The Three Relics
is a Play-by-Post Pokémon roleplay guild on Gaia Online that was started in 2005 inside the Gaian Pokemon Academy by the user Mitsuko'. It follows the adventures of a group of young Pokemon trainers as they work towards their personal goals as trainers and coordinators. While it started as a much more comedic roleplay, the story-line hit puberty and everything sort of changed from there. In line with this shift in maturity, the focus of the story changed from the day to day life of the average Pokemon trainer, to the development of the characters through backstory and personal connections.
The Three Relics is currently headed by Airelesanya, Mikallen, and Andragoran.
The Three Relics can be described with, but is not limited, to the following tropes:
- Artifact Title: The relics were initially foreshadowed to have a significant impact on the plot (Giovanni having found one in Diglett's Cave), but have since been glossed over at best.
- Battle Couple: Mike and Kasiya, the two are extremely protective of one another.
- Battle Theme Music: To date, there has been two 'official' soundtracks released. These are made by players selecting music they feel exemplifies their characters, as to help other players understand and enjoy their work.
- Busman's Holiday: Any time these damn kids go anywhere, whether it be the beach, a festival, or even a hike, they run into trouble.
- Cataclysm Backstory: The Lilycove Incident: Where ancient Pokemon Groudon and Kyogre were summoned in Lilycove City by Team Magma and Team Aqua, an act that leveled a good portion of the city and left many dead.
- Cerebus Syndrome: While some characters (Mike, Kilik, Nina) started down the path of troubled and gritty earlier than others, the Slateport Beach Party incident (in which Giovanni crashed the party and revealed dark secrets of the main cast on national television) can be seen as the major event that changed the overall tone of TTR.
- Civilized Animal: Several of the character's Pokemon display very human-like personalities. Anna, Nina's Misdreavus, Karri, Mitsu's Gardevoir, Portabello, Mike's Breloom, and Mitsu's Lucario.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Mitsu and Mike take the proverbial cake, one having accidentally slaughtered a city attempting to protect the girl he loved, the other is a living experiment.
- Experience Points: Each post grants you a base amount of experience. Posts with specific Pokemon grant that specific Pokemon experience. Each tenth page, experience is tallied and added to the Pokemon, base experience divvied up as per the moderators discretion.
- Fanservice: The aforementioned Beach Party, and that shower and bath scenes are written (at times) rather teasingly.
- Free-Range Children: From volcanos to shopping malls, these kids go places.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Certain technical aspects of the game don't appear in TTR, such as stats, attack damage, accuracy and other intricacies. Actual fights between players and NPCs are done on the honor system.
- Hammerspace: Seriously. Where the hell do these kids find the pocket space for half this crap? Especially those kids with bikes.
- Hitchhiker Heroes: Most of the characters started out alone, and met others along the way, forming small clicks that occasionally travel together.
- Inspiration Nod: Notable examples include Blazblue and an ass-load of Buffy.
- Money for Nothing: Gold is given to players for each level they gain, but where the money is received from is never explained, so characters have dug into their wallets to find out they are rich.
- Not Quite Dead:
- Sabrina after getting shot by Team Rocket, posing as a Rocket grunt after nursing her wound.
- Out of Focus: Has happened frequently over the seven years of the roleplay, mostly due to them growing up and attending school, having children, etc.. Most return, however, some don't.
- Pokémon Speak: In play except when it comes to Pokemon with telepathic abilities, including a very well-mannered Breloom.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The policy has always stood that 'Real life comes first!'. As such, there have been many instances of players taking extended absences, or at times, simply disappearing.
- Side Quest Sidestory: The bulk, if not all of the plot in TTR stems from character-centered arcs rather than an overarching narrative.
- Talkingisa Free Action: These kids can sure say a lot in between Pokemon attacks, which for all intents and purposes should only be a few seconds.
- Team Mom: Airelesanya, player of Kasiya, Jaeshan and many others, current head of TTR and guild leader of the GPA.
- Team Spirit: Not only with the Pokemon themselves, but the trainers at many points have to team up to take on challenges.
- Versus Character Splash: Many of the players have created sprites and splash sprites to make the characters feel more authentic in the Pokemon world.
- Wall of Text: Happens often enough, especially when players are posting alone with multiple NPCs.
