History Roleplay / LordsAmongTheAshes

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:[[TheBaroness Alexandria]]]] loses one of her arms during the final years of the sim when her fleet is attacked by what may have been [[spoiler:a second [[KrakenAndLeviathan sea]] [[{{Kaiju}} Titan]]]]. [[spoiler:Jaune]] loses an arm as well [[spoiler:and then regrows it as a demonstration of the advanced capabilities of Aura]].

** As in canon, Aura naturally heals its users wounds, so the higher one's level of Aura mastery, the more potent this becomes. [[spoiler:Jaune]] even displays this [[spoiler:to his class post-sim]] by severing and regrowing his own arm.

** Jaune goes from being possibly the weakest hunter in-training in his school with only months of actual training to becoming the top player in the game and among the three strongest fighters alongside Ruby and Cinder while running the most powerful military the SIM to boot.

* ZergRush: The go-to strategy for the Grimm is to attempt to overrun their adversaries using their massive numerical advantage. [[StrongerWithAge The older ones]] [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] this however and deploy a level of tactics that is utterly lethal.

* StatusBuffDispel: Ruin[[spoiler:, Jaune and Cinder's [[YinYangBomb dual Semblance,]] fully dispels enemy buffs and removes allies' debuffs]].

Jaune's story can be found [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/lords-among-the-ashes-rwby-ck2-quest.347561/ on SB]] and Ruby's [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/lords-among-the-ashes-rwby-ck2-quest.20167/ on SV]]. Each of them also have their own sequel quests: [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/a-flickering-ember-lata-part-2.567463/ A Flickering Ember]], and [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-bright-spark-lata-part-2.41775/ A Bright Spark.]]

-->[=Iandude0=]:You just took peace into a back ally and shot it, you dumbass.

* PersonalityPowers: Semblances names and effects have a tendency to match the personalitis of their users.

-->[[spoiler:Cinder]]:If anyone had earned the privilege to even try understanding her, it had to be him.
-->[[spoiler:Jaune]]:You didn't know how she was able to get into your mind, and you didn't particularly care. You didn't really keep any secrets from her, anyway.

-->Jaune: '''''You would shatter them on the relentless gears of War.'''''
-->Ruby: Now it was your turn to show it what happened when one flirted with Death.

-->“Oscar Diggs, at your service, Your Majesty. I was drawn to your city by the tales of your force’s acts of heroism on the high seas. I was hoping to offer my services to you in this time of turmoil.”
-->And with those words, [[spoiler:[[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Ozpin,]] [[EccentricMentor your Headmaster from outside the simulation]]]] offers you his hand.

-->When Cinder came to Normandy, she was impressed. Suitably so to discuss an alliance and after a feast held on the first day to welcome her, you got one. Well, it was one way to get an alliance, though [[spoiler:[[AltarDiplomacy the new ring of black dust crystal on your finger seems weirdly cold]]]].

-->[[spoiler:[[InvisibleWriting [SYSTEM FAILURE, IMMINENT] ]]]]
-->[[spoiler:[[TakingYouWithMe [ACTIVATING HADES PROTOCOLS] ]]]]
-->[[spoiler:[[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning [WARBEAST 5 COMPROMISED. VENGEANCE PROTOCOL INITIATED.] ]]]]
-->[[spoiler:[[LostSuperWeapon [WARBEASTS 2, 12 DETECTED. WARBEASTS ACTIVE.] ]]]]
-->[[spoiler: [[OhCrap [WIDENING SEARCH. SIX SIGNALS IDENTIFIED.] ]]]]
-->[[spoiler: [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt [SENDING ACTIVATION COMMAND.] ]]]]

-->“You may refer to me as…[[spoiler:[[BigBad Salem]]]]. Perhaps we shall meet again, if you heed my advice.”

-->[[spoiler:[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt “… All of the continents other than Menagerie and the Dark Continent are lost. The situation is untenable.”]]]]

-->“Though, if you would trust anyone to know about [[spoiler:the titan]], it would probably be the one remaining member of the group that made it.[...] [[spoiler:[[GoneHorriblyRight Bahamut was my greatest creation, and my greatest failure.]] And I have reason to believe [[HijackingCthulhu we can control it again. At least long enough to trigger the self-destruct mechanism]]]]."

* CoolBoat: While the rest of the world is in an era of [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen sailboats]], [[spoiler:Normandy has its own WW2 era battleship and aircraft carrier]]. They are appropriately dubbed the NTS Behemoth and Leviathan respectively.

* BadassPreacher: Cardin.

* BattlePope: Cardin is a pretty good example with him being among the most powerful people on Remnant and one of the few to reach Paragon status.

* HealingHands: [[spoiler:[[BattlePope Cardin's]]]] Semblance allows him to heal others.

** [[BattlePope Cardin]]. He spends most of his time in the sim [[BigGood leading relief and refugee efforts, trying to establish peace between the numerous hostile states in Central,]] [[TookALevelInKindness and becoming a genuinely good person that everyone in the sim eventually grows to respect.]]

* WarIsHell: The war on the central continent consumes thousands of lives, causes a vast increase in Grimm activity, and even its original instigators [[ShellShockedVeteran wanted an end]]. The biggest proponents of peace were Cardin, Jaune, and Ruby. [[BattlePope Cardin]] [[BigGood spent years trying to establish peace between the hostile states]]. [[TheGoodKing Jaune]], [[{{Irony}} Paragon of War]], accepted [[WarRefugees refugees]], refused to become an ArmsDealer, stopped impressment in the northern hemisphere, and sent food and soldiers to supply Oum's Ascension. [[TheHighQueen Ruby]] also accepted refugees, stopped impressment in the southern hemisphere, advocated for peace, and hunted down pirates. [[spoiler:Ruby eventually [[YouAreWhatYouHate joins in on the war]] after Lily attacked her docks in [[CycleOfRevenge revenge]] for Silversun sinking [[MamaBear the impressment ship her daughters were on for their first voyage]]. Ruby [[EnemyMine allies with ]][[TheBaroness Alexandria]] [[TheConqueror Steelshine]] but [[TheEngineer Varric]] and [[NatureLover Neil]] immediately ally with Lily to oppose them.]]

* YouAreInCommandNow: What happens to every single leader in-sim. In order for each of them to experience a national leadership position, the sim killed off each of their superiors so that they would be forced to take the reigns. One of the [[NonPlayerCharacters NPCs]] even wonders about this, thinking it may be the greatest chain of assassinations of all time.

Run by [=Iandude0=] and Aegir on both sites, Lords Among The Ashes is a pair of quests run tandem on {{Spacebattles}} and Sufficient Velocity. The quest takes place in the interim between volumes two and three of WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}.

Jaune's story can be found [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/lords-among-the-ashes-rwby-ck2-quest.347561/ here]] and Ruby's [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/lords-among-the-ashes-rwby-ck2-quest.20167/ here.]] Each of them also have their own sequel quests: [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/a-flickering-ember-lata-part-2.567463/ A Flickering Ember]], and [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-bright-spark-lata-part-2.41775/ A Bright Spark.]]

* DeathWorld: The Grimm are an everpresent threat that every kingdom has to deal with but special mention goes to The Dark Continent. It is normally the only location where one can find [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier Ghouls]], [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tyrant Scales]], [[GiantFlyer Ziz]], and [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]][[spoiler:...at first.]]

** [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Cychreides.]] [[spoiler:If it hadn't been defeated [[JustInTime exactly when it was]], the Titan would have temporarily retreated while the Normans tried to rescue their fallen and [[HealingFactor fully healed]] before attacking them again]].

* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Ruby wonders this about [[HeroOfAnotherStory Jaune]] while visiting Oum's Ascension for the first PeaceConference[[spoiler:and [[AltarDiplomacy Jaune and Cinder's wedding]]]] when she sees that, in an era where the rest of the world [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen has smoothbore cannons and flintlock pistols]], his men are carrying modern rifles and utilizing [[{{BFG}} Howitzers]].

** It was a good idea at the time: [[spoiler: Ruby's plan needlessly gets Cody killed, the second death in the sim, and his city isolates itself from the rest of the world as a result.]]
** The Last Gasp of Peace: [[spoiler:Ruby declared war on Lily and allied with Alexandria, causing several formerly neutral parties to ally with Lily in retaliation, making the war larger than it ever was before and possibly permanently alienating Cardin.]]
** Cleaning Up: [[spoiler:Lamplight Landing has been purged of Grimm and a young Ozpin has come to assist Ruby.]]

** Battle for Jersey part 8: [[spoiler:Cychreides has been killed but it was a programmed [[LostSuperWeapon Warbeast]] that, with its last act, initiaded the Vengeance Protocol and awoke the rest of the Warbeasts around the world.]]
** Titan Aftermath: [[spoiler:Salem is in the sim and she's interested in Jaune.]]
** Toppling Olympus: [[spoiler:Salem has had her faith in humanity restored by Jaune and Sun is killed by the Mad Gods.]]
** Turn 20 Results (Jaune): [[spoiler:Salem requests that Jaune find her real world counterpart and restore her faith in humanity as well. Her real world counterpart will impart the God-level Aura ritual upon him once he does.]]

-->And with those words, [[spoiler:Ozpin, your Headmaster from outside the simulation]] offers you his hand.

** Cleaning Up: Ruby remembers that [[spoiler:[[OnlyMostlyDead she only crippled the last]] [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tyrant Scale]]. She searches for it and finds it had almost reached her reserves and was about to massacre her forces...right before [[CurbStompBattle it was obliterated]]]]. The one who did so then introduces themselves.

** [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Cychreides.]] [[spoiler:If it hadn't been defeated [[JustInTime exactly when it was]], the Titan would have temporarily retreated while the Normans tried to rescue their fallen and [[HealingFactor fully healed]] before attacking them again.

* ThisMeansWar: [[spoiler:Ruby]] considers an assault on her civilians to be adequate reason to declare war on [[spoiler:Lily]].

-->'The very first word of an Arc was not some grand promise of triumph. It was a scream of [[{{Revenge}} bloody retribution]], demands that those responsible for harming him and his would be destroyed, no matter the cost. And like every other Arc, he kept his word, killing and slaughtering to make it so. Thousands died, both enemy and friend to make his word a reality.'

* SelfDestructMechanism: [[spoiler:The Ahriman Protocol. [[GiantFlyer Bahamut]], and presumably the other [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]] as well, can be forced to self destruct when [[HijackingCthulhu their will is overridden by that of another's]]]].

* PreAsskickingOneliner: Jaune and Ruby both give these throughout their time in the sim.

** Conqueror's Presence, one of the abilities of Jaune's Semblance, is statistically worse. It allows him to inflict almost crippling fear upon his opponents. He has only ever used this ability on the Creatures of Anonymity but if he were to use it on humans it would likely draw [[EmotionEater the Grimm]] [[KillAllHumans upon them]] [[ZergRush in droves]].

* DisasterDominoes: The second peace conference is very much this. [[spoiler:Ruby's denouncement of Sherwood (which would have given a bonus to her other actions) fails, as does her demand for disarmament, and a blockade. Since all of her proposals were aggressive in nature, the majority of the other players saw her [[YouAreWhatYouHate as a second Lily]] and refused to ally with her when she [[ThisMeansWar declared war]]. Seeing that she didn't have the support she had been looking for, Ruby decided to [[EnemyMine ally with]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Alexandria.]] As Alexandria's stated goal is the conquest of the Central Continent, Varric immediately allies with Lily to prevent such a thing, prompting his ally, Neil, to do the same. Since she [[IdiotBall declared war at the peace conference that had taken years to establish,]] she almost irreparably damaged her relationship with [[BigGood Cardin]]. Since war had been officially declared, Lily immediately had her agents in Silversun ransack its academy and steal Ruby's advanced ship designs.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It, Ruby.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: What the Tyrant who started the Great War eighty years ago is said to have been. He wanted to stop the Grimm and genuinely help the world, his methods just weren't very popular, even though they kind of worked.

** Ozpin has this attitude towards [[spoiler:[[WellIntentionedExtremist the ruler that began the Great War eighty years ago]]]] as he was the one to provide him the [[SuperEmpowering Paragon ritual]] and the person who failed to prevent [[spoiler:[[BigBad Salem]]]] from turning him into the [[spoiler:the tyrant]] that Remnant knows him as today.

* ThePowerOfHate: [[spoiler:Salem's]] [[PersonalityPowers Semblance]] allows her to empower herself and her comrades offensive abilities while decreasing their defensive abilities.

* StatusBuffDispel: Ruin[[spoiler:, Jaune and Cinder's [[YinYangBomb dual Semblance,]] fully dispels enemy buffs and removes allies' debuffs.

* {{BFG}}: The Harkonnen, [[TheBigGuy Coco's]] weapon of choice, is an easy to attach frame connecting two anti-air guns to large ammo drums that would rest on her shoulders. It weighs so much that [[WorldsStrongestMan only Coco can wield it.]] [[spoiler:Her Avatar weapon also counts.]]

* BoringButPractical: Jaune doesn't have SuperSpeed or SuperStrength. He can't [[{{Teleportation}} teleport]], [[HealingHands heal]], [[{{Invisibility}} turn invisible]], or [[PersonOfMassDestruction bring forth Aural constructs to decimate his enemies.]] What he does have is an incredibly tactical mind and skills honed to perfection. This alone makes him one of the three strongest Paragons in the sim.

* DefrostingIceQueen: At the beginning of their relationship, [[spoiler:Cinder]] thought of [[spoiler:Jaune]] only as someone that she could easily manipulate and feign affection for in order to more easily attain her goals. By the end of the sim, [[spoiler:Cinder]] has grown to honestly care about [[spoiler:Jaune]], not only as an asset, but as her equal whom she would genuinely like to pursue a relationship with.

* TheAce: Not only is [[spoiler:Jaune]] one of the [[AFatherToHisMen greatest generals]] [[FourStarBadass Remnant has ever seen]], he is also [[BadassBookworm a scholar of ancient languages]], [[MagicKnight an accomplished Dust Mage, an expert on Aural and Dust manipulation]], [[MightyGlacier a stupendous fighter]], [[RousingSpeech a great]] [[MagneticHero personal speaker,]] [[spoiler:[[WeDoTheImpossible the key figure in the deaths of three Titans, and the only person to kill three Mad Gods]]]].

* PragmaticHero: Jaune. He will sacrifice soldiers if it is absolutely necessary, pursues every advantage he has against [[TheSoulless the Grimm]] regardless of how [[DirtyBusiness morally ambiguous it may seem]], and is not above [[WideEyedIdealist disabusing others of their idealistic notions]] [[CruelToBeKind if it means saving lives.]] [[spoiler:His actions determine his first moral axis to be Lawful

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[BadassCrew Jaune and his Paragons]] along with [[BadassArmy Normandy's Army]] [[spoiler:[[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe blew Cychreides in half,]] [[FantasticNuke obliterated Olympus from the inside,]] [[HijackingCthulhu and turned Bahamut against its own hoard before making it self-destruct]].]] There's a reason Normandy has the "Legendary" rating.

* GiantFlyer: [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tyrant Scales]] and Ziz qualify but the most prominent example would be [[{{Kaiju}} Bahamut]][[spoiler:, the Titan Salem developed before the fall of the Dark Continent and the corruption of the other God-level Aura users]].

* WideEyedIdealist: Ruby starts as this, but eventually loses her naivete as the sim progresses and develops into TheIdealist.

** MassOhCrap: The news about the [[spoiler: rest of the [[{{Kaiju}} Titans]] awakening]] freaked out the rest of the players to the point that they finally decided to [[spoiler:[[EnemyMine:put aside their differences and stop fighting after several years of warring with each other]]]].

* BerserkButton: Jaune and Ruby have the same trigger: anyone that harms their subjects. Her citizens being injured is what prompts Ruby to [[spoiler:[[ThisMeansWar declare war on Lily]]]]. His soldiers deaths prompts Jaune to [[spoiler: [[TranquilFury rip their murderers apart]] and [[ShockAndAwe vaporize anything left into oblivion]]]].

* HadToBeSharp: [[DeathWorld The Dark Continent]] is the closest thing to Hell on Remnant. It has a higher Grimm population containing older and more deadly varieties of Grimm than anywhere else. Its civilization has the [[BadassArmy world's strongest army]], the highest concentration of [[SuperMode Paragons]], and some of the best [[BadassBureaucrat stewards]], [[{{Ambadassador}} diplomats]], [[BadassBookworm scientists]], and [[SpyMaster spies]] in the entire world.

** MassOhCrap: The news about the Titans freaked out the rest of the players to the point that they finally decided to put aside their differences and stop fighting after several years of warring with each other.

[[YearInsideHourOutside Trapped in a leadership simulator]] GoneHorriblyWrong, Jaune and Ruby [[YouAreInCommandNow have found themselves leaders of two very different nations in Remnant]], hundreds of years before the events of canon. Forced to serve and survive for ten years in their new roles, the two protagonists have to grow into their positions as figures of authority while they contend with the many dangers and problems of the world they have found themselves living in.