I cannot claim such familiarity, my Lady. Rather… I am curious. While it is true that you have made yourself…slightly worse than a nuisance to me already, what preoccupies my mind is why. Do you do this because you truly believe it to be in the best interests of all? Or is this an exercise in political positioning? In fact, I rather think, the better question is how much of each is true.” She nodded, still staring at him. “Yeah, he’s in town. Came through here jus’ yesterday, askin’ fer the news. Used to be a reg’lar sight in Desolation, I hear tell, though he ain’t been through in a couple years. Not since I was too young to pay attention, I mean.” Yasmeen stopped, her eyes widening in open surprise. "...really? But you're the actual Hand of Avei! Didn't you grow up in Viridill?" She began to stroll calmly up and down the rows of desks, speaking as she did so. “Miss Avelea, you are a judgmental jerk.”

invoked Goddamn Bats: Turn up during the very videogame-y Descent, a series of challenges the freshmen go through as part of their training. The trope is named but never really played straight, since several of the protagonists have powers that render them irrelevant. Well, I guess all of that is inarguable,” Melaxyna said, still frowning but with less agitated movements of her tail. “I’ll never say I’m not a schemer, but integrity matters to anyone who wants to live with themselves. All right, anyway, you’re here now. Please do whatever you need to with this guy and get him out of here.” Deity of Human Origin: The Pantheon were once mortals and got their current position by killing most of the previous generation of gods. It's later revealed that the Elder Gods were also once humans, from Earth. Whether there ever existed any god not of human origin remains an open question. Weaver just raised an eyebrow sardonically, but Joe had to gulp down a physical surge of guilt, and even Billie looked abashed. Natchua let out a low whistle. “Now that’s an even worse idea. Do you need me to explain just how very low an opinion the paladins have of you in particular?”Politically Incorrect Villain: Jeremiah "Thumper" Shook and his mentor, Alan Vandro, who take on Villain Protagonist roles for a little while. Aside from their generally criminal activity, they're overwhelmingly sleazy and sexist - Shook actually threatened to rape someone into submission if she didn't behave herself.

Action Girl: Fairly common, since one of the major deities of the setting is a goddess of both warfare and feminism. Her paladin is one of the main characters, and naturally also female. Dungeon Crawling: Played with, sent-up, defied and justified, in various ways. The most obvious example is actually called The Crawl (see Eldritch Location below), and part of it has been deliberately shaped into a completely troperific videogame-esque example, complete with (completely lampshaded) Goddamn Bats and Dire Goddamn Bats. All the normal infighting of nobility instantly put aside as they united against a rival force which had dared to threaten their own power. Practically as one, they turned, tearing expressions of vicious contempt from Justinian. The assembled aristocracy of three cities pivoted and walked away from him, gliding toward the door with the grace of offended swans. A meeting of so many factions was ordinarily a discreet but ceaseless struggle, but not now. They flowed into formation, passing through the door as smoothly as if choreographed.Without warning, the gods call forth two new paladins...into a world at peace where there are no demons to slay, and the bureaucrats and industrialists who run the world are less happy to see them than the kings and queens of old. In a cramped landscape of complicated politics where adventurers are no longer welcome, what are the mighty warriors of the gods even supposed to do? Teal pulled roughly away from Shaeine, hunching forward and clutching her head. The sound that emerged from her was not one a human throat could have produced. Come on, that’s an old colloquialism,” Mogul chided, grinning unpleasantly at her. “It can’t be the first time you’ve ever heard it. Unless you wasted not a ducal second finding yourself too good to mingle with the plain-spoken riffraff.” Vague Age: An adult elf may be anywhere from eighteen to eight thousand. This is exploited by Tellwyrn to have alumni re-enroll to monitor the student body. The truly ancient ones tend to develop an air of absolute serenity, but this can be faked. I desperately want to be surprised by this turn of events,” said Gabriel, shaking his head. “But…it just isn’t there.”