Webcomic / Ashtarte

Ashtarte, (아슈타르테) is a Korean web novel, later adapted as a webcomic, by Daon.

Ashtarte Firezne may be a princess, but’s she treated anything but. Even though she’s the legitimate born daughter of the royal family, she’s abandoned in favor of Amaryllis, her half-sister who’s born from a commoner. Why? Practically everyone believes when Horeom, the high priest, reveals a prophecy that Ashtarte is brought into this world as dark star that will consume the light and Amaryllis is the light that will bring prosperity to the kingdom. All of this because Ashtarte is born with black hair and yellow eyes while Amaryllis inherited the royal family’s traditional white hair and green eyes. Ashtarte only has her maid Leona Juerez and knight Ashton as friends. By some magical accident leads her to Rion who agrees to train her, and gives her a lesson in life on Family of Choice. In the meantime, her half-brothers, particularly her eldest, start to regret how neglectful they treated Ashtarte and try to make up for lost time. What will Ashtarte choose?

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Ashtarte contains examples of the following tropes:

• Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed as even to the end, Amaryllis is still a bitch to Ashtarte during their final talk which she intends to kill her sister with poisoned tea that to be safe she intends to drink as well and Amaryllis is clearly counting on her nature as a homunculus to at least save her. But after both girls drink poisoned tea. Amaryllis is instead horrified when the poison affects her too, and arguably worse than Ashtarte, and unlike the sister she hated, Amaryllis does in fact die. Horeom cruelly decides to use her death to justify an Empire-wide witchhunt for Ashtarte, claiming she killed the chosen one. In the end, Amaryllis died a very cruel death, her whole life up until now as but a tool for a man who, despite touting her as the rightful savior of the empire, was in fact the man who engineered her existence and the false prophecy she came attached with and let her die to fufill her needs because he saw her death as a much more productive way to get what he wanted. Oh and she also dies knowing that she never was human at all.
• All-Loving Hero: Ashtarte is one of the kindest people and definitely stands out amongst her family for being as openly warm and friendly as she is, instead of the ice cold indiference the rest of her family shows to everyone else. However, that's not to say she herself loves EVERYONE. See Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones down below for more.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Ashtarte is believed by the majority of the population to be born from a prophecy of that will bring down the empire. All on account that she’s born with black hair while the rest of her family is traditionally born with white hair. For that she’s neglected and feared by everyone except Leona and Ashton, the only servants who don’t believe in the prophecy and wholeheartedly loves her. Her own father and older half-brothers abandoning her at birth while showering Amaryllis with affection at the same time is a whole new level of low.
• Alpha Bitch: Amaryllis acts like an innocent angel towards everyone except Ashtarte, on account that everyone believes in the prophecy that she’s the light that will bring good luck to the empire. She tried to steal Ashtarte’s prized hairpin that Leona gave her out of pure spite, but when told no, tried to take it by force. She later invites Ashtarte to tea party without telling her that their whole family is invited as well, just so Amaryllis can flaunt her favoritism. Amaryllis even shows off new hairpin because their father gave it to her, as if to rub it into Ashtarte’s face that she’s not loved.
• Artificial Human: Turns out, Amaryllis isn't really a true member of the royal family, but is actually a homunculus, a green blooded artificial human created from black magic, with the royal family's blood being used as her base to give her the defining white hair nearly exclusive to them. Her birth mother isn't even her actual mother, as she is merely a vessel used to carry the fetus to full term, meant to die as soon as she is born. The reason she was created is because High Priest Horeom had actually faked the prophecy and wanted to use the homunculus princess for means that would eventually give the temple more power. Amaryllis is also unaware of this herself until one day, she pricks her finger and bleeds for the first time in her life and it's bright, clearly inhuman green, which she knows means she is not a real person, and she rightfully freaks out at this.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • All Ashtarte wanted was for her own family to take her back into the fold and love her. It takes 10 years for them to reunite and it’s only by chance.
    • One by one Ashtarte finds her half-brothers either neglectful, cruel, or both (her oldest threatens to have her killed just for addressing him as “brother” instead of as the crown prince, even proclaiming Amaryllis as his only sister). While happy to receive her first gift from the family by Noah, she overhears Miragen had told him the cape was thrown out because it got dirty. Ashtarte is so heartbroken, she runs off crying, telling herself she’s not dirty, and decides then and there she’s done with her family. It’s far from the truth, but the damage’s been done beyond repair.
    • She meets her father, Emperor Orwen, by a freak accident and on their second meeting, bemoans over Rebecca, his last wife and her mother, abandoned him while she was pregnant. Her Death by Childbirth may have been another factor in his neglect towards Ashtarte. Not even an hour into their reunion, her father is ushered off to a council meeting, leaving her all alone. Ashtarte finds herself disappointed over how their meeting went and is very happy to leave with Leona and Ashton.
    • Don’t even get us started with her half sister acting all sweet when they meet, then in the blink of an eye demanding she give her the very hairpin Ashtarte cherished because Leona gave it to her, then Amaryllis snaps and tries to take it by force when told she cannot have it.
  • Her time with Rion made her realize she doesn’t need to hold onto false hope of her family’s acceptance. By chapter 40 she makes it clear she’s done with them and is fine living by herself.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Amaryllis is believed to be “the light of the empire” from a prophecy, and is very sweet to everyone she meets, until she meets Ashtarte and tries to attack her over a hair clip. Then rumors start to spread over the incident, claiming that Ashtarte is the mean one while Amaryllis is innocent.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In chapter 40, Ashtarte finally tells her family she intends to stay in the empress’s palace and never wants to come back into their lives.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Rion’s backstory. His family tried hard to hide his magic from their home country’s tyrant of an emperor(a different one, not Ashtarte’s father), but when word got out, Rion and his father are forced to meet him and his heir. The emperor demands Rion to show him his true powers, but he and his father deny it. The emperor’s solution? Repeatedly stab his father! Not enough? Bring out Rion’s mother and younger brother and threaten to kill them on the spot unless Rion shows his magic! As Rion hesitate over what to do, the emperor has them killed anyway. Rion’s so furious, he doesn’t realize he’s revealed his powers. Just as the emperor is gloating over his desire to conquer the entire continent, Rion tries to kill him, until his father pleads him to stop. Then he passes on before his very eyes. Rion is forced into exile while word gets out that HE murdered his own family! No wonder he’s filled with hate against the world, until he meets Ashtarte.
  • Ashtarte’s past life was this as well. She was once a little girl living in poverty until her parents sold her into slavery. She’s bought by a family of noblemen, and the children treated her as nothing more than a toy they can brutalize. When they got bored of her stoic demeanor, the kids decide to outright poison her. As she died, she prayed to be born into a happier life with a loving family in her next life. What she got was far from that.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Noah’s explanation to Ashtarte over the cloak he gave her. He proclaims he never meant to throw it away over his belief it got dirty because of her, just that it’s all a misunderstanding. It truth he’s right, as Miragen made it a big deal over what happened to his cloak that he favored the most, but Noah is jealous of always being second-best to him, enough to loose Ashtarte’s attention to Miragen. So he lied that he threw it away instead of being honest in gifting the cloak to Ashtarte. But instead of admitting his jealousy, Noah makes the mistake of stating he didn’t think Ashtarte would be nearby and hear his lies. Ashtarte is understandably furious and asks him point blank if he would have kept talking like nothing happened if she never heard his conversation with Miragen over the cloak, shocking Noah into apologizing.
• The Dog Bites Back: Rion’s family is brutally slaughtered by The Caligula of his home country, framed for their murders, and forced into exile. He plans for several years to start a coup with the cruel emperor’s illegitimate son to inherit the throne. Then Rion forces the asshole to watch as his equally cruel son and heir is killed in the same manner as his mother and younger brother, then kills the emperor with the same magical technique he originally wanted to use against the emperor but held back by his dying father.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Rion is rather blunt to Ashtarte that not everyone in the world will love her, but also points that it doesn’t mean she has to love everyone either. She takes this to heart as Ashtarte finds herself utterly loathing her half-brothers when they try to make amends, not out of love, but out of their guilt and self-loathing.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Ashtarte is indeed pure of heart and kind to nearly everyone she meets. Nearly. But ask her of her opinion on her brothers and father come the big timeskip, and she'll react with at best indifference to their attempts and outright remind them of their cruel abandonment of her with passive aggressive remarks at worst. She's still courteous since they are both her family and are the Emperor and his sons, but it's obvious she has lost whatever love she had for them.
• Family of Choice: It took a while for Ashtarte to accept her birth family was cruel to abandon her for her whole life, then suddenly drop into her life just cause they felt like it. Ashtarte starts to see Leona, Ashton, and Rion are her true family.
• Freudian Excuse: Miragen is very cold and emotionless, especially towards Ashtarte, but later flashbacks reveal his mother abused him into believing Virtue Is Weakness in order to groom him as the future emperor. He just didn’t know how to properly express his emotions to the same sister the high priest advised everyone to avoid since she’s believed to be the dark doom of the empire.
• I Have No Son!: Or rather, I have no sister. Miragen snaps when Ashtarte, calls him “Brother”, threatening to kill her unless she calls him by his royal title, proclaiming Amaryllis is the only one who can call him brother. He eventually regrets this and tries to implore Ashtarte into calling him brother. Fearing it’s a Secret Test of Character, she points out he ordered her to call him by his royal title. Miragen admits she’s right and feels extremely guilty over his past choice of words.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: It’s all Ashtarte ever wanted, to finally meet her family and be loved by them. The meeting is far from what she expected and it’s only by chance. Rion sets the record straight that she doesn’t have to love them if they don’t love her, especially for the 10 years of her life, they preferred Amaryllis over her. This makes her resolve to drop her obsession over them and accept their Beyond Redemption. But is more than okay with a Family of Choice.
• Jerkass Realization: Miragen visits the empress’s palace after Ashtarte disappears and is shocked over the horrid condition that a princess like Ashtarte to live in. Leona points out nobody ever cared to visit and never got a reply back whenever she tried to implore the main palace for more money and food. As a result of the royal family’s neglect, they’re always cold and starving. He’s even more shocked by how run down Ashtarte’s bedroom is and the few and very old dresses she owned prior to the ones he gifted her. Then Miragen realized from the time he reprimanded Ashtarte for keeping him warm with a “tattered old rug” after she healed him was actually her own dress. Miragen begins to cry as he thinks back to all the hurtful things he said to her.
• Kick the Dog: When Ashtarte calls Miragen as brother during their second meeting, he snaps back to never call him that, and proclaims Amaryllis is his only sister, thus Ashtarte should only call him by his title. Ashtarte points she’s also his sister, but Miragen coldly shoots back he would choose Amaryllis over her in a heartbeat. His guilt over his cold treatment to Ashtarte does eventuality catch up to him, and he especially regrets this event.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Ashtarte really loves the beautiful new dresses Leona gave her, since all her previous dress are very old and worn-out. Miragen confronts Leona over this, who reveals that he’s gifted Ashtarte the dresses and demands an explanation. Leona admits she did lied to spare Ashtarte the pain of getting her hopes crushed over her family neglecting her for years, suddenly pop into her life showering her with affection, only to abandon her again.
• Mama Bear:
  • Leona doesn’t take any shit from anyone daring to emotionally hurt Ashtarte. Even if it’s towards Ashtarte’s family with her own neck at stake, she’ll protect Ashtarte within her power from getting her hopes crushed and feelings stomped on from their neglect.
  • Ashtarte’s birth mother herself was no slouch either. While she was pregnant, Rebecca saw into the future that her own husband will kill their child. So she left him, lived in seclusion, and gave birth alone, at the cost of her life. Even before her death, Rebecca refused to cry her heart out over Owren sleeping with other women, because she believed it would risked harm to her unborn child.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Ashtarte believes this is the case during her reunion with Orwen because he’s pissed over Rebecca leaving him while pregnant with Ashtarte, only to suffer Death by Childbirth before they got a chance to reconcile. This makes Ashtarte hate her father for never wanting to meet her for her whole life, only to meet by a freak accident.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • For Miragen, it takes him a while, but he eventually gets wrecked with the guilt of his neglectful and cruel treatment to Ashtarte.
  • Noah also has this moment. Ashtarte tries to return his cloak he gifted to her, then she overheard his conversation with Miragen, who talks about how Noah didn’t want his cloak back because it’s “dirty”. Ashtarte was so heartbroken from this statement, she threw the cape down and runs off crying, all the while proclaiming she’s not dirty. The reality was that Noah’s jealous of Miragen and didn’t want to lose Ashtarte to him, so he lied to his brother that he threw it away. Noah is at a loss of words when he realized the weight of the damage he caused.
  • Orwen gets pushy with gifting Ashtarte her own knightage while denying that Rebecca gifted her the same hairpin he gifted her before Ashtarte’s birth. To prove her right, Ashtarte brings out her late mother’s diary and allows Orwen to read as much as he wants to dig into the truth. He reads over his late wife’s inner love towards him and excitement over their upcoming child, but suffers Death by Childbirth. By the end of it, Orwen is in tears and fully realizes the damage he has caused on neglecting the same child his beloved wife left behind and pleads with Ashtarte over whatever she may want. Her response is to leave her alone for at least the next ten years, since she’s fully deemed her father and half-brothers as Beyond Redemption. Since her own family abandoned her for her whole life, Ashtarte only wishes to return the favor and hurt them just like they have hurt but, and they agree. But it didn’t stop her family from sending over letters and flowers as a means to invite Ashtarte back into their lives, but she finds this repulsive and instead disposes of every gift they send.
• Never My Fault: Orwen is bitter over Rebecca abandoning him while she’s pregnant with their child. Ashtarte eventually inherits her mother’s diary, discovers that Rebecca found out her husband secretly taking in other women as well as foresaw the future and saw her husband killing Ashtarte. Rebecca knew Orwen never believed in prophecies, so warning him otherwise was pointless, so she had leave him in order to protect their child.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Emperor Orwen may be a neglectful to Ashtarte, but he does not sit down and let others talk badly of her while in the form of a Tranquil Fury.
    • He doesn’t take kindly to Horeom proclaiming newborn!Ashtarte as the dark star of the prophecy; while he did spare him, it’s later revealed Orwen destroyed half of the country’s temples in retaliation.
    • During a council meeting, a marquess refers to Amaryllis as “Firenze’s one and only morning star”, with the majority noblemen in attendance agree. Orwen asks him why he only called Amaryllis as such, and points out Ashtarte still exists, the other star from the prophecy that everyone seems to like. Orwen demands if anyone objects otherwise. Everyone gets the message and shuts up.
    • When Isaiah request to allow Ashtarte to be his guide, Horeom immediately objects and goes on a rant over his belief that Ashtarte is the dark star of the prophecy, thus she’s not suitable for the position. Orwen cuts him off and threatens he can and WILL personally behead Horeom unless he shuts up. Reluctantly, Horeum shuts his pie-hole and backs off.
• Parental Neglect: From the moment of her birth, Ashtarte never even met her father, until she’s 10 years old, and only because her magic spell to get back home that accidentally drop her into his room in the middle of the night. He mistakes her for his former wife and Ashtarte’s mother, but then she hurriedly leaves to get back to Loena. When they finally meet again, Orwen rants over Rebecca abandoning him while she was pregnant with her before she passed away from Death by Childbirth. Ashtarte speculates this is why he never wanted to see her until now, believing her father is taking out his frustration on his wife leaving him onto their daughter. Then Orwen quickly leaves her alone to attend a meeting. Afterwards he stops attempting to visit Ashtarte. Even when she spent her whole life longing for her family’s love and attention, Ashtarte herself is surprised that she’s glad her father stops trying to visit her. Yet whenever someone talks badly of her over her possible role in the prophecy, it brings out the Papa Wolf in Orwen.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Miragen is give twice of a callout over his treatment of Ashtarte. Even when everyone agrees they’re at risk of an execution, but fortunately Miragen doesn’t go through with it.
    • In chapter 5, Leona calls him out for acting cruel and neglectful towards Ashtarte at one minute, then lavish her with attention out of pure convenience, only to continue the cycle. The only reason Miragen doesn’t kill Leona on the spot is because he’s aware it will break Ashtarte’s heart to kill her only friend (at the point of confrontation) but warns her to know her place, because next time she might not be as lucky.
  Leona: Do you want to know something? You’re a coward, your highness. What’s the use in only being kind when you feel like it? You give her hope… just to crush it at the same time. Isn’t that what cowards do?
  • Miragen is relived when Ashtarte comes back in chapter 21 and decides to reunite with her. Even though his personal aide, Cale, is scared of the consequences, he reprimands Miragen for ignoring Ashtarte’s existence and expecting she’ll wholeheartedly forgive him without understanding her feelings.
  Cale: I have to call you out when you’re wrong. Forgive my insolence, your highness. But as your devoted servant, 10 years is already too late. What could possibly change after all this time? If you suddenly appear and starting showing her warmth, do you think she’ll be grateful? If I were her, I would resent you. She probably has people with her who are like family to her, and they’re probably much closer to her than you! I didn’t want to tell you this but… YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO APPROACH HER, YOUR HIGHNESS! YOUR ACTIONS WILL ONLY CAUSE CONFUSION!
  • Miragen stops in his tracks as he absorbs what Cale said, but points out sitting around and doing nothing will not change anything either.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Ashtarte makes it clear that she’s done dealing with crap from her extremely neglectful family and wants to get out of their lives, Miragen pleads with her over what it will take for her to forgive them. She snaps back at him to try waiting ten years like she did, then maybe she’ll consider forgiveness.
• The Unfavorite: The entire royal family abandoned Ashtarte at birth, while loving on Amaryllis. It takes 10 years for all of them to catch up with Ashtarte, but it’s far from warm and loving.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Ashtarte decides to return her brother’s belongs but overheard outside a room her brothers talking about Noah’s cape that he secretly gave her. Noah lied he got rid of the cape because he didn’t want to lose Ashtarte’s love and attention to Miragen, who points out that Noah told him he threw it away because it got dirty. Thinking they’re talking about her, Ashtarte throws down her half-brother’s things and runs off crying, telling herself she’s not dirty. The brothers come out the door but find Miragen’s book and Noah’s cape, coming to the conclusion Ashtarte heard everything. Noah does not take this well. Even after they explain their true intentions, Ashtarte refuses to forgive them, believing they’re Beyond Redemption.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ashtarte finds Miragen one night, badly bleeding from an assassin’s attack, so she nurses him back to health. Without so much as a thank you, ignores Ashtarte until he decides to pay her back with new dresses because he thought the dress she wore that night was too old for her, right after reprimanding her for keeping him warm with a blanket he considered tattered. Then Miragen threatens to kill Ashtarte when she addressed him as “brother” instead of his royal title. And the very tattered blanket he didn’t like? It’s actually her own dress. Miragen does come to regret this.
• You're Not My Father: Sibling variant. Miragen orders Ashtarte to never call him “brother” and only refer to him by his royal title as crowned heir, unless she has a death wish. He gets a Jerkass Realization and tries to encourage her into calling him “brother”, but it’s A Lesson Learned Too Well for Ashtarte, as she points out their last conversation over said issue, much to his dismay. By then she resents her half-brothers and father for never wanting to meet her until now, and only by chance and pure convenience. Ashtarte resolves to only call them by their titles and never as family.