The Order is on their way north to the last Gate, thanks to new friends with an airship. But while they deal with monsters, recurring villains, the usual plot stuff, one of their own (
coughDurkoncough) has been fighting a battle within their own mind! It all comes down a head when the gods themselves become involved, and the Order of the Stick must save the world from due process!
Covers strips #947
-1189.
Tropes
- Anachronism Stew: Played for Laughs in #957; When the High Priest of Hel is trying to get an exploitable memory regarding Belkar that isn't related to unflattering body odor comments, physical altercations, or random insults, he gets a "404 Not Found" error.
- Arc Villain: Vampire Durkon for the book as a whole. The Tinkertown strips also have Bozzok and Crystal return to antagonize Haley.
- Art Evolution: This book marks the comic's permanent style change. Arms and legs are now flesh-colored, sleeves and pant legs now visibly appear on everyone's clothes, and shoes now are shown flexing when characters walk.
- Back from the Dead: One of the main plot points is the Order's struggle to resurrect Durkon (and, later, Minrah).
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Played with; Durkon's spirit is essentially trapped by the vampire spirit controlling his body, so he can't directly interfere with vampire's actions. However, he can work in more subtle ways, and manipulates what memories the vampire can see to eventually make him vulnerable to a mental Care-Bear Stare.
- Big Bad: Hel, the Northern goddess of death. Vampire Durkon and (eventually) the Exarch vampire are ultimately just her Co-Dragons.
- Brick Joke: Haley's four free passes for brunch weren't just padding; they're later seen enjoying said brunch. Elan even foreshadowed the waffles!
- The Bus Came Back: Hilgya Firehelm, the original cleric for the Linear Guild from all the way back in the first dungeon, returns when the Order reaches the Dwarven Lands.
- The Cavalry: Sigdi Thundershield calls in the rest of her extensive family to help save the Order's bacon and prevent the vampires from ending the world.
- Came Back Wrong: Crystal came back, but not through the usual Cleric spells. Bozzok instead brought her back as a sentient flesh golem and she's constantly in pain as a result.
- Care-Bear Stare: Durkon ultimately inflicts this on the High Priest of Hel when the vampiric spirit is so confused by Durkon's compassion and the pain that comes from selfless compassion that said spirit allows Durkon to transfer all his memories, good and bad, instantly — and with it, Durkon's actual personality. In short, Durkon effectively weaponizes a lifetime's worth of happy memories.
- Cerebus Retcon:
- Durkon being thrown unceremoniously out into the human world has been Played for Laughs every time the comic flashed back to it...until "Your Worst", where we see Durkon's incredibly tragic and painful memory of pleading with the guards carrying him out to let him say goodbye to his mother. His memory then culminates in him angrily weeping and cursing Hurak and the rest of his church for exiling him, which in turn became the catalyst that formed the High Priest of Hel's desire for Revenge.
- When Hel is revealing the bet between her and Loki that made it so she's unable to have living clerics in the current world, Thor's brief cameo is Played for Laughs, with him getting roped into the bet by Loki since he's presented as being too drunk to point out how bad of an idea it is. Later on, it's all but stated that Thor was drunk because he was immensely depressed over having had to destroy yet another one of the countless worlds the gods have built in trying to seal away the Snarl, and he was grieving for his dead followers.
- Odin, the Top God of the Northern Pantheon, is consistently portrayed as a goofy and lovable Cloudcuckoolander akin to an absent-minded grandfather during the first several story arcs. Utterly Dwarfed eventually reveals that he's like this because he's suffering from the divine equivalent of dementia, as the Northerners in the previous iteration of the world were primarily barbarians who disliked magic. Thanks to Gods Need Prayer Badly and him being the god of magic, he's become a Scatterbrained Senior who's also a Mad Prophet that can't interpret or even remember his own prophecies (such as those involving the Snarl and the world within the rifts). At least Thor indicates that given a few centuries, he'll naturally heal and be "back to normal".
- Character Focus: Most of the book centers around Durkon, his past and his familial relations. It also highlights his Character Development, showing how he's moved past his cynicism and Bystander Syndrome along with becoming a far craftier, more proactive, and altruistic person as a result.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Chekhov's Skill: Roy previously learned a special move to disrupt spellcasting in preparation for a future tussle with Xykon during his time on Mount Celestia in Don't Split the Party. It finally gets used (and named, "The Spellsplinter Maneuver") when fighting Vampire Durkon. Unfortunately, Durkon is a melee fighter as well as a spellcaster, so its effectiveness is somewhat muted.
- Cliffhanger: At the book's end, the Order is en route to the North Pole to stop Xykon from finding and taking control of Kraagor's Gate, but Lien and O-Chul are attacked and knocked out with poison by two unseen assailants and literally lowered down a cliff.
- Clothing Damage: During his initial battle with the High Priest of Hel at the Godsmoot, Roy ends up slicing a massive gash into his armor. The High Priest later replaces his armor with a simple robe.
- Comically Missing the Point: In the Godsmoot, the priest of Balder mentions that he managed to call the demigod priests' attention by shouting about free cake (because everyone loves cake). Roy is naturally horrified (because if the demigod priests arrive, they will vote to destroy the world) and the priest of Balder asks if Roy is more of a pie man.
- Conflict Ball: Andi, the Mechane engineer, certainly seems to be gripping one of these tightly with regard to her ever-present resentment, jealousy and insubordination towards Bandana, with no real reasoning beyond Andi feeling that she has more of a "claim" to the position than Bandana on the basis of longer service time aboard the ship. This is despite the fact that Julio, who the whole crew still respects and admires, explicitly left orders naming Bandana as The Captain of the Mechane while Julio took a leave of absence.
- Continuity Nod: The High Priest of Hel states Durkon "died on your watch" to Roy, the exact same phrasing Roy had used to describe his own family history.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The clasp on Belkar's cloak protects him from evil. Which is harmful to him because he's evil too. Luckily it can be activated and deactivated on touch. It comes in handy when he's the only one that can stand and fight against Vampire Durkon and his minions, but it envelopes him in a yellow glow, and it is obviously excruciating to fight in.
- Darkest Hour:
- In Strip #1129, the Order of the Stick has been defeated, with everyone either knocked unconscious, dominated, or outright dead. The forces of Hel seem to be on the precipice of ensuring victory... but both Mr. Scruffy activating Belkar's protection from evil charm and the High Priest of Hel's Villainous BSoD provide enough time that Durkon can allow Belkar to stake him as part of a Heroic Sacrifice, giving the heroes time to save the world.
- Similarly, Durkon is Taken for Granite after violating the rules of the council of dwarven clan elders in #1172, and the Exarch vampire has managed to dominate enough of the elders to ensure the vote goes his way no matter what the other elders vote. However, Durkon's Heroic Sacrifice is able to invoke an obscure loophole, causing the council meeting to be tabled and postponing the vote so it can take place later.
- Didn't See That Coming: An utterly hilarious case happens in #1116, where the Order summons a horde of Chaos Giraffes (thanks to Hilgya) being ridden by critters (thanks to Roy's Bag of Tricks) to charge the vampires' base and trigger the deadly wards they'd set up. Cue Vampire Durkon being utterly flabbergasted and Minrah raising a confused eyebrow at Hilgya.
Hilgya: ...
What? They're cheap to summon and have a ton of hitpoints.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: During his vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Durkon, the High Priest of Hel argues to Durkon that someone is only who they are on the worst day of their life, and anything else is just the person lying about it. Later, Durkon gives an epic retort, instead pointing out that a person is who they are on every day of their life, all the way to the end, and every single day counts in terms of making up who that person really is.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Durkon, trapped with the HPoH in his mind, sees a memory wherein his persistent efforts to help over his mother's protests led to a minor disaster (shattering all their dishes) and Sigdi tells him he needs to wait until people ask him for help before helping them, and a subsequent memory where Roy's safety is put in jeopardy because Durkon was waiting for him to ask for help, and is startled to realize that he'd never connected the incidents before.
- He later relates to Belkar that Belkar's speech regarding Character Development was also one of these, as it (along with the previously shown "Eureka!" Moment mentioned above) gave him the idea on how to take down the HPoH with his own memories.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: How Durkon wins the Battle in the Center of the Mind; He shows the vampire spirit the memory of his mother giving up a huge treasure that could have resurrected his father, regrown her arm and/or left them living in luxury to raise several dwarves that died an inglorious death in a cave-in and sentenced to suffer with Hel. The High Priest cannot understand why anyone would do such a thing, and Durkon points out that the vampire spirit lacks the emotional experience to cope with such a complex issue. This gives Durkon the opening to force all of his memories into the vampire, turning it into a double of Durkon.
High Priest: This doesn't make any...logical sense. Why would someone give up living like a princess to raise five total strangers from the dead?
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In "Rising Suspicion", when the Order is walking around a bunch of fresh corpses that have been killed by vampires, Belkar comments that he hopes they don't turn into more vampires, but Roy tells him that it won't be a problem as a person doesn't become a vampire until three days after they died and he had broken the staff that had the spell to speed up the process. It's only then that Haley realizes that Vampire Durkon's time spent researching the protection from daylight spell wouldn't make sense if he was going to be invading a subterranean city and that he had actually been learning the spell to speed up a vampire's rise.
- Family of Choice: Durkon's family is actually made up of his mother and the five dwarves that his mother had brought Back from the Dead, all of whom he regards as Honorary Uncles and Aunts.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- In #1101, Haley does some spitballing about the spell Vampire Durkon had supposedly been trying to learn. She points out that, given their new knowledge of his plans, their prior assumption about the spell's identity doesn't make sense. Just as she completes this thought, the corpses around them rise as vampires, revealing that the actual spell was the one to hasten the rise of a vampire.
- The sign that Durkon's Assimilation Backfire plan against the High Priest of Hel is about to work in #1130 is when Vampire Durkon briefly adopts a dwarven accent ("I don't unnerstand...") in one of the panels immediately prior to Durkon's Care-Bear Stare.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Haley and Bandana quickly become the best of chums after they fight alongside each other against Golem Crystal.
- Five Stages of Grief: The immediate reaction of Roy to the news of Durkon being vampirized was Denial and Anger aimed squarely at the Bearer of Bad News (at swordpoint, no less) in the previous book. When Durkon is soon back and walking around as a vampire, reunited with the Order, Roy's willingness to accept this situation and make allowances for Durkon's "condition" could be seen as Bargaining, or as Denial regarding how much of his former friend is left inhabiting his undead body. Acceptance finally comes loud and clear with the line "Oh. I understand. You're not Durkon AT ALL!"
- Foreshadowing:
- In #733, Durkon happened to have had four castings of sending memorized on a day they had no expectation of trouble and no explanation. In #1152 it turns out he uses it to call home to his mother every week, and he cites the incident as a reason Roy really should have known that.
- According to Durkon's Honorary Uncle Thirden in #991, he and the others never got to meet Tenrin and didn't really become friends with Sigdi until right before Durkon was born. #1128 reveals that this is because they were all miners who'd died in an accident, and Sigdi had them all raised following Tenrin's death.
- The sheer casualness and flippancy with which the gods regard voting whether or not to end the world at the Godsmoot is later justified in #1139, which reveals that the gods have destroyed and recreated the world several billion times before and so most have become numb to it by this point.
- In #1038, Oona reveals that most bugbears aren't that devout and don't regard the Dark One with as much importance as the other goblinoid races do. In #1144, Thor explains that because the Dark One hasn't had enough quality or quantity of worship as the other gods have had, he won't survive the intervening time between this world and the next, meaning that if they don't convince Redcloak and the Dark One to side with them now, then they'll lose the purple quiddity forever and the Vicious Cycle will never end.
- Funny Background Event:
- "Hel Polls for Thee": As Roy dramatically jumps down from a balcony to fight the High Priest of Hel, Hoder's High Priestess is facing the wrong way.
- In the huge splash panel showcasing Durkon's happy memories with his family in #1130, one of the memories is him getting trained in fighting trees.
- In #1149, the first three panels shows Kudzu totally entranced by the diamond his mother is using as a casting component, then being disappointed when it's obliterated.
- Good Feels Good: Durkon tells Belkar that being Good can be just as seductive as being Evil.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: After hearing from Golem Crystal that instead of looking for a cure to her agonizing condition as a self-aware flesh golem, she's just going to continue killing gnomes because it hurts less when she's murdering people, Haley tricks her into falling into Gnometown's waste disposal pit (read: a volcano).
- He's Back!: The real Durkon is finally back after the destruction of his vampirized body and resurrection.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- According to his Uncle Thirden in #991, Durkon's father Tenrin Thundershield deliberately caused a cave-in to stop a half-dragon troll's rampage from wiping a small town and killing his wife.
- A non-lethal example; Durkon's greatest and most complex memory is revealed in #1128 to have been his mother Sigdi bringing five dwarven miners who died in a dishonorable accident (thus damning them to Hel) Back from the Dead with the vast amount of riches she gained from her husband's sacrifice against the dragon-troll, instead of resurrecting her dead husband, having the Temple of Thor's healers return her missing arm, or just living with the wealth of a princess. The High Priest of Hel is completely stunned and reduced to confused muttering at this memory.
- After performing an Assimilation Backfire on the High Priest of Hel, Durkon lowers the anti-life shell to let Belkar stake him and help impair Hel's plans. Later, after being brought back by Hilgya (twice), Durkon also willingly petrifies himself to invoke some Loophole Abuse and prevent the dwarven clan elders from voting in favor of ending the world. Thankfully, the Thundershield family's bards are able to bring him back only a few strips later.
- In #1166, Durkon's Uncle Kandro is Swallowed Whole by the Death-worm after helping save several other younger dwarves from its clutches. Being dwarves, the rest of the Thundershield family is relieved that he finally died with honor while Haley and Blackwing are just confused.
- Heroic Willpower:
- Roy and Vaarsuvius are the only members of the Order who don't get dominated by the High Priest of Hel during their fight in the Dwarven Lands.
- Surprisingly, Belkar of all people shows this when he powers through his immensely painful protection from evil charm in order to take on Vampire Durkon and his vampire minions.
- Irony: In #1096, when the Order learns that Durkon was exiled from his homeland and forced to never return because of a prophecy from Odin, they're all horrified as they see it as exceptionally cruel since it means that Durkon never did anything worthy of being exiled in the first place. When Minrah tells Durkon about this in #1145, however, Durkon's instead ecstatic, overjoyed to learn that the prophecy's existence means that there was an actual reason for him being exiled and it wasn't just a cruel cosmic joke.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When learning about the prophecy that got Durkon exiled, while horrified, Vaarsuvius notes that, "There is an unfortunate logic to the decision". When Durkon learns about it himself, he admits that it wasn't "tha bad o' one!"
- Loophole Abuse: The latter half of the arc has the characters, good and bad, manipulate the vote of various meetings. Since the rules are being upheld by irrevocable supernatural forces, they must use creative interpretation of the rules to get their way.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Played for Black Comedy at one point; Instead of the ugly and conflicting Fighting from the Inside that Durkon is forcing his vampiric spirit to deal with, one of Vampire Durkon's allies - a female human-turned-vampire - has formed a Villainous Friendship between her vampiric spirit and original host, and they claim that Vampire Durkon will "probably need a poncho" for whatever murderous shenanigans they'll be getting up to for the next few centuries if he wants to join in.
- Mr. Exposition: Thor becomes one to explain to Durkon and Minrah the true nature of the Snarl along with the quiddities of the divine pantheons.
- Near-Villain Victory: The last dominated elder of the dwarven clans was literally in the middle of saying "Yes" to ending the world when Durkon's Loophole Abuse caused the meeting to be temporarily tabled.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Although Sigdi's intentions were good, telling little Durkon to wait until people ask for help before trying to help led to him developing a personality flaw in the form of a lack of initiative which took him some time to shake.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Eugene's hijacking Shojo's summoning for a Being of Pure Law and Good has resulted in none of the other angels and archons wanting anything to do with him. "You abduct one deva and suddenly you're a Celestial leper! Even to the Celestial leopards!"
- Once More, with Clarity: Upon reviewing the memories of his time with Hilgya from a more objective standpoint, Durkon realizes that he unintentionally treated her rather shoddily following their tryst, and takes pains to rectify this upon meeting her again.
- Only Sane Man: Belkar is the only member of the Order who knew that Vampire Durkon wasn't really Durkon from the beginning. Durkon is appropriately infuriated about this and even lays in the Order regarding it upon being resurrected in #1150.
- Rewatch Bonus: Durkon's conversation with Belkar in #1151 reveals that Durkon had been feeding very specific memories to the High Priest of Hel on purpose—the memories that were Durkon's "tipping points" to Character Development. An idea he'd first had with an earlier conversation between his vampire self and Belkar in #957. Rereading the entire arc with this in mind makes this very apparent. Even the "trolling" memories, like the food poisoning and the workplace orientation seminar, were carefully chosen for this specific purpose.
- Someone to Remember Him By: According to the first account of his father Durkon heard, his mother discovered she was pregnant only after his father's death. Later, it turns out that Durkon and Hilgya's son Kudzu originally had a similar relationship (though Durkon has himself resurrected in part so he can have a role in his son's life).
- Spoiler Cover: Zigzagged. Durkon has his back turned to the viewer, so someone unacquainted with the events of the last book doesn't see his red eyes and fangs. However, eagle-eyed viewers could possibly take notice of Durkon's paler skin and black clothes, which could make one think "something isn't right about Durkon".
- Stealth Pun:
- The arc involving Golem Crystal ends with her falling into a volcano — just like Gollum. Also note that the Crystal Golem is an actual yet obscure type of golem from the Psionics Handbook.
- As with all other undead in this universe, vampires are mentioned as being Static Characters who are unable to go through Character Development or engage in critical self-analysis, instead being "frozen in time" at the period when they were made undead. In other words, vampires have no reflection.
- The dwarf council’s vote is postponed due to a loophole that states that the table at which they meet must be intact during the vote. Durkon’s action’s cause that table to be destroyed, invoking the loophole. In other words… the vote was tabled.
- Swapped Roles: In #1182, Belkar gets angry at Roy when they're both drunk and they're each acting like the other prior to their Character Development.
Belkar: (to Roy) You can't just start being Old Me when I'm being Old You! If nothing else, Old Me was way easier!!
- Swarm of Rats: The Mechane happens to have a sizable rat population, since when the Exarch vampire uses his "Children of the Night" power inside, it summons a swarm of rodents big enough to overwhelm the Order's animal companions. They only survive because Blackwing is able to arrange a Magic Misfire by intentionally reading a magic scroll horribly, causing a big enough explosion to kill the rats and alert the crew to their aid.
- Take That, Audience!: "Up in the Air" seems to be a lighthearted poke at the old fan argument over whether the Order's actions against the Young Black Dragon qualified as murder. One side argued that the Order was breaking and entering, meaning the dragon had a right to attack first and the Order's actions couldn't be justified as self-defense; the other side argued that the Order couldn't have reasonably known they were breaking into a monster's home. The strip depicts a gang of adventurers getting into the same argument with a paladin over some dead orcs.
- That's No Moon: Minrah and Durkon, when reaching the afterlife, believe at first to be walking on some Fluffy Cloud Heaven with a dark sky, and spot a tower in the distance. Except said tower is actually the god Thor's leg, the fluffy ground is the fur of his boot, and the sky background is his cape. Yes, the Stickverse gods are huge compared to mortals.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Literally the last page of the entire story arc ends with a mysterious and unnamed group non-fatally taking out both O-Chul and Lien, seemingly to ensure The End of the World as We Know It.
- Throat Light: In Strip #1148, the Deva processing Durkon's resurrection has yellow light pouring from his eyes and throat. It's bright enough that Durkon and Minrah have to close their eyes when he briefly talks to them.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Roy develops this strategy after learning that his family greatsword is now a Weapon of Legacy, meaning that he can now summon it back to his hands no matter if he loses it.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The gnomes of Tinkertown really should know better than to stand around gawking at a rampaging golem. Meanwhile, their security force tries to arrest the PCs fighting the golem, and inadvertently heal it with a Lightning Gun.
- At the Godsmoot, Gontor quickly learns that getting himself alone with a vampire cleric — whom he knows has a vested interest in making more vampire clerics — and then admitting both that he's out of powerful magic and doesn't receive the Godsmoot's protection is a terminally bad idea.
- Torso with a View: Bozzok is killed by Crystal punching a hole clean through his body. In turn, Crystal finally receives her comeuppance when Haley drops her into molten lava, with her screaming in rage at Haley while her legs are fully immersed in the lava before she slowly sinks under.
- Vicious Cycle: The gods have been trapped in one ever since the Snarl was created; In every world they create, rifts eventually form into the Snarl's prison, and if the gods don't just Mercy Kill the world by destroying it (thus "cashing in" on that world's souls), then the Snarl will break free and kill everything in that world (who all end up Deader than Dead). This has gone on for several billions worth of iterations, though this world might finally hold the key to stopping it once and for all.
- Wham Shot: Thor shows Durkon the monument the gods made to their first world... and then the monuments made to the billions of the worlds they made after that, each one destroyed by either the Snarl or the gods themselves.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs. After being resurrected and reuniting with the Order, Durkon voices his incredulous that Belkar was the only one who could tell the High Priest of Hel apart from him.
