Roleplay / Fire Emblem On Forums Wonderful Blessing

Anyway. Yes, I will pay you all one million rhea, each, if you complete this mission for me and accompany me to the Demon Lord's palace. All you need to do is beat the seven Demon Generals, who are keeping a barrier up to prevent adventurers just marching into the Demon Lord's palace and sticking his head on a pike; once they're all gone, the barrier will go down and we can march right through without being fried like moths on a candle. Of course, a goddess like myself does not believe in something for nothing, so I won't be paying for anything else like inns or weapons. What do you mean you don't like that idea? You're adventurers, you can make your own money and pay for yourselves. A real adventurer has the ability to fund themselves! And of course you have to pay for me, too. It's only polite to treat a beautiful lady. D-don't look at me like I'm poor! O-of course I have money! I just don't want to pay for all of you, that's all! Wait, what do you mean you're only Level 1?! S-so what if this is the starter town?! Do you think a goddess like me pays attention to that stuff? .....no, I have NOT been sitting here all day waiting for people to join my party! Don't you DARE give me such a pitying look!

— Opening narration in the OOC thread.

At least, [defeating the Demon Lord] is what our heroes intend to do. In reality, given the level of expertise of our heroes, the appropriate descriptor would be to call this a Sisyphean task, a saying which here means "a fruitless task initiated by a childish goddess for exorbitant amounts of money". Sisyphean tasks are often difficult, if not impossible, to complete, akin to completing a particularly difficult essay, or attempting to best a master gymnast at the triple jump. Such tasks are not engaged in by the sane, unless some incentive is given to complete the task, such as in this case, exorbitant amounts of money.

— Opening narration in the IC thread.

Fire Emblem on Forums: Wonderful Blessing of Our Goddesses on This Beautiful World is one of the many installments in the series of Fire Emblem on Forums roleplays on the Bay 12 Forums. Set in the Standard Fantasy Setting of Generia, the story focuses around the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits assembled by Serena Thalassa Nereida, the Goddess of Water to accompany her to the Demon Lord and to defeat them, while encountering both friend and foe on the way and dealing with the absolute weirdness that is the world around them. The game is an Affectionate Parody to the isekai genre, other Fire Emblem on Forums games and the entire fantasy genre as a whole, with multiple elements of the setting intended as a send-up to standard fantasy features.

The IC thread can be found here and the OOC thread here.

The game also had a spinoff, The Whereabouts of Drink and Coin, following the adventuring guild called the Wharf Street Warriors several months before the events of Chapter 2 in Wonderful Blessing and focusing on them trying to survive one night in Ishim after a Frame-Up leaves them the target of every gang in the city. The IC thread can be found here and the OOC thread here. The spinoff has since concluded at 6 chapters.

Tropes applicable to Wonderful Blessing:

• Aerith and Bob: The party alone has a Keith, Jarvis, Vlad, Asuna and a Rosencrantz. Some of the other names are also this; the gargoyles Jeff and Don are actually Jeffany and Donniann.
• Affectionate Parody: Wonderful Blessing is this to isekai series, High Fantasy and Fire Emblem on Forums as a whole.
• Background Music Override: Orobas' theme does this whenever he shows up; Pledge of Demon overrides any current theme while Orobas is on the map.
• Bait-and-Switch: Several in the game, with the first chapter being a good example:
  • In the first chapter, the party is initially led to believe that Rosencrantz plans an ambush on them by setting up a story with a broken wagon. It is shortly revealed that said broken wagon was actually broken (and that they legitimately needed the party's help to lift the wagon into Begnin), only for it to be revealed that some of the caravan guards are Sword Art Online fans through one of them dropping a wood carving of Sinon, and thus want to hurt one of the party members who heavily resembles Asuna, only for it to be revealed that that the image of Sinon is actually an drawing of the wife of one of the caravan guards (who ends up leaving out of exasperation and missing his wife and kids) and the real reason that the party ends up in a fight is due to the caravan guards wanting to kidnap Asuna for the reward.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Freya and Serena's wishes that they grant for Revivians who want to reincarnate into Generia, respectively, can turn out to be this; Freya is massively incompetent at granting wishes and so will screw up even simple wishes, while Serena will grant you exactly what you wished for and no more, requiring the wisher to think about the unintended consequences of their wish before making it. Yliss and Keith were victims of Freya's messing up their wishes, while Asuna, who wished to be Asuna from Sword Art Online, ends up being a victim of Serena's instead as her wish turned her into a Dude Magnet with people constantly making creepy advances to her wanting to fulfil their fantasies of being with the fictional Asuna.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Parodied with the In-Universe gacha game Clash of Legends; Yliss and Serena complain about various elements of the game, including the various things one can pay for in-game to make acquiring costumes and characters easier.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: The story, as more of the Ancient Conspiracy behind the setting comes to the fore, rotates from light-hearted isekai comedy to epic story about fighting the gods and everything in between.
• The Conspiracy: It's heavily implied that the Goddess Dragons might be this, given that they silence Leviathan's attempt to tell the truth of the conflict between the Demon Lord and the Goddess Dragons, that they stop Serena and Borea from contacting Discordia and that it's implied Freya sent Borea down to Generia on purpose.
• Denser and Wackier: Wonderful Blessing is this in comparison to other Fire Emblem on Forums games, with a heavy reliance on comedy, gags and general zany shenanigans and being a massive Whole-Plot Reference to KonoSuba.
• Establishing Series Moment: The OOC thread's narration, which starts in a style similar to other narrations in other roleplays, before launching into an irritated tirade by the Goddess Serena, setting the tone for the game.
  • In the actual roleplay, the Demon Generals' meeting, putting on display the general parodic, irreverent nature of Generia's setting.
• Evil Overlord: The Demon Lord Mephistopheles, who is supposed to be the creator of all the Demon Generals, and subsequently all of the Demon Races and Hellrealm that plagues Generia.
• Eye Catch: The roleplay actually employs these with chapter headers.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Parodied; Kaisei is Japanese due to the huge population of Japanese outworlders, while Midgardia is compared to Las Vegas specifically.
• Fantastic Racism: Present in several ways in the setting:
  • The Goddess Dragons tend to not like demons, as Serena puts on display. Demon races are also heavily implied to be discriminated against, although not too heavily; goblins seem to be part of adventuring parties regularly without too much complaint (Benedict is a retired adventurer while Rosencrantz went to adventuring academies in Midgardia), blobs are taken on as pets and companions and succubi make up one of the better-performing industries in Generia.
  • Revivians (humans who have reincarnated from Earth into Generia) tend to be looked down on by the native Generians as hammy, boisterous and delusional idiots. Among Revivians, fans of Kirito are seen as the lowest of the low, with Kazuto (a Revivian adventurer who wished himself into becoming Kirito) constantly having to fight people who hate Kirito. There are also Revivians such as Asuna and Asahi who, having faced harassment due to the characters they ended up resembling, hate other Revivians.
• Forever War: The war between the Goddess Races (and to a large extent the Demon Races that are not aligned with Hellrealm) and Hellrealm has been going on so long the Goddess Dragons have called in heroes from other worlds, or Revivians, to try to end the war somehow. The origins of the Forever War are part of the Ancient Conspiracy, as Freya kicked it off by having the peace-loving Demon Lord, Queen Demogorgia killed before she could negotiate peace terms with the mortals.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Wonderful Blessing is an Affectionate Parody, unlike most other games in the Fire Emblem on Forums series. It is also explicitly far more fantastical, with other races such as elves and dwarves existing, far more comedic and explicitly connected with some version of Earth (the kingdom of Kaisei is populated by Japanese people that Serena and Freya brought over to fight the Demon Lord).
• Fourth Wall Psych: The narration in the OOC thread seems to be setting up a narration similar to that of other games of the type and seems to be talking to the prospective players, but is actually In-Universe as something Serena is saying to people she might be attempting to recruit for her mission.
• Gone Horribly Right: The creation of the Blood Creation Ritual for Vampires was this; hoping to solve their resource problems, Vampires instead caused their society to collapse into decadence and hedonism as, no longer needing any other sustenance, vampires were now lost on what to do and spent all their time partying themselves into oblivion.
• Jerkass Gods: Serena, the Goddess guiding the team, is lazy, arrogant and petty, and it's heavily implied the vast majority of the other Goddess Dragons are worse than she is which is eventually confirmed. Even the Demon Generals are far more reasonable than them, if Belphegor is anything to go by. This is, however, averted by Borea, who's fairly pleasant, if dumb.
• Lighter and Softer: Than most other Fire Emblem on Forums games; Wonderful Blessing is one of the few games to eschew the Permadeath rules (with the In-Universe justiifcation being that Serena, as the Goddess of Healing, can easily resurrect anyone who dies), there are maps with no actual casualties, and the general setting is far more comedic in nature.
• Medieval Stasis: Averted within the setting; the magic communication tablets common to adventuring parties have bought program-equivalents to UberEats, Tinder and even a gacha game to the setting, and it's heavily implied that the last one was brought over by the citizens of Kaisei (who are outworlders from Japan), given the company responsible is in Kaisei.
  • Later on, televisions are shown displaying football games in the equivalent of sports bars, and there are actually workers' unions; solving the crisis of Begnin's adventurer training centres going on strike is the impetus for Chapter 1's battle.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Two types; the Goddess Dragons, who are, well, gods, who were responsible for all of Creation and mundane dragons, who are incredibly powerful and wise but too lazy to do anything but stay in their caves and laze about.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: They have an immense Complexity Addiction, are obsessed with their own beards and are one of the two races that enjoy the manga Kaisei brought over, the other being the elves.
• Our Elves Are Different: Elves in Generia are all massive nymphomaniacs, with their people being incredibly reclusive due to immense hangovers and bodily soreness for reasons of constant partying at night. This is to the point that Elves are often mistaken for Succubi, who are not nearly as obsessed with sex despite the name.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires in Generia's setting have the ability to create blood using a cantrip; this discovery actually caused all of Vampire society to collapse when it was created, due to no longer having to feed on mortals to survive. Vampires now entertain themselves with constant partying and stupid stunts in the vein of Jackass and only don't go out in the day due to a combination of crippling hangovers and getting bad sunburn.
• Punny Name: The continent is called Generia, the first major kingdom that the characters visit is called Begnin, and the last kingdom on the Seven Kingdom Path is called Penultia. The kingdom populated by isekai protagonists is fittingly called Kaisei, while the one where wyverns come from is called Wybernia.
  • One of the footballers referred to during the story, Crisco Monty, or a reference to Monte Cristo sandwiches.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The party gathered by Serena is this as she couldn't actually attract competent or sane adventurers.
• Recurring Element: The Fire Emblem is a recurring element in both the original franchise and FEF roleplays. In Wonderful Blessing? It's more or less the equivalent of a Gym Badge.
• Reincarnate in Another World: Revivians, a subset of humans dragged over from Japan after their deaths to fight the Demon Lord, are all this to the point that the trope was taken to its logical conclusion; not only are outworlders not considered special, but there's an entire kingdom of them and they have a terrible reputation due to being considered weird and foreign as the vast majority of them are also the type of nerds who would generally be protagonists in non-parody pieces. Four of the protagonists (Asuna, Keith, Momotarou and Yliss) are Revivians, while one of the Mooks they fight mentions having a Revivian wife.
• Schizo Tech: Generia has swords and magic alongside crystal tablets that effectively serve as smartphones with playable gacha games, equivalents to UberEats and Tinder. The setting also has "innovations" brought over by Revivians such as maid cafes, manga and light novels.
• Seven Deadly Sins: The Demon Generals, the top soldiers of the Demon Lord, are all based on this.
• Shout-Out: Many, many shoutouts:
  • The entire plot and setting is based on KonoSuba to the point that Serena is an Expy of Aqua and the roleplay's title is based on the full title of the light novel.
  • For chapter titles:
    • The Prologue chapters (Symphony of Destruction and 500 Miles) are references to Megadeth and The Proclaimers.
    • Chapter 1 (Starting Life With This Useless Goddess From Zero) is a reference to the full title of Re:Zero.
    • Chapter 2 (I'm An Anime Waifu, So What?) is a reference to So I'm a Spider, So What?.
    • Chapter 3 (Crazy Noisy Bizarre Kingdom) is a reference to the first opening for the anime adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable.
  • For Kingdoms and Kingdom names:
    • Cornelia is a Shout-Out to Final Fantasy, while Lindblum is one to Final Fantasy IX.
    • The settlements of Exsten, Chilcenne, Govitz and Morcia in Begnin are references to the roleplays of BMM42, a prolific member of the FEF community. Multiple references to his games are also found in Begnin; one of the training centers is named for one of his characters, while Izzarra University, an adventurer academy in Begnin, is named for his game Liberation of Izzarra.
    • The cities of Batali and Cizek are references to Death to Traitors and Final Hour respectively, referring to Wyvern Riders in those roleplays.
    • The cities of Ishim and Aviane are references to FEF 6 and Liberation of Izzarra respectively, as characters of the Game Master in those games.
    • The city of Boingberg in Blobbonia is a shout out to Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.
    • The cities of Melromarc, Lugunica and Belzerg in Kaisei are references to The Rising of the Shield Hero, Re:Zero and KonoSuba respectively; justified In-Universe as it's heavily implied they were named by fans of the light novel series they reference who reincarnated into Generia.
  • The opening narration for the chapters are heavily based on the narration style of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
  • Serena's Personal Skills are all based on the song All Star while Rosencrantz's are based on Ace of Spades. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are themselves a reference to Hamlet.
  • Orobas is a walking reference to Yakuza 0 and Kuze in particular.
  • Lautia and Ardenta refer to Serena and Marcia as sassy lost mortals.
• Standard Fantasy Setting: Generia is a massive riff on this, with the exception of Kaisei; there are (massively lazy) dragons, immensely perverted elves, dwarves who are obsessed with building complex contraptions, Fantasy Character Classes canonically exist and the villain that Serena wants to destroy is the vaguely defined Demon Lord.
• Tongue-Tied: What happens to anyone who attempts to expose the truth behind the war between the Goddesses and the Demon Lord, as Leviathan finds out.
• Wutai: The kingdom of Kaisei, populated with isekai protagonists and influenced by Japanese culture.
• Wham Line:
  Taro: Well, for whatever reason, Freya sent Borea down here; I'm thinking there's something fishy going on up there, considering how she described it.
  Belphegor: Now, you might say, no shit. Except....well, there are eight Demon Generals. Not seven. There have always been eight of us.
  • Not the line itself but the lack of one; Leviathan being Tongue-Tied when she attempts to tell the truth about the Goddess Dragons heavily implies that the Goddesses are straight-up suppressing the truth about the war between them and the demons.

Tropes applicable to The Whereabouts of Drink and Coin

• Badass Crew: The Warriors, naturally. The Drake Park Chiefs and Starlight Soldiers are lesser versions of this compared to the Warriors.
• Big Damn Heroes: Belphegor during the fight on the tram singlehandedly defeats the entire Runner contingent sent to deal with the protagonists. Also, The Boss, along with Belphegor and the Starlight Soldiers, at the end of the game.
• Enemy Mine: The Warriors and the Chiefs form this once they realise that the Frame-Up is in play to deal with the Runners.
• Escort Mission: The entire game is this; the main lord, Nico, is the Boss' sister, and the players have been tasked with getting her home in one piece.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire game takes place within one very bad night.
• Fight Magnet: The Warriors. Downplayed unlike their inspirations, as every gang is well aware that the Warriors, being actual adventurers, would wallop them in a fight. They simply make the mistake that only eight Warriors pose no actual threat to them...
• Frame-Up: The Warriors are framed for the supposed death of the leader of the Drake Park Chiefs, Cassius. It turns out Cassius survived the assassination attempt due to another Warrior, Hare and survives the end of the game.
• Gaiden Game: It is this to Wonderful Blessing, taking place in the same setting but months before the main events and confined entirely to the city of Ishim. Several characters from Wonderful Blessing are referenced, such as Anya (who fights alongside both Team F and the Warriors), Jarvis, Keith and Belphegor.
• Gang of Hats: Every gang bar the Chiefs the party encounters. And the Runners.
• More Criminals Than Targets: The only friendly faces the party encounters are Owyn, Anna (both who were fighting them to begin with), Belphegor, Asmodeus, Hitomi and Anya (who were both fighting their enemies). They later add Junius to the list once it's clear that the Chiefs were set up the same as the Warriors.
• Run the Gauntlet: The Warriors have to fight their way through basically every gang (and some non-gangs) in Ishim City to get home.
• Stern Chase: The Warriors are subjected to this by the Chiefs and every gang, who want their blood.
• Shout-Out: This game's name is one to Yakuza 7's Japanese title, The Whereabouts of Light and Darkness. The Wharf Street Warriors are, of course, named for The Warriors.
  • The Starlight Soldiers are an entire guild of Sailor Moon expies. Hitomi's title in the epilogue is even Shadow of Jupiter.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Drink and Coin is this to The Warriors, with the players even sharing the same guild name as the eponymous Warriors.