Aion

"They were warned...not to mistake grace for weakness."

Aion is a Korean MMORPG from NCSoft, the publisher of Lineage II, City of Heroes, and Guild Wars, published in English in late 2009.

The game is based on the conflict between two factions of humans which live on opposite halves of a shattered world; the noble but arrogant Elyos and the brave but bitter Asmodians. As well as an ongoing war with each other, the two factions must contend with evil Balaur, a race created to protect and watch over the world, but now...not so much. This makes up the games unique PvPvE system, as the designers call it. Other than this, it's also notable for the fact that all characters possess the ability to fly, amongst other things.

Not to be confused with the manga of the same name published in the same year, or the Big Bad of Chrono Crusade.


 * After the End: Although so far afterward that almost no one remembers it.
 * Alien Sky: Besides the fact the Tower of Eternity is visible from anywhere in the world, the sky has a shattered moon, three total moons, and the other half of the world floating ominously overhead.
 * Except you can never see the other half of the world, even in the Abyss.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: You start your character's life by doing this. (Well, to get out of the newbie area.) The game also features several other types of ascended beings, such as ascended lizardmen (Balaur) and even ascended trees (Elim).
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The stronger Balaur, based on the gigantic discarded weapons littering the abyss. Also the Guardian Deities who guard fortresses. The 1,000 highest ranked PV Pers on any given server can even transform themselves into a Guardian Deity.
 * Bag of Holding: Cubes(Inventories), this is an MMORPG after all. However, cubes are directly stated as being Hammerspace related.
 * Baleful Polymorph: A common punishment among both Elyos and Asmodians, especially for insubordination.
 * Battle Butler and Ninja Maid: In Kromede's Trial.
 * Beast Man: The Mau, a race of humanoid cat people.
 * The Beast Master: Spiritmasters, who summon elemental spirits to do their bidding.
 * BFS: Greatswords, a favorite of Gladiators not using their signature weapon, and also an option for Templars.
 * Bishonen Line: Armor in Aion follows the Bishonen Line theme. Armor starts off relatively plain and gets more and more elaborate and extravagant until you get the level 50 Daevenion armor at which point it becomes simple again.
 * New level 55 equipment goes right back to Bling of War.
 * Blade on a Stick: Polearms, the aforementioned signature weapon of Gladiators.
 * Breast Plate: Hell yes, but at least more modest than most, considering some of the female armor model have skirts and metal/leather stockings instead of pants. While Magic Skirt is present to some extent, it doesn't prevent you from *those*, since you can adjust the camera angle in such a way in the first place, EVEN TO YOUR OWN CHARACTER! By the way, the chain armor series is probably the most modest looking of the lot, so don't roll a priest if you want those kind of armor.
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: To a limited extent. Most of the purchasable items are cosmetic, but a few grant tangible bonuses.
 * Cast from Hit Points: Siel and Israphel drained their bodies of aether and used it to keep the Cataclysm from completely destroying the world.
 * A few spells in game consume health instead of mana as well, such as the Cleric's Thorny Skin and the Sorcerer's Soul Absorption.
 * Chainsaw Good: The purchasable "Cataclysm's Jaws Weapon Skin" cosmetic item reskins a sword to look like a chainsaw.
 * Character Customization: The character creator allows for incredible diversity. You can make your character look like an Elf, a Dwarf, or even an Orc just by messing with the sliders, to the point where not having any separate and distinct playable races doesn't matter one bit. People have even made their characters into clones of Obama, Micheal Jackson, Cloud Strife, Rambo, and Many Others including Dobby the house-elf and Arthas. Some other people, however, use the character creator's powers for evil...
 * Cool Airship / Cool Starship: It's hard to classify exactly what they are, but the Dredgion Battleships the Balaur use in the Abyss are undoubtedly cool. Scary as hell, too, as they can blast Daevas right out of the sky and carry thousands of troops to be deployed throughout the Abyss as the Balaur see fit. They also serve as instanced dungeons, with the ultimate goal to kill the captain.
 * Council of Angels: The Empyrean Lords, even though they started out as ordinary humans, and have never lived in any kind of heaven or any other higher plane of existence.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: More like giant crystal tower Jesus.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Asmodians are capable of being just as bishonen/bishoujo as the Elyos.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: The Asmodians. While they live in a barbaric society and an even more harsh and unforgiving world, the game implies they are only doing what they must to survive. Despite their appearance, many quests show them to be very human.
 * Similarly Shedim Lady Lumiel. Before the cataclysm, she was said to be curious, innocent, and mischievous. Not much is known about her at present, however.
 * Deader Than Dead: Almost all of the first Elyos legion to travel to Asmodae via a rift were erased from existence by Zikel.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom: What happened when Aion broke.
 * Easy Amnesia: The driving point of the Elyos side of the plot
 * Elemental Embodiment: Spiritmasters summon them.
 * Elites Are More Glamorous: Daevas are higher in the pecking order than humans, but between Daevas and the Empyrean Lords are those Daevas who serve in the elite miltary units: Guardians (among the Elyos) and Archons (among the Asmodians).
 * The Empire: Both sides.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: If one side doesn't destroy the other side's stump of Aion, the world will run out of Aether and the atmosphere will disperse.
 * Escort Mission: Surprisingly few for an MMORPG.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Oh, come on. It's in the title!
 * Exclusively Evil: The Balaur.
 * The Faceless: The Empyrean Lords are depicted as glowing humanoid figures, or when the light isn't drawn as brightly, they're shown from an angle in which their faces are obscured.
 * Fantastic Slurs: A handful have evolved out of the player community. Do you play as an Elyos? Congratulations, You're a sun-sucker. Do you play Asmodian? You're a furback.
 * Also, Elfs for Elyos (not entirely unwarranted) and Assmos for...well, take a guess.
 * Fetch Quest: Tons, naturally.
 * Fighter, Mage, Thief: And Priest.
 * Flash Step: Blind Leap, Dash Attack
 * Freudian Trio: The Seraphim Lords, Shedim Lords, and even the Dragon Lords all have two sets of Power Trios.
 * Seraphim Lords:
 * Ariel: Thoughtful and amiable. Is dissappointed that Azphel's recklessness ruined the peace talks with the Balaur. Leader of the Seraphim Lords. (Ego)
 * Nezekan: Contemplative, but decisive. Nezekan is reserved and tolerant, but adamant once he reaches a conclusion. (Superego)
 * Vaizel: Playful, selfish, and cunning. Often goes off on his own in disguise to hang out with ordinary humans, and sometimes neglects his duties. (Id)
 * Giant Flyer: Unexplained giant flying whales/fish/dragon/whatthefuckevers seem to serve more as scenery than anything else in the game. There's at least 4 flying around the Verteron zone alone.
 * If you ever see a chat message about a "betafish" its usually in relation to these things.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Asmodians aren't evil per-se, but their eyes glow red when they're killing.
 * A God Am I:  Daevas are considered demigods in the game's mythology, with Empyrean Lords considered to be full gods (with a small G). The overgod, Aion, is absent and the two major pantheons (the Elyos and Asmodians) are at war.
 * God Is Dead: The shattered tower stumps are the remains of what used to be god, though there are hints in-game that Aion (God) is watching from the sidelines.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: Ascended? Congratulations, you get to spend your life dying pointlessly for things like finding peoples cats, because hey, you can recover from it, right?
 * Good Wings, Evil Wings: Averted with the Elyos and Asmodians - they have angel wings and black angel wings respectively and are about the same in terms of good and evil. Played straight with the Balaur, who have the bat "Devil" type of wings. Note, however, that the Asmodians did have bat-like devil wings in pre-release demonstration versions of the game which can still be found on a few Asmodian enemies.
 * Looks like the Elyos will have glowing neon blue bat/dragon wings in next releases, as seen in the Vision Trailer.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: According to the Aion website's official wiki,
 * Grey and Gray Morality: Neither side is traditionally good or evil, but things are much more complicated than it might seem at first.
 * Hard Work Hardly Works: You'd think the Elyos, living lives of comparative ease and comfort to those of the Asmodians, would be naturally more fragile, right? Wrong.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Siel and Israphel sacrificing themselves in order to keep the planet from falling apart.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Zuko is one of the options for character voices.
 * And if you're playing with the Japanese voice pack, you've got Takehito Koyasu as the 'callous' male voice and one of the system voices, as well as Souichirou Houshi, Jurota Kosugi and Kana Ueda.
 * Hollow World: It used to be, but the Cataclysm blew up most of the equator making it look more like an apple core.
 * I Know Karate: Wield a quarterstaff and you use it like a Wuxia protagonist. And look awesome doing it.
 * Idiot Ball: Yeah, sure Zikel, please attack the Balaur diplomats your friends summoned for peace talks. Cue Tower exploding in the resulting conflict and the After the End situation at present.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: The moral consequences of this are completely ignored. The sapient (but evil) Balaur are considered a delicacy, and all the top-level, most useful cooking recipes specialize in cooking Balaur meat.
 * Immortality Begins At Twenty: Averted, you're stuck at whatever age you ascend at for eternity. One of the first Daeva Elyos meet is a child who's several hundred years old, and an Asmodian Daeva talks about the seeming sadism of being ascended when he was on his death bed and now has to watch his family grow old and die when he can't even take up his blade.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Spellbooks. Their standard attack is the user tearing out pages from the book to fling at the enemy. Admittedly, they're magically charged and the Violation of Common Sense is averted as the pages simply regenerate with all the writing intact, but they still fit this trope.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lady Siel, one of the Empyrean Lords that died to keep the world from falling apart.
 * The Lifestream: Aether, and consequently the Aion tower.
 * Light Is Not Good: The Elyos zealously believe that the lack of strife they experience in their world is proof that they are blessed by God, and see the Asmodians as soulless inhuman monsters to be killed without remorse. Including civilians and children.
 * Similarly, the Seraphim Lord Kaisinel is a vicious Blood Knight and doesn't care much about anyone's life.
 * The Magic Goes Away: Well, it hasn't yet, but it's going to pretty soon if someone doesn't do something about it.
 * Mix-and-Match Critters: All of the natural fauna in the setting.
 * Older Than They Look: Daeva stop aging when they ascend, so ancient daeva can have the bodies of small children.
 * One-Hit Kill:
 * There are weapon enchantments that give you a 1% chance of dealing 3,750 damage whenever you use any attack. For reference, the average max level player has about 5,000 hp. On top of that, the damage from the enchantment is subject to spell damage bonuses, which means it'll probably deal about twice that amount if used by one of the caster classes.
 * Clerics have Voice of Destruction, a skill with a one hour long cooldown that literally allows you to kill up to 13 enemy players at once.
 * Our Angels Are Different: Daevas are exceptional Elyos and Asmodians, capable of manipulating aether to a degree previously only seen by the Empyrean Lords. In return for dedicating their existence to their people, they become immortal.
 * Though the Balaur were intended to fill the more traditional "Angel" role before they rebelled, as stewards and messengers of Aion and protectors of humanity, and usually have a mix between angel names and folklore monster names. And they are dragons with spaceships. Which leads us to...
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The Balaur were originally created as the rulers of Atreia, but quickly got drunk on their power and turned evil.
 * Path of Inspiration: The Lepharist movement... maybe.
 * Power Gives You Wings: What happens when someone becomes a Daeva.


 * Ariel: (Ego)
 * Kaisinel: A dark and enigmatic Blood Knight who is focused on getting revenge on Shedim Lady Lumiel for embarrassing him in battle. He's a girl in Korea. (Id)
 * Yustiel: The Heart of the group. Gentle and caring, she's most interested in peace and reconciliation. (Superego)


 * Shedim Lords:
 * Azphel: A decisive perfectionist who holds himself and his subordinates to high standards. Hates Ariel for being too weak-willed to continue the fight against the Balaur and believes that Ariel has failed in her duties. Leader of the Shedim Lords (Ego)
 * Zikel: Azphel's right hand. Once a friendly rival of Nezekan, they have fallen out of favor with one another. Zikel is violent, arrogant, and lacks self-control. Somewhat of a Reckless Sidekick, as he was partially responsible for the events that ignited the abyss war. (Id)
 * Marchutan: Quiet, respectful, and completely stoic. Also The Big Guy. Prefers rational planning rather than Zikel's impulsiveness. (Superego)


 * Azphel: (Ego)
 * Triniel: Composed and calculating, she prefers to strike precisely and accurately. Has a cold indifferent personality. (Superego)
 * Lumiel: Not much is known about her since she joined the Shedim Lords, but according to accounts from before the cataclysm, she is curious, innocent, and mischievous. Pursues magic studies with the same curiosity that a Playful Hacker applies to computer security. (Id)


 * Dragon Lords:
 * Fregion: The first Balaur to ascend and become immortal, and also the first to propose that the Balaur should be rulers over everything else. In spite of his initial enthusiasm, he now worries that the Balaur's endless desire for power may lead to ruin. (Ego)
 * Meslamtaeda: A Red Oni, and a Blood Knight. So Hot-Blooded that only Fregion can dare to control him. (Id)
 * Ereshkigal: A Blue Oni. He is especially attuned to cold and ice magic, but has learned to control all the elements, even to the point where he is rumored to be able to cause jungles to sprout up in deserts. He is dispassionate and prefers rational thinking, which is very unusual for the Balaur. While he has a reputation for cruelty, he maintains strict adherence to his own code of honor. He was the first Balaur to take up the Empyrean Lords' peace proposition, and a primary debater before the assassination attempt on Fregion and the subsequent cataclysm. (Superego)


 * Fregion: (Ego)
 * Beritra: The Quiet One. He would prefer that others not know he even exists, and prefers to hide in the shadows. (Superego)
 * Tiamat: He would prefer that everyone know he exists, and is motivated primarily for fame, fortune, and to prove himself. (Id)


 * Note that the Seraphim Lords and Shedim Lords each have one member whose personality traits best fit those of the other group as a way to show that Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil.
 * Private Military Contractors: The players start in one of these.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: The Balaur turned against Aion (God) when he refused to grant them more power over the world, ordering them to serve humans. They succeeded.
 * Except that they were banished from Atreya into a different dimension, and the humans are now heavily empowered and ABLE to fight back. Plus, see the above entry for "God Is Dead."
 * Rainbow Pimp Gear: Completely averted...unless you're into that thing. Players can change the appearance of their gear to that of any other piece of gear in their inventory. You can also dye your gear whichever color you want. That means you could conceivably make yourself look like a level 1 character, or you could keep the looks of that super-cool armor set you ditched a long time ago without having to worry about losing any stats.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Daeva remain at the age they ascend at until they die. This goes even if they are children.
 * Also a possibility for the shugo Vindachinerk, even though shugos can't become daeva. The game mentions that he was the one who created the first cubes, and that he learned how to make them from Empyrean Lord Israphel, the Lord of Space. The catch is that Israphel has been dead for several thousand years, so either Vindachinerk has somehow extended his lifetime by a ridiculous amount, or he used some kind of time travel.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Asmodian's eyes glow red in combat.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Balaur.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
 * Samus Is a Girl: Shaga, a gladiator who fought in the Impetusium wooed many women who gazed into his eyes, and became the greatest champion who ever participated in the colosseum... until it was eventually discovered that he was a she.
 * Scenery Porn: Even at launch the game was considered one of the prettiest MMORPGs on the market, but from the looks of what's shown in the Aion Vision trailer this looks like it's going to be ramped up to eleven.
 * Shattered World: Atreia was split into two chunks, Elysea and Asmodae.
 * So Beautiful It's a Curse: Kromede was considered so beautiful that people thought Aion itself sculpted her face. She was constantly showered with marriage proposals, politely turning them all down. She later became a Shadow Judge, but was eventually investigated for corruption. Her downfall was caused by the people hurt by her not returning their love giving the court evidence against her.
 * Space Jews: Shugos have a secretive culture based around trading and capitalism. One Shugo mentions that he has recently lost his fortune and is now "a young shugo with an old shugo's fur". An in-game book says "A Shugo will never cheat another Shugo, but taking advantage of other races seems to be encouraged." It also says "...Some go so far as to say that Shugos are responsible for all evil in the world. Some particularly vicious rumors claim that Shugos drink the blood of human infants..."
 * Squishy Wizard: Sorcerers and to a lesser extent, Spiritmasters.
 * Staying Alive: Daeva can always resurrect their bodies if they're killed near an Obelisk. If they aren't near an obelisk, however, they run the risk of actually suffering a Final Death, or wandering around forever as a disembodied spirit.
 * In-game, this means you're never far from an Obelisk. Even if you attacking the Balaur in their home dimension.
 * Stone Wall: The Templar are the primary tanking class. Gladiators and the Priest branches aren't quite as durable, but they can work as substitute tanks.
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Devas use a Portal Network to get around quickly. Apparently, humans that try to use it Tele Frag themselves. In addition, there's the Sorcerer "Blind Leap" skill which teleports them backwards, and the Illusion Gate skill which opens a portal to their faction's capital city.
 * Undead Child: Boggarts
 * Utopia Justifies the Means: The mission statement of the Lepharists.
 * Verbal Tic: The Shugo, nyerk!
 * Actually, "nyerk" isn't so much of a verbal tick as it is a very offensive curse word in their own language making it an Unusual Euphemism rather than a Verbal Tic.
 * More accurately, their 'akakakakak' they occasionally add to the end of their sentences.
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon:
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Assassins. One of their skill sets involves carving runes into their target's flesh with their weapons. Runes which then proceed to explode.
 * Waterfall Into the Abyss: Asteria Fortress in the abyss has plenty of these.
 * Whip Sword: Every melee weapon type has a selection of long-range extendable whip versions.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: If a human ascends while old and frail, they are going to stay old and frail for eternity. Likewise, children who ascend do not have the chance to grow up.
 * Winged Humanoid: Plenty.
 * Stationary Wings are averted, however. Except when gliding instead of flying, a Daeva's wings flap normally.
 * Womb Level: The Dreadgion
 * Wutai: Most areas involving the Mau.
 * You Will Not Evade Me: Templars can pull entire groups of enemies towards them using energy beams.
 * Zettai Ryouiki