Ader, with the broom, and various others
The Hayseed Knight is a plot driven fantasy comedy Visual Novel created by Maxi Molina/SandraMJDev
. It is available to buy on Steam or itch.io. Though initially released in Early Access on December 8, 2020, the story is currently complete, with the fifth and final chapter released February 29th, 2024.The game follows the tale Ader, a one-eyed deer who eventually goes on to become the legendary Knight of the Upperfield, a hero who unites the peoples of the world. Or, at least, that's what the official histories say. According a being known only as The Narrator, a lot of what people think about Ader is incomplete, inaccurate, or just completely made up. The Narrator would know — they were there to see his origins. To set the record straight, they enlist the help of Lin, an aspiring writer who claims to be Ader's descendant, to write his real story... or, at least, the one The Narrator remembers.
Tropes:
- Accent Slip-Up: Miss Rashel starts speaking in a drawl resembling Ader's once she decides to drop all pretense with Sep at the climax of Chapter 4, showing her accent is yet another part of her highly-constructed persona.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers beneath Eyrlum act as an escape route from the Beasts, but unlike most other examples of this trope, there are no platforms of any sort, meaning the heroes need to trudge through waist-deep sewage the whole way.
- The Alcoholic: Downplayed, but Sep tends to turn to wine for comfort when things are going wrong in her life, often reaching for a cup whenever she knows Miss Rashel is about to speak with her, even first thing in the morning.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Chapter 2 takes place from Eina's point of view, with the player choosing her actions instead of Ader's. Chapters 3 and 4 also include segments where the player controls Sep.
- Animesque: The games general art style is heavily influenced by popular anime and manga tropes, especially after the games art got a complete overhaul.
- Author Filibuster: Played for Laughs. At one point, Elbar is tricked into thinking that Ader is a pirate lord, "kidnapping" Sep away from him. This outrages him, because the only thing he hates more than peasantry is piracy, exclaiming "Pay for your things, Godsdamnit! Artists need money to eat!" This prompts Lin and The Narrator to agree loudly, saying that freelancer creatives deserve more pay, people who think passion is its own reward are idiots, and stealing from small creators is way worse than stealing from large corporations. They then stare directly at the player for a few seconds before declaring that it's always morally correct to steal from people like Elbar.
- Back from the Dead: The narrator posits that Ader was actually killed by Teylid at the end of chapter 4, and explicitly resurrected by Sep's power. Ader sporting Glowing Eyes Of Undeath and being able to effortlessly toss Teylid aside despite having just gotten a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Teylid's Golems and subsequently stabbed in the chest lends some credence to this, though it turns out he's still heavily wounded from the assault.
- Bastard Bastard: Elbar is the son of a city lord and a maid, and completely callous and obsessed with appearances and schemes. Nearly every positive thing he does is to try to appease someone he wants to curry favor with. He's also a fratricide, though he insists it was unintentional. The encyclopedia calls him this trope explicitly.
- Bedmate Reveal: During one flashback, Sep is horrified to find that she got a little too drunk and asked Ader to spend the night with her during a moment of emotional vulnerability. She isn't horrified because it's Ader, just that he actually spent the night at the Desert Rose, which could lead to a whole lot of trouble.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Sep is noted as being big for a gazelle, with wide hips and a round belly, but that is fully considered to be part of her beauty and charm by those who comment on it. Except Gyof, who just calls her a fatass.
- Burn the Witch!: This seems to be the people of Eyrlum's go-to response if they suspect a magic-user in their midst. Since The Merchant is extremely open about his use of magic, this leads to him being burnt on a pyre about once a week, since he can't actually die.
- Casual Kink: One flashback scene starts with Ader bound on Sep's bed, with Sep trying to get the knots undone. Lin, too innocent to understand the context, asks why he was all tied up. The Narrator deadpans that it was all just a big accident while the two were knitting.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: In an attempt to circumvent the curse of Oblivion and have her "favorite" remember her no matter how much time they spend apart, Sep brands palmprints into Ader's shoulders using her fire magic. Unfortunately, she didn't reveal her intentions before doing this in a spur-of-the-moment decision, causing Ader to freak out and run away and Sep to feel abandoned. They eventually reconcile, and those brands are what allows Ader to transport Sep's soul to the Temple of Hirub after she explodes during the climax of Chapter 4.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Dialogue options feature a small emoji with a color to correspond with the general feeling behind it.
- Compelling Voice: It's part of Sep's innate powers, and powerful enough almost to work on the Merchant.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Ader decides to make a quick escape with Sep by jumping off a multi-story bridge. Incredibly this doesn't even injure either of them.
- Crush Blush: Ader frequently sprouts a deep blush whenever he's close to a female character. Eina also blushes when Ader gets close to her.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Lin is shocked to hear that Ader, historically known as being a great uniter of peoples, actually had hangups about being a horneater and expressed mildly-disparaging opinions about gazelles at the start of the story. The Narrator explains that back in those days, a penniless, insecure deer was practically guaranteed to think those things just from societal influence, and that he gets better about it.
- Eating the Eye Candy: When Ader meets Sep he stares for quite a while before managing to respond. He also doesn't even realize Sep is a gazelle until she starts to leave.
- Eat the Rich: Eka yells this enthusiastically while Ilegrab is explaining his intentions to reform the government of Eyrlum into a more-equitable state. She means it quite literally.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Djao struggles to speak Sirnar, often using incorrect grammar or mis-applied phrases. Once Ader's gaze reader powers allow him to understand her thoughts regardless of the language she's actually speaking, she's quite well-spoken.
- Everyone Can See It: Ader and Eina very clearly have a thing for one another, even if neither of them are the type to admit it to one another out of fear of it affecting their friendship. Ilegrab sets them up on a date in Chapter 2, and in Chapter 4 it's possible for Sep to outright push their heads together so they finally just kiss already.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The "Arabian Nights" Days here is based on al-Andalus (Moorish Spain), with Eyrlum having an Alcázar palace. Gazelles were previously Ancient Egypt but are now derided with a Roguish Romani stereotype.
- Fantastic Naming Convention: Basaktet names have a short family or clan name first followed by a given name as a single phrase, with or without an apostrophe to separate. Thus Tespertok is just Pertok to his friend, and Omaseptut is just "Sep".
- Fantastic Slurs: Horneater is a in universe derogatory term for male deer who like other male deer as well as a deer that has interest in a gazelle. Roe-deer are especially sensitive due to alleged gazelle stock in their sub species.
- Feel No Pain: While transporting Sep's soul to the Temple of Hirub, Ader appears to be completely healed from the injuries he received in his fight with Teylid's golems. Once Sep's soul is in the Temple's forge, he looks down at his body and sees it still highly-wounded — Sep had merely turned off his perception of his wounds, but didn't heal them.
- First Kiss: Ader's first kiss is Sep. Hilariously he accuses her of stealing his first kiss and the author makes it very clear that Ader has no idea how to kiss.
- Foreshadowing: Tons of it. A second playthrough is full of Rewatch Bonuses once the player has full context.
- A lot of what Ilegrab says in offhand comments and snarky asides makes a lot more sense when you know he's masterminding the assassination of King Isifikh the whole time, commanding the Beasts. It starts as early as Chapter 1.
- Ader enters a tavern with Eina, and the bartender has no reaction to her until Ader mentions her name, at which point the bartender is suddenly terrified. The curse of Oblivion prevents people from remembering the cursed ones unless a non-cursed person acknowledges them by name.
- In Sep's diary, she mentions being fed up with Ader's constant rambling, swearing that her next lover will be mute. Depending on the player's actions, Eina can join their relationship a chapter later.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Ader meets Sep almost a year before running into her for the "first" time. Sep and Eina also forget that they met each other when Sep was young, although it's possible that Sep's memory of it gets jogged in Chapter 2 if they meet face-to-face.
- Formerly Fat: The reason for Ader's weirdly large hands is that he came to the city overweight but couldn't find a job that paid enough to eat regularly, so he lost weight everywhere except his hands.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Sep allows Ader to "visit" her every night despite being unable to pay on the condition that he tell her a new funny story each time and be gone by morning. It's essentially a gender-flipped version of the Arabian Nights.
- Gag Censor: When Ader, Sep, and Eina visit a bathhouse, The Narrator is extremely insistent that they were all wearing family-friendly towels and bathing robes. While the in-game assets show them, the actual narration makes it very clear that they were naked.
- Glowing Eyes: Several characters feature this. Eida often flashes these when sneaking up on another character and it's heavily implied that she is one of the in universe abominations. Her family shows this too. Sep displays this occasionally since she is carrying a curse in her.
- Good Girl Gone Bad: Sep is an adorably sweet child. She draws cute gifts for her mother and does her brother's homework because she likes it. After growing up in an upscale brothel, she is very manipulative to say the least.
- Good News, Bad News: Ilegrab delivers this to Ader at the end of chapter 2. The good news is Berbiz was not dead from the absolute beatdown Ader gave him. The bad news is that Ader is guilty of attempted magnicide and faced public execution for it.
- Hartman Hips: Exaggerated with Sep, who has absolutely humongous hips that would make Shakira green with envy.
- Has a Type: Djao likes women, and she likes them big and tall. The mere sight of Eka practically leaves her hyperventilating. When Sep returns in Ending 2 and immediately starts flirting with her, the poor woman almost faints right then and there.
- Held Gaze: Between Sep and Ader when she reads his fortune.
- Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Both Sep and Eina wear Aider's scarf at certain points.
- Heroic Lineage: Lin claims to be a descendant of the famed "Knight of the Upper Fields". Elbar actually posses this though he is of the bastard son variety.
- High-Class Call Girl: The Desert Rose is an establishment based around providing these to suitors. When we first meet Sep, she isn't one of of these, however — she's a dancer and performer, essentially walking advertising for the main business. This changes when Miss Rashel, who was always pressuring her to start bringing in more money by becoming courtesan, finds Elbar in her bedroom after he barged in and more-or-less forces her to accept such a rich, high-profile man as a patron.
- Honorable Marriage Proposal: Ader suddenly offers to marry Sep shortly into their relationship, assuming that since they had sex, she's pregnant now. Sep's utterly confused reaction makes him panic and launch into The Talk, which in turn makes her laugh her head off.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: During Ader's time, it's noted by both Sep and Elbar that deer and gazelles can't have children together. Far in the future, Lin, a gazelle, claims to be a descendent of Ader, implying that someone figured out a way around that in the interim.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ader with both of his potential love interests. He has to kneel to be eye level with Sep and he's about twice Eina's height.
- I Am Not Weasel: Ader is very insistent that Eina is a perfectly normal albino doe, and she doesn't bother to try to correct him (not that she could, being mute). Almost everyone else assumes she's a golem deer. Exactly one person outside her family immediately notices that she's a wolf. (Granted, they're thought to be mythical, but there are still illustrations of them.)
- Immortal Ruler: Eyrlum is ruled over by King Isifikh, a former beast turned-deer who united the wandering deer tribes, and later put down the Barhan Rebellion. Turns out the whole "turned-deer" part is inaccurate, as he appears to be the same "model" of artificial beast as Eina is.
- Incompatible Orientation: Gyof is very clearly into Ader, often lamenting his lack of reciprocation, but takes it in stride overall, having no lack of other lovers. Sep also amusingly notes in her diary that Ader has nothing to worry about after she very directly propositions Elbar to have sex with her, only for him to uncharacteristically clam up and scamper out of the room the first opportunity he gets.
- Inconvenient Attraction: Sep actually isn't thrilled when she realizes her feelings for Ader are becoming romantic in nature. Many of her diary entries after that point are devoted to unpacking her insecurities about loving someone and allowing herself to be truly loved instead of just being an object of desire.
- Insufferable Genius: Berbiz genuinely means well, but is extremely bad at reading the room and doesn't know when to shut his mouth, which earns him punches from both Ader and Sep. Even the very kind Djao suggests dropping him down a well within about a minute of meeting him.
- Intimate Healing: In the Golden Ending, Sep reconnects Eina's personality to her Empty Shell body by kissing her.
- Ironic Echo Cut: In a flashback, a drunken Sep spoofs Ader's hick accent by saying, "Well, melt my sides an' call me a biscuit!" Later, an amnesiac Ader says the exact same line as she tries to get him to remember. Naturally, it turns out that he had already remembered and was presumably just quoting it to mess with her before revealing the truth.
- It Doesn't Mean Anything: Sep claims this several times during her fling with Ader. Ader can also offer this as an out while they're reconciling.
- Kangaroo Court: Subverted when, Elbar tries to set up one up by bribing the mob turned jury, after he demands a public trial for Ader. Unfortunately for him he has no idea what a trial involves and was not prepared at all for Ader's impromptu defense team.
- Lady and Knight: Both Ader and Elbar try to invoke this trope with Sep.
- Large Ham: Elbar constantly talks like he's giving a rousing monologue in a play, and he says he considers himself an actor that is unfortunately forced to deal with real-life problems. There's a reason for this.
- Laugh of Love: Sep demands that Ader make her laugh in return for not charging him for her time. Ader never pays a Rivet. Depending on player dialogue choice, this will come up several times.
- The Lifestream: Called the "Hatza", it's seen as a river that carries souls through separate channels for reincarnation and every individual in one soul's path, past, present, and future, is considered connected. Magic is seen as evil and selfish because it all relies on somehow interfering with the Hatza.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: Gyof is noted as really getting around Erylum's buck population. While Sep's sex drive and desire for multiple partners are taken more seriously, Gyof's are mostly played for laughs. At one point, he makes a flirty pass at an entire angry mob.
- Memory Jar: Sep's mental diary allows Ader to view various moments from her life.
- Mindlink Mates: Ader and Sep, since both are "gaze readers".
- Mistaken for Racist: Elbar is outraged when Sep suggests he might be prejudiced against roe deer. He immediately clarifies that he's prejudiced against peasants,
for completely rational reasons, of course. - Mondegreen Gag: A lot of them from Ader, due to being illiterate and generally Book Dumb.
- Motor Mouth: The Basaktet langugage is extremely complex, with sentences taking the form of huge conglomorations of words with no spaces or stops between them. Eina muses that society improved the day someone introduced the concept of breathing between words.
- Multiple Endings: The development note attached to the update adding the final chapter to the story states that there are three main endings, plus some non-canon detours.
- My Girl Is a Slut: While discussing Ader's status as Sep's "favorite", she warns him that relationships with her are never exclusive, so she will take other lovers as well. Ader states that he doesn't mind, and he views that as her "keeping their bed warm" in a flirtatious tone.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: One of the reasons why Miss Rashel doesn't outright force Sep join the family business proper is that she knows that, if Sep was ever seen with a patron, her rich, powerful, and scarily "overprotective" brother Teylid would certainly arrange for that patron to be tortured and killed. Rashel is able to force Sep into taking Elbar as a client explicitly because Elbar is a noble who cannot be targeted without consequences.
- Never Learned to Read: Ader is illiterate. While exploring Sep's diary, he can only "read" it because of his Psychic Link with her, since she knows what's on the pages. Eventually, Berbiz teaches him the basics of recognizing names, but it takes a while and their lessons are cut short by outside problems.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: Zig-zagged. Gender roles are fairly rigid in deer society, with a lot of emphasis on stags proving their worth and the size of their horns, alongside a social cost to being a horneater, a term which includes homosexuals. However, perhaps because of this, there's no stigma attached to being transgender, with deer society even having a ritual where trans does saw off their horns and give them to trans bucks to have themselves.
- Oblivious Mockery: At one point an angry Ader describes someone as a "son of a Beast", and is scolded by Ilegrab for language...but it appears to be mostly because Eina is standing right there and only she and Ilegrab know that she is a Beast.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During Ending 1, Ader is forced to flee the city with the Beasts after they assassinate Isifikh. Sep still ascends into Jasif, with Ader and crew seeing her distant, more-"monstrous" form flying in the sky above Erylum, but it isn't explained what happened or why.
- Oh, Crap!: Ader on several occasions. In Chapter 1 when he realizes that he is late to his job, he literally chants the word crap over and over till he hits a wall.
- Orgasmically Delicious: The first time Ader eats one of the Desert Rose's pastries, which The Narrator claims cost more than the entire amount of money he's made in his life, it's an outright religious experience for him, his pupils going wide and the background fading into Love Bubbles.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Sep and Miss Rashel have engaged in it for years in virtually every conversation. Sep resents her and Rashel in turn sees Sep as stubborn and ungrateful, but both prefer sarcasm and unspoken threats of running away. When Rashel eventually gives Sep the key to leave the Desert Rose she still does so in a passive aggressive way and Sep expects a trick.
- Plant Person: Makedar are huge sentient trees, living in their own forests and sharing a mutual hatred with deer. Makedeer are makedar and deer hybrids, about twice as tall as a deer as capable of speech. How they originated isn't elaborated upon, although the encyclopedia notes that the deer that ate makedar-produced fruit quickly realized they weren't normal.
- Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: While Isifikh is listing past associates, one of them is replaced with static, and represented by a blur in the written log. Ending 1 reveals that he was deadnaming Eina.
- Poor Communication Kills: From Chapter 4 onwards, Eka assumes that Eina let Ader in on the plan to assassinate Isifikh and reform the government of Eyrlum. She hadn't, so Ader and company interpret everything Eka says though a much more sinister lens, assuming that the beasts are there to slaughter the deer population indiscriminately.
- Poverty Food: Ader's daily lunch is a pile of raw potatoes, provided by Eina. Him gradually becoming more of a Picky Eater (due to Sep providing him sweets and wine) is her first major sign that something's happening with him she's not aware of.
- Power Incontinence: Sep completely loses control of her fire magic when she's under extreme emotional distress. The first time kills her mother Zaar, the second time kills Miss Rashel while she's delivering a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Princesses Rule: Invoked by Rashel: she decides to switch the translation of "Jasif", the monarch (in exile) of the gazelles, used in Sep's billing to "princess" rather than "queen" specifically because she says it's less intimidating for the male patrons.
- Redlight District: The Heartache District in Eyrlum features entertainment for every strata of society.
- Running Gag: Sep's butt being huge. Eventually even she joins in.
- Self-Made Orphan: Subverted in that it was not intentional. Sep does kill her adoptive mother leaving her on her own and alienating her immediate family and friends.
- Shipper on Deck: Ilegrab for Ader and Eina. More nefariously Ral for Sep and Elbar. Lin also tries to insert a bit of Gyof and Ader moments while recording the narrator's account of the story.
- Shipping Torpedo: Ral threatens Ader several times to keep him away from Sep. She goes further and manipulates a guard to be posted by Sep's window. Her last solution is even crueler.
- Supporting Protagonist: Even In-Universe it's noted that although this is supposed to be a biography of Ader, more focus is really given to those around him for much of the story.
- Tall Tale: Ader is known for telling these including one with a talking barrel. Most characters are amused by it but everyone assumes he is exaggerating on most accounts.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: After punching out Berbiz, Ader is sentenced by Elbar to death by public hanging. The rope snaps three times, but the fourth attempt begins to choke him before Sep convinces Elbar to hold a public trial instead.
- The Scapegoat: The merchant is blamed when Ader needs to shift blame off of Sep during his trial.
- Through His Stomach: Sep "bribes" Ader with various luxury foods to entice him to return. Eina provides Ader his only regular source of food and goes to great lengths to find better food for him when Ader is out of sorts.
- Unstoppable Rage: Ader punches out Berbiz in one blow when he cuts Eina's pants to "prove" she's a Golem. Especially noteworthy because up until this point Ader had a crippling fear a blades.
- Uptown Girl: Sep lives in one of the richest districts in the city and she is noticeably plump in a medieval setting. Ader lives in the slums and is a few days away from starving.
- Urban Segregation: Eyrlum, the focal city of the game, features several separate districts. The Slander District is home to the poor and seedy residents of Eyrlum. The city also features districts for the nobility that are kept segregated at spearpoint. Additionally the Heartache District is separated exclusively for finding paid company.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Ader and Sep try to act like neither has seen the other during Ader's public trial. Unfortunately Ader's friends keep providing evidence that they do.
- What Does She See in Him?: Ral is extremely confused at Sep and Ader's relationship when she discovers Ader.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Most of chapter 3 takes place during a series of flashbacks from Sep's perspective.
- World of Snark: A lot of character interactions involve sarcasm and taunting of each other, good-humored or not. The only ones who don't really partake are Elbar (who seems incapable of that subtlety) and Ilegrab (who at least tries to be professional). Even Eina is no exception.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Ader moves offscreen to vomit after he learns why Berbiz came to his rescue.
- Yaoi Fangirl: In Chapter 1, Lin fiercely ships Ader and Gyof, but is later distracted by whatever Ader, Sep, and Eina have going on.
- You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Sep is billed as "the Jasif", which characters usually translate as "queen" or "princess" but is also something like "God-Emperor". It initially seems like a gimmick to make her more exotic when she dances. In fact it's even more than the translation, to the point that she doesn't even think of herself as a real gazelle.
