Lightning War

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Lightning War is a play by post roleplaying game set in an alternate version of the United Kingdom in 1942, where World War II is consuming the parallel magickal world and the realms of faeries, angels and demons. Lightning War began as a Harry Potter RPG, but split from canon largely after the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Around 2008, it split away from Harry Potter altogether and characters with Potterverse names were renamed.

The game is currently[when?] being revamped to accommodate for this change, which has been slow in coming.

The game itself can be found here on InsaneJournal and its wiki can be found here.

Tropes used in Lightning War include:
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Prudence Bainbridge for Antares Dee, Camille DeVries for Llewellyn Rosier.
  • Abusive Parents: Arguably, Demelza Leffoy and Aristotle Mablin. Definitely Henry Dashwood.
  • Action Girl: Nadezhda Kiryakova, Jenica Popescu
  • Aerith and Bob: Constantly.
  • All Gays Are Promiscuous: Endymion Dashwood, though promiscuity is far from uncommon in the arcane world.
  • Alpha Bitch: Dimity Ducas, Olivia Goulston, Colette Saint-Germain, Maeve Pritchard, Patricia Rosier and Isabella Malaspina; they're very beautiful and aware of it, from well-to-do families, and enjoy harassing those they consider beneath them.
  • Exclusively Evil: Iberians who aren't Basque or Jewish, with few exceptions.
  • Anachronism Stew: Ostensibly set in 1942, yet often the setting feels more like the Theme Park Version of Victorian England.
  • Anything That Moves
  • Arranged Marriage: All over the place.
  • Asexuality: Celerity Warrington, sort of. Also Jael Moody and Nikola Tesla.
  • Author Appeal: Many characters are based off of favorite actors, characters or musicians of the players.
  • Awesome McCoolname: Thomas Endymion Fairlight Wilkes-Dashwood, Dracaena Marcella Aurelia Aranxta Morgan myr'Avallek Leffoy é Malaspina, Florian Alexiel Osiris Julian Aranxta Leffoy, Chandrasekhar Lockhart
  • Badass Bookworm: Angelo Bruno, Nadezhda Kiryakova, Nerissa Trelawney
  • The Beautiful Elite: Most of the characters are rich and beautiful, but the Leffoys fit this trope in particular.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Played half-straight. There are attractive villains, but most unattractive characters are either villainous or less important to the storyline.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Aleister Crowley, John Dee, Leó Szilárd, Nikola Tesla, and Alan Turing are all sekritly wizards.
  • Bifauxnen: Lilas Wilkes Taverner
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: All magickal families, with few exceptions.
  • Blue Blood: Approximately 90% of the cast.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Rob Mitchell
  • Bokukko: Cassilda Campion, Amalthea Flint, Fiammetta Kyteler, Kat Loveday, Ekaterina Rasputina
  • Bollywood Nerd: Viresh and Surya Ayyar and their father, Vikram.
  • Bottle Fairy: Ekaterina Rasputina and Melisande Merriweather
  • Brainy Brunette: Irma Crooms
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Nathaniel and Ianthe Pritchard. Vilém and Stepán Zitek and Alessio and Nicodemo Malaspina are examples of Brother Brother Incest.
  • Bury Your Gays: Kit Marvell
  • Butt Monkey: Paul Pettigrew, Poppaea Rosier, Lucy Dolloway, and Marcus Pendry, full stop.
  • Captain Ersatz: Tons:
    • Sebastião Aiona (Ronon Dex from Stargate Atlantis)
    • Corinne Allison (Allison Cameron from House)
    • Surya Ayyar (Suzie Costello from Torchwood)
    • Viresh Ayyar (Mohinder Suresh from Heroes)
    • Vikram Ayyar (Chandra Suresh from Heroes)
    • Prudence Bainbridge (Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter)
    • Herodotus Blackwell (Cuthbert Binns from Harry Potter)
    • Philippa Brown (Cassandra Hughes from Hex)
    • Rosalind Clutterbuck (Amber Volakis from House)
    • Josette Cooper (Roxanne Davenport from Hex)
    • Bartholomew Cross (Bartemius Crouch from Harry Potter)
    • Aracely Cruz (Vala Mal Doran from Stargate SG-1)
    • Thecla Device (Thelma Bates from Hex)
    • Lucy Dolloway (Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter)
    • Bran Evans (Ianto Jones from Torchwood)
    • Elena Ferrer (Teyla Emmagan from Stargate Atlantis)
    • Tom Forrester (Tom Riddle from Harry Potter)
    • Fujiwara Kenjiro (Hiro Nakamura from Heroes)
    • Esteban García (Isaac Mendez from Heroes)
    • Olivia Goulston (Olive Hornby from Harry Potter)
    • Halász Sharolt (River Tam from Firefly)
    • Christina Howe (Samantha Carter from Stargate SG-1)
    • David Kerensky (Silas Botwin from Weeds)
    • Raissa Kerensky (Nancy Botwin from Weeds)
    • Király Ilóna (Remy Hadley from House)
    • Yegor Kiryakov (Igor Karkaroff from Harry Potter)
    • Josefa Kreuz (Tracy Strauss from Heroes)
    • Natalia Kreuz (Jessica Moore from Supernatural)
    • Tatsuko Kurita (Toshiko Sato from Torchwood)
    • Edward Kyteler (Sir Edward Pellew from Horatio Hornblower)
    • Charles Lamercier (Eric Foreman from House)
    • Yvon Leffoy (Robert Chase from House)
    • Leah Lindsey (Poppy Pomfrey from Harry Potter)
    • David Locke (Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis)
    • Chandrasekhar Lockhart (Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter)
    • Alastor Mablin (Alastor Moody from Harry Potter)
    • Minerva MacAlister (Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter)
    • Angus MacAran (Walden Macnair from Harry Potter)
    • Alessio Malaspina (Peter Petrelli from Heroes)
    • Nicodemo Malaspina (Nathan Petrelli from Heroes)
    • Valeria Malaspina (Claire Bennet from Heroes)
    • Parsival Mathers (Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter)
    • Pyramus Mathers (Armando Dippet from Harry Potter)
    • Rob Mitchell (John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis)
    • Naszvadi Lili (Ruby from Supernatural)
    • Lalage Parkinson (Angela Petrelli from Heroes)
    • Althea and Arcadia Peverell (Kaylee Frye from Firefly and Jennifer Keller from Stargate Atlantis)
    • Joachim Piccard (Sylar from Heroes)
    • Irma Coombe (Irma Pince from Harry Potter)
    • Ileana Popescu (Ellen Harvelle from Supernatural)
    • Jenica Popescu (Jo Harvelle from Supernatural)
    • James Randall (Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood)
    • Anton Rasputin (Antonin Dolohov from Harry Potter)
    • Laurens van Rensselaer (Gregory House from House)
    • Gareth Rosier (Owen Harper from Torchwood)
    • Llewellyn Rosier (Evan Rosier from Harry Potter)
    • Ximena Saenz (Ofelia from Pans Labyrinth)
    • Ilan Sayar (Matt Parkman from Heroes)
    • Antonetta Sforza (Elle Bishop from Heroes)
    • Teresa Silveira (Inara Serra from Firefly)
    • Leo Szilard (the real Leo Szilard and Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1)
    • Edouard Thibault (Lestrange Senior from Harry Potter)
    • Gregor von Thorwald (Gellert Grindelwald from Harry Potter and Adam Monroe from Heroes)
    • Mavis Trevelyan (Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter)
    • Dylan Vieira (Mulciber from Harry Potter)
    • Bitsy Wilkes (Celia Rhodes from Weeds)
    • Emmeline Wilkes (Isabelle Rhodes from Weeds)
    • Jameson Wilkes (James Wilson from House)
    • Jeremy Wood (Leon Taylor from Hex)
    • Stepán Zitek (Sam Winchester from Supernatural)
    • Vilém Zitek (Dean Winchester from Supernatural)
  • Casanova: Most of the male cast, but especially Ercole Malaspina, Nathaniel Pritchard, and James Randall.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Lucas Bettony, Jeremy Wood
  • Chick Magnet: Joscelin van Rensselaer
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Pretty much everyone, for any reason or no reason at all.
  • Cloak and Dagger: The Septenary Bureau, full stop.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Domitian Leffoy
  • Conflict Ball: Parsival Mathers hates all members of Avalon College and the Leffoys in particular. No one knows why.
  • Corrupt Church: Word of God seems to agree with the Hitler's Pope school of thought.
  • Corrupt Hick: Jack Oldman is the British version of this.
  • Costume Porn: Not so much in the RPG itself, but a whole lot in the prequel story, World Well Lost.
  • Creepy Child: Asher Greengrass, full stop.
  • Cultured Badass: Ercole Malaspina
  • Cute Shotaro Boy: Florian Leffoy
  • Dean Bitterman: Parsival Mathers
  • Demonic Possession
  • Depraved Bisexual: Francis Baddock, Alvaro Benedetto, Michael Charteris
  • Dieselpunk
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Mario Vincenti
  • Double Standard: Christians who hate people of other religions are foul bigots; pagans, Hindus and Jews who hate Christians are good and noble.
  • Dragon Lady: Fujiwara Nadeshiko
  • The Dulcinea Effect: According to the prequel, Ercole and Dracaena knew each other for approximately 72 hours before having sex. Not long after, Ercole was professing his undying love and swearing that no one will ever separate them.
  • During the War
  • Easy Sex Change: Dracaena got one courtesy of magick.
  • Elites Are More Glamorous: Presumably why most characters in the Ministry Arcane are elites.
  • English Rose: Quite a few, for obvious reasons.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Endymion Dashwood, Hadrian Kyteler, Yvon Leffoy, Alessio Malaspina, Joachim Piccard, Dominic Prewett, Vilém Zitek
  • Eternal Sexual Freedom
  • Everyone Is Bi: With a few exceptions.
  • Evil Matriarch: Tons. The RPG is bursting with truly awful mothers, including Carmela García, Demelza Leffoy, Hephzibah Mablin, Hyacinthe Mablin, Lalage Parkinson, Poppaea Rosier, Gabrielle Thibault, and Bitsy Wilkes. Most are Type I.
  • Evil Teacher: Hypatia Scalara
  • The Fair Folk: So damn much.
  • Fake Brit: A whole, whole lot.
  • Fantastic Racism: Averted, though not surprising given many of the mods' stances on blood prejudice in the Harry Potter 'verse.
  • Fat Girl: Prudence Bainbridge and Lucy Dolloway
  • The Fatalist: Lalage Parkinson, Jehanne-Marie Stuart
  • A Father to His Men: Edward Kyteler
  • Feuding Families: The Leffoys and the Pendrys.
  • Fille Fatale: Cordelia Hawkwood
  • Foe Yay: Justine Leffoy and Erasmus Pendry, Joachim Piccard and Viresh Ayyar, Septimus Starn and Dracaena Leffoy... Rawrrr.
  • Functional Magic
  • The Fundamentalist: Morwenna Craven, Carmela García, Reverend Aristotle Mablin.
  • Genki Girl: Almira Dee, Gentian Mablin, Moruith myr'Steren
  • Girl Friday: Penelope Davies, Galina Lyubova
  • Girls Have Cooties: Bill Pendry
  • Glorified Sperm Donor: Avallek, Dracaena Leffoy's faerie father.
  • The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry:
    • Hypatia and Lavinia Scalara, with Hypatia as the smart one and Lavinia as the pretty one.
    • Dracaena Leffoy and Poppaea Rosier, with Dracaena as the pretty *and* smart one and Poppaea as the Straw Loser.
  • Hair of Gold: All members of the Leffoy family.
    • Báthory Zsuzsanna as well.
  • Handsome Devil: Joachim Piccard, Septimus Starn
  • Hammer and Sickle Removed For Your Protection: Despite being set during World War II, we don't even know who's in charge of the arcane Soviet Union.
  • Happily Married: Samuel Craven and Catalina Vieira
  • Hard Gay: Alastor Mablin
  • Hermetic Magic
  • High-Class Call Girl: Delilah Lockhart, Lavinia Scalara, and Teresa Silveira
  • The High Queen: Estrid Frealaf, Dracaena Leffoy.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: Aleister Crowley is portrayed as a jolly, ingenious joker. The fact that he was also a drug addict, a chauvinist, an anti-Semite and a racist is completely glossed over.
  • Horny Devils
  • Husky Russkie: Every single Russian male, but especially Anton Rasputin. Most of them are also Straw Misogynists
  • Idiot Ball: Marcus Pendry, when he decides to attack the much-more powerful Ercole Malaspina.
  • If It's You It's Okay: Yvon Leffoy for Alessio Malaspina
  • Ill Girl: Dylan Vieira, despite being male
  • Impoverished Patrician: The Garniers, the Thibaults, the Macfarlanes
  • Informed Loner: For a loner, Tom Forrester sure has a lot of close friends.
  • Insufferable Genius: Endymion Dashwood, Dylan Vieira
  • Istanbul (Not Constantinople): London is Londinium, Paris is Lutetia, et al.
  • Jerkass: Laurens van Rensselaer, Gareth Rosier, Jeremy Wood
  • Jerk Jock: Jeremy Wood, Francis Baddock
  • Jungle Fever: Marco Malaspina and Melina Ducas, Horace Rookwood and Colette Saint-Germain
  • Kavorka Man: Edouard Thibault
  • Keet: Ryan Pettigrew
  • Kissing Cousins: Domitian Leffoy and Claudia Delgardie, Dracaena and Alphonse Leffoy (according to Word of God), Demelza Leffoy and Gregor von Thorwald
  • Lady of War: Báthory Zsuzsanna, Dion Fortune, Dracaena Leffoy
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
  • Lzherusskie: Scottish Hans Matheson as Anton Rasputin, Italian Asia Argento as Ekaterina Rasputina, American Skeet Ulrich as Yegor Kiryakov, and American Sarah Michelle Gellar as Nadezhda Kiryakova.
  • Mad Scientist: Marek Cervenka, Leó Szilárd, Nikola Tesla, Alan Turing.
  • Magical Negro: Eudokia Tzitzinia
  • Mary Suetopia: It seems like everyone in the Arcane world is rich, beautiful, bisexual, and often poly.
  • The Mentally Disturbed: Alec DeVries, Gemina Dee, and Asher Greengrass are either joke fodder or evil.
  • The Missus and the Ex
  • Mistress and Servant Boy: Arguably, Dracaena and her boyfriends: Will Goyle, Ercole Malaspina and Nicodemo Malaspina.
  • The Mole: Francis Baddock, Julian Baddock, Zenobia Craven, Hubert Crockford, John and Ellen Crockford, Apollyon Gibbs, Septimus Starn
  • Monster Misogyny: The incubus attacks on the Royal Academy claimed the lives of three girls.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Hephzibah Abbott murdered her husband's lover, Demelza Leffoy.
  • My Girl Is a Slut: Ianthe Pritchard and Olivia Goulston share these kind of relationships with their lovers/fiancee.
  • Nazi Nobleman: Gregor von Thorwald himself.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Tom Forrester
  • No Accounting for Taste: Hyacinthe DeVries and Aristotle Mablin
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed:
    • Eliot Gardiner and Philip Redferne are very obviously based on Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.
    • Violette Lausson is based on Ashlee Simpson-Wentz.
    • Laurent Vigoreux is based on Pete Wentz.
    • Jehanne-Marie Stuart is an unflattering caricature of J. K. Rowling.
  • Not Quite Dead: Dracaena
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Former Minister Arcane, Ichabod Bainbridge
  • The Ophelia: Rosamund Peverell-DeVries and Giselle Garnier
  • Orcus on His Throne: Gregor von Thorwald, so much.
  • Parent with New Paramour
  • Plucky Girl: Emmeline Wilkes
  • Politically-Correct History: Mostly averted.
  • Polyamory
  • Proper Lady: Definitely Paulina Gardiner and Catalina Vieira. Possibly Priscilla Chattox-Kyteler as well.
  • Posthumous Character: Anisha Ayyar, Báthory István, Hermes Blackwell, Vindemiatrix Dee, most of the Frealaf family, Carmela García, Demelza Leffoy, Hywel Leffoy, Justine Leffoy
  • Princess Classic: Dracaena skirts the edge of this trope, though recently she's become more The High Queen.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Gabrielle Thibault and Hyacinthe De Vries-Mablin
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Asher Greengrass, Gemina Dee
  • Purple Prose: Especially in the prequel, but occasionally in the RPG itself.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman: Bartholomew Cross, Oswald Wilkes
  • Rape as Drama: It is heavily implied that Dracaena was raped while being held captive by von Thorwald
  • Really Gets Around: Olivia Goulston, Gillian Greenwood, Zipporah Kaplan, Artemisia Marvell, Ianthe Pritchard, Edouard Thibault...
  • Religion Is Magic
  • La Résistance
  • Retcon: Constantly.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: The Republicans in the Spanish Civil War are portrayed as models of goodness and light. The reality is a bit less rosy.
  • Rich Bitch: Maria Dashwood, Naszvadi Lili, Portia Parkinson, and Lavinia Scalara
  • Rule of Cool: Presumably why the Arcane parts of cities are referred to by their Latin names.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: A female character is named Surya, after a male Sun god.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians: Thecla Device, Nadezhda Kiryakova and Jenica Popescu, Charis Leffoy and Ghislaine Garnier, Minerva MacAlister, Aeliana Malaspina
  • Shrinking Violet: Alma Greengrass, Aeliana Malaspina
  • Shout-Out: To Dune, by way of the Atreides family and Good Omens, by way of Thecla and Jerome Device.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: In the prequel, Dracaena Leffoy and Ercole Malaspina.
  • Smug Snake: Gloriana Dee, Domitian Leffoy, Lalage Parkinson, Septimus Starn... Most of the villains, actually.
  • So Beautiful It's a Curse: Dracaena Leffoy, whose beauty as a male was so great, it enraged heterosexual men who mistook her for a woman.
  • Son of a Whore: Niccolò Ficcino, Fiammetta Kyteler, Chandrasekhar Lockhart.
  • Spoiled Brat: Melissa Vieira
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Viresh Ayyar, Lucian Casaubon, Endymion Dashwood, Rohan Chakravarty, Laurie Fogginton
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky: Endymion Dashwood, Tom Forrester
  • There Are No Therapists
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Of course.
  • Too Dumb to Live: St John Saunders, Marcus Pendry
  • Transsexualism: Mercuria Casaubon, Dracaena Leffoy, Alexander Mackenzie, possibly Lilias Taverner
  • Tsundere: Merope Dee is Type II; Séverine Dee de Leffoy, Ekaterina Rasputina, Diotima Starn, and Rachel Zeller are Type I.
  • Unnamed Parent
  • Upper Class Twit: Andrew Gresham
  • Vampires Are Sex Gods: Gabriel de Valois
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Alberich von Thorwald
  • Where Da White Women At?: Liane Leffoy and Reynard Saint-Germain dated previously.
  • Woman Scorned: Carmela García, Poppaea Rosier
  • Yandere: Keresek p'Steren, by way of Alternative Character Interpretation; definitely Hephzibah Mablin.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: The players of the game. There are, by far, more gay male couples than there are lesbians.
  • Yaoi Guys: Peter Rasputin and Alberich von Thorwald, Endymion Dashwood and Hadrian Kyteler, Alastor Mablin and Dylan Vieira, Llewellyn Rosier and Bobby Macmillan, Laurence Fogginton and Francis Baddock, Lucian Casaubon and Kit Marvell, Viresh Ayyar and Joachim Piccard, Yvon Leffoy and Alessio Malaspina
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