Dominic Deegan



Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire is a webcomic started by Michael "Mookie" Terracciano in 2002. It follows the life and times of Dominic Deegan, a messianic yet pessimistic seer who travels about with Spark, his feline comic relief, and assorted companions. Originally a lighter strip based on puns and wordplay, it became a famous case of Cerebus Syndrome, arguably starting with the "Visions of Doom" arc, but certainly by "Storm of Souls". Though many fans have bemoaned subsequent Moral Dissonance and the Flanderization of characters, Dominic Deegan has always attempted to maintain some of its earlier whimsy.

Opinions are deeply and sometimes loudly divided about the quality of the comic, and the comic has a substantial Hatedom.

As of May 21, 2012, Mookie has announced that the comic is in its final year.

List of Major Arcs:
 * Visions of Doom: Dominic, Luna, and Gregory head to Barthis to try and prevent a slaughter after Dominic receives a, well, vision of doom.
 * Ecstasy and Evil: Another vision leads Dominic and Luna to his friend, Szark, to warn him about it--they learn he's married to Luna's sister, and the both of them are sleeping with a rival seer.
 * Storm of Souls: The project of Dominic's brother, Jacob, calls up the Storm of Souls, the afterlife and weapon of an ancient cult of chaos, the Chosen, who proceed to try and harness it to take over/destroy the world.
 * The Battle for Barthis: Gregory, Donovan, and Melna put on a concert to fund the rebuilding of Barthis, which was destroyed during the Storm of Souls arc, while an amoral businessman tries to buy the town out from under its residents.
 * The War in Hell: The souls of the Chosen, having been banished to Hell, become a point of contention for Hell's lords and ladies, who go to war over it.
 * Two Thief or Not Two Thief?: Stunt and Bumper, a pair of thieves who tried (and repeatedly failed) to put one over on Dominic earlier in the comic try to make it big in the rebuilt Barthis, and bring on worse problems than they intended.
 * Class Action: Dominic starts teaching at his mother's school of magic.
 * Snowsong: A survivor of the Chosen assault on Barthis returns, intent on killing Gregory, thinking he murdered her fellow cult members. Gregory takes inspiration from an old Action Book he liked as a kid to deal with the problem.
 * The Shadow of Siegfried: Having died during the War in Hell, Siegfried wreaks havoc on his former friends in life.
 * The Oracle Hunter: An assassin targeting seers sets her sights on Dominic.
 * Around the World: Dominic and Luna go on vacation to take a load off and recharge their batteries, and meet up with some old friends, some new friends, and
 * Built To Resist: While Luna and Dominic are away things take a turn for the worse. Dex is suddenly out of his job as sheriff and unexpectedly runs into his ex-wife, Gregory gets dumped by Pamela, and Celesto returns... and a new enemy emerges in the form of "The Beast".
 * March Across Maltak: Dominic, Luna, Donovan and Melna head into Maltak after the storms ravaging it finally end, and have to find a way to help the native Orcs heal the land and their clans.
 * A Nimmel House: Nimmel begins his first semester at the Coldfire Academy in the Winter Archipelago, where he's the only human among werewolves.
 * B.Y.O.B: Gregory, searching for something to do with his life, learns to "Be Your Own Bard," and invents death metal.
 * Walk the Wild Edge: Stunt, now a guide in the Wild Edge territories, tries to stop his fellow guides from capturing and exploiting an innocent mongrel man.
 * The Court of Karnak: After serving as Karnak's knight during his rampage across Hell, Seigfried has had enough of serving under his master's thumb and rebels against him. Meanwhile, Bulgak Adrak awakes in Hell and faces the truth about his life and death. Behind all of it The Beast is once again on the move and slowly gathering strength.
 * Altered States: After learning that both of them are infertile, Dominic and Luna look into Alterism to see if they can solve the problem.
 * Symphony of Destruction: Dominic goes to the plane of destruction to battle against The Beast.
 * Face-to-Facebath: Luna and Dominic step up to help Gregory's bandmates deal with their personal issues.
 * Revelation: After the beast kills the mentor of the Arch-Magi it is left severely weakened and must try to consume more power. Further, the one who sustains and rules the beast is revealed
 * The Search for Celesto: Luna and Quilt go on a search to find Celesto after his extended absence to enlist his help in exposing The Beast's benefactor. When they finally find him, Szark and Dominic must stop Celesto's plan to expose The Beast on his own terms while Gregory and Luna uncover the shocking truth about the Royal Battlecasters.
 * I Do

Tropes A-C
""...let's just say that it's really good we're going on vacation."
 * Action Mom: Miranda Deegan
 * Added Alliterative Appeal: The author (or at least Spark) is prone to using these as an alternative form of wordplay.
 * Aerith and Bob: The comic runs the gamut, from normal (Gregory Deegan) to the bizarre (Runcible Spoon).
 * Just within the Orcs, we have Stonewater and Adrak Bulgak, though Stonewater is the literal translation for the Orcish word for ice.
 * ALLCAPS: Inverted; anyone whose portrayed as talking really quietly or high pitched is written in no-caps.
 * Aloof Big Brother: Jacob. As Gregory is the youngest of the three Deegan boys, Dominic sometimes comes off as this to Gregory.
 * Animesque: Peculiarly, the art style mimics lazily drawn anime. This seems to be an artistic conceit rather than laziness on the part of this particular artist, since such tropes as the Cheeky Mouth are unnecessary in a static art form.
 * And I Must Scream: The last poacher killed in the WILD EDGE is paralyzed and eaten alive by slimes.
 * Also, if your soul gets eaten in Hell, then you will experience being eaten for the rest of eternity.
 * Seems to be the fate of the Battlecasters currently being corrupted by the Beast.
 * Annoying Arrows: Dominic gets an arrowhead embedded into his arm without even flinching. He sports a dressing that afternoon, and walks with a cane using that arm the following day.
 * Used as Non-Lethal Warfare at the climax of the Maltak arc.
 * Eltu takes an arrow in the back, and is back in time for a Big Damn Heroes moment three strips later.
 * Anti-Hero: Stunt is a rougher-edged protagonist than most of the rest of the cast. He's among the few to carry a weapon, and while the rest of the Deegans prefer to capture or otherwise subdue their opponents (at least, the ones that aren't demons or zombies or monsters or something), Stunt is more often willing to kill (see the fight with Urban Eddie, and his attempt to cut the Infernomancer's throat much earlier in the comic). Ironically, he seemed to be not trying to kill the villainous poachers in his most recent spotlight, at least until they started trying to kill him.
 * Anti-Magic: Dex Garrit is a Resistant, meaning that no magic, harmful or helpful, can affect him directly.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: Jayden pulls a good one on Rilian All Rilian can do in response is give a couple of beats and give   without looking like a complete jerkass
 * Arrogant Fencing Guy / Insufferable Genius: Chance Masters, naturally talented and very egotistical.
 * Arrow Catch: Melna pulls this off, to the shock and amazement of her companions in this strip.
 * Art Evolution: After the first couple of years of improvements, the art quality has stayed about the same since. The only notable stylistic change recently is the addition of defined snouts for the Orcs. Mookie has said in an interview that while he can draw better, he feels the current art style fits the comic, and changing it wouldn't feel right.
 * Art Shift: Occasionally, close-ups, especially of Dominic, will be given increased detail.
 * Ascended Meme: "A Nimmel House" was originally a Fan Nickname for the arc. A few emails to Mookie, and it was official.
 * On one of the forums, the unnamed female poacher of Walk the Wild Edge would always be referred to as Vasquez, and was then officially dubbed, "Vaskez."
 * Aside Glance: Usually accompanied with an Incredibly Lame Pun. The author himself states in one of the books that it's "comedy gold!" and he'll never tire of it.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority  became an archmage just because he was that damn good.
 * Damn good enough to enchant the Archmages into not only making a Fifth Circle for him, but also to follow his every command.
 * The Atoner: Celesto has an... unusual view of how this trope works. Stunt plays it a bit straighter.
 * Attack Hello: Luna admitted their first encounter with Jacob scared the hell out of her. Their (rather, ) last meeting together, well...
 * Barnet stabs Dominic in the stomach on his porch when she first meets him.
 * At the Crossroads: Whenever someone reaches a metaphorical crossroads, Deegan sees everything in "gray" until that someone makes a decision.
 * Author Appeal: In his news posts, Mookie's often admitted his love for certain elements in the comic. Characters have spent entire strips focusing on food or drink that Mookie likes. Dominic's favorite food is Mavpel candy, an admitted Expy of one of Mookie's favorite candies.
 * He's more recently admitted that he likes drawing muscular orc girls because, well, he likes muscular orc girls.
 * Also, he is unapologetically a child of The Eighties.
 * He's hinted that he may have a certain fondness for breasts.
 * The B.Y.O.B. arc, according to the blurb this comic, is Mookie's tribute to metal--but it's directly inspired by a band he doesn't like.
 * Author Avatar: Not Dominic, as you might have thought. Mookie has stated (in his third book) that Dominic's father Donovan is who he considers to be most like himself. Indeed, the two often behave similarly, and share a sense of humor. The confusion largely stems from the fact that, when he draws himself, Mookie's self-portrait is virtually identical to Dominic. This is partly due to a serious case of Only Six Faces.
 * Badass Boast: Nimmel makes one to himself where he explains the real reasons he went to the Coldfire Academy, just before trying to break up a fight between his friend and the Alpha Bitch, and before she sends more werewolves to attack him.
 * Badass Normal: Rachel. Inverted somewhat with Dex, who has a rare condition that makes him immune to magic, and is thus one of the few surviving characters who can hold his own in a serious fight without magic.
 * Bad Dreams: In an early comic, Dominic makes a distinction between his visions of doom, and just regular old nightmares, and notes he's learned to differentiate between them.
 * Battle Aura: Gregory's white magic gives him a pretty cool one. And occasionally gives one to his enemies.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind: Dominic's preferred combat venue. He's a Squishy Wizard in normal circumstances, but practically a juggernaut in a mindscape.
 * One notable incident is during the Oracle Hunter Arc involves Dominic "relocating the battle"
 * Battle Royale With Cheese: Used in Storm of Souls and Maltak.
 * Beat Panel: A pun will frequently be followed by the victim staring at the "camera" with a sour expression.
 * Becoming the Mask: From the looks of things, Celesto's "familiarity" with the Beast after being trapped in the Elemecca with it for so long, and subsequent impersonation of it to reveal its connection to, has made him...a bit too susceptible to its power.
 * Beware the Nice Ones. Bortette is a Cute Mute, Cute Monster Girl. With the level of common sense mongrelfolk seem to display, you might wonder how she manages to survive living alone in the Wild Edge... "snikt".
 * Be Yourself: The Aesop of the the story about Greg and his rock band(s).
 * Behind the Black: The plains of Maltak apparently has a visibility of five meters. Characters in this vast, featureless wasteland run into each other by accident and don't hear conversations and see events until they enter the panel.
 * Berserker Tears: Used fairly regularly, most notably by Siegfried in the War in Hell story arc.
 * Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Well, okay, being that they're from the Wild Edge, bizarreness is to be expected, but this is the case between Bort and Bortette. Both identified as mongrelfolk, Bort is covered in miss-matched patches of skin, with an extra eye on his chest, scales in places, and just generally looking like the poster-boy for Body Horror. Bortette, by contrast, is a Cute Monster Girl with a slightly prominent upper lip and some spikes. It's strongly implied that no two mongrelfolk are alike, or even resemble others of their kind.
 * Bi the Way: Taz MaDara, apparently. His first meeting with Gregory Deegan involves him planting a huge man-kiss on the youngest Deegan boy, much to his confusion.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Never take your eyes off the Interceptor.
 * Dex isn't the only one who can do it. Most of the cast does it once or twice, even Rilian!
 * Blessed with Suck: Being a Resistant (immune to ALL magic) sounds cool, but remember that while they can't be hurt by magic, they can't be healed by magic either.
 * A more humorous example: Nimmel: "Katya, your country has made me immune to boobs."
 * Blindfolded Vision: The Infernomancer, though.
 * Blood From the Mouth: Used in its most classic sense, as visual shorthand for a fatal injury.
 * Body Horror: Celesto's Chaos magic has this in spades, especially in the deaths of
 * Alteration magic due to it being permanent (unless it's for hair).
 * What the Beast did to poor Murray would fall under this too.
 * Bold Inflation!
 * Boobs of Steel: The most-well-endowed female protagonist is Hot Amazon Rachel Hart. "Bortette" gains two or three cup sizes while fighting.
 * Break the Cutie: Inverted; Luna is introduced at the climax of her mother's year-long campaign of breaking her, and saved from suicide by Dominic. We learn more about the process in various flashbacks. Most of her character development revolves around the slow recovery of her sense of self-worth. Gregory is also somewhat subject to this trope, particularly in a couple of the later story arcs.
 * Breather Episode: Rather, a breather story arc -- the "Around the World" arc, to be precise.

"Luna: Holy crap. She said that to her parents?
 * Brick Joke:
 * "So he says it hurts whenever he touches. Turns out his finger's broken!" "Hey I think I know that guy!"
 * Brought Down to Normal: Gregory Deegan is unable to use white magic for most of the Snowsong arc. Word of God says that it's going to stick forever.
 * Also, Jayden spoke the First Heresy of Hell near the beginning of the comic. Funny thing, when a priestess renounces her faith.
 * Bubble Pipe: Quilt the necromatic golem uses one several times. Later on, he uses it to scry, with each bubble acting like a short-lived crystal ball.
 * Butter Face: Luna is seen as this in-universe, with her tusks. They're a total dealbreaker when Siegfried visited her, for example, and she's picked on because of them. Of course, with Mookie's art style, she's in reality still pretty good looking.
 * The Cavalry: The Doma have arrived. Oh, and the Shintula.
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: "Mavpel" candy, the sap of a mavpel tree allowed to solidify.
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Here, in this case, Miranda Deegan calls both of her parents out for their behavior (and their attacks) on Donovan for him being her choice of a future husband.

Dominic: Mom inherited Grandma's skill with the guilt trip."


 * A very brutal variant with Seigfreid. After his rebellion against Karnak doesn't pan out exactly like he expected, Karnak is able to convince him what a horrible bastard his father truly was. Siegfreid expresses his extreme displeasure by going out and rabidly devouring the head of his father's soul.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Often. Hilariously coupled with Buffy-Speak in the last panel of this strip
 * The Cameo: One of the Wild Edge guides/Evil Poachers was a fan cameo who was brought back as a villain because Mookie "wasn't done with him yet".
 * Catapult Nightmare: Gregory suffers these in the lead up to "BYOB".
 * Cats Are Magic: Spark, the talking cat.
 * Character Development: Luna's has been the most significant in the strip. She's a woman who, in her first appearance, was about three seconds from hanging herself after getting turned down by Siegfried because of her tusks. Now, even getting told doesn't get her down.
 * Stunt has been going through quite a surprising bit himself throughout the series. He's become more open and trusting of people and even lost a bit of the misogonism that defined his character
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Rachel's face > magical steroids.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: One of the very early strips had Dominic receiving a "see-mail" message through his crystal ball from his friend Mosley. Years later, a plot arc involving Mosley was teased. Considering how long it can take for the teased arcs to arrive (we waited two and a half years for the Oracle Hunter arc), we don't know what his significance is and probably won't for quite a while.
 * Cheeky Mouth
 * The Chessmaster: Dominic, especially during the Super-Greg arc. This is one of the reasons Dominic sometimes comes off as a Designated Hero. It's hard to come off as completely heroic when manipulating people, even if it's for the Greater Good and with the power of foresight.
 * Chosen One: during March Across Maltak.
 * Combat Clairvoyance: Averted in one strip in which a fencing student wanted to see Dominic be badass.
 * Companion Cube: Gerald.
 * Conscience Makes You Go Back
 * Contractual Immortality: Celesto and The Infernomancer. In the Infernomancer's case, this is literal as his contract with Karnak makes him immune to all wounds, except the giant holes in his face.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Serk Brakkis
 * Cosmic Horror: The Beast, AKA Snuggly or Spaghetti Monster.
 * Though not portrayed as malevolent, the Hydra seen in the Vacation arc wouldn't be out of place in a Lovecraft story.
 * It's a hydra worshiped by half-fish people. If it's not a shout out to Shadow Over Innsmouth, what is?
 * Miranda's teacher, as well as the Archmagi of the Fourth and Third circles.
 * The aptly named "Guardian Destroyer" from the Plane of Destruction is regarded as one.
 * Crossing the Desert: The Maltak arc consists of trekking through a vast, featureless wasteland, in the daytime, without pack animals and with no more consumables than what the party can fit in one, ordinary-sized backpack per person, and they apparently keep their tents in those as well. (Though bags of holding have been mentioned previously.) They're also not taking care to cover their heads, and one character is in a dress. They do hire an experienced guide, but this guide is the same one who would've gone through and okayed all of that, and who built a stone fire ring miles upon miles from plant life.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gregory.
 * Professor Runcible Spoon. Though a very intelligent professor as opposed to a moron, he's generally very easy-going and occasionally silly. But if you piss him off? Lord help you.
 * Cruel Mercy: Stunt leaves the last of the poachers alive. The guy is paralyzed and "slimes eat anything".
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus- The Luanian Church, with its own Jesus Christ/Prophet Mohammed like figure in The Prophet Luana, is the ruling faith in Callan. Throughout the "Around the World" story arc, other racial faiths were touched upon as well as a lesser Callanian religion of Scapilanism in Jayden and Stunt's pilgrimage to the Desert of Eldariat.
 * Cultural Posturing: Some of the WA's werewolves do this on occasion; claiming that Callanians and other outsiders are inherently untrustworthy compared to werewolves.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: In this corner, Jacob Deegan, necromancer and mad scientist who's in the past slaughtered several of the Chosen, beat a spellwolf in single combat, and has been a serious antagonist throughout the comic. In this corner, is the Shintula Chief, whose son Jacob just brutally attacked. Jacob didn't stand a chance.
 * Curse Cut Short: Subverted in this strip.
 * Cursed with Awesome: Dominic has complained since the very first strip about the burdens of being a seer, especially his gift of random visions. He wanted to help people with his gift; instead the comic opens In Medias Res with him being a fortune teller for a town of complete idiots.
 * Dex Garrett is a resistant, meaning he suffers from a rare condition that renders him completely immune to magic, both helpful and harmful. It also makes it very difficult for him to find stable work that play to Dex's strengths (high risk jobs), because employers have to pay heavy taxes and rifle through ridiculous amounts of paperwork to hire one.
 * Spark considered the curse put on Dominic in the first arc (which caused fish to appear out of nowhere and land on Dominic's head whenever he smoked) to be this.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Inverted with Luna's, though in-universe it's considered a hideous deformity.
 * Cute Monster Girl: The transformation of infromancers after eating souls seems to work out better for the woman.
 * Cute Monster Girl: The transformation of infromancers after eating souls seems to work out better for the woman.

Tropes D-G
"[Over about a week's worth of strips as he charges across Hell for his Roaring Rampage of Revenge] KARNAK! KARNAK! KARNAK!
 * Dark Action Girl: Snowsong and Hirek.
 * Darker and Edgier: Spoofed with Dominic's favorite comic being Ret Conned into the character "discovering" he's half demon ... much to Dominic's dismay.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Rilian, the first necromancer, is basically a walking skeleton. In the
 * The Nakta and the Akta are all about this. Specifically the Nakta while dark can be used to take another persons pain into yourself healing them while hurting you. Toward the end the Akta is used to steal life from others to strengthen the user.
 * Black magic in general embraces this trope. Although fueling spells with negative emotions like anger, sorrow, or hatred does presumably have a long-term net negative effect on the psyche, it appears to be magic focused on the principle of destruction rather than magic that is inherently evil.
 * The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Delving into infernomancy, even for ostensibly good reasons like Bulgak's, will erode your conscience until you care about nothing but yourself.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Everyone, from time to time; even in dramatic arcs the comic will revert periodically to its roots and put in punchlines, and when not doing that the snarking goes into the dialogue in a less jokey way. Dominic has grown less snarky through his character development, but other have appeared to share the duty. Jacob is very big on this. Karnak has developed the tendency increasingly.

Karnak: I heard you the first time."

"Dominic Deegan: See the truth!"
 * Deal with the Devil: Infernomancers
 * Death by Materialism: Amelia
 * Death Is Cheap: Death is always dramatic, as the trope requires, but doesn't ever seem to stick for major characters. Unless your soul gets destroyed, in which case you're pretty much fucked. This could be a result of the comic spending so much time in dreams and mindscapes. Also, Necromancers as a general rule tend to come back when they die, so you have to make sure they're really dead.
 * Death From Above: Spark's main form of attack.
 * Death Glare: Miranda Deegan's willpower-eroding, thought-derailing Evil Eye, which has a range of half a mile and can strike targets around corners and through dimensions. No one can withstand it either, not even an 8 foot tall spellwolf.
 * Death Is Dramatic: Always, even when it's a Disney Death.
 * Death Seeker / Miles to Go Before I Sleep:
 * This turned out to be a case of No Longer with Us: Although considering, such a misunderstanding is understandable and surely intentional on Mookie's part. And could even still become literal, depending.
 * Decoy Protagonist: The Wild Edge arc was supposed to be about Bort (the author even wrote about how nice it would be to focus on him), but after he got "rejected" he left to pout and the arc's real hero turned out to be Stunt.
 * The following arc started off with Celesto meditating on how the world's magic was going out of whack, but it quickly turned into KARNAK! and Siggy's battle in Hell.
 * The author twittered that this kind of thing happens because he "doesn't want to know what comes next" in his own story.
 * Deliberately Monochrome: When the strips are released in print collections, colorized strips are made gray scale. As Mookie notes in the 4th collection, "Color printing is expensive. Very expensive."
 * Depraved Bisexual: Szark, Celesto. Szark even comes out as gay rather than bi after his Heel Face Turn. This facet of Celesto's character seems to have been abandoned.
 * Depth Deception: Nothing is as it seems on the Wild Edge. Least of all perspective.
 * Determinator: Dex Garrett
 * Deus Ex Machina: Often used, occasionally lampshaded.
 * Miranda tries to make a Deus Ex Machina joke about her being Dominic's mother. She stumbles over her pun for a few panels before she says she's Dominic's mother and that she'll fix everything.
 * Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?:
 * Discretion Shot: Various, including Shadow Discretion Shot.
 * Discontinuity Nod: Quilt, the necromantic golem; before he was given a name, forum regulars named him "Patches." Quilt himself rejected it, saying it made him sound like a dog.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Both in and out of universe with
 * According to Celesto, Amelia's death.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Happens to Nikolai, who really should be used to this by now.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Milov being Mind Raped looks spectacularly like he is being actually raped by Naughty Tentacles
 * In this strip, Jacob's dialogue combines with the way he holds the slain (and completely naked) Chosen girl's chin in a fairly disturbing manner.
 * Dragon-in-Chief / The Man Behind the Man:
 * Hijacked by Ganon: While the timeline is not exactly clear yet on when exactly he rose to power, if during the Callan/Orc war and thus condoned the atrocities which Warlord Damaske perpetrated, then this would make him indirectly responsible for a good portion of the bad events in the Deegan-verse that have affected the main characters directly--Thuen Gor's curse (and its effect on Luna), Karnak's fall, Siegfried's corruption and everything that came of it, what happened to Maltak... For certain, now that he has the Infernomancer working for him (by proxy) this makes him a threat to everyone, even Karnak. Whether this will result in an Enemy Mine later (albeit one certain to break due to Karnak's lack of trustworthiness and Celesto's descent into madness/possible corruption by the Beast), it seems as if  is shaping up to be the ultimate Big Bad of the comic.
 * Drop What You Are Doing: Upon harsh shocks, things get dropped.
 * Dude, Not Funny: In-Universe, making fun of someone's pack (or equivalent) is a major low-blow to the werewolves, as seen here.
 * Easily Forgiven: Dominic and Co. forgive Szark, Snowsong, and Barnet rather quickly after their respective Heel Face Turns. Of course, each has its own mitigating circumstances.
 * Easy Sex Change:
 * Eldritch Abomination: The current Big Bad of the comic. Interestingly, the majority of arch-magi that Miranda Deegan deals with appear benevolent versions of these. It is mentioned that one archmage is too small for a human to see, and another is as large is a city, and that their high-council chamber equalizes them in size for easy meeting.
 * Elemental Powers: Nimmel specializes in "seasonal spells". So far, we've only had the chance to see winter.
 * Epic Flail: Karnak
 * He then cranks this trope Up to Eleven by
 * Eureka Moment: Often, Dominic or other characters will be inspired by seemingly irrelevant conversation.
 * Evil Costume Switch: Siegfried and Jayden each get one from Karnak.
 * Evil Counterpart: Celesto is Dominic's. He even has a goatee!
 * Evil Poacher: The "tour guides" of the Wild Edge are poachers in the off-season. Despite this, they seem to prefer to take their prey alive by using tranquilizers and nets. Although, alternately, given they apparently have no problem with slicing off bits of the tranquilized animal and then leaving it to bleed to death suggests they're not exactly humanitarian in their methods.
 * Exactly What I Aimed At: This strip. Also a Chekhov's Gun, or Foreshadowing.
 * Exasperated Perp: Dominic combines this with a Journey to the Center of the Mind during an interrogation with Barnet . It comes back to bite him.
 * Exposition Beam: Dominic does this often.


 * Eye Scream: The Infernomancer, whose eyes are wounds that will never heal as a result of a deal with Karnak..
 * Death From Above!
 * The Faceless: For several years, the King of Callan's face was either just off panel, or in one case behind a voice bubble. This has since been rectified.
 * Fan Nickname: Before being given an official name, Quilt was called 'Patches' by the fandom.
 * Some call The InfernoMancer... TIM?
 * Readers have their own set of nicknames for most of their favorite minor characters, including Warlord Mustache, Punchy McStonefist, Outrage Chief, and Snuggly/Squiggly, while Celesto earned the moniker "Collateral Damage Man" during the battle in Lynn's Brook. Meanwhile, snobby werewolf girl gets called "prejutits", the nameless mongrelwoman is dubbed "Bortette", and the unpleasant head tour lady is called "Vasquez".
 * The fans were likewise responsible for deciding the name of the "A Nimmel House" story arc.
 * Fantastic Racism: Racism is rampant in the kingdom of Callan, specifically towards Orcs. It really came to a head with the Orc War. Callanians and Semashi don't seem to get along easily, either.
 * Fantasy Contraception: Protection Scrolls; refusing to use one when he slept with Luna, then chewing her out when she talked him into using it, was one of Serk Brakkis's many Kick the Dog moments.
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Previously the comic featured knights, wizards, dryads, werewolves, undead, slimes, orks, dragons etc., but ever since the Dominic's and Luna's 'round-the-world trip story arc, this trope has gone into overdrive, with the author showing a ton of new races, i.e. merfolk, sea monsters, hobgolins, halflings, dwarves, mongrelfolk and whatnot in rapid appearance.
 * Fertile Feet: Luna
 * Final Speech: Siggy gets one.
 * Flanderization: Szark's crush on Dominic. Siggy's racism. Quilt's stupidity. Dominic's ability to plan ahead. Luna's bids for independence. Dex's timing for Big Damn Hero moments.
 * Foreshadowing: The reformed "Baron of Burglary"-turned innkeeper  has just been introduced in Jayden's journey of repentance story but Word of God states that he'll definitely return.
 * Freudian Excuse: Often precedes a Heel Face Turn, most notably with Snowsong and the Oracle Hunter.
 * Karnak's was so over-the-top it made him tempting to sympathize with, since he hasn't even left Hell in so long he hasn't been casuing problems for any good guys.
 * Framing the Guilty Party: Celesto's plan to expose the . Dominic takes a third option by saving Celesto's would-be victim and displays an image of that is enough to arouse suspicion in the eyes of the public.
 * The same plan is also employed simultaneously to use the paintings of an artist driven mad by the Beast (and Amelia) to expose the battlecasters' corruption. Again, Luna takes a third option by making the battlecasters and Celesto visible to the gallery guests while still saving the innocent mages' lives.
 * Frankenstein's Monster: Quilt is a golem made by dead people. But, he's pretty goofy and more like Nightmare Retardant.
 * Fun with Foreign Languages: Donovan Deegan speaks comically bad orcish. Also a direct Homage to the Monty Python's Flying Circus "Naughty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch.
 * Gallows Humor: Regularly, because there are so many deadpan snarkers and pun addicts. One that was creepy at the time and has only grown worse in retrospect is back in the 'Ecstasy and Evil' arc.
 * Gender Bender: Male misogynist Stunt was subjected to a (very brief) gender bender in the Wild Edge territories story arc, before being turned into a half dozen other critters, and eventually changed back.
 * Genericist Government
 * Genre Savvy: Donovan, though it's not always appreciated.
 * Glass Cannon: Neilen, once he becomes linked to the brittle soil of Maltak.
 * The Glomp:  Luna stands up and walks away, with Dominic looking crushed, until Luna tells him she just wanted a running start. Dominic's face is priceless.
 * Quilt shows his example.
 * Going Commando: Pam. Quilt finds this out the hard way.
 * Though not always.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: Stunt and Bumper, for the first few arcs.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: Seems to be the fate of anyone who truly comprehends the Beast and its realm and powers. It happened to the poor painter and former children's illustrator Micheal Cao, and it also seems to be happening to Celesto thanks to his spending far too much time imitating the Beast's appearance and powers. What's worse, even if he's even aware of this at all he likely considers it a small price to pay to bring the Beast down, even if in the end it results in him becoming its servant in truth, or no better than it.
 * Good Is Old-Fashioned
 * A Good Name for a Rock Band: After much deliberation, Greg & Co. choose "Face Bath", inspired by what their very grievously injured immune-to-magic pal has to do every day to keep his wounds from festering. Also, during the Battle For Barthis arc the temporary rockband gets named "Oblivion Folder" after a file-folder that Lars Sturtz keeps misplacing temporarily.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Donovan and Miranda Deegan
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Nimmel, a good-natured graduate of the School of Arcane Arts is introduced with a scar encompassing his right eye and a good chunk of flesh around it, which was deliberately made to look as nasty as possible. He'd gotten the scar from an attack on the school, and his telling the attacker where to find Miranda, which ended the attack, is seen as cowardice by him. As he gains prominence, his scar looks a bit better, and Luna gets him to see that he saved his classmates' lives by telling the attacker, and he shouldn't think himself a coward for it.
 * Groin Attack: "There's no need for -- *BAM*"
 * And earlier than that... right in the "knighthood." Ouch.
 * Reverse snowgie!
 * Grotesque Cute: This. Just this.
 * Grotesque Cute: This. Just this.

Tropes H-M
""You're a better werewolf then most werewolves.""
 * Hard Head: Rachel Hart. "I break things with my face."
 * Harmless Freezing: Ice spells have a tendency to do this, which is handy, because they're the weapon-of-choice for several of the good guys. See Luna to Stunt and Bumper early in the comic, who come out of it with only the sniffles, and Nimmel more recently with a pair of werewolves.
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Mookie has a habit of reminding the readers in his newsposts that he loves boobs every time breasts appear or are mentioned in the comic.
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Szark. Once he comes out, he and the people around him can't stop mentioning it. This was mocked by fans who, whenever they would mention Szark, would write, "Szark (who is gay)".
 * He-Man Woman Hater: Stunt, to a ludicrous degree.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: The King of Callan, in his initial appearances.
 * Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Hobgoblin mating season sex. Surprisingly, it is safe for work.
 * The Heart: Early on, both Gregory and Luna fulfill this role for Dominic.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: The two younger Deegan brothers abide heavily by this trope, Luna having strawberry-blonde hair (though it's described as just "blonde") and Pam having a veritable mane of fiery red hair.
 * Looks blonde to me.
 * Hollywood Healing: The head of the Wild Edge guides goes from having a knife in the gut to running at full speed and surfing a slab of rock down an avalanche after Stunt patches her up, without any apparent use of anything more than some bandages and stitches, although they do dramatically pop out in the process.
 * Hollywood Tactics: Men, half of you will charge in to fight the enemy hand-to-hand! The other half will then take up their bows and fire into the melee! But remember: don't kill anyone!
 * Homage: It appears that the author got a lot of inspiration from The Slayers anime, including several characters who start powering up a Sphere of Destruction, not to mention the Animesque character design and Fantasy Kitchen Sink setting (although the person who pointed this out noted that Naga's breasts would hardly stand out in DD).
 * Hospital Hottie: Nurse Pam, particularly during the Hello, Nurse! arc.
 * Hot Amazon: Rachel Hart, Barnet.
 * Hot Librarian: Pam Chayler. Well, hot nurse, but the trope still applies.
 * Hot Scientist: Cassafinn Sunderliss
 * Hot Teacher: Dominic, apparently. And Cassafin, pre-promotion.
 * Humiliation Conga: The last Evil Poacher is paralyzed, peed on by a cloud-creature, and eaten alive by slimes.
 * Earlier, Serk Brakkis winds up along these lines - after having his toupee impaled, he finds every crime he's committed in the prior few years paraded past him one by one, leading to his Smug Snake mannerisms completely disintegrating. And to top it all off, he's then teleported back to Callan via lightning.
 * Hurricane of Puns: Lots of them. Sometimes one-sided, sometimes a volley between two characters, and sometimes the entire on-panel cast will join in.
 * Howl of Sorrow: One use of werewolf howls is to announce the break-up of a pack. Given what breaks up a pack...this is generally a combination of rage and painfully deep sorrow. And it doesn't just announce that the pack has broken up, it announces exactly why it's broken up.
 * An Ice Person: Stonewater, Nimmel, and of course Snowsong.
 * I Always Wanted to Say That: Dance, Puppets! Dance!
 * I Am Not Right Handed: Szark
 * I Just Knew: Constantly, especially in Maltak. Huk Thak once pulls this off three distinct times in a single 8-panel strip. The best part is that the last one turns out to be completely inaccurate.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Dominic's mindscape battle with Szark.
 * I Need a Freaking Drink: The reasons run the gamut from bad days at work to vomiting up a "virus spell" after a long and arduous psychic battle.
 * If I Can't Have You: Karnak's motive for attacking Miranda.
 * Ignored Epiphany: Bulgak's desperate effort to deny the evil he accepted and committed as an Infernomancer.
 * His eventual acceptance of his evil is juxtaposed against  inability to do so.
 * Important Haircut: Nimmel recently gave himself one.
 * Gregory later inverts this and has his hair made much longer via hair alterist when he starts his band.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: The Rhazgala are apparently such good archers that they can fire volleys into the air into a melee with such accuracy as to only score non-lethal hits, a pretty much impossible feat in real life.
 * Improvised Golems: Nimmel's Improvised snow golem
 * I'm Standing Right Here: When Miranda reflected on how her parents reacted to her and Donovan's engagement, they were incredibly uncouth in regards to their opinion of him. Donovan reacts by saying this exactly.
 * In Love with Your Carnage:
 * In the End You Are on Your Own: Despite all the others who undertake the quest with him, Dominic usually fights the Big Bad alone.
 * Despite leading the entire Shintula tribe to the Bikta camp, Thuen Gor is the only one who does any fighting.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Most, if not all, of the hurricaned puns, at a bare minimum, make people rolls their eyes. In other cases...
 * Informed Ability: Reinholdt is supposedly trained in "Wasteland Survival", and yet clearly has no idea what he's doing. ** Since it's a Magical Wasteland Dead World and all around Planet Eris, it would be silly that the same limits should apply to the letter of the law.
 * Insistent Terminology: Inverted. Brett Taggerty called Gregory a faggot and Rachel a dyke at about every opportunity. Neither, especially Rachel, would put up with his crap.
 * Instant Expert: Chance Masters was apparently terrible at physical activities and didn't expect sword fighting to be any better. To his surprise he beat his foe on the first try!
 * Irony: Chance Masters is first shown as a wealthy arrogent bully who gives special attention to another boy with a ponytail. It turns out.
 * It Has Been an Honor: Siegfried's Final Speech.
 * It's Raining Men: Or in this case, souls.
 * Jerkass: Lord Siegfried Damaske, Stunt.
 * Stunt gets Character Development, eventually. Siegfried gets some of that and it was perfectly possible to be somewhat attached to him, but he also gets
 * Karnak was a Jerkass from day one. In the strip, not his actual life; he seems to have been a decent guy once, that nasty episode toward the end notwithstanding.
 * Celesto over half the time. Collateral Damage Man is a title he earned by being really into that 'pfft, sacrifices for the cause' thing.
 * Siegfried's dad. That Doma chieftain Melna whacks. TIM. Rilian rather often, despite being pretty definitely on the right side and having his good side. The Ma Dara kid.
 * JACOB, though he seems to have finally got a clue. All the bad guys are jerkasses, partly because they all participate in some way in the strip's style of humor.
 * Jerk Jock: Brett Taggerty and the majority of the Baccdair Brawlers fit this trope perfectly. Dex Garrit and Rachel Hart are the only athletes who don't.
 * Several of the werewolves we've seen at Coldfire Academy fit this profile. Some of them soften, though, after the Alpha Bitch goes too far.
 * Chance Masters is a spoiled brat who is excellent at fencing.
 * used to be one
 * Jossed: The "creative misinterpretation" of the strip mentioned in the description is undercut quite a bit by the fact the supposed "murder victim" shows up perfectly fine later.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: A certain elemental goes from a womanising scumbag to a insane mass of death earth attempting to kill one of the main characters. Then again, it was less "jumping" and more "shoved by Jacob".
 * Dominic thinks that Celesto is going off the deep end What really worries Dominic is that Celesto is positively giddy about this plan.
 * Kangaroo Court: Well, at least Siegfried is honest about it.
 * Karmic Death: Brett Taggerty and Serk Brakkis, from Celesto's (And some readers) point of view, anyway.
 * Kick the Dog: Among the first things we see Siegfried do are beat Dominic to a pulp for not giving him the prediction he wanted, and then beating Gregory, a crippled kid, with his own walking stick. Of course, he does Pet the Dog a couple times later on.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Celesto Morgan's merciless exploding of and . Merciless, and rather messy, but executed on an Asshole Victim extraordinaire both times.
 * Kids Are Cruel: Even at universities studying the intricacies of magic, there are still bullies.
 * Killed Off for Real: Klo Tark's second death seems to have stuck.
 * Narrowly averted with Luna. At the end of the March Across Maltak arc Mookie said that he really considerd letting Luna die in order to get a more dramatic ending. He decided against it after considering how it would absolutely destroy Dominic and kill the future plot lines he planned out.
 * In the start of the comic's last year, Mookie declares that not everyone will make it to the end...
 * Large Ham: Zelda (No, not that Zelda), an old friend of Domonic's during her appearance in the Oracle Hunter Arc. For more fun, remember that Zelda Zanzibar is based on a gag Mookie used to pull. Yes, in drag.
 * Law of Inverse Fertility / Babies Ever After: Not sure how to classify this:
 * Layout Screw The 8 frames of each strip can and have been screwed with to show something is happening in-universe relating to the metaphysical planes in one form or another. This also allows for funny stuff to happen in the background.
 * Let's Wait a While: Dominic and Luna holding off on sex until "the time was right."
 * Letting Her Hair Down: Nurse Pam
 * Light Is Not Good: While the Akta isn't bad, being a force for life and healing, its most powerful practitioner, the Bikta spirit father, is a fanatical asshole.
 * Longing Look
 * Love At First Sight: Usually averted, but played straight with Hansi and Kiya.
 * Love It or Hate It: Invoked in-universe with Greg's second band. At their opening concert, half the crowd walked out right off the bat, but the other half stayed and had a blast.
 * Lower Deck Episode: Occasionally, we're treated to an arc without our main characters: Hello, Nurse! and Built to Resist omitted Dominic and Luna in favor of Gregory, and Two Thief featured only a small cameo from Dominic.
 * 2010 was basically a Lower Deck year, to even out the fact that one story arc took up the entirety of 2009.
 * Lowest Common Denominator: The concept was relentlessly mocked here.
 * Mad Scientist: Jacob Deegan the necromancer.
 * Made of Iron: Rachel "I Break Things With My Face" Hart
 * The Magic Goes Away: . It doesn't seem to be completely gone, though, more that they'll have to rediscover it.
 * Magitek / Functional Magic: What starts out as a pseudo-medieval fantasy world turns out to be a world with advanced arcane laboratories, magical electric guitars, heavy metal bands ... and, apparently, spandex. There's also magical surgery, magical CT scans, and magical obstetrics, as well as whatever magical devices that allowed them to learn about genetics.
 * Makeover Montage: Rachel Hart makes it happen.
 * Mama Bear: Mess with Miranda Deegan's kids, and she will fuck you up.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Dominic gets dangerously close to being one during the Super-Greg arc. He's far from the worst example though.
 * Manly Tears: All over the place.
 * Meaningful Name: Donovan's orcish name, for one. For two, Stonewater. For three, Huk Thak. For four, Rocky the golem.
 * On a more symbolic note, "Karnak" is old orcish for "The Morning Star". Which comes off as Fridge Brilliance when you consider that he uses Bulgak as an exploding ball of doom wrapped around a chain by throwing him on their enemies.
 * Stunt is stunted. The religion of his homeland, Scaplianism (it's not as sexually liberated as Luanianism and ) might be a shout-out/take that at Episcopalians.
 * Messianic Archetype: Luna has become this in the March Across Maltak arc, becoming essentially the Jesus of the orcs. She sprouts plant life wherever she walks, can pull water from nowhere, and is literally powered by the gods of Maltak. Near the end of the arc, she dies and is promptly resurrected.
 * Klo Tark died for your sins. Twice.
 * Metal Scream: Weaponized, even.
 * Mighty Whitey: Nimmel is basically called one by Milov, as Milov explains just why he personally accepted him to the Coldfire Academy. It remains to be seen if we are supposed to be taking him seriously or not.
 * Metal Scream: Weaponized, even.
 * Mighty Whitey: Nimmel is basically called one by Milov, as Milov explains just why he personally accepted him to the Coldfire Academy. It remains to be seen if we are supposed to be taking him seriously or not.


 * Arguably Luna during the Maltak arc(s), when she was divinely appointed to be unifier of the tribes by the elemental gods of Maltak.
 * A Million Is a Statistic: At the end of the Maltak Arc, much is made of Luna's personal sacrifices, but no mention is made of the heavy casualties of the Big Bikta Battle.
 * It's implied that the newly dead came back rather than than return to the earth. That may have just been Jacob and those he was holding, but he didn't seem to be in control of it, he was simply assuring those two followed him.
 * Mind Rape:
 * Dominic is accused of this by Barnet in a What the Hell, Hero? moment. It didn't help that she was already in a bad way.
 * Mistaken for Gay: Bumper could have sworn Stunt hated women because he was gay. It turns out he just really can't stand women, at least ones that throw fire balls at him.
 * Moment Killer: Played for Laughs with Dex.
 * Mood Whiplash: This strip could be the trope picture. Switching directly from people grieving, realisticly, over a villain, to a bunch of posh slimes eating the same.
 * Before that, we have, by virtue of Dominic's heartbroken grief being interrupted by.
 * More Hero Than Thou
 * More Than Mind Control: Karnak's control of Szark. May or may not be currently occurring to
 * Mundane Utility: Crystal balls are videophones. Frequently even when there's no one with scrying talent established on either end of the line. Scarlatti used Tomen's Teleport Service to get to Barthis so quickly for the duel. And the people with flying spells use them all the freaking time, as well as Dominic's ability to 'bookmark' to any of a few set places instantly, as often as he wants.
 * Also, alterism. It's basically plastic surgery, only magic and therefore with far more options. Like, presumably, ftm sex-change operations that really work, as it were.
 * Magic is essentially mundane in this world, apart from not being available to everyone--even things like monitoring Hell are only deviations in scale from the routine. Some ritual stuff and horror and of course the major world-saving quests are the main exceptions.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Karnak's attempted way of dealing with the love triangle between him, Miranda, and Donovan.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: A lot. Heel Realization happens a lot, although sometimes (especially if your name is Celesto) it turns into Ignored Epiphany pretty quick.
 * My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Donovan's attempts at speaking orcish.

Tropes N-R
"Gregory: Hey, everyone. We're Facebath! AND WE'RE HERE TO KICK YOUR ASS!
 * Nerd: Dominic was a huge nerd as a kid. So is Prento Fallin, one of Dominic's students. Mookie proudly proclaims he is one in real life.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Several examples, including:
 * A twofer Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, involving Gregory and Brett Taggerty. First, a wasted Brett punches out Pamela, whom Gregory has a crush on, and dares him to fight back using his white magic. Gregory erupts into a geyser of white fire. Oops. The resulting tidal wave of White Magic heals everyone in the hospital...with the unintended side effect of powering up Brett and the rest of his Slaughterball team, and sobers them up, too. Oops.
 * Overlapping with Oh Crap: The Infernomancer's response when Dominic tells him the demon lord he was supposedly bound to serve didn't have control over him: "Now I get to kill you the way I've always wanted to -- slowly!"
 * Something the Shintula Chieftain experiences in the form of Luna's Chosen One status, which would never have happened if he hadn't cursed the Callanians with the affliction that would lead Luna to being born with 'Tusk-Mouth' in the first place.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Jacob tries to kill Gregory by ripping the Blight of the Undead out of Gregory's body (through his unaffected parts). Turns out he just removed the Restraining Bolt that hampered his white magical abilities.
 * No Bisexuals: Szark was apparently deluding himself that he was turned on by his wife back when he was a hedonist, even though hedonists don't go in much for that. Because he's gay now. Totally. And doesn't like women and makes gay jokes pretty much every time he opens his mouth. It's part of the Heel Face Turn package. The monks helped him realize it and now he's comfortable with himself. Because obviously only people who're sunk deep into depravity would like both girls and guys, and they also usually express that by having threesomes.
 * During 'Two Thief' Szark makes a passing remark (and a tasteless joke) that revealed that at some point during the several hours Amelia had Bumper as her brainwashed 'exotic toy,' they fit in a foursome. This is technically rape, and one has to hope Bumper doesn't remember. That night was traumatic enough for him.
 * Actually, that was established in the original arc. Background of panel two. He seems to be asleep.
 * No Name Given: Stunt's female boss didn't get a name until the last page of the WILD EDGE! story, (Gail Vazkes); meanwhile several male poachers got names much earlier despite being Red Shirts.
 * Noble Demon: Averted. Word of God is that incarnations of evil are actually evil for once.
 * Noble Savage: Orcs.
 * Non-Lethal Warfare: They're beating us up with their arrow volleys! Apparently the idea is the orcs were shooting to wound but...well, Arrow Volleys Do Not Work That Way.
 * Almost immediately averted when the other side's leader uses nature magic to upgrade his troops' weapons with spikes. Then the archers start shooting to kill.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: The Nagasta and the Qualenti. Mookie has admitted this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but put them in because, "I like boobs."
 * Not In This For Your Pilgrimage: Initially Stunt doesn't care one whit for Jayden's spiritual journey into Eldariat (not that he actively wants to support her ). All he cares about is the Lost Treasure of Luana. This changes a bit as they get closer to the end and explore each other's motivations for taking the pilgrimage together.
 * Oblivious Younger Sibling: Gregory refuses to believe that his big brother Jacob is at all evil... until Jacob admits he tried to kill him.
 * Odd Couple: Former thief, Anti-Hero, and Deadpan Snarker Stunt is paired up with good-hearted, noble (if tainted in her own mind) priestess Jayden on her spiritual pilgrimage of redemption. It ends up being It's the Journey That Counts which helps both of them let go of the past and Stunt (perhaps not) fully reforms.
 * Odd-Shaped Panel: Whenever Dominic goes into another plane of existence, the standard panel arrangement disappears.
 * Offhand Backhand: With plants
 * Off-Model: Mookie has problems drawing female bodies without looking off.
 * Oh Crap: The Shintula Chief tells Luna to choose her words carefully...She does indeed.
 * And the Shintula gives Jacob a good one here.
 * And Miranda Deegan, a woman who has stared down devils and demons, and kicked their asses, has this expression when she goes to see her little boy's band playing.

Miranda: oh dear."

"Mookie: Okay, I know in yesterday's strip that the Rhazgala archers all had their bows pointed up and today those arrows are flying horizontally past Suyan's head. This "continuity error" is just a dramatic choice on my part because I felt the arrows flying straight on past him looked cooler."
 * Here, Neilen does it for three panels in a row.
 * "Oh crap"
 * One-Way Visor:
 * One-Winged Angel: The diminutive Dirk the Mighty can transform into a powerful ogre. Infernomancers like Caylen Bren and Bulgak become more obviously demonic the more they tap into their demon lords' power. After becoming the servant of an Eldritch Abomination, TIM shifts between a mostly human form and a mass of tentacled horror at will.
 * Only Six Faces: Lampshaded here. There are other occasions where it's clear that Mookie is aware of it. Dex Garrit and Dominic Deegan look alike because they share similar hair. The mystery and dramatic reveal of the Oracle Hunter's identity was only able to keep the reader guessing because of this trope.
 * Gets kind of ridiculous when you add Generation Xerox: Dom and Greg look like their mother and father while their older brother has their mother's parents' hair and better-than-thou attitude. It also kind of messed-up.
 * Omniscient Morality License: Lots. Especially Rilian. And his Omniscient Council of Random Secondary Characters Plus Dragon.
 * Open the Iris: They're anime style characters. The sizes of their irises/pupils change with their emotions.
 * Orcus on His Throne: Since his reveal as The Beast's partner-in-crime, has been fairly passive overall. It's eventually revealed that this is because
 * Our Orcs Are Different: Herbivores
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Are their own culture, and come in two flavors: Werewolves, and Spellwolves. Both can shift at will, and retain pretty much all their mental faculties. Spellwolves are a special, rarer type of Werewolf that can use considerable magical power. The moon is significant in the culture, and Spellwolves can use the full moon to scry like seers.
 * Out-of-Character Moment: Most fans consider Greg's recent "honest and ugly" attitude to just come from nowhere. Gregory was once a timid and innocent ditz who would do anything to protect his friends and family. Now . Whether this is Character Development or Character Derailment depends entirely on your opinion, but most fans stopped taking him seriously after he supposedly wrote songs about
 * Out of Focus: Given the comic's large character base and varied locations, it's not uncommon for the focus to change drastically from arc to arc. Supporting characters like Milov and Jayden will sometimes disappear for arcs at a time, and even main characters like Dominic and Luna will occasionally take an arc off.
 * After the end of the Maltak arc, Dominic and Luna were absent from the comic for nearly an entire year.
 * Overly Long Name: A really, really early gag with Siggy's full name. We don't hear the whole thing again for eight years.
 * Paint It Black: The Nakta does this to Luna's hair.
 * Panty Shot: In-universe example; Quilt has rudimentary second sight. Only problem is, when he uses it, the image is always the same....
 * Papa Wolf: Though not as rabid as Miranda, when you're around Donovan, it's really not a good idea to screw with Dominic or Gregory. There's also the Shintula Chief, as Jacob learns the hard way.
 * Don't forget the poppa furry things of the Wild Edge.
 * The Paragon: Dominic and Luna's goal in the Maltak arc.
 * Pardon My Klingon: Ilka Tuk Tak, as well as "Kegak," which seems to be more of a direct insult.
 * This strip gets funnier if you imagine the phrase means "motherfucker", although anything with fuck in it is probably broad enough for the number of places "Ilka Tuk Tak" get's used.
 * Given a lookup in a Scots dictionary, Ilka Tuk Tak would translate to "Gather each thorn." Taken as an idiomatic phrase meant to convey an incredibly demeaning and humiliating task (or the feeling associated with it), this meaning makes sense and fits with their culture/herbivorous nature.
 * Later comics give us "kiak", "fak", "uruk", and "thok".
 * Parent Ex Machina: Miranda, somewhat exceptional in that the main character is (ostensibly) no longer a child. Actually lampshaded at one point when Miranda tries a few puns on the phrase, including "Mama Ex Machina" and "Deus Ex Momina," and, after seeing the confused reactions of her audience, she settles for, "I'm his mother, and I'm going to fix everything."
 * Pet Homosexual: Szark. Oh, Szark.
 * Pet the Dog: "Don't say I've never done anything for this family."
 * Just after Celesto : "Go. Get out of here. Run home to your daughter, hold her tight, and thank her for that 'good luck pinch.' It just saved your life."
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Amelia's dresses
 * Planet of Hats: In this case, Tribe of Hairstyles. Every tribe in Maltak is given their own adjective.
 * Poke in the Third Eye
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Siegfried, Siegfried's father and Brett Taggerty come to mind
 * Porn Stash: You never guess WHOSE porn stash it's referring to...
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child: A rare case of this being presented in a positive manner. At the conclusion of the Maltak arc,.
 * Rather, it's explained that this was a natural cycle that the poison in Maltak was halting, which is why the place was barren in the first place.
 * An Acibek is a golem created by merging multiple souls into a single collective entity using Order magic. The original Acibek was created by the elf tyrant Raf Maliksh using the souls of his own followers. It's no wonder Acibek immediately turned on Raf in disgust. Two other characters, Dirk the Mighty and Leaflette the  Sylvan Oracle, are also Acibeks. Dirk was created by Leaflette to be a guardian for the Dryad using the souls of a tree ogre, slumber flower, and a halfling. Leaflette was created by the original Acibek using an unknown combination of souls. This is also an unusually positive case: Acibek assures the loved ones of Raf's sacrifices that the souls inside him are at peace within his collective being.
 * The Evil Counterpart of the Acibek, the Storm of Souls, is as nasty as it sounds. It's an Eldritch Abomination composed of the souls of the Chaos worshipping Chosen that can devour other souls as well. Unlike an Acibek, the souls within the Storm are not at peace.
 * The Power of Legacy: Used twice: once when Donovan sees Karnak jump into Hell after beating him to a pulp, he chooses not to tell Miranda about what had happened. Later on, Dominic follows his father's example by telling Milov and Jayden that Siegfreid died as a knight of Callan, even though he was a genocidal maniac who  The first example is the Trope Namer and is found here. The second one is here.
 * The Power of Rock: Papa Deegan's specialty; Greg seems to have inherited it.
 * Precision F-Strike: And Mookie makes no apologies.
 * An earlier example was when a character said "shit" for the first time, though Mookie played up on it in his post, despite much more mature content done in previous comic strips. Specifically, he had originally intended the character to say "Oh Crap", but felt "Oh shit" was stronger and fit better.
 * Pretty in Mink: One of Amelia's dresses. Miranda's mother had a fur muff.
 * Progressively Prettier: Luna's tusks have become noticeably less, er, protrusive, over the years.
 * Psychic Nosebleed: Dominic gets one after.
 * Celesto is frequently a victim of this as it slowly becomes harder and harder for him to fight off The Beast's influence on his mind.
 * Pure Magic Being: Several.
 * Put on a Bus: Szark and Snowsong are sent to the Aberthast Cathedral for a while to get counseling after they nearly go off the deep end.
 * There's also  Barnet, who's currently in jail awaiting trial.
 * At the conclusion of the Maltak arc, Reinholdt is put on a mountain.
 * Nimmel when he left for the Winter Archipelago for some wacky nudist werewolf hijinx!
 * Pygmalion Plot: Leaflette fell in love with her creator Acibek. An odd case, since both of them are golems created using the same process. Sadly,
 * Black Comedy Rape / Double Standard Rape (Female on Male): When revealing how Luna lost her virginity, there's a one-panel sight gag of a panicked Dominic tied up, wearing cat ears, and screaming "help!", with the information that he slept with Gregory's friend Rachel the mercenary on their first date, and "didn't have much of a choice."
 * Rape as Drama: Given an unusual examination with Stonewater and Melsheena, but many of its regular subtropes played straight.
 * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Stunt, in his early days of semi-violent misogyni still gets appaled by the implication that he'd use "Sin City Specials" while in Erossus.
 * Reality Subtext: One can't help but notice that soon after Mookie and his lady-friend broke up, the Beta Couple who were madly in love with each other break up after she cheated on him.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Dominic's father, Donovan, is the Trope Namer.
 * Red Right Hand: Jacob Deegan has (had?) one skeletal hand.
 * Red Shirt: A lot of these guys are lost in Built to Resist. They don't call Celesto 'Collateral Damage Man' for nothing.
 * Also anyone who wins a named appearance in the comic.
 * Redshirt Army: The Rhazgala clan, in the final battle of March Across Maltak.
 * Redemption in the Rain: Played straight, in Maltak, where, was used to show show.
 * Retired Badass: Donovan Deegan.
 * Retcon: Borderline: What happened to Stunt's mother and why.
 * The Reveal: Throughout the Oracle Hunter Arc, it's heavily implied that Barnet is the illegitimate child of Donovan and a woman he dated prior to meeting Miranda, making her Dominic's half-sister. However, it's later revealed that she's actually.
 * The identity of the Beast's power source/magical ally in the mortal plane: . Extended when it is revealed that, "political implications aside",
 * Rule of Cool: Mookie is known to invoke continuity errors or unexplained events for the sake of coolness. For example: why does Melna's hammer have lightning coming from it when she ? Because "it's pretty f* cking metal."
 * Mookie also invoked this involving a Rain of Arrows that inexpicably changed direction from one strip to another:


 * Rule of Funny: Apparently, this is why bards do anything.
 * Including spending two decades !
 * Running Gag: Quite a few. Sparks' "Death From Above", "Fear My....Illusion", and the habit of everyone making bad puns.
 * Also Mookie himself pointed out in a comic "And so with Chris's death today I continue the tradition of killing people who win a named appearance in the comic via ConnectiCon's Webcomic Charity Auction."
 * Lower Back Problems
 * CURSE YOU, RUNCIBLE SPOON!

Tropes S-Z
"Luna's narration: Dominic and I, having just been in the presence of such a majestic creature, reacted the way any pair of intellectuals would have...
 * Sadist Teacher, subverted. During his tenure as a teacher, Dominic gained a reputation of being a hardass before the first day of class even began. He admits that Second Sight (the course he was teaching) would be hard, as there is a lot of history and heavy reading involved. Despite this, he has a positive relationship with his students, and vice versa.
 * Say My Name: After, he spends the next several comics traversing the Hellscape shouting "KARNAK!" When he shouts the name again, he grabs a spear mere inches away from his face, thrown by Karnak who says, "I heard you the first time."
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Dominic's never without his scarf, not even in psychic battles.
 * Of course not. It's the reason he can hold his own in them.
 * Scarf Of Asskicking Equals Authority? During the meeting of the new-and-last chiefs of the Orc tribes, most of them have a scarf on, and Mookie's commentary notes that a scarf in this comic makes you badass.
 * Screw Destiny: At the end of the Maltak arc, Melna tells fate to kiss her ass. A few comics later, Kiya steals her line.
 * This is pretty much what Dominic does throughout the comic. The only time fate ever won was with the "Fated Fatal".
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Serk Brakkis
 * Scry vs. Scry: Dominic and Celesto, several times.
 * Seers: One of the hallmarks of the comic. Dominic and Celesto are the prime examples.
 * Self-Defeating Prophecy: Dominic's second sight shows the unaltered future: What the future will be if he doesn't do something specially to change it.
 * Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: The female villains tend to dress a LOT sexier than female protagonists.
 * Shout-Out: A few visual references to Guilty Gear, among others.
 * If that's not a Shout-Out to System of a Down then I don't know what is.
 * "I'm not trapped [in Hell] with you, you're trapped in here WITH ME!" The author claims it was accidental. Coincidentally, the same quote happens to be his friend Tim Buckley's forum signature on his own website.
 * Dominic's Father's grasp of orcish bears a striking resemblance to Monty Python's Hungarian Phrasebook sketch. "I cannot wait til lunchtime" is a direct quote.
 * Shut Up and Save Me: The Trope Namer, here.
 * Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Or Orc Woman. My orcish is a bit rusty, but I think this is what it implies. Kiak?
 * Smug Snake: Serk Brakkis.
 * Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Spark
 * Some of My Best Friends Are X: Siegfried uses almost the trope name in the 'War in Hell' storyline after Dominic calls him a racist. Unusually, what he says is absolutely true and not particularly tainted by stereotyping or tokenism: One of his best friends is a spellwolf. It's just orcs. He has this huge problem with orcs. Oh, but "orcs aren't people."
 * Something Only They Would Say: How Dominic realizes that
 * Sophisticated As Hell: Dominic and Luna, during their vacation after meeting a dragon:

(Dominic and Luna stare at each other)

Dominic and Luna: (bouncing up and down) DRAGONDRAGONOHMYGODDRAGONOHGODOHWOWDRAGONDRAGON!"

"Nimmel: What is he doing to them? Why is this happening?
 * The Spiny / Wolverine Claws: "Bortette" is covered with giant, random spikes.
 * Stealth Pun: The Yuvonir, a mole-montain - it makes mole hills out of mountains.
 * Strange Minds Think Alike: In the first story arc, both Siegfried and Spark use the phrase, "In my defense, it had tusks" to describe Luna (which Dominic catches right away when Spark says it). The two instances occur several days apart. Subverted in the second case, as it turns out Spark wasn't referring to Luna, but to a sea monster that also had tusks.
 * Straw Critic: A highly-regarded but unnamed and unseen music critic shows up in The Power of Rock story. He thrashes Greg's "dumbed-down" music and while he doesn't exactly praise FACEBATH's proto-metal he does like that it's original; naturally by that point Greg and his two bandmates (a dude with tuskmouth and the jerkass bisexual(?) elf son of his father's bandmate) don't care.
 * Superhero Episode: Super-Greg
 * Suspiciously Idle Knights: The knights on Serk's take during Scarlatti's duel with Sturtz.
 * Talk to the Fist: This strip.
 * Siegfried pulls one on a hallucination/flashback.
 * A Tankard of Moose Urine: Reaction to Human beer from Orcs and Dwarf beer from Halflings.
 * Tautological Templar: Siegfried, at least at first.
 * Tear Off Your Face: Jacob.
 * Tears of Remorse
 * Ted Baxter: "Look, ball-for-brains, just use your vision to tell me how awesome I am.
 * There Are No Therapists "I think you people need to stop dumping all of your problems on me. I'm a CAT!"
 * This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Chief Thuen Gor orders his men to stay back while he fights the Bikta Chief alone.
 * Justified Trope if you take his 'They stayed back because I told them to' as an admission that he might hurt his own tribe if he really went all out against the Bikta Chief. Given that their fight was interrupted before Thuen Gor got serious, we'll never know.
 * Title Drop: Dominic once referred to himself as an "Oracle for Hire" near the start of the Shadow of Siegfried arc.
 * To Hell and Back
 * Tonight Someone Dies: Done with the "Fated Fatal" Dominic goes through early in the War in Hell story arc, which he says means someone he knows will die, and there's nothing he can do about it.
 * Word of God promised that someone would not be returning from Maltak. Several deaths were teased, but in the end,.
 * As the comic enters its final year Mookie proclaimed that there would be several character deaths in the coming story arcs..
 * Too Dumb to Live: The poachers are dumbed down to irrelevance, even by the standards of a fun story about weird critters and murdering bad guys. They're hunting a mongrelman, an unknown quantity that survives in the Wild Edge - a plain where Reality Is Out to Lunch, known for giant horrible teeth bursting out of places you'd least expect, that has already killed some of them. They catch it by (1) throwing a net over it, and (2) gloating. This when they have been shown to have Instant Sedation - causing tranquilizers that can knock out a tosserphant. There were body parts everywhere.
 * Really, Too Dumb to Live kicked in earlier, when the one guy decided to just ignore the leader's advice and pick up one of the little fuzzballs.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Luna's taken a few over the course of the strip. Starting with this exchange: When the hell did *Luna* gain self-confidence?!
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Dom's "Mapvel Candies". Also, Spark really loves fish. But he is, after all, a cat. And, uh...yeah.
 * Tranquillizer Dart: Instant paralysis darts that seem to only be in effect while they're still stuck in the person.
 * Traveling At the Speed of Plot: In a bizarre on-panel example, a character walks out of an empty, flat wasteland and into an enemy camp. A similar scene takes several minutes on Lawrence of Arabia, and the traveler is on camelback. Here the traveler is past the camp's guards in the time the guards take to spot her, recognize her, and recover from the surprise that she's alive.
 * True Companions: Dominic's network of friends and allies. A werewolf's social worth revolves around their "pack" and to insult one is a major Dude, Not Funny offense.
 * Two Guys and a Girl: A repeated trope to the point the Xerox is starting to edge onto Naruto's turf. Donovan, Miranda, and Karnak seem to have been this, though it's unclear how Karnak felt about Donovan most of the time. Stonewater, Grenchka, and Bulgak also follow this pattern, with a variation in that Bulgak knew Grench first, but does not get her. Milov, Jayden, and Siegfried are eventually revealed to have been this not just in gender combo but in dynamic.
 * This seems to be the preferred composition of any given adventuring party in the setting, which owes a lot to fantasy RPG conventions, though not in the story. Greg, Luna, and Dominic fell into it early on, and if Szark had been a little more sane in his intro and the plot a little more conventional, he probably would have wound up a party with Dominic and Luna and given us the variant where the girl and one of the guys both like the other guy. Instead he's just the Pet Homosexual.
 * Mookie does like threes, though.
 * Unexplained Recovery: The only apparent explanation for 's sudden recovery is sheer force of will.
 * Happens to  during the climax of the Maltak arc, though not without a price.
 * Similarly, when Luna is stabbed with the Hukthak, her injury disappears as soon as it's pulled out, but it too comes with a price:.
 * Unholy Nuke: A rare example of one used by a good character. Dark Soul Burst is a spell powered by anger and hatred, and is typically used by Luna when someone REALLY pisses her off. The first time it's used, it knocks out Siegfried, a rather strong royal knight, in a single shot. Later on, an ally deliberately pisses her off to make the spell more powerful when she casts it.
 * Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Constantly.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Dominic's term for large breasts is "lower back problems." Luna also wrote about her crush on Siegfried in her journal, and makes mention of his "great big sword".
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: Raf Maliksh and Celesto.
 * And in Maltak, Dominic. Though it was really more Because Destiny Says So, and he did look for wiggle room a bit.
 * Veganopia: Major piece in developing the orcs. It's not that they're not a violent, primitive society, but they're herbivores, and it adds a certain buccolic innocence to Maltak.
 * Also note Karnak's bizzarre behavioral tic of taking unnecessary mouthfuls out of his enemies and then spitting them out. He was raised an orc. They had to boil the food for ages to get it soft enough for his human teeth. No word on what, if anything, he's actually eaten all these years in hell.
 * Victim Falls For Rapist: Noted and subsequently almost completely averted. Melna was raped by Stonewater (as a child!) to save her life, but after meeting him again some years later, she discovers, to her alarm, that she is attracted to him now. On further rumination, Melna loves what Stonewater has come to stand for... which is not that surprising given Stonewater tried to model himself after Melna's father, horrible traumatization aside.
 * Vigilante Execution:
 * Violation of Common Sense: "I think we should stop trying to rob someone who can see the future."
 * The Voiceless: According to Luna, Jayden hasn't said a single word since the Shadow of Siegfried incident. Demon Siegfried may qualify as this as well, though he seems to lean closer to The Speechless since his mask obstructs his mouth (Though he can still communicate with Karnak without the use of body language somehow).
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Neilen's channeling of
 * Webcomic Time: Frequently and often lampshaded, sometimes straight and sometimes through continuity nods. Usually it gets so confusing over how much time has passed during the arcs that it can only be determined by Spark's lampshade hanging via hunger.
 * Some examples of the nods and lampshades: This early strip, or this one.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Celesto Morgan, who first wanted to cleanse the world with Chaos after deciding the people in it were all assholes, and who now says he's trying to save the world from The Infernomancer while incidentally destroying Lynn's Brook, which he calls "a small price to pay."
 * He also thinks is justified since it's for the "greater good".
 * Wham! Episode:  It was a test, but still! And apparently one of his student's theories was right as well.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Wham! Line:

Snert: Because the Archmage of the Fifth Circle wills it.

Nimmel: Miranda? No, you're lying! It can't be!

Snert: I am not lying, Nimmel Feenix...and I don't mean Miranda Deegan."


 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: In (real-life)December, an important event is heralded across the land by the appearance of a brilliant star. No, it's not the messiah's birth,
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: While there are quite a few characters who have not been heard from for a while (possibly to make a cameo later) the most infamous example to some fans is Brok who just vanishes from the comic completely with only passing mention from Stunt and Bumper later about losing him. Granted that he was only a hired thug, it still felt odd to just drop him.
 * Word of God was that Brok himself was a reference to one of Mookie's friends, and on reflection Mookie felt he didn't really "fit" in the comic.
 * What the Hell, Hero?:
 * Pam at the end of the Snowsong arc. She
 * Huk Thak invokes this at the climax of the Maltak arc, but is dismissed by Reinholdt.
 * Olena pulls this on Nimmel after he uses his ice magic to fight off a bunch of werewolf bullies who were attacking him. Although there's a bit of truth to her words, she does it so cruelly that it's impossible to agree with her. Even the bullies take Nimmel's side.
 * White Magic: White magic can manifest in white mages in the form of light, or in more exceptional mages, (e.g. Gregory) white fire.
 * For the Orcs, at least, Ice Magic is treated as a holy magic.
 * Also the name of Greg's band, which was dubbed "vaguely racist" by the incredibly important but unnamed music critic.
 * Who Wants to Be a Superhero: Gregory's alter-ego Super-Greg, and Dominic's childhood love for The Adventures of Mighty Man.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Aliak.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Dominic thinks that is suffering from this due to  According to Dominic, humans aren't built to wield that kind of power indefinitely and that it's warping  mind.
 * With This Herring: Toyed with and taken a bit too literally here.
 * Worf Effect: Jacob Deegan, who previously annihilated a group of Chosen in a Curb Stomp Battle, is
 * World of Chaos: The Wild Edge, where Bort the Mongrelman lives. It's a deceptively peaceful-looking meadow/savannah.
 * Hell: It's got some creepy stalagtites with tentacles, and a huge pit full of damned souls.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Heliner, who keeps trying to base his life on comic books. For example, Dominic is a seer, which means he must have godlike reflexes, right?
 * Xanatos Gambit / Xanatos Roulette: Dominic uses his Second Sight to pull off Gambits that would be Roulettes for anyone else. Other characters comment on it, but they're not being Genre Savvy. Dominic likes to do The Reveal when his plans have come to fruition--or is occasionally forced to reveal his intentions when one of his plans goes awry. It's the major source of friction in his relationship with Luna (who spent most of her life getting abusively manipulated by her mother and sister).
 * Some of the villains like to pull gambits of their own, leading to insane Gambit Pileups in at least two story arcs.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: This strip.
 * Yin-Yang Bomb: Luna in the March Across Maltak. Also a case of Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil.
 * Earlier, there was Dominic as the Avatar Of Balance in the "Storm of Souls" arc. It seems to be a recurring theme in the comic.
 * You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Miranda says exactly this to TIM when he attacks her in the "Ecstasy and Evil" arc. The true meaning of her words weren't revealed until years later, but the "Archmage of the fifth circle" isn't a rank in the archmage academy. It's literally the circle in which she stands in the five-being council that rules ALL the archmagi.
 * You Know What You Did: Neilen attempts to pull this on Dominic and Luna. It fails miserably.