History Webcomic / TheGodsOfArrKelaan

* NayTheist: Ronson. [[JerkassGods No surprise considering]] [[BeliefMakesYouStupid what he's been through]]. He first cursed the heavens over the loss of his wife. He eventually learned that the [[spoiler:Abrahamic religions are nothing more than a scam invented by Hephaestus to focus all the worship into one place so that JerkassGods can toy with mortals a bit longer while TheMagicGoesAway. After dealing with some of his own misguided followers, who refuse to learn their lesson despite their own god calling them out to their faces, Ronson contrasts people who actually accomplish something of value with the idiots that build churches.]]

* NayTheist: Ronson. [[JerkassGods No surprise considering]] [[BeliefMakesYouStupid what he's been through]].

%%* RetiredBadass: [[NeverMessWithGranny Hazel]] and Teldin.
* {{Satan}}: He's equivalent to a top level angel rather than God.

** Played straight with anyone who worships Ronson, because if your [[StopWorshippingMe worshipping Ronson your doing it wrong by definition]], but averted with Ronson's actual followers who tend to be reasonably intelligent (if perhaps intoxicated) with a good deal of common sense.

--> '''Ronson''': I've never considered someone who chooses to live to be a coward.

* DivineIntervention: Obviously done by the main cast, not to them.

* FieryRedhead: Beyurn

''[[http://www.rmcomics.com/Mirror/Current/ The Gods of Arr-Kelaan]]'' is a fantasy/humor comicbook and webcomic series about The Travellers, a group of humans and aliens from our universe whose spaceship lands on the fantasy world of Arr-Kelaan. Over the following years they gradually awake to find they have been appointed the rightful deities of Arr-Kelaan and must learn to deal with the powers and responsibilities of godhood.

''The Gods of Arr-Kelaan'' is written and drawn by Chuck Rowles, edited and proofread by his wife Martha, and colored by his brother Steve. It's currently on hiatus since Chuck has opened a comic shop. The world of Arr-Kelaan began as a homebrewed setting for ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', written by Rowles's friend Leonard Zaikoski. The two projects gradually diverged, though are still mutually recognizable. The comic is set largely in the setting's Bronze and Iron Ages, though the setting stretches into a Modern Age with steam engines and railroads. More information on the setting can be found [[http://www.rmcomics.com/ak/ here]].

* GodOfEvil: Salsmen, who fancies himself the rightful head of the pantheon and generally leads the more evil gods. He's a charismatic sociopath and it stood him in good stead in Earth's universe where he was a space pirate captain. Several others were part of his crew in a hijacking attempt on the spaceship and have gone on to become other evil gods, though at least one (Bikk) has gone more the TrueNeutral path.

* EvilTwin: Loki intended to invoke this by splitting Sharra, the Goddess of Fortune, into two so that one would be good Fortune and the other Misfortune, and expected them to get into a fight. Instead they kicked his butt together because Sharra doesn't have any real problem with herself.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid:
** After getting abused by the PathOfInspiration, Ronson has become a firm NayTheist. He has a strong distaste for organized religion and believes in this trope in full. Those of his followers who try to follow him devoutly play this trope straight, involving themselves in pointless wars and wasting their time building churches, accomplishing nothing worthwhile. Even a direct TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Ronson himself doesn't snap them out of it. Of course, if they're devoutly following [[NayTheist Ronson]] they're doing it wrong by definition. His proper followers are more intelligent, and far less devout. Ronson only passively involves himself in the lives of his real followers, treating them like friends, and accepting that they do as they please rather than sharing his beliefs.
** Inverted with followers of Claremont. His religion is mostly scientists and inventors.
** Most of the major-character gods avert or invert it, especially the good ones. They'd rather have followers who think and act to make the world better (in accord with their idea of what "better" is, of course) or at least leave it no worse, rather than just blindly worship. In some cases action ''is'' a form of worship.

* {{Genius Loci}}: Arr-Kelaan is alive.
* GodlySidestep: Used, subverted, and averted. Used with Sephin, who knows ''everything'' - but not all at once, and only Ronson and Claremont even seem to know about him to ask. Subverted with the gods themselves, who really don't know - Claremont encourages followers as much to have someone to search for the answers with, as anything else. And averted because we do get to discover explicitly what's going on with religion, gods, and the afterlife in the "real world" during the "Consequences" storyline.

* NotMyLuckyday

* OnlyOneName: Most of the cast.

* PhysicalGod: The main characters.

* RealityWarper: All the gods. Some are able to fit into particular roles that allow them dominance over the others in a specific area - for example, Thanantria can control the others' ability to resurrect the dead because she took up the mantle of the goddess of death before anyone else could.

* RetiredBadass: [[NeverMessWithGranny Hazel]] and Teldin.

* StopWorshippingMe: Ronson
* SilenceIsGolden: ''A Tolerable Day''

** After getting abused by the PathOfInspiration, Ronson has become a firm NayTheist and has a strong distaste for organized religion. Those of his followers who try to follow him devoutly play this trope straight, involving themselves in pointless wars and wasting their time building churches, accomplishing nothing worthwhile. Even a direct TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Ronson himself doesn't snap them out of it. Of course, if they're devoutly following [[NayTheist Ronson]] they're doing it wrong by definition. His proper followers are more intelligent, and far less devout.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Ronson's personal belief and applies to any devout following of him. Of course, if they're devoutly following [[NayTheist Ronson]] they're doing it wrong by definition. His proper followers are more intelligent, and far less devout.

* RealityEnsues: A moment in Inti's backstory, which he relates [[spoiler:to Ronson. He learned that our universe is severing from the Astral Plane, and the Astral is where gods keep their homes and their afterlives. No Earth god knew why, so he journeyed to other planets in the galaxy to find different gods who might know. He expected to be gone from Earth's Astral realms for weeks or months, but since his trip was partially through the physical universe, he ended up experiencing relativistic time dilation and came home to find decades had passed and his wife and people were gone.]]

* OurElvesAreBetter: Similar to Durrill, Beyurn (the Goddess of War) looks like an elf but is really an elf-like humanoid alien from our universe, called a Juhlahn. Actual fantasy elves are present on Arr-Kelaan as well.

* RetiredBadass: [[NeverMessWithGranny Hazel]] and [[BadassGrandpa Teldin]].

* DeityOfHumanOrigin

* MedievalStasis: Many branches of technology are banned by the world spirit of Arr-Kelaan. Basically, anyone who invents new technology that could potentially harm the environment gets killed by magic emanating from Arr-Kelaan's moons if they do not receive Claremont's protection. And even with Claremont's protection, their invention, their knowledge of how to create it, and the surrounding area gets destroyed.

* BackwardsName: One "[[CreatorCameo Selwor]]" is noted as making collector's cards for Mike's fanclub.

* SubmissiveBadass: Mike, as former Chief of Security on the ''Traveller'', tends to defer to the judgement of Beyurn, the former second in command.

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<<|NotableFantasyWebcomics|>>

* TheObiWan: Inti briefly mentors several gods in some very important matters and ends up having a huge influence on the Travellers' early development as a pantheon. He doesn't die but [[spoiler:does move on into the Light to find another universe where he may be welcome again]].

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Played straight with Salsmen, averted wholly with Mike.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Standard Western dragons are present in Arr-Keelan. They are intelligent and have language of their own, but no one else (except gods) can understand it, so they're [[FantasticRacism treated like mere beasts.]]

* OurElvesAreBetter: Similar to Durrill, Beyurn (the Goddess of War) looks like an elf but is really an elf-like humanoid alien from our universe, called a Juhlahn. Actual fantasy elves are present on Arr-Keelan as well.