Demon body-snatches Nebraska boy: Ruins everything.
Zach and his two other demon buddies came to earth to steal bodies and sell them to the miserable people stuck in purgatory while Lucifer isn't looking, because nobody has any idea where he went.The gates of hell are closed, the poor people trapped in between just want to go back to earth. For the reasonable price of your eternal soul, they can make that happen! If their manager can get them to pay attention long enough.
The Settlers is a Webcomic co-written by Elliot and Sawyer(Fairygun/Oddsaw), and drawn by the former. The official tumblr can be found here
It can be read here on Tapastic. Tweekling's Patreon is here.
Nothing to do with the video game The Settlers.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Robbie to Gretyl. She only tolerates him because she can use him as an excuse to see his mother, who is... truer to her taste.
- Barred from the Afterlife: The gates of Hell are closed, so everyone who was headed there is stuck in Purgatory.
- Big Brother Instinct: Zach considers Abigail his sister, although he's a demon. He displays this attitude against Reginald in particular.
- Blatant Lies: Zach, on occasion.Reginald: Speaking of which, where is your sister?Zach: *Beat* Don't have one.
- Cast of Snowflakes: The art style is very colorful and uses a lot of different shapes. Although there are a lot of them, no two characters are identical, though some share a Strong Family Resemblance.
- Creepy Child: Toby is a young half-demon with unsettling powers. He is considered an abomination by pretty much everyone who knows what he is, including his own parents. On top of this, the way they (failed to) raise him makes it extremely hard for him to behave in a socially appropriate manner.
- Cute Little Fangs: Zach, though it overlaps with Fangs Are Evil due to his demonic nature.
- Demonic Possession: Ashley, Gretyl, and Zach. Their demon names are respectively Gello, Gremmory and Gamigin, but they took over the human identities and therefore go by their names.
- Demon of Human Origin: It happens. Gretyl used to be a human, Zach and Ashley were born as demons.
- Fangs Are Evil: Zach oscillates between this trope and Cute Little Fangs.
- The Insomniac: Several characters, though Jamie in particular.
- Involuntary Shapeshifter: Zach, on occasion. Unfortunately for him, it's about as painful as getting hit by a truck.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zach. He remorselessly kills people, but has to sit down when the amount of time Annie has been married to Father Arlyn sinks in, and hugs her wordlessly.
- Kill and Replace: What the demon trio did, and what they set up the humans they help for.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Jamie. He's the richest kid in town, but he's reclusive and as of the beginning of the story, his only friend is Liam.
- Meet Cute: Jamie bumps into Zach in the middle of the night, and has to rescue him from being stuck up in a collapsed tree house.
- Missing Mom: Jamie's mother is dead.
- No Biological Sex: Toby, as a half-demon.
- Our Angels Are Different: The angels were inspired by real biblical angels. The names aren't made up, and some characteristics were conserved in the comic.
- Our Demons Are Different: The demons were also inspired by real biblical demons. The names aren't made up, and some characteristics were conserved in the comic. Some were apparently human though.
- Our Souls Are Different: Selling your soul doesn't kill you, but you become Barred from the Afterlife (as in unable to leave the plane of existence you're in, apparently). They also appear to be a source of energy demons can use to become stronger.
- Our Vampires Are Different: One of the teachers is a vampire. He can't turn into a bat, though.
- Parental Neglect: Jamie's dad sometime knocks on his door to make sure he hasn't killed himself. He gives him a lot of pocket money. That is pretty much all.
- Partial Transformation: Both Gretyl and Zach have been shown doing this.
- Really 700 Years Old: Gretyl, who is over 2000 years old. To a lesser extent the other demons are implied to be this as well.
- Rescued from the Underworld: What the demons are doing for the humans in Purgatory. Not for free, though.
- Resurrective Immortality: Dead humans in Purgatory have this. Demons too, but they lose their memories every time they die and "reset".
- Transhuman Treachery: Gretyl was human once. She seems to have fully embraced being a demon and shows absolutely no guilt when killing them. To be fair, she had over 2000 years to get used to it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Zach, Abigail and Annie, their mother, all look very much alike.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Ashley feels this way towards Gretyl and Zach. She lampshaded it in the very first chapter.
- Villain Protagonist: The story mainly follows a body-trafficking demon who doesn't mind killing people to do his job and infiltrated a random teenager's family by taking over his body, killing him as well.
- It's downplayed, however, and may even end up subverted: he's gradually shown to be more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with a questionable moral compass than an outright villain.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Demons can do that when possessing humans, apparently. It's unknown if it's limited to Partial Transformation.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: The demon trio's plan: They bring back dead humans on Earth in exchange of their soul.