Art of Domination is an Interactive Comic by Mayu Zane, hosted on the MS Paint Adventures forums.
The story revolves around an alien army, the Saramis Alliance, attempting to annex a human colony in response to having one of their own colonies being attacked. The Saramis expected little resistance as the locals had outdated weaponry, but they soon discover that the planet has a lot of nasty, otherworldly surprises.
The adventure has continued on in the Eagle-Time forums, after the MSPA forums went down: Eagle-Time(dot Org) thread.
This webcomic includes examples of:
- Action Girl: Commander Vora, Hawkeyes and several other female soldiers.
- Action Mom: Vora, who has two sons and still serves the Alliance military.
- Aroused by Their Voice: Hawkeyes really likes Ghulls' voice.
- Artifact of Doom: The titular Art of Domination.
- Attack Drone: The Hunter drone.
- Battle Couple: Commander Vora and General Lagan are both war veterans and have gone into battle together. Same goes with Hawkeyes and Ghulls, as well as Ventica and Leon.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: One of these occurs while Vora is having a dream.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion: What the invasion of Planet-117 seems to be, at least to the Saramis and those not loyal to President Smith.
- Big Book of War: 'Winning Wars', by General Lagantis Primevex. The Art of Domination can count as one too.
- Big-Breast Pride: Koda Serivi, a geneticist who has developed cosmetic genetic therapy that made plastic surgery obsolete and likes being busty.
- Censor Box: Shows up a few times.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The one-eyed prisoner in Region 1 who worships a rat named 'Cheet-cheet'.
- Cute Kitten: Vora's one-eyed pet, Sergeant Fluffers.
- Demolitions Expert: Anna 'Hawkeyes' Reznov, a mercenary skilled in chemistry and explosive devices.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Ul'nayeth, who prefer to be called 'Authors'.
- Eldritch Location: Planet-117’s moon.
- Elite Mooks: Smith's special Triple-Core soldiers, armed with their latest tech.
- Enemy Exchange Program: Once the Saramis Alliance takes control of a human-populated Region, they can start recruiting human militia.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: The Bodyjackers, who can shove eggs into other creatures which immediately spawns another Bodyjacker.
- Fantastic Racism: Most of the Saramis Alliance doesn't think much of the Hiradian saramis, who are often considered to be narrow-minded, poor and uncultured. Hiradians can't even join the regular army unless they had a reputation in the criminal world as competent leaders or assassins.
- Four-Star Badass: General Lagan and his childhood friend Madnas are both generals and eagerly join in direct combat.
- Frozen Face: The Saramis species as a whole lacks facial expressions in the context of expressing emotions. They rely more on gestures and body language.
- Genius Bruiser: General Lagan, who used to be a lawyer before joining the army and made a career out of being a terrifyingly effective soldier and leader.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Commander Vora cares about dealing against injustices and preventing atrocities, but is definitely not an idiot.
- Handsome Lech: Rainhar, who has had numerous bedmates.
- Happily Married: Vora and Lagan, who have been married for 20 years at the start of the story.
- Hollywood Hacking: Pretty much every hacker in the story does this.
- Hover Tank: They show up armed with rockets.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Vora and her husband Lagan, who has Giant's Syndrome, making him abnormally large. As in, the size of six or seven normal Saramis large.
- Humanity Is Insane: Downplayed; the Human Federation's military uses a lot of unconventional weapons and tactics to the point that they seem nonsensical, except they actually work (most of the time).Human Federation Military's dominant philosophy is belief in the power of surprise and the power of implausibility.
They generally believe that weird weapons are the best kind of weapons because:
A) No one will ever see it coming until it is too late
B) Whoever survives will have a hard time convincing others that it was real. - Humanoid Aliens: The Saramis, insectoid aliens who nevertheless look human-shaped but have three fingers on each hand and three eyes, as well as an exoskeleton.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Servants of Saramis unfortunately think this is how you deal with prisoners after a victory.
- Internal Reformist: General Lagan and Commander Vora are essentially this, tired of the corruption and rigid traditionalism of the Saramis Alliance.
- Interspecies Romance: Human-saramis couples are rare but they do happen. Other species also have romantic relationships with aliens.
- Kill Sat: The starship Enderfist serves as one for the Alliance, delivering heavy artillery from orbit.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: In general, Saramis scientists look down on those among them who aren't developing weapons. Medical genius Koda Serivi was pressured into designing a rifle, which came out with some glaring flaws.
- La Résistance: The pro-Smith rebels, known simply as 'The Resistance'. There are anti-Smith guerrillas as well, like Cobalt Fury.
- Mad Scientist: President Smith's research teams are primarily composed of these, and form the basis of Smith's 'nightmare factory'
- Master Race: Everyone who reads the Art of Domination comes to believe their species is a superior race and will actively attack anyone who isn't of the same species, especially an alien species that has been designated as their rivals. The Saramis Purity Union, for example, believes that everyone else in the universe should either be destroyed or enslaved.
- May–December Romance: Lagan was thirty while Vora was eighteen when they got married.
- Mind-Control Device: Smith's regime uses these a lot, especially the Brainbeasts.
- Mind Rape: A huge risk when dealing with anything related to the Art of Domination and the Authors.
- Myopic Architecture: On a building, the walls are much less sturdy than the doors. In order to distract from it, the doors were made big and attention-grabbing. It worked.
- Nicknaming the Enemy: Smith's forces call the Saramis 'bugheads'.
- Plant Aliens: The Aflong race, which can naturally grow weapons like explosive fruits to attack flying targets.
- Player Headquarters: The Enderfist is where Commander Vora sends most of her orders from, while the planet-side HQ is the one that relays her messages and runs the more mundane administrative tasks.
- Private Military Contractors: Several.
- Really Gets Around: Rainhar Kasar.
- Religion of Evil: The Servants of Saramis cult, though this is mainly because they completely misunderstood everything they learned about the Saramis race.
- "Risk"-Style Map: The Region Map, which Vora uses to plan troop movements.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Both Vora and Lagan strongly believe in this, willing to go against the law if they believe obeying the law will make things worse. Smith is useing this to his advantage.
- Shared Mass Hallucination: A few creatures are implied to be this. The Car of Destiny is the best example of it as it has no weight and can pass through solid objects.
- Starfish Aliens: Alone, the strange life-form that both the Alliance and Smith's forces come into contact with.
- Stealth Expert: The Saramis Spec Ops soldiers are primarily a black-ops division, using invisibility cloaks along with more standard espionage techniques to get the job done.
- Superweapon Surprise: Planet-117's forces may mostly have outdated equipment, but they have a lot of secret weapons waiting for the Saramis.
- Surveillance Drone: The Seeker drones in the Alliance arsenal.
- Take a Third Option: Happens a lot, thanks to the readers providing suggestions.
- Token Evil Teammate: Intruder, who is an Author helping out not because he cares about the saramis or humanity, but because he wants to spite his rivals.
- Was Once a Man: Numerous monsters that show up used to be ordinary people.
- We Have Reserves: Smith consideres everyone outside of Region One to be expendable.
- Would Hurt a Child: Ventica and Leon had indeed murdered children during their time in the Circle of Justice, but they were being mind-controlled by a device attached to their brains when it happened, so they were forgiven.
- Uplifted Animal: In the Human Federation, when animal-rights organizations protested the use of Weaponized Animals, the military responded by uplifting them and giving them the option to enlist, since Earth belongs to them too. Combined with the humans' war philosophy, this led to such weirdness as sapient cat-piloted Mini Mechas.
- Zerg Rush: Attempted by Smith's forces when the Alliance invades Region 4, to minimal effect.
