Planescape: Metamorphosis

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Planescape: Metamorphosis is a webcomic (based in the Planescape setting of Dungeons & Dragons) about Qul, a member of an amphibious saurian-like race from an aquatic planet called Ssilir. For the past four years, the world has been plagued by never-ending rain. The Ssilirian priests began sending emissaries to the realm of the gods to find a way to stop the downpour. Qul is the sixteenth of those emissaries, and the story begins when he steps through the portal and arrives in Sigil, City of Doors.

Qul encounters Factions and their beliefs, travels planes of wonder and dread, and learns how belief can transform the Multiverse.

The comic's main characters (thus far) are as they follow:

Qul: The aforementioned Ssilirian on a holy quest. He's single-minded and dedicated in his pursuit, and doesn't seem to think things through before acting.

K'zink: He's an ice genasi, a humanoid from the Elemental Plane of Ice, who earns a living from being a tout, someone who guides people through Sigil. He stumbles across a wounded Qul and nurses him back to health. Seemingly a carefree, fun-loving guy with a soft spot for picking up strays. He's a member of the Sensates, a Faction dedicated to experiencing every sensation the multiverse has to offer. "Trying everything at least once" seems to be one of his mottoes.

Drake: He is a tiefling, a human who has fiendish ancestry somewhere in his family tree. He is also a tout and has been a friend of K'zink's for a long time. He's a member of the Fraternity of Order, a Faction that believes that everything in the multiverse has laws, and that by knowing them, they can use them to their advantage. He is also a fan of technomagical devices.

Lasc: He is a goat-like demon from the Abyss (a bulezau, to be precise). In the comic itself, he has been a brooding and quiet figure, helping out the heroes due to their aims coinciding. More of his backstory is revealed in the Cast Page, which paints him as a rebellious soldier who fled his native plane to escape the Blood War, a conflict between Demons and Devils that has been raging on since the beginnings of time.

Ianthe: A mysterious medusa seer from another plane, she wears a blindfold that doesn't seem to inconvenience her in the least. Her motivations and personality are obscure, but she has revealed to belong to the Transcendant Order, a Faction that believes in merging action with thought, so that one knows how to take the right action at the right moment.

Tropes used in Planescape: Metamorphosis include:


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  • Art Evolution: And how! Occasionally it gets to the point that a character will noticeably change design within a page.
  • The Big Guy: Lasc, the goat-headed demon. He's over 8 feet tall and wields a spear that is even longer. As a subversion, he's actually thin and emaciated.
  • Five-Man Band: The protagonists, Qul, K'zink, Drake, Lasc and Ianthe.
  • The Hero: Qul, the intrepid Ssilirian, is the main character of the comic and falls squarely into this trope.
  • Lemony Narrator: Not within the comic, within The Rant. As practice for the comic, the author sometimes writes it with slang from Planescape.
  • Naive Newcomer: Qul.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: Acknowledged in The Rant - the author is still getting the hang of this 'Character Development' thing.
  • Sense Freak: K'Zink is a fairly low-key version.
  • The Quest: Subverted. Qul originally set out to ask the gods to make it stop raining, but he found out pretty quickly how pointless that was. He does, however, still want to help his people.
  • Unusual Euphemism: It uses all of the ones from Planescape, quite frequently.
  • Wretched Hive: Parts of Sigil.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: K'Zink.