Bethellium
, a webcomic by ABD, takes place in a fantasy world populated by anthropomorphic animals in which mages are hunted by inquisitors. However, the city of Bethellium secretly protects mages from persecution, hidden behind illusions and wards.
Zoana, a vixen alchemist living in a cabin in the woods, learns of the city when they ask for her help treating their Grandmaster's illness. However, she also attracts the suspicion of a princess on the city council with a history with another fox alchemist.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Youthful Father: After Katherine accuses Zoana of being the Red Hemlock's daughter she retorts that since he seemed to be in his early twenties when he was executed twenty-two years ago, he would have been five or six when she was born. It's later revealed that he, like Zoana, used Elixir to look younger than his actual age.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Zoana's specialty, she primarily uses it to create potions using Ritual Magic, but the transmutation process can require some rare ingredients.
- Conlang: The magical incantation Zoana performs in the first chapter includes German syllables and words such as "doch ereiss faltk", but is otherwise a made-up language.
- Elixir of Life: Zoana not only takes it regularly, she knows how to make it too, and it makes her look half her age.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Arguably a case where having loved ones made a character's crimes even more heinous. When Zoana admits to being the Red Hemlock's daughter, she confesses that he acted like nothing but a loving father to her, but after his arrest she started to wonder why all the gifts he gave her were used and occasionally had spots of blood on them.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Zoana has a wide-bore gun that seems to fire capsules of potion, but it seems unique.
- Functional Magic: Magic is classified by three categories of three, three sources (living energy, elemental spirits, and artifacts— alchemy is a kind of artifact), three channels of magic (mind, soul, body), and three objectives of magic (create, destroy, manipulate). The dark arts meanwhile pursue a fourth objective— corruption.
- Hidden Elf Village: Bethellium is concealed behind multiple layers of wards and illusions, including a bridge that seems impossibly long and mentally inclines newcomers towards turning back.
- Magic Music: Sonette's flute can enchant and paralyze creatures, if they can hear it.
- Necromancer: Necromancy is one of the forbidden dark arts, which is never written down and must be learned from a living necromancer or the summoned spirit of a dead one. The third story arc (ongoing as of this writing: 02/13/23) is about the city being under siege by a necromancer and their army of skeletons. They ("currently" haunting a thoroughly decayed corpse and muttering how it seems to take longer and longer to adapt to each new body) demonstrate their power by raising a handful of Elite Mooks created from the bones of both kinds of Precursors: the proto-Funny Animals Zauphar and the extinct Humphar.
- Older Than They Look: Zoana looks no older than her thirties but occasionally suggests that she's considerably older (old enough to unironically call herself an "old lady"). It comes out that she uses Elixir to slow her aging, as did her father. She uses this as part of her disguise: someone so young couldn't possibly be related to a certain notorious assassin who was executed 30 years ago, right?
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Katherine is not only an elemental mage and a member of the Bethellium council, but a princess of the city's host kingdom. In addition to her normal duties she's seen teaching young apprentices as punishment for the Hell she put Zoana and Elle through.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Katherine suspects Zoana is related to the alchemy-using Serial Killer known as the "Red Hemlock", and blames her for what he did to her family. This accusation is reason enough for doing everything she can to exile her from the city, if not kill her out of revenge. Zoana eventually confesses that she is his daughter, but manages to convince Katherine that he hurt her as well.
- World of Funny Animals: The anthropomorphic animals inhabiting this world are known as "anima."
