Keychain of Creation



Keychain of Creation was (see Painting the Fourth Wall, below) a Stick Figure Comic set in Creation, the world of the Exalted roleplaying game. It follows the adventures of a quartet of Exalted as they quest to retrieve five magical keys that hold the evil Primordials sealed away: Misho, a Twilight Caste Solar, who has all of his Exaltation's memories dating back to the First Age, but no memory of his current mortal life, which can't possibly be suspicious; Marena, a Changing Moon Caste Lunar with a fox totem, a flirtatious, fun-loving, confident woman... who's quite possibly the most terrifying of the group; Secret, a renegade Day Caste Abyssal with some major self-esteem problems; and Ten Winds, an elderly Air Aspect Terrestrial, formerly a monk in the Immaculate Order, who left because he grew disillusioned with the Order, and because he enjoyed the pleasures of the world a bit too much.

Genre Savvy and awareness of game mechanics is universal, and a source of much of the humor. The art style and premise were inspired by the The Order of the Stick, but Keychain spends less time lampshading the conventions of the RPGs and fantasy stories and more time on the over-the-top action that made Exalted famous.

Unfortunately, the webcomic is on hiatus as the author is recovering from tendonitis. Even so, he has been devoting the time he would have otherwise spent on the comic to writing homebrew material for the Exalted setting, which is worth a look at. It is currently not known when (or unfortunately "if") it will begin updating again, as tendonitis can take a long time to heal (and also has the possibility of turning chronic, hence the "if").

Has a character sheet.

This comic provides examples of:
"Ten Winds: "Astounding. I can actually feel you swearing.""
 * Above the Influence: Misho.
 * Abusive Parents: Marena reveals that Aria was one hell of a lot nastier to her than had been previously let on.
 * Acquired Poison Immunity: It might be possible to find a drug or toxin that will incapacitate Ten Winds. You'll have to look for a long time (and commandeer the help of a few gods and/or demons) before you find it.
 * Marena's mother fed her tiny doses of poison to protect her from assassinations... which never happened anyway.
 * Action Girl: Pretty much every female in this comic worth mentioning can kick ass with all of the boys, and then some. Sort of comes with the Exalted territory, but even by Exalted standards some of the ladies (especially Nova and Nemen Yi) are incredibly skilled.
 * Actual Pacifist: Blossom of Harmonious Aethers. And she works for Nova, the poor thing.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: Subverted, played straight and lampshaded. The Automaton Guard doesn't recognize Marena's caste mark (Misho hypothesises that it's because its sensors are faulty). On the other hand, though tainted with abyssal essence and abandoned for thousands of years, Mew Cai remains true to her original purpose.
 * Of course it didn't In the First Age, there WAS no "Changing Moon" caste. That didn't happen until the Wyld corrupted the Lunar Exaltations, loosing two castes in the process, and coming up with a new one with fragments of the old ones.
 * All Amazons Want Hercules: Karen starts carrying a torch for Ten Winds after practicing martial arts with him. Squee!
 * Animorphism: Marena, as one of the Lunar Exalted, loves this trope.
 * Arrow Catch: here, by Ten Winds.
 * Art Evolution: Lampshaded in strip 319, where the stick figure art became... less... stickfigurey. (ARMS!!!) Explained in-story as a result of Marena and Secret's first step into learning sorcery, and "changing how they perceived reality".
 * Done again in 379, this time explained as the result of the heroes entering the realm of a Physical God. Out of story, it's because the author wanted to move away from sprite-based art and into drawn art.
 * Art Shift: Creatures of the Wyld, Primordials, ghosts, and gods (especially gods) are each drawn in a significantly different style from the main cast. The Fair Folk are a very subtle example - they don't have outlines, just colors.
 * The Fair Folk have outlines, albeit only exterior, but they do have outlines.
 * Aside Glance: Several, but one of the best examples is when The Dragon tells the local Fourth Wall Observer / Chessmaster (who has just been Out Gambitted) to "indulge a little", since no one's around. The Chessmaster looks right at the audience, smiles, and says "Just as planned."
 * Ask a Stupid Question: Here's your sign, Secret.
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: In one corner we have a rampaging Sidereal Exalt that's just walked all over two death knights. In the other, we have Marena Of The Red Crescent. Marena isn't able to stop the Sidereal, but she does take her down a peg in a very cool fashion.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Practically every female character of significance. Blossom of Harmonious Aethers being the sole exception.
 * Beat Panel: easier to list all the strips that have a joke but don't have a beat panel, really.
 * Beach Episode: For some reason or another, the party ended up in the Sanctum (pocket dimension) of Costora, god of the beach.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: "...I beseech you to guide events that my sister will not reveal our nature to our enemies."
 * Beware the Superman: Marena's justification for being a shamelessly flirty homewrecker is, well...take a look for yourself. In the source material, this is an Enforced Trope, as most Exalted are afflicted by the Great Curse, and those that aren't have other problems.
 * Big Bad Evil Guy: The First and Forsaken Lion. As a nine-foot tall man wearing armour forged from souls and hellbent on killing everything ever, he's one of the more literal examples of this trope. It's worth noting that this is rather pointedly spot-on to his portrayal in the game's canon.
 * Technically, he 'only' wants to kill the Neverborn. Everyone else is just collateral damage...
 * BFS: Ragara Karen's Daiklave, which is about twice her height. When not in combat she can actually fold it up into a slightly more compact form.
 * Bigger On the Inside: Because Misho knows Magic science!
 * Bilingual Bonus: Those hieroglyphs are not made up on the spot. It's correct Old Realm, and you can translate everything... into roughly phonetic English. Two out of three ain't bad.
 * Bishie Sparkle: Words fail.
 * Bread Eggs Milk Squick: Marena's list of things her mother did to her, also counting as a Long List gag.
 * Break the Cutie: The backstory for Secret's transition from adorable little tyke to bane of existence.
 * Breast Attack: Nova gets nailed with one when pouncing an "unarmed" Misho. Cue winces from most of the female cast.
 * By the Power of Grayskull: Costora. "In the name of Sol Invictus, and the laws of heaven...!"
 * Calling Your Attacks: Misho calls his spells and Combos -- which can provide a Bilingual Bonus for those people that can transliterate the Old Realm script it's in if the effect of the spell isn't shown until a page or two later.
 * Canon Immigrant: Open up MoEP: Alchemicals, flip to page 81. Look at the last name on the list of prominent Alchemicals.
 * One of Nova's powers is now an official Alchemical Charm, Light-Etched Interceptor Barrier.
 * Caramelldansen: Occurs in-story.
 * Catch Phrase: Ten Winds has "JUSTICE!"
 * Celibate Hero: Misho. Even Marena's charms don't work on him,
 * Her pheromones, on the other hand...
 * Chainsaw Good: This strip
 * Chekhov's Armoury: Drawing on its source materials, just about every major detail is shown or foreshadowed.
 * Chekhov's Gun: . Set up in Strip #1 actually.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:, also set up in Strip #1.
 * Cluster F Bomb: Karen, despite being mute:

""If we hadn't come to fight you, there'd be no reason to have us in this comic. And then we wouldn't exist.""
 * Collapsed Mid Speech: On the very first page, Secret collapses out of breath in the process of saying her Overly Long Name.
 * Confusion Fu: Nemen Yi is able to judo throw people across time and space. And it is awesome.
 * Cool Sword: The Keys, of course, but also Misho's other sword, the Blade of Vitality. It makes its wielder immortal--immortal even compared to the Exalted.
 * Cure for Cancer: Misho can apparently do this at will ("It's so easy when you know how to do it!") but it kinda breaks their cover.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Marena and Secret, occasionally. Marena because she's a Lunar, and sometimes takes on animal features, especially when she's angry or agitated; and Secret because she's an Abyssal, with the added ability to grow full not-so-cute vampire fangs, because she regains Essence through consuming blood. (Among other things, if the author's staying close to the source.)
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: The Fae deliberately attack the party, knowing they'll be defeated, because:

"Secret: What are these, Misho?
 * It needs to be noted that this perfectly fits the portrayal of the Fair Folk in Exalted. They live stories, and the more powerful ones are stories.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Secret. She's an Abyssal who's manipulated the system enough to ensure she only has to kill evil people.
 * Dark Skinned Redhead: Marena, Karen, Four the fire aspect lady.
 * Deal With the Devil: Canonically, most Abyssals get their Start of Darkness this way. Like Secret, for example.
 * Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu: Don't ever tell a god that what is going on isn't their concern. Otherwise, even if it isn't, they'll MAKE IT their concern, just to spite you.
 * Although, considering the relative positions of the Exalted and lesser gods, it's as much C'thulhu flipping YOU off.
 * Disability Superpower: Subverted with Resonance Ben, who is blind and uses inhumanly acute hearing to 'see' because he thinks it's cool, but who constantly has it turned against him in various ways.
 * Ben also has an Exalt-specific Disability Superpower that's the reason for his name (on multiple levels): he intentionally cultivates Resonance, the Abyssal form of Limit that stems from his Eldritch Abomination patrons getting pissy with him, to channel it into devastating necrotic attacks. This is pretty much a complete Game Breaker though -- the entire point of Resonance is that you don't want it (you don't want Eldritch Abominations mad at you).
 * Dual Wielding: Nemen Yi, the Sidereal of Mars. Bonus points for dual wielding BFSes.
 * Dynamic Entry: Done by Ten Winds early on. JUSTICE!
 * Karen later pulls off the same thing, complete with the same cry as an Unsound Effect.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The primordials, as per Exalted canon.

Misho: Mostly, they're images of the primordials, as they were before the war. The gods felt it important we be reminded who we were fighting...thought we would feel a bit more confidence if we knew the nature of our foes.

Secret: Who's that?

Misho: That would be Adrián, the River of All Torments. The gods weren't...used to humans, at that point."

""We're going to need more coconuts."
 * Exact Time to Failure: Subverted. Mew Cai announces that the Soaring Manse will self destruct in 47 seconds,.
 * Exact Words: The Terrestrial bandits have no objection to someone driving on to the bridge.
 * Exposed to The Elements: Marena, here.
 * Eyeless Face: Ghosts have these, along with a black-and-white color palette, to distinguish them from mortals.
 * The Fair Folk: The Fae. While everyone in the comic knows the mechanics on which the universe runs and is Genre Savvy, only the Fae realize they are in a comic strip. This is done in order to portray an alternate worldview that, to everyone else, seems like insanity.
 * Fan Nickname: Notably, Secret's Overly Long Name was initially going to be shortened as 'Sorrowful Herald'. 'Secret' was coined by a fan before a practical-sized name was established, however, and the author liked it, so it was taken up in the comic as well.
 * Fantastic Arousal: Marena has very sensitive ears...
 * Fastball Special: Much to her surprise, Ten Winds throws Secret at the door to break it down when flying out of the manse.
 * Fearless Fool: Fury has Valor 5. It shows.
 * Also here. Compare her reaction with that of the others.
 * Finger Poke of Doom: Secret vs. pig.
 * Ludicrous Gibs
 * Five Bad Band: Resonance Ben's "band".
 * Big Bad: The First and Forsaken Lion, who finally shows up in strip #278.
 * The Dragon: Resonance Ben.
 * The Evil Genius: Flame.
 * The Brute: The drummer.
 * Two Dark Chicks: The keyboardist and the bassist, both apparently ghosts.
 * Five Man Band: There are 5 major types of Exalted and 5 keys. However, the current group doesn't quite fit:
 * The Hero / The Smart Guy: Misho (Solar)
 * The Lancer: Marena (Lunar)
 * The Big Guy: Ten Winds (Terrestrial)
 * The Chick: Secret (Abyssal)
 * Sixth Ranger: Ragara Karen (Solar) -- The odd one out, as the logical fifth party member would be a Sidereal.
 * Follow the Leader: Shamelessly admitted on the links page: "Here's the Order of the Stick, the comic that inspired me to write Keychain of Creation. And by 'inspired,' I mean 'the same, but with Exalted.'"
 * For the Lulz: Nova attacks, kidnaps, and harasses members of the party, largely because she's bored.
 * Fourth Wall Mail Slot: As explained by the author, it sorta makes some sense, since the characters who do it know they're in a comic anyway.
 * Freudian Excuse: Marena has a lot of issues regarding her mother. After we find out what Aria's idea of "parenting" seems to be, it's suddenly a lot less surprising.
 * Take a look, and pay close attention to Misho. You can actually watch his faith in the world slowly dying.
 * Funbag Airbag: Take note of the first and last panel.
 * Also counts as Funny Background Event.
 * Fun With Acronyms: Mew Cai = Manse of the Ever Watchful Custodian Artificial Intelligence.
 * Gender Bender: Marena's "Twin-Faced Hero" Knack.
 * Genre Savvy: All of them to an extent, but Ten especially. Watch as he shoots down the potential for at least one standard MacGuffin plot.
 * Nova is too. She seems to have read the Evil Overlord's list, despite not actually being an Evil Overlord.  Very, very smart. And keeps her likable.
 * The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Secret and Marena seem like this at times, with Secret being more the Smart Sister and Marena being the Popular Sister.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom
 * Go Ye Heroes Go and Die: Misho suggests the Primordial War-era murals in the tunnels had this effect.
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: Misho uses his glasses for triage purposes, while Nemen Yi has glasses that are some sort of artifact.
 * Gonna Need More Trope:
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: Misho uses his glasses for triage purposes, while Nemen Yi has glasses that are some sort of artifact.
 * Gonna Need More Trope:

"No, he doesn't do that any more.""

"Flame: I'm really not affiliated with this..."
 * Hero Antagonist: Elegant Nova of Progression. Sure, she's a Mad Scientist, but it's clear from the point where we actually meet her that she's a charitable and kind person who just happens to be really stubborn about test subjects.
 * Heroic Bastard: Secret. As far as the character archetype goes, she had a pretty sweet deal (she was fortunate enough to have both parents in her life), but given that she lived in the Coral Archipelago...
 * Heroic BSOD: Misho in #220,
 * This is actually a rule in Exalted--what you see is the Heart of Tears Limit Break, where a Compassionate Solar becomes literally catatonic with indecision and guilt over every decision he's made.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * *Sniff* I've... just got something in my eye...
 * Humongous Mecha: Misho's God-Forged Champion of War.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Misho fights with a keyblade. And is in denial about it.
 * First And Forsaken Lion seems to be going the keyblade route as well, as opposed to the soul-sucking BFS he wields in canon.
 * Misho mentioned early on that the First And Forsaken Lion had forged the Key of Soulsteel. And when considering what the Keys are capable of, it's not surprising that he'd trade his old sword in for the Key of Soulsteel.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Misho seems this way. Whether or not his status as a Stern Teacher negates or reinforces this trait is a matter for the reader.
 * Instrument of Murder: Resonance Ben's soulsteel guitar. His Five Bad Band also has similar instruments, except for Flame who considers the whole thing silly.

"Misho: "When you find someone's name, it's often a good idea to find out why they were named so.""
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: in an early strip, Secret calls Marena a "bossy overweight oversexed shapeshifting cow" and gets pushed down a long fall for it. The title of the comic is "I am not a cow!".
 * Jossed: The author has a neat way about handling this: He insists, constantly, that every single Epileptic Tree is completely true, as sincerely as possible. No matter what context, IM, forum, in actual discussion, he insists they are always correct, so that in the end, everyone, including him, is proven wrong. It's absolutely hilarious.
 * Jukashi has gone so far as to create a Forced Meme out of this. "nooooo my scheme"
 * Just As Planned: While every Sidereal, everywhere, can be presumed to be running at least one Plan if not more, Nemen Yi goes out of her way to remind us of the fact.
 * Kawaiiko: Secret is so adorable she inspired Marena to take her along with the party. As a child she was even more adorable, probably because she hadn't yet undergone the horrible experience that would eventually kill her and drive her to become an Abyssal.
 * Kick the Dog: Nemen Yi launches an unprovoked attack on Secret just to get what she wants. Admittedly, she's apparently under a mandate to rescue the Orichalcum Key from Abyssals, but given Secret's history this is a bit of a stretch.
 * Leaning On the Fourth Wall: Apparently, everyone but a sorcerer-initiate sees stick figure characters. This "fact" is used to hang a lampshade on the Art Evolution in comic #319.
 * Les Yay: Occurs frequently between Marena and Secret, although it might be more accurate to state that Marena is such a living embodiment of sexy that anybody and everybody is likely to get shipped with her. This was recently heavily hinted to be canon. (See Fantastic Arousal above.)
 * One Exalted forum had an unofficial poll to decide who Marena should be the Lunar mate of. Secret won.
 * Look Behind You: Marena distracts a group of guards by shouting that the Kukla - a legendary Earth Dragon larger than a mountain range - is behind them. The ensuing conversation between the guards reveals they've fallen for this one before (you don't want to take chances with the Kukla). Of course, Marena was probably using a Charm on them.
 * One fan comic showed the one time when they finally didn't fall for it. Guess what was sneaking up on them?
 * Lost Technology: Subverted. Most remnants of the First Age are broken or malfunctioning. Anything still working is hard to maintain.
 * Magikarp Power: Implied with Secret. As a Deathknight, her power is potentially equal to Misho's or Karen's, but she has too much of a conscience and too little self-confidence to wield it. It remains to be seen if this changes or if  will unlock her full power.
 * Magitek: The Nova arc features tons of it: Alchemical Exalted, magitek cybernetics, and more.
 * Meaningful Name: Resonance Ben (Resonance being a side effect of an Abyssal not following the path set for them by the Neverborn).
 * Of course, all Exalted get names like that, but only with some of them is it obvious why they're named so.
 * Medium Awareness: The Fae and the Sidereals. Nemen Yi uses this to her advantage in combat: leaping from one panel to another, abusing perspective to hit multiple targets with a single slash, and breaking off one of the comic's gutters and throwing it at Ben. Then reaching across panels to smack the heads of two enemies together, and then throwing one of them across panel lines into another. As you can expect, this is a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Interestingly enough, Ten Winds has it too - the only "lucky number" here is the comic number. Fertiliser for Epileptic Trees right there...
 * Also note that such Sidereal Shenanigans are not exaggerations. Their martial arts allow, among other things, retconning your position in the battlefield...
 * Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Mew has felt like this, it seems.
 * Munchkin: Encouraged in the Exalted universe and exemplified by several characters.
 * Resonance Ben is a wonderful character with lots of depth and some truly amazing moments. However, anyone who attempts to create a character in a real-life Exalted game who does anything like what Ben does with Resonance should be shot, as the whole point of Resonance is to penalize the Abyssal for defying the rules of their masters.
 * Misho took a lot of flaws to pay for his badass abilities. Atypically, these flaws cause him a great deal of trouble.
 * Secret appears to have optimized herself for Dodge charms. Because they solve everything.
 * Mundane Utility: Misho uses his divine power to create items from nothingness to make... a desk. A Glorious Solar Desk. Later, a hammer.
 * A bit of Memetic Mutation there too. GLORIOUS SOLAR  is fairly common in the rulebooks. For fun, replace with anything. Desk. Chair. Pen. Hammer. Pig. You get the idea.
 * Ten Winds using his anima flux as a cold shower for Marena.
 * Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: But of course. The Conductor of the Cacophonic Steel Chorus, Fifth Man Born In Readiness, Elegant Nova of Progression... you get the idea.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Exalted tend to have these sorts of names as a general rule. Specific mentions include the King of Uncloaked Steel, First and Forsaken Lion, Misho Thrice-Radiant. Secret's would be, if she could say it all in one breath.

"Nova: You are a worthy adversary, Misho! But even you could not anticipate that I would invert the photon charge of the deflector array... AGAIN.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: In the inimitable Exalted tradition.
 * Ninja Prop: Nemen Yi uses the page dividers (gutters) as a throwing weapon.
 * No Fourth Wall: While the main characters have occasionally spoken of being in a comic, the Fae take this trope all the way. This complies with the source material, as it's actually a power of the Fae to do so according to their rulebook, Graceful Wicked Masques.
 * No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Misho, of all people, seems to have this attitude about Marena's advances. He refuses a relationship with her because he thinks she won't treat it seriously.
 * Loving a Shadow:
 * Noodle Incident: "...We're going to need more coconuts." "No, he doesn't do that anymore."
 * No OSHA Compliance: From the annotation to comic 52: "You know, it strikes me that the health and safety people in the First Age must have had somewhat different standards from what we would expect."
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Five Waves Fury frequently glomps Straight Man Flame.
 * N Word Privileges: Parodied with the derogatory "'nathema".
 * Odd Job Gods: comes with the territory of being set in the Exalted 'verse. Examples so far include Kuka-Rem, god of political manipulation, and Costora, god of a beach. Not the beach. A beach.
 * Oh Crap: It is, in fact, not beyond the old man's business.
 * One Hundred and Eight: Turns out to be quite the lucky number.
 * One Way Visor: "Sarge", one of Nova's cyborgs.
 * One Winged Angel: Would you settle for a nearly-defeated turning into a
 * Orphaned Punchline: "...into a banana! I was amazed."
 * Overly Long Name: Poor Secret nearly passes out just from trying to say her full title, in a parody of the overly long and poetic titles that tend to get used by Abyssal Exalted. It's actually over seventy words.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: Speech Bubbles change color and border depending on the type of character talking and sometimes the Charms they are using, similar to OOTS, as well as the Fae (and Gods) being drawn differently.
 * Even languages reflect this, when the characters are using magic. Necromancy, the one used by Ten Winds and Old Realm, used for Sorcery..
 * And when Marena and Secret are told an event will "change how [they] perceive reality itself," the strip suddenly stops being a Stick Figure Comic.
 * That's how this comic shows that a phrase is said by one person in two connected bodies.
 * Pass the Popcorn: The leader of the Genre Savvy Fae that attack the group does this in the middle of battle here.
 * Perky Female Minion: Five Waves Fury, a Full Moon-caste Lunar in the service of the First and Forsaken Lion. Ridiculously Genki, constantly trying to snuggle Flame, and yes, that kind of perky.
 * Purely Aesthetic Gender: Averted when Marena attempts to use a pheromonal Charm against a man who happens to be gay. And currently transformed into a genderless form anyway.
 * Raven Hair Ivory Skin: Secret.
 * Really Gets Around: Marena.
 * Replacement Goldfish:
 * Reverse the Polarity: Subverted and lampshaded in a fight between Nova and Misho:

Misho: SOL DAMNIT THAT SHOULDN'T DO ANYTHING EVEN IF IT IS POSSIBLE!

Nova: Ha! You just don't think the same way I do!"

"Alchemical: You're...you're blocking my smell with your own? That doesn't make any sense!
 * Ridiculously Human Robot: Elegant Nova of Progression and her fellow Alchemical Exalted are all examples. To be fair, the Alchemical Exalted have human souls, like their fellow Exalted, and are closer to being cyborgs than true robots due to their artificial flesh. And at higher Essence levels, they're the foundation and central part of entire cities.
 * The Alchemicals here are "houseruled", and seem much more machine-like than normal Alchemical Exalted (being broken to pieces without any lasting harm, for example)... although interestingly, once the second edition Alchemicals book came out, much of those "houseruled" effects became canon -- and Nova herself became a canon character, if only through a name drop!
 * Right Behind Me: #357. Unusual in that the person in question is not overheard.
 * RPG Mechanics Verse: With Exalted being the RPG.
 * Rule of Cool: As with Exalted, a lot of things are handwaved with "We're Exalted! We're just that awesome!"

Mareena: I'm Exalted! I just smell that good."

"Mysterious cigarette-smoking figure: "Gentlemen.""
 * Rule of Three: Subverted and lampshaded. Three goblins attack the party. The first two are flipped into a tree, but Secret stabs the last to death, remarking "Oh, was I supposed to flip it into the tree? Sorry."
 * Rule Thirty Four: The author has an adult fanart gallery, separate from the main one. Granted, it only has one picture so far, but that's not bad for a Stick Figure Comic. There is written porn as well, and Jukashi himself has gotten in on the act.
 * A very short (and clean) excerpt of another story appears in the comic, presented as if Marena is writing it herself. Self-insert fiction or memoirs? With Marena, who knows...
 * Save the Villain: Misho does this to  And it worked, despite
 * Say It With Hearts: Nova, amongst others.
 * Schedule Slip: Since the author got tendonitis, the comic has gone on an indefinite hiatus.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: The Yozis, and the five keys are the can openers.
 * Semantic Superpower: Per Word of God the five Keys, when used together, grant the wielder omnipotence as long as they can phrase the desired action as "unlocking." Want to kill an immortal? One might call that "locked" to life, so the Keys can help with that.
 * Serial Escalation: What incredibly strange things can a stick figure do? How strange can the weapons get? How cute and adorable can Secret be? Or Misho? How much can this comic outclass The Order of the Stick in fight scenes? And what new bizarre-yet-awesome character type combinations can Jukashi think up?
 * Serrated Blade of Pain: Elegant Nova Of Progression has a huge combat form with micro-serrated claws.
 * Sherlock Scan: Marena is able to undermine two fae and a Sidereal just by making deductions about their motivations.
 * Ship Tease:
 * Shirtless Scene: Misho twice, Ten (Lampshaded in the title), Marena (In both genders), Ben.
 * Shoot the Dog: Misho . Even he thinks he was too harsh.
 * Shout Out:
 * But where do all the Toasters go?
 * The comic also features cameos of characters from a spiritual predecessor comic, The Freedom Stone, located on the Exalted forum.
 * Also, the elevator muzak is Cruel Angel's Thesis. Which considering the questions raised by Misho's backstory could be Foreshadowing. Or not.
 * And possibly also a shout-out to Megatokyo, which used a similar gag.
 * This Christmas-filler comic contains a snowlem who is pretty much identical to a certain disturbing snowman created by Calvin.
 * Three Words: Just As Planned.
 * "Stop right there, criminal scum! I mean, Fae."
 * This comic. Don't get the reference? Here's your hint: It's written in Moon Runes on Thror's map. Also counts as a Take That against a common fantasy trope.
 * The God of Locks has a hairstyle that looks remarkably like Sora's from Kingdom Hearts.
 * This strip:

"Mew Cai: Aharr yarr, harr  yarr?
 * and there she goes the dawn caste.... HASS the initiative.
 * That Nova looks so much like Jenny XJ-9 can't be coincidence.
 * "Just as planned."
 * Shrug of God: Someone notes in the forum that the word "monstrosity" was misspelled as "monstrocity" when Misho was fighting the Band. Another poster comments that Monstrocity would be a good name for a band... The creator's response: :D
 * Single Stroke Battle: The final showdown between turned out to be one.
 * Small Girl Big Gun: Parodied. One of the Exalted who shows up for the Terrible Interviewees Montage is one of these, and manages to put someone's eye out with her massively oversized essence cannon.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Ben and Flame are pretty much at the bottom of The First And Forsaken Lion's chain of command: Ben's department is Morale, since he's a musician, and Flame's is Recruitment, since he summons the undead. Neither of these requires any actual combat skills, implying that they weren't recruited for their combat prowess, but rather for their abilities in those areas instead. Which may give you an idea of just how powerful the guys at the top of the chain are (since Ben and Flame, two of their "weakest" members, are incredibly powerful). Especially the heads of "Equipment" and "Guerilla", who were sent off to go and do some serious ass-kicking to The First And Forsaken Lion's enemies. Remember, equipment includes weaponry... like giant essence cannons.
 * Spin Off: Tales of the Mastah.
 * Stern Teacher: Misho. Misho. Dear Sol Invictus Misho.
 * Rockodile Soup: Used as a Brick Joke.
 * Super Empowering
 * Surfer Dude: Costora.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Marena and Racer are most definitely not members of a secret society. That doesn't exist. And has no political influence. Or ninjas.
 * Which is a running gag in the Exalted Compendium Redux Forums, as shown here, as well as a running gag in the game itself. The section of the rulebook that doesn't present the White Veil Society also makes no assumptions about how it might be organized if it did exist, which it doesn't, and presents no Charms that describe the martial arts style that might suit their needs, if they existed. Which they don't, so don't worry about the ninjas that aren't right behind you.
 * Take a Third Option: The situation Secret has finally found herself in. Does she embrace her new existence as a Death Knight, and work towards the death of all Creation? Does she run from her responsibilities forever? Or ?
 * Talk Like a Pirate: Seatongue.

Secret: Avast! Yo ho yaharr harr yarr, matey!

Mew Cai: Aharr yarr yo ho, scurvy dog bilges.

Marena: Are you sure you're sane?"

""You can run or we'll go through the bee training again!""
 * Terrible Interviewees Montage: The webcomic starts off with one of these, as Misho and Marena try to find two more adventurers to go along with them.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: Ben and Flame. Recently upgraded to a full Quirky Miniboss Squad by the addition of several more Exalts.
 * Time Passes Montage: Parodied. What looks like a seasons changing sequence is really just Misho playing around with a weather machine.
 * Training From Hell: Ten Winds and Marena decide to "help" Secret out when they find out how abysmal her Stamina and Manipulation abilities are.

"Karen's grand daiklaive: WH-THUNK!
 * Recently, Karen has gotten in on the act. How does she let Secret know what to do?

Secret: EEYAAH!!"

"Marena: I keep forgetting some people just have green hair."
 * One bit of fanart has Ten Winds chasing Secret while ordering her to say her full name.
 * Different subject, same trope: Misho's Sorcery 101 class.
 * Marena's mother also apparently inflicted Training From Hell on her at an early age, though this training was for social, rather than physical combat.
 * Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Misho, of all people.
 * Twin Switch: Secret suggests this to help Karen get with Ten Winds. Marena and Karen promptly shoot this idea down, because it never works.
 * The Un Reveal: We never get to see Marena's underwear. Subverted, because the Fae commentary tells you what you need to know anyway.
 * Unsound Effect: anima!
 * applicable defense!
 * ninja vanish! ninja run! ninja leap! ninja climb! ninja brood!
 * Unstoppable Rage: Subverted with comic #220. An Abyssal is blackmailing Misho, hammering on every last one of his emotional stress points until he goes into Limit Break -- but as it turns out, his Limit Break is Heart of Tears...
 * The Watson: Secret occupies this role frequently; as the least experienced Exalted present, her ignorance of the mechanics of the universe provides lots of opportunities for the other characters to be Mr. Exposition, mostly Misho.
 * What the Hell Hero: Ironically it's Secret who calls Marena out on it.
 * Marena later calls Misho out when he . He doesn't seem to disagree.
 * Will They or Won't They: Misho and Marena are just friends. That's what they agreed on. Sure they are...
 * Alternatively, Marena and Secret.
 * The Worf Effect: Misho is notionally the strongest protagonist in the story, but he has yet to fight a non-trivial opponent who doesn't have him at some kind of metaphysical or tactical disadvantage.
 * Xanatos Gambit: the God of Locks pulls a pretty classic example -- the heroes killing him fulfils his plan just as much as if they'd left him to his own devices
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair: Lampshaded.


 * Your Answer to Everything: Dodge Charms.
 * You Wanna Get Sued: It's not a "Keyblade", get it?