MARDEK

""Oh no! A plot-unrelated boss monster!""

- The titular character, Mardek, on being roared at by a Zombie Warrior

""What if those bandits had families? Wives and little children that they'd never be able to return home because they died by OUR hands? [...] Justice? Is it justice? What's justice? Just an opinion, really... I mean, those bandits... They could've been doing what they thought was right, what was 'just' in their eyes... It's just that their opinions conflicted with ours, so there's bloodshed... Is it ever necessary?""

- Emela, discussing What Measure Is A Mook

The MARDEK series is a series of online Flash RPGs designed and created by Pseudolonewolf of Fig Hunter Games. They revolve around a lad named Mardek, his childhood friend Deugan, their female colleague Emela, and the magical space ghost living inside Mardek's body called Rohoph. The games take place on the planet Belfan, where magic and all that nonsense are pretty commonplace. Part of what makes up MARDEK's charm is the game's sense of humour, as almost everyone on the planet seems totally aware that it's an RPG world, and are quick to point out that most of what happens make little to no sense whatsoever. Make no mistake, though; at the center of it all is a well-written story and well-constructed world that, as the quote above demonstrates, can be rather dark at times.

The game is planned to be eight chapters long, although Pseudolonewolf has stated that he might reduce the amount of chapters to 5 or 6. The third chapter was released in the summer of 2010, along with some graphical and gameplay updates to the first two chapters. Savegames from earlier chapters can be imported into the following chapter.

Chapter 1 is here, Chapter 2 is here, and Chapter 3 is here.

Has a character sheet. Please put character-specific examples there.

MARDEK is the Trope Namer for:

 * Actually Four Mooks

All chapters provide examples of the following tropes:
"Deugan: There was this thing we were taught when we were little called 'Suspension of Disbelief'. It's where you, well, just ignore things like that. Comes in very handy in this strange world of ours."
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Lampshaded if you talk to Emela while you're in it in Chapter 2. She questions how it's so large when Goznor is only a few tiny houses in size, and how it even works if there was no plumbing. Deugan replies:

"Mardek: But who will remind me of the menus and controls and I'll get all confused and not know what he's talking about? Who will tell me that Enter opens the menu and you have to use Rusty Keys on reactions in battle and stuff?"
 * Action Commands: Prior to the release of Chapter 3 and it's updates, 3 different keys could be pressed in battle to activate up to 3 seperate additional effects to an action, but only one effect could be applied per action. Currently, a single key is pressed to activate as many additional effects as equipable at the same time - leading to an unfortunate bug of being able to inflict negative status effects on allies with healing spells when you're only trying to increase its potency.
 * Affectionate Parody: Of Eastern RPGs.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Parodied with a few NPCs, and inverted with Emela, who is disgusted by Steele.
 * All There in the Manual: Taken Up to Eleven with the in-game Encyclopaedia, which is extremely large and contains extensive information on pretty much every NPC of importance that you meet, as well as tons of other backstory information, such as the seven elemental crystals. You have to actually find the person/hear about the item in order for the full article to be added to the Encyclopaedia, though.
 * Lots of background information that is not automatically written into the in-game Encyclopaedia can be found in bookcases in-game (Which obviously includes the libraries), and on Pseudolonewolf's website.
 * And I Must Scream:
 * In Chapter 3, one of the items required to recruit is a Wretched Soul, which you can get by
 * . The priests there were driven to insanity by an object that is eerily similar to the Violet Crystal, but that's not the worst of it. After they'd died, they weren't allowed to continue on to the afterlife, and were instead bound to the monastery as zombies. Even after their flesh rotted to nothing, their souls were still bound there as insane, disfigured globs of ectoplasm.
 * Apocalypse How: A Class 2, or possibly Class 3, happened to the Manta, an ancient civilization, long before the game started.
 * Arbitrary Gun Power: Muriance's gun.
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit / Lazy Backup: Only up to three of Mardek's allies can participate in any given battle.
 * Armor-Piercing Attack: Ripping Slash.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Violet Crystal. A variation is that it starts out in the villains' possession, meaning that they begin the story with heightened power.
 * Possibly the dark crystal too, although that one just contains power and doesn't try to corrupt/kill the holder. Not directly.
 * Ascended Fanboy: The first two chapters follow Mardek and Deugan, who have dreamed about being heroes their whole lives, following in the footsteps of their childhood idols.
 * Author Avatar: Both Deugan and Emela, to a certain extent. Pseudolonewolf says that they're based off of his personality, but he made sure to give them unique personality traits to avoid making them blatant self-inserts.
 * Author Catchphrase: "Tsk."
 * Any time a cliche or otherwise expected situation is predicted (which happens very often), the sentence tends to end with "perhaps?" or a similar qualifier. This shows up less in Chapter 3, but is still present in Pseudo's blog posts.
 * Balance Between Good and Evil: Or rather, between Light and Dark/ the elements in general. This is an overarching theme of Chapter 3, and Clavis is a major advocate of it.
 * Battle Couple: Donovan and Sharla.
 * Battle Theme Music: Lots.
 * BGM Override: In the arena, the battle music plays uninterrupted until the end.
 * Bonus Boss: At least one in every chapter. And that's not even counting things like the Cambria tournaments...
 * Bonus Dungeon: Again, at least one per chapter.
 * Boss Remix: Too many to list.
 * Came Back Wrong: Annunaki that perform soul transfers can become Class 2s if they aren't careful, though it's the mind that's damaged, not the soul.
 * Can't Drop the Hero: In the first two chapters, Mardek, Deugan, and Emela can't be dropped. In the third chapter, Mardek can't be dropped; this is less of a problem than it could be because Mardek is a support hero and would get less exp than other characters if the same party was used throughout the game.
 * Starts becoming a problem in Chapter 3 however; it's very possible to have Mardek at lv40 (Higher level than several bosses!) and the rest of your allies at around level 25 by the end of the game if you frequently switch them to divide exp between them. Cue the solo Bonus Boss fights.
 * Actually, some of the easiest strategies against the first half of the super-bonus boss in chapter 3 is soloing him with Mardek and a few special items. You can still manage to revive everyone at the end, and even let someone else make the killing blow for massive amounts of exp more than the shared kill-XP.
 * Capital Letters Are Magic
 * Character Title
 * Chekhov's Gag: In the second chapter, you can read a book case in Gloria's house mentioning Sirens (and how hot they are, with Emela and Mardek's reactions.) In the third game,.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Elwyen.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The elemental crystals, the Governance de Magi, and many of the monsters.
 * Every character in the world has an element. When an NPC talks, their element is indicated in a logo in the chat box.
 * Convection, Schmonvection
 * Cosmic Keystone: The elemental crystals, though they only affect their planet, not the whole universe.
 * Crossover: In Chapter 3, the author crosses over several of the elements from his canceled project, Deliverance.
 * Actually, most, if not all, of Pseudolonewolf's older games happen in a shared universe. So we might just be able to meet Arkus Zei one day.
 * Cry for the Devil: You will feel sorry for the Governance de Magi members after you kill them.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: YALORT.
 * Though he may be more like Crystal Dragon Zeus.
 * Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Pressing the Escape key pauses the game, as one might expect. However, similarly to Cave Story, pressing it again will quit the game! You have to press Z to actually unpause.
 * Dark Is Evil: Played straight. Darkness is the elemental epitome of evil. But...
 * Dark Is Not Evil: The game states that darkness is the element associated most with progress and drive. A book in Goznor even mentions that dark-elemental heroes have existed in the past.
 * Bernard fits this. He's not evil, and is part of a group that competes with your own to save the world. Although he actually admits he's only joined them because it amuses him.
 * Death Is Cheap: Happens in both gameplay and story. In battle, phoenix downs revive fallen characters. In the story,
 * Disappeared Dad: Mardek's father is gone adventuring.
 * Dirty Business: The entire series is about destroying his former friends. Chapter 3 shows that   and sees.
 * Doing It for the Art
 * Dwindling Party: A villainous version, strangely enough. There are only seven members of the Governance de Magi, and with every death, their homeworld suffers more and more, as does their group. It's explicitly stated that they're all friends (although they don't always agree with each others methods), too, which makes their deaths even harder on the rest of them.
 * Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Completely averted, or possibly even inverted; Earth is in a completely different galaxy, and therefore doesn't even exist as far as everyone is concerned.
 * Elemental Powers: There's even one Governance de Magi member for each element! (Well, except for Fig, since Fig-elemental people are exceptionally rare) This is pretty much Justified by in-universe reasoning. It's just how their governmental system works.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire consumes Air, Air erodes Earth, Earth absorbs Water, and Water douses Fire. Light banishes Darkness, but at the same time, Darkness consumes and extinguishes Light. (Fig and Ether form a similar duality, though why souls are weak to Psychic Powers and figments of imagination are weak to Soul Power is not explained)
 * They aren't. The Spiritual elements are given strengths and weaknesses purely for game balance reasons, and are neutral in-story.
 * There are also "pseudo-elements", namely physical and thauma (pure magic), and divine. The latter 2 are extremely rare though.
 * Enemy Scan: You can do this at any time by clicking on an enemy's lifebar.
 * Equipment Spoiler: Two instances:
 * In Chapter 2 you can drop axes and staves from certain enemies, which none of the characters can use. If you carry them over to the next chapter, you'll find out they're actually starting weapons for Sslen'ck and Gloria.
 * In Chapter 3 you can buy a weapon usable only by a character that's considered missing-in-action as of second chapter's ending. It sprouted fan speculations about the character returning in a future installment.
 * Et Tu, Brute?: Turned around from its usual form;.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Social Fox and Mardek have this effect on some NPCs.
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: Said almost word-for-word in one of the encyclopedia entries.
 * Evil Is Not Well Lit: The Governance de Magi keep close to many classic villain tropes and clichés, and this is no exception. Their meeting room is somewhat dark except for the Violet Crystal in the center.
 * Evil Overlord: Baron von Doomkill, who can be read about in a library, was one of these.
 * Face Framed in Shadow: Averted for the Governance de Magi, despite them not averting Evil Is Not Well Lit.
 * Fantastic Racism: A two-way example; both Reptoids and humans dislike each other and think that they're evil savages.
 * Family-Unfriendly Aesop: In-universe example: tells Mardek that he shouldn't get emotionally attached to people, because they could die at any moment, or use his trust to betray him.
 * Fight Woosh
 * Five-Bad Band: The Governance de Magi.
 * Big Bad: Anu
 * The Dragon: (Unknown, possibly Melchior or Balthazar)
 * The Evil Genius: Balthazar/Moric
 * The Brute: Gaspar
 * The Dark Chick: Melchior/Qualna
 * The Chick: Rohoph before the Governance was corrupted.
 * Flip Personality: Mardek shares his body with the Rohoph's soul. You can tell instantly when Rohoph is talking because Mardek's eyes glow white and his voice pattern changes completely.
 * Foil: Introverted, serious, and analytical Rohoph to extroverted, silly, and dim-witted Mardek. Deugan could also be considered a foil to Mardek.
 * Also, the mad, sociopathic Saul to the good-natured, pacifistic Meraeador.
 * Genius Loci: The planet is established to be alive, just not in the same way as us. The shamans can commune with it, however.
 * Genre Savvy: Rohoph, who advises Mardek not to form emotional attachments to people, because then his enemies can use them against him in a Sadistic Choice, or they could simply betray him themselves.
 * God of Evil: SHUMBRA, the elemental deity of darkness.
 * Gotta Catch Em All: Deconstructed, surprisingly. The elemental crystals are not just meaningless MacGuffins of vague power like in most RPGs that use them. The planet is established to be alive, and the crystals are, in a sense, its organs. They control extremely important parts of life and nature, so if they are tampered with, bad things happen to the planet. "Tampering" includes removing them from their temples.
 * Gotta Kill Them All: The Governance de Magi. Also deconstructed; see Dwindling Party, above.
 * Grim Reaper: GALARIS.
 * Moric was mistaken for Galaris. Admittedly, he's pretty much a look-alike.
 * He Knows About Timed Hits: "Mardek, I'm going to remind you of the controls!" To be fair, much of the dialogue in the game is in the same vein.
 * In the beginning of Chapter 3, Mardek even lists this as
 * Grim Reaper: GALARIS.
 * Moric was mistaken for Galaris. Admittedly, he's pretty much a look-alike.
 * He Knows About Timed Hits: "Mardek, I'm going to remind you of the controls!" To be fair, much of the dialogue in the game is in the same vein.
 * In the beginning of Chapter 3, Mardek even lists this as

"Jacques: A good Knight knows when to use 'is surroundings to aid 'im. Since we leeve in a world where apparently unopened chests full of loot scatter zee landscape, zee land truly can provide. And it 'as provided you well, it seems."
 * Hell: The Antilife, which is also an Ironic Hell.
 * Hot Mom: Baron von Doomkill would totally tap Mardek's mom, who apparently has rumors around the Goznor guardpost as being... loose.
 * Human Aliens: Not just on Belfan; according to Fig Hunter's encyclopedia, they're one of the most common species in the galaxy.
 * Humanoid Aliens: Both averted and played straight. Some of the species described in the encyclopedia are truly bizarre. The ones we've seen so far are all humanoids, however.
 * Improbable Power Discrepancy: An amateur human necromancer can create undead more powerful and high-levelled than an super-powerful alien that has devoted most of his life to perfecting his magic. Said super-powerful alien necromancer is also weaker than some regular enemies in Bonus Dungeons. Gameplay and Story Segregation at its finest, considering how the Bonus Bosses of Chapter 3 have
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Lampshaded in Chapter 3 if you get the "Collector" Medal:

""It's a bookshelf full of various magazines and annuals about weapons. It includes such eccentric models as a handheld paper fan, some kind of hairclip or headdress, a megaphone, and some kind of strange sword-combined-with-a-gun. Who'd use such ridiculous things?!""
 * Informed Equipment: Averted with weapons, played straight with everything else. This issue has sparked a surprising amount of criticism from some of the fans, despite the developer repeatedly stating that it's a stylistic choice and he won't change it.
 * It Amused Me: If you talk to Bernard in the Fire Temple, he outright says that he's only along to see the look on Bartholio's face when Mardek gets through first.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: Lampshaded, of course.
 * Last Chance Hit Point: The "Survivor" Action Command.
 * Leitmotif: One for every playable character, and quite a few others, as well.
 * Light Is Not Good:
 * Lizard Folk: A whole tribe of 'em.
 * A whole race of 'em. Living on other planets.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Only in MARDEK 3. Word of God states it was hell to write the side dialogue for all of them and less are coming in the next parts.
 * Made of Evil: All monsters are made up of a dark, insubstantial material known as "miasma".
 * Mad Scientist: Mereador is pretty close to this at times.
 * In fact, he pretty much goes mad with ideas for inventions if you speak to him within the volcano.
 * It turns out that this is what the Goznor villagers actually saw him as, which is what got him shunned.
 * Magic Versus Science: Completely averted, or possibly inverted; in many advanced planets, magic and technology coexist without a second glance from anyone.
 * Magikarp Power: Elwyen and Meraeador look useless at first, but if you take the time to get sheet music and build inventions, they become invaluable.
 * Solaar, too. Xe has abysmal Vitality, turning xim into a Glass Cannon with too much emphasis on the "glass" part to be very useful. However, if you give xim equipment that boosts Vitality (the Green Stole + 6, in particular), xyr HP is raised enough to make xim and xyr amazing skills usable.
 * Magitek: Used by advanced races such as the Annunaki and Lingons.
 * Medium Awareness
 * Mighty Glacier: Deugan, Sslen'ck, and Legion.
 * Mineral MacGuffin: Deconstructed with the elemental crystals; see Gotta Catch Em All, above.
 * Monster Compendium: The included Bestiary in the Encyclopedia section.
 * Mood Motif: Sorrow, which plays during sad scenes in the game, and Memory, which plays during the Time Skips at the beginning of chapters.
 * More Than Mind Control: The Governance de Magi. The Violet Crystal only intensifies their present insecurities and negative traits.
 * Necessarily Evil: It's stated that despite dark generally being evil, having something to surmount encourages progress.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: There are knights, lizard people, mad scientists, zombies, aliens, robots, dragons, dragon-zombies, alien dragons, zombie-alien-dragon-robots re-reanimated zombie-alien-dragon-robots who are barely anything more than bone... The list goes on and on. Sadly, ninjas and pirates have yet to be introduced, though there are bandits, and Mardek's father is said to wield a katana...
 * Non-Elemental: Subverted; physical attacks do have their own element that can be resisted, despite it being referred to as "non-elemental". Played straight with the Divine element, although no attacks or creatures with that element have been revealed thus far, only items and/providing passive skills.
 * Prior to the chapter 3 updates, attacks that would be physical were Non-Elemental, and the element of a physical attack would depend on the element of the equipped weapon. Because the Physical element didn't exist yet, Non-Elemental attacks would do neutral damage to everything.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: The Aeropolis shaman, according to the encyclopedia.
 * But he's totally rad, man.
 * The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Governance de Magi.
 * One-Gender Race: Of a sort. Solaar and all Aruan are genderless and use the gender-neutral pronoun "xe." Also, Reptoids and Annunaki are hermaphroditic and don't have single sexes or gender, but are usually referred to as "he."
 * Only Sane Man: Rohoph thinks of himself as this compared to the rest of the Governance de Magi.
 * Opening the Sandbox: Happens every chapter, usually just before the final dungeon. There are usually some sidequests you can complete before then, though.
 * Our Souls Are Different: And how!
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: The Governance de Magi members all talk in glowing letters with a fancy font. Clavis even points it out when Rohoph takes over briefly while he's talking to Mardek.
 * Pamphlet Shelf: Most of them contain details about the setting and backstory, except for a few that turn out to just be somebody's Porn Stash.
 * Personality Powers: Justified. A person's element is "a part of their soul. The most fundamental part!"
 * Potential Applications: A positive example; this is Mereaedor's motivation for using an incredibly evil and powerful spell to rip souls out of the afterlife.
 * Powers Via Possession:
 * How Mardek's "Magic Sword" powers work.
 * And.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Worlds' Saviours. Actually more of a Goldfish Poop Gang. Or not, since many players have problems with them. They're particularly troublesome after defeating the fire guardian. Most people wouldn't expect another boss fight, so are still low on hp/mp, and still fully equipped to deal specifically with a fire element boss. They bring quite the pain if you don't immediately heal up and change your skill set-up.
 * Random Encounters: Justified, amazingly. In one of the library sections in the game, the book that explains about miasma (see Made of Evil, above) explains that monsters really do literally form out of nowhere randomly, since miasma can condense anywhere as long as there are sufficient negative emotions to act as catalysts. This doesn't really explain the zombies or bandits that materialize out of nowhere, though.
 * Randomly Drops: Most enemies have an item or two to drop, mostly potions and status healing items, but some will drop weapons and armor on occasion.
 * Organ Drops: As of the Chapter 3 update, almost every enemy will drop a vendor trash/item crafting item. Most if not all of these seem to be harvested from the enemy (Fish scales, Goblin earwax, Zombie hand, etc.)
 * Revive Kills Zombie: Though Phoenix Downs don't 'kill' Undead, per se, they do deal significant amounts of damage. Healing spells and the Regen status effect also inflict damage, and using Solaar's Resurrection skill halves life.
 * Known to have been nerfed since the Chapter 3 update; previously, Phoenix Downs inflicted Massive Damage (it was possible to easily defeat the Zombie Dragon in Chapter 2 by solely lobbing Phoenix Downs, which inflicted at least 5000 damage), but now Phoenix Downs inflict relatively meagre damage.
 * Schedule Slip: The first two chapters were both released during 2007. Chapter 3 wasn't out until July 2010. One can only guess when Chapter 4 will be released.
 * Science Fantasy: Okay, so it's got knights, dragons, magic, elemental crystals...spaceships, aliens, and other planets.
 * Shout-Out: There's a weapon that has a chance of being randomly dropped by a boss. It's called the "Keyblade". It's a key. Originally wielded by a zombie locksmith.
 * There are also monster cacti called Happy Johnnies that use an attack called 1000 Needles.
 * Also the Phoenix Down item.
 * Zach, who NPCs will tell you would slit various peoples' throats for various sums of money.
 * Including, but not limited to, his mother's and his own.
 * 'I want to be a warport when I grow up!'
 * Mardek's father was named Enki. Because of Belfan's naming system, Mardek's full name is Mardek Innanu El-Enkidu
 * Another one for Enki, he's a mysterious, rarely-seen character, whose middle name includes "seph", and wields a katana. Hm...
 * When, a random NPC comments how he hopes it's not the Archfiend Cagnazzo.
 * Lykel, who appears to be a member of the Federation.
 * Don't forget Smalls and Chunk, the two guards that pick you up from the Air Temple.
 * Magmazard, fire-elemental lizards with a flame lit tail.
 * Lovely Elfs can drop an item called "Elf Cap".
 * One of the souls inhabiting Legion is clincally depressed. Everyone in his town called him Miserable Ol' Martin, which further depressed him, as his name was actually Eric. Hm. A depressed, whiny Robot Buddy... Where have we seen this before?
 * Muriance, a thief (well, bandit, actually), claims to be a 'Treasure Hunter' when you meet up with him in chapter 3.
 * One of the quotes from a bookshelf:

""I bet it's worse than ever, since it's surely descended into a hive of miserable scum and villainy, where nothing works right and the evil people rule and all that. It makes me depressed just thinking about it.""
 * Miserable Ol' Martin's opinion on the world:

"Engulfs all enemies in flame. MWAHAHA! Mereador's such a pacifist."
 * If, as implied by one bit of dialogue, the Mysterious Man is actually saying "[PROFANITY]ing", not actually swearing, it's either a Shout-Out to Discworld's Mr. Tulip or a case of great minds thinking alike.
 * There's a guy hanging out in front of the sewers in Chapter 3 who's role-playing as a zombie who wakes up on a boat with amnesia and a message he can't read, and he meets a blind guy, and...
 * Pixie Dust doesn't let you fly
 * Stealth Pun: Melchior, the air-elemental Governance de Magi member, is sort of, well, an airhead.
 * Songs in the Key of Panic: "Flee!", which plays during Timed Missions.
 * Soul Power: All ether-elemental characters, though Annunaki all have this to a certain extent -- they can perform "soul transfers" upon dying that will allow their soul to inhabit another body.
 * Spoony Bard: Completely averted with Elwyen, who is one of the most useful characters.
 * Straw Feminist: The Canonian adventuress, though she's a rather specific type (the arrogant kind that becomes exactly what they try to fight against).
 * Squishy Wizard: Emela. Her physical attack doesn't even deal HP damage. Sharla and Donovan, too, though their STR is just high enough for them to deal decent physical damage. Gloria also has low strength, but is significantly tougher than the other mages (though this could be due to her starting equipment, as the Emerald Bangle is a great HP booster).
 * Strength Equals Worthiness
 * Standard Status Effects: It's a Final Fantasy parody, of course it's going to have these. Poison, Silence, Sleep, Paralyze (Stun), Berserk, Confuse, and Instant Death are all present in their normal roles. There's also Bleed (basically the more potent poison), two varieties of Blindness (Blind lowers physical attack accuracy, while Numbness disables them altogether), a mix of Charm and Petrification in Zombify (your characters are basically in a Confuse state that cannot wear off without being cured, and causes a Game Over if all characters are zombified), and Curse (disables all spells, but not basic attacks).
 * Status Buff: Naturally. However, some of these are not as common as the Status Effects above. There are the typical Heal, Cure/Clear (one boss even has spells that named this, though they heal instead), Haste, Regen, stat boosters, and damage reducers (Shield, M Shield). Then there are the more unusual status buffs, such as Barkskin (basically a DEF raiser), Aero and Pyro Shell (which are Reflect, but only for one specific element), the Nulls (completely blocks one attack of its element), and Astral Form, which increases and decreases resistances to various elements. With all of the unusual status buffs, only one character has access to them. It should be noted that Berserk counts as a "Status Buff", even though enemies can inflict it themselves.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: All over the place. Emela does it a lot in Chapter 2 ("This is totally new to me and not something I've done hundreds of times before!"), and Chapter 3 has such gems as Rohoph saying, "My eyes certainly aren't glowing white!"
 * Technical Pacifist: Meraeador, though he has no problem with killing monsters, as they are simply 'Miasma'.
 * Lampshaded by Mardek, who asks Meraeador something like "Doesn't pacifist mean opposition to all violence?", whereupon Meraedor retorts that the meaning of pacifism is pretty pedantic.
 * Also lampshaded in the Flamethrower in-battle description.

"Legion: OH NOOOOOO!!!!! PIXIES LIVE HERE!!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! And fairies. I don't mind fairies. They're nice. But PIXIES?!? THEY DIG IN MY MIIIIIND!!! But they won't find any chocolate! Hee! HEE."
 * Theme Naming: Three members of the Governance de Magi are named Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, after the (legendary, non-Biblical) names of the three magi that gave gifts to the Baby Jesus in the Bible. The apparent leader is also named Anu, the Mesopotamian god of the sky.
 * It's also possible that these characters may be a shout out to Chrono Trigger.
 * Time Skip: Between every chapter thus far.
 * Title Theme Drop: Though this isn't used directly, quoting the main theme in plot-important pieces is very common.
 * Token Evil Teammate: Bernard is the only dark-elemental character in the World's Saviors. Actually subverted, as he seems to be a good guy, or at the very least, an Anti-Hero.
 * He's more like the Token Jerk Ass Teammate.
 * Underground Monkey: There are usually significant changes and additions to character models instead of just Palette Swaps, however.
 * Unusable Enemy Equipment: Rather Egregious, since you can click on an enemy's lifebar at any time to see a detailed description of their stats, equipment, etc., and only a few enemies will actually drop said equipment as a random drop. It's also subverted, however, as a lot of the enemy equipment is actual equipment that you can buy or find in treasure chests.
 * The Von Trope Family: Baron von Doomkill.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Sidestepped; it's explicitly stated multiple times that monsters aren't sapient, therefore killing them is okay. There's even a pacifist in your party who uses this as justification for why he fights! Enemies that are actual humans, however, deeply disturb the characters, who view it as a form of Shoot the Dog.
 * Whatevermancy
 * White and Gray Morality: A surprisingly cynical version; though the main characters are unambiguously good, the fact that the villains are of gray morality is stressed many times, and emphasizes the fact that fighting the villains is not necessarily a good thing.
 * Slides toward Grey and Gray Morality in Chapter 3, as Additionally, the story dwells a good bit on the fact that even actions taken fighting an indisputably evil villain (namely, ) can have wider negative repercussions.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Undead?: Sslen'ck can't stand zombies.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Pixies?: Bostolm, Legion's Sanguine soul, starts screaming incoherently whenever he's near a pixie. To quote his P-dialogue in the Lifewood:
 * Why Did It Have To Be Pixies?: Bostolm, Legion's Sanguine soul, starts screaming incoherently whenever he's near a pixie. To quote his P-dialogue in the Lifewood:

"There was thise one tyme where he totally Slew this Mighty Dragonne! It was a Foule, Evile, Darke Beaste who had Capturede a Princesse - one of the Fineste in all the Landse - and only the Heroisme of Social Fox could Save her!"
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Governance de Magi, and how.
 * The Wiki Rule: There is, in fact, a Fig Hunter wiki cataloging information about MARDEK and some of Pseudolonewolf's other games.
 * Wolfpack Boss: The Worlds' Saviours.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: The World's Saviours, who believe that they are the main heroes of the story. Well, except for Bernard, who's just along because he gets his kicks from their bumbling antics.
 * Voice of the Legion: Annunaki, Aruan, and Crystal Guardian chat is written in a different font from the normal one, with Annunaki and Guardian chat written in the same color as their element, and Aruan chat (or Solaar's, anyhow) with a second, lighter copy of the original behind the original, to mimic the echoing voice stated in Solaar's Encyclopaedia entry.
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: From a book in Meraeador's house:

"Forgivify me, for I have failn!"
 * You All Look Familiar: Heavily, heavily lampshaded; for instance the inn patrons in Canonia comprise the same "Bloke" half a dozen times, and another house contains a dozen of the same "Chap". And that's not the only time you see either of them...
 * You No Take Candle: Solaar is somewhere between this and Strange Syntax Speaker.

"Solaar: Oh wowsers! A village-town of human beings! They all seem to be livifying life to a non-minimal extent, if you would care to capture my drifting!
 * This is lampshaded if you talk to him/her in Goznor.

Mardek: ...Huh?

Solaar: Even I don't know what I meaned by that one."


 * Xe's not the only one.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: The afterlife works this way, according to the Aeropolis library. Naturally, this also means that Ironic Hell is in effect.

Chapter One: A Fallen Star provides examples of the following tropes:

 * BGM Override: In the first area, the "Mighty Heroes" track plays over everything else up until the boss fight.
 * The Bully: Mugbert's bestiary and encyclopedia article lists him as such.
 * Cliché Storm: The beginning.
 * In the best possible way.
 * Fake Action Prologue
 * Fat Bastard: The final boss of this chapter is
 * If I Wanted You Dead...: Rohoph uses a form of this to reassure Mardek and Deugan when he performs a soul transfer into Mardek, saying that he could simply expel Mardek's soul from his body if he wanted to, but decided not to as a gesture of goodwill.
 * Kid Heroes
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Melchior hums along to the background music in the ending cutscene.
 * Magic Meteor
 * A Minor Kidroduction:
 * Stylistic Suck: The beginning.
 * A Taste of Power: In the beginning of the chapter, you play as level 50 "heroes" with extremely powerful skills and equipment. It's just, however.
 * Title Drop: In multiple ways; both the Magic Meteor, and the fact that.
 * Twenty Bear Asses: You have to collect five lead pipes in a sidequest, which you get from fighting strange rats which seem to have these as their tails.

Chapter Two: A New Hero provides examples of the following tropes:

 * Angrish: The encyclopedia lapses into this in the description of the miniboss.
 * Anti-Hero: A hilarious example of parody within the game would be Steele.
 * Author Filibuster / Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Your Mileage May Vary on which one the What Measure Is a Mook? discussion is.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Bonus Boss:.
 * If you beat the tournament mentioned below,
 * Bonus Dungeon: Social Fox's Tomb in chapter 2, which also houses a Bonus Boss. The Trilobite Cave leads to an entire Bonus Village, with a tournament and a bit of minor story information.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the ending cutscene, which contains a meeting of the Governance de Magi, Balthazar lampshades an As You Know scene by saying that they have to inform "them" of their plans, but that they also must be cryptic and mysterious.
 * Brick Joke: Early on, one of your party members ask Vehrn, headstrong paladin, just how he expects YALORT to assist him in battle. She jokingly asks if he expects YALORT to send down "green lightning". The paladin is offended, considering the statement blasphemy, and says that he'll simply send him support.
 * When you first enter the zombie-infested town, the priest will give you the key into the catacombs under the town. Deugan, in his role as designated lampshade-hanger, asks how the zombies got out to terrorize the town if the door is still locked, and is promptly told to shut up.
 * Climax Boss: Moric.
 * Dronejam: If you revisit the mine after the plot events there, you can talk to the miners there. One miner who wanders around can end up blocking the one-square wide passage to another miner (who almost lampshades it by talking about how there's nothing up there for you). In addition,
 * Fake Ultimate Hero: The Worlds' Saviours.
 * Flunky Boss: Moric.
 * Foreshadowing: Rohoph, a light-elemental, loses whom he had once considered a friend. Guess which character close to Mardek
 * Heroic Sacrifice: 's "I'll hold him off, you get to safety" scene.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: Not one you face, mind you. Bartholio assumes that your party is one of these to his, thinking that, should you fight again, they will surely win.
 * Load-Bearing Boss:.
 * Lost Forever: The Trilobite Key IV, although it's very hard to miss, and if you do, you deserve it. Luckily, in Chapter 3, there's an obscure shop in Acropolis that sells all the Trilobite keys if you missed any of them.
 * Mercy Rewarded: Gope, infamously.
 * One-Winged Angel: Subverted or possibly inverted with, who you fight in his giant-monster-type form first, then later in his second form,
 * Point of No Return: You can't leave once you enter Moric's battleship.
 * Say My Name: "Moric!" "Rohoph!" "Moric..." "Rohoph..."
 * Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded by Vehrn when he wonders why when the heroes argue over what to do about a certain monster, it just sits idly waiting for them to finish their conversation.
 * Title Drop: Kinda. Mardek and Deugan try to become this, to replace Social Fox.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?: Discussed after the first mission, in one of the game's darker scenes. Also subverted in the case of Gope.
 * Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you don't kill a bandit named Gope at the beginning, he'll later give you the Trilobite Key IV, which is essential for completing a sidequest. But if you killed him, too bad, it's Lost Forever...Until Chapter 3. See Lost Forever above.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Happens twice, though it's mostly Played for Laughs.
 * Nobody even got hurt.

Chapter Three: Keystones provides examples of the following tropes:
"Elwyen: Maaardeeeek! I'm all covered in sweat, all wet and glistening and it's making me squirm around! Why aren't you watching?
 * Anticlimax Boss: . Actually justified, as he dislikes fighting and is more skilled in diplomacy.
 * Artifact of Doom: That purple plot item you handed to the Yalortian monk in Aeropolis? It quite fits the description of
 * Speaking to Rohoph within the Lost Monastery
 * Attention Whore: Elwyen, but only with Mardek.

Mardek: Well, we're sort of on an adventure here...

Elwyen: I still wish you'd ogle me lustfully all the time, just like you used to!

Mardek: I don't remember ever doing that...

Elwyen: IN MY DREAMS YOU DID!!!"

"Red Dragon: Despite its enormous size, this proud, vicious variety of fire-elemental dragon can actually fit inside a small treasure chest. Which is an interesting fact."
 * Badass Boast: The Annihilator scoffs at you when you try to fight it, saying that it has wiped out an entire civilization, and that you have no hope of defeating it in single combat. Mardek does so anyway.
 * Granted, it is by far the hardest battle in the entire series so far. (including the security demon, which is hard for completely different reasons)
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Approaches Downer Ending when you realize that
 * Downer status further solidified by a lot of things that seem minor in Chapter 3 but will surely come back to bite the good guys in the ass in subsequent chapters:
 * Bonus Boss: Lots of them, but three come to mind as end game ones.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Mythril Golems.
 * Made easier if Legion has Spirit Nova. It removes more than half of their HP, and so lowers them to mere Demonic Spider level. Still is guaranteed to kill at least one person, though.
 * Same with Solaar, in a way; one of his skills instantly turns him into a sort of Intangible Man, immunizing him from all Physical damage, and since the Mithril Golem is, at its base, a Smash Mook....
 * Chest Monster: Two of which are Bonus Bosses! This is even lampshaded in the Red Dragon's description:

"Warding Stone Pedestal: You shouldn't have grown so attached to little 'Wardy McStone', you know. You KNEW from the moment that he came into your tender care that you'd have to one day say goodbye, so please, overcome your emotional difficulties now, say a good, long, teary farewell to the stone you wish was your lover and your son, and come back when you're good and ready."
 * Also addressed in the Bone Demon's description, the other Bonus Boss, which says that it was literally sealed in the chest to prevent it from causing mayhem by an ancient wizard because it could not be destroyed. However, its bones became brittle and vulnerable in the many years it's been sealed, so it is quite killable by the time you show up.
 * The two above are marked by a red-and-gold chest, so if you die to these (particularly the other Bonus Boss with a SAVE POINT right before it) without saving, it is your fault. However, one chest early on with a mini-bonus boss (a Griffon) is unmarked, except for the save crystal nearby and its obvious placement in the middle of the path. All others contain the local enemies. Most are worth looting, however.
 * Companion Cube: Parodied.

"Melchior: I liked Qualna. He had one eye. I liked that about him because I have one eye too. So does everyone in this chamber. We're like one big happy family! He also solved his problems with words. Words which weren't things like "DIE!!" or "I have a small peanut and I'm not afraid to use it!"
 * Defeat Equals Friendship: Averted, sadly. People who played Chaper 2 might hope that defeating the Water Guardian would make her part of your party . Well, they were wrong, because apparently there's some rule that the guardians have to guard the temple once the crystal is gone.
 * Played straight with Sslen'ck, whom you face in a boss fight before you can recruit him.
 * Development Hell: The chapter took three years to complete, due to many factors, such as the developer having to rewrite the engine twice, once in a programming language he was unfamiliar with, and also the fact that the game was so gigantic that sponsors were reluctant to put it on their sites.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Abdication annuls not just the current ruler's right to rule, but that of their entire bloodline. Therefore, if abdicated,  would not become king, even though they say they would at one point.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Subverted in that it isn't actually a god, but the most powerful Bonus Boss is
 * Just to put this in perspective, a book you can read within the Lizard Tribe village
 * : Subverted, as.
 * Doomy Dooms of Doom: Mentioned within a novel in Xantusia is one Baron von Doomkill, a 'crystal tyrant' who had, in the past, seized control of an elemental crystal and attempted to conquer the world.
 * Double Entendre:

Balthazar: You have a small what?

Melchior: I'm a hermaphrodite."

"Bostolm: EEEEHeeheeheee! I am difficult to WRITE DIALOGUE FOR!!!"
 * Dream Land: You get to travel within one. Unfortunately, it's populated by Goddamned Pixies and other Ether- and Fig-elemental enemies.
 * Duel Boss:.
 * Driven to Suicide: Heavily implied with Bostolm, who was driven so insane by pixies digging in his mind that he "drilled them out of [his] head".
 * Dysfunction Junction: Mardek's party. Almost everyone you can recruit has some sort of secret in their past that troubles them.
 * Elemental Embodiment: All four of the Elemental Temples you explore have both energy-based elementals and gemstone monsters of the appropriate element.
 * Everyone Is Related: P-key dialogue reveals that, and the end of the third chapter shows that Donovan is.
 * Evil Chancellor: There's one in the Lizard Village whose actual name is Blatantly Evil Chancellor.
 * Sslen'ck has an unfortunate blind spot concerning him. He even fails to notice a poisoning attempt as he leaves.
 * The encyclopedia entry gives him a glowing review, but it was all Blatant Lies.
 * Final Speech: has one.
 * Flunky Boss: Sslen'ck, Qualna, and King Cuthbert.
 * Foreshadowing: One shop you will find has a rather powerful weapon available that only one person can use. It's either foreshadowing this character joining you in a future chapter or a Red Herring.
 * For the Evulz: Bernard makes a zombie which disrupts the play at the end of the story. When people call him out for this, he responds that no one was hurt and he enjoyed doing it.
 * He knows that the members Bartholio's party aren't the true heroes of the game. He just follows them around for kicks. Or, in other words, to watch them fail time and time again.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: All in one character, the multi-souled Legion. The colours of the souls even correspond to their temperaments' colours.
 * Also, the four Solakian monks that you need to rescue in a sidequest.
 * There's even a monster like this, "Temperance", which is basically a totem pole with the heads of the four temperaments.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Mereador, once he joins your party.
 * Glamour Failure: When Gloria shows Mardek how to access the dream world, she and Elwyen accidentally find out about Rohoph: because he can get in and Mardek can't, he shows up in his original form.
 * Guide Dang It: Finding the trilobite warrior in the Dark Temple. A lot of bonus things, in fact.
 * You can't get the first Miasmal Chalice if
 * Mercifully, you can, at least later on. Still, if you pass any of those chalices up be prepared to do a bit of backtracking and monster-hunting if you want to face the Bonus Boss.
 * Tell me you found out how to do that Trade Quest to get without a walkthrough. You didn't either, did you? (Well, the NPCs did tell you about this stuff, but how many of you remembered?)
 * Opening the Lost Monastery, which requires you to have two characters in your party, one of whom it isn't immediately obvious is connected to the place, and who requires you to recruit several other party members with their own semi-obscure requirements.
 * There's also the Water Temple, but not because its puzzle is all that difficult (it just requires a lot of walking), the official guide made by Psuedolonewolf, is wrong. There are a few steps that he completely left out of the guide.
 * The fact that there IS an official guide to begin with shows how much Guide Dang It this game has.
 * Hidden in Plain Sight:
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: Go ahead. Tell the Warport Security that you're a terrorist.
 * This is actually subverted, as it is possible to win, surprisingly. (And it's pretty easy, too! No reward except for a Gold Warport Pass though, so it's actually not worth it to fight it at all.)
 * It's not easy at all if you're not actively trying to defeat him. Accidentally pick a wrong answer and you'll probably Rage Quit. And he's actually worth fighting for the massive amount of experience he gives.
 * Hyde Plays Jekyll
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: There's a black Yalortian priest who speaks with a Jamaican accent. His alignment is, in the Encyclopedia, Lawful Evil. His name? Vudu.
 * In the End You Are on Your Own:
 * Intrepid Merchant: Gope if you didn't kill him back in Chapter 2.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:, and how.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * King Mook: King Cuthbert.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At one point, a character asks if the rest of the party can hear something. Mardek mentions that, yes, the music changed... Unless you have the sound off, in which case Mardek comments that he can't hear anything because the sound is off.
 * At one point, when complimented by his boss on a job well done, Mardek smilingly replies "I can only move at the will of my unseen master!"

"Vehrn: Let's just wait for a while and they'll sort themselves out. Who's up for a game of Twister!?
 * Marathon Boss: All of the Bonus Bosses other than the Bone Demon, particularly the Annihilator. Both of its forms can spam a spell that nullifies all damage once, and YALORT help you if you used up your last Candiathrope before fighting Animus -- since Gemsplosion: Candiathrope is the only attack in the entire game that it isn't resistant to. Karnos also has a whopping 65,000 hit points, though you can inflict Bleed on it, which will drain its health at record speed.
 * May-December Romance: If Elwyen is seriously right about Gloria and Mereador getting together. Consider that the Meraeador was an adult while Mardek was a kid, and Mardek grew up for a few years in between chapters 1 and 2 when he met Gloria, who was a child then. Sure, Gloria's a shaman, so age means nothing to her, but still...
 * Mereador actually comments on this on one of his backstory party talks. Unfortunately, Mardek also says that it's okay for a 10-year-old kid to love an old woman, so...
 * Though Mardek is a bit... Well, off when it comes to reality.
 * Mega Manning: How Legion learns new battle skills.
 * Mind Control Eyes: Everyone notices that the 's eyes are pink. No one comments on Mardek because he's wearing a helmet.
 * Mood Whiplash: The final scenes are very serious and border on Wham! Episode. Then, we get to see an ending cutscene with the Governance de Magi, where Gaspar and Melchior manage to make you laugh hysterically again.
 * Right in the middle of the end-game drama, after Rohoph runs off to settle things alone, we get this exchange:

Elwyen: Ooh! Me! Me!

Donovan: is lying dead on the floor here.

Vehrn: Well I guess he'll have to sit this one out, then."

"As my most trusted advisssor, Blatantly Evil Chancellor, I leave the care of our village in your capable handsss."
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain: The  makes several remarks to this effect.
 * Also, Muriance.
 * Narrative Profanity Filter: The Mysterious Man has his copious swearing replaced by [PROFANITY] in the textual equivalent of a Sound Effect Bleep. Though, hilariously enough, one bit of dialogue suggests that this may not be the case- he's actually saying the word "PROFANITY" in the middle of his sentences. (That, or Mardek is reading the dialogue boxes. It can be hard to tell with this game.)
 * Nice Helmet: Mardek's helmet, complete with "M!" emblazoned on the front, is almost humorously cheesy. Then you realize, as mentioned above, that he uses it to hide the glow in his eyes that appears whenever Rohoph takes over.
 * Elwyen's Dreamstone suggests there may be another, not entirely unrelated reason. She thinks he became self-conscious after she pointed out
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Two examples. The first one, which makes up the two optional boss battles, involves a starfish alien Eldritch Abomination that lands on Belfan and starts annihilating (thus its name) and begins wiping out the first civilization before humans came to power. In a desperate attempt to save themselves,
 * The other example is after defeating the final boss of the chapter
 * Not Quite Dead:
 * This is amazingly subverted with, who
 * Which, seeing how he all but abandons, makes him sort of a Jerkass.
 * And it's parodied as well. After the boss fight against Sslen'ck, speaking to his fallen lizard guards reveals that they're still very much alive and somewhat irked to left lying there.
 * Obviously Evil: A few villains in this chapter act this way, but Saul is the best example, as his appearance, mannerisms, and profession make it as subtle as a brick to the head, boosting him up to cartoonish levels of villainy. Sslen'ck's chancellor also hilariously parodies obviously evil characters who are trusted nonetheless.

"Saul: That would be I, answered Saul affirmatively. What of this?, he went on further to ask, the ivory protuberances of his gaunt visage lit eerily by the dim torchlight; the furry dark caterpillars of his brow dancing in antipode to suggest particular suspicion; wanting for an answer that does not test his patience and his undead..."
 * Oculothorax: The numerous eyeball enemies, including the elemental-based Palette Swaps.
 * Overly Long Gag: The Warport security. Even the employees refer to it as such.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: The water temple guardian, whose identity should be obvious to anyone who played the last game, wears only a see-through veil to cover her face. Mardek doesn't recognize her.
 * Also, the Mysterious Man Mardek comments that he never knew anyone with an eyepatch, despite his facial features and personality completely giving his identity away. Heck, if you have Donovan in your party, he'll ask "why did he have to come back?"
 * Oddly enough, we see its inverse at the end of the game. When Lone Wolf starts talking with Mardek, Mardek appears to recognize who he actually is despite the fact that he's much more disguised than the other two.
 * Presumably, the fact that
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Sslen'ck and almost all Lizard Folk in the game qualify.
 * Quote Mine: Elwyen is happy when she can quote Mardek telling her she's hot. Note that Mardek was telling her this in a volcano.
 * Redemption Demotion: Averted with Sslen'ck, who is just as powerful when you fight him as when he joins you.
 * Of course, since he's a Flunky Boss, he's actually of a reasonable power level for that point of the game.
 * Relationship Values: As you level up characters, new dialogue unlocks about themselves, current conditions, etc. that you can access by pressing a button while wandering around.
 * Required Party Member: Solaar immediately forces ximself unto the party when you meet xim. In the second version of this trope, certain party members are required for interaction with some important events, such as requiring Legion for and Elwyen for recruiting Gloria.
 * Possessed Mechanical Construct Buddy: Legion.
 * Rush Boss: The Bone Demon, which has the lowest HP of all the Bonus Bosses, but has very powerful attacks.
 * Reverse Wife Husbandry: Elwyen tries to do this with Mardek.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can:
 * And.
 * Snake Talk: Reptoids ssspeak like thisss.
 * So Last Chapter: An NPC in Aeropolis says this phrase exactly in response to an amateur necromancer who's trying to raise an undead army.
 * Stealth Pun: There's a famous playwright known as "wobble-scimitaire". Hm...sound familiar?
 * Stepford Smiler: Most of the workers in the Warport.
 * Considering they're demons, though, this is not really surprising.
 * Take That: Rohoph makes a jab at Sonny, a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.
 * Third Person Person: Saul takes this further than most.
 * Take That: Rohoph makes a jab at Sonny, a rival Flash RPG, when talking to an NPC in Goznor.
 * Third Person Person: Saul takes this further than most.


 * Title Drop: Multiple times, whenever you talk to Clavis.
 * Violation of Common Sense: Fighting the Annihilator, an alien monstrosity that wiped out an entire civilization, in single combat. You can win.
 * Volcano Lair: At least one NPC lives in a volcano, a mad hermit inside a little cave.
 * Wham! Line:
 * What You Are in the Dark: Subverted with, who reveals himself to be
 * A Wizard Did It: Referred to by name in the in-game encyclopedia entry as the explanation for how the sand behaves in the Sandflow Caves.
 * Gloria says the same thing if you talk to her when inside the Tainted Grotto.