Shadowside

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
The twin campuses hosted the best of the best in a lot of ways. Here were the fastest, the strongest that the world had to offer. The smartest, the most skilled. The toughest and the most cunning. Each had their strengths, their own weaknesses...
—Opening Narration to one topic.

“Three years ago, humans advanced overnight.” The walls rumbled again as a monstrosity of asphalt and stone rose from the roadway and started off toward a nearby park, small child riding atop its shoulder. Little Billy was going for a stroll again.

“No magi other than myself are registered in this locale, but that young boy just pulled off something a mid-level earth mage with years of study would take days to perform!” [...]

“Don't care. Doesn't bother me.” Sara said, falling over on the couch in time to another of the behemoth's steps.
—A quote from the history of one character, providing a bit of insight to the setting.

Shadowside is a Play By Post Game set in an Extranormal Institute- the "Dual Campus" of the Avalon Institute of Magic and Technology, and the Azura Evotelluric Academy (more on those later), thought the actual duality of the schools is debatable. It is owned by the user "Shadowdragon" (A.K.A. Bob) and maintained by him and a moderate-sized group of staff.

It is set in a world in which an event called "Evos Dawn" which resulted in several thousand children and teenagers (as well as a few animals...) becoming what can best be described as X-Men style mutants ("Evotellurics") in year 2007 (it is set in present time). Also, it is a world in which several different sorts of magic and and advanced technology have (through an extremely complex web of various types of Applied Phlebotinum) remained, for the most part, fairly unknown to the world at large. This serves as the primary excuse for allowing a vast range of unique characters that run the gamut from Petting Zoo People and Mythological Beings to Androids and Magi. (This is in fact a conservative look at the range of characters.)

The characters and their abilities are governed by a unique system that allows for the advancement of their abilities based on their activity in Story Lines, or 'SL's, rather than combat, allowing for non-combat based characters to develop on equal terms with more combative character archetypes. There is a careful balance between the focus on "Gameplay" and Story- a balance that is rare among video games and play-by-post games alike (Though the focus placed on each varies from member to member). This seems to have been successful, as the site has lasted roughly three years without many large changes to its systems.

One interesting part of this is that it subverts the super hero genre in general, as even those who have the powers for such a job (as at least a good number of them are complete Mundane Utility, and a few that are just plain detrimental to the owner) rarely decide to don a cape and tights. The few who regularly do are regularly humiliated. The biggest exception is in at least two storylines, in which a few characters acted as Western Superheroes and Sentai, respectively. The vast majority of the characters use their powers for their own personal ends, whether that is to survive, to save lives, commit crimes, or just to mess around, as is often the case.

Click here for the Character Page.

Tropes used in Shadowside include:
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade - Vahn's flaming blade, handed to him by the Hallowed Herald... And some others.
  • Acceptable Breaks From Reality - Occasionally, the Fantasy Kitchen Sink state of the site creates minor issues that may be somewhat difficult to reconcile (such as different approaches towards Pure Energy or Life Energy), but these are not likely to be noticed unless one actively hunts for them, and it is necessary to allow the totality of Character Customization present here.
  • Aerith and Bob - The natural result of having characters from such a ridiculously wide variety of backgrounds in one place.
  • A God Am I - Limbus.
  • Alien Abduction - This story.
  • Alien Invasion - Mentioned by one fox-like Humanoid Alien character.
      • "Actually I was given the mission to conquer Earth before the others tried to. I don't think I can do that alone, so I better forget the mission for the time being..."
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us - Limbus attacks the Dual Campus in the first CSL, in the second when a groups is sent to the future, it appears that he has succeeded in conquering the campus (And the world in general...)
  • Alternative Calendar - A.D.E., After the Dawn of the Evotelluric. A.D.E. 1 is equivalent to 2008 on the Gregorian Calendar.
  • Apathetic Citizens - See City of Weirdos, below.
  • Apocalypse How - Several plotlines, as well as the "Central Story Lines" threaten this, on various parts of the scale. In fact, the current one, CSL #2, is still up in the air about what will happen.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism - Many new students on the campus show this. Averted to an extreme by everyone else, for whom things on the scale of a giant spider getting stuck in a tree, asking them for assistance, and then falling on top of them, on Christmas day, is not even likely to be a very memorable event.
  • Badass Abnormal - A few characters have come on the site listed as "Evotelluric", but not gotten their powers until later on.
  • Badass Adorable - Plenty. If they're in the school- even if it's a twelve-year old girl who spends her days like any normal child- even if it's the cutest thing oyu've ever seen- they can almost certainly do something superhuman. And it is very, very likely to be something that involves blowing your brains out.
  • Badass Normal - These are actually somewhat rare here, though one does pop up occasionally. However, some sort-of qualify by the virtue of being utterly awesome in areas that have little or nothing to do with their powers.
  • Beware the Nice Ones - Some of the most powerful students on campus are relatively non-violent. Until you push them.
  • Bilingual Dialogue - As a result of the Translator Microbes, mostly.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity - Oh so many villains in S Ls, especially wasting their time with a rant.
  • Bullying a Dragon - Anybody who openly speaks against Evotellurics or similarly super-powered humans, without some serious defenses on their side, is pretty much asking to be killed off (or somethimes worse) in any number of ways. If they are remarkably lucky, the person or people they are speaking against will have some reason (morality, law-abiding, or just plain not caring) not to blow their brains out/roast them alive/trap them in another dimension/etcetera.
  • Butt Monkey - Lucas, to the point that his merely being present has lead at least one character to realize that bad things are about to happen.
  • Casual Danger Dialog - Voluntary or not, Lucas often turns extremely dangerous circumstances in jokes... To the point of having renamed a crystal golem called Billy to Dilly... While the Golem tried to kill him and his group...
  • Catgirl - Nyuu and Elika are examples of this. Albeit with a more complex and Egyptian-themed background and origin. Nyuu is still very much the cute and innocent type, while Elika is technically a Lion and not a House Cat.
  • Character Customization - Endless.
  • City of Weirdos - The residents of Fukuoka would be hard-pressed to be surprised by ANYTHING anymore. If Godzilla entered the city, they may not pay it any more mind than complain about it blocking traffic. (Godzilla might be put in shock, though.)
  • Class and Level System - Only by a stretch of the term, however. Characters each have a unique "Primary Magic Principle" or "Designation" in which they develop. Levelling up is not done concretely, but by spending 'credits' on new items, abilities, and training. Levelling up to the next "Year" of school allows one to get discounts on abilities that fall within their designation.
  • Creator Provincialism - Oh so very averted. The majority of the members on the site seem to be (as inferred from chat) from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, or Australia, and the site is primarily English-speaking. However, there is a very clear anime-influence. Much of the artwork involved, especially character images, is obviously in the Anime/Manga art style. Many characters are Japanese. To drive home this point, the setting is Fukuoka, Japan. (Averting both Big Applesauce and Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe, though it's closer to the latter.)
    • However, many SL's are taken to places that the ones running them are familiar with.
  • Conspiracy Kitchen Sink - A large part of some characters' backstories and many storyline plots.
  • Cute Monster Girl - A few.
  • Death Is Cheap - 6 credits or a short storyline later...
  • Doppelganger - In the Violent Ultimatum storyline, this was used by a shapeshifter to turn into the leader of the LoL Brigade, Akane. Akane just happens to be the boss of Tails, her current opponent. While this wouldn't likely effect him, it is made immediately clear that the real Akane, who is standing at the side lines, takes the pain. It is a rather effective challenge, obviously.

-- "KICK HER ASS!" Akane cheered, Looks looking extremely ticked off as she held onto her wand. Thinking about her comment and the situation, Akane immediately retracted her statement, "WAIT WAIT WAIT! DON'T KICK HER ASS! NOT THE FACE! DON'T HIT HER TAILS."

  • Elaborate University High - Slightly more compact- though equally elaborate- after the first central story line.
  • Elevator School - Kind of... While in theory everyone is in high school level, there are characters that are around 18 and some even older, and characters of around 11 as the youngest maybe. At least 1 character is studying for Medicine degree too.
  • The End of the World as We Know It - Evos Dawn definitely changed the world, and caused an enormous amount of destruction, as well.
    • The end of the first (after Beta) "Central Story Line" changed up the layout of the school, (with some OOC reasoning for it) removing several areas, simplifying the layout, and enormously downplaying the duality of the "Dual Campus."
  • Extranormal Institute - Taken to what may be its logical extreme.
    • Academy of Adventure - Again, played up to the Nth degree.
    • All-Ghouls School - Only partially, but there are a good few vampires, ghosts, and necromancers.
      • Don't even mention the werewolves.
    • Ninja School - Again, only partially. Though there are very few, if any Ninja characters, it is pretty much a given that this school has some class based around it- to the extent it would actually be surprising if it didn't.
    • Secret Government Warehouse - Sort of. Not secret, but it contains a huge collection of Science Fiction-y and Fantastic objects- even if much of that is owned by the students.
    • Super-Hero School - Characters have taken to acting as Sentai and Superheros in the past.
    • Wizarding School - Oh yeah.
  • Face Heel Revolving Door - Zieyad: "Today I'll be good, tomorrow bad, and the next day neutral! Lather, rinse repeat!"
  • Fan Service - While usually difficult for a (non-erotica) text-based medium, a few more mature plots have tried to use this.
    • On the less sexual usage of the term, some things on the site can only be the result by the users' desire to see something truly insane and specific happen. There have been instances of characters fighting on top of a giant, incredibly hot, freshly-baked brownie (in a Holodeck-esque simulator), tuxedo-wearing gorilla-magicians, and a simulated battle in Tokyo in which each combatant was forced to wear a Sailor Moon uniform, just for laughs, not to mention several other insane events.
  • Fantastic Racism - A LOT of people REALLY hate Evotellurics, and, by extension, mages. For that matter, a few mages hate Evotellurics, and Vise-Versa. It gets really complicated when you consider the dozens upon dozens of fanciful and science-fiction races included in the school.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink - Intentionally invoked so that a member is allowed to completely invent their own history, and their specific form of Functional Magic, advanced technology, or what-have-you without actually contradicting anyone else. (Although this is not perfect- see Acceptable Breaks From Reality and Fridge Logic.)
    • Casmiro Alvarez has a truly psychopathic hatred of animal-human hybrids. He happens to be in a school that is simply crawling with them.
  • Fetish Fuel- Trust me, if anyone is into it, it can be found on the Dual Campuses. Skeletons? Got it. Dragons? Got it. Tentacle Monsters? Do I even have to say it?
  • Fish Out of Water - Quite a few characters come from backgrounds where their main goal isn't to fight evil... It's to figure out how to use a cell phone.
  • Flat What
  • Foe Yay
    • Lucas and Alejandro.
    • Some have considered pairing Chad Wulf and Casimiro Alvarez. They have, on several occasions, attempted to kill each other, and are important members of their own small "factions".
  • Fridge Logic - See Acceptable Breaks From Reality, above. Often, such things can be immediately reconstructed by some creative Fridge Brilliance.
  • Fun with Acronyms - Poly Linguistic Enlightenment And Service Extension Device: P.L.E.A.S.E.D.
  • Gender Bender - There was a short, whimsical Storyline based around it.
  • Genre Savvy - Half of the students in the Fegefer storyline are already convinced of what's happening, because of their history with random invitations and field trips.
  • Guns and Gunplay Tropes - A lot of these actually, a tad strange considering that gunners are uncommon at the board.
  • Hollywood Atlas - Every single one of these tropes is averted. In fact, it is set in Fukuoka, rather than a more cliche'd setting like New York, London, or Tokyo.
  • Horny Devils - At least one character can be essentially described as an incubus. At least a few have powers based around seduction.
  • Le Parkour - A fairly common skill among characters.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters - Roughly 300, and counting. Justified in that each member has at least one (often more) character. The variety here is also shocking.
  • Long Runner - The House of Tuvai storyline is rather extreme in leangth, compared to most on the site.
    • In general, this site has lasted a lot longer than most Forum-Based Role-Playing Games and doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.
  • Love Dodecahedron - The characters Chad Wulf (a bisexual, canine petting zoo person) and Casimiro Alvarez (a psychopathic pervert) have enormous Love Dodecahedrons around them. This has led some people to pair them up. (See Crack Pairing, above.)
  • Magic A Is Magic A - Though there are in fact thousands and thousands of possible ways to handle even similar abilities, it seems to be held by the members that Evo powers are not usually considered magic, even if they are functionally the same. It also applies to a single character, whose branch of magic usually doesn't spread too far outside of a primary set of ability types (for example, a pyromancer or fire mage might also have psychic powers, but their primary abilities will generally overshadow the others).
  • Makes Just as Much Sense in Context - Occasionally.
  • Makes Sense in Context - Things can get pretty weird if you don't already know the context. Sometimes, though, see above.
  • The Masquerade - Before Evos Dawn, the world was already full of magic-users, psychics, government conspiracies, monsters, aliens, and high-tech organizations, but this, SOMEHOW managed to completely hide itself away from the world at large- at least for the past few centuries or so.
  • Mass Super-Empowering Event - Evo's Dawn.
  • Memetic Badass - The headmasters. Also Vahn Eloc.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Many of the male characters, with Senkio being an in-universe example.
  • Ms. Fanservice - Quite a few.
    • Claire.
    • Evy and Sevens. Yes, you get two for the price of one.
  • Mugging the Monster - A severe risk for any criminals in Fukuoka, or anywhere, but especially Fukuoka, where the school is located. Not only do most of the students and many of the staff have powers of some sort, but many completely random citizens can do things like summoning dragons from the air to defend themselves.
  • Nakama - There are a few rather tight-nit circles of friends in the school.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast - The Grimmnocht.
  • Naughty Tentacles - Almost occurred here.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - ATTACK OF THE MUTANT ZOMBIE VEGETABLES!
  • No Fourth Wall - There is a topic in Fun and Games where the players having a conversation with their own characters is RP'd out.
    • OneBoneLess' character, Walter J.M. Lee, often speaks about the medium, addresses his writer. IC, there is Justified in that Walter has several mental illnesses, and, depending on the specifics of the mention, other characters (Including his "familiar", Tear) either don't know what he is talking about, or (correctly) think he is insane.
  • The Nth Doctor - The Warden after Cunningham killed him.
  • Older Than They Look - There are a few, but the most prominent example is Lore Lecuyer, looking like a pre-pubescent boy when being past 15 and behaving sometimes as well past thirty.
  • Otaku - A few characters are shown to enjoy anime and/or manga, in particular Sam, who is usually terrified of her own shadow, managed to rush into an actually dangerous-looking situation for fear that her Manga collection would be destroyed, of all things.
    • Marig Thyonies is described as "The Alien Otaku for Earth", and she does seem to have a mild obsession with Earth culture.
  • Our Monsters Are Different - External and Internal. It uses various excuses/explanations to allow for a great deal of variety even among two werewolves or such.
  • Petting Zoo People - Several dozen, especially wolves.
  • The Pornomancer - One extremely messed up NPC existed just to serve this purpose for a short Valentine's day special event.
    • Though, to be perfectly fair, not everyone was effected so severely that they ripped each others' clothes off.... only four fifths of the campus.
  • Power Limiter - Present and accounted for in the form of the Safeguard Pendant.
  • Raised by Wolves - Some characters have found themselves raised by a wolf pack only to come back in to the real world.
  • Reason You Suck Speech - A memorable one here.
  • Required Secondary Powers - Unlike most fiction, a great many of these are actually addressed, and almost every ability and practical skill of the characters are well-defined.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent - There are a few reptile characters, all of whom tend to get much more stigma than the mammalian-humanoids.
  • RPG Elements - The site is more gameplay heavy than most RPGs, and keeps a very careful balance.
    • Most obviously, characters "level up" using "credits" earned by participating in story lines, by using them as currency to purchase new abilities and trainings, or to upgrade older ones.
  • Running Gag - It is a running joke among the members that Werewolves and various Wolf Shapeshifters are a particularly popular character archetype.
    • The memberbase will occasionally yell "TOO MANY WEREWOLVES!!!", at least partially in jest.
    • Duct-tape is the most powerful weapon in the universe.
      • Fenrir (One of the admins) will often threaten to charge for Duct tape and a training for it when brought up in the chat room... It's unknown if he's serious or not...
        • Atiri will often be the first to protest when this happens.
          • Dang straight she will.
    • If there's a field trip or class outing to anywhere, expect everyone to be kidnapped.
    • School function on campus? Monster attack. You can count on it.
      • To the Annual Celebration, a majority of the students came armed.
        • When all weapons were magically confiscated, the resulting pile was amusing. So was the rocket launcher. No one has claimed it as of yet.
    • Where's Walmart?
    • It is generally stated that Calvin has a few more heads down there...
  • Scaled Up - Two characters in particular fit this trope. Calvin, who turns into a Hydra with increasing size and head count, and Legato, a homunculus who can transform into a snake and a naga.
  • Seen It All - It's been just a few years since Evos Dawn. That's just enough time that some people can still be surprised by absurd events, while others run the gamut between the three subtypes of this trope.
  • Shout-Out - Several stories are titled after songs, and a few plotlines involve things like Sentai Teams or Superheroes, which are as strange to see in this world as they would be in the real world. (Not that most people are really surprised by strange occurences, mind.)
    • More imediately, one of the major "school clubs" (essentially warring factions with various goals) is called the "LoL Brigade". It is dedicated to making sure the boss makes money, and to causing havoc for the fun of it. And, for the record, it is no laughing matter for the other students. It is, for lack of a better term, a school-based Mafia.
  • Slap Slap Kiss - ** DJ hitting Lucas with a skeeball.
    • Chad had a bit with Akane (the leaders of the factions of the AVengers and The LoL Brigade, the former of which exists only to oppose the latter) though that was more "Slap Slap Slap Kiss Slap Slap Slap".
  • Stranger in a Strange School - One character in particular is a normal human who is attending the dual universities as an exchange program.
  • To Hell and Back - Cunningham, after doing an absolutely enormous Heel Face Turn (See Crowning Moment of Awesome, above) was revived and changed his name (for some reason...) to Zieyad. Though, to be fair, he was in a state of Limbo, and never actually made it to Hell.
    • He probably would have, though.
  • Troperiffic - This site has so many stories and characters, it probably encompasses at least half of all the Tropes there are. And that is NOT a hyperbole.
  • Universal Translator - The school is EXTREMELY polylingual (including several fictional languages) and thus gives each student a "P.L.E.A.S.E.D." (Poly Linguistic Enlightenment And Service Extension Device) unit (which can be upgraded or replaced with several more advanced options) that is worn in a student's ear. Would be just a Hand Wave for the languages, but its capabilities and the device itself are mentioned, changed, and lost often enough that it is elevated beyond that status.
  • The Unmasqued World - After Evos Dawn, the world is still in various states of shock as more and more magic users, supernatural creatures, super-technology, government conspiracies, and aliens come out into the open. Some, however, can take it in stride.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight - Fairly common, though arguably justified by the setting in most cases.
  • Weirdness Censor - The bus in this storyline remains hidden based on this principle.
  • The Wiki Rule - Though it never really took off.
  • Wessix Likes Watching Teenagers Sweat - Probably the main reason a lot of the on-campus hijinks are allowed to happen in the first place.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?? - Some player-made storylines and events exist more for the crackiness value than potential character development or drama.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair / Hair Color Dissonance - Many character profiles include an image from a pre-existing anime or manga, ether because their appearance was inspired by the character, or because it just happened to fit well enough. Obviously, this results in a lot of odd hair colors. This is either waved away as an inaccuracy in the image or handwaved away as being related to their status as an Evotelluric or magic user.
  • Younger Than They Look - Legato looks to be somewhere between 16 and 18. In reality, he's a little over a year old.
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