Digger/Characters

Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels Of Clan Quartzclaw (Digger)
""What in the name of the dirt under the claws of the mother of all wombats.""

The title character, a wombat who got lost, well, digging one day and finds herself in a strange world.

Tropes associated with Digger:

"Ed: Ed is hoping Digger-mousie knows what is doing! Digger: Why start now?"
 * Action Girl: If she has to, she kicks much ass.
 * Badass Adorable
 * Badass Normal
 * Battle Cry: REMEMBER TUNNEL SEVENTEEN!
 * Character Title
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Snark Knight: Depending on what she's snarking about, she can overlap with this.
 * Determinator
 * Heroic BSOD: Digger seems to currently be going through a version of this : she's reacting to other people, but just barely enough to get by.
 * The Heroine: Of the webcomic. In-story, she's The Lancer with a hint of The Smart Girl.
 * Indy Ploy: Not that Digger likes such things, but it's generally how things end up anyway.


 * I Have Many Names: Digger, Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels Of Clan Quartzclaw, Burrower, Honored Digger, Digger-Mousie, Earth-Rat, Little Mother Of Earthquakes.
 * I Should Have Been Better: In regards to.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Digger inadvertently leads the hyena tracking her straight to Jhalm. She hears the fight start behind her, but since she really doesn't like either party, she just keeps on going. Later on, she manages to befriend the same hyena. Then Jhalm finds out, and puts two and two together. Should've listened to your mother, Dig...
 * Liz Lemon Job
 * Mama Bear: Don't you dare mislead Shadowchild.
 * Minored in Asskicking
 * Morally-Ambiguous Ducktorate: Digger has an irrational fear of ducks. It's not plot important, but still worth mentioning. Maybe she should see a quack.
 * Nay Theist
 * Only Sane Woman
 * Overly Long Name: Digger-Of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels. Of Clan Quartzclaw. And she picks up some nicknames as she goes along, too.
 * Powerful Pick: Her Weapon of Choice.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Given that sarcasm is Digger's standard response to most things, this is quite common. "Do you have any idea how long twelve thousand years is?" "I know it's not long enough to make a good rock."
 * Stealth Pun: Her full name, Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels.
 * The Unchosen One: As a wombat, Digger simply can't be The Chosen One. Thanks to a loophole and unfortunately being a possessor of common courtesy, Digger is roped into helping out anyway.

Ed
""It was told to die, leave no name, no memory, no bones where real people might eat them. But It did not die. It has no name. But It will paint. After It is bones. After all real people are bones, after all names are eaten, someone will find pictures, maybe will not matter then that It doesn't have a name. Someone will remember pictures.""

A male hyena that Digger happens across one night who promptly tries to eat her. They become friends. One of the comic's more tragic figures.

Tropes associated with Ed:

""It has no name. Its name was eaten.""
 * Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male: Uh, no.
 * Badass Adorable
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Don't threaten . And don't taunt his circumstances.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments.
 * A Fate Worse Than Death: His original name was eaten, making him a non-entity in his culture.


 * Love Makes You Dumb: "Skin-painter is fool."
 * No Name Given: His name is gone so Digger decides to call him "Ed."
 * The Philosopher: Manages this even while invoking You No Take Candle.
 * Phrase Catcher: A meta version, in that it's the fans who say it: "Oh, Ed." It is said precisely once in the comic proper,.
 * Proper Gentleman: Due to the gender-inverted roles, Ed fits into this trope. He was born lucky, a respectful and talented painter, devoted to his family even though his wife was mentally unstable and abused him, and managed to kill his wife after she began to abuse their daughter. Even after seventeen years of exile in which his social skills degrade, he remains kind and loving. Although he is devastated when Grim Eyes rejects him, he's never bitter.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:  
 * The Smart Guy
 * Spot of Tea: Or whatever it is he serves.
 * Strange Syntax Speaker: Since Ed had been exiled, he hadn't talked to anyone before Digger came along (presumably because no one but the hyenas would know where to find him, and they consider him to be unclean since his name was eaten when he was exiled). After seventeen years of silence, he simply forgot how to speak, and the syntax he uses is his best guess at how it works.
 * The Dog Bites Back: After long years of abuse, when he finally decides to act, it's... decisive.
 * You No Take Candle: We initially think he's eloquent in his own language. He's not, as it is mostly caused by how he hasn't talked to anyone in seventeen years.
 * The Dog Bites Back: After long years of abuse, when he finally decides to act, it's... decisive.
 * You No Take Candle: We initially think he's eloquent in his own language. He's not, as it is mostly caused by how he hasn't talked to anyone in seventeen years.

Shadowchild
""But what is an evil? Is it like water or like a hedgehog or night or lumpy? What does it look like? How do I know?""

A young, curious little shadow demon who hatched from the body of a dead bird. It eats shadows and has latched onto Digger for moral support.

Tropes associated with Shadowchild:


 * Ambiguous Innocence: Innocent to the point of no morality. Fortunately, it seems to trust Digger and want to learn. Less fortunately for Digger, it's not easy to present a working moral system off the top of one's head.
 * Badass Adorable
 * Beware the Nice Ones: It's cute as a button, but don't forget: Shadowchild is, for all intents and purposes, a soul eating demon.
 * The Big Guy/Cute Bruiser
 * Cheerful Child
 * Children Are Innocent
 * Constantly Curious
 * Dark Is Not Evil: It's not quite good either, but calling it evil would be a big stretch.
 * Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?
 * Fan Nickname:, after
 * Furry Confusion: The Shadowchild's concern for the possibility of eating anything that can talk runs across more difficulty because it is, not unreasonably, unwilling to assume that prey animals can't without case-by-case checking.
 * In-Series Nickname/No Name Given/Only Known by Their Nickname: As far as it knows, it doesn't have an actual name. Digger coined the term "shadowchild" to refer to it, but usually just addresses it as "Shadow".
 * Living Shadow
 * No Biological Sex
 * Our Demons Are Different
 * Raised By Digger
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter
 * Running Joke: No, Shadowchild, you are not a trope.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Wild Child: Digger at one point suggests that Shadowchild is more or less the demon version of this. But then, ALL Demons are, until and unless they get taken in by an older demon.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: If Shadowchild eats the shadow of a living creature, it drops dead. Eventually. First they go into a coma.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: If Shadowchild eats the shadow of a living creature, it drops dead. Eventually. First they go into a coma.

The Statue of Ganesh
"Digger: You're a lifesaver. Statue: On occasion, yes."

A statue of the Hindu god Ganesh. Digger pops out of a hole in his temple. The Veiled worship him and other gods.

Tropes associated with the Statue of Ganesh:


 * Because I Said So: He comments to the titular wombat that neither he nor Jhalm want to have a conversation ending with "Because I'm a god and I say so."
 * Snark to Snark Combat: Though he isn't much of a Deadpan Snarker normally, he can definitely hold his own against Digger in a snark-fest.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin
 * Expressive Mask: Depending on what he's saying and how the panel is positioned, he can look pleased, concerned or even pull off a Cheshire Cat Grin.
 * God's Hands Are Tied: He is only one part of Ganesh, and even then, he's a statue.
 * Living Statue
 * Omniscient Morality License
 * Our Gods Are Different
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: He IS the statue of Ganesh.

Murai
""I looked upon the face of a goddess. And it broke me. And now some things take me back there. Children screaming, or the darkness shining, or the smell--I really can't describe the smell.""

A former member of the Veiled and a worshiper of Ganesh. Has occasional bouts of insanity. So, of course, she fits right in.

Tropes associated with Murai:


 * Broken Bird
 * The Chick: In-story, she's both this and The Heroine.
 * The Chosen One
 * Determinator
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: The source of her madness is from looking upon the Black Mother.
 * Handicapped Badass: Broke her arm on a recent quest.
 * Hero of Another Story: Bits and pieces of her story creep in, like the prophecy business, but ultimately, this quest isn't about her.
 * Madness Mantra: "Black Mother, pass us by, turn your head away from us, we are not here, we are not here, pass us by..."
 * "Black Mother... "
 * "The Good Man is dead. Who killed the Good Man?"
 * Nice Girl
 * Sanity Slippage: Every now and then.
 * Waif Fu
 * Waif Fu

Boneclaw Mother
""Go on. They won't eat you unless you do something stupid.""

Senior female member of the hyena tribe that adopted Digger.

Tropes associated with Boneclaw Mother:

"What thing?" "The thing where you tell people what they're thinking and freak 'em out!"
 * Badass Normal: "I may be old, but if you think I can't still rip you up one side and down the other, cub, even if I am blind and five times your age..." (quoted by Grim Eyes)
 * Blind Seer: Digger does not initially realize she is blind as "I keep meeting people wearing strange masks, you see."
 * "Perhaps it is a sign, then. Perhaps you ought to be wearing one."
 * Cool Old Lady
 * Dirty Old Woman: "You're a vile old woman."
 * Disability Superpower: Played with. "These stones I wear. Perhaps I can see you through them. Do you believe that?"
 * "Do the thing!"
 * Shamelessly taken advantage of when telling Grim Eyes to go with Digger on her initial quest. Whether Grim Eyes won or lost the fight threatened in the Badass Normal entry, she would still lose face with the tribe.
 * Expressive Mask: The ropes holding the stones on her mask will rotate sometimes, often to correspond with her current emotion.
 * Mask Power: She uses this and her blindness for political advantage by claiming (probably falsely) to be able to see through the pebble eyes of the mask. She is sufficiently badass that other hyenas fear it may be true.
 * Never Mess with Granny: "Frankly, I'm more scared of Boneclaw Mother than the gods. She-Is-Fiercer isn't known for her left hook."
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: She pretty much exists to prove that every Hyena woman doesn't have an enormous chip on her shoulder.
 * Trrrilling Rrrs: "I would like a worrrrd with you."

Grim Eyes
""A friend might put a spear in your heart, but only an enemy will tell you it's for your own good.""

A young, female hyena from Ed's tribe. Digger meets her when Grim Eyes is trying to capture and eat her. They also eventually become comrades.

Tropes associated with Grim Eyes:


 * Action Girl
 * Badass Normal
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: It is a wonder that Grim Eyes even approaches normal.
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Heel Face Turn: After Digger's Embarrassing Rescue.
 * I Owe You My Life:To Digger.
 * The Lancer: Digger's. Otherwise, she's The Big Girl.
 * Proud Warrior Race Girl
 * Trrrilling Rrrs: When she's mad. A trait she shares with Boneclaw Mother.
 * Weakness Turns Her On: She tells Digger as much after some conventional-gender-role-reversal antics with their Deer-headed guide.
 * Trrrilling Rrrs: When she's mad. A trait she shares with Boneclaw Mother.
 * Weakness Turns Her On: She tells Digger as much after some conventional-gender-role-reversal antics with their Deer-headed guide.

Bloodtail
""Bloodtail always was a vain little child, worried that people were watching her and terrified that maybe they weren't. She grew into a nasty, vain adult.""

- Boneclaw Mother

Not much is known of her, but what is known makes her rather disagreeable.

Tropes associated with Blood Tail:
 * If I Can't Have You: She encouraged spousal abuse by her sister because she was envious after Ed chose the sister over herself, with an added Take That implying that he was still better off with the madwoman who beat him than he ever would have been with her.
 * Love Makes You Evil: Blood Tail was infatuated with her sister's mate. So she goaded her sister into madness, then campaigned to have her former crush exiled for putting her down.
 * Boneclaw Mother opines that it wasn't love that made her evil, and that she was so poisonous by nature that a madwoman with violent tendencies still made a better mate by comparison.

Blood Eyes
Former mate of Ed.

Tropes associated with Blood Eyes:
 * Heroic BSOD: A very understandable one. It Got Worse when Blood-Tail started screwing with her head.
 * Hot Amazon: Ed certainly thought so. She WAS one of the strongest warriors of her time, in any case.
 * It Got Worse: Her firstborn child died, and she has nobody to take out her rage/grief on aside from the spouse she still deeply loves (when she's sane). Meanwhile her sister is taking advantage of her vulnerable state, eventually driving her mad enough to start beating her daughter as well.
 * Love Makes You Crazy: She did not take the loss of her first born well.
 * Sanity Slippage: And HOW.
 * There Are No Grief Counselors: Blood-Tail probably made sure of that.

Captain Jhalm
"Jhalm: If you attempt to harm one of my Veiled, it will go badly for you. The Cold Ones: [...] Jhalm: I need no gods to deal with you."

Leader of the Veiled.

Tropes associated with Captain Jhalm:


 * Eyepatch of Power: And once he gets it, he goes from merely being hostile to overtly opposing Digger before the statue of Ganesh.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: He comes dangerously close to slipping from simple Knight Templar into this.
 * Inspector Javert
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Arguably, he becomes less of a well meaning jerk and more of a spiteful Knight Templar as the story goes on. Judging from what we've heard now that Digger's group has returned to Ganesh's temple, it seems that he's gotten worse in their absence.
 * Knight Templar: Increasingly so as the story goes on.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist

The Oracular Slug
""One minute we're oozing along, not a care in the world, and the next, every time you cross a leaf, it's telling you the future. It's hard when you've got a brain the size of a pin head, believe me.""

An oracle who is a slug. Pretty much the only creature who can keep a tab on Digger's future.

Tropes associated with the Oracular Slug:


 * Chekhov's Gun: His prophecies, naturally.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: He and Shadowchild get on very well.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: What lead to his family becoming oracles. He even points out how weird it is.
 * Easter Egg
 * Hermaphrodite: Slug, remember?
 * It May Help You on Your Quest: Tries his best to get his prophesies to Digger.
 * Loophole Abuse:

The Hag
""Ha! Was that a threat? What are you gonna do, beat up a healer in the middle of her village? I can think of a half-dozen gods who'd be very interested to hear about that.""

A young woman who acts as the healer for the village Rath. Digger finds herself holed up in her house more often than they'd both like.

Tropes associated with the Hag:


 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Snark Knight: Depending on what she's snarking about, she can overlap with this.
 * Everyone Calls Her The Hag
 * The Medic
 * Tsundere: Will not hesitate to call Digger out on her recklessness, will not hesitate to forestall Jhalm on questioning or capturing her and will not hesitate to call out the Statue on sending Digger (and Murai) into possible danger.

Surka
""You know any reason why an 'onest shrew can't be a bloody great troll on the side?""

A professional troll who guards a rope bridge. She is actually a shrew.

Tropes associated with Surka:


 * All Trolls Are Different
 * The Beast Master
 * Big Damn Heroes: Surka tends to just pop up whenever Digger needs muscle. Or a distraction.
 * The Big Guy: Shares the role with Grim Eyes (though they're very rarely together at any one time).
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Crazy Awesome
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Murder Arson and Jaywalking: her employment history before becoming a Bridge-toll was "Pirate queen, assassin, and dishwasher."
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Talk Like a Pirate
 * Troll Bridge: Her job, apparently.

He-Is
An Only Mostly Dead hyena god.

Tropes associated with He-Is:


 * And I Must Scream
 * The Atoner
 * Beat Still My Heart: Inverted; it's not supposed to beat, but a team of slaves are forcing it to.
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * Fate Worse Than Death: He is kept alive against his will, along with the same demon that made him kill his own child.
 * Mercy Kill: At the end of the story.
 * God Couple: With She-Is.
 * My God, What Have I Done?
 * Only Mostly Dead
 * Taking You with Me: He tries to do this to Sweetgrass Voice, but he's kept alive against his will. It finally works when Digger and Ed show up and kill him for good.

Sweetgrass Voice
""Kill me? Not even a god could kill me, dirt rat. Twelve thousand years I've been down here with him, and he's never found a way to destroy me. Twelve thousand years, dirt rat! And when his sanity began to fail and I finally drove him blundering up to the surface, what did he do but find dwarves and men and one of your filthy-clawed kind to bind him! Do you have any idea how long twelve thousand years is?""

A powerful, elder demon who manipulated He-Is into fighting She-Is, and was therefore the cause of the whole mess and its aftermath. It's still alive, possessing He-Is' remains.

Tropes associated with Sweetgrass Voice:
 * Big Bad
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * Compelling Voice
 * Demonic Possession
 * Living Shadow
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Meaningful Name
 * No Biological Sex
 * Our Demons Are Different
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: It has some reach to work with, but as long as He-Is is shackled, it's stuck with him.
 * The Unpronounceable: Its true name, like that of all demons, cannot even be heard by most creatures, much less pronounced. In-story, it is represented by a series of dashes because of this.
 * Walking Wasteland: Never confirmed, but forty-thousand years before the story, there was a creature called Famine that fit the trope, and it certainly bears a resemblance.