out the worst acts without a blink of an eye.
  • Multiple Endings: There are many things that can go wrong, including several characters living or dying; you even get an achievement for keeping some unlikely ones alive. But in general, endings can be sorted into one of three categories:
    • Downer Ending: Hopper fails to piece together the whole spell, the evil goddess awakens and possesses someone and then regains her power by consuming the lives of Enses trapped within their ark.
    • Bittersweet Ending: The goddess is successfully sealed in either Philla, Rita or Gleda, but various characters, maybe even Thorn or Lo Phen's entire party, have died, and the goddess still consumes Enses trapped within the ark.
    • Golden Ending: Thorn and Lo Phen have teamed up, the goddess is sealed, and Chia sets off to free Enses from their ark.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: How a Warrior of Peace should be. If you play Lo Phen as one of those, he will slaughter ungodly amounts of people and bring the end of the world.
  • One-Man Army: During Hopper's parts of the game, any battle you find yourself in will involve him going against various numbers of enemies and massacring them effortlessly.
  • Playing Both Sides: Possible. Hopper and Adna theorize that the Temple of Divine Wrath and Temple of Divine Retribution may actually be the same group purposefully pushing two countries to war to regularly feed the gods blood.
  • Red Baron: Thorn is famously known as Mad Thorn for his past military escapades.
  • Religion of Evil: The Temple of the Divine Wrath, which has no problems with slaughtering thousands of people.
  • Retired Badass: Thorn, when the story starts.
  • Slave Mooks Enses are basically mind-controlled by Reapers to corrupt Menhirs and slaughter as many people as possible.
  • Spin Attack: Hopper's Critical Hit, which hits all units around him and usually kills every single one. Lo Phen has a weaker version that murders just the closest units in the vertical and horizontal axis.
  • The Stoic: Lo Phen, true to being a Warrior of Peace, seems outright emotionless.
  • The Theocracy: Hopper at one point explains differences between two nations as follows: if a Berkan prince would have an argument with a high-ranking member of the Temple of Divine Retribution, they would likely both leave very angry. If a Phrysian noble dared to talk back to a representative of the Temple of the Divine Wrath, he would be beheaded.
  • Token Heroic Orc: Kshama, an Ense freed from the mind control that took over his whole race.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Lo Phen mentions killing children when massacring a village in which a son of an Eikon was accidentally killed.

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