New Vindicators

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

New Vindicators is a popular Mutants & Masterminds campaign chronicled and edited by Michuru81 on Atomic Think Tank, the official forums for Mutants & Masterminds. New Vindicators is the central campaign of the Oubliette setting, a distinctive setting for Mutants & Masterminds campaigns.

The central narrative of New Vindicators began as a story chronicling the sessions of a tabletop roleplaying group, though it has grown into a large narrative spanning several long plot arcs. At present, the series is on hiatus from stories from actual roleplaying sessions in order to flesh out and deepen the setting world and some of its characters. It is soon to resume being based on the sessions.

The narrative may be found here.

A new game, set in the New Vindicators Academy of Europe which started in early 2010 can be found here

Alternate Universe settings have also appeared. Infinite and Ultimate flavors respectively.

Tropes used in New Vindicators include:
  • Action Girl: Crusader, Rumble & Tripper
  • Affably Evil: Abaddon, most of the time.
  • All Just a Dream: A Nephilim, Blanche Gareth, has the power to control dreams and has thus far put Lodestone and Deimos through nightmarish adventures.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The Vindicators are in fact essentially Uncle Toms who by colluding with the government merely continue the cycle of racism in the world. Adonis is the story's true hero, fighting against this, albeit in ill-conceived ways.
    • The creator of David Meinstein, ergo his player, intended for him to be a self-loathing Neo-Sapiens hater. This, for some strange reason, does not pan out in the narrative.
  • Alternate Universe: Hikari reiterates what the pilot episode of Sliders tells us and Suicide King actually goes off to explore (and maybe look for Professor Arturo?) the multiverse.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: The Rhino seems to be popular with anyone born in Europe.
    • The Author, very much an American, likes the character too. Moving Mr. Tharivol into the region of Creator's Pet.
  • An Ice Person: Frostbite
  • Anvilicious: Several examples:
    • Within the setting, giving children religious instruction is tantamount to spreading a debilitating mental disease.
    • As if the depiction of personal faith weren't enough, all religious organizations are either horribly evil or corrupt.
    • Female characters are treated very badly. It makes one think that Michuru81 has not had good experiences in his personal life.
  • Anyone Can Die: Played straight in a few rare cases but almost always subverted: A number of NPCs have been killed for no reason beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time, though the author's pet NPCs all have Contractual Immortality.
  • Arc Words: The number 137 appears all over the narrative in the oddest places. Does not pay off until later in the story.
  • The Atoner: Adonis eventually.
  • Author Appeal: The author has said Atlanta White (AKA Rumble) appeals to him.
    • According to Word of God and pretty much anyone who reads the story, he's the only one who she does appeal to.
      • He's said that's just blondes in general though: Crusader, Chienne, Boson... if you happen to be a blonde girl, you're the author's pet.
  • Badass: Deimos (how has he not died from any of the insanely violent fights he's been in?), Michuru when he fights Apocatastasis, the Damned when he banishes Deimos to the Astral Plane JUST BEFORE he topples from wounds the Nephilim inflicted on him, Bulwark on a regular basis, Coldfire
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Or rather Isaac Newton is an immortal who makes robots. And offers breadsticks to people.
    • Also Sanada Yukimura and his Ten Braves are immortal and well in the New Vindicators universe, but don't really do too much.
    • Aren't there more than Newton? It's insinuated in Illuminati that there are others like him.
      • Aesir's, those who have eaten the Golden Apples, are all over the place. Siegfried is currently working on reducing their population at the moment with the help of Longinus. Why he is doing that is frankly, a mystery.
  • Berserk Button: Just remind Deimos of how weak he is and his general uselessness. See what happens.
  • Big Bad Friend: Adonis Skraag
  • Big Damn Heroes: Too many to list...
    • Backlash and Kiln arrive in the nick of time to help fight the Wisent.
    • The original class shows up to save the new kids on the block from Terahertz, only to have the Asian New Vindicators show up a few chapters later to save them all from the giant robots.
    • Lilith bails the heroes out after Deimos fails to be useful
    • Backlash and Kiln return yet again to save the heroes from some Nephilim.
    • Michuru shows up to fight Apocatastasis after he Took a Level in Badass.
  • Big Damn Villains: Apocatastasis punks out his father, Abaddon when the two finally meet for the first time in six thousand years.
  • Blessed with Suck: Pretty much any Neo-Sapien but primarily the Nephilim.
  • Blood Knight: Deimos
  • Brought Down to Normal: Deimos willingly injects himself with Knitter, losing his abilities for a time before the drug wears off. David Meinstein loses his Iron Man armor but he gets the Speed Force soon after.
    • Meinstein's powers turn out to be more Blessed with Suck as he discovers "problems" in his relationship with Cassandra.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Several examples:
    • Sclera is such an amazing martial artist that he's not expelled from the Trials after he clearly demonstrates that he is bat-crap crazy.
      • Well it was Coach Crag who made that call. Arguably after being pushed to do it by Lex Sway while he and pretty much everyone in the story was dribbling their own personal Idiot Ball.
    • Bulwark is insane. His backstory reveals that he suffered from Asberger syndrome. Despite ridiculous claims, the emotional maturity of a 5-year-old and the IQ of a monkey, Bulwark is kept around because he's very good at 1) hitting things and 2) being hit.
      • Bulwark's ability to hit and be hit is apparently not as valuable as Taxi Cat: Bulwark was kicked off the team for God knows what reasons.
      • Bulwark is the official Wolverine of the Oublieverse, so he takes time off of certain teams to be on others. As of the campaign date, he is back on the Vindi's team.
        • Bulwark is also arguably the one thing that can temporarily halt the rampant Railroading happening lately, so this troper respects his presence on those levels.
  • Butt Monkey: Deimos began as a poorly played player character and suffered for it for some time. He has gotten better recently due to the author apparently forgetting he is a joke character.
    • Michuru81 admittedly singles out certain people to have particularly terrible things happen to, his first victim being Magnus Loder. Frostbite was next.
  • Bury Your Gays: Taegan almost immediately after coming out of the closet. In an upcoming arc, Breeze, a heterosexual character who is often Mistaken for Gay dies .
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Deimos wants to, Frostbite did, Apocatastasis did it best.
  • Canon Discontinuity: A couple of things so far. This list will probably get fairly massive as time goes by.
    • Michuru Bradshaw certainly did not have tons of character development and screen time only to get punked out by Apocatastatis.
    • Professor Incendiary and Doctor Splash did not just get up one day and say "Hey, how about we go have a fun time with Rift and slaughter all of our students? Why? Because we're evil now of course!"
      • Similarly, said slaughter was in no way, shape, or form ordered by Adonis.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Apocatastasis until Lodestone hands him the Idiot Ball.
  • Character Development: Frostbite, or rather Coldfire now, has fluctuated in character a great deal since his introduction to the story. His longstanding everyman, do-gooder persona is slipping away in favor of an angry, angsty attitude. Whether this works or not is up to individual interpretation.
  • Character Tics: Plenty.
    • Abaddon routinely shakes hands while saying, "Here's five good ones."
    • Portal quotes Star Wars
    • Rumble's accent
    • Split's screaming, "Kom cie!"
    • Bulwark likes to tell who he is, a lot.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Mirage, who doesn't have powers of his own, has trained with weighted clothing enough to make himself just as strong as the superpowered beings he has to contend with. Sound familiar?
  • Chekhov's Army: Every damn character. If Michuru81 bothered to give someone a name, they're probably the key to saving the universe. Everybody serves a purpose. Everybody.
    • It helps if you are established as being the most pathetic and weak character possible beforehand. Then you're guaranteed to be the lynchpin to saving the world.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Sam White, anyone?
  • Chess Motifs: When Michuru and Halogen play a game of chess they debate on which students and which pieces.
  • Church Militant: The Church of Genetic Purity.
  • Clark Kenting: Through the first book, Chienne masquerades as Zero and David poses as Portal. Deimos manages to convince the fans' he's cool.
  • Code Name: It wouldn't be a superhero universe without them.
  • Comic Books Are Real: Pop culture references in general abound, but there is a discussion on the state of the X-Men at one point in the story.
    • Adonis drops a copy of X-Factor #87 (which was about X-Factor talking to a psychiatrist who turns out to Doc Samson) down during his session with the psychiatrist in New Vindicators #4 (which was about the New Vindicators talking to a psychiatrist who turns out to be Abaddon).
  • Conspiracy Redemption: It's debatable where Drew's recruitment is concerned.
  • Contagious Powers: Early on the New Vindicators deal with a cast of normal humans. Then Michuru81 decides that's boring and Jack Olsen gets a magical amulet, Chienne's part demon, Katie Merrick is a Neo-Sapien and Ryan Mueller is fitted for his own armor.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Katie comes back into Ben's life around the same time Ryan gets an armor, Chienne and Coriolis just happen to just up in time for Lodestone and Loess' wedding. If you have an enemy in New Vindicatorsland, expect them to show up when it's least convenient.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Noah Meinstein when he's not being a Mad Scientist. Which isn't often. Why is Patriot Robotics still around anyway?
  • Crapsack World: Crap in heaven the Oubliverse is not a fun place to live in. Rogue Demons run rampant, having their way with the women of the world, all part of a sick plan to control Hell. The Nephilim are for the most part total Jerkasses, Neo-Sapiens are treated like pond scum despite having the power to melt faces. Interpersonal relationships are torn apart on a daily basis due to constant infidelity. It's sad that only admittedly happy and normal person with a good relationship seen so far is an expy of Edward Elric.
    • And did I mention that the apparent equivalent of the Fallen is Drew Jenkins? In the immortal words of Rattrap, "we're all gonna die."
  • Crazy Prepared Michuru81 himself deserves acknowledgement of this, having planned out the framework of his games to last for literally years to come.
  • Creator's Pet: Rumble. Loved by the author, check. Hated by fans and players alike, check.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Even before his death/big promotion, Drew is shown to be more creative with everyone's powers than they are.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Take your pick.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Michuru Bradshaw, Adonis Skraag & David Dathe.
  • Culture Clash: Copycat's obsession with ganguros and later Brass and Split have a talk about sex in Japan.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Why is Noah Meinstein so obsessed with taking down Neo-Sapiens when he could actually run his company instead? Oh, that's right, he's nuts... why hasn't anyone picked up on THAT yet?
  • Deadpan Snarker: Adonis Skraag can be this when he's not being something else.
  • Death Is Not Permanent: Bulwark and anyone else who has eaten a Golden Apple.
    • And anyone the author decides he "hasn't finished telling stories with" yet.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Samael, the only one of the fallen that isn't trying to usurp the throne of Hell is killed by The Shadow in one sword blow.
  • Discard and Draw: Amalgam becomes Anomaly, Deimos injects himself with Knitter of his own free will and inexplicably gets his powers back, the 001 is destroyed just in time for David Meinstein to manifest his Neo-Sapien powers and Copycat dies and comes back after taking a level in badass.
  • Doorstopper: I imagine if Michuru81 ever becomes a published author, his first book will require two small forests... per copy.
    • Oddly enough, later books such as Sic Semper Tyrannus would be the exact opposite for obvious reasons.
  • Dream Land: Twice to date, Blanche Gareth has come in and Mind Raped the heroes by manipulating their dreams... all the while listening to Coheed & Cambria.
  • Driven to Villainy: The White War never would have happened had it not been for Lodestone.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Poor Samael.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: The Author has stated this about himself several times.
  • Easy Amnesia: Abaddon ever since Apocatastasis drained his INT, WIS and CHA to 1.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: During their high school graduation it was revealed that Adonis Skraag's middle ame is "Michelle."
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Michuru81 has established that there are no Nephilim yet with purple hellfire. This troper is guessing that as soon as the Antichrist DOES show himself (after his mother dies in childbirth) the end of the series won't be far behind.
  • Enemy Within: Michuru, Deimos, Chienne, Gabriel, Gabrielle, Phobos... Hell, if your eyes glow, you're a card-carrying member of this Trope.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: While the cast is an ensemble one by nature, Frostbite remains one of the most popular characters in the series.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Affiliation abandoning Rift and the rest of the teachers after her massacre at the school.
  • Evil Is Petty: Forrest Bedford, Bo Vidae and Paragon are the most striking examples. The most literal example of this is Adonis
  • Eviler Than Thou: Though we haven't actually seen them confront one another, we're told the Fallen are in competition with each other to rule Hell... for reasons that haven't exactly been explained.
  • Expy: A large number of pretty much every NPC.
    • Apocatastasis: Apocalypse, anyone?
    • Arthropod: If Iris is Hinata and Mutt is Kiba, then it stands to reason that Arthropod is an Expy of Shino.
    • The Aurelius: Word of God confirms that he is blatantly Dr. Orpheus from The Venture Brothers
    • Brass: May or may not be Marvel Comics' Gambit, given his love interest is an expy of Rogue.
    • Coach Crag: His dialogue, appearance and pretty much everything about him is pure Dr. Cox.
    • While they are not going to be seen for (if the filler continues to march on) many months/years, a current threat to the PC's are the Dark Vindicators. Yes, the story actually goes there.
    • Detective: The original Detective's name is Wayne Bruce. It doesn't take a genius to see this one, does it?
    • Drake: American Dragon Jake Long
    • Gumshoe: Not only is the Detective's sidekick an expy of Robin but the third Gumshoe's real name is Mark Diet which is an anagram of Tim Drake who is the third Robin.
    • Hikari, arguably: He comes from the future to warn the heroes of an impending threat that will cause said future. Trains them to fight the threat. Sound familiar?
      • This troper always took Hikari to be Bishop: he comes back in time from a terrible future, ranting about a traitor. While Hikari's "Hi, everyone! I'm Michuru and Halogen's kid!" parallels Trunks' being the son of Vegeta and Bulma, the X-Men reference seems more appropriate given the other references to Marvel's merry mutants.
        • Bulwark refers to Trunks, Hiro Nakamura and Bishop during Hikari's origin story so while Hikari may be an expy of all of them, they're all kind of expies in their own right, right?
    • Iris: Hinata from Naruto.
    • Mirage: Rock Lee from Naruto.
    • Mutt: Kiba from Naruto.
    • The Order of Chaos: Anyone else remember the Peter David's initial run on X-Factor? It had Havok (Solar), Polaris (Bipolar), Strong Guy (Meat), Wolfsbane (Kitty), Quicksilver (Blaze) and the Mupltiple Man (Bipolar again).
    • Patriot: DC Comics' character Cyborg (Teen Titans) is Victor Stone. The cybernetic Patriot is Vincent Steel. Anyone else see the obvious connection?
    • Quintessence: Another Teen Titans character is Starfire who flies and shoots glowing energy blasts. Her real name is Koriand'r while Quintessence's real name is Corey Ander.
      • One Guess as to what Michuru81's favorite DC comic run is.
    • Rumble: Marvel Comics' Rogue in terms of her accent, powers, religion and Louisiana love interest.
    • Sclera: Neji from Naruto
    • Silverback: Marvel Comics' Beast
    • Split: Naruto from Naruto - both duplicate and The Author has said "Kom cie!" is Cambodian for "believe it!"
    • The Wisent: A fairly ineffectual copy of The Kingpin.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Deimos gets one of these after a stray beam takes out his eye.
  • Face Heel Turn: Several characters:
    • Lodestone joins Apocatastasis in exchange for Loess, his father and his grandfather's resurrection.
    • Which the Big-A does quite obligingly. Remind me again why he's evil? Oh yeah.
    • Gabriel Farouk joins Apocatastasis and causes the death of the Vindicator Green Arrow Nock. The world has yet to care.
    • Gabrielle Farouk, Bluetooth, Renewal and Fluke all turn out to be members of the Affiliation without a particularly good reason.
    • Deimos goes to the Dark Side of the Force because Michuru81 sees him as being a good villain. Naturally, Your Mileage May Vary
  • Fallen Angel: Lucifer, Abaddon, Leviathan, Semeyazza, Asmodeus, Asteroth and Samael.
  • Fan Nickname: The fans were the first to use the term "Oubliverse" to describe Michuru81's world.
    • Flostobito and the Big-A seem to have caught on with Michuru81 who now uses them in story.
    • Also, Apocalypse-Tasties started out as a nickname the PCs came up with, Bulwark ends up using it in the actual story.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: There is not a man, woman, or child alive who does not want to see Anomaly and Tripper together.
    • As Women in the Oubliverse are essentially cheating machines, Anomaly and Tripper are liked mainly because they are the only central characters to have a functional relationship. But if upcoming arcs are to be believed that's too boring.
  • Fantastic Racism: Anti-Neo-Sapien prejudice. This may lead to What an Idiot!, as the entire population of the United States is more than willing to smack-talk SPB's to their face, despite the threat of face-melting.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Quintessence doesn't technically "kill" Paragon so much as he unravels him on a cellular level.
    • Probably should have killed him, as he has returned as Were-Paragon.
  • Faustian Rebellion: Neo-Sapiens are the descendants of Nephilim who are the children of the Fallen? The lynchpin in the Fallen's plots seem to be the overwhelming army of Neo-Sapiens populating the world. In hindsight, they should have kept it in their pants.
  • Faux Action Girl: Alicia Gladstone (Captain Canada IV) and Donna-Anne Manther (Jetstream).
  • Fetus Terrible: The backstory for Deimos and Phobos.
  • Five-Man Band: The power_gamers.
  • Fridge Logic: So much so, it hurts.
    • Frostbite's powers are eventually explained as being temporal manipulation. He creates ice by slowing molecules down and fire by speeding them up. How does this give him the ability to teleport, given his description of this power is his deconstructing himself on a cellular level, traveling through the moisture in the air, and then recombining elsewhere?
    • Michuru's origin story revealed that Coach Crag trained him to use his geokinesis as a kid. He did this by belittling him constantly. In what world is he the best candidate to run a school? Seriously, Walkabout wasn't chosen because... what?
      • Because having Dr. Cox in charge of the Xavier Institute would be, like, hilarious. Besides, Walkabout was too busing walking out of the story for good at that point.
  • Functional Magic: The magic in New Vindi's adheres totally to D&D regulations with some Naruto thrown in for fun... but given the universe it is set in makes little sense for actually being there.
  • Flying Dutchman: Falkenburg himself was a member of the Vindicators.
  • For the Evulz: This is the leading motivation for essentially every villain in the entire story.
  • Gender Bender: The Author has stated that Nephilim are created when the Fallen mate with human women but Semyazza is known most as the woman in the green dress. Ageless dragqueens from hell?
    • Semyazza doesn't have that many kids, at least not yet, so maybe it's just because he swings another direction?
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: All Nephilim get them when they use their powers.
  • God: Elemenoh P. Quares
    • Who is, incidentally, a Shout-Out to a Kender PC from D&D games long gone by.
  • A God Am I: Played for pure funny by Bulwark, who casually acknowledges that he is, in fact, basically a god.
    • Made all the more interesting by the fact that stat-wise he is one of the most broken characters in the Oubliverse.
  • Grand Theft Me: Chimera, to the point where you're not sure who is who anymore.
  • Heel Face Turn: Several examples:
    • After helping cause the White War, Stockholm sides with the New Vindicators.
    • Chienne, after her true parentage is revealed.
    • Lodestone, having performed a Face Heel Turn comes full circle.
    • Asmodeus is apparently working with the New Vindicators to help stop the Basileus.
    • Phobos, through retcon, was never really a bad guy. He joined the Vindicators to help them fight the Basileus.
    • Abaddon, while amnesic, joined the Vindicators.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Tripper "dies" saving everyone from the brothers while Michuru gets his head lobbed off as he's running in to fight Apocatastasis.
  • Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Given the sheer number of heroes who took down Apocatastasis, how is anything a threat to Earth? Ever?
    • Well given the effectiveness of the other academies (namely, none), it's a miracle the continents of Asia and Europe still exist.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the "Issue" titles are names of songs.
  • Idiot Plot: Let's get this straight: Lodestone's grandpa put the Wisent in jail when he was a young whipper snapper, he got a GED, got out, became a lawyer, became richer than God and wants revenge?
    • I guess to be fair, Coach Crag does pick up his Idiot Ball when he decides to declare war on the criminal world. Plus, who wouldn't want to make Magnus suffer?
  • Moksha in its entirety. A mysterious armored man appears out of nowhere, gathers a bunch of SP Bs together in Antarctica (violating a certain treaty by doing so) and founds his own nation. This is without talking to any other world governments or even TRYING anything related to international diplomacy. Is it really any surprise that The US makes the fairly safe assumption that he's building an army and nukes the place to cinders?
  • I Have Your Wife: Apocatastasis does this to Magnus Loder AND Ben Altair.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Ben Altair, especially after he becomes Coldfire.
  • I Pulled a Weird Al: "Pulling a Weird Al is so very Lundgren!"
  • Informed Ability: We're told about Adonis Skraag's genius, but the poor guy can't seem to keep even his own underlings under control. Similarly, Bo Vidae's supposed Kingpin-esque ability to run a crime syndicate doesn't pan out so well in the story.
  • Intimate Healing: In Et Spe it's implied that Rumble had to save Deimos by pressing their naked bodies together.
  • Just a Stupid Accent: Rumble's "southern" accent is all over the place. Especially odd for someone who was born in Los Angeles...
  • Karma Houdini: Arguably Coriolis after rescuing Backlash and Kiln. Also Sclera after breaking both of Tripper's arms and ranting about how much fun he was going to have killing her.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Both White Nephilim manifest Katanas as their soul weapons.
  • Kudzu Plot: Shouldn't this series have ended when Apocatastasis went down?
  • Lawful Stupid: Solar Flare can come across like this at times. That is until he takes over the universe.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE POTTER!!
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Happens to a lot of people: Rift, Loess, Rift, Ryan Mueller and Rift.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Most members of the Affiliation are textbook examples of this trope in action.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Adonis Skraag and Abbadon.
  • Meaningful Name: Where to begin, where to begin...
    • Chienne Bedford: "Chienne" is French for "bitch."
    • Mort Bedford: "Mort" is French for "death"
    • Amy Bedford: Given that her children's names are French words, "Amy" is possibly a corruption of Aime, French for "beloved."
      • Michuru81 confirms this at one point in the narrative.
    • Forrest N. Bedford: Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the founders of the KKK.
    • Norman Goodman is the unpowered son of Coach Crag and Miss Mist.
    • Rockwell G. Lincoln: George Lincoln Rockwell was the founder of the American Nazi Party.
    • Gale Weathers: She controls the weather. Get it?
    • Bulwark's real name is Connor Crete. Concrete.
    • Alicia Gladstone's father's name is Joseph. Joey Gladstone was the name of Dave Coulier's character on Full House.
    • Jetstream has a pair of younger brothers who are twins and named after he Wright Brothers.
  • Mind Rape: What happens to people committed to the Spider, Abaddon mental health center. Though honestly, this is freakin' called the Spider!
  • Moral Event Horizon: The Affiliation Rift crosses it during the massacre at the school. Sclera crosses when he maims Tripper. Paragon crosses it several times.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: During the Trials, Maria suspects Alicia has taken a ride on the Magnus Train so, naturally, she must die.
  • Narm: Anything Rumble says about her religious beliefs. Adonis's talk of the need to cull weak Neo-Sapiens.
    • Adonis' speech that occurred recently in the campaign. Michuru81 posted it on the ATT recently. For some reason he choose not to include Bulwark's constant heckling throughout it. I wonder why.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Despite the fact that Lucifer's throne is threatened by all the other Fallen on a daily basis, he doesn't do too much to stop them.
  • Our Demons Are Different: The cosmology behind the Nephilim and Neo-Sapiens.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: For several books, Wilt is shown to have the Neo-Sapien power to suck...the life out of those he touches. By Et Spe this has developed into full-on vampirism and the reveal is that vampires are actually an ancient dynasty of Neo-Sapiens.
  • Padding: Sic Semper Tyrannis, Para Bellum and Hostis Humani Generis. Dulcis Amor is shaping up to be will be is the same.
    • Also, most any and all flashback chapters. Especially if the flashback has to do with a character who the reader either does not care about or who has little to no significance to what's going on in the story at the time. So yeah, pretty much every flashback then.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Several character make fun of how depressing so many members of the cast are the entire cast is. Lodestone, Deimos, Frostbite, and Michuru seem to be the initial leaders of this group but Adonis and Anomaly appear to have recently picked up their membership passes.
  • Personality Powers: Michuru Bradshaw literally has these.
  • The Plan: All the Fallen have tried these to varying degrees of success or utter failure. Abaddon appears to be having the most success so far.
  • Pretentious Latin Motto: Every book is titled with one of these.
  • Put on a Bus: Drew Jenkins halfway through the first book. Re-appears just in time to die.
  • Purity Sue: Rumble, for obvious reasons. She remains essentially a perfect, incorruptibly "sweet" girl and her only foray into evil wasn't really her.
  • Put on a Bus: Adonis
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: First it was the foreigners who participated in the Trials, then it was the Nephilim Apocatastasis resurrected in Et Spe. The new trend seems to be the Zodiac as the the Vindicators have thus far fought Libra, Gemini, Scorpio and Capricorn.
  • Reality Warper: God, aka Elemenoh
  • Reckless Sidekick: Blur
  • Railroading: As the focus shifted from basing the stories off of the campaigns to basing the campaign off the stories, railroading is a common sight.
  • Rape as Backstory: Bio
  • Rape as Drama: Loess
  • Red Herring: "Don't trust Mi-"
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Slightly justified in that the resident genius of the world, Hank McCoy Dr. Howell has been unable to secure any funding for his experiments because he is a Neo-Sapien despite managing to have the ability to cure cancer.
    • Does he have a cure or is it just that he thought he could find it?
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Attempted with Sclera in a flashback. Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Reincarnation: David Dathe
  • Retcon: Several, but Michuru Bradshaw's anti-climactic death at the hands of Apocatastasis stands out in particular.
  • The Reveal: Adonis is the leader of the Affiliation.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Brass & Rumble.
  • Running Gag: "I am Bulwark! His Supreme Galactic..."
    • Also, Drew's fear/hatred/whatever of ganguros.
      • Why/How they ran into any ganguaros is bizarre, seeing as that cultural phenomenon pretty much died out.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians: Fathom, anyone?
  • The Scrappy: The Rhino, Gabriel Farouk & Deimos being the most notable.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: The Meinstein family along with the other four major owners of Patriot Robotics.
  • Shout-Out: Several characters are references to past PCs from games the author has played in, mostly seen with the Europeans.
  • Significant Anagram: Whenever the Aurelius or any mage casts a spell in this univrese, the incantation is an anagram. For instance, when the Aurelius casts a spell that lets himself fly he says, "lyf." When Coup casts an illusion he says, "nulliosi." Adrianna's teleport spells are simply "teleport" spelt backwards (tropelet).
    • Gumshoe's real name is Mark Diet which is an anagram of Tim Drake (DC Comics' Robin, who Gumshoe is an Expy of).
    • Suicide Dave is an immortal bent on killing himself. His real name is David Dathe. Dathe is an angram of "death."
  • Single-Stroke Battle: The Shadow cleaves through Samael with one slash of Deimos' katana, Abaddon is taken out when his son grabs him, Astaroth pretty much ended both Drew and Barachiel with one blow each.
    • Seems to be that when you're in command of raw, god-like power in the world of the New Vindicators, one blow is all it will take to erase your existence.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: One has only to read his replies to fans to get this impression of Michuru81, but his blog [dead link] gives some huge indications of it as well.
  • Spin-Off: The mystical adventures of the Illuminati take place in the same universe as a New Vindicators, though the two have never had a cross-over, except for Rumble Rumble taking part in a few of their adventures.
    • On the other hand is the recently started Oubliette County, it has no connections whatsoever (that we know of) with Universe 137. Players in the game currently wonder why they are bothering.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Rift until the conclusion of the Apocatastasis arc, Sclera, Rumble, Quintessence, Taegan, and Apocatastasis.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Brass & Rumble are inexplicably attracted to each other and start a relationship pretty much off-screen. Why? Because the local Mary Sue needs herself a man naturally.
  • Suddenly Sexuality: Characters in the story come out at odd moments. Taegen just before his death, Prof. Incendiary in Chimera's backstory.
  • Super Dickery: Paragon, justified as this is the entire point of his character.
  • Super Soldier: The objective of Project Prime.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Many characters abuse this trope, Magnus Loder specifically.
  • Take Our Word for It: Alicia and Ben develop a relationship and get married completely offscreen. Because minor details like this obviously don't deserve the readers' attention.
    • Remind me why a dissertation on the makeup of a nickel is important in the middle of a battle? Was Claremont the guest writer of those chapters?
  • Teen Drama: Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas is made of this.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The most interesting aspects of whatever plot is going on seems to go by the wayside in some cases.
    • Arguably, the one strong, responsible female adult character in the entire story was Natalie Styles. She was loved and respected by all her students, acted in relatively intelligent and reasonable ways and had the beginnings of a normal relationship with Michuru Bradshaw. Naturally, she had to die as soon as possible.
  • The Thirty-Six Stratagems: Adonis Skraag best used #10 but has also executed #1-3, 5-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 18-22, 25, 27-29, 31, 34 & 36.
  • Time Travel: This is all a part of Hikari's backstory/forwardstory
  • Token Evil Teammate: Deimos
    • Presently Phobos and am amnesic Abaddon
  • Too Dumb to Live: Half the damn cast.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Oddly applied to Drew Jenkins.
  • Took a Level in Badass: And away we go...
    • Frostbite was just a whiny little boy and a compulsive liar in the first story but it seems his man card finally came in the mail during summer break. During the Trials he beats Brickhouse and then nearly wastes Quintessence.
    • Arthropod was just another Expy until he fought Taegan at which point you realize you're looking at someone you don't want to mess with.
    • Adonis joins the club when Lodestone spends a few chapters fighting through the Affiliation just to be taken down when Adonis looks at him.
    • Michuru treats us to his backstory as he fights Apocatastasis one-on-one and does a better job than everyone combined do in the next book. This fight has too many awesome moments, from Michuru telling him "I have nothing to lose" to his "have a nice swim" speech near the end.
    • True to his Expy, Mirage shows up in Et Spe to get his revenge on the guy who crippled him.
    • It's a Running Gag that Deimos can't win a fight but as soon as he goes over to the Dark Side he makes everyone cheer by wasting Lodestone, kills Rumble (she gets better), and beats up the Vindicators and their pals.
    • Bulwark was a badass before but there's something about him finally growing tired of having his introduction interrupted. What started as a Running Gag for the book becomes a Chekhov's Gun and Bulwark single-handedly beats Deimos by tackling him out of the top floors of the Empire State Building and riding him into the street.
  • Tournament Arc: The Chunin Exams Trials.
  • Training from Hell: Deimos fights the Sanada Ten Brave and then has a trippy dream where he loses an arm, eye, kills everyone he loves... all to get his ears pierced.
  • True Art Is Angsty: The only happy moments characters experience seem to only happen when Michuru81 can't think of some tragedy to throw at them that day.
    • This goes double if your name is Ben Altair or Magnus Loder. Though the latter pretty much deserves it.
  • Try Not to Die: The entire cast in Et Spe.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Though they're not married, David Meinstein gives hope to his fellow gaming geeks by landing uber hottie Cassandra Goodman.
  • Unfortunate Implications: This series carries several, especially in the area of how women are handled.
    • Arguably the most egregious example of this so far was Donna-Anne and Steve Potter's side-story in Hostis Humani Generis.
  • Unlucky Everydude: Frostbite.
  • Verbal Tic: Quite a few of them.
  • Villain Decay: Several in the series, Justice being the most outstanding at the moment. He has not succeeded in eliminating any of his targets for some time now.
  • Villain Sue: Contrary to common belief, Michuru Bradshaw is not the author insert. That would be Adonis.
  • Wangst In the Oubliverse, this is the default response to any and all personal issues. Might have something to do with Michuru81's consumption of Soap Operas.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Frostbite justs wants a hug!
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Adonis can be either this or just a Card-Carrying Villain depending on what side of the bed he got up on that morning.
  • What Measure Is a Humanoid?: Christmas Clark's relationships are entirely based on this.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: When Adonis Skraag makes it painfully clear that he's not over Chienne Bedford, Magnus Loder not only begins dating her but makes fun of Adonis for it, beats him down with his powers in the Wreck Room, and proceeds to lust after Maria Espada while doing so. Once he lands her he starts lusting after Alicia, who he knocks up and leaves as soon as Maria is acquitted of murder. Meanwhile he belittles Jacque Webber for having the job he wants, fights her, loses, and proceeds to run his mouth. All the while Magnus has information on the Affiliation but doesn't want to tell Lex because he wants to show him up.
    • According to Magnus' player, Mr. Loder being such a massively terrible person was all part of his idea for the character. I'd say it worked.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Played straight with Rumble, who can't go to heaven if she can't die. Subverted with Bulwark who does want to and will live forever.
  • Women in Refrigerators: Katie Merrick, Natalie Styles, Brigit Hart, Prende Kreshnikeve, Donna-Anne Manther and Amy Bedford. Chienne Bedford in the later arcs. Tripper, but remember, They Never Found The Body.
    • Cassandra Goodman is perilously close to being tossed in with the rest of the auxiliary female characters, but her ultimate fate is ultimately up in the air.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A couple of characters experience a little of this trope but the most prominent one would be Adonis.
  • Word of God: Michuru81 has a tendency to reveal entire plot arcs to those seeking (or even not seeking) spoilers.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Actually leads to one character's death as he refuses to defend himself against one of the female Nephilim.
  • Writer on Board: Taken to ridiculous extremes lately to the point where it feels like certain characters are actually being possessed just to spout the author's opinions. Any unique speech patterns mysteriously disappear, and the dialogue starts to sound suspiciously like the prose.
  • Yandere: Rift, oh good gosh, Rift.
    • Ryan Mueller is a good male example of this trope.
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