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'''''Asheron's Call''''' is a [[Cult Classic]] fantasy [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] by the small but respected development house Turbine, who is also responsible for ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' and ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online]]''.
It revolves on an island in an alternate universe called Auberean, [[After the End|after the world is destroyed]]. The titular Asheron, while researching dimensional portal magic, accidentally let loose the Olthoi, a race of [[Hive Mind|insect]] monsters that very, very quickly took over his world. The entire game of ''Asheron's Call'' takes place on a small island called by the original people, Ireth Lassel, and is the site where Asheron's research took place. Before the start of the game, the portal experiment, which had ran wild after opening the portal to the Olthoi homeworld, opened random portals to a world with 3 (later 4) human races, Ispar. The Isparians come through and are quickly enslaved or killed by the Olthoi, but a later rebellion allows them to overthrow the Olthoi and, in killing the Olthoi Hive Queen, free the land, which they rename Dereth, for colonization.
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It spawned the first MMORPG sequel in history, ''Asheron's Call 2'', which after [[Screwed by the Network|years of mis-management by Microsoft]], was also one of the first major name MMORPGs to end.
The original game is sometimes considered a [[Franchise Zombie]] -- while monthly content updates continue, the active ''Asheron's Call'' player base has been shrinking for years. Many theories abound to why this is -- most people agree that at least one of the 100+ monthly updates fall under [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]] -- but the answer may be more marketing than anything else. Whereas ''[[
Regardless, ''Asheron's Call'' remains one of the most unique MMORPG experiences in the genre. There are rumors that they are planning on porting the game to consoles and/or launching "AC 1.5", a re-envisioned version of the original game with updated graphics in the upcoming year(s).
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absurdly High Level Cap]]: The original MMORPG example -- experience capped out at 4 ''billion'', or around level 126, with requirements going up logarithmically. Players could continue to gain experience to max out every skill, with a similar cap of 4 billion, without actually increasing in level. A later update changed this, creating 275 levels in the game. Add in alternate forms of advancement such as Augmentations and Luminance, and it quickly moves [[Beyond the Impossible]].
* [[Acronym Confusion]]: In this game, [[UST]] is a [[Punny Name|punny acronym]] for Universal Salvaging Tool, and also means "That which reduces" in Empyrean. It was introduced in-game like this:
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* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Elysa Strathelair, future queen of Dereth, was a scribe's daughter. She managed to translate Empyrean, eventually leading to finding Asheron's retreat. She later dealt the killing blow to the Derethian Olthoi Queen.
* [[Big Fancy Castle]]: In-game player housing includes these. Usually it takes a guild to pay the rent, though.
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: Olthoi, and later Grievvers.
* [[Blob Monster]]: [[Sdrawkcab Name|Knathteads]].
* [[Blood Magic]]: Falatacot magic relied mostly in human sacrifice.
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* [[The Caligula]]: One of the later villains turns out to be the rich son of the former king, who intentionally screwed up Asheron's portal experiments in an attempt to get him killed. [[Complete Monster|This resulted in the deaths of 95% of the population, the only ones surviving being the ones Asheron managed to trap in stasis between dimensions.]] He's not amused that Asheron managed to survive and that the majority of "his" subjects are trapped in stasis.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: By [[Word of God]], some or all of lore and future history told in ''Asheron's Call'' 2 might not be canon anymore.
* [[Cast
* [[Character Level]]: Interestingly, it's almost entirely cosmetic, due to the [[Point Buy System]]. Level only affects the ability to enter certain areas, use certain items, and turn in certain quests.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Ulgrim the Unpleasant. Notorious drunken sage, self-proclaimed best mage of Dereth and maybe every bit as good as he says. At one time he managed to split himself into ten different selves by miscasting with an splintered wand.
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* [[Enemy Civil War]]: The Virindi, of all people, had one.
* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: Tuskers. Big, stupid... save for Oolutanga.
* [[Everything
* [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods]]: [[Flying Seafood Special|Levitating]], spell-casting Nautiloids, to be precise. They're called Nifflis.
* [[Evil Is Deathly Cold]]: Undeads love cold. It is good for their rotting bodies.
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** There's even [[The Gingerbread Man|a ''Gingerbread golem''!]]
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Many major antagonist factions have eventually aligned with the Isparian kingdom wholly or in part. Turns of note included Martine's, which allowed the defeat of the megalomaniac Empyrean mage Gaerlan, and Isin Dule's, which prevented Bael'Zharon's victory during the Fourth Sending of Darkness.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: The Empyrean Mage Council that defeated the Third Sending of Darkness.
** Also Camdeth Martine.
* [[Hit Points]]
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* [[Our Monsters Are Different]]: And how! There are ''no'' typical monsters in Dereth. 3 eyed ogres, giant cat... bunny... things... hordes of rabid guinea pigs... Giant monkeys with 1' long feet and 12' long arms... 2' tall flightless dragons... three-legged land sharks... The only thing that is remotely normal is the Undead.
** Averted with a very small number of individual monsters. The elementals are fantasy stock (except the ones that mix 2 elements together). Most of the mice, chickens, cows and rabbits could pass for normal in real life.
* [[Perpetually Static]]: While the developers often come with plausible explanations for this, N.P.C.s have moved, died and even whole cities have dissappeared. Then there was the incident during the first year's arc (the Fourth Sending of Darkness) where the players were charged with defending the last [[Crystal Prison]] keeping the [[Big Bad]] in check. On the other hand, great rewards were offered to those who destroyed the crystal and set him free (players were required to go PVP to participate). In most servers a half-hearted defense was mounted and the crystal was quickly destroyed, but in one, Thistledown, they were able to mount a round-the-clock vigilant defense. Unfortunately the developers had expected the crystal to be destroyed for plot purposes, and thus were forced to intervene (in game, with overpowered [[GMPC]] characters) to keep all of the servers on the same page. Read the whole story [https://web.archive.org/web/20150131154641/http://www.ethblue.com/acpaper/page2.htm here] and [http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-elaborate-dick-moves-in-online-gaming-history_p2/ here].
* [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]: Candeth Martine was altered by the Virindi. They regretted it.
* [[Point Buy System]]: The first major MMORPG to use this style of system. There are no classes, merely you are given a set number of skill points to take your skills from untrained to trained to specialized, and then must allocate experience points directly to them.
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* [[Respawning Enemies]]: Areas have "encounter points" which will spawn a suitably large number of a monster that is appropriate to that area, on that spot. These typically turn active as you walk towards them.
* [[Scary Scarecrows]]: Hollow Minions, Virindi watchdogs and bodyguards.
* [[Screwed by the Network]]: Multiple times. Initially, they couldn't find a publisher as Sony was pulling in favors to ensure that [[
** Asheron's Call had a (not undeserved) reputation for being full of botters, people using 3rd party programs to play the game. When asked why, it turned out that Turbine had wanted to ban botting for years and had fixes ready to go, but Microsoft vetoed them every single time, due to some of the botters running 10-15 accounts ''at the same time.''
** ''Asheron's Call 2'' had the in game discussion system break down. Turbine had a fix within hours... but Microsoft refused to allow them to push it for months. The fact that Microsoft was starting to push ''[[wikipedia:Mythica|Mythica]]'', what amounted to Asheron's Call 2's replacement, at the same time, did not go unnoticed by anyone. Turbine was eventually allowed to fix the chat system, ''almost a full year later'', but the damage was done and AC2 closed shortly afterwards.
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* [[Sentient Phlebotinum]]: The Shadows are powered by this. And it hates ''everything''.
* [[Shonen Upgrade]]: Augmentation gems and Luminance.
* [[Shout-Out]]: The [[Monty Python and
** Some players claim to have seen a strange [[Doctor Who|British Police Box]] in the wilds, but Turbine insists it's an [[Urban Legend of Zelda]].
** Ulgrim the Unpleasant tells you, "Some monsters get stronger, some monsters get weaker. [[Big Trouble in Little China|Just remember what ol' Ulgrim says when the health is down, fire is raining from the sky and monsters are clawing at his throat."]]
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[[Category:Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game]]
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[[Category:Cancelled Online Games]]
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