Elminster: Making of a Mage - would the entire book qualify as Dues Ex Machina here? Toward the end we find out that Elminster was basically picked by Mystra as a her boy toy at the very start of his adventure, everything he achieved he did through some form of her assistance, all of his power was given to him directly by her and whatever knowledge he has, has been provided to him via goddess-arranged tutoring. The only part of the trope that seems iffy to me is that in the settings, divine intervention is established as being frequent and coming in many forms. Still though - the book sets itself up as a "young man deciding to battle overwhelming odds in the form of a conclave of evil powerful wizards " but actually it is "an all powerful goddess, who is the direct source of every [evil and not] wizard power, decides to personally kill a bunch of wizards she doesn't like while 'twinking' a new boy-toy for herself... and then she does exactly that".
So does it fit, or perhaps there is another trope that would describe this kind of non-plot better?
Elminster: Making of a Mage - would the entire book qualify as Dues Ex Machina here? Toward the end we find out that Elminster was basically picked by Mystra as a her boy toy at the very start of his adventure, everything he achieved he did through some form of her assistance, all of his power was given to him directly by her and whatever knowledge he has, has been provided to him via goddess-arranged tutoring. The only part of the trope that seems iffy to me is that in the settings, divine intervention is established as being frequent and coming in many forms. Still though - the book sets itself up as a "young man deciding to battle overwhelming odds in the form of a conclave of evil powerful wizards " but actually it is "an all powerful goddess, who is the direct source of every [evil and not] wizard power, decides to personally kill a bunch of wizards she doesn't like while 'twinking' a new boy-toy for herself... and then she does exactly that".
So does it fit, or perhaps there is another trope that would describe this kind of non-plot better?