The Dark Eye: Difference between revisions

The starting value of all these 4 elements are influenced by choices of race, culture, subculture and starting profession, but from there on, the character can develop any way the player wants to, making it even more interesting to keep a character for several adventures.

 

* [[Adaptation First]]: Even though the first English rule book got published in 2003, between the years 1993 and 1997, novels and [[Realms of Arkania|games]] based on ''The Dark Eye'' were released under the title of "Realms of Arkania". Several other games have been released in English without The Dark Eye supertitle.

* [[An Adventurer Is You]]

* [[Affably Evil]]: The leader of the [[Religion of Evil|Church of Borbarad]] Azaril Scharlachkraut is an outgoing, charismatic and generally amicable elf. Just don't test her loyalty towards her revered master or her determination to accomplish her goals.

* [[All Witches Have Cats]]: Both played straight with one sisterhood of witches and handily subverted with all other sisterhoods. Most witches do have some type of [[Familiar]] though.

** As do the [[Lizard Folk|Maru]], a race of crocodile people. According to their legends, their patron god Kr'Thon'Chh wanted them to be this way {{spoiler|despite the belief of many humans that Kr'Thon'Chh is a demon, he is in fact the god Kor.}}

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]] The {{spoiler|late}} Duke of Meadows (Waldemar the Bear) is Aventurias standout example.

* [[Call a Hit Point a Smeerp]]: Mild but fairly literal-minded example. What characters and creatures actually have are 'life points'; 'hit points', while used, literally only refer to the base damage inflicted by an actual ''hit'', which may be reduced by armor and other factors before the remaining 'damage points' are finally deducted from the target's LP total.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: ''The Dark Eye'' exists only because the publishers didn't have enough money to buy the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' license.

* [[Character Customization]]: Using a [[Point Buy]] system, and several templates. Characters are all based on the trinity of race, culture and profession. Characters are customized afterwards.

* [[Character Level]]: Older Editions (up to third) used classes, the current one is strictly skill-based and only lists levels as a measure of comparative power.

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: if it is black, red or black and red it is likely to be something bad. Or a priest of the god of smiths, or the god of mercenaries.

* [[Church Militant]]: The cult of Rondra, the warrior goddess are the best example, but roughly half of the cults maintain their own faith militant.

* [[Color-Coded Elements]]: The six elements are coded (at least by human standards) mostly this way with a few exceptions: fire is red, wind is yellow or colorless, ice is purple or light blue, water is blue, rock/stone is orange and humus(earth and plants as well as all living things) is represented by earthen colors, but usually by green.

* [[Color-Coded Wizardry]]: the three guilds of mages, white(law abiding and usually following strict ethics and codes when using magic research must only happen under strict regulations), black(free thinkers who believe that every type of magic deserves to be researched and that no boundaries should be forced upon this research) and grey(somewhere in between, usually rather moderate in one way or the other). All other practitioners of magic don't fall into this scheme though.

* [[Dark Messiah]]: The Aikar Brazoragh, leader of all orcish tribes is one of these.

** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|At least in the eyes of the humans.]]

* [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]]: The demons in The Dark Eye are this, because [[Our Demons Are Different|their demons are different]] - practically every Demon Lord is the dark reflection of one of the major god with an agenda which is basically the perverted ideals of the original god.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: As a result of the [[Loads and Loads of Rules|huge amount of rules]] many authors do not fully know or understand the rules, which shows frequently in the game's adventure modules.

* [[Dump Stat]]: Older rules editions had negative as well as positive attributes. Often the negative Curiosity or Greediness stats were maxed out to raise positive stats.

** Depending on your build, almost all of the attributes except for Courage can be this. Manual dexterity in particular is so narrow that it often suffers this fate.

* [[Hybrid Monster]]: Chimaerology, the magic of creating magical hybrids from all kinds of animals and humans is a classic but nowadays somewhat rare form of [[Black Magic]]. Later versions are based on the hybrids of mundane creatures – or people and demons.

* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Well, perhaps not all that sympathetic - but certainly ineffectual: Pardona, the Tongue of the Nameless God and Envoy of Evil, is canonically defeated, rejected or thwarted in every one of her apperances. Adding insult to injury - her official stats aren't that great either. Even if their Characters might fear her - most players regard her with a bemused mix of detached pity and condescension.

* [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner]]: In theory, every Noble with the privilege of Jurisdiction. As long as he or she is on the grounds of his/her own fiefdom.

** Also Inquisitors.

* [[Kill and Replace]]: There are at least two demons who use this as their trick.

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: Standard procedure of the [[Church Militant|militant]] [[The Fundamentalist|order]] [[Good Is Not Nice|Rays]] [[Light Is Not Good|of Light]] to deal with magic users, or any given problem really.

* [[Knight Templar]]: The Rays of Light,The Priest-Emperors and often the Church of Praios in general.

* [[Kryptonite Factor]]: Common iron blocks magical powers. For some spellcasters, this is only a minor problem, others like druids cannot use forged metal at all.

** They interestingly appear in Nethack: The description for one of the orc types cites the Dutch translation of the first edition.

* [[Pimped-Out Dress]]: THE court fashion in the Horasian Empire under Emperess Amene. The fashion at her [[A Child Shall Lead Them|successors]] court is slightly more subdued.

* [[Praetorian Guard]]: A few, but mainly on the good guys side.

** The Panther Guard of the Middenrealm

* [[Standard Royal Court]]: Quite widespread, especially in the Middenrealm and the Horasiat.

* [[Sympathetic POV]]: Seems to be becoming a thing for Aventuria's major villains. The following happened twice: An odd year or two after a major villain's demise at the hand of an adventuring party follows the inevitable release of an official biography. Those biographies tend to depict the villains long before their fall and are [[Running the Asylum|written]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|by fans]] (the editorial staff consists only of fans...) Thus we are treated to stories of how relatively normal people are driven mad by circumstances. We see the later [[Evil Overlord]] [[Pet the Dog|petting Kittens]] or the later [[Evil Chancellor]] as the [[Only Sane Man|only person with a basic grasp of politics]] in the entire Empire, freeing peasants and being a far better ruler than the actual emperor in general.

* [[Time Travel]]: Not a common feature, but a few adventure modules deal with this.

* [[Thirteen Is Unlucky]]: Every Aventurian knows why. For those who don't: Next to the twelve good gods there exists the thirteenth, the Nameless One, the god who tried to overthrow the others and who should not be mentioned unless it is absolutely necessary.