Earth Eternal

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The Age of Man is over. The Age of Beast has begun.

"Earth Eternal, the exciting new MMO that is Completely Free to Play! Join thousands of other players as you explore the dangerous and exciting world of Earth Eternal!"

Earth Eternal was a free-to-play MMORPG published by Sparkplay Media, with both a browser-based and standalone client. Released in October, 2009.

Earth Eternal takes place on an Earth long After the End, wherein humanity screwed up so royally that they destroyed themselves, ending the Age of Man, and the Beasts, anthropomorphic bipeds and Earth's former inhabitants, came back from the Groves to reclaim the world that Man had driven them from in the first place. Here and there are the remains of humanity, such as the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, but for the most part Man and their creations are long gone.

The game blends aspects of various mythologies along with real history, including places such as Camelot (with an antlered Arthur Pendragon at the helm), as well as other characters such as Robin Hood for players to interact with, perform quests for, and possibly beat to a pulp.

Sparkplay put the game up for auction in early August 2010 due to financial trouble. Nearly a year latter, the game was back using elements of its Japanese localization. After that, the game has been translated into English. Unfortunately, three months after the re-release, the developers have announced that the game was now on hold. On November 24, 2011, the servers went offline.

Tropes used in Earth Eternal include:
  • After the End: Mankind is long gone and is spoken of in legends, if at all.
  • Alien Sky: The wreckage of the moon.
  • Always Accurate Attack: With a new beta patch in the past version, there's no more missing. All your attacks will always land. But now there's a 'light hit' attack that replaces the miss, doing around 10% of intended damage.
    • Can be considered averted, since enemies (as well as you) can still dodge attacks, somewhat replacing the miss.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: Compare the old models with the new ones. Then go on the forums and see how many are upset over the change.
  • An Adventurer Is You: As with most MMORPGs, you're controlling an adventurer who goes to stationary NPCs to get quests.
    • More like a mercenary fighting in the middle of a war, but the point still applies.
  • Armor Is Useless: Not the equipment, but the Armor rating. Having 1500 Armor is no different then having 500, so tanks usually invest in Constitution, which increases HP by 11 every point of constitution.
  • Backstory: If you consider 145 pages of lore backstory...
  • Berserk Button: The Goliaths are a permanent case of this.
  • BFS: 2-Handed swords. From the butt of the hilt to the tip of the blade, they can reach up to your character's neck.
  • Bloodless Carnage
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: Players needn't pay anything to play, but the Credit Shop allows for all sorts of advantages for those who pay in.
    • There is a Credit Exchange, where players can buy Credits from each other for large amounts of gold.
  • Carnivore Confusion: The majority of the races are anthropomorphic animals, some herbivore-based and some carnivore-based, but the issue of who or what they eat is glossed over.
    • It gets even more confusing when you recieve items such as rabbit fur gloves.
  • Catfolk: The Feline race.

In-game Description: An ancient race that was nearly extinguished by the Anubians, the modern-day Felines are perhaps the most militant of all Beasts about the preservation of their race and of their new homeland in Bremen.

  • Character Customization: Pick your race and class at character creation. Give him/her one or two names. Make the name generic or very exotic. Now, pick any skills, some skills exclusive with your class, and select your close-range weapon. Anyone can wield a ranged weapon. Now, equip the armor that boosts the stats you want (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Psyche, Spirit). And then you have armor refashioning. The possibilities are endless!
  • Character Level: In the Sarkplay Media era, there was a soft level cap. Meaning, there was an infinite level, but you'd reach the point that every single mob would award only 1 EXP. Level 54 is that point.
  • Charged Attack: The collection type. Some skills will produce 'charges'. And then there are other skills that use up these charges, either with/without additional Might/Will. The more charges you have when you execute the skills, the more powerful the attack.
  • Cherry Tapping: When you're fighting an enemy at close range and have a bow equipped, you'll start punching the enemy, instead of shooting arrows. While fist-fighting, you won't be able to use weapon skills until you switch to that weapon.
  • Choice of Two Weapons: A melee and ranged weapon.
  • Combat Medic: Knights, with the highest attack stat, can become this if players invest their skill points in healing abilities.
    • In fact, anyone can become a Combat Medic if they choose. The skills are right there for anyone to use.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: NPC enemies will charge when attacked (they may or may not buff beforehand) and will scale even the steepest cliffs to get at you, attack you from inaccessible areas, and they instantly heal back to 100% if you break combat. Guess what you can't do.
  • Critical Hit: This game takes it up a notch. There's your regular Critical Hit that does 2x the normal damage. And then there's the Super Critical, which does 4x the normal amount of damage.
    • Combined with a mage that utilizes explosive spells...
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: You have three options to choose from if you die:
    • Revive: All heroism gone, and main stats temporarily cut in half (more of a Continuing Is Painful deal).
    • Resurrect: 50% of your heroism is gone, and you lose a bit of money (heroism affects rare drop rate, health, and critical hit ratio).
    • Rebirth: 10% heroism is gone, but you lose lots of money (not too much, though).
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The four elements are Fire, Frost, Death, and Mystic. Fire and Frost generally oppose each other, as do Death and Mystic.
  • Everything Is Trying to Kill You: After the first three islands, you will never find a passive mob.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: Knight, Mage, Rogue. Druid squeezes in tightly with Mage, but also has some archer skills.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Or Donk the Goliath, among others.
  • Follow the Leader: Consider it free World of Warcraft.
  • Furry Confusion: Mostly avoided, as most of the animals seen are peculiar hybrids, like the duck/lizard Quackatrice and chicken/pig Guineafowl, but there's the wolflike Fangren alongside ordinary wolves. And a Bounder with a pet rabbit.
  • Furry Fandom: There's a lot of debate whether Earth Eternal is considered a "furry" game. Some fans say it is, and some say it's not. The fans that are against it say that the furry label is what brought the game's demise in 2010, not attracting enough customers. Even the game developers say they don't want the game to attract only furries.
    • Then again, 16 of the original 22 races (73%) represent present-day animals.
  • Global Currency: Just like World of Warcraft, it's your generic Gold-Silver-Copper exchange. 100 Copper = 1 Silver, and 100 Silver = 1 Gold.
  • Healing Factor
  • Heal Thyself
  • Homing Boulders: Particularly noticeable with throwing knives, which fire at a slow, high arc towards their target and will turn in midair to hit, even if the attack technically misses.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters
  • Hurricane of Puns: Not a terminal case, but you get little gems such as the "Madcow Mootilator".
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Of course, you can buy more bags to increase total inventory space, but those extra bags are nowhere in sight besides your inventory screen!
  • Invisibility: The Rogue skill Walk In Shadow, with a shadow meter and everything. Mages can also get a similar one literally called Invisibility at level 30.
  • Item Crafting: With the help of an artisan.
  • Killer Rabbit: There's a quest available to get a foot from three Savage Thumpers. Three guesses what they look like.
  • Level Grinding: Most players say that the 'marathon' occurs after level 20 (out of 50).
  • Lizard Folk: The Lisian race.

In-game Description: Mysterious and reclusive, the Lisians were driven from their home in the Atlas mountains of North Africa when the Anubians conquered that region. They now fight with the Atavians and Taurians of Cadazor to repel the Anubians from Europe.

    • Based on their looks and habitat, they most likely represent a type of horned lizard.
  • Loads and Loads of Races: The game's not even out of beta, and it has 22 races for players to choose from. And that's not even the end of it; the developers are planning to add more!
    • Anura, Atavian, Bandicoon, Bounder, Broccan, Caprican, Clockwork, Cyclops, Daemon, Fangren, Feline, Foxen, Grumkin, Hart, Lisian, Longtail, Noctari, Sylvan, Taurian, Tusken, Ursine, Yeti.
    • But with the re-release, the number of playable races has been cut down to 12. The devs are planning to re-add the missing races later.
  • Magic Knight: With the ability to cross-class (as in taking skills from other classes), combinations are endless. Want a Knight with frost spells? Go ahead! Oh, you want fire spells instead? Go for it!
    • A Rogue that can heal? A Mage that doubles as a physical fighter? There's no end to this!
  • Mana Meter: This system is a bit weird. Instead of one bar, you get two separate pools: Might and Will. Might is used for physical skills, while Will is used for magical spells.
  • The Medic: Anyone can become this, since healing is available for everyone. But the most prominent medic will be a Druid, since they have the highest Spirit stat, which affects healing rate.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Head of a chicken + body of a guinea pig = Guineafowl. Head and body of a duck + tail and feet of a lizard = Quackatrice. And those are just a couple in the beginner area...
  • Our Orcs Are Different: Grumkin fit the visual and thematic position of orcs, but they're on the good guy side.

In-game Description: The ancestors of the Grumkin fled their kin in the People of the Skull when those around them began the worship of Baal, the Demon Prince. They have since been welcomed into the nations of Beasts, though not without reservation.

  • Palette Swap: Many creatures are simply recolored versions of the same shape. For example, the Flamemoths in the tutorial and the Dreamflies outside the Lighthouse quest are merely recolored versions of the same butterfly shape.
  • Petting Zoo People: (Most of) The Beasts.
    • The Anubian can also count, but they're a bit more human-like.
  • Pig Man: The Tusken can be seen as fuzzy boars.

In-game Description: Strong, silent, and utterly implacable in the face of a threat, the Tusken are descended from a culture of martial excellence. Since the Blood Kingdom destroyed their homeland, they have fought against it tusk and nail.

  • Point Build System: Skill Points for abilites. You receive 2 whenever you level up. Most skills cost 2 skill points to learn, and others cost 4 or 6. Upgrading a skill costs 2. Why they decided to go with multiples of two (since there really isn't an odd number requirement for purchasing skills) is beyond us. When the Credit Shop was open, players could also buy additional skill points with real money, the price increasing with every purchase. The 'premium' skill points were permanent and will never leave that character, even if using a Skill Point Reset.
  • Rainbow Pimp Gear: If a player doesn't take advantage of the armor refashioners, this can happen.
  • Repeatable Quest: Bounty Boards offer these. All of them consist of killing X amount of monsters. Turning in the quest hands over a small amount of experience and a small monetary prize.
    • But the thing that sets it apart from other MMOs is that you also receive a token when completing a Bounty Board for certain towns. Getting four of these tokens allowed one to trade in said tokens for specific armor and weapons with slightly higher stat boosts than store-bought equipment.
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots: The Clockwork.

In-game Description:Originally created as the playthings of the human scientist Archimedes, the Clockwork served the other Beast races so well after mankind destroyed himself that the Goddess Gaia blessed them with true life. They make for implacable foes and loyal friends.

  • Sickening Crunch: A pretty good fall will provide a crunchy sound, followed by at least half of your HP gone.
  • The Six Stats:
    • Strength: Prominent for Knights. Increases melee and ranged damage, damage blocked by shield, and slightly increases parry chance.
    • Dexterity: Prominent for Rogues. Increases parry rate, dodge rate, and slightly increases melee damage.
    • Constitution: Prominent for all. Increases HP by 11 every point, as well as regen rate.
    • Psyche: Prominent for Mages. Increases Frost/Fire spell damage. Also increases speed of Will recovery.
    • Spirit: Prominent for Druids. Increases Mystic/Death spell damage and increases healing rate. Also increases speed of Will recovery.
    • Armor: Prominent for all. Increases defense. Multipliers are also included: Knight x4, Druid x3, Rogue x2, Mage x1.
      • Luck: All characters have this, but mostly used by Rogues. Increases critical hit ratio, HP, and rare drop chance.
  • Shout-Out: Let's see. We have NPCs with the names:
  • Skill Point Reset: Earth Eternal will allow you to reset all your skill points at the cost of a small fee of in-game money. Price changes depending on amount of skill points held at the moment. More skill points = higher cost.
  • Sticks to the Back: 2-h weapons, shield, staff, you name it.
    • 1-h weapons and daggers stick to the side, but the point still applies.
  • Spin Attack: The Knight skill Blender. The more charges held, the more powerful the attack.
  • X Meets Y: World of Warcraft meets anthropomorphic animals.
    • Wait a second, WoW already HAS anthropomorphic animals... two are even playable races with a third on the way!