Fanfic / Transcendence

Transcendence is a Crossover Fan Fic between Bleach and World of Warcraft written by JMB Fictional Writing

After Ichigo's climactic battle with Grimmjow in Hueco Mundo, Nnoitra Gilga, in a moment of spite, decides to deal with the substitute shinigami by throwing him into a special Caja Negación leading to the Twisting Nether. Through events beyond his understanding, Ichigo finds himself trapped on the world of Azeroth, where elves, dwarves, and all the things Ichigo thought only existed in fantasy stories prove to be quite real. With the help of a young night elf girl named Adelina, Ichigo sets off for Theramore to enlist the help of Jaina Proudmoore in sending him back to Earth before Aizen and the Espada can destroy his hometown, kill his friends, and conquer Soul Society. However, when Ichigo begins making waves in the strange world he's found himself on, it isn't long before he starts attracting the attention of both the Alliance and the Horde, as well as other forces who begin to take an interest in the young soul reaper...

There's also Transcendence: Gaiden, a tie-in work that chronicles side-stories that run parallel to certain events in the main story.

Completely unrelated to both the film and the game.

WARNING: The list below contains a number of unmarked spoilers that would otherwise result in half of the page being tagged.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating:
  • Tortheldrin is a dangerously unhinged ruler, who hordes all of the arcane power in Eldre'Thalas and only allows the citizens scraps of it to feed their shared arcane addiction. If anyone steps out of line even a little bit, he has them exiled or executed. Because of all this, he's despised by every single one of his subjects. He's so hated that when he is finally killed by Pained, none of them so much as bat an eye.
  • None of the Highborne have anything good to say about Codexia when she leads them to the sunken city of Ethel Rethor. Part of it is because they're aware that Codexia is just using them to further her own plans and is keeping them in line with threats. The other part is simply because the Highborne don't think much of anyone who isn't one of them.
  • Nobody is happy to see Maluineth and Tylarwin ruling the remaining Highborne alongside Mordent, even the Highborne civilians themselves. When Shandris tries to arrest them both, Ichigo defends them, though he makes it clear that he's only doing it to protect the innocent Highborne civilians that would be dragged into the crossfire when the two of them inevitably resist, and that he couldn't care less about the nobles themselves.
• A Day in the Limelight: Codexia gets an entire four chapter interlude showing her efforts to raise the ancient city of Ethel Rethor, leading into the Desolace arc.
• Abusive Parents: The way Caren talks about her father implies that he isn't winning any father-of-the-year awards anytime soon. C'Thun's visions of the future pretty much confirm it, with him belittling and outright slapping her.
• Achilles' Heel: Arcane and fel magic both wind up being this to Ichigo. A clash between spiritual powers is straightforward; a stronger spiritual force will always triumph over a weaker one. Arcane and fel magics don't follow this rule when confronted with spiritual power, so Ichigo can't simply brute force his way past magically protected beings or tank spells the same way he can against spiritual and physical entities. As a result, he has a much harder time dealing with magic users than he does with any other opponents.
• Action Girl: Nearly every named female character in the story can hold their own in a battle.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the game, Lieutenant Caldwell's villainy is only hinted at before he's killed, and whatever he was involved in is never revealed. Here he's the leader of the traitorous Theramore guardsmen and a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist hellbent on making the Horde suffer.
• All-Loving Hero: Ichigo begins to gain a reputation as one among his allies. Adelina even muses that if he cared any more about the people around him, he’d be a red dragon.
• All There in the Manual: The author typically responds to questions from reviewers at the end of most chapters, which usually reveals background information for the story. Be warned, a good number of his responses tend to contain minor spoilers for future events.
• Always a Bigger Fish: ZigZagged in regards to the six Primal Elemental Spirits. They're technically the bigger fish to the four Elemental Lords, but they're in no position to try and face them since they've been severely weakend over the millennia. Not only that, but the author has stated that even if they were at full power, the Primal Spirits would still lose in a direct confrontation against the Lords due to the latter being much more adept at using their powers for combat.
• Ambition Is Evil: The Highborne nobles are willing to do whatever it takes to rebuild their glorious empire, even if it means using the Heart of Veles to power a weather-controlling artifact to kill every living thing in the Desolace. Of all the nobles, this trope applies to Mildreas the most. The aforementioned plan was entirely his idea and it's later revealed that he's turned to using Fel magic, just like Tortheldrin. There's no depth to which he won't sink to in order to attain his goals.
• An Arm and a Leg: After Ichigo unleashes his bankai against Abraxus, the dreadlord attempts to keep him at bay by using Adelina as a hostage. Ichigo flash steps past him and severs his arm in response. It happens so fast that Abraxus doesn’t even register that his arm is gone until he looks at the stump.
• Anger Born of Worry: Caren's typical response to whenever Ichigo does something particularly reckless tends to involve a lot of yelling and hitting.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Prince Tortheldrin and, later on, the surviving Highborne nobles.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Ichigo eventually starts wearing a custom made suit of armor, minus the helmet of course. The protection it gives him saves his life on more than one occasion.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Pained tries to reprimand Ichigo for allowing Caldwell to die instead of letting them take him back to Theramore to be executed, Ichigo asks her if they would have actually executed him if he could still give them information on the remaining traitors. Pained is unable to give him an answer.
• Ascended Extra: Quite a few minor characters from World of Warcraft play significant roles in some of the story arcs, such as Shandris Feathermoon and Chromie.
  • Mordent Evenshade, who is involved in a single quest in World of Warcraft, plays a huge role in the events centering around Ethel Rethor and the Desolace.
  • In Warcraft, the Elemental Spirits have only ever been mentioned in background material, existing more as abstract forces of nature rather than actual characters. The story turns them into corporeal beings with names and gives them a massive Adaptation Expansion, setting them up as enemies of the Old Gods.
• Asshole Victim: Caldwell gets horrifically eaten by a crocolisk after Ichigo kicks him down a hill into Dustwallow Marsh. But given everything he had done, he most certainly deserved it.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Averted with most of the Highborne nobles, but played straight with Mildreas and A'orean. Out of all the corrupt nobles, Mildreas is the only real credible threat. Beneath his petty attitude, he's actually an extremely capable mage and swordsman, to the point that Ichigo believes that he surpasses Byakuya Kuchiki in terms of pure skill. A'orean is stated to be an exceptionally powerful mage, although we never get to see it before Mildreas kills him.
• Bad Boss: Abraxus is a complete dick to the demons serving under him, treating all of them like dirt. Naturally, his first appearance has him blowing off one of his soldiers arms simply for bringing him some bad news.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Ichigo and Drekhve fight back-to-back to deal with a band of quilboar who decided to interrupt their duel.
• Bargain with Heaven: After Ichigo’s bankai heavily damages his body, the Spirit of the Wilds agrees to heal him in exchange for Adelina’s help in the future. After the heroes help stop the elemental invasion in the Desolace, Druantia asks Adelina to repay her by using her druidic powers to germinate a Great Tree at Ethel Rethor.
• Battle Trophy: After finally capturing Ichigo in the Twisting Nether, Abraxus takes Zangetsu as a trophy to wear at his waist. Ichigo gets it back pretty quickly.
• Beam Spam: Ichigo finishes off Theradras by bombarding her with a rapid flurry of Getsuga Tenshos from above backed by the power of both his bankai and hollow mask.
• Berserk Button: Caren does not like to be reminded of her lack of physical stamina.
• Beyond the Impossible: Almost every character agrees that winning against Princess Theradras without an army is impossible. After borrowing a bit of power from Veles to allow him to use bankai for an extended period of time, Ichigo kills her by himself.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Morganth, the warlock who kidnapped Galen. He boasts about his plan of using his army of ensorcelled gnolls to take over Stormwind and, like most antagonists in the story, treats Ichigo like a minor annoyance that he can easily dispose of. Then Ichigo destroys his abomination and a chunk of his tower with a single Getsuga Tensho after a brief fight, at which point Morganth nearly pees himself in horror before he's unceremoniously finished off by Caren and Galen.
  • The dreadlord Abraxus wants so badly to prove to rest of the Burning Legion that he is a demon to be feared and respected. Unfortunately for him, he's nowhere near powerful or competent enough to really back up his ambitions, and while he manages to serve as an Arc Villain, he's ultimately just a wannabe with an over inflated ego. His plans to conquer Azeroth by summoning reinforcements from the Nether quickly draw the attention of the Alliance and Horde, who dismantle his plans before Ichigo makes quick work of the demon after he uses his bankai. Even more telling of his wannabe status is the fact that he immediately tries to take over Azeroth through force despite being on his own instead of using subterfuge and manipulation to weaken Azeorth's factions like the much more successful dreadlords who participated in the Third War.
  • For all of his skill and ambition, Mildreas falls firmly into this category. Despite all his scheming, his plans are quickly foiled by the alliance of Ichigo's and Maluineth's groups, and he's killed off before the heroes can focus their attention on the invading earth elementals. Had he been the only threat to Ichigo and the others, he might have had a shot at being the central Arc Villain. Too bad he's competing with Theradras and her master. Not only that, but his ambitions were doomed from the start. Even if his plan to purge the Desolace of life had succeeded, he would have been easily killed by the Primal Spirits when they eventually reformed.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The Grimtotem tribe is not at all happy when Drekhve begins tracking down the ones responsible for the massacre at Shady Rest in order to clear the Horde's name to Ichigo. They send assassins after the young tauren after he gathers enough information to come dangerously close to exposing them, which ends up confirming Drekhve's suspicions. Although Drekhve manages to fend them off for a time, they eventually overwhelm him. Before they can move in for the kill, Mairne Ragetotem steps in to rescue Drehve and chase off the remaining assassins. This in turn allows Drekhve and his fellow braves to arrive just in time to save Ichigo and his allies from Caldwell and the Thermaore traitors and expose the Grimtotems crimes to the Alliance.
  • Ichigo singlehandedly jumps into the fray to save a group of separated Horde warriors from being overrun by demons at Dire Maul.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: After everyone sees Ichigo naked after he's healed by Druantia, Shandris teases Ichigo by suggesting that he uses his “size” to attract women.
• Blood Knight: Ichigo's hollow mask brings out an instinctual desire to dominate his enemies, or "prove he's the king" as his Inner Hollow would put it. This change in behavior is part of why Ichigo doesn't like using it much.
• Boring, but Practical: Zangetsu is seen as this in-universe due to it being remarkably plain looking by Azeroth standards.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Ichigo begins regularly training with the Theramore guardsmen upon realizing that he can no longer rely on his overwhelming spiritual power to carry him through battles. After the battle with Abraxus at Dire Maul, Aegwynn offers to teach Ichigo how to more properly control his spiritual power to compensate for his diminished state.
• Broken Bird: Codexia is eventually revealed to be one. She lost both of her parents in some sort of attack on her hometown that left her with deep emotional scars. Afterwards, she was manipulated by Erebus into becoming a primalist, a role she only continues to play because she has nothing else in her life to hang onto. Over the course of her Freak Out in chapter 61, she admits that Codexia isn't even her birth name and that she can't remember her real one.
• Broken Tears: Codexia breaks down into a sobbing mess after Veles gives her a thorough dressing down and forces her to admit her actual motivation for being a primalist.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • Due to the spiritual differences between Azeroth and Earth, Ichigo cannot leave his body to become a shinigami on Azeroth, as he would simply be dragged into the nearest spiritual realm if he did. Instead he has to rely on what is essentially a hastily prepared vessel that only allows him to access a tiny amount of his full power. However, that tiny amount still grants him inhuman strength, agility, and durability, which puts him on a level far above most Mooks.
  • After the Highborne imprison Druantia, Thetis, and Erebus, Codexia loses the majority of her Elemental Powers, which still leaves her as a highly competent swordsman.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • After seeing Ichigo obliterate the Hatecrest naga with his Getsuga Tensho, Shandris decides to find out exactly what he is. Now a smart person would try to calmly and peacefully get answers from a potentially dangerous being, especially after seeing what they’re capable of. Shandris however, decides to simply point weapons in Ichigo’s face and demand he reveal his secrets under threat of death.
  • The orc blademasters under Mairne's command think it's a good idea to surround Ichigo and try to stare him down. Ichigo ends up being more amused than anything else. He even compares their posturing to Ganju's behavior from when Ichigo first met him.
• Casting a Shadow: As a shadowpriest, Codexia can use shadow magic, or so she says. In truth, she’s actually a primalist channeling the power of Erebus, the Spirit of Decay.
• Character Shilling: Just about everyone shills Codexia during her interlude, with all of them remarking about how mysterious, dangerous, powerful, or smart she is. It dies down almost completely after she loses most of her powers.
• Cheerful Child: Jimmy Hyal is probably the most cheerful, happy character in the entire story when he's introduced. Then the Grimtotem burn down his hometown.
• Chekhov's Gun: Allaminar is initially just Sylerian's weapon, but its powers of illusion end up being the key to helping Codexia and Mordent sneak back into Ethel Rethor without setting off the city's new defenses.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Caren shows an interest in studying the ancient magics of the Highborne at Dire Maul. She puts her studying to use later on by helping to find a key weakness in the Highbornes weather-control artifact, allowing Codexia and Mordent to sneak back into Ethel Rethor.
• The Chessmaster: Codexia manages to manipulate multiple factions to further her own goals for a good amount of time... right up until she ends up getting manipulated herself. It's later implied that the actual chessmaster was Erebus and that Codexia was just following his orders.
• Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb: Happens again, and again, and again when Ichigo repeatedly tries to make his way up to Zaetar's Grove only for Theradras to knock him off each time. Eventually he makes his way onto the floating island after about half a chapter of repeating the process.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: After getting thrashed by Ichigo's visored state, Theradras gets back up and unleashes all of her powers over the earth that she had previously withheld against him. Despite going all out, she ironically winds up being far less effective than she was previously in the fight. Her massive boost in raw power comes at the cost of all her skill and versatility to the point that her fighting style is reduced to simply chucking massive boulders around in the hope of crushing Ichigo with their sheer size. She also seems to sacrifice most of her durability, as Ichigo notices that her skin isn't nearly as hard as before.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Most of Mildreas's power comes from his equipment. Among his arsenal are the Seven League Greaves, which allow him to outpace Ichigo's Shunpo (until he uses his bankai), and a cloak made from the fur of the Wild God Ashamane, that can't be damaged or penetrated by anything short of high-level magic or Tensa Zangetsu. His exceptional skill with a blade and magic is all his own though.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: During Caren’s Establishing Character Moment, the first thing she does when Ichigo and Adelina rescue her from Stonewatch Keep is ask them what took so long. At no point does she even thank them for rescuing her.
• Corrupt Bureaucrat: The Human Kingdom seems to have this with them having significant influence over Tyresa & Galen, sending the latter out on suicide missions to obtain the artifacts he's guarding & sending the former on a mission she morally disagrees with.
• Covert Pervert: Adelina suggests that Ichigo going to Jaina nearly every day to ask about the progress on the portal to Earth is just an excuse to look at her cleavage, which Ichigo vehemently denies. Later on after Ichigo is healed by Druantia at Dire Maul, Caren continuously teases Ichigo over his embarrassment at everyone seeing him naked, until Adelina questions why the mage is so focused on Ichigo's nudity. On both occasions, Adelina was just trolling them.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Played straight when Ichigo successfully resuscitates a Sentinel after she is nearly drowned by a naga in the underground waterways of Ethel Rethor.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The entire plot of the story kicks off with Nnoitra attempting to subject Ichigo to one overlapping with Fate Worse than Death. The Quinto Espada uses a special Caja Negación that leads to the Twisting Nether and tosses Ichigo into it, trapping Ichigo in a hellish dimension far away from his friends and family to be ripped apart by demons.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Chromie quickly learns that her temporal powers have no effect on Abraxus thanks to his temporal lock when she confronts him at Dire Maul. With her main powers rendered useless, the dreadlord handily defeats her and very nearly kills her.
  • Abraxus finds himself on the receiving end of one after Ichigo uses his bankai. It takes everything the dreadlord has just to fight a defensive battle, and even then it's clear that Ichigo isn't actually trying.
  • The fight between Ichigo and Theradras is even for the most part until Ichigo summons his hollow mask to use in tandem with his bankai, at which point he quickly overwhelms her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Codexia wields power over shadows and decay, but she means well (mostly). Erebus, the Spirit of Decay, also counts. Technically.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Ichigo's bankai effectively makes him a juggernaut that can go head-to-head with some of Azeroth's toughest. However, his vessel can't withstand the strain his power puts on it, so he can't use his bankai for more than a few minutes without risking it causing heavy damage to his body. Even if he doesn't leave it active for long, deactivating it immediately leaves him exhausted. As a result, Ichigo treats bankai as a last resort.
• Decapitation Presentation: A paladin fighting alongside Ichigo at the Burning Steppes sticks the severed head of an ogre chieftain on a stick to terrify the ogres remaining subordinates into retreating.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Maluineth and her magi followers manage to defeat and imprison Druantia, Thetis, and Erebus so they can use the spirits as batteries to power their artifacts and leech off their powers. Justified in this case since they were only able to defeat them in the first place due to the spirits being severely weakened at the time, and even then they just barely win.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Not only did Abraxus not see Ichigo's bankai coming, neither did anyone else. Nobody was even aware that bankai existed. So while Ichigo's allies knew he was strong, none of them had any clue as to the actual scope of his power. The revelation that he's powerful enough to casually walk all over a dreadlord when going all out leaves everyone floored.
  • The Highborne nobles' betrayal doesn't surprise Codexia at all. The fact that they actually succeed in imprisoning the Primal Elemental Spirits, thus ensuring that she's cut off from her source of power is the part that she's unprepared for.
• Didn't Think This Through: Chromie tries to hunt down Ichigo in order to erase him from time so he can't cause any more changes to the proper timeline. However, she can't simply find him by tracking him through the timestream like she normally would, so she takes a different approach: wandering around in the hopes of bumping into him. After about of month of this, Chromie realizes that it would be a lot easier to just ask around for information regarding his whereabouts.
• The Dog Bites Back: Mildreas disowned his son Caelyb, but still forces him to act as his personal errand boy. Caelyb not only willingly joins Mordent's and Ichigo's cause in taking down his father, he winds up being the one to reveal Mildreas' crimes in front of the entire Highborne population.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: On Azeroth, entities associated with death are almost always evil or amoral, with very few exceptions. Everyone who learns about Ichigo's status as a soul reaper is more than a little unnerved at first and then surprised at how unambiguously heroic he is.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Ichigo’s nerfing serves to even the playing field between himself and the majority of the Warcraft universe. Without it, he would be capable of steamrolling over all but the strongest beings on Azeroth.
• Drop The Hammer: Mairne's weapon of choice is an enormous hammer that he prefers to infuse with elemental energies.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Mildreas and his followers get increasingly more unhinged after they resort to using fel magic.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: A villainous example. A huge part of Abraxus’ bad attitude is due to him not receiving recognition from the higher-ups in the Legion for having helped create the plague of undeath employed by the Scourge.
• The Dung Ages: Averted. Ichigo assumed a medieval city would be pretty dirty but finds himself mildly surprised by how clean Stormwind is.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mildreas is a complete scumbag through and through, but he genuinely cares for A'orean. The two of them are described as being as close as brothers, and Mildreas even expresses genuine sorrow after he murders him. Averted in regards to Mildreas' actual family though, as he treats all of them as nothing more than disposable tools to further his own goals. When he receives news that Sylerian was killed in Maraudon, Maluineth notes that he's merely annoyed to learn of his sons demise.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Paval Reethe hates the Horde just as much as any other traitorous Theramore guardsman, but he becomes more and more disgusted with the actions of the group as time goes on. Their attempts to cover up the destruction of Shady Rest proves to be too much for him, and he deserts the group. He winds up killed as a result.
  • Being a mercenary, Marta Gearspanner is perfectly willing to get her hands dirty, but even she finds Codexia's callous manipulation of the terrified Highborne population to be crossing the line.
  • A'orean, Maluineth, and Tylarwin may be okay with enslaving ancient elemental spirits and killing everything in the Desolace to ensure their safety, but they draw the line at dabbling with fel magic.
• Evil Gloating: Pretty much every villain Ichigo goes up against takes a second to talk about how superior they are to him, and how pathetic his attempts to fight them are.
• Evil Is Petty: During their short battle, Ichigo manages to land a semi-decent hit on Nnoitra that doesn't serve to much more than to irritate the arrancar. Nnoitra's response? Hurl Ichigo into the Twisting Nether.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Ichigo never mentions what he expected Princess Theradras to look like, but he makes it clear that he wasn't expecting her to look like, well, herself.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: While searching for Zangetsu, which was lost during the tauren attack on Shady Rest, Ichigo stumbles upon the young Jimmy Hyall and his mortally wounded mother at Lost Point Tower, the two of them having been targeted by Kul Tiras for being witnesses to the tauren attack on the town. The sight of the boy crying over his mother draws so many parallels to Masaki's death that Ichigo feels as if he's watching himself crying over his own mothers death. This proves to be too much for Ichigo’s already fragile state of mind and he completely snaps, allowing his Inner Hollow to influence him through his rage as half of his hollow mask manifests. Ichigo then goes on a rampage, massacring the traitors at the tower, much to the horror of his friends.
• Fantastic Racism: All over the place, shockingly enough. It is Azeroth after all. Nearly everyone Ichigo meets is guilty of this to some degree, including some of his friends.
  • One of the reasons why Ichigo turns so many heads is because he's one of the few characters who averts this, having no prejudices against any race found on Azeroth.
  • The story's first standout example is Lieutenant Caldwell, the leader of the traitors within Theramore and a former follower of the late Admiral Daelin Proudmoore who really, really hates the Horde. In truth, he really only hates the orcs for what they did during the first and second Dark Portal invasions. The other races of the Horde are just guilty by association, but Caldwell's hatred runs so deep that he doesn't care about the distinction. As far as he's concerned, they're all little more than animals that deserve to be put down.
  • Shandris despises the orcs for their actions in Ashenvale to the point that she nearly puts multiple lives in jeopardy due to her hatred. And while it's never outright stated, it's clear that she believes that night elves are better than humans.
  • The Highborne nobles see every other race on Azeroth as being completely beneath them because their empire ruled the world ten thousand years ago.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Ichigo, being from the modern twenty-first century, ends up adapting to the medieval world of Azeroth pretty quickly. Considering he'd already spent a bit of time in a world like Soul Society, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.
• For Want Of A Nail: A significant plot point of the story is that Ichigo's very existence on Azeroth is the nail. Thanks to his involvement, certain events begin to play out differently than they do in canon. The twist is that none of the deviations were supposed to happen. Unbeknownst to everyone other than the bronze dragonflight, the Primal Spirits, and the Old Gods, all of the events Ichigo involves himself in were supposed to play out exactly like they do in canon, but Ichigo is somehow altering fate simply by interacting with the world. The bronze dragonflight are extremely concerned with this because he's completely derailing the timeline they're in charge of maintaining, which is severely affecting their ability to observe the timestream. The Old Gods on the other hand are very interested in seeing Ichigo continue to act as the nail.
• Foreshadowing: Early in the story, an Eredar named Jazera mentions to Abraxus that the Legion has a new ally on Outland who promises to deliver them access to Azeroth, hinting to the future events of The Burning Crusade.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the other Primal Spirits seem to have a particularly high opinion of Erebus.
• Friendless Background: Adelina had virtually no friends growing up until she met Ichigo. Codexia was in the same boat until she met up with Marta and her mercenary company.
• The Gadfly: Half of the time when Adelina makes wildly wrong assumptions about human culture, she is genuinely ignorant. The other half of the time, she’s just messing with everyone.
• General Failure: Downplayed with Shandris. She's not really a terrible military leader per se, but almost every battle she takes part in ends with her being outmaneuvered by relatively simple tactics, and then only pulling through due to the timely intervention of outside forces or Ichigo.
• Godzilla Threshold: After retrieving the heart of Veles from the Highborne, Ichigo and his friends take it to Terramok to close the breach into Deepholm and bring an end to the elemental invasion, which ends up not working on account of the Highborne having leeched too much power from the heart, leaving it unable to close the breach. With no more ideas left, Ichigo proposes a new plan; Use bankai for the second time in one day, travel into the center of Maraudon alone, kill Theradras, and bring back her heart to act as a replacement for Veles'. Everyone points out just what a terrible, suicidal plan this is, but reluctantly go along with it when they realize they have no options left.
• Good is Not Nice: Erebus. He’s helping Codexia bring together the Council of Six in order to bring balance to the elements, but unlike Druantia and Thetis, he's anything but nice. He exercises control over the other elements by subjugating them rather than working in harmony with them, and he takes a great deal of sadistic pleasure in watching other people squirm. It’s even implied that many of Codexia’s more morally questionable choices were due to his influence.
• Good Is Not Soft: After Codexia and Mordent are captured by Ichigo and the Sentinels, Iyeana claims she plans to torture and interrogate the two of them for information on the Highborne's plans. She's stopped when Ichigo intercedes and correctly points out that Codexia and Mordent had already given them all the information they have, and that the Sentinel commander just wants to take out her anger towards the Highborne on the two prisoners.
• Gratuitous Japanese: When Ichigo realizes he's been speaking Common instead of Japanese, he asks Adelina if she can understand him in Japanese, with the sentence being written in full rōmaji.
• Green Thumb:
  • Adelina is a competent druid with proficiency in nature magic.
  • As the Spirit of the Wilds, Druantia has vast power over nature. She imparts a small amount of her power to Codexia, who uses it to grow a small forest in an instant. Bear in mind, that's apparently on the low end of what Druantia's power can do.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: As the Maraudon arc reaches its peak, A'orean, the leader of the Highborne, comes to realize why the Highborne are so vilified, and just how low they've sunk. After he's made aware that Mildreas has been distributing a draught made with Fel energies to the Highborne, he resolves to stop the corrupt noble, reform his people's way of life, and ensure that they don't repeat the same mistakes as Azshara and Tortheldrin. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the chance to do any of those things as he's quickly murdered by Mildreas.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Ichigo takes up fishing as a hobby and discovers that he actually enjoys it.
• Heroic BSoD: Ichigo is left in a numb state of shock after Jaina reveals that it may be years before she can complete the portal to send him home.
• Heroic Lineage: Caren’s grandfather led Alliance forces in the Grand Hamlet against the Horde during the First War, and was made a noble for his efforts, a fact that Caren is very proud of.
• Heroic Rematch: Ichigo’s first battle with Abraxus in the Twisting Nether gets interrupted when they’re both suddenly summoned to Azeroth, though it’s clear that Abraxus would have eventually killed the weakened soul reaper. When they meet again in Eldre’Thalas, Ichigo defeats the dreadlord.
• Heroic RRoD: Ichigo’s first use of bankai in his new body proves to be too much for his vessel, breaking every bone in his body and causing heavy damage to his muscles and tendons as a result.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Codexia fears becoming as ruthless as the people she's fighting. When she realizes that she's already well on her way to becoming that kind of person, it shakes her to her core.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Codexia’s status after being captured by Ichigo and the Sentinels. She's lost all of the immense power granted to her by the Primal Spirits, all of her allies and friends have abandoned her in disgust, and the Highborne nobles have usurped control of Ethel Rethor from her. The entire experience leaves her humbled, to say the least.
• Humble Hero: Ichigo regularly shrugs off his accomplishments as being no big deal. Jaina concludes that this is one of his better qualities.
• Humiliation Conga:
  • Abraxus gets hit hard with one. First, Ichigo outpaces his demons in the Twisting Nether for several days before they manage to capture him. Abraxus tries to have him publically executed in arena combat but Ichigo kills the demons meant to kill him. Then when Abraxus decides to kill Ichigo himself, Ichigo manages to wound him in front of both Jazera and all of his demon subordinates. After being summoned to Azeroth, Abraxus manages to scrape together an army of satyrs in a bid to summon reinforcements from the Nether so he can conquer Azeroth for the Legion. Just as he starts gaining some speed, Ichigo shows up alongside the night elf Sentinels and the Horde. Together, they dismantle his operations and Ichigo handily defeats him, sending Abraxus back to the Nether as a failure. Needless to say, he deserved every single bit of it.
  • Before Codexia awakened Thetis, she was seen as enigmatic manipulator who always had things under control. Afterwards... not so much. Marta abandons her after Codexia's tunnel vision in raising Ethel Rethor from the ocean results in most of her mercenary group getting killed, but not before leaving the primalist with a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech. While she's busy angsting over having driven off the only friends she's had in years, the Highborne nobles usurp control of the city from right under her nose and cut her off from the power of the Primal Spirits, leading to her being captured by Ichigo and the Sentinels. To top it all off, Veles reveals that none of the Primal Spirits actually regard her as being worthy of their power and forces her to admit that she only became a primalist because she lacks any sense of purpose in life. Codexia is outed as a pitiful, lonely little girl and winds up suffering an emotional breakdown in full view of everyone.
• Hurting Hero: Ichigo is haunted by the fact that he is trapped on another world, unable to help protect his friends on Earth from Aizen and the Espada.
  • Throughout the Maraudon arc, it becomes increasingly obvious that the constant death on the battlefield is getting to Ichigo. For a guy who prides himself on being able to protect others, watching people drop like flies is something that weighs heavily on him.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Ichigo feels this way about allowing Caldwell to die, as he didn't see any other option that would have permanently ended the threat he posed.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Mixed with Implied Death Threat, When the soldiers Tyresa is leading are blaming Ichigo for not being there to help them when they were initially fighting through the area, he points out he could just leave them for dead now if they're so persistent in getting him arrested. This quickly shuts them up & nearly causes Tyresa to kill them.
• I Owe You My Life:
  • The entire reason Adelina accompanies Ichigo to Theramore in the first place is because she wants to repay him for saving her life during the Hatecrest naga's attack on Feathermoon Stronghold.
  • Ichigo saves Drekhve from being killed after the latter is knocked unconscious by a quilboar. After he wakes up, Drekhve repays him by allowing Ichigo and Adelina passage through the Horde's checkpoint in the Desolace.
• I Should Have Been Better: Ichigo falls into this anytime someone gets hurt on his watch. It gets particularly bad after the destruction of Shady Rest.
• Implausible Hair Color: Inverted. Ichigo’s naturally orange hair fits in easily on Azeroth. In fact, his hair color is probably the most normal thing about him from the perspective of everyone else.
• Improbable Age: Given that nearly every character of importance in Warcraft is at least over the age of 20, the fact that Ichigo is only 16 years old is constantly lampshaded.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Both Druantia and Thetis view Codexia as being unworthy of their power and are only aiding her to further their own plans. Veles also holds the same view of her, and lets her know it.
• Indy Ploy: Ichigo shows proficiency in coming up with plans on the fly throughout the story. Most of the time, they work. Other times, not so much.
• Insufferable Genius: Caren has her moments. The only thing she loves more than showing off how smart she is is getting to explain how smart she is.
• It's All About Me: The Highborne nobles are completely unconcerned with what their actions may do to the rest of Azeroth. All they want is to hoard more power and rebuild their long destroyed empire.
• It's All My Fault: Ichigo feels like he's to blame for the destruction of Shady Rest because he wasn't able to stop the Grimtotem. Adelina disagrees.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Caren may be snobbish and kind of a jerk but she's a genuinely good person. Ichigo even compares her to Uryu in this regard.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Mildreas starts out as simply an unpleasant and petty member of the Highborne nobility. Then over the course of the Maraudon arc, he proposes the plan to use the Obelisk of Elune to wipe out all life in the Desolace, empowers himself and his followers with Fel magic, and murders his best friend and leader in cold blood. Mildreas goes from being a jerk to a monster all in a few days.
• Just a Kid: Nearly every single person who meets Ichigo tends to either doubt or outright dismiss him because of his young age. None of them hang on to this view for very long.
• Just Desserts: Caldwell's comeuppance comes in the form of a very hungry crocolisk.
• Karma Houdini: Maluineth has over a dozen innocent Highborne mages murdered so she can usurp control of the Shen'dralar and helps imprison the Primal Spirits. After aiding the heroes in defeating Mildreas, she winds up as one of the three central leaders of the remaining Highborne along with Mordent and Tylarwin, and looks like she'll get no comeuppance for this. In her next appearance though, it's clear that nobody has forgotten what she did or forgiven her, the new citizens of Ethel Rethor despise her, and while she never receives any real punishment for her actions, she's put on the shortest leash possible, with Shandris and the Sentinels keeping a close eye on her.
• Karmic Death: Caldwell believed that the races that make up the Horde are nothing more than savage animals that deserve to be slaughtered. He meets his end at the hands, or rather jaws, of a crocolisk, an actual savage animal.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Ichigo has a tendency to jump into dangerous situations without assessing the situation first, especially if someone is in danger. He starts to get better about it as time goes on though.
• The Legend of Chekhov: Early in the story, Adelina tells Ichigo a bit of the history of the Night Elves, which leads to her telling him the legend of Zaetar and Princess Theradras and how they birthed the centaur race. Theradras later shows up as an antagonist during the Maraudon arc.
• Light 'em Up: Sylerian's runeblade Allaminar can use light to cast illusions, cloak it's user, create copies of it's wielder made of Hard Light, and blind opponents at close range. Codexia mentions that it would be quite a dangerous weapon if it weren't in the hands of an amateur.
• Light Is Not Good: The Highborne knight Sylerian, wields Allaminar, loves going on about the power of light, and is a completely murderous Jerkass.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Ichigo to Adelina, by virtue of being her first real friend in ages. She muses that she wouldn't really know what to do without him around, and as such, she finds herself extremely conflicted with his desire to return home. On one hand, she wants to help him save is friends and family on Earth, but at the same time, she desperately doesn't want him to leave her.
• Logical Weakness: Mildreas' cloak has two. The first is that it was made from the hide of a spiritual being, meaning that anything with more powerful spirit energy, such as Tensa Zangetsu, can easily pierce it. It's second weakness is that while it protects his body, it doesn't cover his head, a fact Ichigo exploits by forgoing his sword and opting to simply pummel Mildreas in the face.
• Loss of Identity: This turns out to be part of Codexia's backstory. Codexia is so disconnected from the girl she used to be back before her hometown was destroyed that she can't even remember the appearance of her parents or what she was like as a child. She can't even remember her own name; Codexia is actually the name her teacher gave her when he found her, and she took his last name of Fairchild as well. Codexia confesses that she's haunted by the loss of her original identity and desperately wishes that she could return to her former self, as while she can't remember what she was like, she does remember that she was much happier than she is now.
• Magnetic Hero: Both Jaina and Aegwynn observe that Ichigo is the kind of person that others naturally begin to believe in.
• Making a Splash: Thetis, the Spirit of Water, has enough power over water to raise an entire city from the ocean floor. She later empowers Codexia with a small bit of her power, so that she can manipulate water as well.
• Marked By The Supernatural: Ichigo possesses some sort of seal on him that manifests as an image of what appears to be Mimihagi on his chest that can only be perceived by a few such as Codexia and members of the green dragonflight. What the seal is and why it's there have yet to be revealed.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Highborne nobles set a trap for Codexia and Mordent in Maraudon with the intent of having Sylerian assassinate both of them, only for the whole thing to be interrupted by Ichigo, who came to capture Sylerian's targets. The ensuing fight is a melee between Ichigo, Codexia, and Sylerian.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Even after being defeated, Caldwell is confident that Jaina and the other military leaders of Theramore won't execute him if he can still give them information on the remaining Theramore traitors. He smugly tells Ichigo that capturing him means nothing and he fully expects that his fellow traitors will eventually break him out so he can resume his schemes. Unfortunately for him, Ichigo also expects this to happen, so he lets Caldwell get eaten alive to ensure it doesn't. Ichigo later lampshades this to Pained, pointing out that they wouldn't have been able to keep Calwell imprisoned as the traitor knew exactly how to manipulate them.
• Mind Rape: C'Thun puts Ichigo through an extensive one after his battle with Theradras. It uses its mastery of fear to great effect, spending an entire chapter subjecting Ichigo to horrifying illusions of his friends dying because of his failures, as well as visions of a possible bloody future in an attempt to break him. By the end of it, Ichigo can barely take anymore and collapses.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • Maluineth hates Mordent to a ridiculous extreme and would love nothing more than to see killed. Why? Because he was placed in charge of the Shen'dralar after his superior, Maluineth's father, was banished following a failed coup against Tortheldrin. Mordent didn't even really want the job, but the fact that he took it is proof to Maluineth that he betrayed her father. Multiple characters, including her own allies, call her out on how utterly stupid and nonsensical her grudge is.
  • After Mildreas is taken down and the elemental invasion is resolved, both the Sentinels and the tauren seek to hold the entire Highborne population accountable for all that happened in the Desolace. This is in spite of the fact that everything bad that happened in the region was caused exclusively by the Highborne nobles and their direct subordinates, while the rest of the Highborne were kept in the dark about everything. Unfortunately in the eyes of the two concerned parties, any Highborne who fill the new leadership roles could be just as bad as the nobles so they could easily be just as guilty too. Baine also mentions that the tauren are so enraged over how many of their people have died due to the nobles actions, that most of them don't care about who actually caused everything and just want the entirety of the Highborne to pay.
• Moral Myopia: The Highborne, full stop. They view themselves as an oppressed minority living in a world that would love nothing more than to see them dead. Of course, the only real reason anyone else has a problem with them is because they're a bunch of xenophobic, power-hungry racists who willingly continue the practices of a civilization that nearly brought the world to ruin. They also feel that it's unfair to have to change their way of life to fit in with the new world and decide that a better solution is to try and kill all life on Kalimdor to preserve their culture. Naturally, The Highborne see absolutely nothing wrong with this. In their eyes, people trying to kill them or force them to change is unacceptable because they are clearly superior, but them killing others is justified because they're just trying to defend themselves from the "lesser races". Although as time goes on, it becomes clear that it's mainly the nobles who have this mindset. The view held by the rest of the Highborne seems to vary.
• Ms. Exposition: Caren, being the most well versed in the fields of Azeroth's history, is usually the one who explains things to Ichigo when he comes across something he doesn't know about.
• Mundane Utility: By having a steady stream of spiritual power fed into, it causing it's blade to glow, Zangetsu can become an effective substitute for a torch when the need arises.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ichigo is horrified when he finally comes back to his senses after killing the traitorous guardsmen at Lost Point Tower.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Mordent Evenshade seems to be the only Highborne willing to admit that the his race's pride and insatiable hunger for power and arcane magic will inevitably lead to the other races of Azeroth wiping them out, and that they need to change their ways if they're going to survive in modern Azeroth. A'orean also comes around to this way of thinking as well.
• Mythology Gag: The chapter where Ichigo travels to Redridge to fight the Blackrock orcs is titled Blackrock'n'Roll Three, a reference to the two Blackrock'n'Roll missions from Warcraft 3.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Codexia sneaks the Highborne out of Eldre'Thalas and then tries to strong-arm them all into converting to primalism, which backfires spectacularly when they break free from her control, attempt to commit genocide, and accidentally start an elemental invasion. And all because she thought trying to push a prideful and xenophobic race into a corner was a good idea. She comes to regret it.
  • Marta also contributes to the Highborne returning to power. She takes pity on the Highborne and agrees to bring them the Heart of Veles, so they can free themselves from Codexia's manipulations. While her heart is in the right place, her compassion leads her to unwittingly deliver the key to carrying out the nobles heinous plans. When Marta learns of what she unknowingly started, she doesn't take it well.
• No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Ichigo kills both Abraxus and, late on, Mildreas with a point-blank Getsuga Tensho. The former is obliterated on the spot, while Mildreas is only kept in one piece thanks to his cloak.
• No-Sell: After resorting to his bankai during the second battle with Abraxus, Ichigo effortlessly blocks a strike from the enormous void terror, Immol’thar, in a manner reminiscent of his first encounter with Yammy Llargo. He then goes on to casually brush off every single attack that Abraxus throws at him.
• Noodle Incident: We don’t get much detail regarding the event in which Szayelaporro accidently opened a portal to the Twisting Nether, which led to the creation of the special Caja Negación. Apparently it got pretty nasty before the arrancar were able to force the demons back through the portal and close it.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Caldwell and the other traitors from Theramore would like you to believe they antagonize the Horde for the good of humanity, but it’s painfully obvious that they’re motivated entirely by their deep grudge against the orcs for the first and second Dark Portal Invasions.
• Oh, Crap!: Only a shinigami is capable of seeing the manifestation of their zanpakutou spirit. So when C'thun not only stares directly at Tensa Zangetsu when he appears to tell Ichigo to run from the Old God, but also hints that it's somehow aware of the Old Man's true nature in relation to Ichigo's powers, the spirit panics.
  • Tyresa upon learning that the Dark Iron are armed with a ton of Elementium weapons & that 1 of the Elemental Lords Ragnaros is sleeping nearby & could potentially invade.
• Old Master: Mairne Ragetotem is pretty over the hill at 109 years old, but he's still a high shaman of the Earthen Ring and is more than capable of going head-to-head with massive earth elementals and scaring off an entire band of Grimtotem assassins with his mere presence.
• Older Than They Look: Adelina confirms that she is over 100 years old despite looking like a teenager. Being a night elf, this isn't particularly surprising.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The normally calm Zangetsu is absolutely pissed at Ichigo for allowing despair to flood his inner world after being thrown into the Twisting Nether by Nnoitra, and doesn't hesitate to let him know it.
  • At Maraudon, Zangetsu expresses a level of fear after he senses the presence of C'thun, and advises Ichigo to flee before he gets any closer to it. Ichigo is taken aback by this, and for good reason, considering his zanpakutō spirit's usual advice.
• One-Man Army: Ichigo fights through entire waves of enemies in just about every large scale battle he takes part in. When he arrives to help the Sentinels fight the allied centaur clans at the Twin Colossi, Shandris remarks that his arrival all but ensures their victory.
• Only Friend: Adelina considers Ichigo to be this to her.
• Only in It for the Money: The adventurers Ichigo and Adelina find themselves working alongside at Redridge only signed up to fight Blackrock orcs for gold.
• Our Elves Are Better: Shandris seems to think so when it comes to the Night Elves. Ichigo notes that she tends to act incredibly smug from time to time while looking down on other races. At one point, she catches Ichigo admiring the disciplined training of the Sentinels and condescendingly says that human armies have similar practices, or at least try to.
• Out of Focus:
  • Despite being presented as a main character and a member of Ichigo’s central group of friends on Azeroth, Caren has received very little focus since her introduction, contributing little to the story beyond providing exposition when appropriate.
  • Adelina falls into this as well after the end of the Dire Maul arc, getting a single chapter of focus before the Maraudon arc begins and the focus shifts to Ichigo and Codexia.
  • All of the main characters are out of focus for the entire interlude arc that focuses on Codexia. None of them even appear in it.
• Outside-Context Problem: Nobody on Azeroth has any idea of what to make of Ichigo when he shows up. For starters, he possesses spiritual power, which humans on Azeroth aren't even supposed to have. His level of power is comparable to the Ancient Guardians and the Loa despite being mortal. And to top it all off, his very existence on Azeroth is somehow permanently altering the main timeline, which scares the crap out of the Bronze Dragonflight.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Adelina and Caren frequently fall into this role. Both of them are surprisingly capable in combat for a druid and mage that are still in training. The problem is simply that they're friends with Ichigo, who is far more powerful than either of them. The two of them usually tend to fade into the background any time Ichigo really starts to cut loose in battle.
• Paper Tiger: Sylerian acts incredibly high and mighty and is initially presented as being an elite warrior… only to be revealed as a complete and utter novice in combat immediately after he’s introduced. The only reason he’s able to (just barely) hold his own against both Codexia and Ichigo during their three-way fight is due to the combination of his runeblade, his heavily enchanted armor, and his Healing Factor. And even then, he still spends the majority of the fight being manhandled by both of them.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Ichigo’s Getsuga Tensho causes massive amounts of devastation whenever he uses it. It tends to unnerve most characters who see it for the first time, as there aren't many people on Azeroth who can rival it's sheer destructive force.
• Physical God: As far as most of Azeroth is concerned, Ichigo counts as one. While Ichigo is technically human, his power is compared to minor deities and his status as a Shinigami/Death God raises quite a few eyebrows. Druantia even refers to him as “the young god”.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Codexia displays the ability to cut off another persons connection to the elements through her own connection to the Spirit of Decay.
  • The Temporal Lock protecting Abraxus makes him immune to the temporal powers of the Bronze Dragonflight. It’s extremely likely that Ichigo has this as well.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The orc blademasters. Even when faced with an overwhelmingly huge army of earth elementals, they'd rather die than retreat.
• Public Domain Artifact: The Seven League Greaves used by Mildreas are based on the Seven League Boots from English mythology.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Codexia delivers one to Maluineth during their confrontation in Ethel Rethor. She tears into her about the highborne nobles' selfishness and willingness to use the Obelisk of Elune to murder everyone in the Desolace rather than give up their magical power and coexist with the other races of Azeroth. When Malunieth protests that everything she does is for the good of her people, Codexia points out that Maluineth had a dozen members of the dwindling Highborne population assassinated just so she could become the leader of the Shen'dralar, and that at the end of the day the only people she and the rest of the nobles care about are themselves.
  • Maluineth gets a second one from Shandris when the Sentinel comes to arrest her and Tylarwin for their crimes after Theradras is killed and the elemental invasion is taken care of. Maluineth tries to defend herself by reminding her that they helped Ichigo and the others take down Mildreas to stop him from using the Obelisk of Elune to purge Kalimdor. Shandris shuts her down by pointing out that they only switched sides after Mildreas began using fel magic and planned to turn on them, and that they were fully on-board with Mildreas' genocidal plans until their own lives were at risk.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming:
  • Each of the Primal Spirits are named after deities from various mythologies. Druantia comes from Celtic mythology, Thetis, Erebus and Zephyr come from Greek, Veles is from Slavic, and Sethlan is from Etruscan.
  • Abraxus gets his name from a demon/archon of Gnostic theology.
• Royal Brat: Maluineth. Although she's over one thousand years old, she still fits the bill by elven standards. She feels entitled to be the leader of the Shen'dralar simply because her father was the previous leader before Mordent was forced to take over following her father's exile. She's also incredibly selfish, petty, and nowhere near as competent as she would like to believe.
• Run the Gauntlet: Upon his return to Maraudon, Ichigo fights his way through a series of enemies in succession. First he takes on the corrupted Keeper of the Grove, Celebras, then six mountain giants simultaneously, followed by a small army of silithids and earth elementals, before finally facing Theradras herself. By the time he finishes, Ichigo has effectively completed an entire raid by himself.
• Satellite Character: Despite arguably being the foremost supporting character, Adelina's role in the story doesn't really extend beyond her being Ichigo's friend and she's rarely shown interacting with anyone besides him and occasionally Caren.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • All of the demons under Abraxus’ command flee after Ichigo kills their master, fully aware that they have no chance against someone who could easily kill a dreadlord and a void terror at the same time.
  • Marta abandons Codexia after they raise Ethel Rethor, disgusted by the primalist’s unrepentant manipulation of everyone around her and her complete disregard for the lives of Marta’s fellow mercenaries.
• Set Swords to "Stun": Ichigo figures out how to use his spiritual energy to dull Zangetsu's edge. It’s still very good at breaking bones though, as many Theramore guardsmen Ichigo regularly spars with find out.
• Slain in Their Sleep: A traitorous Theramore guardsman working for Kul Tiras attempts to assassinate Ichigo in his sleep for having been a witness to the destruction of Shady Rest. He fails miserably when Ichigo, having spent years dealing with his fathers morning sneak attacks, reflexively counter attacks him in his sleep.
• The Sleepless: Night elf sentinels condition themselves to function for up to six days without any sleep. Adelina pickes up this trick from her mother.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • Abraxus thinks incredibly highly of himself for a minor dreadlord who ranks relatively low in the Legion's hierarchy.
  • The Highborne nobles think they're superior to everyone else on Azeroth despite only being minor nobility from the time of Azshara's rule.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Abraxus really only serves to be an Arc Villain within the story, as well as being Ichigo's introduction to the threat of the Burning Legion. However, he is revealed to have had a hand in engineering the plague of undeath used by the Scourge. Meaning that he is partially responsible for both the destruction of Lordaeron and Arthas' Face–Heel Turn, among other things. So perhaps his high opinion of himself isn't entirely unjustified.
• Smug Snake: Pick an antagonist in the story, any antagonist, and odds are that they are this. Pretty much every single one of them so far hasn't been quite as powerful or competent as they would like to believe they are.
  • For all of her self-confidence, Maluineth is repeatedly humiliated by nearly everyone she clashes with. Mordent plays her like a fiddle by intentionally losing to her at Ethel Rethor as part of a plan to rescue his imprisoned subordinates that goes off without a hitch, Codexia manages to run circles around her despite being at her weakest, and Shandris verbally destroys her when Maluineth assumes she'll be able to manipulate her into not arresting her. As a result of her general ineptitude, she's treated as more of a nuisance than anyone genuinely dangerous by everyone, even her own allies.
• Spanner in the Works: As mentioned above, Ichigo is able to somehow cause permanent changes to Azeroth’s carefully maintained main timeline instead of simply creating branching timelines, something he is totally unaware of. His actions have led to the survival of Adelina and Codexia, who were supposed to die at Feathermoon Stronghold and Dire Maul respectively, and it’s hinted that his presence may affect the fates of Varian Wrynn, Darion Mograine, and Bolvar Fordragon as well.
• Squishy Wizard: While Caren is quite powerful for an apprentice mage, physical activity tires her out pretty quickly.
• Starter Villain: Rah'zesh, the leader of the group of Hatecrest naga who attack Feathermoon Stronghold is Ichigo's first real opponent on Azeroth. He doesn't have any magical powers or special weapons. He's just a larger than average naga. Compared to later villains, he's nothing more than an Elite Mook.
• Stealth Pun: Veles takes the form of a massive stone tauren, and as the Primal Spirit of Earth, one of the things he represents is stubbornness. In other words, he's bull-headed.
• Summoning Ritual: When discussing how Ichigo found himself on Azeroth after Nnoitra tossed him into the Twisting Nether, Caren points out that the only way Ichigo could have come to Azeroth is if somebody deliberately summoned him. The identity of who exactly did the summoning has yet to be revealed.
• Super-Empowering: The Primal Spirits can bestow a small portion of their power to those they deem worthy, which allows that person to freely manipulate the element associated with the Spirit who did the empowering without needing to commune with other elementals. This method of granting power appears to mark the difference between a primalist and a shaman.
• Super-Toughness: Despite being severely weakened due to his improper summoning to Azeroth, Ichigo's vessel is durable enough to survive being struck by lightning conjured by a tauren shaman as well as take multiple gunshot wounds to the back with minimal damage.
  • Ichigo's toughness is enhanced even further when Veles grants him a portion of his power, making Ichigo's body as durable as stone, which allows him to withstand the power of his own bankai for a prolonged period of time during his battle with Theradras.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: C'Thun exudes an aura that causes Ichigo to experience a feeling he can't even accurately describe other than it being "beyond fear".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Even after agreeing to put aside their personal feud to deal with the increasingly unhinged Mildreas, Mordent and Maluineth make it clear that they still absolutely despise each other.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Abraxus says something along these lines during his Villainous Breakdown. He can't comprehend how Ichigo can be so powerful and how he could lose to the soul reaper.
  • Torthedrin has this reaction just before Pained beheads him.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Ichigo attempts to live by this rule when he first arrives on Azeroth. It doesn’t stick.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Ichigo takes a page out of his Inner Hollow's book and begins hurling his sword through opponents and using the cloth wrap/chain to retrieve it. He also learns to channel his Getsuga Tensho through the cloth/chain to turn Zangetsu into an Epic Flail that explodes on contact, and by the time he fights Theradras, he begins to use it as a makeshift grappling hook.
• Token Good Teammate: Tylarwin is the only Highborne noble with redeemable qualities from the start. Unlike the rest of them, he has a distinct sense of honor and only allows himself to have the same amount of magical draught as the Highborne commoners. He ultimately winds up being a downplayed example, as he doesn't bother to hide the fact that he's every bit as racist and xenophobic as the rest of the nobles.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • After being captured by Ichigo and his allies and presented with proof that the Horde was not responsible for the destruction of Shady Rest, Caldwell rants about how it all changes nothing. Even if the Horde had nothing to do with the attack, they're all still monsters who deserve to die and he swears that putting him in prison won't stop him from continuing his crusade against the them, regardless of who gets caught in the crossfire. Ichigo realizes that Calwell is right, as the lieutenant would eventually get his fellow remaining traitors to break him out of his cell. Ichigo then decides to takes matters into his own hands and kicks Caldwell down the hill into Dustwallow Marsh where he's dragged under the water by a crocolisk. Had Caldwell just kept his mouth shut and not provoked the very angry people who had him at their mercy, he may have lived.
  • After Caren manages to reprogram the Obelisk of Elune to only target the invading earth elementals during the confrontation with Mildreas, she takes a moment to proudly rub her accomplishment in the insane nobles face while standing alone and defenseless, after Mildreas had just shown himself capable of reaching her in a split second. He responds by appearing right in front of her and cutting her down. The only reason she doesn't die from her injuries is because of Adelina's quick response.
• Translator Microbes: The summoning ritual that brought Ichigo to Azeroth somehow granted him the ability to speak fluent Common, Azeroth’s most prominent language. This only extends to actually speaking the language though, as Ichigo finds he’s unable to understand written Common and has to learn to read the language on his own time.
• Trapped in Another World: The premise of the entire story. Ichigo finds himself trapped on Azeroth and tries to figure out a way to return home, seeking the help of Jaina Proudmoore. After Jaina agrees to help, she reveals that it may take years in order to successfully create a portal from Azeroth to Earth.
• Trauma Conga Line: Hoo boy, this story is not kind to Ichigo. First he’s thrown into the Twisting Nether where he spends several days on the run from demons, then he finds himself trapped on an alien world, unable to access most of his power while Aizen and the Espada do God-knows-what on Earth. On the way to Theramore, he fails to stop a group of tauren from burning a small village to the ground, gets caught up in a conspiracy involving two extremist groups, and to top it all off, learns that it may be years before a portal to send him home can be made. And that’s the first twenty-five chapters.
• Treachery Cover Up: The entire plot of the Shady Rest conspiracy revolves around Ichigo and his allies trying to uncover one. To summarize, the Quarvel’s Raiders in Shady Rest, working with the the traitorous guardsmen in Theramore raided Horde caravans along the Gold Road in attempts to weaken the Horde. Their operation went sideways when they unknowingly attacked a caravan belonging to the violent Grimtotem tribe, who traced the attack back to Shady Rest and burned it to the ground in retaliation. The traitors, realizing that news of the town’s fate would bring the Alliance to investigate, scramble to remove any trace of their involvement in the town that could expose them and silence any survivors from the attack who might have seen anything. It was their bad luck that one of the survivors just happened to be Ichigo.
• Underestimating Badassery: Just about every antagonist in the story underestimates Ichigo, dismissing him as either a weakling or a child. Usually right before he proves just how wrong that assumption is.
  • It isn’t limited to the bad guys either. At one point, Ichigo and Adelina sign up for a mercenary job in Redridge so they can rescue a mage who can help hasten Ichigo’s return to Earth. The recruiter takes one look at Ichigo and writes him off as some rookie looking for adventure, much to Ichigo’s annoyance.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • As mentioned above, after Ichigo saves everyone in Feathermoon Stronghold by obliterating Rah'zesh and most of his naga subordinates, Shandris has her sentinels point weapons in his face and threatens to kill him unless he explains what exactly he is.
  • After Ichigo reveals his bankai, he notices that the Horde warriors who witnessed his battle with Abraxus and Immol'thar begin to look at him as if he were their enemy. Ichigo mentally facepalms when he realizes that they're more caught up in the possibility that he might be a new Super-Soldier for the Alliance rather than the fact that he just saved their lives from two powerful demons.
  • Once Codexia raises the city of Ethel Rethor from the ocean floor, the Highborne nobles "thank" Mordent for leading their people to their new home by taking credit for all of his and Codexia's work while downplaying any involvement he had in the events. Oh, and they try to have him assassinated because one of them wants to take control of the order of mages he's in charge of.
• Unreliable Expositor: According to Caren, her grandfather was one of the most important heroes of the First War and was second only to Anduin Lothar in terms of heroism and fame. Except unlike Lothar, he isn't a commonly known name. Ichigo concludes that she's probably greatly exaggerating his importance on account of how much she looks up to the man.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Ichigo is a bit of a subversion. Having only had his shinigami powers for a few months, he doesn't know any real form of swordsmanship and instead relies almost entirely on his insane strength, combat instincts, and experience to carry him through his battles. This actually works out in Ichigo’s favor in some fights, as his lack of a set style makes him unpredictable to lower level opponents. It is noted however that he is highly skilled at martial arts, which he's been practicing since he was young, and he's acknowledged as being the best hand-to-hand fighter in Theramore.
  • Subverted with Princess Theradras. In close combat, all she knows how to do is wildly swing her stone weapons, relying mostly on her immense strength. However, her true power doesn't lie in her skills with a weapon, but rather in her vast, precise control over earth and gravity. She later plays it straight when she goes Clipped-Wing Angel as listed above.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Inverted. Almost everything Ichigo encounters on Azeroth generally elicits mild surprise from him at best, but when he watches Adelina summon a handful of treants, he gapes at them and wonders how a tree can move like a person. Evidently the man who regularly interacts with ghosts and traversed the Twisting Nether draws the line at walking trees.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Highborne nobles' greed drives them to take the heart of Veles, the Primal Spirit of earth, from Maraudon. This has the side effect of awakening Princess Theradras, who proceeds to kick off an elemental invasion.
• Uriah Gambit: Caren's teacher Galen is constantly sent on dangerous missions by nobles who want him dead so that Caren will inherit ownership of a number of artifacts to seize for themselves.
• Vampiric Draining: Codexia shows off the ability to drain the Life Energy out of others through her connection to Erebus when she gets her hands on Sylerian during her three-way fight with him and Ichigo.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Abraxus completely shuts down when he realizes just how hopelessly outclassed he is by Ichigo's bankai during their rematch.
  • Mildreas begins his when Caelyb and Maluineth oust him as a criminal to everyone in Ethel Rethor, and it only gets worse when he begins losing to Ichigo and his allies.
  • Theradras turns into a ranting mess when Ichigo's visored state proves too much for her to handle.
• Villains Want Mercy: When Caldwell realizes he's in the water with a crocolisk after Ichigo kicks him into the marsh, he spends his final moments begging anyone to help him. Too bad the only people in a position to help are either those he's tried to kill in his mad quest for vengeance or those he's given every reason to want him dead. His cries go unanswered and he's pulled under the water by the beast, never to be seen again.
• Volleying Insults: Most conversations between Ichigo and Caren tend to go this way.
• War Is Hell: Ichigo's time spent fighting alongside the Sentinels in Dire Maul and Maraudon brings him to this conclusion. Of course, it's clear that he never expected war to be anything other than horrible, but it's pointed out that there's a big difference between knowing that war is probably horrific and actually experiencing it firsthand.
• Weather-Control Machine: The Obelisk of Elune is a large apparatus that creates an unnatural storm that will relentlessly rain lighting down on whatever the user sets it to target. After recovering it, the Highborne use it as defensive measure to keep people away from Ethel Rethor. It's also potentially capable of spreading its storm across the entirety of Kalimdor when hooked up to a sufficient power source, which is exactly what the Highborne nobles attempt to do in order to wipe out anyone who could threaten them.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Codexia. She’s trying to help bring balance to the Elements by reuniting the Council of Six, but she does some pretty morally questionable things to advance this goal. She ends up being a subversion though, as she's only working for the Spirits to give herself a purpose in life and isn't actually all that invested in their cause.
  • The bronze dragonflight are understandably pretty worried about Ichigo's ability to change Azeroth's main timeline and are trying to put a stop to it before he ends up completely derailing the events that are supposed to transpire, which in turn may lead to something horrible. Unfortunately, they decide that the best method of fixing the problem is to remove whatever barrier he has that nullifies their powers and then erase him from existence so he can't alter any more events afterwards. Thankfully for Ichigo, the bronze dragons are terrible at finding people without their usual method of tracking them through the timestreams.
  • For all the benevolence they put forth, the Primal Spirits are revealed to be this. Above all else, they are concerned with keeping the Old Gods from returning and the Spirits are willing to do anything to foil whatever schemes they come up with, no matter how many people they have to sacrifice in the process. Their initial plan for defeating Theradras was to sacrifice the majority of the Sentinels against the invading earth elementals in order to buy time for the Highborne nobles to successfully use the Obelisk of Elune to murder everything in the Desolace, which would take care of the elementals and disperse the Spirits' essences. Afterwords, the Spirits would gather their essences inside the Great Trees that they had Codexia plant throughout the Desolace and be reborn from them, at which point the four of them would defeat Theradras themselves. Then they would return to Ethel Rethor, depose the nobles and establish themselves as the caring guides of the Highborne who would welcome the Alliance and Horde with open arms. Those plans went out the window the moment Ichigo got involved. While Erebus doesn't like having their plans go off the rails, all of the Spirits agree that Ichigo managing to bring about a peaceful outcome that didn't involve sacrificing the entire Desolace is far better than anything they could have accomplished on their own.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Averted. Ichigo is very mindful of the fact that the people he sometimes has to kill are sapient beings with lives and reasons for opposing him. Most of his early Character Development revolves around him coming to terms with this and the fact that he will find himself in kill-or-be-killed situations. Played straight by just about everyone else though. Caren doesn't think anything of roasting a group of gnolls, which disturbs Ichigo a bit.
• What the Hell Are You?: More than one villain in the story yells this at Ichigo when he displays levels of power that no human should be capable of throwing around.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Captain Vimes tears into Ichigo when he learns that the soul reaper had directly confronted Drekhve and his fellow tauren about the attack on Shady Rest, thus alerting the most likely suspects of the massacre to their investigation. Vimes makes sure to drive home just how utterly idiotic Ichigo's decision was.
  • At Dire Maul, Ichigo goes off on Shandris and Morgosh when the two of them nearly start a fight with each other instead of focusing on the immediate threat of the demons, which both sides showed up to fight.
  • Nearly all of Marta's men give their lives to protect Codexia from the naga while the primalist completes the ritual to awaken Thetis. After she finishes her job, Codexia strolls out of the temple, pleasantly smiling without so much as acknowledging their corpses. After she happily explains to Marta how she intends to back the Highborne into a corner in an attempt to force them to accept primalism, Marta finally explodes, delivering an absolutely scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Codexia, calling her out on her manipulation of the desperate Highborne as well as her callous disregard of Marta’s own mercenary company. Codexia is horrified when she realizes she has no counterpoint.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Other than his Getsuga Tensho, shunpo, and bankai, Ichigo doesn't have any other special abilities or techniques to utilize. When Aegwynn points this out, Ichigo freely admits that she's right.
• When Trees Attack:
  • Adelina can summon treants with her druidic powers.
  • Druantia displays a much more impressive version of this by freeing the Ancients of Dire Maul from their corruption and directing their attention towards the demons.
• World's Strongest Man: Even with most of his power restrained, Ichigo is confirmed to be the strongest mortal being on Azeroth when using his bankai.
• Worf Had the Flu: By the time Ichigo lands into the Twisting Nether, he is thoroughly spent and heavily wounded from both his battle with Grimmjow and from trying to defend himself against Nnoitra's assault. Combine that with the fact that he rapidly begins to suffer from fel poisoning from his sudden exposure to the massive amounts of fel magic of the Nether and Ichigo is left in such a weakened state that he can do little more than flee from the demons that he would normally be capable of easily curb-stomping.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Adelina has very little confidence in her abilities as a druid, and as such, she dismisses her chances of successfully germinating a Great Tree planted at Ethel Rethor by herself at Druantia's request. When she voices this concern, Ichigo asks her why she thinks she'd fail before trying, pointing out that she's a far better druid than she gives herself credit for. Ichigo manages to convince her to stop doubting herself and "just make the tree grow". After some struggling, she succeeds.
• You No Take Candle: The ogres, centaur, and earth elementals are not fans of grammar or proper nouns.