The Order of the Stick/Characters/Azure City: Difference between revisions
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== Azure City ==
{{quote|
Thousands of ships come from all around the world to barter for fine Southern goods like silk, spices, and [[Schizo-Tech|video games]].
The average temperature for this season is 63° F, with average yearly precipitation of 26.43 inches.
'''Roy:''' Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a successful Bardic Knowledge check. }}
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* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: Miko has never heard of this "Japan" Roy speaks of.
* [[Far East]]
* [[Gratuitous Japanese]]: Several of the names,
* [[Land of One City]]
* [[Paladin]]: The Sapphire Guard.
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== Miko Miyazaki ==
{{quote|''"By the Twelve Gods and in the name of Lord Shojo, I demand to know: [[Mattress Tag Gag|Who removed the tag from this mattress]]?!?"''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Female
*'''Class:''' Monk/Paladin {{spoiler|→ Fallen Paladin}}
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]] {{spoiler|→ [[Lawful Stupid]]}}
A dutiful and powerful paladin of the Sapphire Guard whose conviction is, perhaps, ''too'' great. Reared in a monastery, she'd taken a few levels of monk before becoming a paladin.
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** "[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0408.html Fallsville, Population: 1"]
** In [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0212.html "Dirt Farm"] too: "The proper term is 'smite evil'..."
{{quote|
* [[The Comically Serious]]
* [[Cool Horse]]: Windstriker (who, it's implied, is her only friend in the world).
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* [[Egocentrically Religious]]
* [[Fallen Hero]]: Literally, as she {{spoiler|eventually loses her paladin powers}}.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: {{spoiler|One word -- [[Half the Man He Used To Be|bisection]].}}
* [[Famous-Named Foreigner]]: [[Hayao Miyazaki]]
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: A textbook example.
* {{spoiler|[[Half the Man He Used To Be|Half the Woman She Used to Be]]: Ouuuch.}}
* [[Healing Hands]]
* [[
* [[Hero Antagonist]]
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Subverted and Played Straight. In the battle with the ogres, she looked like she walked into the ogre camp and alerted the entire group in order to have a fair fight, but it was just an excuse to clump them all together so the spellcasters could nuke them more easily. However, when Belkar was raising havoc in Azure City dungeons, rather than call a host of troops to track him down, she let him goad her into fighting him on his terms.
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* [[Lawful Stupid]]: And how.
* [[Magic Knight]]
* [[The Millstone]]: Vaarsuvius very much considers Miko to be this. (Then again, Vaarsuvius [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0599.html sometimes] thinks that anyone who is not [[Insufferable Genius|Vaarsuvius]] is this.)
{{quote|
''(pause)''
[[Lampshade Hanging|She is, naturally]], [[Right Behind Me|directly behind me]].
'''Miko:''' Naturally. }}
* [[Molotov Cocktail]]: Miko creates one out of her cloak and a bottle of dwarven brandy to escape from her force cage.
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== Lord Shojo ==
{{quote|''"Paranoia? I rule a city where I have to [[Obfuscating Insanity|fake senility]] just to avoid being assassinated. I took [[Properly Paranoid|Improved Paranoia]] like 5 levels ago."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''
Former ruler of Azure City; Shojo's father was the first ruler of Azure to be commander of Soon Kim's Sapphire Guard. Shojo inherited this role, but is in no way a paladin himself (instead, he is an aristocrat, a NPC class). He faked senility to keep the nobility from assassinating him while keeping them in check, and devised complex schemes to get what he wanted done without ticking off the paladins and violating their code of honor.
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* {{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real]]}}
* [[Mr. Exposition]]:
{{quote|
* [[Obfuscating Insanity]]
* {{spoiler|[[Poor Communication Kills]]}}: {{spoiler|Courtesy of Miko.}}
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== Hinjo ==
{{quote|''"I certainly can, provided the Twelve Gods agree."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''
Current ruler of Azure City, now in exile. He is the nephew of Lord Shojo and the heir to the throne, as well as the current leader of the now nearly-nonexistent Sapphire Guard. A powerful paladin, he is significantly more at-ease than Miko and prefers mounted front-line combat with his wolf, Argent.
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== O-Chul ==
{{quote|''"Your life is much like this [[Go]] board, my friend. You have allowed yourself to be surrounded by enemy pieces -- people who wish to bend you to their will, to remove your unique voice from the board and replace it with one of... of mindless subservience.
But as you correctly point out, you are still holding on two empty places in the center.
They are your heart, and your mind. They are the places that make you what you really are."'' }}
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Class:''' Fighter/Paladin
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]]
A high-ranking and incredibly tough paladin of the Sapphire Guard, O-Chul was taken as a prisoner of war after the fall of Azure City.
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* [[Bald of Awesome]]
* [[Blood on These Hands]]: He refuses to let Redcloak blame him for not stopping him.
* [[Brass Balls]]: "+5 Holy Cojones"
* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: At the hands of Team Evil.
* [[Determinator]]: O-Chul manages to get a list of all (or at least most) of Xykon's spells. When asked how, he simply replies "One saving throw at a time." [[Word of God|Word of the Giant]] says his Constitution score is in the mid-twenties. For reference, the average human has a score of ten. And increases are not linear.
{{quote|
* [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|Did We Just Have Tea with the Monster in the Darkness?]] Yes, repeatedly.
* [[The Dog Bites Back]]: {{spoiler|Nearly kills Redcloak, and puts out his right eye.}}
* [[Dramatic Necklace Removal]]: With Redcloak's holy symbol.
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* [[Knight in Shining Armor]]: All the Sapphire Guards are, but O-Chul even ''more'' so. [[Word of God|The Giant]] describes him as "everything right about the paladin".
* [[Made of Iron]]: He survives a Castle-Shattering Kaboom, a tank of acid with a shark in it (multiple times, it's implied), being trapped in a cage filled with rabid dire wallabies, a staring contest with a basilisk (which he won, technically; he never blinked), along with months of torture. Some would argue that he borders on [[Implacable Man]]. According to [[Word of God|Word of the Giant]], he has a Constitution score in the mid-twenties.<ref>For those unfamiliar with the system: The average Constitution (health) score is ten. 18 is the ''normal human maximum''. This means he probably has the [[Hit Points]] of an average character twice his level. Also, paladins are traditionally loaded down with class features and abilities that make them rather hard to kill -- but O-Chul has mostly fighter levels. Hinjo even remarks that he is the "toughest" Sapphire guardsman.</ref> Even better, when O-Chul breaks out, he charges Redcloak with a metal bar ripped from his cage. Redcloak nails him in the forehead with a Disintegrate, [[X-Ray Sparks|showing off O-Chul's skeleton]]. Not only does O-Chul shake off the hit like it was nothing, if you look closely, his skeleton has the same scar as his flesh does. The goblins tortured him so much that they forced a cut in his raw skull.
* [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead]]
* [[Not a Game]]: He explains to Haley that war isn't like a dungeon.
* [[Odd Friendship]]: He and the Monster in the Darkness are quite friendly. He refers to the Monster as "Monster-san". The Monster calls him Mr. Stiffly.
* [[Paladin]]
* [[Reconstructed Trope]]: Reconstructs paladins as a follow-up to Miko's
* [[Samurai]]
* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Despite receiving healing magic regularly, he's been tortured for so long that his body is literally covered in scars.
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== Lien ==
{{quote|''"It was pretty easy for me to put two and two together. Contrary to [[Good Is Dumb|popular opinion]], Good is not always dumb."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Female
*'''
Along with Hinjo and O-Chul, a paladin and one of the only surviving Sapphire Guard officers. As daughter of fishermen, her weapon and celestial mount keep a connection with the sea.
* [[Action Girl]]
* [[Badass Boast]]:
{{quote|
* [[Blade on a Stick]]
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]
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== Thanh ==
{{quote|''"Let us make hasty our escape, that we might live to fight the forces of Evil another day."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''
A low-ranking Sapphire Guard member who was out of town the day of the battle. Took over leadership of [[La Résistance]] after Haley left.
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== Daigo & Kazumi Kato ==
'''Kazumi:''' ''(crying)'' Thank you. What's yours?
''(no longer dying)'' ... Uh? I, uh... I think I'm OK, now.
'''Kazumi:''' Wow. I guess having a name really DOES matter. }}
*'''Gender:''' Male & Female (respectively)
*'''Class:''' Fighters
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]]
Regular soldiers in the [[Redshirt Army|Azure City army]], Daigo and Kazumi refuse to be nameless [[Red Shirt
* [[Action Mom]]: Kazumi [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0587.html "I'm a goddamn baby-making, life-taking MACHINE"] Kato. [[Pregnant Badass|And she hasn't even given birth yet!]] Her quote, "Who cares how many people I have to kill? I can just make MORE in my tummy!" is now a T-shirt.
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* [[Beta Couple]]: Unusually they have been a couple for less time than the alpha.
* [[Bob Haircut]]: Kazumi
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Daigo's last name. As yet unfired - being kept "in reserve".
* [[Chickification]]: Very much [[Averted Trope]] by Kazumi during her pregnancy. Her husband, on the other hand...
* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Kazumi is prone to these when she's in [[Mama Bear]] mode.
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* [[Lower Deck Episode|Lower Deck Sequence]]: One of these serves as their introduction.
* [[Mama Bear]]: Kazumi
{{quote|
* [[Mauve Shirt]]: They even seem to be elevating themselves to recurring characters, near the same level as Hinjo.
* [[Playing with a Trope]]: The purpose of their existences, as noted below:
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** [[Subverted Trope]]: [[Red Shirt]] again, naturally, along with [[Redshirt Army]]. Even before that, their class is fighter, a character class. The majority of the NPCs are warrior (which is basically the same class without the feats), making them [[Elite Mook]] by default.
* [[Pregnant Badass]]: Kazumi, of course. Heck, she's the one pictured on the trope's page.
{{quote|
* [[Pregnant Hostage]]: Kazumi seriously subverts this.
* [[Rags to Riches]]: Technically, as Hinjo promotes them to nobility at their wedding.
* [[Red Herring Shirt|Red Herring Shirts]]
== Daimyo Kubota ==
{{quote|''"Well done, Therkla. You managed to weasel your way out of responsibility for your own actions like a seasoned veteran. I couldn't be prouder if you were my own flesh and blood."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Class:''' Aristocrat/[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0595.html Unknown Prestige Class]
*'''
A scheming aristocrat and Therkla's employer, intent on assassinating Hinjo and taking over after Shojo's death.
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* [[Manipulative Bastard]]
* [[Pride]]
* [[Self-Disposing Villain]]: [[Subverted Trope]]; he cleverly realizes that an actual surrender is the best way to survive, since Elan will then be forced to bring him in for a trial that will most likely work in his favor. [[Double Subverted]] when {{spoiler|Vaarsuvius calmly kills him instead}}.
* [[Smug Snake]]
* [[Take Over the City]]: His villainy is entirely geared toward usurping Azure City's rulership.
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== Therkla ==
{{quote|''"Actually, it's completely true. Our master DID order us to lure you here and kill you. I was just hoping... I was hoping you could be my boyfriend instead."''}}
*'''Race:''' Half-orc
*'''Gender:''' Female
*'''
Half-orc ninja, under the employ of [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Daimyo Kubota.]] {{spoiler|Poisoned by Kubota so he could escape, she dies in Elan's arms.}}
* [[Action Girl]]
* [[Character Alignment]]: [[Lawful Neutral]]. [[Word of God|Word of the Giant]] (and her Kickstarter-backers-only [[Day in The Limelight]] story) pretty much confirms her as an active, balancing kind of Neutral, as opposed to the disinterested kind.
* [[Child by Rape]]: Suggested and [[Sickeningly Sweethearts|subverted]].
* [[Cute Little Fangs]]
* [[Cute Monster Girl]]
* {{spoiler|[[Died in Your Arms Tonight]]}}
* [[The Dragon]]: To Kubota.
* [[Eating the Eye Candy]]
* [[The Gwen Stacy]]: Elan is clearly upset about letting her die and learns how to Neutralize Poison to prevent it happening again.
* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]
* [[
* [[In Love with the Mark]]
* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja]]
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* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: What would she be like without Elan? She was a subject of debate on the forums {{spoiler|when she was alive}} and her detractors often used this as an argument.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: Attempted. {{spoiler|This doesn't end up working so well for her}}.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: Satirized [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0555.html here].
== Niu ==
{{quote|''"Yeah, what was I thinking, not advertising ''[''I multiclassed to rogue'']'' to the team's paladin."''}}
*'''Gender:''' Female
*'''Class:''' Fighter/Rogue
*'''Alignment:''' [[Neutral Good]] (probably)
A low-rank soldier seconding Haley and later Thanh in the Azure City Resistance.
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* [[Bring News Back]]: {{spoiler|Thanh tells her to escape from the Resistance base and get word to Hinjo about its destruction.}}
* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: To Thanh, when he prepares to give his life to cover her retreat.
{{quote|
'''Thanh:''' And you're the slowest woman! RUN! }}
* [[Literal
{{quote|
* [[Mauve Shirt]]
* [[La Résistance]]: She prefers "Rebel Alliance".
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== General Chang ==
{{quote|''"Prepare to hold this breach at all cost, men"''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]] (presumably)
The General of the Azure City Soldiers.
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== Sangwaan ==
{{quote|''"In the few hours since we learned of the threat, we diviners have done our best to scry the invading army."''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Female
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]] (presumably)
A blind seer who serves as an adviser to Shojo and later Hinjo. Aside from Shojo, the only known member of the Sapphire Guard who is not a Paladin. {{spoiler|Apparently killed when Xykon's zombie dragon threw her off the ramparts of Azure City's outer wall.}}
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== That Guy with a Halberd ==
{{quote|''"Wait -- was that oil hot?"''}}
*'''Race:''' Human
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]] (presumably)
Another soldier in the [[Redshirt Army|Azure City army]]. Shows up in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0432.html one strip] ordering boiling oil poured on the attacking hobgoblins. It turns out to be room-temperature coconut oil instead, but it drives the attackers off anyway. Turned into a [[Memetic Bystander]] by [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86816 this forum thread].
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== Captain Axe ==
{{quote|''"It's my job to protect everyone aboard -- especially Hinjo. And that means getting him far away from situations where he can die heroically."''}}
*'''Gender:''' Male
*'''Class:''' Unknown
*'''Alignment:''' [[Lawful Good]]
The captain of Hinjo's junk. Very loyal to his lord, but knows when to disobey too.
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* [[Hook Hand]]: Well, axe hand.
* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]
* [[Perma
* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]: After Hinjo is knocked out, he disobeys orders for the ship to wait, realizing that the enemy is too strong to fight off for much longer.
* [[They Call Him "Sword"|They Call Him "Axe"]]
* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Again, take a wild guess.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Order of the Stick, The/Characters/Azure City}}
[[Category:
|
Latest revision as of 16:19, 13 March 2019
Azure City
Elan: Did you guys know that Azure City is the largest trading port in Southern lands? |
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign
- Descriptive Ville
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Miko has never heard of this "Japan" Roy speaks of.
- Far East
- Gratuitous Japanese: Several of the names, probably to parody the random use of the language "because it's cool" (Lord Shojo being a case in point, since Shojo is Japanese for "virginal maiden".
- Land of One City
- Paladin: The Sapphire Guard.
- Please Select New City Name: After nearly one year of occupation by the hobgoblins, Azure City is renamed Gobbotopia City.
- Single Palette Town
- Weapons Kitchen Sink: The soldiers of Azure City uses Katanas (and that's fine), but their gear include western-style halberds (which, however, could be intended to be Chinese Ji) and square tower-shields.
- Wutai
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: For all of Azure City's denizens, it's either this or the black-gray-white spectrum.
Miko Miyazaki
"By the Twelve Gods and in the name of Lord Shojo, I demand to know: Who removed the tag from this mattress?!?" |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Female
- Class: Monk/Paladin → Fallen Paladin
- Alignment: Lawful Good → Lawful Stupid
A dutiful and powerful paladin of the Sapphire Guard whose conviction is, perhaps, too great. Reared in a monastery, she'd taken a few levels of monk before becoming a paladin.
- Action Girl
- Alliterative Name
- Anti-Hero: Type III → Type IV, probably; her final alignment and disposition is never revealed.
- Anti-Villain: Type IV → Type III when she kills Shojo and goes insane.
- Believing Her Own Lies: One of Miko's critical flaws. It was never wrong if she said it.
- Broken Bird
- Comically Missing the Point
- "Fallsville, Population: 1"
- In "Dirt Farm" too: "The proper term is 'smite evil'..."
Roy Greenhilt: It's like she has that monk class ability that lets you jump as far as you want, only to her, it applies to conclusions. |
- The Comically Serious
- Cool Horse: Windstriker (who, it's implied, is her only friend in the world).
- Death Equals Redemption: Utterly averted.
- Deconstruction: Miko is intended as a commentary and deadpan parody on people who play Lawful Good characters as Lawful Zealous. This becomes especially clear when she's contrasted against other Lawful Good characters in the comic, such as Hinjo and Roy.
- De-Power: Her immediate punishment for killing Lord Shojo.
- Detect Evil: Tries and fails to detect any evil in the Order. Belkar, who is evil, blocks the ability with a lead sheet, and sues her for it.
- Dual-Wielding
- Egocentrically Religious
- Fallen Hero: Literally, as she eventually loses her paladin powers.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: One word -- bisection.
- Famous-Named Foreigner: Hayao Miyazaki
- Good Is Not Nice: A textbook example.
- Half the Woman She Used to Be: Ouuuch.
- Healing Hands
- Deadly Change-of-Heart
- Hero Antagonist
- Honor Before Reason: Subverted and Played Straight. In the battle with the ogres, she looked like she walked into the ogre camp and alerted the entire group in order to have a fair fight, but it was just an excuse to clump them all together so the spellcasters could nuke them more easily. However, when Belkar was raising havoc in Azure City dungeons, rather than call a host of troops to track him down, she let him goad her into fighting him on his terms.
- Horrible Judge of Character
- Hot Chick with a Sword
- I Am X, Son of Y: "I am Miko Miyazaki, samurai of the Sapphire Guard, loyal vassal of Lord Shojo, daughter of Eyko, and paladin of the Twelve Gods of the South."
- Informed Attractiveness
- Inspector Javert: For the entire Order. Borderline between Javert and Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist for Lord Shojo. She had him dead to rights, but went a bit Off the Rails in dealing with him.
- In the Hood: Her initial appearance, until her face is revealed during her first fight with the Order.
- I Thought It Meant: She thinks that "bump uglies" is an euphemism for Smite Evil.
- Jerkass: Whatever your opinion of her is, it can't be denied that she has quite a few sticks up her ass. Frequently lampshaded in the comic.
- Killed Off for Real
- Knight of Cerebus
- Knight Templar: A very serious hardcase.
- Lawful Stupid: And how.
- Magic Knight
- The Millstone: Vaarsuvius very much considers Miko to be this. (Then again, Vaarsuvius sometimes thinks that anyone who is not Vaarsuvius is this.)
Vaarsuvius: As the shrew has perished, we are no longer bound by the anchor that has hung around our neck for weeks! Let her death ring in a new era of freedom for the "Order of the Stick". |
- Molotov Cocktail: Miko creates one out of her cloak and a bottle of dwarven brandy to escape from her force cage.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: She favors killing "evildoers" herself over bringing them to justice.
- Never My Fault: Even when stripped of her abilities as a paladin by her own gods she refuses to accept that it is because of her own personal shortcomings.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Twice.
- Paint It Black: In her case, Paint It Tan after her Fall. Sabine once suggests that she would look sexy in black leather, and gets her neck snapped (non-fatally) for her trouble.
- Paladin
- Perpetual Frowner
- Redemption Equals Death: Subverted.
- Samurai
- Samus Is a Girl: And so is the mysterious blue-cloaked, hooded figure tracking down the Order. Roy knocks off her hood in their first battle and his reaction to the revealation is "wow". He is accused of wanting to "bone" her afterwards.
- Sarcasm Blind
- Sixth Ranger: For the Order of the Stick, temporarily, causing lots of tension in the process.
- Smite Evil
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: For Belkar, after his jailbreak.
- Tautological Templar
- Tragic Hero
- Try to Fit That on A Business Card: Lampshaded when she gives her I Am X, Son of Y speech.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Just as the ghost of Soon Kim is about to finish off Xykon, Miko comes in and destroys the gate, allowing Xykon and Redcloak to escape.
- Weapon of Choice: A katana and a wakizashi, although she loses the latter later on. And, being a paladin, a frequent user of Smite Evil.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She gets hit by several of these speeches. By Roy, and also Redcloak, in a case of somewhat hypocritical "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Windmill Crusader
- You Need to Get Laid
Lord Shojo
"Paranoia? I rule a city where I have to fake senility just to avoid being assassinated. I took Improved Paranoia like 5 levels ago." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Aristocrat
- Alignment: Chaotic Good
Former ruler of Azure City; Shojo's father was the first ruler of Azure to be commander of Soon Kim's Sapphire Guard. Shojo inherited this role, but is in no way a paladin himself (instead, he is an aristocrat, a NPC class). He faked senility to keep the nobility from assassinating him while keeping them in check, and devised complex schemes to get what he wanted done without ticking off the paladins and violating their code of honor.
- Anti-Hero (Type III)
- Apparently Powerless Puppetmaster: One of the best examples of the trope.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Subverted. Despite him being a 14th-level Aristocrat, Belkar states in one strip after Shojo died that he was most probably Chaotic Good. This fits with Shojo's actions in general, and Belkar had no particular reason to lie about it; he's not going to lie if the truth is more insulting, as was the case when he berated the random cleric for being too dense to realize why Shojo wouldn't want to be raised.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "What are you?", aimed at Belkar.
- The Chessmaster
- Consulting Mister Puppet: He regularly pretends to consult Mr. Scruffy for advice.
- Cool Old Guy
- Deadpan Snarker
- Decoy Trial: He staged one to have the Order traversing an entire continent on foot to offer them a job. The judge was Roy's father.
- Famous Last Words: "It appears... not everyone... agrees with your analysis."
- Genre Savvy
- Guile Hero
- Killed Off for Real
- Mr. Exposition:
Shojo: Hey! Who's the wizened old man dispensing valuable plot point here? You? Didn't think so. Now pipe down! |
- Obfuscating Insanity
- Poor Communication Kills: Courtesy of Miko.
- Properly Paranoid: He took the Improved Paranoia feat at low level. It has served him well.
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Spirit Advisor: For Belkar; it is left unclear whether it was really Shojo's ghost, an illusion created by the Mark of Justice, or a figment of Belkar's feverish imagination.
Hinjo
"I certainly can, provided the Twelve Gods agree." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Paladin
- Alignment: Lawful Good
Current ruler of Azure City, now in exile. He is the nephew of Lord Shojo and the heir to the throne, as well as the current leader of the now nearly-nonexistent Sapphire Guard. A powerful paladin, he is significantly more at-ease than Miko and prefers mounted front-line combat with his wolf, Argent.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: He refuses to retreat from Azure City after it has been overrun by hobgoblins, but is convinced by the Order.
- Badass Beard
- Berserk Button: "NOBODY HURTS MY DOG!!!"
- Big Badass Wolf: His mount, Argent.
- Can't Catch Up: While he stays back to oversee the fleet, his paladins and the Order go on missions and earn levels.
- Healing Hands
- Hero of Another Story
- Honor Before Reason
- In Its Hour of Need
- Magic Knight
- Modest Royalty
- Nephewism
- Only Sane Man
- Paladin
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Samurai
- Smite Evil
- Supporting Leader
- Weapon of Choice: A katana.
O-Chul
"Your life is much like this Go board, my friend. You have allowed yourself to be surrounded by enemy pieces -- people who wish to bend you to their will, to remove your unique voice from the board and replace it with one of... of mindless subservience. |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Fighter/Paladin
- Alignment: Lawful Good
A high-ranking and incredibly tough paladin of the Sapphire Guard, O-Chul was taken as a prisoner of war after the fall of Azure City.
- Adopt the Dog: His friendship with the Monster in the Darkness leads to a Heartwarming Moment. Also see the quote.
- And I Must Scream: He spends an unspecified amount of time paralysed by Xykon.
- Badass
- Badass Beard
- Badass in Distress
- Bald of Awesome
- Blood on These Hands: He refuses to let Redcloak blame him for not stopping him.
- Brass Balls: "+5 Holy Cojones"
- Cold-Blooded Torture: At the hands of Team Evil.
- Determinator: O-Chul manages to get a list of all (or at least most) of Xykon's spells. When asked how, he simply replies "One saving throw at a time." Word of the Giant says his Constitution score is in the mid-twenties. For reference, the average human has a score of ten. And increases are not linear.
Xykon: He's like the Energizer Bunny, a Rollex watch, and Jackie Chan mixed together! |
- Did We Just Have Tea with the Monster in the Darkness? Yes, repeatedly.
- The Dog Bites Back: Nearly kills Redcloak, and puts out his right eye.
- Dramatic Necklace Removal: With Redcloak's holy symbol.
- Dump Stat: Charisma. This comes back to bite him when he tries to dupe Redcloak.
- Genius Bruiser
- Go: Play it with the MitD, to whom he taught the rules.
- Guile Hero: Extremely adaptable. When captured, O-Chul takes advantage of the situation to get Xykon's spell list, nudge the Monster in the Darkness away from evil a bit, and when released, is in position to try to break Xykon's phylactery (but is stopped at the last second). Also capable of using Exact Words when necessary, though usually not for manipulative reasons.
- Half Truth: He engages in some very specific wordplay when Hinjo asks him if he destroyed the Sapphire Gate because he would Never Speak Ill of the Dead.
- Healing Hands
- I Gave My Word
- Improvised Weapon: He can and will use anything, from a broken cage bar to bare fists, highly effectively. Often powered-up with Smite Evil.
- Interrogated for Nothing: Redcloak suspected he was telling the truth even before their session on the tower, but wanted to keep Xykon in the city so the hobgoblins could solidify their position.
- Knight in Shining Armor: All the Sapphire Guards are, but O-Chul even more so. The Giant describes him as "everything right about the paladin".
- Made of Iron: He survives a Castle-Shattering Kaboom, a tank of acid with a shark in it (multiple times, it's implied), being trapped in a cage filled with rabid dire wallabies, a staring contest with a basilisk (which he won, technically; he never blinked), along with months of torture. Some would argue that he borders on Implacable Man. According to Word of the Giant, he has a Constitution score in the mid-twenties.[1] Even better, when O-Chul breaks out, he charges Redcloak with a metal bar ripped from his cage. Redcloak nails him in the forehead with a Disintegrate, showing off O-Chul's skeleton. Not only does O-Chul shake off the hit like it was nothing, if you look closely, his skeleton has the same scar as his flesh does. The goblins tortured him so much that they forced a cut in his raw skull.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead
- Not a Game: He explains to Haley that war isn't like a dungeon.
- Odd Friendship: He and the Monster in the Darkness are quite friendly. He refers to the Monster as "Monster-san". The Monster calls him Mr. Stiffly.
- Paladin
- Reconstructed Trope: Reconstructs paladins as a follow-up to Miko's deconstruction of the class.
- Samurai
- Scars Are Forever: Despite receiving healing magic regularly, he's been tortured for so long that his body is literally covered in scars.
- Smite Evil
- Stock Yuck: Squid (and babies).
- Weapon of Choice: A katana.
- Why Did It Have to Be Sharks? Though in actuality he does not fear them, since being a paladin makes him immune to fear. It's more like they just make him oddly uncomfortable. The acid-breathing shark may have had something to do with this.
Lien
"It was pretty easy for me to put two and two together. Contrary to popular opinion, Good is not always dumb." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Female
- Class: Paladin
- Alignment: Lawful Good
Along with Hinjo and O-Chul, a paladin and one of the only surviving Sapphire Guard officers. As daughter of fishermen, her weapon and celestial mount keep a connection with the sea.
Lien: My parents were fishermen. When I was a little girl, I stood right here and learned how to clean the fish that they caught. I'm telling you this so that you know that when I say that if you take one more step, I will gut you like the catch of the day -- IT IS Not Hyperbole! |
- Blade on a Stick
- Deadpan Snarker
- Detect Evil
- Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Averted; she has a shark, Razor, for Celestial Mount.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Her Catch Phrase. Lien would like to remind you that being good does not necessarily make you an idiot.
- Healing Hands
- Not Hyperbole: Trope Namer.
- Paladin
- Samurai
- Smite Evil
- Virgin Sacrifice: Subverted -- the virgin part. The sacrifice itself was narrowly avoided.
- Weapon of Choice: A harpoon.
Thanh
"Let us make hasty our escape, that we might live to fight the forces of Evil another day." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Paladin
- Alignment: Lawful Good
A low-ranking Sapphire Guard member who was out of town the day of the battle. Took over leadership of La Résistance after Haley left.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Averted, a rarity among paladins.
- Badass Mustache
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Briefly dominated by Tsukiko. No, not that kind of domination.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He appears in the third book's cast page.
- Healing Hands
- Heroic Sacrifice: Charges into a hopeless battle to distract Redcloak from noticing that a single Resistance member will survive.
- Honor Before Reason: His ability to use subterfuge leaves some to be desired.
- Face Death with Dignity
- Paladin
- La Résistance: Would like to call it "Sapphire Liberation Front".
- Samurai
- Smite Evil
- Turn Undead
- Weapon of Choice: A katana, standard for Sapphire Guard members.
- You Are in Command Now: Thanh feels he's out of his league, but he's the only person that the other Resistance groups could really agree on, especially since they would not allow some foreigner to lead them, ruling out Haley.
- You Shall Not Pass
Daigo & Kazumi Kato
Daigo: (dying) Kazumi... is a pretty name... |
- Race: Humans
- Gender: Male & Female (respectively)
- Class: Fighters
- Alignment: Lawful Good
Regular soldiers in the Azure City army, Daigo and Kazumi refuse to be nameless Red Shirts like the rest of the army -- literally, by mentioning their names. They managed to escape Azure along with Elan, Vaarsuvius and Durkon. Daigo and Kazumi are now married, with Kazumi pregnant, and have been given the status of nobility by Hinjo. The fact that their names are known also makes them significantly more competent than regular Azurite soldiers.
- Action Mom: Kazumi "I'm a goddamn baby-making, life-taking MACHINE" Kato. And she hasn't even given birth yet! Her quote, "Who cares how many people I have to kill? I can just make MORE in my tummy!" is now a T-shirt.
- Alliterative Name: Kazumi Kato; plus when Daigo nearly revealed his last name, it started with "Da".
- Badass Normal: They are regular Azurite soldiers, with no special abilities or magic whatsoever.
- Battle Couple
- Beta Couple: Unusually they have been a couple for less time than the alpha.
- Bob Haircut: Kazumi
- Chekhov's Gun: Daigo's last name. As yet unfired - being kept "in reserve".
- Chickification: Very much Averted Trope by Kazumi during her pregnancy. Her husband, on the other hand...
- Cluster F-Bomb: Kazumi is prone to these when she's in Mama Bear mode.
- Flower in Her Hair: Kazumi, for her marriage.
- Genre Savvy
- Happily Married
- Lower Deck Sequence: One of these serves as their introduction.
- Mama Bear: Kazumi
Kazumi: I'm a goddamn baby-making, life-taking MACHINE! |
- Mauve Shirt: They even seem to be elevating themselves to recurring characters, near the same level as Hinjo.
- Playing with a Trope: The purpose of their existences, as noted below:
- Defied Trope: Red Shirt. They defied this trope, and saved Daigo's life, by mentioning their names. Daigo keeps his last name a secret in case of an emergency.
- Lampshade Hanging: Their entire existence lampoons the concept of the Red Shirt, and Belkar refers to them as such by name.
- Nominal Importance: Deliberately invoked by Kazumi so she can save her own life and Daigo's in this strip.
- Subverted Trope: Red Shirt again, naturally, along with Redshirt Army. Even before that, their class is fighter, a character class. The majority of the NPCs are warrior (which is basically the same class without the feats), making them Elite Mook by default.
- Pregnant Badass: Kazumi, of course. Heck, she's the one pictured on the trope's page.
Kazumi: You stupid pieces of @#!%. I was in the army, too, and I didn't forget four years of training the moment my egg's perimeter was breached. You think just because I can't see my feet right now that I can't put one of them up your cowardly ninja asses? Please. |
- Pregnant Hostage: Kazumi seriously subverts this.
- Rags to Riches: Technically, as Hinjo promotes them to nobility at their wedding.
- Red Herring Shirts
Daimyo Kubota
"Well done, Therkla. You managed to weasel your way out of responsibility for your own actions like a seasoned veteran. I couldn't be prouder if you were my own flesh and blood." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Aristocrat/Unknown Prestige Class
- Alignment: Lawful Evil
A scheming aristocrat and Therkla's employer, intent on assassinating Hinjo and taking over after Shojo's death.
- Aristocrats Are Evil
- Big Bad Wannabe
- Card-Carrying Villain
- Carrying the Antidote: Brutally subverted.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Purple.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: This didn't save him from The Plot Reaper, though.
- Deceased Fall Guy Gambit: He planned to use it on Therkla, except...
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: His death is fairly ignominious. Elan even comments about it.
- Evil Gloating
- Famous Last Words: "Now come along, bring me to your master so we can begin the Trial of the Century."
- Filler Villain
- Karma Houdini: Defied Trope; Kubota plans to invoke this, by framing Therkla and using his aristocrat talents to turn around use his trial and slander Hinjo, but Vaarsuvius defies this by simply disintegrating him.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Pride
- Self-Disposing Villain: Subverted Trope; he cleverly realizes that an actual surrender is the best way to survive, since Elan will then be forced to bring him in for a trial that will most likely work in his favor. Double Subverted when Vaarsuvius calmly kills him instead.
- Smug Snake
- Take Over the City: His villainy is entirely geared toward usurping Azure City's rulership.
Therkla
"Actually, it's completely true. Our master DID order us to lure you here and kill you. I was just hoping... I was hoping you could be my boyfriend instead." |
- Race: Half-orc
- Gender: Female
- Class: Ninja
- Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Half-orc ninja, under the employ of Daimyo Kubota. Poisoned by Kubota so he could escape, she dies in Elan's arms.
- Action Girl
- Character Alignment: Lawful Neutral. Word of the Giant (and her Kickstarter-backers-only Day in The Limelight story) pretty much confirms her as an active, balancing kind of Neutral, as opposed to the disinterested kind.
- Child by Rape: Suggested and subverted.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Cute Monster Girl
- Died in Your Arms Tonight
- The Dragon: To Kubota.
- Eating the Eye Candy
- The Gwen Stacy: Elan is clearly upset about letting her die and learns how to Neutralize Poison to prevent it happening again.
- Half-Human Hybrid
- Deadly Change-of-Heart
- In Love with the Mark
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Subverted.
- Killed Off for Real
- Love At First Sight: One-sided, later partly-reciprocated.
- Mad Aristocrat's Beautiful Daughter-Like Servant
- Ninja
- Redemption Equals Death
- Shallow Love Interest: What would she be like without Elan? She was a subject of debate on the forums when she was alive and her detractors often used this as an argument.
- Take a Third Option: Attempted. This doesn't end up working so well for her.
- Unfortunate Implications: Satirized here.
Niu
"Yeah, what was I thinking, not advertising [I multiclassed to rogue] to the team's paladin." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Female
- Class: Fighter/Rogue
- Alignment: Neutral Good (probably)
A low-rank soldier seconding Haley and later Thanh in the Azure City Resistance.
- Action Girl
- Bring News Back: Thanh tells her to escape from the Resistance base and get word to Hinjo about its destruction.
- It Has Been an Honor: To Thanh, when he prepares to give his life to cover her retreat.
Niu: ... You're the bravest man I've ever met. |
- Literal-Minded: Sometimes.
Niu: So, wait, when you said that the prison would be guarded by a skeleton crew during the speech, you didn't literally mean a-- |
- Mauve Shirt
- La Résistance: She prefers "Rebel Alliance".
- Single Tear: After escaping from Redcloak's attack on the Resistance.
- Sole Survivor: Of the Resistance.
- Street Smart
General Chang
"Prepare to hold this breach at all cost, men" |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Warrior
- Alignment: Lawful Good (presumably)
The General of the Azure City Soldiers.
- Commander Contrarian: Criticizes V's plan to put only 13 guards at the wall opening, but soon withdraws his complaint.
- Famous Last Words: "You'll never take this city while I'm alive, monster!"
- Good Counterpart: To the Hobgoblin General. Both are commanding officers, the Hobgoblin General follows orders without question, but Chang questions orders that could result in casualties.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Courtesy of the Death Knight.
Sangwaan
"In the few hours since we learned of the threat, we diviners have done our best to scry the invading army." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Female
- Class: Wizard (diviner)
- Alignment: Lawful Good (presumably)
A blind seer who serves as an adviser to Shojo and later Hinjo. Aside from Shojo, the only known member of the Sapphire Guard who is not a Paladin. Apparently killed when Xykon's zombie dragon threw her off the ramparts of Azure City's outer wall.
That Guy with a Halberd
"Wait -- was that oil hot?" |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Warrior
- Alignment: Lawful Good (presumably)
Another soldier in the Azure City army. Shows up in one strip ordering boiling oil poured on the attacking hobgoblins. It turns out to be room-temperature coconut oil instead, but it drives the attackers off anyway. Turned into a Memetic Bystander by this forum thread.
- Blade on a Stick
- No Name Given
- One-Scene Wonder
- Only Sane Man: In the single strip he appears in.
- Red Shirt
- Weapon of Choice: Go on -- guess.
Captain Axe
"It's my job to protect everyone aboard -- especially Hinjo. And that means getting him far away from situations where he can die heroically." |
- Race: Human
- Gender: Male
- Class: Unknown
- Alignment: Lawful Good
The captain of Hinjo's junk. Very loyal to his lord, but knows when to disobey too.
- Bald of Awesome
- The Captain
- Hook Hand: Well, axe hand.
- I Did What I Had to Do
- Perma-Stubble
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: After Hinjo is knocked out, he disobeys orders for the ship to wait, realizing that the enemy is too strong to fight off for much longer.
- They Call Him "Axe"
- Weapon of Choice: Again, take a wild guess.
- ↑ For those unfamiliar with the system: The average Constitution (health) score is ten. 18 is the normal human maximum. This means he probably has the Hit Points of an average character twice his level. Also, paladins are traditionally loaded down with class features and abilities that make them rather hard to kill -- but O-Chul has mostly fighter levels. Hinjo even remarks that he is the "toughest" Sapphire guardsman.