Lords of Shadow

Take Superman (sans invulnerability) throw him in Iron Man's armor, have them cloned after every death, and what do you get? Humanity's last hope.

Lords of Shadow follows the Harbingers, Villain Protagonist Super Soldiers designed for the sole purpose of fighting the sentient darkness called the Shadow.

It can be found here, along with its sister RP, Fallen Angel RP.


 * Aerith and Bob: Played backwards. Jack, Mike, Daniel and...Freya?
 * Anachronism Stew: Galactic colonization, Faster Than Light Travel, Cloning, Genetic Engineering, Advanced medical science, Sunlight bombs all sit side by side with an early 21st century tech level that has a Used Future feel, and propaganda in the style of the 1940's and 1950's
 * Angst? What Angst?: Played straight in the main RP and averted in the backstory. The Harbingers were originally manic depressives, but after so many deaths, they literally laugh at the idea of Death.
 * Back from the Dead: Just because a Harbinger dies doesn't mean they stay dead. See Death Is Cheap.
 * Badass: The Harbingers abilities let them be this in epic proportions.
 * Badass Abnormal: They're also not quite human anymore.
 * Badass Driver: Daniel likes to crash through things in his Super Jeep.
 * Mike, when he's not dead, plays this extremely straight.
 * Berserk Button: Jack when administering his Luggage Treatment.
 * BFG: Mike likes to carry these around.
 * Black Comedy: The Harbinger's crack morbid jokes about their many deaths.
 * Big Bad: The seeds of darkness that hit each planet are this in a sense, but so are the planets consumed by darkness that spread the seeds.
 * Big Bulky Bomb: Sunburst. Enough said.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The Harbingers do this one very well.
 * Big Damn Villains: Everyone's evil, but at least the Harbingers are doing evil for good.
 * This may also be Villainous Rescue if more Harbingers or Peacekeepers show up to help fight.
 * Cloning Blues: Basically all of the Harbingers once they figure out they've gotta keep fighting till they win.
 * Clone Degeneration: While the Harbingers have an effectively infinite shelf life, Military and Peacekeeper clones require a fresh template ever few generations.
 * Degeneration is also built into their lifetime. Non-Harbinger clones simply drop dead the minute they hit 20.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: 150+ years of fighting has driven the urgency out of combat and other precarious situations.
 * Cosmic Plaything: Poor Mike's lifespan is almost never measured in units longer than months.
 * He may also be The Chew Toy.
 * Crap Saccharine World: Underneath the cheerful propaganda, seemingly happy people, and abundance of parks and bright colors, the world is under the thumb of a Totalitarian state and always on the brink of The End of the World as We Know It
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: After detonating the Sunburst bomb, Jack walks past and ignores the Assembly.
 * In case tropes have not read the RP, The Assembly are the leaders of the Totalitarian state.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Often combined with Crowning Moment of Awesome when a Harbinger kills something in the most epic of ways.
 * Darkness Equals Death: Shadows + anything else = dead anything else
 * Deader Than Dead: Harbingers die. Sometimes in gruesome and amazing ways such that No One Could Survive That. Too bad they always come back.
 * Death Is Cheap: Literally. The Harbinger's are cloned into a new body after every death. The only draw back is they remember every death and the brief void afterwards.
 * Earth-That-Was: Earth was a depleted, barren Memorial to the human race by the time the Shadow invaded. It's now a case of Earth That was, Was.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Shadow are a minor example of these. They may not drive you insane, but they are sufficiently alien and Brown Note inducing.
 * Elevator Escape: Used by the Harbingers when the power goes out and they're trapped several dozen floors up from where they need to be.
 * Empty Shell: Every member of the military (except command positions) and the Peacekeepers are all blank slate clones programmed with directives and tactics.
 * Evil vs. Evil: Anywhere else, the Assembly would be considered a Totalitarian regime promoting a Crap Saccharine World, but when the alternative is something worse...
 * First Law of Resurrection: Basically the reason it was started.
 * Gallows Humor: Death is commonplace and temporary, and thus, laughable.
 * Got Volunteered: Some of the Harbingers wound up in the Project this way.
 * Genre Savvy: The Harbingers are this.
 * It also helps that thread runner UHC is a Troper.
 * High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Jack looks down at the Seed for a brief second. Something indescribably alien looks back.
 * Killed Off for Real: This doesn't exist
 * Just a Kid: Subverted. Despite Will being 13 and ribbed on it by the other Harbingers, they accept him as one of their own..
 * Lawful Evil: The Assembly plays this straight
 * Lampshade Hanging: The Harbingers are media icons. Slash Fic has been written about them. Cue massive Lampshade hang
 * Let's Split Up, Gang!: It's bound to happen again sometime, even if only for a short while.
 * Mind Rape: Mentioned directly. Apparently, looking at a Heart of Darkness and noticing that it stretches in an infinite number of impossible directions and looks impossibly small at the same time can drive people insane.
 * Mission Briefing: Provided by the perpetually pissed Director.
 * More Dakka: Zach in spades. The guy loves to kill things in as many different ways as possible.
 * No One Could Survive That: Except they do. Kinda.
 * No Ontological Inertia: Once the seeds are gone, so are the shadows they bring with.
 * Only Mostly Dead: So a Harbinger loses their head, they'll just be cloned and ready to go again.
 * They're also Not Quite Dead.
 * Oh Crap: Think Prime would the staging point for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge? Think again.
 * Romance Sidequest: Mike and Freya. In spades.
 * Start of Darkness: Everyone knows this thread is the start of it for poor Will.
 * Staying Alive: When all is said and done, the Harbingers are right back in action.
 * Super Soldier: Check and double check!
 * The Chew Toy: Poor Mike. He never lives very long.
 * The Nothing After Death: Also doesn't exist thanks to cloning.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The whole reason for the Harbingers.
 * There Was a Door: Mike goes through the door. Freya goes through the wall
 * The Big Guy: Jack and Zach. Jack because of his enhancements, Zach because of his enhancements and love of things that go boom.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: It's happened so many times over two centuries, the shock value is lost on the Harbingers.
 * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: This will happen to Will eventually, although he will still be a kid, he'll be anything but sweet
 * Starting to be played straight, as Will was forced into a Morton's fork by Jack. Namely, whether a squad of Peacekeepers were killed by a grenade or a horde of Shadows.
 * Up to Eleven: As cold and snowy as Prime is in it's summer, it gets cold enough in the winter citizens have to wear heated suits and breathing gear to walk outside.
 * Used Future: Outside the shining cities, the world and technology has this feel to it.
 * Watching Troy Burn: Prime is currently undergoing this.