The Descended

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"How the Mighty Have Fallen..."
—Slogan
Nice Flying!

The Descended is a web comic run by Brian D. Lewis, also known as Ranger_Brian_New (on the forums), hosted on Comic Fury. It is one of his most ambitious projects, where he decided to create a whole world with very complicated rules. As mentioned in the profile, it follows three groups of individuals: The Elementals, The Latens, and The Outcasts. Because each group has four members (with the promise of a fourth group to come), it obviously has Loads and Loads of Characters, each with their own distinctive personality and rich backstories.

As of 2012, the series and website was under revision, as the author was looking to fix what he feels like was the cause of the mistake which gave him Writer's Block: not having the world well-thought-out enough. He fully intends to resume the comic once he has all the details of the world figured out and set in stone. Brian hoped to have finished his changes by July 2012, but does not wish to be held to that date. The last comment on the site was in 2016, where he hoped to come back to this strip some day.

Tropes used in The Descended include:

#-C

  • 100% Heroism Rating: The Elementals started off fairly small, but became widely known as some of the greatest adventurers of their nation by the time they were called on to thwart a demon invasion. After losing Sanik, his reputation skyrocketed. It wasn't until shortly after repelling an enemy invasion that they well and truly became this, though.
    • And they remained that way until Helops was destroyed. They've started from scratch.
    • Nobody knows the name Argus. Almost everyone knows the name Jason Argo Maustrat, one of the greatest adventurers of all time. They're the same person.
  • Abandoned Info Page: Several. Brian's trying to keep some of them up to date, but is finding it hard to keep track of the constantly-evolving world of Soano.
  • Above the Ruins: Part of The Elementals' backstory. All four members were present at the destruction of their original hometown, Faragawa, and got a view of the aftermath from a distance.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Argus possesses one.
  • Action Girl: Aria is the main example. Sasha's not afraid to fill the role, either. While Tyra and Sinaer can fill this role and used to, they (intentionally) choose to try and fall under another trope.
  • Alliteration: Some of the characters' names.
  • Adult Child: Davos is occasionally this.
  • Aerith and Bob: Some of the names are perfectly mundane. Others...not so much.
  • Affably Evil: Argus is the best example, though Kinas has his moments as well.
  • All in a Row: Given the style of art is based off of a game, it employs this.
  • All There in the Manual: Significant amounts of the backstory and setting details do not appear in the actual comic, but in the various info pages, this TV Tropes page, and even Ranger's "edit reason" comments.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Part of The Elementals and Latens backstory.
  • Aloof Big Brother: Inverted; Enlecar is the younger brother of Celaren, yet was more skilled than him.
  • Alt Text: Used every time.
  • Ambiguous Gender: As a Sprite Comic, it's hard to tell by just looking at them. However, it quickly becomes obvious who is a guy and who is a girl, with one current exception: M, who is intentionally ambiguous.
  • Ambiguously Human: Nathan Betrax is listed as "Human?" on the cast page.
  • An Axe to Grind: Tyra's weapon of choice before she used her spear-and-bow combo.
  • Anime Hair: Very commonly depicted for most of the cast.
  • Anti-Hero: The whole cast.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Sanik, post-defeat.
  • The Archer: One of Tyra's weapons of choice.
  • Arcadia: Hidenva. Argus's hometown also fits.
  • Arranged Marriage: Nathan's parents were already in a relationship when this happened for them.
  • Art Evolution: Minor, considering it's a Sprite Comic, but still noticeable between the beginning and the current art and worthy of lampshading.
  • Art Shift: Various different Concept Art pictures are given in a large variety of styles.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Ascension, achieved at Level 900, is this.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Argus looks exactly how you'd think a Fallen Hero like him would. Davos looks exactly how you'd expect a vampire would. Sasha looks a lot like how a Goblin should. Sargelooks exactly like what a Fire Warrior should. M looks a lot like the Water Mage M is. Kinas looks a lot like a Fallen Hero, as he is. Sinaer looks a lot like the gentle healer with a background in more aggressive darkness tactics.
    • Let's just say that a lot of them look exactly how you would expect them to.
    • An argument could be made for Aria and Sanik as well.
  • As You Know: Done in comic 4 in regards to M's spells.
  • The Atoner: Hank.
  • Author Avatar: Rather than using his Ranger persona—which has an avatar of its own—Brian has created an avatar in The Descended's style, and intends to use it for the mail slots.
  • Axe Crazy: Many cast members have their moments.
    • Argus is ruthless.
    • M is the worst offender of The Elementals.
    • Nathan Betrax is this when going berserk.
    • Celaren becomes this after becoming an Agent of Chaos.
  • Back From the Brink: The Battle of Helops had this for both sides. With The Elementals defeated and the forces of Helops beginning to tire, it looked like total defeat would happen... until Voss, David, and Ian unleashed their fury. This managed to wipe out nine tenths of the invading army and seriously cripple their leader, Celaren. However, Celaren managed to kill David, Ian, and Voss before leaving. Helops survived the attack, but was unable to recover and fell apart, whereas the remnants of the army were still strong enough to level Revan, Lejus, and Yeras Wharf before they died.
    • Argus had this during his fight with Chaos, who had killed two of their traveling companions and critically wounded Hank. Only after Hank stabbed Chaos from behind did Argus get a chance to counter-attack.
  • Badass Longcoat: Frequent in the concept art.
  • Bag of Holding: As characters' inventories begin to grow, they inevitably will end up needing one of these, as they show up as low as level 100. It doesn't take long before...
  • Bag of Sharing: ...It evolves into this trope, as inevitably, adventurers need to access each others' items.
  • Balance of Power: Currently leaning towards Good, since it's apparently quite difficult to get to the highest-level range as an Evil alignment.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Concept art occasionally portrays some of the girls like this, though canonically they wear armor which would not have such a gap.
  • Behind the Black: Used slightly here, where the characters don't see Sasha until we do.
  • Berserk Button: In general, it is a very bad idea to mess with any of the cast members, because each group has at least one member who reacts very negatively to seeing their companions in mental pain.
    • Argus->Davos. Physically, he doesn't mind if Davos is beaten to a pulp. Mentally mess with him, and you'd wish Argus had finished you off.
    • Sanik->Latens, especially Kinas. They may be his rivals, but he still considers them comrades; mess with them, and he will not show mercy.
    • Tyra->Sanik.
    • Sarge->Elementals. Even M. They're his comrades, and won't tolerate it.
    • Kinas->Elementals and Latens. The Elementals are his rivals, but they're still his friends. Much more so for The Latens, though; they are his group, and he does not tolerate them suffering.
    • Sinaer->Kinas, since someone has to look out for him.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Davos, Sasha, Tyra, Sarge, Sinaer, and Nathan are among the kinder half of the cast. They're also the most dangerous when they need to be.
  • Big Bad: Chaos.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Played straight with Sanik to Kinas, inverted with Enlecar, who has the instinct for his older brother, Celaren. Argus and Chaos canonically had an older brother who was like this for them until they became old enough to look out for themselves. Kinas also has the instinct towards, of all people, Nathan Betrax.
  • Black and Gray Morality: Over half of the cast is on the negative or neutral side of the alignment chart, with two of the group leaders being Chaotic Evil. They're just fighting things which are worse than them.
  • Black Eyes: Kinas's dark-gray eyes were originally envisioned this way (type 2), but Brian couldn't draw them without them being Monochromatic Eyes, which he intended to avert.
  • Black Mage: While the Fire, Ice, Lightning and Earth Elements have spells which aren't offensive, their main focus is almost entirely on offense, making any practitioner of one or two of them into this.
  • Black Magic: Exists.
  • Blade on a Stick: Davos's weapon of choice is a double-bladed staff; Tyra's weapon of choice is a spear.
  • Blatant Lies: "Those other two groups are just Cameos, right?"
    • Ranger, Brian's editing account on TV Tropes, named a notepad document with fourteen (Villain) TV Tropes links in it, "Light Reading".
  • Bloodless Carnage: While the sprite art shows characters getting wounded and damages them as they take damage, there isn't really a great deal of blood that's clearly shed.
  • Blow You Away: The Wind Element has elements of this.
  • Blue Eyes: Argus, Aria, M, Nathan, and Enlecar.
  • Bottomless Magazines: The arrow variant; archers never run out of arrows.
  • Bow and Sword in Accord: A common choice for Martial Artists. Kinas had this pre-Face Heel Turn. Tyra briefly did as well, when she was filling in for Sanik. And then Sarge had it for a while, when he was filling in for her.
  • Breast Plate: Shown on some of the concept art.
    • Slightly subverted, though—that area is the most heavily armored, but it is not the only area which is armored.
  • Broken Hero: While multiple cast members may qualify, the best example is by far Sanik. Despite his hometown being destroyed as a child and losing most of his friends and family, despite later losing his adventuring partner Celaren (who later betrays him), despite having been powerless to stop the deaths of Voss, Ian, and David, along with the destruction of his entire nation, he's actually become more heroic, as each tragedy has turned him increasingly less pragmatic.
  • Brown Eyes: The original eye color of Argus, Hank, and Chaos, representing how they started out all normal. Evolved into Blue, Gold, and Red, respectively.
  • Byronic Hero: Argus. A case could be made for Kinas as well.
  • Cain and Abel: Argus and Chaos, Enlecar and Celaren.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Pretty much everything is generally called out, but magic always is.
  • Capital City: Faragawa and Helops served this purpose in the backstory of The Elementals and The Latens.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Quite a few proudly wave off their 'evil' alignments. Kinas frequently does it for fun, but Argus is the master of the trope, doing it so well that he can convince others that his "evil way" is the best way to go.
    • Unfortunately for Argus, it also works both ways. While he's very good at convincing others about his evil (such as Sasha--Chaotic Good—having no problems following him), he still maintains some bad Lawful Good reflexes, which Aria loves to point out, lessening his evil score all the time.
  • Casting a Shadow: Darkness, particularly for Mages.
  • Character Alignment: All nine are used. However, each character tends to find ways to bend their alignment to their advantage...
    • Lawful Good: Aria (cynical), Sanik (idealist, formerly cynical), formerly Argus (idealist).
    • Neutral Good: Davos (cynical), formerly Kinas (idealist), and sometimes Tyra (middle).
    • Chaotic Good: Sasha (idealist), Sarge (middle, formerly idealist), and sometimes Tyra (middle).
    • Lawful Neutral: M (cynic, formerly middle), and sometimes Sinaer (middle).
    • True Neutral: Sinaer (somewhere between middle and idealist).
    • Chaotic Neutral: Enlec (cynic; former middle).
    • Lawful Evil: Nathan (idealist).
    • Chaotic Evil: Argus (middle), Kinas (idealist).
  • Character Classes: In an effort to keep the already-complex world a little simpler, Brian decided that Soano would only have seven classes: the base three classics (Mage, Warrior, Rogue) and their combinations (Mage and Warrior = Paladin/Death Paladin, Mage and Rogue = Woodsman, Warrior and Rogue = Martial Artist, all three = Joat).
  • Character Customization: Brian is working out the system on how to allow this; he intends for Soano to be a fully-functional game universe, meaning this is essential.
  • The Chessmaster: Many.
    • Most notably, Argus, Hank, and Chaos are considered to be in a four-way chess battle. The fourth player being The Cosmos, which all three are trying to manipulate to their advantage without getting fried.
    • Voss is also an extremely notable one. Despite him being dead at the start of the story, he managed to predict the exact way both The Elementals and The Latens (before the latter even existed) would act, equipping them with what they would need for their new lifetime of adventuring.
  • City Noir: Revan, the counterpart to Helops.
    • However, the city could have had a different fate. After Faragawa was destroyed, Argus determined that Revan and Helops were the best options for rebuilding the nation. He concluded that Helops would be best for an economic nation, but would be more vulnerable to attack. As its counterpart, Revan would guarantee the new nation that its Capital City would never fall, built both for defense and decent offense. The survivors chose Helops, but had they chosen Revan, it would have been in much better condition. In fact, had they chosen Revan, the city would have never fallen to the army of Chaos.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Multiple characters tend to be incoherent in their own ways.
    • Argus rants about tropes by name, which people tend to just shrug off.
    • Davos frequently spurts out things which sound like nonsense, though they often have basis in fact...
    • Sanik, being of the Wind Element, tends to operate on a different wave of thought.
    • Nathan, being who he is, frequently is not normal in his thought pattern, either.
    • Basically, because Brian is one, a large number of his characters take different personality traits from the trope, despite none of them being a perfect fit.
  • Color-Coded Elements: White/Gray (Wind), Green (Earth), Red (Fire), Light Blue (Ice), Yellow/Blue/Red/White, depending on alignment and power (Energy), darker Blue (Water), Golden (Light), and Black/Purple (Darkness) are the colors most frequently given for their elements, making this played absolutely straight.
    • The Elementals and Latens—being formed from the eight elements—show this color scheme perfectly.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Most magic has a color coding for good, neutral, and evil alignments, as well as coding for low-level, mid-level, and high-level.
    • The Elementals and Latens are also color-coded for their elements.
      • Sanik: Grey, Wind.
      • Sarge: Red, Fire.
      • Tyra: Green, Earth.
      • M: Blue, Water.
      • Kinas: Black, Darkness.
      • Sinaer: Golden, Light.
      • Nathan: Light Blue, Ice.
      • Enlecar: Yellow and blue: Energy.
  • Color-Coded Wizardry: Exists.
  • Combat Medic: Sasha is a Light Paladin, skilled in both healing and melee. Tyra is her team's designated healer, but is among their best fighters. Sinaer is a Light Mage, so doesn't do nearly as much fighting as Sasha or Tyra, but she used to be a Darkness Martial Artist, and therefore is more than capable of fighting when the need arises.
  • Combat Pragmatist: It'd be easier to list the members of the cast who fight fair.
  • Composite Character: All of The Elementals and Latens take from three different source materials. Most of them remained overall the same, but the two most notably different are M and (to a lesser extent) Nathan Betrax.
    • Furthermore, half of Team EVIL are combined from separate ideas.
  • Concept Art: Brian has a full gallery.
    • Combining many (but not even close to all) of the pictures, Brian formed these images:
      • Argus.
      • Aria.
      • Davos.
      • Sasha (with a note that he hasn't finished the top-right and bottom-right ones, but will fix "Frankensasha").
      • Sanik, post-defeat.
      • Sarge.
      • Tyra.
      • M's art.
      • Kinas before, Kinas after.
      • Sinaer (with a note that he hasn't finished the top-right and bottom-right ones).
      • Nathan (with a note that he hasn't finished the top-right and bottom-right ones).
      • Enlecar (with a note that he hasn't finished the top-right and bottom-right ones).
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Argus and Kinas both view the world as "out to get them". Given what they've been through, they may not be entirely wrong...
  • Continuity: Establishing a clear one is Brian's main goal.
  • Contractual Genre Blindness: All characters are required to have at least some to their surroundings, to keep the fourth wall from shattering.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: It'd be easier to list the cast members who aren't.
  • Cool Old Guy: Technically, Argus.
    • Voss and Kinas's/Sinaer's mentors also fit, being older than even Argus.
  • Cool Helmet: Sarge's helmet is one.
  • Cool Sword: Sarge's Flame Sword and Nathan's Dual Katanas certainly are.
    • Argus has one as well.
  • The Corrupter: Chaos has become one. Celaren basically did this to The Latens, albeit not directly. And Argus technically is one as well, able to convince even Sasha (well...most of the time, anyway) that the way of evil is perfectly fine.
  • Crazy Prepared: Argus, having lived through life once already, is well-prepared for pretty much anything he encounters, since he's encountered it before and knows exactly how to deal with it.
    • Voss, in the Elementals' backstory, was this. He was so skilled that he prepared for his own death and the death of his old friends, knew exactly how and why The Elementals would be defeated, gave them all new equipment, and wished Kinas well on creating The Latens, something which happened after his death.
  • Critical Existence Failure: As an RPG, you'd expect this to be played straight, but characters begin to notably wear down in battles, becoming scarred and damaged.
  • Curse Cut Short: "Ah, $&--"
  • Curtains Match the Window: Extremely common with The Elementals and The Latens. Sanik (Gray), Sarge (Red), Tyra (Green), M (Blue), and Nathan (Light Blue) all play it completely straight. Kinas (dark gray eyes, black hair), Sinaer (purple eyes, black hair, yellow eye, yellow streaks), and Enlecar (yellow eye, blue eye, yellow streaks, blue streaks) all contain the spirit of the trope as well.
    • Some Concept Art depics Davos's black hair as being extremely dark crimson, making him fit into this trope as well.
  • Cut and Paste Environments: Averted—Brian decided to just forgo backgrounds entirely. However...
  • Cut and Paste Comic: He still suffers quite a bit from this.
    • Only slightly justified by the art being based on a game.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Davos has them, much to his chagrin.
  • Cute Monster Girl: All of The Outcasts except for Argus aren't human.


D-H

  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: In general, gods tend to be (they do, after all, canonically have access to TV Tropes). However, dealing with specific cast members...
    • Argus, having traveled the land before and briefly been a god, knows his situation pretty well.
      • It runs in the family as well. Chaos managed to become such a dangerous threat and cheat death by averting many of the weaknesses most villains possess. And many of them that he has like saving his brother for last he is well aware are weaknesses.
      • It really runs in the family. Jason Cedric Strat, a simple shopkeeper and Argus's nephew, has the ability to one-hit kill gods.
    • Voss was, even predicting his own death.
    • Hank shares Argus's and Chaos's experiences, having been in their trio, and has the advantage of having remained a god, making him the best of all.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: The whole cast!
  • The Dark Arts: The Darkness element has the typical negative connotations given to it, but is no more evil than any other element. It has its reputation because—along with the Water element—it's one of the main elements of deception, making its users less trustworthy.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Darkness element is not evil. However, many evil-aligned players prefer it, as it is one of the most helpful elements for them, along with Water, Wind, and...Light.
  • Dead to Begin With: Voss, Ian, and David.
    • While not 'dead', Hank is ascended at the start of the story.
  • Death Glare: Not too uncommon; seen as early as comic 5.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: How many of The Elementals and The Latens came to join their group.
  • Designated Hero: Argus and Kinas. Sanik used to count, but now truly is one.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: While Brian still likes Sanik and The Elementals, having fleshed them out to have rich backstories, he likes the other groups and their leaders more.
  • Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Voss was a master. He created all of The Elementals and The Latens current equipment.
  • Deus Ex Machina: The Elementals and Latens run on them, as Enlecar points out.
    • Argus by himself might as well count, since he once was a god and intervenes frequently.
    • Gods in general are not allowed to directly interfere with the mortal realm of Soano, but are permitted to do a little manipulation here and there, justifying many of the Deus Ex Machina situations.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Argus can choose to hide himself rather effectively, although most of the times, he makes no effort to hide who he really is.
    • Word of God is that he learned the trick from Chaos, who fit the trope far better.
  • Dirty Coward: Rogues are supposed to be played this way. Aria's refusal to do so is what got her killed.
    • Hank mostly played it straight, though as an adventuring companion to Argus when Argus was Lawful Good, he picked up a few bad habits from time to time...
  • Dishing Out Dirt: The Earth Element is largely made up of this.
  • Doomed Hometown: Twice in The Elementals and Latens backstory.
  • The Dragon: In their character pages, Sinaer or Nathan are called this to Kinas, because their group is rival counterparts to The Elementals.
    • Celaren is one to the Big Bad, Chaos.
  • The Dreaded: Chaos has become this.
  • Dual-Wielding: Aria (daggers), Nathan Betrax (katanas), and Enlecar (Sword-and-dagger) all count.
  • Dump Stat: In the backstory, the Power Trio covers nine of the ten stats as strong points. Their universal Dump Stat? Wisdom. Hilarity Ensues, since they were clueless idiots.
    • Each character except for Argus has one, but the only one Brian has made official is that Nathan's is Wisdom.
  • Dungeon Crawl: How the series opens for The Elementals and The Latens.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: All evil-aligned characters become this over time, as a Shout-Out to Fable. However, Davos (as a vampire) has it naturally.
    • Sinaer has gained it as well, although her hair isn't pure black.
  • Elemental Eye Colors: Sanik (Wind) has Gray, Sarge (Fire) has Red, Tyra (Earth) has Green, M (Water) has Blue, Kinas (Darkness) has Dark Gray/Black, Sinaer (Light, former Darkness) has Yellow and Purple, Nathan (Ice) has Blue, and Enlecar (Energy) has Blue/Yellow.
  • Elemental Powers: While Brian had considered using pretty much every single one listed in there (and then some), he decided to eventually settle on a simpler Eight-Element system. Combinations make it complex enough.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: For the base-eight,
    • Energy electrocutes Water.
    • Water extinguishes Fire.
    • Fire melts Ice.
    • Ice absorbs/deflects Light.
    • Light vanquishes Darkness.
    • Darkness consumes Wind.
    • Wind beats Earth.
    • Earth nullifies Energy.
  • Emo Teen: Argus may not be that mental age (being well over 60), but his physical age was reset when he nerfed himself. Given his alignment change, this was how he was for a while.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Argus and therefore Chaos as well had an older brother, who died of old age. His son—Argus's nephew—is still alive.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Especially those on the idealistic side of the scale. Among others:
    • Argus is (theoretically) ruthless, but cares for his companions.
    • Kinas is Chaotic Evil, but still maintains a great deal of his code from his days on the other side of the spectrum.
    • Nathan Betrax is Pragmatic and Lawful Evil, but has a set of codes he follows.
    • Chaos didn't want to harm Argus (or at the very least, wanted to kill him last) because of their relationship.
      • The same applies to Celaren, who didn't really wish to kill Enlecar.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: A small part of Davos's backstory as part of his Unwanted Harem.
  • Evil Albino: As a Shout-Out to Fable, evil-aligned characters gain pale skin.
  • Evil Counterpart: All of the Latens technically are this to The Elementals, but their leader, Kinas, shows this strongest.
    • Team EVIL is built to be one for The Outcasts.
  • Evil Eye: Argus has one red eye hidden behind his Peek-a-Bangs hair.
  • Evil Pays Better: Variant—it's not Evil which pays better; being cynical on the "third wheel" makes the character play their alignment most effectively to its standard.
    • Also subverted with quality of life. When it comes to quality of life, it's neither cynical nor idealistic characters who have it best; it's those in the middle.
  • Experience Points: The maximum number is 999,999: more than any other stat in the game. Brian's still working out how the levels are applied exactly, but he knows that 999,999 experience gets someone to level 999.
  • Exponential Potential: Brian had this problem initially with the class/element system; he calculated that he needed to create 259 individual combinations. After a simplification or two, he's managed to cut it down to 27.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Argus and Kinas both gained Peek-a-Bangs (Argus moreso than Kinas).
  • Expy: Argus is one for Aldran, from Anti-Heroes; it was the foundation of the comic. M became one for Vaarsuvius, from The Order of the Stick, though M didn't start as one.
  • Eyes of Gold: Kinas, pre-Face Heel Turn. Sinaer has one as well, post-defeat.
    • Enlecar has one as well.
    • Sasha also has them.
  • Face Heel Turn: All of The Latens dropped at least a ring or two on the alignment spectrum, Kinas the most. Argus is the most extreme example, having gone from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil.
    • In general, one need only look at the title of the webcomic to see why this trope is common yet its counterpart is nowhere to be found.
  • Face Palm: A very frequent occurrence.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Justified in The Elementals and The Latens backstory: the army of Chaos was capable of attacking Helops directly and catching them off-guard because they specifically chose to avoid harming so much as a single village on their way, whereas most armies sent to destroy or conquer Helopia wasted their time attacking villages near the boarder of the nation.
    • Faragawa fell through the same tactic, as it was orchestrated by the same man.
    • Argus's failing of one is how Sasha is introduced.
  • Fallen Hero: It's not called "The Descended" for nothing; the whole cast is a fallen hero of some degree or another.
    • The most literal example would be Argus, falling from godhood and Lawful Good to level 1 and Chaotic Evil.
    • However, the best fit for the trope would be Kinas, who of all characters took his fall the hardest.
  • Fantastic Nuke: Level 3 spells in offensive elements tend to act this way; they are the most powerful spells available, and the strongest of them can typically kill anything.
  • Fantasy World Map: Brian is Genre Savvy enough to know that making a map for the whole world is beyond his scale, but he's working on making one for at least a few countries, having created a partial map.
    • The source material for The Elementals had a partially-finished map, showing the starting continent, but did not include the rest of the world which Brian had planned. Many features within, however, are being adapted into canon. While the geography has been changed significantly and the backstories behind each place have been altered entirely, they all have clear origins from the map.
      • The whole nation was originally Faradia (capital: Farad), split into two nations, the eastern one Helia from Helios. This became Fargawania (Faragawa)/Helopia (Helops).
      • Nature Valley was a city spanning the whole forest, but had the "city" of "Nature Valley Entrance". It became Natur Hub, part of the Natur Forest.
      • Pyre Village was next to the Great Pyre, inside the Garlos Mountains. The Garlos Mountains and the Great Pyre merged, creating the Syr Mountains.
      • Eros, Rival city of Helios, became Revan, rival city of Helops.
      • Tube City became Wevan, a Floating Continent.
      • Korus became Lejus.
      • Mire Lake (with a village of the same name) became W'tyr Lake, with a village of the same name.
      • Hovership Lane got moved inside the Sand Geysers, and was transformed into a simple residence rather than full-blown town.
      • Yu'Mas Wharf became Yeras Wharf.
      • The Western Continent had elements merged into the rival nation of Aqiria.
  • Faux Action Girl: Tyra and Sinaer; unusual for the trope, it's intentional.
  • Flip-Flop of God: Brian's working on getting things more consistent to stop this from happening.
    • "Or, at least, from happening more often..."
  • Floating Continent: A few exist throughout Soano; most notably, Wevan.
  • Warrior, Mage, Rogue: The base three classes.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Adding in Earth, they make up the four offensive elements.
  • Fish Out of Water: Variant. Argus spent either too long or too short in the company of gods, ocasionally being blind to tropes he really should have seen coming.
    • The Elementals and Latens are a better example: they are used to adventuring at Level 100, not Level 15, and many have switched classes, still adjusting to the changes they've made.
  • Five-Man Band: Averted—all the main groups appearing are four-member bands.
  • Four Is Death: There are four main groups, and each of them has four members.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Naturally.
  • Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Brian intends to do one sometime in the future. He even made a sprite of himself.
  • Freaky Is Cool: The idea behind The Outcasts.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Davos, unwillingly.
  • Functional Magic: Has pretty much most of the different types.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Team EVIL.
    • The name of the land partially counts. Soano is short for Something Or Another.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Voss.
  • Game Breaker: Anyone who has been sent back to a lower level tends to fare better overall, due to them maintaining the items and Wisdom Scores from said levels.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Addressed by Brian, expecting this.

"Being stabbed in the back during combat? Minor inconvenience. Being stabbed in the back outside of combat? Won't kill you Aeris-style, but will cause far more damage than should be possible."

  • Gargle Blaster: Whenever Kinas orders a drink, he prefers these. And can chug down three or four of them without ill effect.
  • Generation Xerox: Original canon material had Argus as this, following in the footsteps of the Strat's long line of adventurers.
    • revised canon reversed this, making Argus and Chaos the first of his family to go adventuring, with his older brother continuing the family tradition and his nephew carrying it on.
      • Current canon is that both are true: The Strats are a long line of adventurers who have it In the Blood, but that they settle down, retire, and try to have their children avoid the horrors that they face and discourage the lifestyle by telling them that nobody in the long line of Strats has been an adventurer.
    • The Elementals and Latens have become this as well.
  • Genius Bruiser: Most Paladins are this, as they require extensive knowledge of magic while still performing exceptionally in combat.
    • Master Joats at a high enough level are all pretty much this. The two most notable are Argus (though he prefers magic) and Voss (though he's dead).
  • Genre Savvy: It's canonical that Gods have access to TV Tropes. This combined with their experience means they naturally tend to know what's coming.
  • Gentle Giant: Davos, Sarge, and Voss all filled this role.
  • GIS Syndrome: Averted, in favor of White Void Room instead.
  • Global Currency: Gold.
  • Glowing Eyes: While many characters have sprites with Glowing Eyes due to Brian's art style, in-universe, Argus and Aria are the only main characters who have them all the time.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Magical characters get this all the time. Higher-leveled characters get alignment-based variations, blue for good, red for evil, and orange for neutral. Characters who have switched elements and/or alignments tend to frequently maintain one eye from each side, meaning that when their eyes shift fully to one side, it is never a good sign.
    • Argus is the best example. If his Hidden Eye glows blue, you're dead. If his Hidden Eye glows red, you'll wish you were. If both eyes go red, you're deader than dead.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Argus has them from time to time.
    • In a subversion, since Argus is Chaotic Evil, the 'Good Angel' has to do his best to try and convince Argus that the 'good' option is actually the best 'evil' thing he can do.
  • Good Counterpart: The Elementals to The Latens.
  • Good Is Not Nice: While a few good-aligned characters are, most are not.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Most of the cast is shown in Concept Art as being battered and otherwise broken in some manner or another. It is noticeably worse on the characters who are "evil", with one exception: Argus.
  • Good Versus Evil: When it comes to ascension, there can't be too many good gods or too many evil gods; the two have to roughly be equal in numbers.
  • Good Wings, Evil Wings: Gained in the upper-hundreds. The latter also comes with an optional tail.
  • Gray Eyes: Sanik has the "innocense" type. Kinas post-Face Heel Turn also fits, as type two.
  • Graphics Induced Super Deformed: Averted with Aria; her head really is that big.
  • Green Eyes: Tyra.
  • Green Lantern Ring: Since Soano runs on game mechanics, it has strict rules for everything. The most successful characters are the ones who can bend the limits of spells to their advantage, utilizing them in ways they were not meant to be.
    • Items also serve this purpose: Brian has stated that everything in Soano is governed by rules, except for items. Since they have no limit on them (other than how many can be equipped at the same time), they can do anything.

"Nine times out of ten, if the rules of an item conflict with the rules of Soano, the item wins."

  • Green Thumb: While Earth's specialty is Dishing Out Dirt, this is within its element.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: And "guys cast spells to attack, girls cast spells to keep the guys from dying". Both Tyra and Sinaer receive the least amount of damage in their respective groups, due to their role as The Medic. Neither has any problem with it.
  • Half Truth: Argus gives them all the time.
  • Hair of Gold: Any character who has gotten to a high enough level with a good alignment will develop this. Kinas's original hair color, however, was this completely naturally.
  • The Hero: Argus used to fit the type. Sanik fit it decently pre-defeat, but only truly grew into the role post-defeat. Kinas used to fit the mold about as well as Sanik, but is anything but post-defeat.
  • The Hero Dies: Sanik performed a Heroic Sacrifice, leaving The Elementals like this for some time (until he got better).
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Back when he fit the type, Kinas did.
    • This is also Sarge's, Sasha's, and Enlecar's weapon of choice, though none of them are the "main" party member.
  • Heroic Albino: Subverted. While Argus is (technically) evil, he is the center of the plot, and still performs a great many heroic acts, but has become pale with his alignment.
    • Davos is also a subversion: while he is heroic and pale, he hates being good, but is compelled to do good regardless.
    • Aria's another subversion. While she is often drawn as being pale, she's not.

"One thing you’ll note is her color—it’s displayed as pale in all the art, but that’s not technically true: she’s actually the most normal of the cast color-wise canonically. It’s just that she’s partially see-through, which gives her a certain aura. Notice how she has this kind-of ghostly glow? Now imagine that, and with her skin slightly transparent—you know, ghost-like. Her skin’s perfectly fine, but the aura around her and her slightly transparent nature give the illusion of a lighter skin color. I know, I know, it sounds like this is all a bunch of BS to justify why she is drawn with a white head/hands, and that you’re screaming “lazy artist!”, so I’ll admit: that’s half true! If I were to draw backgrounds, they’d show partially through Aria, but since I’m too lazy most of the time to draw a background, it’s de facto white so you never see this effect. So, yeah…the effect will likely never see the light of day in-comic, but it is how I envisioned her—slightly transparent, with an aura surrounding her, but looking mostly normal otherwise. (Note—her transparency and aura disappear when using the Amulet of Solidification at its full power, since it makes her look and act effectively human.)"

    • The Latens are similar subversions to Argus, in that they're far from heroic, but still do good.
    • Basically, the only group to play the trope straight is The Elementals, post-defeat.
  • Heroic BSOD: While all The Elementals and The Latens suffered one post-defeat, The Latens took it particularly hard, with Kinas taking it worst of all.
  • Heroic Fantasy: Follows this perfectly.
  • Heroic Neutral: As a Chaotic Neutral adventurer, Kinas has shades of this—he doesn't like working with others, but having people he knows and trust work for him seems to be fine.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Voss, David, and Ian all made one in The Elementals and Latens backstory.
  • Heroic Sociopath: For loose definition of 'heroic', Argus definitely counts, as do The Latens, M, and in battle, Sarge.
  • Hero of Another Story: Sanik and Kinas come across like this, to Argus and The Outcasts.
  • Hidden Elf Village: Hidenva serves this purpose.
  • Hidden Eyes: Argus has one. Kinas has a partial example.
  • History Repeats: The fate of Helops is identical to the fate of Faragawa. Only this time, things ended up far, far worse. Justified, in that they were orchestrated by the same man.
  • Hit Points: Shown as an HP bar whenever things get bad.
  • Holding Out for a Hero: Averted; being a fantasy setting, most towns know how to defend themselves. It's just that when faced against the army of Chaos, which even at a mere tenth of its strength is still large, even leaderless was clever enough to outmaneuver their opponents, and even weakened, were still fierce in battle. With a little sabotage from the inside, a lot of help isolating cities and cutting them off from each other, preventing supplies from getting in, some corrupting of the land, and all the time in the world because no hero would be coming, they managed to destroy almost every city in Helopia.
  • Honor Before Reason: Lawful and Good alignments suffer this most frequently. Lawful Stupid and Good Is Dumb both exist. In general, idealists fall into this far more often than cynical characters do.
  • Holy Halo / Horned Humanoid: Gained at the same time as the wings are.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Celaren was one for The Elementals and The Latens. Chaos almost was one for Argus.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: It's not the webcomic's slogan for no reason; every single character has experienced really bad falls, hero or antagonist.
  • Ho Yay / Les Yay: Averted—all characters are heterosexual, unless otherwise stated.
  • Humanity Ensues: Aria's ultimate goal.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Kinas has come to believe this. Argus has a minor version—most gods are ascended humans, and he thinks this of gods.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: By the lower hundreds, this is a necessity in adventuring.
  • Hypocrite: A few cast members have taken actions in direct confliction with their stated beliefs. Most commonly, it is to show that these characters are not who they once were.


I-P

  • An Ice Person: Ice, a universally-offensive element.
  • Ill Guy: Celaren was consistently sick while he was an adventurer, but carried on anyway.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Celaren, AKA, The Agent Of Chaos, Enlecar's brother, had a rather bad case of this. When it became Blood From the Mouth during times it should not have been (during adventures, not unusual. When resting, extremely unusual), it forced him into a hospital.
  • Infinite Canvas: Brian has a bad habit of utilizing this a little too much, making comics longer than they should be. It got to ridiculous extremes in the revised comic six, an "early Sunday Strip". He is working on making the comics shorter overall, liking the length of 2 (four panels) and 1 (eight panels) more than the longer ones.
    • That said, he does recognize when a comic panel is "too crowded", with not enough room in it to work with. This is one of the main reasons many of the revised comics have more panels than they did originally; it gives Brian more room to draw all he needs to.
  • Informed Equipment: Very little of characters' equipment actually shows in their sprite art.
  • In Medias Res: The beginning of the series takes place after most of the characters have lived a significant portion of their lives, a great deal of which are to be featured in flashbacks. And even assuming that characters' timelines start at their own personal Descent:
    • Argus has gained a fairly large number of levels since his nerf.
    • Aria has been a Ghost for a number of years, and tagged up with Argus for a few months before the first comic.
    • Davos joined Aria a couple weeks before comic # 1.
    • Sasha has been living in the village for quite a few years.
    • The Elementals and Latens have gained 15% of their levels back already, and begin the comic already at the start of an adventure, rather than at the point they begin planning one.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes / Icy Blue Eyes: Nathan fits both.
    • Enlecar's blue eye fits into the Icy category. As do M's.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Argus is technically well over 60. Aria died young, but has been a ghost for an unknown number of years. Davos is in his 20s. And Sasha's middle-aged for a Goblin.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: The series starts with one:

"Almost every quest begins in a dungeon. Really, who does Dungeon Crawls these days?" Elsewhere, At A Dungeon: "Adventure Away!"

  • It's All About Me: Kinas tends to take this attitude. To some extent, Argus has it as well.
  • It's a Small World After All: Big time.
  • Jack of All Stats: Joats—if done well—are this. If done poorly, they're Masters Of None. If they get powerful enough, they may take this trope to its next level.
  • Jerkass: A large portion of the cast.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: ...However, most of them are actually this, having sympathy for others.
  • Jerkass Facade: While a large portion of the cast care deeply for each other but still act like Jerks, there are two characters who act like a Jerk despite not being one. Hank is one of them.
  • Jerkass Gods: As far as Argus is concerned.
  • Kaleidoscope Eyes: Eye color can change with any number of events, most frequently, alignment.
    • Eye color tends to naturally shift towards brighter colors when good, and darker colors when evil.
    • At higher levels, characters universally have blue eyes, golden eyes, or red eyes, regardless of original eye color.
    • Argus has one blue eye and one red eye, despite neither being his natural eye color. Kinas's original eye color was golden, shifting to dark gray post-Face Heel Turn. Sinaer had one of her purple eyes turn gold.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Nathan's weapons of choice, dual-wielded.
  • Knife Nut: A rogue's signature weapon; Aria is the best example.
    • Sanik and Kinas to some extent count, as their signature light daggers are there weapon of choice when not using magic.
  • Lack of Empathy: M is the best example. Kinas and Nathan Betrax are both examples as well.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Argus, having been a god for a brief period of time, knows his tropes. The characters, aware that Soano works on game mechanics, have a certain level of awareness. However, nobody quite trumps Nathan Betrax, the designated lampshade hanger and Captain Obvious of the cast.
  • Lazy Artist: The comic's art is redesigned from a 2-D game Brian was making (meant to be a cheap knockoff of a 3-D game he was designing), so the Sprite nature is an intentional stylistic choice rather than him choosing it due to lack of artistic skill (he manages to put a lot of emotion into the sprites), but him not making backgrounds counts as this.
    • He's rather vocal about the subject.

"And, finally, Why no scenery? HAVE YOU SEEN HOW *CENSORED!* LONG IT TAKES TO DO SCENERY?!? By Lorithia, it takes FOREVER! Now, even if I copy and pasted scenery from every single panel, I still have to draw it once! And, believe me, it's harder than you think, unless you've done it before. I sure was caught by surprise. What scenery I try to add often fails, and if it DOESN'T fail, then it'll still take a long time.
I can always edit it and upload it again with the scenery. But I've found that I can do one or two of these a day without the scenery--adding it in, and--like College--these will probably take weeks to months each. I don't want that.
If someone requests scenery, I will edit the comic the request is in to have scenery added in. Otherwise, I won't do it, unless I've got a serious case of Writers' Block. And with the material I have planned, I doubt that'll happen for rather some time. (Seriously, I've planned weeks ahead.) So, want scenery? ASK.

  • Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Inverted; Fargawania/Helopia is a Right-Justified map; they have an ocean to their east/right and mountains covering their northern and western boarders, separating them from their rival nation.
  • The Legions of Hell: Instead of just one demonic dimension, there are several. The primary one is the largest, because it's the only group smart enough to never launch a full-scale invasion: instead, they just perform an occasional raid. Their complex plans were laid out by Argus here.
    • Of note, none of them are "Hell". There is an underworld, divided up loosely into the different alignment sections. (Certain areas of the afterlife are open to multiple alignments, since a lot of families and friends have differing alignments.) While technically underground, the afterlife is not a bad place to be in. It's just not as good as The Heavens, where Gods reside after they have Ascended.
  • Light'Em Up: The Light Element has some of this, particularly for Warriors.
  • Light Is Not Good: While many characters using Light are positively-aligned, smarter evil-characters (knowing they'll get hurt more often than heroes) have a tendency to use it just as often.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Currently, there are three known groups of three in the comic. Word of God is that another team of Four will soon be appearing—and this is all just for the protagonists. He says there's an equal number of antagonists.
  • Luck Stat: One of the ten stats.
  • MacGuffin: Any item from a sufficiently-powerful player used by a lower-level player becomes this. These are also what many of the adventurers seek to gain.
  • Magical Girl Warrior: Sasha, literally, as a Paladin is this.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Brian's currently working on making consistent rules for Soano, enough to make it a viable gaming world.
  • Magic Knight: Paladins and Death (evil-aligned) Paladins are this.
  • Magnetic Hero: Argus and Sanik—both veteran adventurers—have a talent for this. Kinas has it to a lesser degree.
  • Making a Splash: Some Water techniques.
  • Mana Meter: Literally, whenever a spell is cast.
  • Hachimaki: One appears on most of the cast members' descriptions, and is almost-universally portrayed in Concept Art.
    • Kinas and Sanik are subversions: they wear what effectively is a ring around their head, but because it's difficult to portray, it frequently is shown as a Hachimaki instead.
  • Master of Illusion: The Darkness element is mainly this.
  • Meaningful Name: Several.
    • Word of God says that Argus's full name, Aria's full name, and Davos's full name were all chosen to reflect elements of their characters.
    • Gold->Light.
    • Sanik->Sonic, Archer->His old weapon, Ronado->Tornado.
    • Tyra->Terra, Earth.
    • Spark->Fire.
    • M->Mage.
    • Sinaer->Darkness.
    • Nathan->Ninja, Betrax->Berserker.
    • Enlecar->arch, electricity, and Energy.
    • David Smith has a dayjob as a blacksmith, forging equipment for adventurers.
    • Ian Oman is fond of giving cryptic hints when sending people on quests.
    • Let's just say that almost the entire cast has names which are somehow relevant to who they are.
  • Meanwhile Back At The: Used just as often as Meanwhile Scene; Brian frequently transitions between the three groups.
  • Meanwhile Scene: Used just as often as Meanwhile Back At The.
  • Meat Shield: Warriors tend to be built this way.
  • The Medic: The "Light" element is not entirely made up of this, but healing is the core focus of it.
  • The Mentor: Voss was this for Enlecar. His travel companions were Sinaer's and Kinas's. All three inspired Argus as well.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: All three of them died in a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Methuselah Syndrome: Adventurers—humans included—can live well beyond their years.
  • Midnight Blue Eyes: Aria.
    • Argus has one as well.
  • Milking the Giant Cow: Brian is a fan of this, in real life, as Ranger, and in the comics: many of the characters display the exaggerations typical of the trope, most notably, Argus.
  • Mind Control Eyes: The swirly variant.
  • Mismatched Eyes: Multiple cast members have them for various reasons.
    • Argus (Blue and Red) has them for his switch from Lawful Good (Blue) to Chaotic Evil (Red).
    • Sinaer (Purple and Yellow) has them for her switch from Darkness Marital Artist (Purple) to Light Mage (Yellow).
    • Enlecar (Blue and Yellow) has had them since birth, as he is an Energy Martial Artist.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: While all nine alignments are clearly defined, many characters tend to find ways of bending their alignments slightly.
  • MS Paint: He doesn't need to use anything more advanced.

"The game's sprites were made in Paint, the comic should continue to be made in Paint, got that?!?"

  • Mysterious Past: While most of the cast has it, Argus is the king of this trope, having countless years of adventuring experience ready to come back and bite him the second time through.
  • Naive Newcomer: Anyone with a low Wisdom stat is this.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Chaos.
  • Never Gets Drunk: Rogues and Mages have abilities which allow them to become immune to toxins, making them have this. Warriors have it as a built-in ability.
  • New Game+: Argus considers himself to have this, The Elementals and The Latens also have a slightly more minor version.
  • Nice Guy: Few and far between, but still existing.
    • Sasha is the most kind member of The Outcasts.
    • The Elementals are almost entirely this, though never at the same time—Tyra's the default, Sanik frequently fills in for her when she's not, and when neither is, Sarge is the guy to go to.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Cynical Chaotic Evil characters see the world as their playthings, as just toys which can easily be broken and replaced, ultimately having no meaning.
  • Noodle Incident: Argus and Aria have an endless debate about "the cart incident", which we have yet to see. Word of God is that he fully intends to show it, but hasn't worked out a good place to do so, making it fall into this.
  • Not So Different: A few characters have changed their alignments to be...similar or identical to the alignments of those they hate. It does not go unnoticed.
  • Not Quite Dead: Chaos.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: This is how Chaos managed to hide himself for so long.
  • The Obi-Wan: Voss, Ian, and David all had this.
    • Voss, having left recordings even after his death is the strongest, though.
  • Occult Blue Eyes: Argus's single blue eye may count.
  • Oh My Gods: Normal characters say this. Gods, already being Gods, aren't going to say, "Oh my me", so instead say "COSMOS".
    • Argus, having briefly been a god, picked up this habit as well.
  • Old Master: Voss, Ian, and David (though only Ian looked the part). Since he's now training Davos, Argus counts as well.
  • The Omniscient: Gods in general. The plot-related ones are Hank and Chaos, with Argus also having similar potential.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: M is the most obvious, but David Smith was called "The Blacksmith", and Ian Oman was called "The Old Man".
    • Chaos is called by his nickname. Though, technically, it's an acronym of his real name, Cedric Hector Aostrat.
    • The Agent of Chaos has a real name, Celaren, but is never called as such, due to his fall.
  • Older Than They Look: Argus is the most obvious example. Aria may count as well. Voss and David were also examples.
  • Order Versus Chaos: Whereas Good Versus Evil has a "cosmic balance" and can't tip too far to one side when it comes to ascension, this is actually averted for Gods; there is no similar scale for Order and Chaos, due to a loophole/paradox involving how the act of balancing them out itself tips the scales towards order.
  • Orphaned Series: Averted, despite the last update having been January 2010—Brian on the forums as Ranger described it as essentially this:

I'm determined. While I tend to procrastinate (see below), I never truly give up. I have that will to keep on going.
I'm an Eternal Procrastinator. This drags me down so much. A promise to get something done will eventually be fulfilled, but by the time it is, the value in it has mostly been lost. If I work on Guest Art for someone who leaves the site, for example, unless that Guest Art brings 'em back, it's a mostly-wasted effort whereas had I done it before it might not have been.

True to his word, Brian never lets his project die. While he might put them on long-term hold, he never forgets them, and his work on The Descended continues, even if the comic itself hasn't.
  • One Degree of Separation: Revealed in the full version of characters' backstories; nearly the entire cast is tied to one or two individuals, mainly, Argus's brother, Chaos and his Agent, Enlecar's brother.
  • One of Us: Quite obviously, Brian is. However, it's canonical that Gods have access to TV Tropes as well.
  • Only One Name: Multiple characters do not have full names, as Brian has not thought of what their full name would be.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Brian has declared it to be a very complicated system, which he plans to elaborate on at a later date.
  • Palette Swap: There are three styles of clothing—robes, plate armor, and leather armor. Every character has one of these three, with the only difference being their colors.
    • Justified, however, by the fact that there are only three Base classes, each with their respective clothing choices, and even those who multiclass have a strong preference to one of their sides.
    • Slightly less justified with the re-use of hair, however. While each hairstyle IS made more unique than each armor, they're still similar.
  • Parental Substitute: Argus occasionally acts as one for Davos. Each team also has a female cast member who acts as the Team Mom, keeping the rest of the team from getting into too much trouble.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: Shown on the artwork for Argus, Sanik, Kinas, and Nathan. Argus's covers his whole eye; Kinas's covers half of his eye; Sanik and Nathan's are aversions; their hair doesn't cover the eyes at all, despite hanging down.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Sanik post-defeat is generally shown to be this (more idealistic than he was), with Kinas often being this pre-defeat (more idealistic than Sanik was). Tyra, Sasha, and Sinaer frequently display this as well.
  • Personality Powers: Sanik's slightly whimsical (Wind), Sarge is a little confrontational (Fire), M is coldly logical (Water), and Tyra is strong, yet calming (Earth).
    • In general, Water users tend to be distant and calculating, as Mages specialize in manipulation, Warriors in conservation, and Rogues in sabotage; Light users tend to be heroic, as Mages specialize in healing, Warriors in duty, and Rogues in confusion and charm; Darkness users tend to be villainous, as Mages specialize in deceptive illusions, Warriors specialize in passion, and Rogues specialize in stealth; Wind users tend to be airheads, but when it matters, helpful, as Mages specialize in Buffs/Debuffs, Warriors in opportunism, and Rogues in support; Fire users tend to be aggressive, as the element focuses on attack power, Ice users tend to be snappy, as the element focuses on speed; Energy users tend to be stubborn and defiant, as the element focuses on willpower and outlasting the enemy; Earth users tend to be calm and in control, as the element focuses on keeping hold on the situation.
  • Petal Power: While the Earth Element is primarily Dishing Out Dirt, there is no "Nature" element, and so, this falls under Earth's domain as well.
  • Playing with Fire: The Fire Element, naturally.
  • Pixel Art Comic: Probably technically more accurate. Brian considers it to be a Sprite Comic because it's all modified art for a game, just one never finished—but because he was the one who made said game in the first place, a lot points to it better fitting as this.
  • Player Party: The Outcasts, The Elementals, and The Latens.
  • Pocket Dimension: As a Fantasy setting, Soano is filled with these.
  • Point Build System: Ten per level.
  • Port Town: Yeras Wharf, Nathan Betrax's home city.
  • Power Floats: Obviously, people of the Wind Element have this when casting certain buffs like "Hover", but all magic users actively casting spells have minor resistance to gravity.
  • Power Glows: Magical spells make the user's hands glow.
  • Power Gives You Wings: And the Halo/Horns.
  • The Power of Friendship: Pretty much the only universally redeeming character trait in the cast. If not for their friendships with each other, a lot of the cast (The Latens in particular) would be far worse people than they are now.
  • Powers That Be: The Cosmos are considered to be this. It's unknown if they really exist or not. The way it's described is basically this: "humans tend to say, 'Oh, Gods', praying/cursing to/at a higher power. When they become that higher power, what do they believe in, then? What could be greater than a God? That greater force is what they call The Cosmos, a force which nobody can mess with and have it end well. (Though manipulating it is possible...)"
  • Power Trio: While all the groups in the present are made up of four-member groups, the backstory features a core trio consisting of Argus, Hank, and Chaos.
    • Three Plus Two: During their "final battle" before ascension, their adventuring party was this. The three above were also traveling with two others, one of them Davos's father and the other, Hank's Love Interest. Chaos killed both of them before they knew what hit them, but failed to kill Hank.
    • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Chaos as the Brawn, with Argus and Hank sharing traits of Brains and Beauty.
    • Comic Trio: Who filled what role depends on the situation. In towns, Argus was the Only Sane Man. During adventures, it'd frequently be Chaos, with Argus as the leader and Hank as the follower.
    • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Hank (Fire+Light), Argus (Lightning+Wind), and Chaos (Ice+Darkness) fit this fairly well.
  • Prestige Class: Martial Artists (Warrior+Rogue), (Death) Paladins (Warrior+Mage), Woodsmen (Rogue+Mage), and Master (All) aren't this at lower levels: characters are penalized fairly heavily for multiclassing. However, at Level 300, the penalty for multiclassing once is removed (and the class should be maxed out already), meaning they can "upgrade" to a mixture of two classes free of penalty.
  • The Protagonist: Argus. Sanik, Hero of Another Story, is one as well. Kinas has become another.
  • Psychic Powers: Some of them are Elemental Powers, others are given by items or racial bonuses.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: Aria can do this rather effectively.
  • Purple Eyes: Sinaer used to have two, though now has Mismatched Eyes.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: Sanik tried to after his defeat. He was mildly successful.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: How The Elementals and The Latens eventually 'won' their fight with Celaren. There's a reason everything they do is divided into "pre-defeat" and "post-defeat"; their victory was anything but.


R-Z

  • Rage Against the Heavens: Argus's motivation.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: All of the groups have this to some degree, but it is most obvious in The Outcasts.
  • The Rant: Brian's forum personality is known for Rambling. He is no exception, even in his webcomic. He tends to keep it more polite than a Rant, but when it comes to scenery...
  • Razor Wind: The Wind Element has some attacks of this nature, particularly, from Warriors.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Voss, David, and Ian.
  • Redemption Quest: The Elementals and Latens embark on quests mainly to deal with the consequences of their failure at The Battle of Helops.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Evil-aligned characters who get to a high enough level gain these. Argus has one, hidden behind his hair.
    • Subverted with Sarge—he has the eyes, and is the main combatant for The Elementals (making him a large threat), but he is not the most dangerous member of the team overall, and is one of the better people in the group on any given average day.
    • Davos plays it straight, as he's the most deadly combatant of The Outcasts. However, he generally is a kind person. It's when his red eyes glow that you're really in trouble.
  • The Red Mage: It is possible to combine any two elements together. You can also master all eight.
  • Reset Button: When Argus was nerfed, he was sent back to Level 1 (though he kept his equipment). When The Elementals and Latens were defeated by The Agent Of Chaos, they were sent back to level 1 and lost a good portion of their equipment.
    • Unfortunately for the Elementals/Latens, it was just a reset for them. Their hometown, homeland, and all the people there (including three of their party members) did not have that luxury, and all of them died.
  • Retcon: Since the project was started December of '09, that means that Brian has several times revised and rewritten things for the comic. From his original inspiration, to his second and third inspiration, to the prototypes, and so on. It's one of the reasons he attributes to the comic being on hold: because he didn't have things well-thought-out enough.
  • Retired Badass: Sinaer effectively did this, when she switched to being a Light Mage and focusing on healing her teammates.
    • Her mentor, Kinas's mentor, and Voss were all this as well.
  • Right Makes Might: Inverted, subverted, and played straight at different points in the story.
    • Played Straight: The Elementals, who have a higher moral standing than their counterparts The Latens, take less damage in combat.
    • Inverted: The Elementals and Latens, when they were the same group, were weaker than The Agent Of Chaos, who was evil.
    • Subverted: Argus gets weaker when he is being "good", but frequently puts more into his fight, resulting in him giving more to it.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Motivates a few characters, most notably, Argus.
  • Role Playing Game Verse: Using a custom-designed set of rules, which Brian intends to fully finish.
  • RPG Mechanics Verse: Kind-of. Brian has stated multiple times he intends to never canonically break the fourth wall, even if he ends up heavily leaning on it.
  • Rule of Cool: The main reason Kinas's name is what it is; Brian just thought it sounded cool.
  • The Runaway: Part of many characters' backstories.
  • Sarcasm Mode: The cast is made up largely of cynic jerkasses, including the artist. With a cast like that, this trope can't come up frequently.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Multiple characters are shown to have one in their Concept Art.
  • Schedule Slip: -->"It's hard to slip if you never had one to begin with!"
    • This is Brian's largest fear of starting up the comic too soon, so he is fighting very hard to make sure it will be averted.
  • Self-Deprecation: Brian pokes fun at himself all the time.
  • Series Hiatus: Has suffered a particularly nasty one lasting over three years, but Brian's working on ending it.
  • Shining City: Helops.
  • Shock and Awe: The Energy Element is almost entirely this.
  • Shocking Defeat Legacy: Technically, the Battle of Helops ended in victory for The Elementals and The Latens—the leader of the army of Chaos was defeated, and almost the entire army wiped out. Given that it cost the lives of Voss, David, and Ian to accomplish, Helops still fell, the remnants of the army destroyed almost every city in Helopia anyway, and The Elementals and Latens were reset to level 1 without most of their equipment, half-way across the world, it certainly didn't feel like they won. They don't call it "post-defeat" because they won, after all.
  • Shout-Out: Brian has well over 40 inspirations for the world of Soano. It really shows, especially in certain works, and Shout Outs are a plenty.
    • Energy Mages have three spells, called Kame, Hame, and Hadoken. Using them one after another gives a huge power increase.
    • In general, many spells have names which are at least partially shoutouts to Final Fantasy games.
    • Genesis, a Light Mage Limit Break, functions nearly identical to the inspiration.
      • Which makes it a shoutout to a shoutout.
    • The Wind Mage is full of 'em.
    • Rage Quit is a Darkness Limit Break.
    • The in-comic name of the gambit where any situation will result in victory? The Gargoyles Gambit.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Argus and Chaos, Sanik and Kinas, Enlecar and Celaren...
  • Signature Move: Argus's preferred spell of choice is Storm3, one of the most powerful Energy-element attacks possible.
    • "Drain5" drains health, mana, and experience from the target, and can only be used by vampires.
  • Signature Style: Two separate online friends of Brian—completely independent from each other—commented:

"Only you could turn a webcomic into a wall."

    • Another signature of his is to use exclusively MS Paint. While he now also uses Windows 7 Paint, for The Descended, he prefers to use MS Paint for most tasks.
    • His favorite fonts are Arial and Agency FB. Arial is typically for normal speech, with Agency FB used for everything else. He almost-universally has 'whispers' as being drawn with lines rather than speech bubbles as well.
  • Simple Staff: Sinaer's current weapon of choice.
  • Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Covers the whole spectrum.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Brian's "third axis" to the alignment chart is based off of this—Idealists are better people but tend to not be as successful, whereas cynics follow the expectations of the alignment far better, and therefore fall victim to the negative stereotypes of them.
  • Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Vampires (at least, pureblooded vampires) are Type IV.
  • Small Secluded World: Many Alternate Dimensions exist of this nature.
  • The Smurfette Principle: The Latens play this straight.
  • The So-Called Coward: Rogues are meant to be played like this: fighting directly will get them killed.
    • As Aria can attest to; Rogues do not mix well with Lawful Good tendencies.
    • The person who plays it most straight, however, is Hank.
  • Sound Effect Bleep: Brian dislikes cursing, avoiding spelling out even minor ones, frequently in favor of this.
  • Speech Bubbles: Averted with whispers, but otherwise used straight.
  • Sprite Comic: Custom-made sprites, modified from a game he never finished, but the idea is the same.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Several characters' names. Jason Argo Maustrat (Master Joat), Aria L. Fulor, Davos T. Vedmir, Sanik Archer Ronado (Wind Rogue), Sarge Spark Shovexo (Fire), Tyra (Earth), Sinaer (Darkness Martial Artist), Nathan Betrax (Sneaky Warrior with bouts of rage), and Enlecar (Energy) are all examples to varying degrees.
  • Squishy Wizard: Mages follow this build.
  • Standardized Leader: Argus used to be one, and Sanik is one. Kinas never really fit the mold, though, and him knowing this was one of the contributing factors to his Face Heel Turn and forming The Latens.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Nathan Betrax's parents were a subversion: their clans were rivals, so they appeared to have been this...until the clans—already wanting to end their feud—decided that marriage would be a cheap and easy way to do so.
  • Sunday Strip: Came a bit early.
  • Sword Lines: Featured in combat frequently.
  • Take That: Brian enjoys Anti-Heroes (the OotS-style comic), so would never insult it. He insults the idea of copying it. (That joke was the original spark which ignited the flame of what became Soano.)
  • Take Up My Sword: When Sanik was dead, Tyra took his place, continuing on to deal with even larger threats. When Sanik was found again (but still not fit to lead), Tyra stepped down and Sarge took up the mantle of the largest threat they had ever faced. He was more than relieved to step back down again.
    • Hinted at with Ian to Sinaer, David to Kinas, and Voss to M.
  • Taking You with Me: Ian almost succeeded in taking out Celaren this way.
    • Unfortunately, to the point where Celaren thought he was going to die, pulling the same trick on Voss and hoping that killing Voss would also kill The Elementals and Latens Voss was rescuing.
  • That Man Is Dead: Argus prefers to say this of himself.
  • There Are No Coincidences: Given how connected the cast is, and how certain characters are consistently suffering, it's not unreasonable to conclude this.
  • Think Nothing of It: Of all the groups to display this, the strongest advocates? The Outcasts.
    • Justified with Argus, who (being Chaotic Evil) really doesn't want people to think of any good deed he's done.
    • Also justified with Davos, who is biologically compelled to help: if he had his way, he wouldn't.
    • Sasha is a more traditional example from the same team, who chose her lifestyle because she wished to.
  • Time Travel: It's possible under extreme circumstances, but has limits.
    • Time Travel to the past cannot change it, since it has already happened. Do nothing to alter history? That's how it was supposed to go. Try to mess things up, or make things better? Circumstances always foil you. Think that you're supposed to do something in the past and not do it? Someone else takes your place. Think someone else is supposed to do something, but end up doing it yourself? That's how things were supposed to work. Try saving someone who was supposed to die? Only possible if you make it look like they have. And so on.
    • Time Travel to the future is not recommended, either, because if you travel to the future and come back, the future you went to is destined to happen no matter what you try. Do nothing? It happens. Try to prevent it? You end up securing its existence. Try to cause it? You succeed.
      • Chaos, however, manages to exploit this: by traveling to the future but not traveling back, he ends up fooling even Gods into thinking he is dead, and when he re-emerged, became completely untraceable.
    • In General, Time Travel is possible, and while little changes to the past/present are possible, The Cosmos always ensure that things play out "the way they are supposed to".
      • Note, however, that the rule about the future only exists if you physically travel to the future. People with the ability to see the future aren't actually seeing "The Future"; they're seeing how events are most likely to play out.
  • Title Drop: In the group descriptions.
  • Total Party Kill: Inflicted on The Elementals and The Latens when they were the same group, but they were saved by the Heroic Sacrifice of David, Ian, and Voss.
  • Tragic Villain: Celaren is the best example. Kinas technically also counts as well.
  • Trope Overdosed: For a webcomic with only six pages, you'd expect this page to be a little bit shorter. Nope! Not with Brian knowing a lot of tropes by heart and using many in daily real-life conversations.
  • True Companions: All the main groups.
  • Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: Brian has one of the longest and best-fleshed-out TV Tropes pages of all Comic Fury webcomics having TV Tropes pages. The Descended has...only six comics. The message couldn't be more clear.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: While there are three main groups, The Elementals and The Latens frequently adventure so closely together that they are almost the same, meaning that this is in full effect.
  • Uncanceled: While not there yet, Brian is working hard to make The Descended eventually be this.
  • Undead Child: Davos, by vampire standards, is still a young child, despite being in his 20s.
  • The Underworld: Where people go when they die (or are struck down); it's actually a pretty good place to live the afterlife. However, it's not quite as good as Ascension.
  • Unsound Effect: Most notably, Facepalms.
  • Unwanted Harem: A small part of Davos's backstory while at The Academy.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Brian is trying to avert this with his class/elemental skills, making each and every one have a use.
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: Tyra and Sinaer.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: When Argus introduces himself as Jason, chances are, he'll be recognized as a hero. (Justified, in that he used to be one.) Kinas is less-known (due to adventuring well away from the place where he gained his fame and being less famous than his brother), but still has fairly high standings in the adventuring community, despite his alignment choice.
  • The Voiceless: Brian has stated that one of the problems he has in the story is that a lot of the characters didn't have enough dialog—he is working on fixing the problem to avert this, giving all characters equal amounts of speaking time.
  • Volcanic Veins: As one of the main inspirations of Soano is Fable, characters who are sufficiently well-versed in magic at a high enough level may gain these.
  • Wall of Text: The author of The Descended is Ranger. You can expect nothing less.
  • Watching Troy Burn: Helops, the hometown of The Elementals and The Latens. Worse, it wasn't the first time, as many of their party members suffered a similar experience at Faragawa.
  • Water Is Blue: given that the webcomic has a white background, it'd be difficult to show water in any other way.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Any character who reaches the age of 60 has their hair instantly turn gray, though their battle aura turns it into a more appropriate color for their alignment, and it can be dyed outside of battle.
    • Sanik, however, has it naturally.
  • White Magic: Light Magic is essentially this.
  • White Magician Girl: Robes? Check. Support role in combat? Check. Designated healer of the team? Check. Simple Staff? Check. Caring and compassionate? Oh so very much check. Sinaer plays this almost completely straight; the only things missing are long hair and poor combat skills.
    • Tyra is a good example as well, having most of the same characteristics, though she plays a little more of an active (albeit still indirect) role in battle.
      • Her sprite originally had longer hair, too!
  • White Void Room: Brian hates drawing scenery, because it takes too long and he doesn't want it to drag the comic down.
  • The Wiki Rule: Brian has considered making one to keep track of it.
    • Currently averted, though—Brian considers his TV Tropes page to be detailed enough that he doesn't need a Wiki of his own.
  • Will They or Won't They?: The lead male of each group with the lead female of each group.
    • Subverted with Sanik-Tyra and Kinas-Sinaer, though: Word of God says they will, they do, and have been for some time. It's just that when you live your life constantly on the move, adventuring consistently every day and having very few nights where you have private chambers, they don't get the chance very often.
  • Windows of the Soul: Despite having a relatively-simplistic style of art, Brian knew he wanted to give characters the ability to express a lot of emotion, mainly shown in the eyes. This is why all characters except for Aria have the Black Bead Eyes with the zig-zag eye color—small, simple, but still expressive. Especially once the Art Upgrade added eyebrows.
  • Wingding Eyes: Used often.
  • Winged Humanoid: Any who get enough points into Good at a high enough level earn them.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: At times, Davos.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Celaren was driven insane by Chaos, who made him a lot more powerful.
  • Word of God: Look at the main editor for this article. Now look at the name the author uses on the forums...
    • A significant amount of information on the comic can be found throughout the site: Character Page, About Page, several hidden and only semi-canonical Pages, the blog, and the author notes, to varying degrees of canonicity. Basically, Brian leaks information about the comic every time he opens his mouth on the subject.
  • World of Ham: Brian/Ranger is a Large Ham. He can't create a world which doesn't feature this.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Called in-universe the "Gargoyle's Gambit". So far, the only one we know of is The Demons' plans.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: The Elementals and Latens can't.
    • While she settled down in a new town, Sasha can't go back to her original home or people.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Several characters have unusual hair colors. Nathan Betrax is the only main cast member to literally have it, though.
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