Earthsong
A young woman (later) named Willow awakens to find herself on a mystical world with no memories of her former life. She soon discovers that not only are the residents of this world fantastical creatures of ancient lore, but the planet itself is alive and conscious... and in grave danger! Caught in the middle of a terrible struggle, Willow must come to terms with a harsh reality not of her own choosing.
The art style is somewhat manga-inspired.
Tropes used in Earthsong include:
- All Myths Are True: Actually attempts to justify the existence of all myths in the first place. After a resident of Earthsong is sent back home, they receive an imperfect mindwipe of all the time they spent there. It works well enough, but they tend to still see flashes of memories, maybe not often or vivid enough to think that they actually saw these creatures, but enough that they can translate the images and basic traits into stories, passed down through the ages.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: Strictly, the other way around. We never see aliens from non-Earthlike planets because planets have to make themselves Earthlike should they wish to support life.
- This is a rare case of science getting a say in fiction--most astronomers think that planets would have to be Earthlike to support life at all, and therefore sci-fi movies such as Star Wars are inaccurate from the get-go.
- All Your Powers Combined: Nanashi.
- Amazon Brigade: Haven's Guard, with the exception of Zaebos.
- Animesque
- Art Evolution
- Axe Crazy: Skogul certainly comes off this way.
- Badass Bookworm: Zaebos.
- Badass Normal: Not any more, but Nanashi started out as this, hitting a god in the head with a stick.
- Berserk Button / Beware the Nice Ones: Earthsong. Do NOT threaten her eve.
- Blow You Away: Skogul.
- Body to Jewel: Soulstones are crystalized parts of sentient planets.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Zaebos, about K'Thonya
- Cute Bruiser: Alyss.
- Cute Little Fangs: K'Thonya, Felucca, Neuria, Tristram... the list goes on.
- Elemental Powers: Zaebos, Skogul, Tengu, K'Thonya and Tristram.
- Exploring the Evil Lair: Subverted.
- First Kiss: K'thonya's remnant.
- Fish Out of Water: Everyone who arrives on Earthsong in general, Willow, as the point-of-view character, in particular.
- Five-Man Band
- The Hero: Nanashi.
- The Lancer: Gwendolyn
- The Smart Guy: Zaebos.
- The Big Guy: Tengu/Felucca.
- Team Mom: K'thonya.
- The Chick/Sixth Ranger: Willow.
- Team Pet: Felucca.
- The Mentor: Earthsong.
- Genius Loci: Earthsong. All planets, in actual fact. And stars.
- Genki Girl: Felucca.
- Handsome Lech: Jormand.
- Healing Hands: Tristram.
- Hermaphrodite: Tengu, along with the rest of her species.
- Fundamentally Female Cast: Zaebos is the only male member of Haven's Guard.
- Invisibility: Nanashi.
- Intangible Man: Ulkurz.
- Jerkass: Most of the Mandragoras, so far. Morgan and Ulkurz stand out in particular.
- Nanashi is a heroic version. She dutifully serves Earthsong, but basically treats people and their feelings with contempt and doesn't care about 'a little girl's feelings' when Willow finds out they were lying to her. Gwendolyn as well for calling Willow 'as dangerous as a ball of fluff and half as useful'.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: All newcomers to Earthsong.
- Life Energy
- Longing Look: Jormand seems to have a thing for Neuria.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Haven's Guard are absolutely stumped as to what species Willow is and what her powers are. Their solution to this is to 'assign' Felucca to Willow to keep her distracted, and then secretly hold meetings behind her back to figure out what she is, if she's a threat, and if she has any use to them, rather than help Willow figure out who she is. Understandably, Willow doesn't take it well when she finds out.
- Meaningful Name: Virtually everyone has a meaningful name, based on the namer's (Nanashi, a japanese meaningful name in itself) assessment of their character or species.
- Mind Over Matter: Nanashi.
- Mineral MacGuffin: Soulstones
- Motor Mouth: Felucca.
- New First Comics: The Redux
- Noodle Incident: "If such is not the case, I will have no qualms about informing Nanashi just WHO was responsible for the 'noodle incident.'" See here.
- Older Than They Look: People don't age on Earthsong, so nearly everyone fits here. The most obvious example is Alyss, who looks about ten.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Each race is based on some mythical creature, so the list is huge, including dragons, elves, faeries, demons, gorgons, harpies, goblins, giants, all the way up to hindu gods. (Case in point: Alyss is a prepubescent giant...meaning that she's stuck at less than half her ten-foot adult height.)
- Our Vampires Are Different: Tristram's species.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Neuria's species.
- Perpetual Frowner: Gwen.
- Personality Powers: In spades.
- Playing with Fire: Zaebos.
- Prehensile Hair: K'Thonya.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Felucca.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Poor, poor Richard. The character, killed off (well, sent home, but near enough) within the first 25 pages, was designed after a co-worker of the creator, who wanted to feature in the comic.
- Series Hiatus: At least two.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: where does the rest of Felucca come from when she goes all dragony?
- Shock and Awe: Tengu.
- Shout-Out: Felucca is based off the characters of Gargoyles.
- Super Mode: Felucca's power.
- Super Senses: Gwen's power (specifically, sight).
- Super Speed: Neuria.
- Team Shot: We get two.
- Telepathy: The long-speculated-on human soulstone power.
- The One Guy: Zaebos.
- This Is Sparta: "Let. Her. GO!"
- Time Travel: So, people are zapped away from their own planets to Earthsong in the present, then they are given the opportunity to stay on Earthsong for hundreds of years without aging, then when/if they decide to go home they get sent back in time to the instant they left, presumably because the Planet/God would get lonely if everyone ran home as soon as possible because their loved ones (who they can't actually remember, they just have to assume that they have some) think that they've vanished off the face of the earth (which would be true in this case, but still...)
- Translator Microbes: Being on Earthsong allows her to psychically translate all speech into a common language. However, writing remains in the writer's original language, but the Translator Microbes allow it to be read by all as long as someone's there who understands it.
- Tuckerization: See Sacrificial Lamb.
- Voice of the Legion: The Sidera.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Felucca.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Willow has a moment of righteous calling-out on Haven's Guard for holding secret meetings behind her back where they callously assumed she was either a spy, a possible threat (or was too pathetic to be a threat) or maybe a useful tool for them to use.
